Microsoft Word Training - Get More Productive at Work

If you are looking for solid Microsoft Word training, then this article will help you find the course that is right for you. This article covers some of the basic functionality of Word, as well as more advanced functions that will save you huge amounts of time and make you more productive at work or school. When you have finished reading this article you will be better prepared to choose the Microsoft Word training method that suits your particular need.

Basic Microsoft Word Concepts

A good training course will start out with the basics of the Word interface and cover some of the most important features. You will first learn how to create a new document, either using a blank page, or selecting a common template. Templates are included in Word to help you with a variety of commonly used documents, such as fax cover sheets, internal business memos, sales and thank you letters, and resumes. Other basic skills that should be covered would include changing font sizes, assigning styles to your documents, and working with formatting options such as the page margins.

Intermediate and Advanced Microsoft Word Features

As your Microsoft Word training course progresses, you will be taught more advanced features and functions, such as using creating custom headers, footers, and citations for your document. One really cool feature included in Microsoft Word is the ability to instantly generate a bibliography for your document using one of several standard citation styles. You put in the basic information for your sources, and Word automatically puts your citations in the correct format.

Some other advanced topics that should be covered are the mail merge function, and the ability to integrate Excel and Powerpoint documents into your Word file. Mail merge is very handy when you manage communications with a large list of customers or other important contacts. It allows you to create a single letter, and then merge that letter with a database to create hundreds or even thousands of individual copies of that letter, each tailored for the an individual on your mailing list. Sending out mass mailings like this used to take countless hours of labor in typing each letter individually.

Available Types of Microsoft Word Training

Training for Word can be as simple as picking up a book from Amazon or Borders, which many people do very well with by teaching themselves. However, if you are more of a hands-on learner, and need a more visual learning format, you should consider either a classroom based training course or a course on CD. These two options will cost a bit more than a book, but the quality of the education will be better and will likely stick in your brain more easily.

The Importance of Corporate Training For Managers

The importance of corporate training depends solely on the actual intent of the corporation desiring their employees to adhere to their process.

This may appear at first glance, appear to be an unusual way to begin an article on the importance of corporate training, but from experience it's exactly the way the article should begin. Why would the corporation spend the funds to provide training if they didn't want the training to be followed? Good question.
Sometimes a corporation can become so large, it appears to lose its grasp on reality and definitely loses perspective as to the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Somebody launches a particularly good campaign, a vice president's relative, which demonstrates corporate training for their employees is required for the continued growth of the company.

Nobody has the guts or forethought to question how the company became so large and successful with their employees' current training. In any event the idea is adopted and someone is placed in charge of its execution. The problem arises when the party(s) creating and implementing the corporate training develop a program which fits their idea of what the company is about, not the reality of what it really is.

All employees are run through this instant IQ elevator, which makes them experts in every aspect of how the company operates and its goals and ethics, only to be informed to forget what they were told by corporate as soon as they hit the field and the real world of operation.

In this type of situation, and believe me they're out there, the importance of corporate training on a scale of 1 to 10, ranks a 2. The training is not a total waste as it does teach the new employee the corporation isn't much different than a lot of other businesses, say one thing - do another.

In the event a corporation has an established corporate training program and is sincere in their desires for employees abiding by their training, the training takes on a whole new importance.

A corporation which is involved in franchising, training is imperative as it is essential the franchisor follow the successful proven business plan and operation of the parent company. Not only is excellent training required, but constant monitoring of the progress the franchisor makes is important. When beginning a new adventure of any type, the temptation to improvise when confronted with a problem you're not sure of how to solve, can be the first step of straying off the straight and narrow program.

On a scale of 1 to 10 in this scenario corporate training is absolutely a 10.

Jim Bain - Leader and Writer for the UAW Union, former minor league ball player with 45 years experience playing and coaching baseball. Visit his baseball information packed website: http://www.Learn-Youth-Baseball-Coaching.com

A Day in the Life of a Mental Health Technician

A mental health technician can be described as a person whose role is to aid people suffering from mental illnesses. They also provide treatment for those who are obsessed with alcohol and drug or are facing retardation problems due to their mental conditions. He or she must be trained as a nursing aide to a certain level. You can find them working in places like normal or psychiatric hospitals, homes for nursing etc. They provide services related to the treatment of addiction and offer care facilities too.

More to know

Psychiatrists, doctors and nurses all come under this term. Note that you do not need to face any licensing hassles or receive any formal education in order to qualify for this job. You can apply for training courses at career universities or communities. A mental health technician is responsible for the care of patients e.g. bathing, cleaning and also their comfort plus security. Frequent communication and inspection with the patients is necessary. Sometimes, there are patients who may be threatening to themselves or the other patients so keeping an eye on them is important if they are to be prevented from doing any harm.

