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Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Lesson 5
Lesson 6
Lesson 7
Lesson 8
Lesson 9
Lesson 10
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First Day PowerPoint
Getting Started with Lesson One
Hi
again. It's the first week and there are dozens of things to get organized
and details to square off, so start a bit easy.
Skill Number One - Word Processor
Using a word processor. We all
know how to do that. "Now we're wasting time" may be your reaction
and it may be valid. But let's take a moment as a teacher, as someone
who is guiding and mentoring students to a higher level of sophistication,
and take a second look at word processors. Do we know everything there
is to know about Word? Or do we know everything that we need to know
about Word? Or any other word processor?
Type a letter, type an essay, type an email, type
just about anything and you simply open the word processor, type,
maybe change some fonts, modify some misspelling or grammar, save
and print. What more you do need? Probably nothing, just like you
don't need a vocabulary of more than a thousand words to navigate
a language. But to be educated to a higher level, perhaps we should
understand tables, columns, headers and footers, bullets, margins,
images, hyperlinks and a plethora of other features.
As a teacher, are you comfortable receiving a document
in electronic format from a student and inserting electronic comments
and editorial comments, and then returning it to the student in electronic
format? Do you understand not only the rules of indention, spacing,
margin, font sizes and faces but the rationale as well?
If you answered yes to all of the above questions,
your first assignment should be an easy introduction to this class
and you can take the time to adventure into even more remote and little
known features of Word. If you didn't answer yes, to all the above
questions, this class is your motivation to experience and learn some
of the seldom used but periodically helpful feature of Word.
Ah, yes, I did say Word, short for Microsoft Word,
a component of Microsoft Office, a product of Microsoft Corporation.
Word, even among Mac users, has become the basis of word processing.
The independent stand-alone desktop computers of years gone by used
a variety of word processors, such as, AppleWord, WordPrefect, Microsoft
Works, AppleWorks and many more. Some of us even wrote our own very
early simple versions because some of the first computer only produced
capital letters with normal key strokes and the computer had to be
convinced that they also understood lower case letters.
As computers and their users around the world started
talking to each other, they realized that they needed to share some
common features to be able to communicate. There was no great conspiracy,
only an attitude "If they all using Word and I want to be able to
communicate with them, I'd better get Word also." So through evolution
Word became the word processor of choice so that many computers are
sold with Word already installed.
So Word it is and if you don't have Word on your
computer, perhaps you can find one with Word for this class. That
is why this class has evolved into an on-campus open-lab hybrid mixed
with the online facet. Otherwise, or in conjunction, we can discuss
the influence of the computer world on choices, its affect on society
and how do we deal with those who are not a part of the "standard."
File
So let's take a look at some of the features of
Word or the word processor on your computer. Quite standard among
computer programs is a menu bar across the top of the page, typically
starting near the left with the word "File." Most of the features
under File have to do with opening a existing document, creating a
new document, saving a document and printing a document. Most other
options are shortcuts to the above basic choices. Among recent versions
of many programs is a list of recently used documents as a convenient
shortcut to something that you've been working on most recently. Also
among the features of a the latest versions of programs is something
like "Save as WebPage."
"Save as WebPage" is a major step in making life
uniform across computers. All computers connected to the Internet
have at least one browser of one form or another. The most common
browser is Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Browsers can be another
complete discussion in themselves; a discussion we sidestep for now.)
Each browser more or less reads webpage the same, so if we save a
document as a webpage, almost anyone can read it. The formatting may
change but the essence will remain the same.
"Save as WebPage" also allows all users of word
processors to become webpage designers adding to the use of the Internet
and the proliferation of webpages. Persons wishing to put a webpage
on the Internet, can do so by merely using basic typing techniques
and using 'Save as WebPage.' As a teacher, your role is to discern
when and how to use this feature wisely. It has some great strength,
such as a common basis for communication, displaying information on
the Internet for all the world to see and to transform incompatible
formats into compatible formats. Does your word processor have this
feature? Watch for this in other programs, especially Excel and PowerPoint.
Edit
Moving to the typically next
choice in out top menu bar we come to Edit. Another long list of options
appear here. Undo, redo, copy, cut, paste, clear, select, find, and
replace are among the standards. Other are convenient user-friendly
options and shortcuts for convenience. Notice that most of them have
keystroke shortcuts which some of us use more frequently then the
mouse. Since most of these are common use choices for most users,
we won't spend extra time here.
View
Now things are getting a little
more interesting. First we'll notice there are five choices and then
a line (I happen to be in version 11 for Macs; each version may be
slightly different.) Those top five choices are something like: Normal,
Online Layout, Page Layout, Outline and Notebook Layout. Another version,
in particular a version I used on a PC, had the following five choices:
Normal, Web Layout, Print Layout, Reading Layout and Outline. Similar,
but different.
Help
There's much to do and much
that can be done. If you get stuck, in the top menu bar under Help
you can choose Word Help or Use Office Assistant. These are great
tools when you get outside your comfort zone, and I hope you're there
often. It's in that zone where we learn.
Assignments
Go to the assignment webpage
details. There are three items.
- A review of an article of your choice regarding
computers and education in a rigid format. This will count as the
first article review.
- The same or similar content in a newsletter format
with some extras like a centered textbox quote, a table of contents
and an index but no bibliography.
- A poster, menu, flyer, program cover using images
and tables.
Coming with Next Lesson
Reading the first section of "Failure
to Connect," writing a reaction and then responding to reactions of
other students all in WebCT.
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