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‘10 STEPS TO GET TO KNOW 07′
STEP 1
Using the Microsoft online conversion tutorials: Migrating from 2003 to 2007
Copy and Paste the required url below in the Internet Explorer address bar. Dont use Firefox as Firefox wont read links created by Microsoft!
Microsoft Word:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/asstvid.aspx?assetid=XT100766331033&vwidth=1044&vheight=788&type=flash&CTT=11&Origin=HA100744321033
Microsoft Powerpoint:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/asstvid.aspx?assetid=XT101493271033&vwidth=1044&vheight=788&type=flash&CTT=11&Origin=HA101490761033
Microsoft Excel:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/asstvid.aspx?assetid=XT101493291033&vwidth=1044&vheight=788&type=flash&CTT=11&Origin=HA101491511033
Microsoft Access:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/asstvid.aspx?assetid=XT102389151033&vwidth=1044&vheight=788&type=flash&CTT=11&Origin=HA102388991033
STEP 2
The tutorial title page loads. Now Add this link to your favourites: Favourites menu > Add to Favourites (the site doesnt respond well to the Back button)
Click Start, and the tutorial window loads the old Word 2003 interface. If you undertake the specific task like you normally would - eg Edit > Copy, the window changes to a Word 2007 window and a little video shows you the steps, highlighting the key strokes with an orange box
The tutorial caters for different learning styles too! You can choose not to watch the video, but instead, however the mouse over the last step of an action and a little dialogue window will pop-up to tell you the steps in words
Note: to return to the 2003 tutorial, just click anywhere inside the 2007 interface after it has shown you what to do. Remember its not an application, just an interactive tutorial. If you want to practice on the real thing, open the Word 2007 application: Start> All programs > Microsoft Office.
STEP 3
Use the tutorial to find out how to do the following basic tasks in 2007:
Save As
Insert picture
Format columns
Insert table and format it
STEP 4
Use the tutorial to do several tasks that are specific to what you might normally do with Word 2003 until you familiarise yourself with where things are in Word 2007
STEP 5
Discovering Word 2007: a guided journey
You will have noticed some key differences between the 2003 and 2007 versions
The main difference is the Ribbon at the top of the window - everything that used to be located in Pull-down Menus is located in Command Sets within the Ribbon. These sets have additional Tabs/Buttons/menus within them. Everything is much more graphic and easy to see.
Lets Get Started
Open Microsoft Word 2007 (the application): Start> All programs > Microsoft Office
Keep the tutorial in Explorer running in the background in case you wish to refer to it later
1. Open a new document that includes the following (you can copy and paste some from somewhere):
- two or three short paragraphs of text spaced under:
- one main heading, and
- two sub headings
2. Click on HOME menu. Each of the Home Command Sets expand to reveal more options than are visible (bottom left of window - click on arrow). Play with the first set
3. Position your cursor next to a heading on your page. Click on the Style Command Set and hover the pointer over one of the heading Styles: the heading on your page previews the style result. Once you find one you like, click on the Style button to cahnge the text on the page. scroll through body text options etc and experiment
4. Click on the INSERT menu. Position cursor on next line. Click on the Table button and drag out how many rows and cells you wish to include. The Insert Table option in the pop-up window allows you more options than are displayed
5. Click on the DESIGN menu and with the table selected hover over any of the many table styles to find one you like. Click to change. Play with the Table Style Options button and the Draw Borders etc to see what these tools do
6. Go back to INSERT menu and click Picture. Locate a picture file and insert it. Play with the Picture options: Picture Shape, Picture Border, Picture Effects and the Editing options: Brightness, Contrast, Recolour. Also check out Arrange and Size buttons.
7. Go back to INSERT menu and click the Smart Art button. Select from the many options in the pop-up window and then customise these in the Design menu: with the smart art selected (make sure you’re in the Design menu), try Change Colours, Quick Styles, Change Layout etc.
8. Go back to INSERT menu and click the Chart button. Select a chart style. An Excel pop up spreadsheet opens: enter data, add data or columns or rows and see how the chart changes. To edit data after you have inserted a formatted chart, go to Design button > Click Edit Data and the Excel spreadsheet opens
9. Go back to INSERT menu and click the Links button. Click Hyperlink. Copy the url of my Blog page and click back on the hyperlink pop-up window. Paste in the Address bar bottom of the window. Click OK. The Hyperlink is now a clickable url link on your Word page. To use a title rather than a long url, copy the url of the page - so copy my blog url again. In the hyperlink pop-up window, type Di’s Blog in the ‘text to display’ box and paste the url in the ‘Address’ bar. Click ok. Now when you click on ‘Di’s Blog’, on the Word doc, the blog will load in the browser
10. Now, on your own play with the Page Layout menu, to see where things are located and then go back to anything else that you noticed along the way
For those who prefer more detail, Microsoft has a great online tutorial with written notes. Click on the link below to go there (it works with any browser):
Microsoft Get Familiar with Word
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Learning Technologies 2008 Conference
Thursday 6th November
Videoconference
Catherine Macklam and Danny Mass: The 2Learn.ca Education Society, Canada:
“Its easy 2Learn.ca – a unique model of technology professional development
This is a fantastic initiative that demonstrates how a structured and fully supported eLearning network for teachers can create paradigm shifts in pedagogy.
