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| Learn Computing with Microsft Office 2000 |
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Does The Book Give Clear Explanations? “How far will you get into this book before you find a word you do not understand.” This is a problem that many beginners find about computer books. Fancy titles may encourage users to buy a book but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and the author has, as far as possible, eliminated jargon. You won’t find any references to bytes, bits, binary code, IRQ’s, serial or parallel ports etc. What you will find is clear explanations written in plain English. The book has been written to allow the beginner, as far as possible,
to use it unaided. It has been tested on real beginners and as a result,
phrases have been re-written, graphics included, new sections added and
cross-references included to make it as user friendly as possible and
to help the user remember what has already been learnt and to discover
how to use a computer and how to avoid the common mistakes encountered
by beginners. Teaching and Learning Principles The book is structured to maximize learning. Some instructional books start with pages of preliminary information for the student to read. The author of this book considered that this, in many cases, is not necessary and can cause confusion if new terms or computer jargon are introduced at this time. He also believes that students want to get practicing right away and that this is in fact better for the student because he will remember more readily, actions that he does rather than words that he reads. People learn best by doing, so very quickly in the book the student will be directed to practical exercises with hands on the keyboard and mouse. Consolidating what has been learnt is also an important factor in learning. Computer skills are very new to many people and in addition there is the problem that when performing computer skills the student is only making small imperceptible actions such as clicking on a mouse button with his finger or typing in text on the keyboard. To people who regularly lift heavy groceries into a supermarket trolley or play rugby or even play tiddlywinks, these are very small and easily forgettable actions. In addition computer actions happen very quickly so it is easy to forget the steps you have just performed for example to open an Excel spreadsheet. The book assumes that the student will forget and refers the student back to earlier sections where they can remind themselves about what they have done. The book builds on previous work and this also helps to consolidate what has been learnt at an earlier stage. The approach of this book is not to overload the student with information. The mind can only take in a certain amount at one time therefore it makes sense to give just enough information to perform the tasks. The progression of learning is designed so that the student learns by small steps rather than by large jumps. The book filters out non-essential data and gives the student just what is needed when it is needed. The student learns and understands by doing. In the initial stages graphics are used a great deal so that the student can check what is on the screen with what is in the book. This gives confidence to the student that they are on the right track. Later on as the student becomes more independent and confident, the use of graphics diminish. Cross-References Consolidating what has been learnt is an important factor in learning. Computer skills are very new to many people and easy to forget. The book assumes that the student will forget and refers the student back to earlier sections where they can remind themselves about what they have done. The book builds on previous work and this also helps to consolidate what has been learnt at an earlier stage. Appendix The appendix contains answers for the question posed at the end of various chapters. Students are recommended to attempt the questions without help first before referring to the appendix. Also included are screen shots of database queries, and spreadsheet formulas. The student can refer to these if experiencing difficulties and can compare what they have on screen with the screen shot. The student is asked at various stages to type out various documents and they are referred to the appendix where the document can be seen. Sometimes the student simply has to access a file on the floppy disk and make changes. An example of the changed document will be shown in the appendix and the student can view this so as to modify the document on screen to appear like the one in the appendix. Floppy Disc A Floppy Disc is included with the book. This contains files which are
accessed by the student. The files may be read-only to prevent the original
being destroyed. This allows the student to avoid the time consuming task
of typing out long documents before doing the modifications asked for
in the exercises. It also means that the student can repeat the exercise
again because the original cannot be changed. The Floppy Disc also includes
stand alone exercises. The student simply has to open the file and follow
the instructions there. Learn Computing with Microsoft Office
Version 2000 |
