Just Figure it Out!

I think the best way to learn technology is to dive right in. It's like when I used to work at The Children's Place - during my first week, the manager informed me that the best way for me to learn to use the register was for her to leave me there alone and let me sweat. Indeed, the best way to learn about a new technology is to try to make it do what you want it to do on your own. I feel like this allows an individual to experience random abilities of the software that would never be discovered through a generic tutorial. This week I learned a new software by using a tutorial, and I learned how to do something new on software that is very familiar to me.

This week I was asked to use Microsoft Access, a database software. I didn't even know that this existed, much less the fact that it was on my computer, but now that I have used it for simple purposes, I think I will be taking of it more often. My assignment for the week was to create a database of information on my "future students" and then use that information to create mailing labels. Following a tutorial, this was a ridiculously easy task to accomplish. After going to class and hearing more of an explanation of what can be done through Access, I believe I will be taking the time to dive in and learn more about the program and how it can be used in my classroom.

This week I was also asked to create a gradebook in Microsoft Excel and then create a lesson using Microsoft Excel. This was no problem for me - I work for a professor in the English department at Meredith, and great portion of my job involves setting up and recording grades in the Excel gradebook. However, for this assignment I was also asked to create a graph. Of course, I know how to create a graph in Excel - no problem - but I can get picky about things, and I wanted the names of each assignment to be labeled on the x-axis of my graph. This is difficult to do when the labels for the assignments are ten rows above the highlighted rows for the graph. I spent hours messing with Excel in order to try and figure out how to label the assignments on my graph. I learned even more about Excel than I thought I knew! So I was glad to be provided with the opportunity to use Excel, a very familiar program, in a way that was new to me. (By the way - I ended up calling my dad to ask him how to label the assignments - apparently he's an Excel genius).

Another familiar assignment to me this week was a software evaluation. In a previous class I was asked to use prefabricated software evaluations to write up an evaluation of a piece of software. Therefore, this assignment was familiar but different. It was interesting to create my own evaluation instrument - I had to look through different eyes as I considered exactly what attributes I would be looking for in a piece of quality software.

Whew, this is a lot of writing - and it's pretty dry writing at that. I think all of my creativity gets sucked into my computer assignments, but don't get me wrong - I love creating them! The three assignments I worked on this week can be of great use to me in my classroom. Access will help me to organize student information and call it up for various reasons (I know that is vague - I just feel like there are SO many uses for a database). I had never considered actually using Excel in a lesson before this week. I see that it could be an excellent way to provide students with an easy visual through a chart. I believe this can lead to great discussions and ideas in the classroom. Finally, software evaluations will continue to keep the quality of software in the front of my mind as I consider how the children will use the computer in my classroom. I feel as though I know have a greater understanding and idea of the variety of uses of different softwares in the classroom.