Posts Tagged ‘training’

Posted on September 5, 2009

How’s my patient?

I use analogies all the time when trying to explain about information technologies, best management practices, and maintenance concepts to my non-tech savvy colleagues. However, finding the “right” analogy that sticks with certain people can be an interesting challenge as well (because it can backfire).

At work, I try to illustrate that organizing and managing your electronic documents, files, and reports is like organizing your wardrobe, your closet or even food pantry and maintaining the health and longevity of your computer is like maintaining your motorcycle or car.

(Backfire: many Nepalese have told me that they only bring their vehicles to the shop when it breaks down…sigh).

One new analogy that I have come up with that seems to be very receptive to my colleagues is the notion that I am their “IT Doctor”.

As their IT Doctor, the title seems to possess a high moral standard as I am either assessing a “spaghetti-like” local network, resuscitating a sickly old desktop, or even attempting to exorcise a possessed laptop (I wasn’t able to solve Elijah’s solo-moving cursor problem).

As a trustworthy authority figure, I also provide IT health consultation (ie. always exercise scan your USB drives/external hard drives twice a day, etc.) and prevention advice (um, you do not know where that USB drive has been, so always use anti-virus protection, see my previous post about Anti-virus protection in Nepal).

An “IT auto mechanic”, another analogy that I sometimes use or the typical repairman may in fact provide the same technical services and also the same advice but ahhh the allure of the title “IT Doctor” seems to have more credibility, better bedside manners, and is a lot more sexier than the prototypical laid-back, geeky IT consultant.

IT Doctors work for the greater good …. we want to help prevent the spread of viruses, educate the community about IT health issues, through mainstreaming and sensitization, and help alleviate IT network empidemics from potential mass data lose biblical proportions.
- possible mission statement for the fictional organization,
“IT Doctors without Borders”

Case in point, compare the number of medical drama shows that are out there to the number of IT drama shows.

Coming soon analogies…

• Creating web sites is like cooking.
• Matching volunteers with partners is like internet dating and rollercoaster marriages.
• Organizing a workshop in Nepal compared to back home is like a jazz band versus an orchestra. – from Julie

Posted on July 23, 2009

Got to love those Nepali women

Today, GWP is hosting a HIV/AIDS orientation picnic at a local park where the general public, mostly women attend a fun-filled day of learning about HIV/AIDS in a relaxing outdoor environment. My male GWP counterparts have been raving about this day since I got here (and of course the nature setting wasn’t the main draw) and originally I was going to go. However, it is day 5 for me here in Hetauda and I’ve only scratched the surface in terms of the work that I needed to do (ie. planning, training, etc.). I declined the invitation last minute and stayed behind hoping to provide coaching to whoever was left in the office.

To my delight (and I wasn’t surprised), the women of GWP were willing and ready to spend the day learning about Microsoft Word, Excel, and how to do excessive custom animations in PowerPoint. From what I have seen so far, I really admire Nepali women’s dedication to learning.

To the GWP women who stayed behind: Pratima you are awesome and a work horse, you lasted many more hours on the computer than I did that day; Awdeeti, it’s too bad you live 2 hours away by bus from home and I know you wanted to stay longer; Nisha, slow down, you work faster than the computer can process.

It was another good but sweltering hot day.

Posted on April 19, 2009

Empowering those who do not have the chance

One evening, I had a discussion with my work colleagues about who among the staff should receive IT training. One colleague said I should teach one of our office staff helpers on how to use a computer as “she does not even know how to turn one on”. The other colleague who was more realistic followed up by saying “She should not be trained?!?! She does not even use a computer at work?”

I reacted at him with utter disbelief, as if someone was throwing garbage out the window.

Damn it!!! I will teach this person and whoever else wants to know about how to use a computer, browse the Internet, play Solitaire, minimize windows, add scrolling text marquee screen savers AND all the joys and wonders of CTRL+ALT+DELETE!

…and I’ll help them with their English as well!

Posted on September 10, 2008

Skills for Working in Development (SKWID)

We are BOTH set to go on our way to Ottawa – Sept. 12th – 16th.

A quick blurb about SKWID below from VSO Canada.

“SKWID is a five-day course that explores the behaviours, attitudes and skills required to successfully implement a placement in one of VSO’s development programs. This course is a focused opportunity to consider and develop your skills as a development worker. Sessions in the course explore a range of common requirements of a placement with particular reference to developing the actionable individual skills that will help you to be effective in implementing different aspects of your placement in ways that are consistent with and will contribute to VSO’s overall approach to development.”

Course outline below:

Aim
To introduce you to the practical skills and attitudes you will need to implement VSO’s approach to development in your placement.

Objectives

By the end of the course, you will have:

• Analysed your placement in the context of VSO’s approaches to development.
• Identified the different roles that you may undertake at different times in your placement, working as a facilitator of change.
• Practised skills, attitudes and methods that you can use in these different roles.
• Reflected on your learning through the course and planned for how you will continue your learning in placement.

Themes

• For VSO, participation is a process of collective analysis, learning and action. The volunteer’s role in this process is to facilitate and/ or to be involved alongside other stakeholders.
• Participation underpins VSO’s three organisational approaches to development: Empowerment, partnership and commitment to learning.
• The volunteer undertakes different roles at different times in their placement as they work as a facilitator of change; these roles require different skills.
• Because of the very nature of VSO’s methodology, of working through individual volunteers, cutting across the public and private sphere, all volunteers have an advantage in working on inequalities between men and women, as well as other forms of disadvantage.

Features of the Course

• An emphasis on integrating action, theory, reflection and planning through active and experiential learning.
• Opportunities to design and practise participatory tools and facilitation skills.
• An emphasis on increasing the impact of placements through working with multiple stakeholders

Posted on June 6, 2008

Preparing For Change: Day 1

(Aside: Renting bikes in Ottawa is a great way to get around and see the city. Ottawa has the best city bike paths I have ever seen (riding around the canel, Rideau River, popping in and out the city hot spots was awesome). For about $70 at RentABike, we had our own wheels for a week which was great to take to and from the VSO/CUSO office).

Finally, the day has actually arrived and we immediately got right down to it.

First up, we were introduced to our Preparing For Change (PFC) leaders, Richard and Joel. Both have had volunteer overseas experience and were very engaging and thoughtful mentors. We had an overview of the PFC course, discussed house-keeping/session rules, and of course outlined the overall goals, objectives, and expectations of the course.

Because of scheduling conflicts, we immediately had presentations about “Traveling Overseas” from Hi and “Staying Healthy Overseas” from Dr. Mark Wise. Dr. Mark is a well-known family doctor and director of the Travel Clinic in Toronto. He is the author of “The Travel Doctor™ – Your guide to staying healthy while you travel” and he is the official medical doctor of VSO Canada. Some of the most memorable parts of his talk were:

• 4 types of malaria (1 can actually kill you) and the myth of malaria where “once you get it, you have it for life” is not exactly true. Basically, once you are cured of malaria sometimes it can lie dormant in the liver and release itself anytime later in life.
• be wary of dogs (rabies). had a good-time doing the role playing for that one.
• be pro-active and know where the health clinics are
• poly-pharmacy (take these 7 different pills and call me in the morning)
• “Try not to worry about the bumps on the road and enjoy the journey” – however, most of the roads are really bad and you should really hang on for your life.

“Travel smarts” from Hi: make sure you have a back-up plan in case there is no one there to pick you up at the airport; getting a VISA can be tricky depending on the country; and don’t over pack – you can probably buy everything you need over there.

What have we got ourselves into?

(Dinner was pretty darn good, thanks Stan!)