Alden Tech and Design

The best way to learn how to create content is to do it. Personally I found that writing about 3-5 articles/blog entries and forum articles was my turning point on editing and working online.

The picture below shows an example of the filtered toolbar for FCKeditor.

As you can see this is very similar to toolbars in other text editors and it is very simple to use. I am not going through the most obvious like regret, select all, bold, italic and underscore etc.

Source is an interesting one choice. When you click on it, you will see the HTML code that make the page look the way you want it to. Click on source again and it will come back to WYSIWYG editing.

There are three icons for pasting on the top left. The first will paste whatever is in the clipboard. The second will paste plain text. That is the one that I am using if I have written something in Word or similar. The last is to be used as a minimum when you have written something in Word and want to paste it in to a web site.

The anchor is for creating a special point within the web page. Often used when you have one page with frequently asked questions on one page. Then each of the questions (down the page) will be marked as an anchor and you link to them from the top of the page where the questions will be listed.

Tables are one of the most used functions to display groups of data and you work with it in Drupal the same way as in desktop programs.

Horizontal lines are important on many web pages to separate content.

What is a modern website without the possibility to create a smiley?

Very often you want to insert special characters on a web site and there is a table for it, but it is no fun. This is a fast and easy way to get the most important ones.

Images, flash and links will be in separate chapters.

This saying summarizes how I feel about teaching: "Give a person a fish and she/he can eat. Give a person a fishing-rod and she/he can catch their own food."

The reward for me in teaching is two fold.  First I enjoy the experience of guiding someone toward their competence and independence as they become skilled in the computer field.  Secondly, I love facilitating the environment of students working together (any number over one works).  When students are able to work together their learning increases dramatically compared with learning by themselves.  Working together promotes a more creative and enriched environment for problem solving which constantly challenges students as they face the ever changing field of computer technology.

For many of my students this approach to learning has been a turning point in their training. I got started teaching early in my learning when I began assisting my own classmates on how to use computers and software when I was in high school. I was then given the key to the classroom and was able to use the computers at the school in the evening which gave me the freedom and time I needed to excel. I have always been very thankful to my teachers for trusting and investing in me and now I have a chance to give back.

Today I teach these topics:

• CompTIA A+ Software and Hardware
• Installation and maintenance of Microsoft Office 2000 and newer versions
• Basic and advanced use of Microsoft Office 2000 and newer
• Basic understanding of how a computer network is functioning
• Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 server and Microsoft Windows Professional/XP
• Microsoft Frontpage 200x (basics)
• Microsoft Project 2000 and newer versions (basics)
• Basic Linux (installation and basics)

I am used to teaching students in diverse settings depending on what you need and want (i.e. private tutorials, seminars or in a traditional classroom setting). I bring more than 20 years of professional work in the computer field to the classroom.