Computer-based Lesson - Excel for Adult Education Teachers and their Students by Denise Guckert

Integrating Computer Technology into the Classroom Final Activity

Computer Technologies Used:

• Basic Computer Skills (navigating to CD-ROM, opening data, saving data on desktop)

• MS Excel (major topic of the training)

• Internet (to search and download Excel templates at Microsoft Office Online)

• Email (to email any files to themselves that they want to save from the workshop)

Title:                     Excel for Adult Education Teachers and their Students

Learner Level:     Participants are adult education teachers. They should already be familiar with Microsoft Word since many of the functions are similar. The must be able to easily:

·         select, copy, cut and paste text

·         select and format text (bold, underline, size, color, etc.)

·         drag and drop objects with the mouse

·         open, close and save documents, including browsing for the file location on the computer desktop, floppy drive, CD-ROM, My Documents folder, etc.

Pre-Instruction: None before class, as it is a one-time workshop

Duration:              6 hours

Materials:        

Instructor Materials: LCD Projector & Laptop; Internet Connection; PowerPoint Presentation (electronic version on laptop); Introduction to Excel Student Handouts (electronic version); Excel Skills Handouts (electronic version on laptop);  

Student Materials: Printouts of Power Point Handout, Introduction to Excel Student Handouts; Excel Skills Handouts; CD-Rom with electronic versions of materials

Objectives:

·         Participants will review basic Excel skills through curriculum developed for adult education learners, and in turn get material and ideas for teaching basic Excel to their own students

·         Participants will acquire Excel skills for formatting spreadsheets

·         Participants will acquire Excel skills for data management

·         Participants will acquire Excel skills for using and creating templates 

Procedure:     

This training reviews basic Excel skills using curriculum geared for adult education learners and then covers how to use advanced formatting, how to use Excel to manage data, and how to use Microsoft online Excel templates.

The training is hands-on and will be held in a computer lab with all activities modeled by the instructor who is using an LCD projector. All students will be working directly on computers or laptops either along with or after the instructor, as directed. Print copies of the following will be provided to each student:

Adult Education Curriculum: Computer Basics Lessons for Beginning Computer Users
http://www.adultedteachers.org/browse/index.cfm?fuseaction=view&type=2&catid=10788&recno=2465  

Excel Basics 1: Introduction to Excel

Excel Basics 2: Creating a Family Budget

Excel Basics 3: Creating a Check Register

Adult Teacher Curriculum:

Using Excel for Data Management 

·         sorting        http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Pages/Excel/unit4/sorting.html)

·         filtering       http://ict.cas.psu.edu/training/howto/excel/filter.html

·         exporting data (save as text file)
http://microarray.genomecenter.columbia.edu/ermineJ/ermineJ-help/classScore/html/formats/excel-astext.html 

·         importing data - http://www.dmi.uiuc.edu/excelimport.pdf

Excel Advanced Formatting

(http://www.gcflearnfree.org/Tutorials/Details.aspx?Tutorial=Excel+2000&tutorialID=3)

Using Excel Templates http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates

Handout of PowerPoint Presentation

Also at the beginning of the training, a CD-ROM with the student curriculum and the PowerPoint used by the instructor will be provided for each student. It contains all of the handouts and a few “dummy” spreadsheets to be used for the training, though most of the spreadsheets they will be creating solely. During the day, the participants will have multiple opportunities to create Excel spreadsheets that incorporate the skills they are learning. The Internet will be used to access the Excel templates online and students will download at least one template to their computer. Towards the end of the workshop students will email themselves any spreadsheets they would like to save, such as a template that they have downloaded and then modified.

Evaluation:

During the workshop, participants will actively be creating several practice spreadsheets. Evaluation of their ability to apply skills learned to the creation of the spreadsheets (and downloading of online Excel templates) will be done through instructor observation.

At the end of the workshop as a wrap-up, teachers will answer these questions in writing and then share their answers with the group.

Questions for Reflection:
 

1.      How can Excel be incorporated into your adult education classes?

2.      How can Excel be used as a tool for your everyday classroom needs?

3.      What will be your next step for using Excel?