These are not the only duties that a mental health technician is restricted to. Their other tasks include dealing with phone calls, maintaining records or admitting patients in health care organizations. They are also found accompanying patients in exercising, art or rehabilitation sessions. Their job is not an easy one. Having lots of responsibilities require working for almost the whole day. They may be asked to work overtime on holidays or even extra shifts. All these come as a true test of their patience and for that matter, they also need to be physically alert.

General information about a mental health technician includes their salary being an average of $30,600 in the U.S. It is pertinent to mention that they perform their duties under proper supervision from higher authorities and they also receive instructions from them. Due to this, they also provide feedback to the person responsible for their management.

Their salaries vary in different places. Some examples include:
1) A median of $20,800 in California.
2) The middle most range being $19,240 in Florida.
3) The average being $16,120 in Washington.
4) $18,720 as the normal pay rate in New York.
5) $17,347 in New Jersey.

There are many more and all are taken from the statistics collected about the mental health technicians recently (November 2011).

To find out more about being or becoming a mental health technician visit http://www.mentalhealthtechnician.info/

Embark on a Career Education Training Program!

Do you sometimes feel the work you engage in, is repetitive and mundane? Or perhaps your job satisfaction has hit an all time low, and you feel there is little scope for development. Since most of us spend a better portion of our day at our workplace, we should strive to move past these stumbling blocks and create a more stimulating work environment for ourselves; and one of the initial steps we can take to do so, is to embark on a career education training program.

For new recruits or students, career education training, might just be the basic step in learning the rudimentary functions of their chosen profession. Yet for others, it will target improving relevant knowledge and fine-tuning the required skills and attitudes that will enable career development and progression.

Career education training provides relevant coursework, directly applicable to specific careers. This is achieved through a planned program of learning experiences. Thus, career education training bridges the gap between academic and technical education. For instance, career education training reinforces the idea that book learning is not independent of future educational and employment opportunities, and so most career training colleges offer hands-on education in a practical learning environment.

To find a suitable career education training program, an ideal balance should be found, in the relevance and quality of the coursework offered, the accessibility of the college and the instructors, the cost of the program, the duration of the course and the recognition of the completed program. It is also is up to the individual to decide at what level they want the training at (i.e. at a certificate level, a diploma level or a degree level) and based on this factor too, they should decide on if they want to follow the aforementioned career education training program at a technical institute, a community college, or online at an university. However, it is best to ensure that the institute chosen, is registered and accredited, so that the quality of education cum training is guaranteed to a reasonable extent.

Career education training benefits not just the individual but the company as well. For instance, increased, relevant knowledge and the ability to apply it, enables the employees to exhibit greater efficiency at their allocated tasks; whilst motivated, effective employees whose accomplishments are given due recognition rarely look for "greener pastures", thus making an organization's high staff turnover, a thing of the past.

Interested to know different ways to work at home online? Patrick Sia has helped you to compile a list of work at home jobs that do not necessary need any upfront payment. Find out more at http://www.weworkathomeonline.com.

Meeting the E-Learning Implementation Challenge

Today's educational marketplace is being proliferated with educational e-learning programs and products. They each focus on student improvement in learning basic skills such as reading and math, or any subject matter imaginable.

Classroom performance will now be measured with each individual learner, not as class averages. Subsequently, teachers having a classroom full of learning deficiencies will not be blamed for the class's slow progress. My research demonstrated that with a class full of low auditory and visual memory learners, some of the students made gains latently, one to two years later. There were two types of control groups in the study.1
Every classroom has several levels of learners for basic skills in reading and math. They will work at their own pace, possibly with peer partners with a new e-Learning program. Each student's cognitive skills and learning styles will be recognized. The classroom will be managed with wide differentiation, but some effective training programs will be directed to the class as a whole.

Although continuously evolving as to "who and what" they measure, Performance Management Systems will be in place. Learning performance data will collect how much time each student spends on task and attending to the work flow process, and whether items are completed and answered correctly. This will be sent to the student's own work assignment dashboard.
This is where benchmarks come into play. Each work unit assignment must be passed before going on to the next level. However, often these are multiple choice questions, which do not always measure a student's actual performance accurately. This becomes a concern.

The proof-in-the-pudding is through written assignment evaluations. Although they take longer to grade, missteps are easily spotted by a trained eye. These written assignments should be sent home daily for parents to follow.

