Tech lessons are not a requirement for this course. They are available to you if you want and need to develop certain technical skills. As a teacher you will need to use technology not only in your teaching practices but also in order to manage the classroom. Rarely now are grades kept in a pen and paper grade book. They are kept in spreadsheets or in web based platforms.
Each tech lesson below has an article, activity, or video lesson. Review one or two of these at a time and practice as much as possible!
Foundational Tip: Saving/Saving As Files
When you are creating a computer file, like a word processing document, the computer stores the file temporarily in the computer's memory. Saving a file records the file permanently on a storage medium, like a floppy disk, hard disk, or flash drive. It is important to save your work frequently because if you have an electrical failure or the computer is accidentally turned off, your work is lost. As a result, saving frequently can never be overemphasized and you must emphasize the importance of saving frequently to your students.
The first time you save a file, you will use the Save As dialog box. The Save As dialog box allows you to save a file on a floppy disk, a flash drive, or the computer's hard disk and to name the file. After you have saved a file, you only need to click Save on the File menu to save the file again. However, if you wish to save a file under a different name, save the file in a different location, or both; you will need to click Save As, instead of Save on the File menu.
Overview of Zipping Files
A zipped file is actually one file which contains compressed versions of several other files. You can also zip a very large file in order to make it smaller in size. The process of taking the files and compressing them is known as zipping. Once files have been zipped, they are unusable until you unzip or extract them from the zipped file. Zipped files can be used as a way to easily move or send multiple files. If you are sending 30 images to someone, it can take forever for them to download or save the images to their computer. Zipping the files will not only decrease the size of the files, it will also save your friend a lot of time since they will only download one file instead of the thirty.
Foundational Task: Using Help
Anytime you are working with software programs like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc., you can get assistance from the Help menu. When Help is used effectively, you can dramatically increase your productivity and decrease the amount of time you spend trying to figure out how to do something. The skills you develop while learning to use Help in one program are transferable to other applications.
Most Help menus provide assistance through using Contents sheets and Index sheets. Many Help systems even allow users to search. Content sheets group Help topics by general categories. These are helpful when you know only the general category of a topic. Index sheets are very specific and similar to an index in a book. If you do not find what you are looking for using these two resources, try searching in Help.