(The title has been chosen because that was the name of the VHS Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video that was [and is still] my favourite and also the first I ever bought with my pocket money.)
I don’t work in IT, let’s start with that. I work in HR and you can read more about that in my bio if you’re curious.
Given my role, it might surprise you to learn that people often come to me with a problem, a question, or (more often than not) a good old-fashioned vent about their computer. Sometimes it’s hardware, sometimes software, and sometimes it’s just that something weird happened again and they swear they didn’t touch anything.
Or perhaps it doesn’t surprise you at all. Maybe you too are the curious one, the one who isn’t afraid to Google, ask AI, or guddle about until you figure things out. If it sounds like you, please reach out, I’m always looking for new ideas, and I hope you enjoy the content here.
If that doesn’t sound like you, then this blog is for you. My aim is to make the content feel less intimidating and a bit more human. Please contact me if there’s a specific example or topic you’d like me to work through.
Anyway, if you’re curious about why I decided to create this blog, then buckle in and let me tell you a story.
I vividly remember being on my MSc placement back in 2018. I’d just come out of a meeting where we’d seen a demonstration of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint sites for the very first time. I was buzzing with excitement about the possibilities and hurried back to the office ready to gush about how this could literally overhaul ways of working.
The reception I received could be summarised in the following four statements:
“Why would we ever need that when we could just phone the person we need, or find them through the switchboard?”
“We’ve always used the local drives, that’s just how we’ve always done it here. We’ll never need any other form of file storage”.
“We’ll never need to all be working on the same file at once”.
“You’ll never need anything more than Word, Excel or PowerPoint in this job”.
Any of this sound familiar?
Before lockdown, statements like these probably didn’t sound as strange as they might do now.
The pandemic and ensuing lockdown forced many changes that could fill a hundred blogs, but the thing I noticed was it widened what was an already wide IT literacy divide, and now, post-pandemic, it isn’t just in adults.
A recent study by the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) measured a decline in the digital literacy of 14-year-olds across the EU and internationally since 2018, with 43% of students found to possess limited digital skills. Check out the article if you wanna read more. This obviously isn’t just a generational divide either, there’s socioeconomic factors at play, such as where you grew up, what school you went to, what your parents education looks like etc etc.
Fundamentally though (I am getting back to the point I promise) we don’t teach the basic principles of computing anymore, so how do those who missed out find out what they missed? How do you know what you don’t know? And importantly, how do you know what you need to know? Gen Alpha might have grown up with the internet, but a sealed smartphone or tablet where you can’t even access the battery teaches you nothing about the basic principles of how the thing works, and many foundational skills around upgrading hardware, or what the operating system is are now lost.
I am a huge advocate for workshops on how computers actually work, both in schools and workplaces. We’ve woken up (mostly) to the fact we have to teach / learn about AI – why should this be any different? Additionally, there are so many pieces of software available now that it’s hard to know what might be the best tool available to do your job. We didn’t stop to do a Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) mid-pandemic for obvious reasons, but what’s stopping us now? Or actually will any work we do in this space be redundant by the time we’re done because everything moves too fast? I don’t think so for what it’s worth. I heard a great phrase about AI recently and I think it’s equally relevant: “Design for the tools of today, not the myths of tomorrow”.
(IT literacy and LNA are two topics I frequently find myself on a soapbox about, so any colleagues will probably be rolling their eyes. My space my rules….)
Anyway. Moving back to the present and climbing off my soapbox, we’re five and a half years on from lockdown and generally speaking I find the vast majority of people I interact with have leaned into the changes in technology brought on by the pandemic. They might have the odd question, but generally get by. However those who haven’t or couldn’t lean in are now struggling with what might seem like straightforward tasks – and I’m speaking now about those in the workplace or classroom of all ages and stages. It will be these questions or tasks I work through in this blog. (Hurrah she’s got to the point!)
I’m still not done.
Oh wait there’s more…
Many of you might be wondering what I mean by those who “couldn’t” lean in to changes in technology happening in the pandemic. Surely they just happened at you and you reacted right? Well… stay with me.
Imagine you have a colleague who goes on maternity leave at the end of February 2020 and returns in March 2021. This person has to return to a working environment which (in Glasgow anyway) wasn’t fully out of lockdown. This person has never worked with Teams so the speed of messages in group chats, and the pace of work is suddenly four times as fast as it was (because work intensification was a thing), and that’s when you have taught yourself how Teams works. This person has never had to use any collaborative tools. Wouldn’t know to just ‘jump on a call’ when they are stuck or have a question. Never worked in the cloud. Never heard of Miro, Menti, or Mural. I could go on. The way we worked fundamentally changed as we reacted to reality. Same situation for those returning from long term sickness. Those changing careers. Those entering the job market as graduates. Those in the middle of a degree. Again I could go on. (And yes… of course there are also people who also wear their TECHNOPHOBE badge with pride and resisted the lot.) But the vast majority of questions I have ever received are not from those in the final camp, and it is for everyone else that I decided to create In Plain Text.
So, no matter what brings you here — whatever your sector, age, or stage in life or work — this space is for you:
For the questions you think are too basic to ask — fear not. Someone’s probably asked me already (and hopefully I remembered to write it down).
For the things you need to know but somehow no one ever explains (or teaches anymore).
For the something cool I’ve picked up from a wise pal or learned nerd and thought you might enjoy too.
Above all please enjoy In Plain Text, and whatever brings you here I hope you find what you are looking for. Every blog post is a genuine question I’ve been asked over the last 5 years, and there really is no such thing as a silly question.