Easy-to-use data systems will be available to schools for effective instructional decisions. The data will be aggregated into a data base pool as to how the student is performing with each step of the learning process. Scores that are not met, the work will be reviewed and repeated. The bench-marked lessons will comprise program effectiveness summaries.

Parents will become more involved and supervise online learning sessions at home. Students will have their school computerized dashboard transferred to homework assignments. Supplemental online tutorial work - will be explored to high levels. Comprehension will be emphasized, and there will be alternative forms of recitation. Work process flow states will be introduced, and speed of work de-emphasized.
Professional educator development will be instrumental in learning these new procedures and processes. The school culture will become one led to continuous personalized student improvement. In some cases, teachers may sign compliance agreements to ensure the accuracy of the instruction, so that student in-class learning time is highly functional. There will be more of "passing through the grades" with students winding up in secondary school unable to compute, read, write, and communicate effectively.

Schools will chose specific e-learning programs based upon data effectiveness track records. Data will be aggregated according to student learning performance levels and demographic groups. Only the best e-Learning programs will survive, rising to the top and be in demand.

Determining the most effective e-learning programs through performance evaluations will be challenging.
School district administrators should consider a variety of ways for e-learning data collection implementation; classes with a particular e-Learning training program, a class or two without any e-learning, and classes with an alternative e-learning training program. This creates control comparison groups not only for the class achievement as a whole, but with individual learners.

A consideration would be to continue to collect the data from individual students for two years, then, switch around the e-learning programs, and compare results for the following two years. It may be found that there are some results for many programs. School district administrators, educators, parents, and investors will be interested in the outcomes.

Unfortunately, this data measurement scenario will take a few years for complete evaluation outcomes. Gradually, but purposefully, new research-based methodologies and systems will be put in place through e-learning transfer.

Educators will find their work increasingly exciting as they watch their students grow and excel to new heights. Students, seeing themselves, and their peer classmates excelling, will develop enthusiasm for learning, thus reducing behavior problems.

Consequently, the e-learning implementation challenge becomes well-worth-the effort for educational practice improvement.

Erland, J. K. (Fall 2000). Brain-Based Accelerated Learning Longitudinal Study Reveals Subsequent High Academic Achievement Gain for Low Achieving, Low Cognitive Skill Fourth Grade Students.The Journal of Accelerated Learning and Teaching 25 3 & 4.

Program Content Developer of The Bridge To Achievement, Educational Consultant, Workshop Trainer at Mem-ExSpan, Inc.; Attended the University of Texas, the University of Iowa, and graduated with B.S. degree in Education from Drake University, majoring in Education, Speech-Drama, and English. Minored in Science and Social Science. Taught grades K-8 in seven Midwestern public school districts. Received a Masters Degree in Special Education - Learning Disabilities from the University of Kansas, and 1980 formed the non-profit 501 C3 Educational Media Therapy Consultants, Inc. This was later changed to Innovative Learning Stratagems, Inc., ILS, a national consulting group offering teacher and parent informative workshops and student scholarhships for cognitive skills retraining and Brain-Based Learning. Additionally, formed Mem-ExSpan, Inc. to develop educational cognitive skills retraining content through continuous classes to help individuals ages 9 to adult. Established thirteen national training-test sites, published and documented research from six experiments over five generational developmental levels. Five published longitudinal reports appeared in The Journal of Accelerated Learning and Teaching (JALT) with several demographic groups. See: my home page: Http://www.memspan.com and my nonprofit assessment info on: Http://www.strategytech.com

Training For ROI

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), a professional association of 70,000 corporate-learning specialists around the world, provides new ammunition for anyone who needs to make the case for employee training programs in their study "Profiting from Learning: Do Firms' Investments in Education and Training Pay Off?" They suggest that companies should view employee training as an investment and report it in their financial statements alongside R&D and capital expenditures. While probably few companies will be reporting training as an investment, it is certainly an operating cost that gives a good ROI.

Considering that the latest figures show that dealing with poorly performing employees costs businesses in the United States $105 billion each year, that managers spend 14% of their time redoing or correcting the mistakes of others, and, according to a recent consumer study, fifty-seven percent of consumers surveyed identified poor employee training as a leading aspect of service deficiencies, employee training may be one of the most important expenditures a company can make in terms of getting a serious return on their investments.

The right training can improve employee performance and production, decrease management's problem-solving time, and improve customer satisfaction. But, how does a company pick the "right training?" Technology training, team work training, motivational training, writing classes, sales training, job tasks and procedures training, the list of types of training is almost endless. Couple this with variety on old and new training methods, such as online training, classroom, rapid e-learning, DVD and CD-Rom training, etc. and you begin to see the difficulty in picking the "right training" for employees.

