The Burning Question

Does the effort put forth outweigh the benefits for students?

What is the benefit of students having certification?

• Students have a certificate showing that are certified proficient/expert users of MSOffice.
• Students could be considered more employable than the competition because they have the foundations of office technology
• Student will successfully complete tasks at work.

I think that the certification is helpful to a student who is already a good candidate for a job based on their other qualities. It will help someone who lacks the job experience also.

On the other hand, I feel that students should be able to general produce documents, spreadsheets, and presentations for business communications not necessarily using Microsoft products. It is true that most businesses support MSOffice. But that may change within the next ten years to more varied business use of Apple, Linux, or Open Source Applications. It will be interesting to see if MSOffice (the brand) Certification is valued by companies in years to come.

A colleague who teaches in a school where MOS was implemented said there was a few stumbling blocks, such as, the test not giving credit for a completed task because the method the student used was the not same as was programmed for the test. The students used hotkeys instead of pull down menus.

The standard powerpoint presentation is already being seen old technology to some companies who are pushing the curve by using video conferencing  and staff training web tools such as ellimunate, blogging tools and wikis and embedded video or presentations in their web page or blog. Ning is a social networking website that students can join just as professionals join to discuss areas of interest, goals and challenges of a company. I think that business students should practice these communication tools that are and will be commonplace in addition to office applications.

I think teaching the MOS Standards is key. The school district could locate the most convenient testing sites for students, provide that literature regarding cost, dates, times at the beginning, middle and end of course for students to take home. Ultimately, students could become certified at a remote testing site.

The first step would be to research and plan how the Business Depts “MOS certification program” will work if students test off site.

• Podcasting
• iTunes
• Music on the go

Podcasting received its name because the iPod was and is the popular way to listen to portable media and so the “pod” became part of the name of the process of listening to casting media on a portable device.

iPod and other portable media players

iPod converts .mp3s into .aiff and .mp4 files which play in iTunes. iTunes is a popular media player that allows you to import your cds into your computer and then sync the music to your iPod.

Windows Media Player also includes a rip/burn feature to be able to convert your music to .mp3 for use on other brands of .mp3 players and media devices other than iPod.

Nero is a brand of software that will convert your music to .mp3s and also allow to make mix cds for the car:)

Portable music is the big shift in entertainment. Music in your home can be heard and not seen. The trend is now to have small speakers and not have the big huge stereo in the living room. We have taken all of our cds and imported them into our iTunes. My husband and share our iTunes libraries over our home network. Neat huh?

We longer display our cds anymore. They are packed away in boxes. We are currently debating whether to put those boxes in the basement.

Podcasts can be audio or video. I like to call them audio or video casts because you can listen to this type of media on your computer or any .mp3 player.

Instead of calling them podcasts I try to remember to say “Audiocasts” “Videocasts”, or “screencasts” ( a recording of a person’s mouse movements on his or her computer monitor . A webcast is something a broadcast event streaming over the net.

Part 2:

Using already created podcasts in your classroom.

• Who podcasts?
• How do I listen? How do I get podcasts on my computer? transfer to my iPod, .mp3 player?
• How can this be valuable to kids?
• How can I get podcasts to the kids for class?

Podcasts now can be a recording of a television show sold for 99 cents. Anyone can create a podcast. A podcast can be a radio like show, a couple of friends sitting around talking about a topic they are passionate about, a captured business meeting; anything recorded that has the ability have a subscription.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a process that uses XML language to allow folks like us to subscribe for free to podcasts that people or publishing or broadcasting companies create.

We need an aggregator though to subscribe. If you use iTunes you have an aggregrator built in. If you have an iPod you use iTunes to subscribe to the podcasts that you want and transfer the podcast your iPod so that you can listen to it on the go.

If you have an .mp3 player you will need a different aggregator than iTunes. You can see here a list of other aggregators that pull the most recent episode of your favorite podcasts to your computer. Your brand of .mp3 player should tell you what software to transfer your podcasts to your .mp3 player.

Ways to find podcasts for your students;

• Google it!
• iTunes
  • DRM
  • Classroom iTunes
  • Teacher iTunes
• Find the link site from Itunes and bookmark it!

Part 3-Creating podcasts as a method of student learning

• Different methods-Mac or PC?
• Audacity
  • learn the program yourself (just the basics will do)
  • The Basics
  • To record: click the red button
  • Clicking Stop creates a new track next time you recird
  • Use selection tool to select a piece of track>Edit>Cut to cut a piece out
  • Tracks>Add New>Audio track allows you to paste a cut or copied piece into a new rack
  • Hitting Deleteon your keyboard after selecting a piece of your track with your mouse and selection tool deletes the selected piece of audio.
  • Create silence on a track by highlighting the track and click Edit>silence
  • Mute a track while recording a new by clicking on Mute on the actual track.
  • Delete a whole by clicking its “x”.
  • Zoom in and out to see your audio lines in more detail to make a cleaner audio cut with the magnify glass
  • Move tracks left and right by using the Track Shift Tool
  • Use Fade Out Effect to end your audio.
• Tools you will need
• Let’s make one
• Let’s write up a project
  • Introduction
  • Checklist or Rubric

Here are great technical instructions for creating a podcast.
Click here and go to my podcasting project