Handout
Click here to view: Confusing Technology Terms
Transcript
NICK: So, the purpose of this talkâworkshopâis to teach you how to teach your group leaders how to help the members of their groups engage with the sources . . . the way they want to engage with the sources. Whether thatâs on the app, or the website, or in print.
This is not just a workshop on how to use the technology. Itâs deeper than that. As servants, we want to serve our brothers and sisters by listening to them, finding out how they want to engage with the material, and helping them do that the way they want to.
When it comes to technology, itâs important to remember the old proverb: âGive a man a fish, and you have fed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and heâll eventually give up and just go to McDonaldâs insteadâ [laughter].
So, since we launched the website and the app, weâve gotten a lot of feedback about it. Our team has also been calling brothers and sisters, and interviewing them about their experience of the website and the app. So, weâve been in contact with about 60 people. And weâre asking themâtalking to them specifically about what itâs like. And weâve been trying to talk to people from a variety of, weâll call it, âtech literacyâ levels. Okay?
Weâve learned a lot. Weâre still getting information; itâs coming in through various channels. We wanted to share some of what weâre learning with you, because we think itâs important information for you and your group leaders to have, as they help the people in their groups engage with the sources.
And, some of this may be news to you. Maybe none of it will be news to you. Some of this may apply to you [Nick chuckles]âwhat I describe here, which is totally fine.
So, one brother we talked to early on had already been helping people in his area download the app, and he gave us a lot of good intel. But, intriguingly, he did not know that the consultation website is different from the People of Praise website. He didnât know that thereâs a new website that does not require a password. Plenty of people are in that boat.
Most people donâtâand this is probably true in the roomâdonât know that if you search âconsultationsources.orgâ on Google, you will not find it, because we asked Google to ignore the website. So they are ignoring the website. And that can be challenging, because not everybody knows the difference between where to type for what youâre searching for on Google, and where to put the web address for the website. Okay?
And so thatâsome people are visiting the website by finding Charlieâs August 5th email and clicking on the link. And theyâre doing that every time, and theyâre pretty happy with that. So thatâokay, that works!
A lot of people donât realize that, when you go to the website, and you visit one of the talks, thereâs a âprintâ button. And you can click the print button, and print it. The print buttonâitâs funny; you say, âDo you see the print button?â âNo.â âOkay, itâs in theâkind of upper right there.â âOh, there it is!â Okay, thatâs like the gorilla, you know? You just donât see the print button [laughter]. You donât expect a print button. Okay, thatâs fine.
Did you know that in the app, but not on the website, you can adjust the speed of the talks? You can adjust the speed. And notâa lot of people donât know that.
Some people donât want to download the app, because they think itâs gonna take up lots of space on their phone. Theyâre like, âOh my gosh, thereâs all these talks; itâs gonna take. . . â It doesnât take up any space on your phone. Or, I mean, itâsâvery little space.
Thereâs some caveats, but [laughter] for theâyeah. Basically, thatâunless your phone is really fullâlike, I think our app is 25 MBs. Itâsâmaybe itâs. . . .
AUDIENCE MEMBER: [inaudible]
NICK: Huh? Itâs not very big.
Some people wonât do anything on their computer or their phone unless someone else is there to do it with them. Because if they do it alone, they are sure they will get totally lost and demoralized.
For some people, their difficulty is a source of anxiety and isolation and strained relationships. And all of that comes with them, it seems like, when they visit our website or try and download our app. And itâs like, theyâre bringing a history to the whole situation, and thereâs a risk that theyâll bring that to the consultation, to Phase I, if their experience is, âOh my gosh, this is just another thing that, you know, I feel terrible about.â
One woman told us, âI asked my womenâs group for help with the website and they kept saying, âJust click through, just click through.â But it wasnât working, so I gave up.â Itâs kind of sad. But she wantâwe talked to her; we helped her out some.
A common issue was people donât know where to go to download the app. Some people let their kids basically manage their phone. And their kids, or grandkids, put the apps on their phone, and theyâve never actually put an app on their phone.
Recently, I was talking to aâthe grown son of a sister in the South Bend branch. And, it was a completeâwell, I think it was the Lord that we started talking about what I was doing in South Bend. âWell, Iâm working on the People of Praise consultation.â Heâs like, âOh, okay.â
He checks his motherâs email. She does not check her email; he checks his motherâs email. And heâs been gettingâall of a sudden he started getting these emails about some community-wide consultation, and he doesnât know how to explain that to his mom! Right?
