Microsoft Office

 

I frequently use MS Office products such as Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel (https://www.office.com).  I will make some general comments about these applications but will talk about each one in more depth in later blogs in the context of my teaching.

Word is used for all my letters and document writing and the main things I like about it is the ease and range of functionality if offers such as formatting, spell check, embedding of charts, graphs, pictures etc.  A major feature I have recently learnt is the use of Referencing, in particular Havard referencing, which would undoubtedly save time when writing assignments.  MS Word would be essential for most learners as a tool to enable them to produce their essays, assignments, reports etc. but also aids the lecturer as each word document can be double spaced for ease of reading and marking.

Outlook is excellent in that it allows you to have an email facility where you can expand by adding other mailboxes from other mail providers, so all in one portal, which I find particularly useful. Another point is that the emails would be downloaded on your pc and not on the cloud. I use Outlook as part of the University email system and it is simple enough to use.

My use of PowerPoint is mainly for teaching purposes but I also use it for social purposes.  It helps by having some focal points and where I can speak on a particular topic area and use the slides to help the visualisation to aid the learning process.  After all, a picture paints a thousand words.

I also use excel for personal and business alike.  Excel is a valuable tool to store data, data mine, analyse and use the findings to provide feedback but also help formulate an action plan.  Excel allows the user to display data in a number of formats such as charts, graphs and tables.  Such use can aid learners to read, analyse and represent their findings.

Reference:

https://www.office.com/ (Accessed on: 16 December 2015).

Intro

Hello!  My name is Balaji Rajan and I am a PGCE(PCET) student at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Swansea, South Wales.

As part of my PGCE(PCET) course I have had to set up a blog account, and this was interesting in that I have never before thought to Blog.  As part of a group of HE learners we were 'experiencing the learning' of setting up a blog account, thinking carefully about what to write as it adds to our digital footprint, and then posting our very first Blog. For those unfamiliar with the term ‘digital footprint’ you may wish to visit www.internetsociety.org for more pertinent information.

Going forward, I am going to be posting a number of blogs, including those which relate to my use of ICT in my teaching, how it aided in planning, assessment, administration and the learning experience of the students.

What you will find in these forthcoming blogs is my reflection on my teaching using ICT in HE/FE.  Why? Well, reflection is a very important part of teaching as it helps to identify what happened, what worked well and why, what did not and why, what needs to be changed and why, make those changes and do, then reflect.  Although some prefer to use Kolb’s Learning Cycle (1984) my preference is to use Gibb’s Six Stage Reflective Cycle (1988).

I will also include blogs which refer to some of the teaching and training I undertake with the No 3 Welsh Wing Air Training Corps. 

Thank you for taking the time to ready my blogs.

References:

Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Oxford Polytechnic Further Education Unit.

Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. London: Prentice-Hall.

http://www.internetsociety.org/your-digital-footprint (Accessed on: 15 December 2015).