Learning to use a word processor: by doing, by thinking, and by knowing
Human factors in computer systems
Training wheels in a user interface
Communications of the ACM
Exploring exploring a word processor
Human-Computer Interaction
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
The University is overwhelmed with documents, films, videotapes, cassettes, manuals, and free classes, but not everybody who wants to learn is reading, watching, listening or attending. In a study titled Learning to Use a Word Processor: By Doing, by Thinking, and by Knowing, John Carroll and Robert Mack noticed that some people trying to learn word processing “are so busy trying things out, thinking things through, and trying to relate what they already know (or believe they know) to what is going on that they often do not notice the small voice of structured instruction crying out to them from behind the manual and the system interface.”1Different people have different learning styles. Learners who are too busy to listen probably learn best through active experimentation. They won't bother showing up for class. Instead, they'll get the software, start it up, experiment, explore, and putter.One way to reach out to active learners is to adapt the instructional materials. Instead of giving the active learner a painstaking tutorial or a cumbersome reference manual, let her explore the word processor guided only by a few brief pages.2Unfortunately, “word processing” is not an intuitive concept. Most word processors are more powerful than helpful. Microsoft Word is a popular word processor for the Macintosh computer. Imagine me the novice confronting the Microsoft Word screen. I want to write my thesis, today. But I can't figure what the margins are or even where the page is, I don't know what to do, I don't know what I should be doing, and when I do something anyway, I don't know what I did, or how to undo it.