If it was easy, everyone would be doing it...
Over the years I have worked with spirit duplicators and Gestetner stencils. Used a dictaphone to do transcriptions. Typed on a manual typewriter and an electric one. The height of technology was the Selectric typewriter where you could change the font ball.
Computers came along and I figured out how to use WordStar and eventually to compose on a desktop, which required a whole nuther part of my brain. Now I can't imagine how I used to write magazine articles, generate weaving drafts, class handouts etc., without a desktop.
I even got pretty good with Power Point and Word. But the one thing I did not learn was Excel.
And now I have to.
As a weaving teacher my technology choices have changed over the years and I continued to learn how to make those programs work - as best I could. But becoming technology proficient wasn't the end goal - it was just another tool and I learned enough to make each one do what I needed it to do.
But now? Now I have to finally learn Excel. And I'm not happy about that. I'm a weaver, not a geek, Jim!
After pouting about that for a while last night, I got up this morning to discover that it wasn't a bad dream - no, no, I do still have to tackle Excel.
Sigh.
When I set out on this journey, I had a pretty decent idea of what needed to be done. I was already conversant with cut and paste options and pretty confident that I could get the information into a format for students to use effectively.
But as computers become more common, the production values went up and the expectation of the students to have quality handouts in their hands raised accordingly.
With Zoom meetings, those expectations seem to just keep going up. Now weaving instructors are expected to have video with high production values as well as graphic artist level slides in their presentations.
And I'm tired. I'm supposed to be retired (for certain values of), not learning new technology. (OK, old technology, but new-to-me.)
However, I have done the prep work. I have the information in a format that *I* can process. How hard can it be to enter that into a spreadsheet?
I guess I'll find out this morning...
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5 comments:
I hope you find it easy to learn and everything goes smoothly for you.
StephanieW
One baby step at a time until it gets done!
I don’t wanna either but I don’t want to be left behind…
It's been forever since I saw any mention of WordStar. So far ahead of its time. I had a Selectric, and then a microcomputer early, in the 1980s, before desktops existed, and created a small business on it, which led to other things ... which led to other things ... and now I am gingerly dipping my toe (or a few neurons at least) into weaving.
From some hints I infer I am slightly the older, which enables me to say that one is allowed to be tired, and to drop the things that aren't fun or energizing.
Learning is fun and fortunately endless. One thing I've learned though is that some things aren't worth learning -- the curve is too steep for the return. Is Excel that for you? -- would there be an apprentice/pal/student who could translate your format into Excel, or create the basic setup for it, and be delighted at the opportunity to collaborate?
What I'm delighted by is that I can learn basics and approaches and refinements from you and a few others who have done the hard work of translating long experience into stepping-stones for me. It's a marvellous human activity -- passing on learnings from experience. It's the heart of culture. We'd be nowhere without it.
So my 2c is -- prioritize the passing on of experience -- the content is the thing, whether it's wrapped in typescript or glossy videos. And thank you.
I have relied on help from others for tech issues, but...covid. In the end, it wasn't as hard as I had been expecting. I just don't know if I've done it to the team specifications yet. I should follow up and as if they got the files I sent. :) Tomorrow, maybe. It is the weekend after all and some people actually take days off work! :D
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