Technology Hints by Hintz

Microsoft Office 2007 is fresh and new.  At first I wasn’t to sure, things weren’t where I knew they were in the 2003 version.  Once you become familiar with the applications and the infamous “Ribbon” you will learn to love it as I did.  Microsoft has prepared oodles of support and training materials on Office 2007.  Below you will find links to the more tutorials, support and training that I have found most valuable. After leading a training on Office 2007, resources for Access were requested, you will find links to those below.  

Video Tutorials

The following are Video Tutorials for individual Office Applications.  Each is less than eight minutes long!  This is a fantastic way to start using each application! 

• Up to Speed with Word 2007 Video Tutorial by Microsoft 
• Up to Speed with Excel 2007 Video Tutorial by Microsoft 
• Up to speed with PowerPoint 2007 Video Tutorial by Microsoft 
• Publisher 2007 Series of Short Video Tutorials by Microsoft
• Access 2007 Video Tutorial by Microsoft 

Self-Paced Courses on Office ’07

The following are also provided by Microsoft.  In this section you can select which content area you would like to view the self-paced lesson for. Each lesson includes audio demonstration, some with an option for visual as well.  At the end is a short test and a quick reference card.     

• Getting  Started with Microsoft Office 2007 by Microsoft
• Word 2007 Courses by Microsoft 
• Excel 2007 Courses by Microsoft 
• PowerPoint 2007 Courses by Microsoft 
• Publisher  2007 Courses by Microsoft    

• Access 2007 by Microsoft

Converting from Office 2003 to Office 2007 

• Word 2003 to Word 2007 
• Excel 2003 to Excel 2007
• PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007
• Access 2003 to Access 2007    

Examples of Podcasts by Students and Educators:

Elementary Examples
http://cfbstaff.cfbisd.edu/beyond4walls/TCEA/
podcasts_by_cfb_teachers.htm
 New Teacher Hotline
http://www.newteacherhotline.com/

Ideas on Podcasting use in Education

From http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_610.php
This is not meant to be a definitive list!

• Record lessons for students (and parents!) to access in their own time.
• Enable students to do a presentation about themselves rather than only sticking to PowerPoint!
• Create a short introduction to your school, or the course you run, for potential to access, and to let parents know what they can expect their children to be doing — get student contributions too!
• Create a class radio station.
• Enable students to submit work in the form of a podcast.
• Create audio resources for use by sight-impaired students.
• Find and use podcasts as part of project research materials.
• Use foreign language podcasts to improve linguistic skills.
• Use podcasts to get an insight into another country’s culture, or another person’s daily lifestyle.
• Enable students to create dynamic presentations without the complexity of digital video.
• Subscribe to various podcasts in different subjects in order to provide extra curriculum resources at virtually no cost.
• Provide students with a different way of carrying out surveys in the local area.
• Create an audio blog of a school field trip.
• Create an enhanced podcast entitled “My summer holiday”.
• Subscribe or listen to different podcasts in order to help students develop their critical faculties.
• Ask students to create a podcast to meet a real need, as part of a coursework project, for example for a local business.  

Tutorials:

Podcasting Tutorial: http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/podcasting-tutorial.html
Audacity Tutorial: http://www.guidesandtutorials.com/audacity-tutorial.html
Download Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Free Music for Podcasting:

• Garage Band: http://www.garageband.com/htdb/index
• cNet Free Music for Downloading: http://music.download.com/?tag=navtab
• PodSafeAudio: http://www.podsafeaudio.com/
• The Free Sound Project: http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/index.php - devoted to sounds not songs. Does require registration.