Patience
Patience in education is a prerequisite.
[As a teenager, Mr. Goodman worked with a very famous piano teacher in California who gave regular Saturday piano master classes. A fellow student, an adult, noticing Mr. Goodman's early keyboard prowess, requested piano lessons from Gary. It was at this early age that Mr. Goodman started his teaching career. Since that time, he has gone on to teach at several schools on both coasts as well as the University Miami and The Juilliard School. Following those institutional experiences, Gary went on to establish himself as a local piano teacher here in Westchester, teaching children of all ages and giving regular performance classes...]
It is an ideal of every educator to be consistently patient with his students. Occasionally, the ideal is somewhat shattered and the teacher picks up the pieces and starts all over again.
Nevertheless, the ideal is once again embraced.
Being patient with students is the only way to foster educational goals. This is as true for the music teacher as it is for the teacher of technology. In an environment of impatience learning cannot be achieved. The student is under pressure and concepts will not be grasped.
Time T is as imporant for the educator as it is for the engineer. Unfortunately, again reality enters and we find we don't have quite as much time as we need to achieve our lesson plans. It is therefore important to be realistic in the amount of material we can cover during a lesson. This is best accomplished in 'small bites'.
Antithetical to this is the fact that computer courses are often given in rushes and 'big globs'. This is known not only from the author's experiences but also from perusing offerings from our regular 'LEARN TECH NOW' institutions. Cram Cram Cram is the chant frequently heard. In fact, there is even a website out there dedicated to cramming.
While cramming has its place, especially to dedicated IT pros, the average non-IT staff member cannot be expected to absorb the necessary amount of material with the same enthusiasm and efficiency. The ability to successfully cram is a gift. We believe programmers are especially adept at cramming as they have had to keep up with new standards, languages, and technologies over the past 15 years.
At Orange Crystal Consulting, we are strong believers in patience. Computers take patience. At times they will drive us crazy!
Colleagues used to tell me to 'step away from it for awhile'. This is much easier said than done! In today's residential and small business field, the technologists unfortunately do not have the luxury anymore of stepping away from it and coming back to it later. Customers want results on the spot. They want to watch the technologist as he achieves the results for them.
OCC's ability to hang in there for a few hours until the result is achieved is a direct result of its stubborness. This skill, however, is exactly what is needed to solve today's demanding problems. From figuring out which program is conflicting, which jumper is set to the wrong position, what's making the noise, and which vendor to call all the way to finding the solution to the dreaded "access denied" problem, patience is needed in large amounts. Due to the large number of devices and standards in the industry, there will never be an end to the variety of problems which generate help-desk tickets. Nevertheless, the more experience the help-desk has, the faster tickets can be resolved.
When the customer first calls OCC, it is likely they have a very bad problem indeed! They have probably exhausted avenues for free support. They have been turned off by the major vendors. They have lost their patience. Enter our company. We fill the niche by coming to you and dealing with it head on.
Because we are idealists, we hold the virtue of patience to be absolute. We constantly strive to meet its demands while maintaining balance in a very aggressive environment.
It is through this striving that we are able to solve just about anything that is thrown our way.
Call us for a quote now at 914-469-7545 and based on your needs we will supply a price. Whether it is one page or one hundred pages, database or e-commerce, we can do the job for you. You may also e-mail us at our office.