Monday, 24 September 2007

Microsoft curriculum materials

More from Big Blue: especially for ICT teachers or anyone wanting to learn more.

At this link choose from the Digital Literacy Certificate referred to in a separate post, a range of other topics and, interestingly, some courses for key staff and managers in educational development. Fascinating, especially when one thinks of all the time and effort put into similar but still unfinished projects by LSDA, LSN et al.

Microsoft resources for teachers

Their Digital Literacy Curriculum may sound a bit of a mouthful but there is some excellent-looking content across a number of courses that are now available on Microsoft's site.

The Digital Literacy Curriculum consists of five courses:

Computer Basics

The Internet and World Wide Web

Productivity Programs

Computer Security and Privacy

Digital Lifestyles

These could be ideal for some of our students, or even for use by trainers with staff in the business sector.

There's also the Digital Literacy Certificate Test which can be taken on-line, whether or not you've done the courses. So, if you're feeling confident, go for one of the first Certificates in your organisation!

Thursday, 13 September 2007

Google desktop search to the rescue!

You know you've got that document somewhere. But where did you file it? One of the nice things about having huge hard drives these days is being able to save things without pausing for a moment to think whether you actually need to. One of the consequences, though, is that you have an awful lot of clutter to go through when trying to find something!

I wanted a document I wrote back in April (nearly six months ago). Trawled through the obvious places where, if I'd been vaguely awake and sober, would have been sensible places to put it. No luck. Tried the less obvious places. Found lots of things I'd forgotten I had but still not the document I needed.

So I typed web design degree into the Google Desktop search bar that floats around the screen and hit Enter. Not obvious in the first few items it offered so I went for the View the 1086 results in your browser. They arrived in date order and I reached April without a problem. And there it was! But that alone wouldn't have prompted me to scribble this in celebration. No, it was where it was filed: it was a document saved on my pc at home, not on the laptop I was using! Amazing. OK, so I couldn't open the document there and then but I could see the text which was really all I wanted.

I keep saying this but it's a really good idea to get a Google account and try out some of the tools available.