Week of May 5-9 Registration begins 9:00 am. Monday, Apr 28, 2008

---

Jackson-George Regional Library Computer Course/ Descriptions (Revised - 10/1/07)

Computer Essentials: Prerequisites - None.

In this basic course students will: Understand the purpose and identify the main hardware components of a desktop computer to include the computer system unit, monitor, keyboard, pointing devices, and other main peripherals. Identify the main internal parts of a desktop computer such as the processor, the motherboard, RAM, the hard drive, floppy and CD/DVD devices as well as the speed and measurements of various components. Understand the purpose, identify and work with the elements of the Windows desktop; i.e., My Computer, My Documents, Recycle Bin, Start Menu and Taskbar. Understand and perform common tasks such as opening, closing, resizing and moving one or more Windows around the desktop. In class, students also open programs; create, save, print and locate files on the hard drive, as well as delete and restore files using the Recycle Bin.

Essentials of the Internet: Prerequisites -None.

In this course students will learn: What is the Internet and understand the parts of the Internet. They will be introduced to Internet terminology and the various ways to connect to the Internet. As well be given an introduction to Windows Internet Explorer 7.0, a browser program which views the World Wide Web. Students will understand how to enter web addresses correctly and use various shortcut tools such as the Back, Forward, Refresh, Stop, Home, Print, Add to Favorites and the Favorites Center. In addition students will create a list of Favorites in the browser, change the Home Page, view the History file created in Internet Explorer and receive effective print solutions.

Internet Searching I - Site Searching: Prerequisite- Essentials of the Internet.

What is everyone doing on the web? Searching for something! The focus of this class is navigating a site to find the information you need. In this class students work on some of the common tasks on the web; creating driving directions and a map, looking up a business or person in an online white page or yellow page directory, looking up a book in the library, making online airline reservations, looking at online job sites, shopping on EBay (not all topics are covered in each class). Students complete these tasks, learn common web site elements for future use, and web troubleshooting techniques.

Internet Searching II - Web Searching: Prerequisite- Essentials of the Internet and preferably Searching I.

In this course students will discuss 3 types of tools: subject directories, search engines and meta-search engines and learn when and how to use them to search. Students will learn the significance of a URL (uniform resource locator) and what information it gives to your search plus common elements of a websites that help users quickly navigate and locate information. Students will also learn how to refine their search terms to find good results each time.

Email using Yahoo!: Prerequisite - It is recommended that students complete and feel comfortable with the skills taught in the Essentials of Internet course.

This course is intended for those who wish to use Yahoo! as an email editor. Students will register and create their own free Yahoo email account and password. In addition, they will receive instruction in the basics of email, such as sending and receiving messages. The course will also cover email etiquette (netiquette), the Yahoo address book, creating folders and organizing email messages, copying and pasting, attaching files to messages, and inserting hyperlinks.

Microsoft Word 2003 Basics - Part 1 and 2: Prerequisite - It is recommended that the student complete and feel comfortable with the skills taught in the Computer Essentials course.

Microsoft Word instruction will include guidance on the screen layout and menu system, focusing on the new Task Pane features. Course points include effective text selection and formatting; essential editing functions such as moving text, cut, copy and paste; creating envelopes and labels and spell checking. More advanced functions included inserting and working with tables, Microsoft Templates and clip art as well locating clip art from the World Wide Web.

Microsoft Excel 2003 Basics - Part 1 and 2: Prerequisite - It is recommended that the student complete and feel comfortable with the skills taught in the Computer Essentials course.

Microsoft Excel instruction will include guidance on the screen layout and menu system, focusing on the new Task Pane features. Course points include entering and editing cell text and data, basic formatting options, as well as sorting the spreadsheet using single and multiple criteria, printing the spreadsheet and inserting and working with a basic column style chart. The course will also cover the basics of writing and editing formulas, the use of Auto SUM, and the Insert Function dialog box for SUM, MAX, AVERAGE and IF formulas

Microsoft Power Point 2003 Basics: Prerequisite - It is recommended that the student complete and feel comfortable with the skills taught in the Computer Essentials course. Typing is highly involved.

Instruction includes guidance on the screen layout and menu system, focusing on the new Task Pane features. Course points include various ways to get started in creating a presentation and the different view options available while creating slides. Students learn to enter text, format, and edit slide text and add new slides as needed. Students also learn to apply designs, organize, and rearrange a slide presentation, and add clip art. In addition they will add animation effects to the text and clip art, apply transitions to slides and print the presentation in various ways. Students also receive an overview of the Pack and Go feature.