I received a request from a teacher the other day who wanted to upskill in the area of information technology. "Where do you start?" She asked. Surrounded by people who strum keyboards and use applications like a conductor with their orchestra, creating documents here, extracting information there - it must be head spinning to look at that and also have to listen to people rabbiting on about web 2.0, wikis, blogs, facebooks, youtube and iThis and iThat.

It reminds me of when I purchased my first computer - and if you click on the player at the bottom of this entry there is a little audio story about what went wrong that fateful day.

Back on topic... What do you suggest to get someone started with something that is good, fast and cheap (free is even better)

We have courses on offer that provide a formal qualification and can be, in some cases studied externally, these courses are great, but they take time and depending on your budget are not that cheap - they are good value for money though.

So I dug through the kit bag and came up with two suggestions... We could come up with 20 suggestions and I hope you add some via the comments button at the bottom.

read on to find out what mine were...

Here is a fun way to freely improve your skills with Microsoft Office products...

Microsoft® Ribbon Hero™

A game for Office Word, PowerPoint, and Excel® 2007 and 2010, designed to help you or your students boost your Microsoft Office skills and knowledge in a fun way. http://www.officelabs.com/projects/ribbonhero/Pages/default.aspx

This application along with many others are listed in the attached pdf file

Lynda.com which I have mentioned in previous posts allows you to sign up for less than 30 dollars Australian per month which allows you to study anything in the extensive library of over 860 courses. Of course it is cheaper if you get say an annual subscription, but unless you are on a mission to fill you head with software knowledge, it is probably more economical to go month by month. They have free sample courses in there so you can try before you buy.

Okay, you know I can't stop at two, I will finish with a very good television show for those who like challenges with letters and numbers or words and maths... it is called letters and numbers and is a brain teaser quiz show that is not only stimulating, but the people on the show demonstrate the best use of manners I think I have seen on television.

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/lettersandnumbers/about/page/i/1/h/About-the-Show/

You can of course view previous episodes and I think it would be a great one for the classroom, or the home, or with friends...

So if you have any tips to fastrack someone wanting to upgrade their IT skills and they live remotely, have to work during the day and haven't recently won tattslottlo, drop a comment

This entry was posted on August 10, 2010 at 12:00 AM and has received 304 views. There are currently 3 comments. Print this entry. Download attachment.