I have many knowledge sharing
stories to choose from having been a high school teacher for many years. For
example, I would assign my students a topic where they would have to tell me
what they used to do when they were little. Many of them would start out the
story (in Spanish) by saying, “When I was a kid….” The funny thing about this
is that they did not equate the Spanish word for child, niño, with kid and they
would always look up the word in the dictionary. The first time it happened, I
did not understand why, but now, every time I see it, it makes me laugh and I
know exactly what the issue is. When you look up “kid” in a Spanish/English
dictionary, you will probably get the word cabrito which actually means baby
goat. My students did not use the term kid to refer to goats, so they had no
idea that there was another meaning for it. It was always funny to me….even
funnier once they figured out what they were saying, “When I was a baby goat, I
used to watch a lot of t.v.”!
However,
the main focus of my reflection will be a story about learning how to use an
Apple computer. Until I started working here at Embry-Riddle, I had never been
exposed to a Mac. I knew nothing about the way it worked and assumed that it
was like a PC. So when I received one for work purposes, I was totally lost!
Nothing looked like it was supposed to to me. The techies that I work with were
all telling me what a superior product the Mac was. I spent a lot of time
trying to figure things out on my own…and I mean a lot! I would try to download
something from the internet and not be able to actually use the software. I did
not know why. Looking back, I was also using the computer in an inefficient
manner, even when I finally thought I had figured out how to do something. I
have been using other Apple products, the iPod, iPad, and iTouch, but this was
totally different to me.
Finally,
one of my coworkers, who I have now affectionately named The Mac Daddy, started
to give me tips on how to do things on the Mac. He explained to me that in
order to actually be able to use things that I was downloading, I had to drag
(some of) them into the Applications folder. Who knew? He also explained that I
did not have to keep minimizing the programs I had open to navigate between
them. The Mac has a built in finder that allows you to switch applications
quickly and easily. Even when using EagleVision there are differences. For
instance, an instructor I was working with used a tool in EagleVision called
Appshare. This is a feature that allows instructors to share their desktops
with students in the session. While in the Appshare, instructors are supposed
to have a toolbar that allows them to keep in contact with their students.
However, I did not see one on his computer. I could not for the life of me
figure out why. Evidently, the Appshare toolbar minimizes on a Mac and has to
be selected once the instructor is sharing his desktop in order to appear.
Settings are also changed differently when using a Mac with EagleVision. Since
my coworker has shared his knowledge about Macs with me, I can now easily walk
faculty members through things like activating audible alerts. Without his help,
I would still be spending countless hours feeling my way around.
Although
I know that I still have a lot to learn, I feel much more comfortable now than
I did even six months ago. What’s even better is that now, I can share my
knowledge with others and help them the way my colleague helped me.
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