5 Tips for Trainers to Prevent TechFail

Rewind to Monday, February 1, 2010. It’s 11:45 am at the Harford Public Administration offices.

It’s a typical Monday morning: catching up on email, social media, mailboxes moving slowly toward zero. I prepare to jot down some notes for this post on the ALA Learning Blog.  I open my trusty laptop and start banging away at some ideas about marketing your trainings and marketing yourself.

I take a break and find some video blogging resources on the web and >>>WHAMMO<<< surreptitious website redirection to an unknown Web site, leads to an extremely large popup ad that says:

YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED…DOWNLOAD OUR PRODUCT NOW.

The background on the screen becomes an ugly green/yellow color and says:

YOU ARE INFECTED SAVE YOURSELF!

Well it said something like that making me think a zombie had entered the interwebs. I clicked the X to close the program, which of course installed the bleeping thing. I tried the faithful CTRL + ALT + DEL keys and discovered I lost Task Manager.

To sum it up, it’s a Monday morning and I lost my computer.

Yeah. Good times. The upshot is that my laptop has now been nuked. Wiped out. Toast.

But I am such a twenty-year plus veteran tech head, of course I saved my data on our network. Right? Well, no not quite everything. So that stuff is toast. I lost two projects in various stages of brilliance.

Did I mention that my brand new HTC Hero (an Android based smartphone), with 50+ apps and set up to my specs also decided to take a holiday to bricktown? Yeah, great day Monday was, so as we stand today (Thursday) the Hero had to get fully wiped–as did the laptop. But, I got an upgrade to Windows 7 so I have that working for me! Yeah me.

So, what does this have to do with training you ask?

There are so many aspects to creating and delivering training and presentations that inform and transform that sometimes we forget some essential training tech tricks that save our sanity. I like to think my bad day of tech inspired this list so that you may not have a day like my “Techfail” Monday.

Training Tech Tip One: If you need it, back it up.

Backing up your important data should be as automatic as the sun rising. You will always be thankful for backed up copies of your presentations, research, writing and photographs when your computer goes belly up–which it will when you least want it to do so. Make sure you do this on a regular basis. If you are a mobile trainer, you may want to back your stuff up in the cloud (as in applications and/or data that live on the web) and on a handy portable hard drive.

Now ask yourself: Do you have your vital training materials backed up? If so, could you reach them if you needed them while you are out of the office?

Training Tech Tip Two: Don’t cry over spilled anything.

Think of this as the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy tip. Don’t panic. Stuff happens. Everyone has had something unexpected happen while training. The room you booked for training is being used for a storeroom or extra office space. You will show up and no one remembers that you were coming that day, and no one is available for training, and can you come back next Thursday. Thanks. Goodbye.

Perhaps you will double confirm and show up at the wrong time, floor, building, street, town or state because someone left the trainer out of the loop. Perhaps the room is uncontrollably too hot/cold/moldy/drafty/sunny for you (and your participants) to be comfortable during four–days of training. Perhaps you are doing an all-day training on “Using the Internet for Beginners” and there is NO internet access whatsoever because of a fire early that morning. Roll with it and adapt. Remix on the fly.

Now ask yourself: Have you had a bad start to a training day followed by the one of your best trainings ever? Were you able to transform your tragedy into a learning opportunity for not only your learners but for yourself?

Training Tech Tip Three: Be prepared for technology to fail.

Being prepared for technology failure will save your bacon and make you look like the training deity that you are. Make sure that you could get across most if not all of your learning objectives without anything that uses electricity or batteries. Just you and your tools (voice, handouts, facilitation skills, adaptability, experience, flipcharts) and some time should be all you need to do your presentation in a pinch.

A very easy way is prepare for tech fail is to think about doing computer training without a computer. What would you say? How would you demonstrate certain skills or point things out? Would you want to have screen shots to hand out as back up plan? Detailed instructions on basic tasks participants could do back at their computers without you standing over them?

Now ask yourself: How would you deal with a technology failure while training? Would you be able to get across your training objectives without technology?

Training Tech Tip Four: If you think you need it, bring it.

Over the years, I’ve created my own technology kit for off site trainings.

The BGIMD Basic Training Technology Survival Kit©:

Computer stuff:

• One 50 Foot Network Cord
• One 25 foot Rotating Head Extension Cord
• One/Two Surge protectors
• 24 port hub
• Projector
• Laptop
• USB 8 in one kit
• USB hub

I also may throw in a small webcam and speakers if needed.

Boy Scout Stuff:

• Extra Batteries for Remote Keyboard/Mouse/Presentation Remote
• Flash Drive with Materials (if I am working outside of my home library system)
• Healthy Snack Food (a low blood sugar trainer is a mean trainer)
• Markers, pens and sometimes writing pads
• An extra shirt or two to adapt to the crowd

Ask yourself: Do you have your own “training kit”? What’s in it? What do you always seem to need but forget to carry to a training site?

Training Tech Tip Five: Back that cloud up!

The cloud (as in applications and/or data that live on the web) is a great tool to organize and back up your information. You can use tools in the cloud to create training curricula; share materials and resources; bookmarks and links; all accessible from any computer with an internet connection. You may be able to eliminate all of your handouts or point trainees to a site with all of your class information in one handy place.

Just remember to have a copy of whatever you put in the cloud somewhere in real life. If you use a wikispace to create your content and that wikispace gets attacked your data could be wiped out. A more likely scenario is that your favorite cloud resource is purchased/goes bankrupt and you no longer have access to the data you created. Would that throw a wrench into your plans? Sure it would.

Now ask yourself: Do you have up-to-date copies of all of your cloud materials? Are you ready if your cloud service goes offline?

I hope these five tips and the follow up questions help you become better trainers and help you avoid a technology disaster. Have you survived techfail in training? Share your stories and tips in the comments!

Maurice Coleman (ALA Learning Bio) is a Trainer for the Harford County (MD) Public Library, Speaker, Consultant and Organizer/Producer of T is for Training, the Library Training Podcast.  He blogs when the mood hits at
The Chronicles of the (almost) Bald Technology Trainer and tweets a few times a day.

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