So heâs like, âOkay, well, tell me about this.â So we had a conver- âand itâs like, âOh yeah, hereâsâthis is whatâs going on.â He appreciated knowing.
But, if somebody relies on their kid whoâs not in the community to put our app on their phone, thatâs kind of a new situation in the People of Praise. Right? And, so, itâs something to think about.
Some people donât check their email unless you text them and let them know that you emailed them [laughter]. Maybe thereâs some people like that here [more laughter]. Maybe this creates some tension sometimes [louder laughter].
So, thereâs more I could share. Iâm sure most of this is not news. Itâs also worth saying that most of the people that weâve talked to, once they get to the app or the website, theyâre fine, theyâre rollinâ.
As of this morning, we have 1077 app downloads. Which is pretty goodâI mean, probably thatâs not âprobably not all 1077 are unique people. Because if you delete the app, and re-download it, it probably counts twice. But thatâsâI mean unless people outside the community are weirdly interested and have somehow found out about it, I think thatâs a pretty good measure of sort of how far the app has gotten.
Now, thatâs not a measure of how much people are using it. Okay? Thatâs just how many times itâs been downloaded. But Iâthatâs encouraging. I mean, I think basically, the news is: itâs encouraging; most people are getting to the tools. But itâs not everybody, and as our Lord says, âthe Good Shepherd leaves the 99 and goes after the one.â So, letâs do that.
This is not just a workshop about how to use technology; itâs deeper than that. We need to find out how people want to engage with the sources and help them do it that way, not change them so that they engage with the sources the way we think itâs best. Which is surprisingly tempt- âI mean, itâs anâthat happens. I do that.
So . . . another thing to bear in mind is that, when weâre talk- âso thereâs a risk of imposing our own way of doing things, right? And I think that risk is even greater when weâre talking to someone who already feels deficient and unsure of themselves. And, if I jump quickly to the assumption, âOh, what they need is this,â and then teach them to do it, theyâre gonna end up at McDonaldâs, right? Itâs not gonna work [Nick chuckles].
And thereâve been some people who have said, âYeah, somebody teaches me how to do it, I do it that day, and then I donât go back for a week and I canât remember how to do it!â Itâs like, okay! Thatâs where folks are at.
We need to listen to really fig- âbecause sometimes people donât even know what they want. They donât know what the options are. And so talking to them slowly, repeatedly: âWell, why donât you try this and see if thatâsee how that works for you.â Or, âWhat if you did this?â That kind of thing. I think thatâs how we want to move forward.
And I think itâs a big deal that we have the printouts. Butâand theyâreâyeah, itâd be worth talking about large print. We made the print pretty large; itâs 280 pages. Anyway, justâmeeting people where theyâre at.
Something that we found really helpful is using their language to describe. . . . So, theyâre describing somethingâand if youâre on the phone that can be challengingâtheyâre describing something, and you might be tempted to correct them. Like, some people say, âlog onâ to the website when they just mean âvisitâ the website. And thereâs a temptation to go, âWell, actually, youâre not logging on; let me tell you about this very . . . yada yada yada.â They donât need to know that, right?
If itâs working for youânow, sometimes, thereâs some things itâs worth letting them know, âActually, thatâs not what you think it is.â I canât think of an example, but, I meanâbut we should be careful about how much information we give people. Because too much information is unhelpful. So, I would say, itâs best to give people only what they need to do what they want.
Okay. One thing that we found is that we can sometimes use words that make life confusing for people. And, so, theâour team, who made the callsâwe learnedâwe identified some stuff, and tried to change how we talked about things.
So, on your tableâand weâll take two minutes for you all to read thisâis a list of confusing terms and ways you might try and explain the same thing less confusingly. So, Iâll give yâall two minutes to read that, and then weâll come back.
[Interruption in the recording.]
NICK: All right. So, technology can make people feel like thereâs something wrong with them [laughter]. Like they are the problem, like they are slowing everyone else down. And thatâs a lie. Itâs actually a lie from the enemy. Thereâs nothing wrong with people who donât want to use technology the way I want to use technology. And, technology was made for man, not man for technology, as our Lord almost said [laughter].
So, if the rest of us let technology be a barrier for some of our brothers and sisters, we are the ones with the problem, not them. And the only way through this is to accompany people. Andâto look beyond the immediate issue and find out, okay, How can this person get what they want? They want to participate in Phase I, and they have these ways that they want to do it. Okay, letâs, you knowâand maybe they donât even know how they want to do it yet.