First, make goals and set objectives for training outcomes. Make sure you target your training to teach necessary skills. Get input from your staff what they think they need to know to do their job well.

Develop a training plan and policy based on the problems/needs to be addressed. Determine exactly what skills need to be taught and which staff members need training in what areas.

Determine format and resources for implementing training. The format might be group or individual, in-house or out-sourced, and the options on resources include CDs, intranet and internet resources, traditional classroom, books, DVDs, etc. In other words, present the material in a way that will match your staff's learning style.

Evaluate each training session you implement, regardless of format or resources used. Ask staff for written evaluations of their training and set up a method for determining outcomes, such as analyze whether staff error has diminished after the training in that task/skill.

One example of a training need that most companies face each year is technology training. With rapid advancements in computer technology, companies must frequently update hardware and software, but without training, you and your staff will waste substantial time and money trying to accomplish old tasks with unfamiliar technology. Many experts have suggested that 70 percent of your technology budget should go to training and only 30 percent to hardware and software. However, those figures are based on last year, and like everything else that has to do with computers, last year is obsolete.

Let's look at using e-learning for computer training, which has helped many companies increase their reach of training at a reduced cost from traditional training. However, it still was not inexpensive. Development and delivery required advanced skill sets and lengthy turnaround time. Today, many methods are available for rapid e-learning that can be used to quickly and inexpensively create learning tools for quickly giving employees training on software tasks. For example, we recently needed to train some staff on a new data entry task to be done in a database they were unfamiliar with. Our SME created a recorded training module with audio, video, and review questions while actually working on the database in about two hours, losing actually less than half an hour of productive time. The employees being trained required minimal training time, about thirty minutes, to be at least adequate at the task, began working at the task, and were proficient by the end of day working. Since the training module was a recorded session, it still existed if the employee needed a refresher or for training temporary or replacement employees. That's cost and time efficient training, leaving more of your budget for hardware and software.

Today, more and more companies are embracing new learning resources and developing training that is job specific rather that concept or program oriented. In other words, companies are not looking so much for training in Microsoft Word as they are looking to train employees how they will use Word in their specific job. With such new resources as rapid e-learning, companies can reduce the time and money spent on training development.

Vickie Adair is the senior technical writer at Media A-Team (http://www.mediaateam.com) and also publishes as a freelance writer. She writes for http://www.houstonmanufacturers.com, a website for Houston manufacturers, providers, and suppliers, and http://www.natural-products-directory.com, a directory of online business that sell or manufacture organic and/or natural products.

Kid Internet Safety - Is Social Media A Safe Place to Educate Our Kids?

Many teachers have started to embrace social media instead of banning them. Government education bodies across the USA, Canada, the EU & other countries have published "Internet Usage Guidelines For Schools", which include components on how to use social media and share information between teacher, parent, and kid & keep the kids safe.

Even though many have started to embrace this movement, there are many teachers that are still cautious of social network usage amongst kids, especially at school. I strongly feel that their uneasiness of the social media usage is based on negative media publicity and/or the pure ignorance of the technology itself. With this being said, there are many arguments that the educational benefits of social media outweigh the risk, and the teachers in support of the social media in classrooms worry that the schools are missing out on an opportunity to incorporate tools that many students already know how to use.

It doesn't mean parents and teachers put down their guards about the Internet dangers for kids, but it does mean get involved & get up to speed to help & work with your kid on the Internet.

In a pilot project, which started as a Facebook-like forum, a seventh grade teacher showed with her social media program 20% of students (school wide) were completing extra assignments for no credit, grades increased more than 50%, and absenteeism was reduced by more than a third.

Here are 5 reason why I feel that school should embrace social media just like the seventh grade teacher that I mentioned above.

1. Social Media is Not Going Away
Contextually, things have not really changed. In the early 1990s the debate was similar as it today. School administrators were adamantly against allowing access to the Internet - the big fear being pornography and predators. If you fast forward, it seems as though we're confronted with similar issues today. Can you imagine a school not being connected to the Internet now? Impossible!

However, in pure numbers and usage there has been a big change. For example, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, almost ¾ of seventh to twelfth graders have at least one social media profile, and the survey group used social sites more than they played games or watched videos online. Also, you cannot ignore social medias like Facebook have grown to over 500 million users in 7 years, and I haven't even gone into the details of sites like Myspace, Tagged, MyYearBook, Ning, Hi 5, and LinkedIn. Social media growth is exponential.

