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PlRs: M/S Word Basics


See also:  -[Plutons Rising - Noeticiity]-



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Intro




Lesson Plan


Pre-requisites:  Logging on/off, using NotePad.
                 
Objectives: By the end of this series of lessons,
            the student will be able to:

   Create a new document or 
          retrieve an existing one, 
          save a document, 
          save a document as a different name,
   Set the font type-face, size, and colour, 
   Insert new text, 
   Modify existing text: Insert, copy, cut, paste,
   Justify a block of text: Left, Centre, Right,
   Create a letter in proper format for business,
   Print the document

Note: Some of these skills would have been previously
      developed and explored using NotePad in a previous
      lesson; eg, basic copy/paste, file saving and
      printing. Note that NotePad doesn't allow for
      much leeway in formating, etc. Thus, with fewer
      options, the students can concentrate on most of
      the basic mechanics of files of "flat text" as such.


DID Pedagogy:  Know the Learner


The steps in the following outline are based 
on the format, conent-questions/directives,
and over-all implementation of a DID 
(Dynamic Instructional Design) in (Lever-Duffy, et. al).

In considering the demographic characteristics
of each student, the lesson should minimise 
any differences in their backgrounds in terms
of socio-economic, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds.
As such, some students will have access to computers
at home (either a family computer, or possibly
their own computer) - others will not: Only having
access to computers in class or at the library.

That is, (again according to Longman and Duffy-Lever):
  
  What are the personal demographics (ethnicity, 
  socio-economic level, cultural background) 
  that might impact learning?

There are (at least) three main approaches to this:

1) Singling out "a" student by saying that they
   should work in class with someone who *does*
have access.

2) Singling out "a" students by saying that they
   should work in class with someone who does
*not* have access.

3) ????? - That is, some sort of defusing mechanism
   where the concepts of "blame", "social stratification",
"worth vs worthlessness", etc. would become unthinkable
as social strategies or even "ways of thinking."

The problem of minimising the angst/stress/dis-comfiture
that such deprived studtents feel in a clearly affluence-
worshiping society (where to "own is to exist" is the 
driving force) is a perienial problem and bears further 
study. It would be nice in a very community-aware/invovled 
setting to know that if some student in the class didn't 
have a computer, that the community (or members there-of) 
would provide them with one. 

Regardless, since we *are* a technology-driven society,
the way that each student responds to this will have 
much to do with their later "success" in life - and of
course how "society" will judge them as a success or a
failure or just the vast, un-differentiated expanse 
between the those two poles.

These factors not-with-standing, the goal of education is
to teach and futher to teach the love of learning. Thus,
all efforts should be directed on: It doesn't matter how
you get there, just as long as you get there; and then,
"On to the next." Thus, the goal remains clear:

   Master M/S Word and the "proper forms"
   and then you have a whole new "pallet"
   of skills to chose from. More options
   means more possibilities.

As regards fitting the lesson pace to the varying
skill-levels and maturity-levels of different 
students: The rate and content density will have
to modified to fit each student's particular needs.
M/S Word is not particular difficult to learn
(about 5 times more difficult than NotePad, and about
1/4 as difficult as PhotoShop. And note by this only
meant the more "common" features - whatever that means -
of each system. 

Regardless, with less tech-aware learners, more time 
will be spent on one-on-one tutoring as well as carefully
illustrated demos, handouts, vids, etc. For the more
tech-aware students, this is tedious and simply letting
them "have at" will by far the best approach. Once the
classroom either slows down to the least tech student,
or speeds up to the most tech - only frustration will
be the dominant mind-set in the learning situation.

As Longman and Duffy-Lever remind us, the cognitive 
learning styles of each students will either support
or detract from the rather linear model of learning
M/S word. As such, more ad-hoc ways of presenting the
material will need to be developed.

Unfortunately, most of learning a set skill like creating
a formated document is antithetical to the entire idea
of creativity. Specifically, using a "template" to create
a letter in "proper form" is very linear process and
has set milestones along the way that can't be altered.
Thus, the challenge here (especially in left-brain dominant
students) will be to make their passage along that learning
curve as easy as possible.

One way to bring the possible conflicts and such to lessor
status is to have the students think about what "text" as
such might look like in the next 10 or 20 years. For example,
20 years ago, metal plates were used to print all books,
and now we have ink jet and laser printers. Thus, bringing
the students' focuses onto the idea that:

   Yes, you're learning this skill, now but
   what new skills will be required in 20
   years?

Other examples from computer advances and their impacts on
society in so many different ways can be brought in as well.
For example, in the workplace, what the work itself consists
of, recreation, entertainment, our cars, telephones, books,
vids, etc.



DID Pedagogy:  Establish the Learning Enviroment


In the formal enviroment of the DID structure, this is
looked on as separate function. However, in almost
every case, when the lesson plan is applied, it will
have to be adapted to the specific conditions. Regardless,
the following would be a "usable" minimal environment:

1) A computer with M/S Windows, and at least the 
   student/home edition of M/S Word on it.