Because maybe theyâre kind of excited about tech- âyou know, another mistake could be to say, âWell, youâre too old for technology.â Right? Maybe they donât even know how they want to do it yet. Because maybe theyâre kind of excited about tech- âyou know, another mistake could be to say, âWell, youâre too old for technology.â Right? Maybe they want to use technology. Maybe they want to learn. Maybe they donât. Maybe they think they want to learn, try it, [and then say,] âMm, nah, I donât want to do it.â You know? Thatâs okay too.
Itâs gonna be inefficient. Some technology makes life efficient, some technology makes life inefficient. But itâs for the sake of our community life. For the sake of what the Lord is doing with us.
So, now what weâre gonna do isâElizabeth Grams and I are going to do a role play, which yâall are going to do afterwards withâas partners with your table. So, Elizabeth is going to play the role of someone who needs help downloading the app, and Iâm gonna play the role of someone helping her download the app.
She has deleted the app from her phone, so itâs gonna get proj- â her phone will be projected.
Can we get this set up now?
Her phone will be projected on the screen so you can see whatâs happening on her phone. When you do this in your groups, if you already have the app, it wonât look the same, right? But I think itâs still worth trying. And I hope thereâs time for each pair to change roles. Does that make sense? And then thereâll be some time for reflection at the end.
Good morning, Elizabeth!
ELIZABETH: Good morning, Nick.
NICK: Okay, thereâs the phone [on the screen]. Nice. Note that our app is not on Elizabethâs phone.
Just a comment in preamble. It would be normal to start with some really open-ended questions, like, âWhat do you like about your phone?â or, âHow do you use technology?â to just find out, first of all, what language the person is using. Whatâs the vocabulary? Because if I just come in using language they may not understand. . . . Weâre gonna have to skip that and just go straight to downloading, cause itâs kind of an involved process, if youâre taking it slow.
So, Elizabeth, would you like to have the app on your phone?
ELIZABETH: Does that mean Iâd get to see the talks on my phone?
NICK: They would be on your phone, yep.
ELIZABETH: That would be very nice.
NICK: You can listen to them from the app too.
ELIZABETH: Thatâd be very nice too. Yes, sometimes itâs hard to see them on my phone, but I can hear pretty well, still [laughter].
NICK: Good! Well, have you ever put an app on your phone before?
ELIZABETH: Um . . . are the apps the, like the little squares that are right there?
NICK: Exactly. Thatâs what Iâm calling âapps.â
ELIZABETH: Um, I donât know. Maybe Iâve put one on.
NICK: Okay, well. . . .
ELIZABETH: [Nick scrolls through, revealing many pages of apps. Prolonged laughter.] Thereâs a lot of them there!
NICK: Thatâs good.
ELIZABETH: My daughter helps me with a lot of those.
NICK: Well, youâve got a lot of good apps on your phone. Thatâs good.
ELIZABETH: Thatâs my granddaughter there [on the home screen].
NICK: Whatâs her name?
ELIZABETH: Mary Martha [laughter]. Isnât she cute?
NICK: Thatâs a very cute picture. Yes, it is.
So, the thing about apps is that thereâs already an app on your phone that can put more apps on your phone.
ELIZABETH: Wow! Okay!
NICK: Yeah, itâs kinda complicated, but. . . . So the first thingâso, hereâs a question: Do you want me to put the app on your phone, or do you want to put it on your phone, and I can help you put it on your phone?
ELIZABETH: Iâwell, Iâmâletâs see. It might be nice if you do, but Iâd like to try to s- âlook at it with you, so that I can hopefully remember how to . . . use it later.
NICK: Okay. Yeah, thatâs great. So, the first thing, then, is we need to find the app that puts more apps on your phone. So, letâs see. . . .
ELIZABETH: Hmmm.
NICK: Why donât you grab your phone and weâll look at it?
ELIZABETH: Okay.
NICK: Okay, go a little slower. Okay, there it is. Okay, you actually had your thumb right on it.
ELIZABETH: Oh, okay.
NICK: Itâs that thing with triangles. The white triangle on the blue square.
ELIZABETH: Right there with all the numbers?
NICK: With the â78.â Little red, yeah, yeah. You can click that.
ELIZABETH: Okay.
NICK: Okay, good. Okay, so . . .
ELIZABETH: Woah!
NICK: Yeah, itâs a lot going on there. So, what you wanna do isânow you need to find our app in this app. So, thereâs a magnifying glass in the lower right. Do you see the magnifying glass?
ELIZABETH: Oh! Yep. Okay. Okay. Okay.
