When Microsoft released the Office 2007 system and the Windows Vista operating system, they presented a challenge for computer educators: get up to speed on this new version of Office and the new operating system.

Microsoft has made significant changes to Office 2007 by replacing the familiar menus used to select commands with an entirely new user interface. In addition, innovative tools allow users to accomplish complex tasks with a simple click of the mouse button.

The Windows Vista operating system offers new features that provide a wide variety of capabilities including improved security, better multimedia support, and easier file management.

To become proficient in using and teaching this new software, many instructors may desire formal classroom training. Fortunately, to meet this need, the Shelly Cashman Series Summer Institute will be conducted at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana from July 15 through July 20, 2007.

This institute has been held at major universities each summer for the past 14 years. The purpose of the institute, which is open only to high school, career, community college, and university instructors, is to provide attendees with the technical knowledge and skills necessary to return to the classroom and teach their courses.

Subjects offered at the institute this year include Microsoft Windows Vista, Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Access 2007, Outlook 2007, Visual Basic 2005, Publisher 2007, as well as other courses. These courses run a full day or more and are taught by Shelly Cashman Series authors. You will learn from the experts who wrote the books.

We anticipate a large number of people will want to attend the 2007 Summer Institute and attendance will be limited, so please make plans to enroll as soon as possible.

For more information see http://www.course.com/events/shellycashmaninstitute/ where you can register.

We look forward to seeing you at Indiana University for an exciting week of learning.

Gary and Tom

As we visit with instructors, we often are told that students don’t read the book in the Office course. As a result, the students miss important points of information that are contained within the paragraphs that precede or follow the step-by-step presentation in our Office books.

When beginning the design of Office 2007, Microsoft realized that users of Office 2003 frequently did not use many of the features in the software or even know the features existed because they were buried in submenus and dialog boxes - somewhat akin to students not obtaining information from our book because they did not delve deep enough into the text. To solve their problem, Microsoft developed the Office 2007 ribbon and the associated user interface. Their approach was to place most of the tools on the ribbon so users easily could locate a particular feature and simply use it.

To overcome the “students don’t read” phenomenon, we used a similar philosophy when developing our Office 2007 book. We determined we had to place information in a location that was more likely to be read by students. Because we knew that students read the steps, it was clear we needed to use the steps area to convey more information. We zeroed in on three major changes that would help alleviate the “Don’t read” problem.

1.    Use the figure callouts: We had to make better use of the screen shots. To do so, we placed more information in the callouts that accompany the screen shots. In this manner, the information we want a student to know is conveyed in the context of the problem, not in paragraphs of text following the screen shots.

2.    Questions and Answers: Inevitably, some information must be conveyed in text form, so we chose to convey the information in the most compelling manner we could determine: a question and answer. Through an innovative design created by Joel Sadagursky and the Shelly Cashman Series Team, the Q&A’s have been incorporated into the steps and are a primary means of communicating with a student who often will not read paragraphs of text.

3.    Modify the step: In our Office 2003 book, a step consisted of a single command, such as “Click the Print button.” Because we knew students read the steps, we decided to add information to the step. In our Office 2007 book, the command is “Click the Print button to print the document.” Students will perceive a cause and effect from doing the step, leading to increased retention without the need for further explanation.

Have we fixed everything for students who fail to read the text? Not likely. As textbook writers, we ultimately depend on the written word to convey content. Our efforts were directed at enticing a student into reading the material because the material was presented in a manner that was more accessible and compelling.

You can view these changes in the Shelly Cashman Series Microsoft Office 2007 Sneak Preview (ISBN 142399700X). Check with your sales representative.

Did we include other changes to the Office 2007 books? You bet. Stay tuned.

Gary and Tom

Microsoft’s release of Office 2007 and the Vista operating system represents two of the more significant product releases in the past decade. A pressing question for many computer educators is “When should we begin teaching Office 2007 and Vista?"

Our philosophy of computer education has always been,

 “It is the responsibility of those in computer education to lead their community when new technology is introduced.”

Accordingly, we strongly recommend that schools begin teaching Office 2007 and Vista in the Fall semester of 2007, or even sooner, for several important reasons:

1. The new features and interface of both Vista and Office 2007 will require the retraining of hundreds of thousands of individuals employed in small and large businesses, as well as people who purchase new computers or the new software. If appropriate courses are available, many of those needing retraining will turn to local schools. Institutions that are ready to teach this new software will experience an influx of students that perhaps will be unprecedented.

2. In the next year, it is predicted that millions of individuals, including students, will purchase personal computers with Vista and usually some version of Office 2007 installed. These students will be enrolling in colleges and universities in August, 2007. Can you expect them to take course work in computer application software that is not equivalent to that which they purchased for personal use before entering college? We think not.

We realize that new software raises the issues of cost and new hardware. We will address those issues in future posts to this blog. But we think the release of Vista and Office 2007 presents a unique opportunity for computer educators and their programs. Are you ready?

With the release of new software, our challenge is to create course materials that will prove both effective and useful to you and your students. A software release as important as Office 2007 mandates that we refine our approach to teaching software, always with the goal of engaging the student, increasing student retention, and preparing the student for success in using the software.

We have made some significant advances in our teaching materials for Office 2007. In future posts, we will share with you our thinking and reasons for these innovations, and, of course, the new changes as well. Who knows, you might even get some inside information. Stay tuned!

 
Gary & Tom