   The license, user-logon accounts, etc. should
   already be in place by the system administrator
   (if there is one; or at least by the teacher or
   the teaching assistant).

2) Students should have their own storage media to
   save their files on. This can be a floppy disk,
   a flash memory stick. Alternatively, students 
   may use their internet account to save files to,
   or simply email themselves a copy of the file.

3) A printer should be available that supports at
   least ink-jet tri-colour and black printing.

   A variety of papers should be available. The
   recommended papers are 20-lb or 24-lb, and
   either 50-lb or 65-lb cardstock. The heavier
   papers are prefered in each case.

   If possible, and for more advanced projects,
   any of the specialty "form" papers would be
   a bonus; eg, tri-fold "menu" cards, photo-gloss
   paper, pre-perforated cut business cards, etc. 

The rationale for these conditions is to create a semi-professional
enviroment that one would find as a minimal in *any* print shop in
the world. 

Ideally, both 20-lb and 24-lb paper would be available and
the students should be encouraged to "experiment" using
the 20-lb paper and "fast-draft" printer settings. This
will build a consciouness of the "revison stages" thru
which work progresses: "Rough Draft" and finally to "Production
Copy" as in the real world. A clear distinction should be 
made between "rough draft" paper, and final or semi-final
paper. 

Instructions on format quality will be given in a later
lesson, when pictures, and other grafix are introduced
formally. This first lesson is designed to get through
as much of the learning curve as possible and learn
the frustrating aspects of M/S Word, the tricky bits,
and such. This will make more formal presentations and
work less frustrating due to "beginner" errors.

Additional facilities would include:

4) Networked computers for file sharing.

5) Black "ink" Laser printers for high-quality work.

6) Full "CYM-K" 4-colour laser printer for production
   quality graphic works; eg, menues, business cards.

Note: A suggested field trip would be to a local
      print shop to see how the real world works,
      when it comes to print.

Suggested library projects would include finding
different type-faces in books, and making a copy of
them for class. 

An intructionsl guide on "Getting along in the library"
guide is intended to be written at a later date. This
will help in the students' visits to the library.



DID Pedagogy:  Procedures and Strategies


Rather than to detail the entire process of learning word,
the present work explores the primary aesthetics of 
just one of the skills that are intended to be included
in the "final" (or at least beta-release) of the lesson.
This is:
           The nature of type and text.

The reason for this, is that while the exercise of creating
a fully documented and extended training guide (lesson) on
the full "task at hand" has its merits, it is more likely
that any attempt to create a working set would require
extensive revision before it would be useful, adapative,
and user-friendly. Thus, there should be two approaches
to this research: (1) An informal, fun-driven exploration
of type faces, colours, etc, and (2) a more formal evaluation
of how easy the material is to present, learn, and of course
how much fun it is. Boredom is the enemy of the vibrant mind.

As such, this set of tasks will be explored and various 
aspects of both will be explored in the realm of the
aesthetics of text and presentation.

The first two lessons (actually lessonlettes) appear in
Appendix I. The present a sample lesson in the first
elements of text, type, and ideas inherent in word
processing vs. text editing.

Finally, before attempting to teach this material 
on-line, it should be taught in a hands-on classroom.
The reasons for this are:

1) Problems with the teaching materials may quickly
   identified and corrected. 

2) Ideally, the class should be made aware that they
   are taking a "work in progress" class, rather than
   a "turn-key" class. And they should be made aware
   of how important their feedback is in making the
   course a success for others. 

   They are "TEAM ZERO-ZERO-ONE"

3) Finally, the methods of translating this sort of
   information to an "invisible audience/teacher"
   situation should be studied futher. Suggestions
   at this point concern introducing and evaluating
   the effaciacy of:

   Lead-thru vids using "screen/keyboard" recorders.

   Email and/or bulliten board systems in response.

   Text messaging, podcasting, and other live formats.

   V/R (Virtual/Reality) "rooms" like Doom3 or SecondLife.

The primary problems with each of these are several-fold:

1) Experience (or lack there of) of the teacher, the
   students and the institution. For example, how do 
   you grade a pod cast or a blog? The answer that this
   new text should be held to the same standards as any
   other print medium is pedagogy for the sake of "very 
   old school" pedagogy.

2) Not everyone will have the sufficient access to 
   technology. In previous discussions in the House 
   Senate, the need for technology was clear but how
   to "work it in" to society was not. At one point,
   Newt Gingrich said that homeless people should be
   given laptops to help them get better jobs. Regardless
   of the insight that this suggestion brough - no such
   action was taken; the homeless are just as "out of
   the loop", as they were before. The limited resources
   of public libraries are *always* over-worked, and
   rarely give any users sufficient access that 
   home-owned or business-owned computers provide.

3) These problems are not new. Students who couldn't
   affoard their own copy of the reader, had to use
   a school copy which were often marked up, etc.
   That was in the 1880's. 



References



  Lever-Duffy, J., McDonald, J. B., & Mizell, A. P. (2008). 
               Teaching and Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). 
               Boston: Pearson.