NICK: There it is. So you wanna hit that. And now what youâre gonna do isâthereâs another magnifying glass. Now itâs up top, kind ofâby the âsearch.â Right where it says âsearch.â
ELIZABETH: Where it says the games and the apps and the . . . ?
NICK: Yep. So if you tap that, youâre gonna be able to type.
ELIZABETH: Okay.
NICK: See all those? Here, let me hold your microphone for you so you can type.
(And Elizabeth is gonna type very quickly, to save everybody time. . . .)
Oh yeah, I didnât tell you what to type. So you need to type âconsultation.â And look at that. Hang on a minute. You see what the first line of words there is?
ELIZBETH: âConsultation Sources App.â
NICK: That is our app. So you wanna hit that.
ELIZABETH: Okay. Oh!
NICK: And there it is! Thereâs the Holy Spirit. Yeah, you see where it says âgetâ?
ELIZABETH: Okay, yes! Okay. Oh-oh.
NICK: So you wanna hit that. And now youâre gonna have to sign in. Okay.
ELIZABETH: Ohhh. [Groaning and laughter in audience.]
NICK: This gets complicated. So, what weâre looking for is your email address and password.
ELIZABETH: Is that this one?
NICK: You know, that looks likeâyeah, whereâd you get that?
ELIZABETH: I think I wrote it down . . .
NICK: This is good.
ELIZABETH: . . . when I, yeah . . .
NICK: Yeah, this is good. So, youâre gonna need to punch those numbers in.
ELIZABETH: Oh boy, you better hold my mike again.
NICK: Okay, stepping out of role for a minute. This is something that we gotâour feedback is [that] people get really excited about downloading the app, and they get all through the process, and then they get hung up right here. And it takes four days and several communications with their kids to find the login. So thatâs just something to beâto have a heads-up on. Things are harder with the Apple login information than Google, so . . .
You know what, I shouldâve been more attentive to Elizabeth [laughter].
ELIZABETH: Uh-oh. What did I do?
NICK: No, youâre good. You justâwhat you need to enter isâthatâs gonna be an email address. Okay, nice.
So letâs pretend that we have the email address right. Okay, weâre gonna move on to thisâthrough this process.
All right! Here we go. Itâs downloading. Good job!
[Audience claps.]
ELIZABETH: Oh!
NICK: Okay.
ELIZABETH: Thereâs a new one.
NICK: Yep. Youâre gonna want to hit that âinstallââwhere it says âinstallâ at the bottom, there. Okay, good. All right.
ELIZABETH: What should I do?
NICK: I think you wanna say, âRequire after fifteen minutes.â
ELIZABETH: Okay.
NICK: Why donât you just say that?
Good. So you can see that thing turning there. Now itâs installing.
ELIZABETH: Oh, it changed. Okay.
NICK: Yup, yup, that right there. Thatâs good. This is all real good.
ELIZABETH: Good, phew!
NICK: So, another thing that we ran into was, the full name for the app is âConsultation Sources,â but the short name is âSources.â So people go looking on their phone for an app called âConsultation,â and itâs not there. Itâs called âSources.â
[Nick responds to inaudible question from audience:] Hm? Once itâs downloaded. Thatâs right.
ELIZABETH: Do I have to do this every time I wanna listen to something? [Audience laughs.]
NICK: Nope. No, itâs real easy after this. Itâs real easy.
Does it say âopenâ? Go ahead and hit âopen.â
ELIZABETH: Yes. Okay.
NICK: And, now youâre in! Okay, you do not want notifications.
ELIZABETH: âDonât allowâ?
NICK: Donât allow. Yeah. Cause weâre never gonna do notifications for that.
ELIZABETH: [Seeing a photo on the app home page] Thatâs Jodi Engles right there! [Audience laughs.]
NICK: It is. Yeah, why donât you tap on that photograph? Good. Okay. . . .
ELIZABETH: Thatâs Mary Lou Carey too!
NICK: Mary Lou Careyâs right there. So, yeah. So now youâre in. And below the photograph is where all of the talks and sources are. So you canâthereâs 27 of âem on this list. But thereâs gonna be more lists. Does that make sense?
So now that you have the app installed, weâre gonna be able to put more talks on your phone in the future. And we can talk more about that later. But why donât you hit on one of them? Just go ahead and click on one, anything that looks interesting to you.
ELIZABETH: Oh, I love Clem. Heâs always got good things to say.
NICK: Good. All right. So . . . now you see the black circle with the white triangle?
