Thursday, June 26, 2008

Learning Microsoft Office

I found a website, http://www.bcschools.net/staff/home.html, that I think is pretty helpful for learning the basics of Microsoft Office. It provides information on all parts of the office suit: Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Publisher. I think this website will be a great resource for any teachers that need to get their feet wet with one or all of these programs.
One of the neat points about this particular website is that it was created for a school district which means all of the material is education based. When they give an example of using a particular program it is geared to education. Also, the website provides screen shots so that users can see exactly what their screen should look like as they progress through tutorials. The major weakness of this website is that it only provides tutorials in the basics of each program. It does not provided levels of difficulty for educators that are ready to move to the next level.
This website is beneficial to 21st century education because it is a means by which educators can become familiar with Microsoft Office suit of programs. However, it does not provide for a lot of depth and complexity. It covers only basic functions and does so briefly. I would only suggest this website to an educator in the very early stages of technology acquisition. There are certainly members of my school's faculty which fall into this category; however, I do feel that most of the teachers on my campus have knowledge beyond what this website offers for most programs.