A "FISHY" BOOLEAN SEARCH ANALOGY. A popular local restaurant is well known for its build-it-yourself fish tacos. On top of the basic fish patty, you can pile on such ingredients as coleslaw, five kinds of salsa, and red or white sauce.

I like to equate constructing a boolean search to building your own concoction. For instance, you might select coleslaw AND spicy green salsa AND mild red salsa. I also point out that people generally choose red sauce OR white sauce.

This analogy works quite successfully with “non-technical” students, allowing me to segue easily into a discussion of boolean searching.

Dan Austin
Sharper Executive Inc.
San Diego, CA
 

THIS ANALOGY REALLY HAS STUDENTS COOKING!  I often illustrate the difference between RAM and the hard drive by describing how I cook dinner. The kitchen counter equates to memory, the ingredients and implements equate to data, and my various kitchen storage units equate to the disk storage. 

I explain, for instance, that if I'm making spaghetti, I go to my storage devices (cupboards, drawers, and refrigerator) to retrieve the frying pan (for the sauce), Dutch oven (for the boiling water), mixing spoon, knife, spaghetti noodles, various seasonings, tomato paste, sauce, mushrooms, vegetables, and meat. 

In effect, I'm retrieving "data" from various storage locations. I can now work on cutting up the veggies, mixing the sauce, and so on. This comparison gets the point across to most learners. 

Kevin Araki
CCTHITA
Juneau, Alaska

DIAL "M" FOR MACRO. To help clarify the concept of a Macro, I compare it to the automatic dial feature found on most telephones. 

Just as the auto-dialer “remembers” the phone numbers you programmed and lets you dial someone with the push of a button, a macro “remembers” a long sequence of keystrokes and lets you “redial” it with a couple of keystrokes or one mouse click.

Terry Maynard
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

THIS REVIEW TECHNIQUE IS CATCHING!  Towards the end of a session I have everyone stand in a circle, and throw a nerf or koosh ball at one of the students. I ask him to name something he's learned that he'll take back to work and use. 

Whenever possible, I get the learner to be specific about how she will use that new concept or skill. Then she throws the ball to another person, and we repeat the process until everyone has participated.

I've found this method to be a great way to quickly review the day's key training points, while effectively reminding people that they did indeed learn a great deal of new and useful information. 

And since many people enjoy playing catch, the interest and excitement generated by this game typically ends the day on a high note!

Chris Smith
KRYSOLUTIONS Training 
& Management Services
Abbotsford, BC, Canada

The above Tips are reprinted from the book "Quick Training Tips! How to teach computing skills to practically anyone" edited by Loretta Weiss-Morris, copyright 2001-2002 Systems Literacy Inc.