The errors MS made in the .NET introduction
No doubt that, as developers, we are adults. Different in age, some are just starting this trade, others have years of experience.
Thanks to Ken Murphy from Canada I received a book by Dr Jane Vella, Learning to listen, Learning to teach. A book worth reading over and over again. You find someting new every day in those pages. Thanks Ken, this book is a real holidays gift!
This book is all about teaching adults. Reading it was a constant "YES" experience. The materials offered were corroborating each and every time the things I intuitively already knew.
Reading it made me also aware of what MS did wrong to the VFP community when introducing VS.NET to this strong community.
There are several principles Vella teaches throughout this book.
One of them is "Listen to your audience BEFORE writing down your teaching materials".
From what I know, MS never bothered a minute about how we felt, they needed someting new to make money. Where do you want to go today? Actually we don't care, you go where WE want you to go!
One other thing Vells teaches in that book is "immediacy".
When teaching new things to adults they want to see an immediate result from that teaching, they don't have time to loose. Adults want an "AHA" experience. You learn something, see the immediate use for it in your daily life and so you accept it and start thinking about how to smoothly implement it. Whether it is a way to make money (your job), to make your communication ability better (thus enabling you to go up the ladder of your career) or to write better code through a trick you learned (either here on foxite or elsewhere.)
What stunned me at the attempts from MS to introduce .NET to us, VFP developers, is the fact that I saw no immediate use for this new technology or even of parts of it.
All they said, in my experience, was "it is better!", "yeah sure, then how come I can develop software 4 times quicker using VFP than .NET?" was always answered with, "It is better!"
One other principle Vella teaches is "teaching in context".
This means that you have to refer to what adults already know and ADD the new knowledge to this, making the new technology an enrichment. When MS introduced .NET to us they showed completely new code. Fine with me. "How can I use this in the context of VFP is one question I once asked". The reply from the presenter was: "Your attitude has to change buddy!" I told the man I was not his buddy and that I was a paying participant in that particular DevCon (Frankfurt 3 years ago). I left his session immediately.
Yet another principle is "safety".
When confronted with new things we are challenged. HOW the new things are presented makes the difference whether or not the new stuff will be accepted.
Push "new stuff" down the throat of people and they will object, they will object fiercely. It makes them feel UNsafe, thus the defending attitude arises naturally.
Compare this with groups of people protesting against whatever they feel is not right.
They hardly ever are capable to make a real change, they want to PUSH their choice onto other people. REAL changes come from within, because an organization sees the need to change. Individual people are NOT different. PUSH them towards a change and they tend to move away from it. SHOW them how choosing for a change will positively affect them and they still have that "a choice", and the alternative might be accepted much easier. They do not feel pushed, people then do not feel unsafe.
One other thing (of 12 in total) Vella teaches in the book is "leave any of these principles out and you're lost".
Microsoft left something out...
Want to read about adult teaching?
"Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach" by Dr Jane Vella. ISBN10: 0787959677 | ISBN13: 9780787959678
Boudewijn Lutgerink