Analogy and technology acceptance

Life is like an analogy. T-shirt saying

One of my 7 habits of highly effective technology trainers reads:

 4. Great analogies.
There is a theory that the only way we can think about a new thing is if we have some way to relate it to what we already know. Good trainers can do that by creating analogies. “Your email account is like a post office box. Your password is like your combination to get into it. Your email address is like your mailing address – it tells the electronic postmaster where to send your email.” Now here’s the catch: truly great analogists know when the comparisons break down, too. “Unlike a human postmaster, the electronic postmaster can’t make intelligent guesses about an address. The extra dot, the L instead of a 1, or a single juxtaposition of letters will keep your mail from being delivered.”

A comment to my rant about three-ring binders post the other day made me think about this ability. Linda wrote:

I am surprised that the Livebinders people have not been all over this post. I have not used their product so I am merely pointing out the connection, but I have thought about investigating it since it ties for number 68 in this Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning.

Now I have never used nor do I know much about Livebinders either. I don't know if is a good tool or not.

But I love the concept - virtual three-ring binders - which if you think about, is what a good wiki certainly can be. By comparing their product to a well-understood method of organizing and storing information, the creators have made an instant connection in the potential users mind.

In my experience the technologies that we more readily adopt have a direct analogy to something we already use:

• Spreadsheets are ledgers
• Databases are filing systems
• Electronic grade books are gradebooks
• Presentation program are overhead transparencies
• Online library catalogs are library catalogs (the first system I used even had records that looked like paper library cards down to hole in the botton the rod in the drawer would go through)

and the list goes on ...

I wonder if this may be why some Web 2.0 tools are not as readily accepted by non-techie users. What is analogous to Twitter? How do you explain an RSS feed? And what the heck was GoogleWave?

We all like "improved." But is anyone all that crazy about "new?"

http://library.web.cern.ch/library/Webzine/10/papers/1/

Comments

[Jackie]

LiveBinders is my new favorite Web 2.0 tool. We created one this summer with resources for teachers attending our staff development. They are great for personal organization as well as collaborative projects. LiveBinders just added the ability to have multiple editors for one binder; that was a drawback when two of us were working on one binder this summer.

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Jackie. Good hear an endorsement.

Doug

[Guusje]

But how do you explain the old card catalog with cards with the hole in the bottom for the rod to a new generation of librarians that have never seen a card catalog. To them the term "File above the rod" means nothing. Not that I have any happy memories of filing above said rod. Good riddance to one of the most tedious jobs on the planet. !

[Doug Johnson]

Yes, Guusje,

Yes, and other things too. See:
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/8/19/mindset-list-for-librarians.html

Doug