Technology Training for Women

Gardner, Traci. "Technology Training for Women." Faculty Support for Teaching with Technology in the English-Studies Disciplines. CCCC, 48th Annual Conference, Phoenix. Civic Plaza Convention Center/Yuma Room 24. 12 Mar. 1997.

Training Ingredients: Explanation, Documentation, Validity and Worth

• Focus on Audience's Needs and Expertise. Remember that the needs may not be immediately evident. The true needs for your audience may not even be what the participants are asking for.
• Provide Back-Up Documentation. Give participants everything they need to accomplish the task or use the tool which your training session focuses on. Ideally, step-by-step instructions which use localize the information. Remember that your participants may not be willing to ask questions in front of the group so give them all the information they need to try the task on their own.
• Explain How to Find Answers Themselves. Often the difference between someone who succeeds with computers and someone who doesn't is simply knowing where the documentation is and how to navigate it. Something which seems basic to an experienced user, like checking the on-line help file or searching the on-line help's index, doesn't occur to a new user who doesn't realize that the resources exist.
• Discuss How Participants Can Apply Their Knowledge. Learning a great deal about creating macros in Microsoft Word or how to create a hypertext document with a tool like StorySpace is valuable; but it's more useful for participants to understand how they might use these capabilities in their teaching or research.
• Address How to Record Their Experience. Talk about how to record work and knowledge about computers on their vitas and how to publicize what they're doing in their department and on their campus. Part of every training session should be a discussion of how the activity and knowledge can count toward academic recognition, promotion, or tenure.

Community Support: E-mail, Office Hours, Mentoring

• Rely on the Ways CMC Provides More Democratic Interaction. Set up electronic communication among your participants and construct a safe space where nothing is "too dumb to ask" and every question gets some kind of an answer. And remember that you don't have to know all the answers—part of the point is to encourage participants to problem-solve on their own.
• Provide Specific Assistance After the Workshop is Over. When we teach classes, it's natural for us to offer office hours for our students—there are always students with questions which don't get asked in class or with personal concerns they want to discuss privately. Participants in workshops need the same kind of attention—offer to be "on call" in the computer lab where you can provide hands-on help or just provide a safety net, or simply indicate when you'll be on campus and can answer questions or provide one-on-one tutorials.
• Encourage Participants to Help One Another. Team participants up and ask them to work on a problem together. The more they help each other, the more confidence they build in their abilities.
• Work Toward Mentoring. Begin gradually by asking participants to lead discussion of relevant readings and work up to having them teach mini-lessons. After several training sessions, you might ask participant to sponsor a newcomer or you might ask them to plan and lead specific sessions.

Follow-Up: Evaluation and Feedback

• Provide Formal Opportunities for Feedback & Questioning. Be sure that your sessions include the opportunity for your participants to tell you how you're doing—and to indicate what they still need.
• Create Systems for Participants' Reflection and Self-Assessment. Changes in attitude and capability can happen very slowly, so slowly that they might not be obvious. Provide ways for participants to record and reflect on what they're doing. You might do something as simple as asking them to fill in a survey about their capabilities and attitudes and to explain why they chose the answers they have. Then after several months, give them the same survey and questions again. Ask them to compare—they will almost certainly see changes which they hadn't realized had occurred.
• Record YOUR Accomplishments. You'll need to prove that your work is improving conditions, and the more concrete your proof, the better. Use all the feedback you receive and information you gather—and remember that the accomplishments you achieve need not be based on participants learning to use every piece of software ever made—simply increasing confidence among your participants is an important accomplishment.

Based on research and work developed for the project "Empowering Women Through Practice and Training in Computer Technologies," funded by an Affirmative Action Incentive Grant, by the Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Office and the Department of English, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994-1995.