What's the Word on Word?
After three semesters of our fun EW3 (Email and the World Wide Web) class, we decided it was time to create a follow-up program for graduates of EW3 and staff members with comparable computer experience. This spring we have added a basic Microsoft Word class to the Teaching and Learning Initiative’s staff-student programs, and it is a blast!
Every week for ten weeks, I get to collaborate with Elliott Shore, Chief Information Officer and Director of Libraries, on planning and teaching the course. Staff members have the opportunity to use and reinforce the basic skills they learned in EW3 for two hours a week while learning how to explore and use the different functions in Word. Three students, Emily Somach (’10), Jaclyn Fleming (’08), and Maeve O’Hara (’08) partner with the five participating staff members (Karen Hickman and Lillie Morgan from Dining Services, Tanisha Powell and Georgia Harris from Housekeeping, and Patty Hardy from the Copy Center) in mentorship relationships, working together both during our one hour class as well as an extra hour a week in small group meetings.
Why Word? When we first started talking about what the next level would be for EW3 graduates, Word seemed like a logical choice. As the most commonly used word processing program these days and a relatively simple program to learn, Word is in many ways a gateway software program. We hope that learning to use the menus, short cuts, and toolbars in Word will empower the staff to branch out to explore other software programs with confidence.
Have any ideas about other classes we should have? Want to get involved? Leave a comment!