Yesterday I delivered two Android tablets that I had configured for a client’s children. She was giving them as a reward for getting good grades this year. That, and it meant that she would no longer have to listen to them fight over who got to play games on her phone.
The kids are used to Apple devices, so my work included giving them each a tutorial. Being kids, they picked up the information quickly and were raring to go within 20 minutes or so. They learned how to search the Play store and install apps. I even gave them a quick Google Drive tutorial so they could do some school work on their devices. Everything was going according to plan until the younger one asked me how to uninstall games.
It took me a few minutes to figure out why he even cared about learning how to uninstall an app? Was this kid a neat-freak? Someone who needed to not have any extraneous clutter on his home screen? Not according to his mother. I showed him how to remove apps from his home screen and how to move apps from one screen to another. But that wasn’t good enough for him. He needed to know how to completely uninstall an app.
That is when the lightbulb went on over my head. He was used to fighting with his brother for the small amount of space their mother carved out for them on her phone. Since space was so precious, knowing how to uninstall a game that has lost its luster is a critical skill. They weren’t used to each having a luxurious 16GB of their own to work with.
I showed both kids how to uninstall apps on their tablets. I also explained that they have more room on their tablets than their mom has on her phone. Not only that, but all of their space was their own to fill. They listened to what I had to say, but they weren’t buying it at all. I had to install Lookout when they weren’t paying attention to make sure they didn’t just turn around and uninstall it.
By the time I was ready to leave, both boys were glued to their tablets and were oblivious to my departure. One boy was deep into a movie he was watching on Netflix and the other was busy playing a game. I have no idea how much of what I taught them will stick. But I’m not worrying about that as much as I do after training an adult client. After all, this is their medium. They’ll figure everything out given enough time. Maybe I should check back in with them in a couple of months and see if they have figured out something new that they could teach me.