Office 2010

Technology I Love it!  Technology I hate it!  Ok, so which one is it?

The challenge of learning new skills and programs is so invigorating, but it is a constant upkeep of what needs to be learned and what is taught and what should be taught in my Business Classroom.

My colleague and I decided to switch our classroom to Office 2010 for next school year.  This change involves numerous impacts to teaching, because my classroom is a computer lab.

----Change -----
1. Articulated classes with FVTC (Fox Valley Technical College).  Currently we have articulated classes with FVTC for Word I & II, Excel I & II, Access I & II, and PowerPoint.  Due to the change at the technical school for their class offerings so we can not offer our courses the same way.  We had a choice of 3 credit articulated classes or individual 1 credit options.

I am so lucky that my colleague that took the lead on this.  She communicated with the college, text book rep and the online testing company we will need to use.  I would say to date I have put in 1.5 hours of work checking on work and discussing options with my colleague (I know that she has more than triple that amount of work)

2. New textbooks means new data for projects (as well as the time to get the price quote and have the school purchase the books).  Uploading files for classes Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint.  Each class would take a minimum of 45 minutes.  I tackled that project last year again I can't say enough about having someone to work with that is so AWESOME!  She said she would do this!  Thank you.  So even though I am not doing it I want people reading to understand what need to be done over 3.5 hours of work just uploading files that students can use in class.

3.  Learning curve!  I love to learn, but I know need to learn how to do what I already know with the new software.  There are lots of tutorials online, but also getting it loaded on a computer that I can learn at home. Plus making sure that my computer lab of 27 computers is updated to the most current software is also a step that must be checked.

4. Funding.  Working with our curriculum director we procured funds through Carl Perkins to purchase the textbooks.  This was numerous meetings and working with the CESA director for the funding to make sure all procedures were followed.

This post is different because it encompasses several days and discussions.  But this project started in April and is still a work in process.

Through out it all I would say I have 3 hour of work in.  But my great partner would have a minimum 10 hours on this project.