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Task suggestions for helping people grow confidence and tech literacy? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 weeks ago by communism@lemmy.ml to c/technology@hexbear.net

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Basically I have a lot of friends who self describe as bad at tech. It seems like a lot of learned helplessness and refusing to even listen to instructions because they've already told themselves they can't do it. But they would like to get better and do trust me. So I was trying to come up with some "tasks" to give them to help them gain confidence and to gain some basic skills as well.

I have zero qualifications in tech/computer stuff, and no professional background either, so I know that all this stuff can be self-taught.

I was thinking gaming-related stuff might be a good entry point: setting up a Minecraft server, installing mods for games, hacking your 3DS. These things boil down to following instructions so maybe it would help people learn that if you follow the documentation/guide you will get things done. It doesn't require much thinking or problem-solving, just following instructions.

Would like to hear what other people think and what "tasks" they suggest tech illiterate or tech-averse people try in order to build their confidence and gain some basic competence.

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[–] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It may seem like somewhat of a detour, but demonstrating as a first practical example that all problems are recoverable can serve as a big confidence boost, helping people feel more confident messing around with all the other little things and being more comfortable potentially breaking them. For didactic purposes, I would split the exercise into two sections.

1: Place some "precious files" (some funny memes) on a sacrificial machine, then render it un-bootable by some means (deleting the EFI bootloader, corrupting / deleting some OS files, etc.). The purpose of the exercise is to prepare a bootable USB media and demonstrate that file recovery (under mundane circumstances, when the computer simply stops booting) is not some wizardry requiring the expertise of computer forensics experts. All you need is the ability to point a functioning OS at the filesystem. A second USB drive can be formatted as a destination to place the recovered files.

2: After exercise one, OS re-installation and restoration of the recovered files. While Linux is great, and likely will be a requirement of exercise one, the focus here should be on installing whichever OS the user is comfortable with. The point is to demonstrate that installing an OS and starting from scratch is easy, which is true regardless of if it is Windows or a mainstream Linux distribution. Either way, several tasks from exercise one will be repeated: flashing a USB image, formatting drives, selecting an alternate boot device in the UEFI firmware.

2.1: If using Windows, demonstrate how simple it is to use the MassGravel Windows Activation Scripts, so users understand they never need to worry about what happened to their original installation media or license key sticker as a pre-requisite for OS installation.

I think beginning these demonstrations on PC hardware is a better option than some more locked-down devices like video game consoles, routers, or mobile phones - where the tools are often reverse-engineered / experimental, and mistakes potentially can lead to permanent damage.