Digital Inequality / Digital Divide
As posted in my Learning Log December 6, 2013
The one thing that stood out for me with this assignment is how limited our Nuclear Training Department is in terms of using digital technology. Clearly we have sufficient hardware, including two fully operational Control Room simulators, but we use only a small fraction of our capabilities. I was reminded of a discussion I had with a peer one morning after an outage night shift. He was describing a program that we had that would allow plant parameters to be shown graphically for various casualty situations. The instructors had had this program for years, yet none of them used this helpful tool. They simply never took the time to learn the program.
The second thing that struck me was how uniform our training staff is. Because of the nature of our business, very few individuals know or understand nuclear power. Our training department has a plethora of individuals who understand nuclear power, but very often they don't understand how to teach. They can develop material using the systematic approach to training, but they often struggle with the presentation. I think part of the problem lies in the type of mind it takes to understand nuclear power. It clearly requires a mind grounded in logic and science; however far too often, those whose minds are grounded in logic and science lack creative skills. I count myself lucky in the fact that both my creative and scientific sides of my brain developed and thus I'm able to present ideas such as nuclear fission in visual and creative ways. (think mouse traps and ping pong balls)
