President's Notes (09/03)
President's Message
Computer Related Education
– Our Mission
by Phil Sorrentino
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Providing Computer Related Education for its
members is a basic mission for
SPCUG. Providing this education takes many forms, such as Forums, SIGs
(Educational classes), Mini-SIGs, and Lecture/Demonstrations. All of these
education opportunities are lead by SPCUG volunteers with experience in the
specific subject. Additional education is provided at the monthly meeting.
The subject of the main presentation at this meeting is a computer related
topic of current interest. These monthly presentations are usually provided
by an outside source. The subjects of some of our recent presentations have
been: Using Acronis for Backup and Imaging, Quicken and your Money, Identity
Theft and Computer Security, and Safe Computer Backups. Our future
presentations will include: Internet Security, Enhance your Photos and
Videos with Pinnacle Studio, and Smart Computing Magazine. For further
information talk to our Programs chairman, Bill Crowe, or email him at
wtcrowe@verizon.net.
Forums are another way of providing interactive
education. Forums are the meetings we have during our monthly meeting, in
rooms around the main presentation room. These Forums currently cover a
variety of topics such as Digital Photography, Windows XP, Windows Vista,
Databases, Photoshop Elements 5, Web Page Design, Photoshop for Wizards,
Genealogy, Build Your Own Computer, and Tech Support. These ongoing Forums
are presented in a Lecture, Demonstration or Question/Answer format. The
only requirement for attendance at these SIGs is that you be a member or a
prospective member.
Our Educational Classes, which are also referred to as
SIGs, are the core component of our education delivery system. (SIG is an
acronym for Special Interest Group, which is a group of users interested in
a particular subject who discuss the subject at meetings or via an online
service.) These classes are typically 3 or 4 sessions, each session being 1
½ hours, held at the hands-on computer center, at The Boys and Girls Clubs
on Fruitville Rd. These classes are mostly "hands-on" where each student has
a computer for his own use, during the class. They 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.) These classes are organized
in two groups.
The first group includes three basic courses. They are
called "Getting Started", "Email and File Management", and "Internet,
Maintenance and Backup". It is intended that a beginner take these three
courses before taking any of the other classes in the second group. Getting
Started should be taken before either of the other basic courses. These
three classes are given regularly throughout the year. Check the Monitor and
the Website Calendar for the schedules.
The second group includes 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. These courses can be taken in
any sequence, unless indicated in the course outline.
Mini-SIGS are similar to the second group of classes, but
they meet only once or twice for 1 ½ hours. Some are hands-on and some are
lecture/demonstration. A Mini-SIG can be scheduled for any computer related
subject. In fact, if you have interest in a particular subject, talk to our
SIG Chairman, Nancy DeMarte. If there is enough interest, and she can find
an instructor, she can schedule one. Current Mini-SIG subjects include:
Internet Security, E-Mail with Outlook Express, Wireless Networking, The
Amazing IPOD, Control Panels, Converting Analog Music to Digital Format,
Control Panels, and Using a GPS. A special type of Mini-SIG is a Workshop.
Workshops require the student to bring their own laptop to the class.
Current Workshops are: Your Laptop, Windows Media Player 11, and Using Movie
Maker. More Workshops are being developed and will be scheduled as they
become available.
Forums, SIGs, Mini-SIGs, Meeting Presentations, and
Lecture/Demonstrations, all are set up to satisfy our mission and provide
many opportunities for members to receive computer education. Now that you
know "the rest of the story", if you’ve taken the first three basic courses,
go to the SPCUG Website and register for a class that looks like it will be
interesting and helpful to you. If you haven’t taken the three basic
courses, "what are you waiting for?" :
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Copyright 2009. This article is from the March 2009 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:
admin@spcug.org/ Web:
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.