  Lever-Duffy, et al. (2008). DID Template. (M/S Word Format).

  http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_leverduffy_teachtech_2/23/6126/1568290.cw/index.html
     From the "Student Site" screen, 
     scroll down to:  
                      Downloadable Templates and Rubrics 
     Click on that link.
     Then find the link:    Chapter 2 DID Designer (Word doc 
                                             with HTML preview) 
     Click on it to bring up the M/S word template.

  Last accessed on 2008.05.31 at 19:09 PCT +10GMT




Appendix I: Sample Lessons 1a and 1b




Lesson 1a: The Text in a File


Objectives:  Learn the basics of "type" as Printers know it.

In this small lesson, you will learn
about text and start to think like
a printer (the person, not the ink jet).

A file is simply put a block of text. The file has a
file-name and then its content. The difference between
NotePad and M/S Word is that in NotePad, all of the
text is in one style of type (a "type face"), and 
one size (called "point size") and one colour - usually
black on a white background.

As you have seen in your previous lesson, you can
put in the information that you want to, print it,
save the file, bring it up later, change it and
save it back.

We now want to start thinking of bigger projects than
"just" a laundry list, notes from a class, or other
items. Thus, we want to start thinking more formally
about the content and the how-ness of that text when
it's presented to the reader - your intended audience.


Exercise 1a


In the following, try to think of things that are
working "well" and "poorly" in NotePad, and what
you would do to make it better.

1. Discuss what things you liked about NotePad and
   what things you didn't like.

2. When you experimented with the FONT settings,
   what things struck you as good? As bad, or
   hard to use? Discuss how you felt NotePad
   performed for a *free* text editor.

3. If you had ONLY NotePad to use, how would you
   express yourself when you had to write a very
   sad or happy letter, or when you had to write
   some mathematics notes down, or when you were
   trying to draw a picture, or some ideas about
   music?



Lession 1b: Enter the Word Processor


Objective: Learn what word processor programs
           do, and why you might need that much
           power. Play with fonts and sizes,
           see how things print. 

Word (and other text processor programs) allow the user
a much wider set of choices. The "font family" is
commonly refered to as "THE" font. In reality, most
type faces (eg, "New Times Roman") have assoicated 
with them several "fonts". For example, almost all
type faces have "regular", "italic", "bold", and
"underscore", as well as sometimes even more ways
of slightly altering the appearance of the type.

It should be emphasized that this isn't meant to
scare the student, but to be aware that there are
a lot more dimensions and variations to "type".

The main thing that word processors give us:

  Tighter control over every line of text,
  A variety of fonts that may be mixed in same document,
  Pre-made templates to help standardise our work.

Note that a file is just a holder of the text. 
In addition, the font information is kept in a 
"header" that is usually unseen by the user. 
This header information tells the word processor
what each block of text is to look like; eg,
colour, type-face, font-size, etc.

When you bring up a simple word processor such 
as NotePad, it uses the *current* settings for 
the computer. It will change any file to the 
current setting, regardless of how it was saved. 
This is because NotePad is a "text editor".
This means that for NotePad files (.txt files)
there isn't any header information: What you
see is what you get ("WYSIWYG").

A program like M/S word is a "word processor." This
is a bit of a misnomer since both programs "process"
words, eg, allowing you to put in extra   s p a c e s.
Or 
   to                            T
       cascade                X     in any number of ways.
                t h e      E 
                         T


Regardless, the real power in word processing comes from
being able to change the way the text itself looks, and
this in turn changes the INFORMATION that you are trying
to convey. And to CHANGE that from block to block within
the same file. And all of these directives that you create
are saved in the files "header" area. That way, the file
has its own character and style and it is a permanent
feature of the file itself. But, of course, you can 
change these when you want.

For the rest of the lesson, using the skill you learned
while using NotePad, explore the different features of
M/S Word. Please refer to the handout:

     "Exercise 1b Handout: M/S Word Basic Features"

Exercise 1b: 

1. Using the handout, try creating several small 
   documents that have the same CONTENT. That is,
   type in a short paragraph or two and then save
   it as "ms1b-template". Then save it as "ms1b-first-try"
   and begin experimenting. When you feel you have
   something really nifty to show, save it. And
   then save the file as "ms1b-second-file" (or
   similar). Create at least four different files.

2. As you produce EACH file that you want to save 
   and print two copies. The first should be on
   rough-draft paper. Check that it looks ok, and
   print the second copy on the final or semi-final
   paper. Write on the ROUGH draft the settings
   that you used to create the image.

3. Create a DEMONSTRATION document which explains 
   itself. That is, if a certain block of text is
   in Garmond, then somewhere in that block of text
   it should say "i'm now in garamond, 8-point, italic"
   or similarly.

4. Experiment with colour.

5. Extra credit: Use the help facility to find out
   to put a picture into the document. 

Remember to save your documents and then back them up.
   



The Handout Sample



Exercise 1b Handout: M/S Word Basic Features