Another fun and informative class. I know these Microsoft Office programs are chock-full of features, but, JEEZ! We started working on a spreadsheets, today and, although the program is not exactly intuitive, it does flow once you get into it. Excel pretty much allows you to do anything as long as you can navigate your way through the myriad of toolbars, icons and features!
Bob started off the class lecturing about various policies within the School District of Philadelphia regarding testing, record-keeping and various policies. I know this stuff is important but I was tired and sleep-deprived so staying attentive was a particular challenge. But, as soon as we started working on our spreadsheets, I woke up. It was fun, stimulating and the class flew by after that. I am glad I am sitting next to William because he is bright and helpful and he pulled me through a few frustrating episodes. Adding to the frustration was the fact that Bob was using Mac and I was using PC--I hope we can find some way to compromise on this as it took me several extra moments on more than one occasion to figure out a function on the PC side due to examples being shown and explained on a MAC OS.
A possible solution is to have a student who is fluent in PC parallel teaching while Bob is explaining things on the MAC OS--Just a suggestion!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have given a lot of thought to the PC/Mac issues. While there are differences in the versions of Excel, it isn't only cross-platform, but older versions also have to be considered. By that I mean that students often work on the latest version in the lab, then they go home and try to do the same thing on their PC, and find differences because they have an earlier version of the software. That's why this lesson actually begins with information about using Atomic Learning and more importantly, the Help menu that's built into Excel.
ReplyDeleteIf I could project both versions at once...that would be the ideal.
Most of what we do in class isn't specific to any platform, so hopefully, this won't present much of an issue in the future sessions. However, we will be using different versions of Word for desktop publishing, and different applications for podcasting. So, there isn't always an easy answer, but our dilemma is indicative of the real world of technology.
We have these differences even within the school district, although almost all student computers and teacher laptops are Macs. I do want everyone in the class to have at least seen a Mac in action, since that's what they'll most likely use if they ever work in the School District of Philadelphia.
However, I do hear your voice and maybe there's a way to be more accommodating without duplicating every point in a lesson.