Escaping the “Tech Whisperer” Trap

Speakers: Nikki Lewandowski & Rich Trouton

Level: All Levels, Lecture

Excerpt: Do eyes glaze over as you start to explain a technical concept? Have your end users asked you to just do a task for them because they “just don’t speak tech”? Do you have trouble identifying exactly how technical of a description to give a particular user? Join us to explore how understanding the needs of different learning styles can help keep your colleagues from considering technology a second language.

Description: You’ve been able to teach your users basic trouble shooting skills, it should be a breeze to educate them on the new macOS features, right? Effectively educating users can be a challenge the more in depth the subject and the more tech jargon required for comprehension.

How do you simultaneously educate the user who learns best from YouTube videos, the user who loves a good podcast, and the user who would much rather you sent them an email or provided a wiki page to read? How can you hold the attention of the user who desperately wants to get their hands on the latest technology while helping ease the anxiety of the user who would rather do things the old way?

In this session, we’ll be covering ways to develop approachable documentation and trainings for users with a variety of skill levels and learning needs.


About the speakers

Rich Trouton (Twitter: @rtrouton) – IT Technology Senior Consultant – SAP

Rich Trouton has been doing Macintosh system and server administration for over nineteen years and has supported Macs in a number of different environments, including university, government, medical research and advertising. His current position is at SAP, where he works with the rest of the Mac CoE team to support SAP’s Mac community.


Nikki Lewandowski – Systems Administrator – Canisius High School

Nikki joined the Canisius High School (Grades 9-12) IT staff in 2011 to provide support and assist in developing educational resources for their 1:1 iPad deployment for both teachers and students. In addition to the continued development of the iPad program, Canisius has three student use iMac labs, a projection system with AppleTVs in every classroom, and 100% macOS device adoption among teachers and administrative staff.

This entry was posted in MacAdmins 2018 Sessions. Bookmark the permalink.