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Thursday, April 11, 2002

Thoughts on pda training

I hope you will share your thoughts, ideas, and experiences with training on pdas.

We have been involved in training medical professionals from physicians to administrative assistants on pdas for almost a year now. In the past in other settings,I have done bibliographic instruction sessions for
college students, technology training for library staff on all levels, and other types of training. When we first started
our grant project, I envisioned that we would be planning formal
training sessions for small groups. We have done a number of presentations on specific pda resources for specific
groups, but by far, the most successful training with the most impact has been done on a one-on-one basis. During
the past three months, I have done 15-20 sessions per month averaging anywhere from a brief 10 minute orientation
to a session of an hour and a half to show someone how to set up their pda and use some basic applications.
There are so many possible applications for the pda from hundreds of medical applications to word processing
with a keyboard to using Avantgo, Ovid@hand, and Epocrates effectively, each training session has really had to be customized
and individualized almost from the seat of the pants according to the interests of the user.

This is different than other library settings where I have worked and from other technologies I have taught.
Has anyone else had the same experience or different?

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