The National
Employee Development Center (NEDC) has developed five training modules for the
Field Office Technical Guide (FOTG). The modules are available
on-line at http://www.nedc.nrcs.usda.gov/fotg/
. All five modules are recommended for new employees and employees that
would benefit from a better understanding of the Tech Guide. The training modules are
also recommended for Technical Service Providers (TSPs) and SCD employees
involved in technical assistance.
FOTG Training Module
3 is useful to all
employees that use the Field Office Technical Guide. It contains
instructions for setting up and using Thunderbook - the portable,
personalized version of the Field Office Technical
Guide. Thunderbook provides a means of accessing FOTG documents
in the field or office with laptop hard drives and PDA/tablets.
The one major
drawback of the electronic FOTG has been the problem of no access when servers are not working or
Internet connection is unavailable. Thunderbook helps solve that
problem, but only if users take a little time to set it up. Thunderbook
features include:
User chooses
folder/subfolder names and arrangement. Folder/subfolder names do not have
to match the eFOTG.
The user
selects their hard-drive update schedule, which recurs
automatically. Scheduling the automatic update every night is
recommended to ensure current information is used.
Documents not
found in the eFOTG can be downloaded into Thunderbook, such as the Tree/shrub
Planting Form ND-CPA-04. (Keep
in mind that Thunderbook updates will not "capture" ND form revisions.)
Thunderbook's one
weakness is its inability to automatically provide a current, off-line backup to
Web-linked references. However, users can manually enter Web-linked
documents in Thunderbook for backup purposes. Of course, such downloads
must be checked frequently and manually
replaced when the Web-based document is
revised.
If you spend an
hour or two to initially set up Thunderbook but do no maintenance thereafter, you will probably have
a back-up for 90% of the FOTG
info you need. If you spend a few minutes per month maintaining your Thunderbook,
you might never be
significantly delayed by server down
time.
The fastest way to set up Thunderbook for most
employees is as follows:
- Log in to my.nrcs.
- Click on my.nrcs tab.
- Look for
"Thunderbook" section of the Web page and click on "Manage my
Thunderbook".
- On the right side of black toolbar, click on
Help button.
- Click on "Thunderbook Quick Guide" and print
it.
- Follow the instructions
provided.
If you would
like to participate in a Net Meeting to learn how to set up your Thunderbook,
please let me know.
If you have questions, please call me.
If I am not available, you can hit the Contact button in eFOTG
or Thunderbook and email your question; please send a cc to
me.
Mark A. Anderson, eFOTG Coordinator