To boldly go where the last generation still doesn’t dare to go.

When it was first being used, IT was seen as a system to produce, store and occasionally move about information within the place it was being held.

The generation born in the twentieth Century were unlikely to have seen a computer anywhere other than science fiction films and the lunar landings. The sudden opening up of home based computers was to them absolutely astonishing and mind boggling.

Trying to contend with the ZX81 for example was a battle lost and I remember my parents collecting all the ‘help’ magazines which were in fact never read or really understood.

If you remember back, many people who bought Windows 95 didn’t actually own a computer and didn’t know what it would actually do for them.

This hype and mass marketing meant that a whole generation had IT thrust upon them and for many the weight was too much. There was no where to get any formal training and it was up to the next generation to ‘sort it out’ – after all they were the ones who could already use the video machine.

After those heady days of ‘space invaders’ and ‘pong’came the new warriors – the next generation. They didn’t need any IT training.

Computers were growing, the internet was thriving and the new generation were growing up as fast as these new technologies. Computers and IT for this generation is not only used to store and produce information but to move it around, to entertain, to help people look for education and job opportunities and to bring news in video, sound and just plain old writing.

But what about all those parents and grandparents who hadn’t cottoned on?

The last generation, who for some the keyboard is still a mystery.

Many want to try to ‘keep up’ especially because ‘these things’ are being used in workplaces.

There is still a fear of using the computer in case you break it or press the wrong button.

Many people still don’t know what to do when the screen goes blank or they get a ‘funny’ message.

There is frustration when the pages don’t move on quick enough even though you ‘keep pressing the button’.

Some of the previous generation have been taught by their children and are able to do just enough to ‘get by’ and see what they want to see. But that is all!

Half if not most of the population still have IT training needs which are of a very basic nature: from using the keyboard to cutting and pasting to using search engines.

Our IT trek continues at a pace which is leaving many of our crew marooned on planet incapable.

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Blog post originally from Sharp End Training

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