I have always thought of myself to be pretty comfortable in using desktop technologies such as Microsoft Office. When I first began my college career back in the fall of 2004, I actually decided to get a 2 year degree in office administration, completing courses focusing on the use of these tools. After working in a loan office for a few months after graduation, I decided to go back to school and focus on my real passion: education. I currently work at the front desk of a hotel (and work as a full time grad student at UCF), and am constantly using tools such as microsoft word and excel, both for work and school, creating simple spreadsheets for things such as employee schedules, time sheets, guest information, etc as well as for typing up and formatting assignments for my courses.
Recently for one of my college courses, I had to experiment with completing different tasks on a microsoft excel spreadsheet reflecting a typical teacher gradebook. I found excel to be a lot harder than I remembered! It has been so long since I have actually had to create formulas and transfer data between worksheets. I had an especially hard time figuring out how to make a set of data dynamically appear between worksheets. However frustrating these programs can sometimes be, though, I think that these office tools are wonderful for use in the classroom. I like to keep myself very organized, and I like the layout that excel offers in keeping student grades and information organized, and how you can set the sheets up to automatically calculuate student grades. I think that it is important for teachers to keep up to date with these technologies and their use to make student records management as easy as possible.
This assignment was definately a wakeup call for me. Having completed an office systems program in college four years ago, I suppose I thought that I didn't need to refresh myself in the newer versions of Microsoft Office products or complete any more training. However, after the hours of frustration spent trying to figure out how to complete simple tasks in the spreadsheet activity, I definately plan on taking some tutorial lessons for this product.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI also found excel to be harder than I remember!When you start needing to use formulas to solve problems, I start getting very frustrated. I also agree with you though when you say these tools are wonderful for use in the classroom. I think of all the ways I use do use excel.. to sort and make schedules and etc.. and it really is very useful.
I also agree that it is important that teachers keep up to date with these technologies. Not only can it be beneficial for student records and management, but it could be a tool that you share with your students to help them. Knowing about microsoft office and all of its posibilites, you can have your students not only use excel, but use word to create a website, a poster, or even set up a classroom newsletter.
Megan H
Megan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement about Excel being a lot harder than you remember. I have had my share of experience using Microsoft Office tools. I also took a computer course during college where I completed many assignments using Excel, but for some reason using the tool for this assignment was more challenging than I thought it would be. When I first began to create the formulas I found myself becoming a little frustrated but once I figured it out it wasn't too bad.
This assignment was a great refresher to me as well. Because I had experience using Excel in the past I didn't realize it would take me so long to complete this assignment. I also didn't feel that I needed to refresh myself when it came to using Microsoft office tools. After completing this assignment it shows me that it is important for me to stay updated with the latest tools.