EDUC 5000 - Week 15

In the last few months, our agency has changed email applications.  We have gone from using Groupwise to using MS Outlook Web Access.  Unfornately, a lot of us hate it, because we can't do some of the things that we could do before (like checking to see if a sent mail has been opened), and the number of emails that we can have is a lot smaller than we had.  Before, emails automatically dropped off after six months.  Now, we have a size limitation.  Anyway, my current project is to develop training for Outlook Web Access for the staff.  I started out by checking to see what is available online and found that Western Connecticut State University had posted something that I'm going to use as a basic outline.  I'm going to modify it to suit our needs, but I will, of course, give them credit for their document in the presentation.  After determining the best design, I started on the slides and ran into two issues.  I started the presentation on someone else's computer that had MS 2010.  There are a lot more design options and flexibility on that version of Powerpoint.  Unfortunately, that computer didn't have Jing (I really couldn't live without this program), so I emailed the presentation to my work computer to finish.  The next issue was with the presentation examples.  I want to use a generic email account to set up the examples, so that my work information isn't included.  I'm going to email Sonny to ask if this is possible, but it will be next week before I have an answer.  Since this will be a pretty time comsuming project (I've already spent about two hours on it today), the delay isn't a problem, as I can finish the presentation next week.

EDUC 6000 - Week 14

In week 12, I talked about a training session that Sonny conducted and some of the problems that we had due to using webcast.  However, I didn't mention that there was a problem with one of the videos in one of the powerpoint presentations.  Sonny called before the training got started to see if I could get it to work.  Unfortunately, I couldn't.  I think that the breakdown in communication here is between MS 2010 and MS 2000.  He created the presentation in 2010, and it didn't play on the computer with MS 2000.  Well, the training is over (at least this one), but the presentations are still available for viewing on our network drive.  Therefore, we thought it would be good if everything worked like it's suppose to, especially since most of our staff have the old version of MS Office.  Luckily (yeah, right), I have MS 2000 on my work computer (I've been using my personal computer with MS 2010 for most of the projects for this class), so I started playing with it to get the video embedded again.  Nothing I tried would work.  Then, I had really bright idea.  I'll cheat (sort of).  I used Jing to take a picture of the video and then used the picture as a hyperlink to the video on YouTube.   This worked, but I really couldn't believe there wasn't a way to embed a video in the actual slide.  So it was back to researching.  I found a video on YouTube that showed how to embed a video with MS 2003 and older.  I started following the instructions, but it still didn't work.  It turns out he left out part of the instructions.  You have to select options next to the link for the YouTube video you want to use and select long link.  Then you can make the changes that the guy talks about in the video.  Ironically, this video is titled Embed YouTube Into PowerPoint (Stupid Simple).  It really is simple, but it helps if all the instructions are included.

EDUC 6000 - Week 13

Happy Thanksgiving!  Unfortunately, the short holiday week (3 days) had an adverse affect on my ability to complete an assignment for this week, as my I.T. contact didn't come in to work.  Sorry!!!

EDUC 6000 - Week 12

This morning I spent three hours in a training session conducted by Sonny.  This was a webcast that included staff from the Nashville, Murfreesboro, Knoxville, Johnson City, Chattanooga, and Memphis offices.  The training was intended to show staff how to use their new multimedia equipment.  The equipment included a overhead projector screen, overhead projector, digital recorder, camcorder, and a DVD player.  I was able to help Sonny by reading instructions to him as he demonstrated the equipment and finding specific instructions within the powerpoint presentations as he needed them.  Everything went fairly smoothly until we got to the camcorder presentation.  Webcast training was not ideal for this due to the small size of the equipment.  It was difficult to demonstrate how to operate the camcorder as the people viewing via the web couldn't really see what he was doing.  I could see how this type of training would be beneficial for reaching a large group of people, but it was obvious that it was not a suitable method of training for some topics.  Since this was the first webcast training that I'd ever been to, I still found it interesting.

EDUC 6000 - Week 11

This week we were finally able to work on the spreadsheets that we've been putting off for various reasons.  For this project, we took 8 spreadsheets that were created to coincide with the 8 agency districts and created a master spreadsheet that contains all the information in the individual spreadsheets.  The individual spreadsheets track equipment that is kept in each district.  I worked on the individual spreadsheets in a previous week.  This week we wanted to link the spreadsheets to the master spreadsheet.  As a result, when the individual districts make changes on their spreadsheets, it will automatically update the master.  We actually found this process easier in an older version of Excel.  The 2010 version wouldn't allow some things that the older version would.  We don't think that will create an issue as the field staff is using the older version.  Anyway, the link works great.  We also protected the individual worksheets by linking them to the staff id of only the staff that should be allowed to make changes.  It was interesting to find that you can only do this in MS Office 2010.  The older version doesn't have that option, but it will still work on the older versions if it's created in the 2010 version and saved.  The worksheets are saved to a network drive, so everyone has access, but we don't want everyone to be able to make changes.   Finally, I created a pivot table for the master spreadsheet.  Yes, I finally figured it out! 

