NTA Reflection
This week I’ve thus far completed two of my major three days of training of our new teachers. By week’s end they will have received 12 hours of technology instruction during our “new teacher academy.” I’ve been doing this now for a number of years.
I’d like to say each year is the same, but of course I modify the instruction, while the 9 hours of Mac OS and 3 hours of student information system are pretty consistent.
This is our first year of rolling-out Leopard, and I finally get to show off some of the cool stuff in Mac OS X 10.5. One of the things I went over today were “Cocoa applications.” Why? They’re built on object-oriented code that allows programmers to share code, such as the font panel, the color inspector, the toolbar widgets, etc.
So we look at them in one application, then go to another, and another, and what we’ve already learned is very consistent across each one.
“Command-comma will pull up the Preferences in every Mac OS X application… it’s a good shortcut to remember!” I say.
Then I read this, and realized how unique the Mac really is.
It’s one thing to see consistency in Mac programs by Apple (whereby they put “Print” in the same place), but quite another to see such in-consistency in the apps by Microsoft in Windows. The idea of hiding Print functionality in different places is insane. Why would you do that??
I really had fun today sharing my enthusiasm for the platform. One teacher came up to me, having come from another Apple school, and thanked me for spending so much time showing her these things. “I had a Mac all last year and didn’t know any of this stuff…”
I’m convinced that teaching someone a system as opposed to individual examples is an excellent strategy. I find folks who learn the system are competent self-learners as the technology evolves and advances. Those who don’t are always needy for more help and more instruction at each new iteration of hardware or software. The investment up front is well-worth the time, it’s a virtual bargain.