Learn Fast – Word For Dummies

My computer lap is dual platform.  The machines are Intel based Apples, but we have boot camp on all the machines along with OS X.  Most days the students decide which operating system to use on an individual basis.  On other days, like today, I require them to complete an activity with a specific OS.

Today everyone made a “Microsoft Word for Dummies” document.  Using Word on OS X, each student created a tutorial (complete with screen captured pictures) that explained how to insert a picture into Word, resize, crop and format it so that text flows around it.  This is a process that each student has done many times, but now he/she had to put that knowledge into a document from which someone else could understand this procedure.

The hardest part of this activity was accomplishing everything using an unfamiliar OS.  Many of them were disappointed that the “right-click” option wasn’t available.  All the processes (File/Open, File/Save, Insert Picture/From File) worked the same as in Windows, but the general layout of the computer desktop was different.  I demonstrated the built-in Grab program in OS X.  There is also a keyboard shortcut (Shift-Command-3) that captures the screen, but that does not work in our labs (I’ll talk about that in another post sometime).

This activity was a good exercise in “learning something fast.”  This is a skill all 21st century learners must possess.  Overall, my classes did well.  More than anything I think they realized that learning a new technology is going to be a regular part of their teaching and a skill they will need to practice.