New Technology

I work in an organization that provides federal training to individuals.  For years we’ve used textbooks that require constant updating.  Last year, I conducted a project that gave our students an opportunity to have all of the text materials on an Apple iPad, saving the organization over two hundred thousand dollars per class.  We conduct both basic and advance courses. The students in our basic course were much more acceptant and use the new technology more readily than the students in the advance courses.  Although both embraced the idea, the students in the advance classes insisted on having the paper textbooks in addition to the Apple iPad and stated they felt more comfortable.  I thought it was a generational issue at first, and decided to provide additional training to the students in the advance classes, which are mostly older adult students.  The motivating factors I used to promote the use of technology in my organization was to provide additional training while promoting the ease of use.  I kept the technology as simple as possible and spoke in simple terms during training while listening and providing the needs of the students to help dispel their fears on use.