— Partner trainer course
How to help somebody learn this without taking over
Free, about 40 minutes, for the one person in your organization who will hand out the codes and answer questions. You do not need to be technical. You need to know what to say when somebody is stuck, and what not to do.
"You know you have succeeded when you see the satisfaction on someone's face because they now know how to do it themselves. And then they do it."
Noel “Willie” Williams, Founder, FirstClick Digital Skills
The six things a partner trainer needs
- Never take the phone out of their hand. The single most damaging habit is the helpful one: taking the device and doing it yourself. They learn nothing and they feel smaller. Keep your hands in your lap and talk them through it, even when it is slower. Say "you do it, I will tell you where to look."
- Point, do not touch. If you must show something, point at the screen without pressing. The learner's finger does the pressing, every time.
- Let the silence sit. When somebody is searching the screen, count to ten before speaking. Most people find it themselves in about six seconds. Filling the gap teaches them to wait for you instead of looking.
- Name the thing on the screen. Not "press the thing at the top", but "press Edit, the word at the top right". The vocabulary is half the skill, and they cannot ask for help later without the words.
- Never say "it is easy". If it were easy for them they would have done it. Say "this one catches everybody" or "I had to be shown this too". It costs you nothing and it keeps them in the room.
- Let them make the mistake. Nothing in the lessons can break anything. A wrong tap that they undo themselves teaches more than ten correct taps you guided.
What to say when they say this
"I am too old for this"
"The oldest person who finished this was 74. It is not about age, it is about nobody ever showing you. Let us do one lesson and you tell me after."
"I will break it"
"You cannot. Nothing in here can be broken, and nothing you press will cost you money. The worst that happens is we start the lesson again."
"Just do it for me"
"I could, but then next time you need me again. Give me two minutes and you will be able to do it yourself for the rest of your life."
"I already forgot what you showed me"
"That is normal, and that is why the lesson stays there. Open it again. Nobody is counting how many times."
"My eyes are not good"
"There is a Larger text button at the top of every lesson. Let us turn it on now and leave it on."
"I do not have data"
"These pages are light, no videos. And if there is Wi-Fi here, use it. Do the lesson here and it saves your place for when you get home."
Running a session in your space
- Six people at most, if you want anybody to get real attention. Two hours, with a break.
- Ask everybody to bring the device they actually use, plus a charger. Not a borrowed one.
- Check the Wi-Fi password is written up somewhere everybody can see before you start.
- Start with the free lesson, not with sign-up. Let them feel it working before you ask them to create an account.
- Have the printed handouts on the table. Some people will not touch the phone until they have read the paper.
- End by asking each person to say one thing they can now do. It fixes it in the memory, and it tells you what worked.
When to contact us instead of guessing
Send us a message rather than improvising if somebody cannot receive their code after two attempts, if a payment was taken and the course did not open, if a learner's name is wrong on a certificate, or if anybody reports a message claiming to be from FirstClick and asking for a code or a password.
Those four are ours to fix, and quickly. Everything else in the lessons you can answer with the six habits above.
— Well done
That is the course
Read it once before your first session, and again after. If you can do those six things, you are a better teacher of this than most people who do it for a living.