Hi
again. It's the third week and there are dozens of things to get organized
and details to square off, so start a bit easy. Much of the following
is very commonplace for you, so scan it, skim it and move on to writing
your review/reflection.
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
Your second assignment is
like the second one. We will continue reading journal articles while
we are waiting to find the text book "Failure
to Connect" by Jane Healy. Find another article,
read it and write a review/reflection
but not in Moodle. Write this one in in
APA format
(basically doubled 10-12 point Times with 1" margins on standard
letter size). (Another
source of information about APA.) A part of this assignment is
to use maybe some little used features of Word, such as setting margins
and adding a header for page numbers
.
You have read the article, you have compiled your
thoughts about the article so it will be easy to do the second part
of this assignment. Using Word again put your thoughts on a document
that is more like a poster, a promotional flyer with variations of
fonts and colors, and using some images. Include large bold fonts
for titles, smaller fonts for subtitles, and regular size font for
the body. Use images from the Internet, one you have created or from
the clipart in Word.
Again: you should be able to access the WOU library
from your home and find an article online. After going to www.wou.edu/library,
choose ERIC in the pop up menu by Articles under Find Information.
Then enter the keywords and watch for an article that fits your interest
and you can read online. You don't have to use the online process,
but the journal should be a professional journal with professional
educators and not a commercial magazine off the news stands.
For a topic this time, choose something around
education and technology but try to focus on your specialty, the subject
you hope to teach. For example, if you are a language arts teacher
wannabe, do your search with keywords like: technology or computer,
education, and language arts.
How about sending these two documents as attachments
to me as an email by February 2.
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 Moodle.
Office hours: Tuesday mornings: 9:00 - noon
Thursday mornigns: 9:00 - noon
Other times aby appointment
Also contact me through email at saxowsd@wou.edu
or denvygail@saxowsky.com
