So important for clients learning to use new devices/software. Actually experiencing the use of materials in nonthreatening environment with guided practice, supports future use.

I am wondering if there is another word that could be used. I am thinking back to the Cool Tools for Schools site, and others I have encountered as resources, including what I put together and there may a tendency toward too many resources. My online trainings are and will continue to be with adult learners, they respond best to targeted, quality resources that are easy to negotiate and retrieve information from.

The majority of trainings I am involved in are ones that require participants to use some type of technology from low to high tech. Knowing where my participants are starting at is so important to my planning and being able to individualize techniques to meet them where they are comfortable. This is the only way I get buy in and eventual implementation.

I started using Google Forms a couple years. Since all my trainings revolve around technology I like to get a feel for whether the learner (typically adult) is a technology novice or an early adopter. Have had the full range.

I have not mastered this at all, but I do keep trying! So many times I have found that staff participating in trainings I conduct, come with the feeling that they have no background knowledge in what I will be addressing. I view it as my responsibility to help them draw connections between what they are already doing or know how to do and what I will be presenting. Ideally I try to develop a pre assessment the uses their current knowledge and will help them make the connection to what the training will entail. When I succeed at this anxiety levels are lowered and the training goes smoothly and retention seems to be improved.