Adult Education Parents | Students | Staff | District | Administration | Employment WPS Home WPS Mail Adult Education Night Life GED Classes GED Exam Schedule Literacy ESL Contact Computers Introduction to Personal Computers Location Forest Grove Middle School Number of Weeks 8 Day of the Week MONDAYS Starts 3/3/2008 Time 06:30-09:00 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $170 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $185 This “hands on” course will introduce you to the key elements of today’s personal computer, and remove (almost all of) the mystery of these powerful machines. We will translate that intimidating techie-talk into terms you can understand so you can feel at home in front of your computer’s monitor. No prior computer knowledge or experience is necessary, however students are advised that a basic knowledge of the keyboard layout (as opposed to actual keyboarding skill) is highly recommended. The course will cover the following topics: • Hardware – the various boxes, buttons, cables/wires and connections that define the personal computer, why they are required (or not), and why. This will also help you to know what to look for when buying or upgrading your computer. • Windows – the Microsoft software known as the Operating System (O/S), which is akin to the motor in your car, enabling the hardware parts to “talk” to each other, and all the other software to perform their duties without getting in each other’s way. • The Internet – the computer world that resides outside of your computer (aka WWW, the World Wide Web), the software (“browser”) you use to navigate, the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides the service, and finding what you want (searching). • E-mail – the wonderful new way to “stay in touch” within seconds around the world, how to use (and not use) it, sending attachments, and the dangers you may be exposed to. • Microsoft Office – the “umbrella” name used referring to the application software that includes tools such as word processing (Word), spreadsheet (Excel), and presentation (PowerPoint). We will create a basic Word document in class and briefly expose you to a peek at the similarities and “building block” nature of these other tools to prepare you for future learning options. Microsoft Word for Beginners Location Forest Grove Middle School Number of Weeks 8 Day of the Week TUESDAYS Starts 3/4/2008 Time 06:30-08:30 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $170 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $185 Learn the following at a beginners pace: Creating, saving, and printing documents; editing a document: insert, delete text, using undo and redo; formatting text: bold, italic, and some of the glitz and glamour that is hidden in Word formatting features; basic introduction to graphics and how to place them in a document. Materials fee $15 (cash only) payable to instructor at the first class. Microsoft Excel - Beyond the Basics 1 Location WORC TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL Number of Weeks 4 Day of the Week TUESDAYS Starts 3/4/2008 Time 06:30-09:00 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $115 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $130 This course is designed for the student who needs to take spreadsheets to the next level. We will cover consolidating multiple spreadsheets, conditional formatting, using ranges, and creating charts. You’ll discover the cross application beauty of using OLE (Object Liking and Embedding) and the power of functions. Finally, we’ll explore Excel’s ability to automate all kinds of repetitve tasks using (recording) macros. This course should also be considered a stepping-stone to the ultimate power of Excel using the built in Visual Basic Editor to create custom, executable mini-applications with the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language. KEYBOARDING Location Forest Grove Middle School Number of Weeks 8 Day of the Week TUESDAYS Starts 3/4/2008 Time 06:30-08:30 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $170 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $185 Do you have a computer? Are you tired of hunting and pecking? Come and learn to be comfortable with all aspects of the keyboard. Increase your speed on the keyboard and have the confidence to type your own letters, reports and family correspondence. Book: "Mastering Computer Typing-A Painless Course for Beginners and Professionals," Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts. ISBN #0-395-71406-0. (Students should purchase online or at a bookstore) EMAIL AND INTERNET APPLICATIONS (AN INTRODUCTION) Location WORC TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL Number of Weeks 6 Day of the Week TUESDAYS Starts 3/4/2008 Time 07:00-09:00 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $90 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $105 Learn to use the most popular email services. How to set up an email account, create, forward and send emails with attachments (pictures, letters, resumes). Build up an email address book. Send emails to multiple users. Save emails. Learn how to create letters or use Microsoft Word templates to create a resume that you can save and attach to an email. Learn what the internet is and how to use it. Explore the web. Learn how to do research on the internet. Get hands on how to use the various search engines to find useful information. MICROSOFT OFFICE (WORD, EXCEL, POWERPOINT) FOR THE NOVICE Location WORC TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL Number of Weeks 8 Day of the Week WEDNESDAYS Starts 3/5/2008 Time 06:30-09:00 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $200 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $215 If you’re using your computer for e-mail and surfing the net, and you’re in “fat city”, then this course is not for you. If, on the other hand, you understand that e-mail and web surfing, as wonderful tech-tools as they are, are not skills that make you “computer literate” - and if that’s what you want to be - then you’ve come to the right place. This course will explore the major components of Microsoft Office. You will learn what each of these software tools are designed to do, when it’s advisable to use one, and not the other, and how learning one becomes a significant advantage to learning the others. You will learn how to create, edit and print all types of documents – from business letters to event flyers, from spell-perfect employment resumes to multi-distribution newspaper-style newsletters, and more. You will discover the multi-use world of spreadsheets, from simple list management with sorting and filtering to creating graphs and charts from nothing but numbers, to the use of formulas that turn mere numbers into sophisticated what-if scenarios and answers to all your questions. Then we’ll put much of these newly learned skills to use in a fun project creating a computer-based presentation with animation and sound effects that you can take with you to display whenever you want for any sized audience. Finally, you’ll learn how these 3 independently-powerful pieces of software can be used in various combinations to augment the final product proving that the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. No previous computer experience is required, but you will be better prepared if you are familiar with the use of the mouse and keyboard, and have some basic knowledge of the Windows operating system. Microsoft Excel (Introductory) Location WORC TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL Number of Weeks 8 Day of the Week WEDNESDAYS Starts 3/5/2008 Time 06:30-09:00 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $200 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $215 This course is designed to help a person be comfortable with using Excel. The course will cover some of the uses of a spreadsheet, how to format a worksheet, using formulas in a worksheet, sorting data, creating charts and other aspects of using Excel. This course is for beginners and those who have a limited knowledge of Excel. Microsoft Excel – Using Macros and More Location WORC TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL Number of Weeks 4 Day of the Week TUESDAYS Starts 4/1/2008 Time 06:30-09:00 p.m. Fee for Worc Residents $115 Fee for Non-Worc Residents $130 This course picks up where MS Excel – Advanced (Part 1)** leaves off. We will start by explaining some essential programming concepts and put them into practice with a few Visual Basic functions. Then we will record several simple macros and view them in the built-in Visual Basic editor to see how we can use the VBA programming language to create fully functional mini applications in MS Excel. © 2008 Worcester Public Schools. All Rights Reserved. 20 Irving Street, Worcester, MA 01609-2493 Designed and modified by Mohammed Siddiqui This page was last modified on 6/18/2008