2Learn.ca is a professional development, non-profit educational organization established to help teachers use video technologies to support teaching and learning in Canada. Teachers are trained to use the technology and helped to setup conferenced events.
Teachers are supported at all levels. The team provides workshops, professional speakers and events for a provincial group of schools and teachers in Canada.
The program works with a cascade model, that provides release time for teachers to attend PD activities. They teachers contribute to this program, through ongoing evaluation and responses that help the organization develop training solutions emergently. Teachers must also provide learning opportunities for other teachers in their schools to facilitate the cascading model.
Teacher leaders for the province schools undertake the training needed to learn the technologies, and then take these back into their school communities.
Classroom teachers are given leading opportunities to train and lead their schools in various technologies. This empowers these teachers to the point where they empower other teachers in their school, leading to very effective ICT learning environments.
The key to the 12 year old program is that teachers are encouraged to lead in an area of personal passion. They don’t have to know everything.
Each year they have had a different focus:
1.Curriculum use of internet resources
2. ICT embedded curriculum
3. Grass roots projects
4. Improved broadband: SuperNet, led to multimedia in classroom
5. Videoconferencing in classrooms
They have established a great free website of resources built up of all of the resources they have accumulated over the years. The database is an aggregation of thousands of sites.
The portal focuses on theme based units of study: a teacher teaching that theme can engage in ICT units of work that are fully supported. Teachers can ask the organisation to make an event specific to their programs. This will be posted for all, on the site.
The key to this program is the professional development support that is scaffolded at all levels.
A new initiative is an online community website called 2LearnTogether. This site will connect teachers, learners, resources and events. Forums will help people to engage and establish relevant learning environments. This forum will be moderated and monitored so as to meet privacy issues, via access limitations. The software for the site was Dolphin, an Australian product.
Have a look at their site: its a great resource:
http://www.2learn.ca/
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I have written this article in response to the Learning Technologies User Group’s online pre-conference forum of the same name. I am attending the LTUG Conference in QLD from 5th-7th November 2008.
Has technology Revolutionized Education?
Technology will revolutionize education when it is used as a wholesale instrument of pedagogy, rather than as a resource.
Technology on its own is of little benefit to many teachers: a data projector is a good substitute for an overhead projector, perhaps. Unfortunately I have observed this in many secondary and tertiary classrooms.
If real change is to take place, teachers need to learn how to effectively use technology as a tool for student learning, rather than use it merely to display resources or source information. In most Australian schools, a digital education revolution seems light years away!
Installing computers in any number of classrooms will not effect change until teachers change their way of teaching. This can be achieved through subtle shifts in pedagogies: posing questions that encourage students to use computers to discuss-collaborate-research-interact-analyze-answer problems-present solutions, rather than source information-find facts-copy-paste-print.
The key is to create a paradigm shift through pedagogy and teaching practice so that the way our students learn is revolutionized! The shift toward student-centred, problem-based learning environments will empower Gen Z and Y students to do what they do best: use technology as a primary language to learn everything they need to know, just-in-time. For these new generations of students, authentic learning is technology-centred and their chief native language is digital.
Educators can theorize the need for change and manufacturers can invent amazing whizz-bang technology, but the revolution will not even begin to take shape until teachers are assisted and supported in the process of creating new pedagogies to embrace ICT as a learning tool in their classrooms.
The real revolution must be facilitated by administrative bodies and governments, not merely through the installation of hardware, but more importantly, through the supply of ICT focused professional development opportunities and support for teachers.
The technology itself will not inspire revolution. However, the meaningful use of technology may revolutionize education. Such a revolution will be human-centred, driven not by the technology itself, but by the wisdom and insight of teachers, and the enthusiasm and engagement of their students.
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In November I will be attending the 2008 Learning Technologies Conference, where George Siemens will be the keynote speaker.
George is a prominent writer and researcher on learning, networks, technology and organizational effectiveness in digital environments. He is the author of Knowing Knowledge, an exploration of how the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed and what it means to organizations today.
Read more about George and his ideas at these web spaces: eLearnspace, Connectivism and Knowing Knowledge.
In his session George will explore the seemingly obvious ‘networks and connections as the foundation of learning’ and present new perspectives on how to foster deep, critical, understanding through effective implementation of learning networks. He will address:
- What are the characteristics of learning networks?
- How do they differ from social networks?
- What types of attributes are evident in conceptual networks versus social networks?
- What about neural networks?
- How can educators utilize attributes of networks for teaching and learning?
- How do we foster networks of a particular type to serve intended learning goals?
Check out his webspace: it has amazing links to events, articles, interviews, sites and blogs
eLearnspace: everything technology
His elearnspace blog includes daily posts on a wide range of eLearning topics
