President's Notes (03/08)
President's Message
SIGs -An Unusual Name for Education
by Phil Sorrentino
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
SIG is an acronym for Special Interest Group, a
group of users interested in a particular subject who discuss the subject at meetings or via an online service. SIGs can exist for any conceivable subject. In fact, if you have an interest in a particular computer subject and there isn’t a SIG already in place, talk to our SIG Chairman, Bob Thommes, and if there is enough interest, he may be able to establish one.
SIGS that are currently in progress and meet during the Wednesday monthly meeting, include a variety of subjects such as Digital Photography, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Microsoft Expression, Photoshop Elements 5, Web Page Design, Adobe Photoshop, Genealogy, Build Your Own
Computer and Tech Support. These are all ongoing SIGS and are presented in a Lecture, Demonstration or Question/Answer format. The only requirement for attendance at these SIGs are that you be a member or a prospective member.
The SIGs that are presented in a classroom environment are the SIGs that are held at the Sarasota County Technical Institute, at Beneva and Proctor. These SIGS are mostly “hands-on” where each student has a computer for his own use, during the class. These SIGs are presented in a classroom format. Typically, the instructor demonstrates an action and then the student performs the action on his own computer. The “doing” part of the instruction helps to cement the concepts demonstrated. Of course, practice at home really helps the learning process. (It’s like the way you get to Carnegie Hall, practice...practice...practice.) Each of these SIGs typically meets 4 times for 1 and 1/2 hours.
The classroom SIGs are organized in three groups. The first group is the basic three courses. These are called “Getting Started”, Basic 1, and Basic 2. It is intended that a beginner take these three courses in this order before taking any of the other SIGs in the second group. These three SIGs are given regularly throughout the year. Check the Monitor and the Website Calendar for the schedules. The second group of SIGs include a variety of topics including Files and Folders, Word for Beginners, Word Intermediate, Excel for Beginners, Excel Intermediate, Introduction to Word Processing, Web Page Design, ProShow Gold, Mail Merge, and Quicken. Each of these SIGs typically meets 3 or 4 times for 1 and 1/2 hours. The third group of SIGs are referred to as Mini-SIGS because they typically meet only once or twice for 1 and 1/2 hours. This group includes subjects such as Internet Security, E-Mail with Outlook Express, Home Networking, The Amazing IPOD, Control Panels, and Converting Analog Music to Digital Format.
Now that you know what SIGs are, go to the SPCUG Website and register for one that looks like it will be interesting and helpful to you. :
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Copyright 2008. This article is from the March 2008 issue of the
Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota
Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL
34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit
computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and
our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication
the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For
further information about our group, email:
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http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members
and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User
Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are
members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC
Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.