EDUC 6000 - Week 10

When Dr. Luck explained that I was to work with someone from I.T., he didn't say that every assignment had to be successful.  That's a good thing, since yesterday was definitely not a successful day.  I had planned to work on a pivot table, but we didn't have all the data that was requested from the field staff.  Instead, I worked with Sonny on reimaging a computer.  I have heard our I.T. staff use that term before, but I didn't really know what they meant.  After spending several hours on it, I still don't know what they meant, because we couldn't get it to work.  It had been a long time since Sonny had done this, so we asked for help from another I.T. person.  Part of the process involved burning some backup discs from our network drive.  We actually ended up burning several sets because the discs didn't work.  I finally narrowed it down to the second disc being corrupted and reburned it again.  I got started on validating the backups again before I left for the day.   At a little after 4, Sonny called me to let me know that the problem was that you had to remove a partition from the hard drive on computers that have Windows 7 on them before the computer can be reimaged.  Unfortunately, the person that we asked for help never metioned that.  Needless to say, this was a completely nonproductive day.  As Sonny said, we worked our behinds off and didn't get anything accomplished.  "Momma said they'll be days like this...."

EDUC 6000 - Week 9

This has been pretty much a research week which hasn't felt really productive, although it has been time consuming.  In my last post, I mentioned that I was going to be trying to create a pivot table for an excel spreadsheet.  It turns out that this just isn't easy.  I'm really having a hard time with this one.  Sonny and I worked on it some as well, but it's not really something he's done either.  He did show me how to include the totals in the spreadsheet to create the basic information needed though.  Anyway, we've both been looking at this this week, so hopefully we'll be ready to actually do something with the spreadsheet next week.  Andrew won't have the finalized spreadsheets with the data from the field offices until then anyone.

Anyway, in addition to this, I also found a chart and video to send to Sonny showing the differences between Windows XP and Windows 7.

EDUC 6000 - Week 8

I met with Sonny this week to discuss the powerpoint presentation on Microsoft Office 2010.  He likes the presentation, but he suggested some things be added.  He liked the use of the picture at the beginning of the presentation as a hyperlink, so he wanted make other pictures throughout the presentation changed to hyperlinks to the online help.  I also added shapes to those slides that included instructions on clicking on the picture to go to the website.  He also suggested adding a video to the presentation that compared 2010 to 2007.  I found a video at Microsoft's site that showed a side-by-side comparison, but I had a problem embedding it into the presentation.  For some reason, the embed code provided just wouldn't work.  Since that didn't work, I went to YouTube and found one that I really liked better than the one on Microsoft's site.  It's about 6 minutes long and gives an overview of the differences between Microsoft Office 2010 and 2007 in each of their applications.  I didn't have any problem embedding that video into the presentation using the Old Embed code.  I think that may have been the problem with using the embed code on the other video.  It was like it just wasn't recognized.  Any suggestions on that is appreciated!

Anyway, I think I'm pretty much done with this, so I'm working on my next project which is create something showing the difference between Windows 7 and XP.  I'm also researching the use of pivot tables, pivot charts, and slicers to use in a spreadsheet.  This goes back to a spreadsheet that I worked on in Week 5, and Sonny wants to see if this would work instead of creating an Access database to work with the Excel spreadsheet.  I think that's going to be a challenge!

EDUC 6000 - Week 7

This is a continuation of last week's project.  I'm still working on the powerpoint training for Microsoft Office 2010.   When I started this, Sonny said he had done some work on the project before, but he couldn't find his work.  So last week, I started a new powerpoint using hyperlinks and the screencapture function in Powerpoint as well as instructions to explain the illustrations.  Since then, Sonny found his work.  After reviewing what he had done, I integrated it into what I did last week and made some changes to make the presentation flow better.  This took about three hours.  I've sent it to him again to review.  I'll let you know what he thinks when I find out. 

EDUC 6000 - Week 6

I finally got to work on the training document for Microsoft Office 2010 this morning.  Viewlet Builder turned out to be a bust.  Neither Sonny nor I could get it to work.  However, Sonny discovered that the 2010 version of Microsoft Office Powerpoint has a screenshot function.   I used it to start a Powerpoint presentation on using both the regular help function and the interactive tutorial.  I've been using the 2010 version personally for a while now and have found it to be somewhat difficult to navigate.  What I found out this morning is that I should have used HELP!  I'm going to be playing with this a lot more to discover all the bells and whistles in the tutorial.  If I had used this before doing some past projects, I would have been a lot less frustrated!  I've sent what I've done so far to Sonny to review.  We'll discuss it next week and make any needed changes or additions.