ELIZABETH: Uh, yep. On the top? Okay.
NICK: Yeah, right there. Tap that.
ELIZABETH: Okay.
NICK: And you should be able to hear Clem real soon.
Oh, interesting. But your phone is plugged into the HDMI, so you might not be able. . . .
Okay, well letâs all pretend we can hear theâthis would not be how it went in the real thing. We can hear Clemâs voice.
Okay, Elizabeth, hereâs one thing I want to show you. Do you know how to turn your phone screen off?
ELIZABETH: Ahh.
NICK: How do youâyeah, you just hit that button? Go ahead.
ELIZABETH: I think thatâsâyup, okay
NICK: You would be able to hear Clemâs voice, still. So, the app will keep playing it even when your phone screen is off. So how do you get Clem to stop talking? [Audience laughs.] This is important, right? And this is a challenge.
So, letâsâgo ahead and wake your phone up again.
ELIZABETH: Ope, okay.
NICK: And open upâopen it up, back up. Okay, you see the two vertical lines at the bottom there?
ELIZABETH: Yep.
NICK: Thatâs how you stop. Click âstop.â Okay, good.
Now, weâre almost out of time, but we need to do one more important thing. So, I want you to go to your home screen of your phone. Do you know how to do that?
ELIZABETH: Is thatâthatâs the first thing I see, like when I open it?
NICK: Yep. Mm-hmm.
ELIZABETH: I think I just clickâokay. . . .
NICK: There you go. Now, weâyou need to be able to find your phoneâI mean your app. Iâm sorry, you need [Nick chuckles]âthat too [audience laughs]. You need to be able to find the app on your phone, andâso, why donât you swipe around on your phone until you can see it?
ELIZABETH: Okay, I donât see it on that page. I donât see it on that page. Or that one. Oh! Okay. There it is.
NICK: There it is. Yep. So you can go ahead and tap that again.
ELIZABETH: Oh! Okay.
NICK: And youâre back.
But weâve gotta cut it off. Out of time. So, thank you, Elizabeth!
[Applause.]
So, letâs have each of yâall role play with partners, and take five minutes for it. So Iâll holler out âItâs been five minutes.â You will not get that far that [sic] we just gotâbut we wanted to show you some of the elements of it. But pretend that youâre putting the app on the other personâs phone, even though itâs probably already there. Okay?
[Buzz of conversation.]
So, we just had a good question. What if itâs an iPhone user trying to teach Android, or Android trying to teach iPhone? Thatâs a really good question. My suggestion is go ahead and try, and youâll learn more. Thatâll be something youâre learning, okay? And if you donât think you can do that, then just find a partner with the same platformâthe same operating system that you have, the same kind of phone.
[Interruption in the recording.]
NICK: Okay, that was five minutes. Go ahead and switch roles now. It doesnât matter if you didnât get very far. Thatâs fine. But itâd be good for everybody to get a chance to be in both roles. And if you have questions, the tech booth will be here all day. And, so, feel free to ask any of us if questions come up.
[Buzz of conversation, applause.]
No itâs not over. Now weâre switching and you do the role play again.
[Interruption in the recording.]
All right. Could I have your attention again? Now weâre gonna take time for reflection. Right now, Tom Zusi is passing out more of these little sheets with reflection questions on them. We passed these out yesterday. The first question is, âReflect individually on what youâve learned. Make a note of it. Two minutes.â And then thereâs some questions under that. And then, âTurn to a partner and discuss what youâve learned. Three minutes.â And then, âShare with your table anything youâd like to share from your discussion. Ten minutes.â
So this is an important aspect of role playing, is [sic] reflecting on what the experience was like. âCause in the middle of the roleplay youâre focused on making the roleplay happen, so itâs important to take a little bit of time and reflect on how that went and what did you learn from it so you can kinda capture it.
So letâs take two minutes. Weâre not gonna have time toâyou know, we donât have fifteen minutes. But weâll get most of the way through this, okay? So letâs take two minutes now to privately reflect: What did you learn from the roleplay process? Write some stuff down, and then share that with your partner. But Iâll let you know when the two minutes is passed.
[Interruption in the recording.]
Thatâs two minutes. Now go ahead and share with a partner anything from that that you want to share. And then after three minutes, or however seemsâI mean, the tables can do how theyâhowever they want to do it at that point, but we should wrap it up by noon. Does that make sense?
[Interruption in the recording.]
All right! Well, it is noon, so weâre now gonna go to lunch. . . . .
[recording ends here]
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