Also, here's something else that endorses social networks are here to stay. Not to long ago, some public schools in the UK had an Internet "lock down", and the students basically rebelled. Marks, absenteeism & attitudes changed during this "lock down". Unlike the teacher who had positive results with her pilot "Facebook" program, the kids who went through this "lock down" period seemed not to take responsibility for their actions.

Bottom line - social networks are here to stay. Parents or teachers should get on board - learn it & teach it.

2. Kids Are Better Learners When Engaged
A 3rd and 4th grade Minnesota teacher started using blogs in his classroom in 2007 as a way to motivate students to write. The results were amazing. Students loved it.

In many examples, students have shown to become keenly aware that blogging is not just writing on a piece of paper that gets handed to the teacher, and gets handed back with a smiley. They know that blogging is a shared concept, and friends or other people may even stumble across their writings. There is a concept of power in that notion.

Kids are enthusiastic about in-class blogging. In the pilot Facebook project previously mentioned, students got to school earlier and the overall quality of their work increased.

Parents and teachers - when kids are engaged, they learn better. We need to become engaged before we help them become engaged.

3. Safe Social Media Tools and They're Free
A teacher started using blogs to teach kids, and ended up developing a 'social media platform'. His platform allowed him to monitor and approve everything that the kids were posting online, and kept kids safe from inappropriate advertising. This teacher then developed a similar web-based tool, which teachers use today. The tool is called kidblog.org.

Kidblog is one of the hottest Web 2.0 tools in K-8 education, which allows teachers to easily blog with their classes in a teacher-kid-friendly environment. Teachers tend to gain a sense of the interaction taking place as the students navigate their way through their class members' blogs, and teachers can also invite other classes and guests to participate in the class' discussions, thereby broadening the readership audience and increasing motivation for students. Multiple teachers can also collaborate within a Kidblog class and share moderation responsibilities.

From a safety perspective, teachers have full administrative control over all comments, posts, and privacy settings. The administrator has the ability to preview and approve (or unapprove) content published by students (and other visitors, if allowed by their privacy settings). Kidblog endorses privacy & does not collect any personal information from students.

Kidblog also never subjects students to advertising, so teachers can feel comfortable knowing that the publishing environment is free from distractions.

Even though Kidblog.org is extremely popular there are other equally popular tools, such as Edmodo & Edublogs.

The key element - these tools are safe and 100% free.

4. Schools Stealing Public Social Media Time
According to a Neilson study, between 2004-2009 the amount of time 2-11 year old kids spent online increased by 63%. One way schools have used this number to their advantage is to compete with other social media sites for part of this time.

One school in the USA launched a pilot program and had their kids complete all their assignments on the school's propriety social media. As a result, the students spent about five fewer hours weekly on Facebook and Myspace so they could do their assignments.

Another example, a teacher would post an extra assignment that students could complete after school every day. The posting was done on school propriety social media. One day she had students comment on one of President Obama's speeches; another day she had them make two-minute videos of something on their walk home that was a bad example of sustainability. These assignments had no credit attached to them. The only intrinsic reward was interacting with other students in the digital world.

The results speak for themselves - one social media displaced by another, and has accommodated students desires to communicate with each other, and in a safe way.

5. Social Media Encourages Collaboration
Social media as a teaching tool has a natural collaborative element. Students critique and comment on each other's assignments, work in teams to create content, and can easily access each other and the teacher with questions or to start a discussion.

Traditional education, on the other hand, typically involves teacher-given lectures, students with their eyes on their own papers, and not talking neighbors. Then, when a student gets into the business world they are literally thrown into groups, expected to produce, but unprepared and lack the collaboration skills.

Many studies show the compelling nature for kids to use social media tools in school, especially how they collaborate. It was initially thought that the shy kids would drift away from collaboration, but in fact if they had a point to make they would make it equally as well as a non-shy kid.

It's easy to see that students enjoy interacting with each other, which also happens to be in a safe and secure manner.

Conclusion
The negative media publicity has actually had a positive impact, and made our school administrators fully aware of the Internet dangers and thus developed programs and technology to address these concerns and keep our kids safe at schools. As a by- product of these tools, there is a reduction in absenteeism, and our kids are being properly prepared for the collaborative world.

I believe we are on the right track to educating our kids correctly and keeping our kids safe on the Internet while at school.

Gary Hyman is an authority on Kid Internet Safety. He helps keep kids safe on the Internet. For tips, advice, and tools to protect your kids on the Internet please visit Kid Internet Safety.