EDUC 6000 - Week 5

This week's project has been an exercise in frustration.  Sonny has created Excel spreadsheets for each of the agency's eight districts to track safety equipment like pepper spray, armor vests, and batons.  Each of the items on the spreadsheet has columns that include information about the item like issue date and expiration date.  Needless to say, this has turned out to be a huge spreadsheet.  I kind of volunteered to help out with this one because the person responsible for monitoring this equipment (Andrew) is in my office.  When talking with Andrew, I found that he planned to have 2 tracking systems for the equipment, one to be used by field staff and one to be used by someone in Central Office.  This really seemed like a waste of staff since this would require the same information to be entered by different people.  However, the Excel spreadsheet doesn't provide him with the statistical information that he needs to have available, so he thought it would be easier to get that from an Access database.  I tried adding subtotals to the appropriate columns and tying them to a separate worksheet that just listed the totals.  This was doable but very time consuming.  I worked on that for a couple of hours and then determined that the data might be compromised as the spreadsheets were updated.  I then spoke with someone else in Information Systems about the logistics involved.  Of course, his first suggestion was to have I.S. create an application strictly for tracking the equipment.  The problem is that I.S. is so backed up with projects that we knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon.  We then discussed putting it in an Access database but we're not certain that field staff will have Access when their computers are updated.  There's speculation that the new computers will have a cheaper version of Microsoft Office.  We finally settled on importing only the applicable data to Access to create the reports Andrew needs.   We did a test and found that this would work.  Andrew is going to send the spreadsheets to the fiield staff to complete.  Before he can do that, we're going to establish passwords to keep others from making unauthorized changes to the spreadsheets.   I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything works as we hope it does. 

EDUC 6000 - Week 4

We've had to push back the Microsoft Office Training, because I'm creating an Access Database for one of our directors.  This database will be used to track staff errors.  I've also created a report to send to the district directors that is organized by district, office location, and officer.  I've sent the database to Sonny for review and to get suggestions on making the report more user friendly.  I haven't had a lot of experience with creating databases with Access, but I really like using them.  So far it's not been that difficult, although I've had to ask for help with a few things like creating search commands on the form and setting up the report.   I worked on this for most of the day yesterday and some this morning.  I'm still not quite satisfied with the end product, especially the report, so I'll continue to tweak it.  Hopefully, Sonny will have some suggestions too.

EDUC 6000 - Week 3

I went through the rest of the pages of the manual on the camcorder and finished the power point presentation that I started last week. The rest of the manual was concerned with more technical aspects of operating the camcorder, so I didn't include a lot of that information. As I mentioned before, Sonny wants to keep the presentation to the basic operation of the camera. I ended up with about 42 slides. The equipment will do a lot more than what the presentation covers, so I included the direct link to the manual on the last slide and encouraged viewers to check it out. The presentation has been sent to Sonny for review, and he said he was pleased with it. We've started discussion for the next project, which we will be introducing staff to the tutorials for Microsoft 2010 Office programs. Sonny mentioned that he had used a program called Viewlet Builder many years ago, so we checked online to see if there is still a free version available. There was a newer version available, so I'll be researching how that program works next.

The following is the link for the powerpoint presentation:  http://www.screencast.com/t/uhQEz630Hde

EDUC 6000 - Week 2

This week I've started a project that will take a while to complete.  The agency has obtained a camcorder, and Sonny wants to create a powerpoint that staff can use to learn the basics of using the equipment.  The manual for the camcorder is really pretty good, but it's over 200 pages long and not very well organized.  It's my job to condense this into a powerpoint presentation that includes only the basic operation of the camcorder.  So far, I've went through about 100 pages of the manual, and the powerpoint has 32 slides.  The great thing about this is that I've been using Jing to create the slides so I can include the instructions and illustrations directly from the manual.  I knew the things I've learned in this program would come in handy!  It's time consuming, but I'm really pleased with how it's going.  Sonny says it looks good so far too.  Of course, I'll provide a reference and website address for the manual at the end of the presentation!

EDUC 6000

Week 1 - For this class, I am working with the IT staff in  the agency where I work to develop training for our field staff.  For my first assignment, my IT contact (Sonny) wanted me to find detailed instructions for embedding a training video into a powerpoint presentation.  The training video was on using Microsoft Office 2010.  The agency is currently using 3 versions of Microsoft Office with MS 2010 being available on very few computers.   This is creating a challenge for the staff that have these new computers.  I actually found the video that Sonny wanted me to embed on YouTube.  Despite the embed code provided, I still didn't find this to be an easy assignment.  After a couple of hours, I was able to get it to work.  I was really starting to think it had something to do with powerpoint as I had never tried to embed anything in that program.  I researched to find some good instructions for doing this and found detailed instructions that I sent to Sonny in a Word document.  Of course, I tested it to make sure it worked and sent him the test as well.  This was really a challenge!