Blog Journal # 2

I am a part of the first generation to use computers in a classroom setting. My instructors have not used and presented materials for me as I matriculated grade school via computational means. Thus, my teachers did not use MS Word with me. However, we used other forms of technology: cassette tapes, film strips, VHS videos, and over-head projectors. Now at college at Florida State University, I realize that there is an expectation for me to be computer literate-- and especially MS Word efficient. While here at college I have used MS Word, short for Microsoft Word (a word processing technology), to write, align and correct innumerable research papers. I have also used MS Word to insert graphics and charts to table data that I have gained from experimentation. I have cut objects out and pasted nested tables and objects into my MS Word documents. It was easy for me to create a numbered list in MS Word as there is a tool in the marginal menu that generates the next number for me. I have even created outlines using the outline function. One impressive task is that I have been able to create a spreadsheet in a completely separate program and import that spreadsheet as a graphic onto my MS Word document. I found this remarkable. I now expect to continue to readily use MS Word for these same purposes and to blossom my abilities using this word processor.

Although I have not seen MS Word used as a presentational means at school, I have seen items that were reportedly created using MS Word. The one piece of vital information that I have received from all of my classes thus far is a syllabus. The syllabus details what a class will cover. I did not receive syllabi in high school, but I think it would be wonderful to implement syllabi there. In the Courses menu on Blackboard I can typically obtain my syllabus, but a number of my professors print hard copies of the syllabus and bring them to class for us students. I have seen bullet lists and numbers, charts and tables, and even marginal graphics and notes on my syllabus-- which were reportedly created in MS Word. I enjoy the hard copy of my syllabus as we read aloud in class time and go over the details with our instructors. I have learned that seeing the hard copy minimizes tools menus typically seen in MS Word from being distractions during class time. Also, I appreciate the organizational pattern of the syllabi I have received. I can easily follow a well-formatted syllabus. I can quickly go to my "Notes for the Week" because this is seen as a table with numbers that are easy to follow. I can quickly find the "Course Grades Criterion" as this is also a separate labeled section. I can appreciate how I receive the information from my instructor who has created a well formatted MS Word document.

In my Introduction to Educational Technologies class I have learned a few new skills that I know I will use again. I have learned how to change the format of a document as I save it. There are earlier editions of MS Word. At this time, the latest model I have used is MS Word 2007 on my PC. I am learning that the MAC version of MS Word I have used may be a different year's model. There are specific abilities and graphics that are not able to be interpreted in earlier versions of MS Word that are easily application legible in MS Word 2007. And, MS Word 2007 can read all of the elder abilities of MS Word, plus its latest applications. When saving a document, I can save my format in the earlier version so that it is able to be read in all MS Word formats. Although the document can be slightly altered as it saves (causing me to possibly lose information I created), I am content because the document itself can open and I can work again where I last left working-- regardless of which program, latter or earlier, I was using to begin.