The easisiest way to help your mother learn something is to ask her what she would like to be able to do. Then teach the application and use that to build on. Say she wants to learn what the e-mail program can do (calendars, scheduling) and help her understand how to do that. Then she may find other things to do that you can help her with.
In my experience it's easier to teach somthing to adults based on their finding solutions to problems they want to solve themselves.
I would be expecting that the fancy dinner is set up to introduce you to the offshore personnel who will now be doing your jobs. And, by the way, if you don't train them you don't get any severance.
America Online already offshores. Indian programmers in India don't make $45,000, try $7,000-10,000 maybe. The U.S. companies who are offshoring THINK they're getting workers at 10% of the U. S. salary. However, if you read about what's going on, these companies, and their European counterparts, are savig 20-25% of the U. S. (or European) employee's salaries while allowing the expertise, privacy and secutiry of their products leave the country. See www.onshorealternatives.com
I agree also that companies should decide what they need and then use IT where it helps get what's needed.
I also believe that in large companies (as the one I last dpent 3 years at) often the IT management and workers believe they know better how to run the business than the business people do, particularly within the last few years. This leads to competition between the IT department and the business that is BAD for everybody and the company.
And then, often, the business management gives up their control because it is too hard to run the business while competing with an IT staff who tries to make things seem more complicated than they really are.
IT can matter, IT should matter, but only when their goals are to enhance the business.
(And, as far as Oscar Wilde goes, he had every reason to want nothing to be right or wrong. the quote, if true whould mean that murder and child abuse are okay.)
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The easisiest way to help your mother learn something is to ask her what she would like to be able to do. Then teach the application and use that to build on. Say she wants to learn what the e-mail program can do (calendars, scheduling) and help her understand how to do that. Then she may find other things to do that you can help her with. In my experience it's easier to teach somthing to adults based on their finding solutions to problems they want to solve themselves.
I would be expecting that the fancy dinner is set up to introduce you to the offshore personnel who will now be doing your jobs. And, by the way, if you don't train them you don't get any severance.
America Online already offshores. Indian programmers in India don't make $45,000, try $7,000-10,000 maybe. The U.S. companies who are offshoring THINK they're getting workers at 10% of the U. S. salary. However, if you read about what's going on, these companies, and their European counterparts, are savig 20-25% of the U. S. (or European) employee's salaries while allowing the expertise, privacy and secutiry of their products leave the country. See www.onshorealternatives.com
I agree also that companies should decide what they need and then use IT where it helps get what's needed. I also believe that in large companies (as the one I last dpent 3 years at) often the IT management and workers believe they know better how to run the business than the business people do, particularly within the last few years. This leads to competition between the IT department and the business that is BAD for everybody and the company. And then, often, the business management gives up their control because it is too hard to run the business while competing with an IT staff who tries to make things seem more complicated than they really are. IT can matter, IT should matter, but only when their goals are to enhance the business. (And, as far as Oscar Wilde goes, he had every reason to want nothing to be right or wrong. the quote, if true whould mean that murder and child abuse are okay.)