Computer Skills Curriculum Guide | Computer Skills Curriculum Guide.

Curriculum Outline for Computer Skills.

The following outline is created as a suggestion for teaching computer skills during the Hostos College Now- Summer Intensive English Language Program, SIELP. The curriculum was designed to fit into a six-week program with semi-daily or daily one hour computer skills sessions. Educators are encouraged to edit, add or remix the topics and suggested activities. The items in this curriculum have been designed for a City University of New York (CUNY) student population. Activities and resources are suggested in the third column as ideas and there may not be enough time to implement all activities listed during the program. Activities and content have been designed to develop college readiness as well.

Materials Required:

Internet connected computer devices.
Access to web browsers with unrestricted access to the internet.
Google accounts for any google products.
Apple (iOs, Sheets, Numbers, Pages) and/or Microsoft products (Word, Powerpoint, Excel).

Note: This curriculum outline provides a general framework for a six-week computer skills curriculum. The specific software tools and applications mentioned are just examples, and the curriculum can be adapted based on the available resources and the needs of the students, teachers, and/or program.

SUGGESTED SUB-TOPICS

FOR LECTURES, ACTIVITIES, OBJECTIVES.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES & RESOURCES

WEEK ONE

Assessment & Intro to Computer Skills.

Assess students and ask them what questions they have related to computer skills. The K.W.L. model is recommended.

Computer Basics: Microsoft, Macintosh, Linux. Web-based Search Engines, Saving Files & File Types, Online Safety.

Word Processing: Microsoft, Pages & Google Docs. (font styles, alignment, spacing, indents, title page, insert table, insert images, page #’s, headers, footers, end note, footnotes, title of your documents, and headings).

Online Communications (sending emails, CC vs BCC, adding attachments & Links)

Activity: As an assessment of what students are able to do, ask students to email the professor with a CC to the TA with the information below in bulleted format. Students should include a formal style of communication.

State their preferred email address for communications.
State which web browser they use most often.
Attach a file of their choice with one sentence description of the file (students may create a file or find something online).
Add a link to a college they are interested in attending OR
Send a link with more information about the field trip destination for the week.

Professor or TA should respond to the email with comments and edits.

WEEK TWO

Digital Presentation Skills.

Creating slideshows for course projects (Microsoft Powerpoint, Google Slides, Canva, Prezi, Padlet, TimelineJS).

Presentations & Effective Storytelling.

How to download presentations.

How to change share settings.

Activity: Ask students to produce a college readiness vision board (1-2 slides) with their goals, interests, academic & career goals.

Each vision board can include:

At Least one photo/image.
A link to 2-3 colleges or universities the student is interested in attending (it could be the general college webpage, or a direct link to the department, major, or program the student is interested in).
List of 2-3 (academic and/or personal goals) for the next three years.

Students should email a link and add the presentation as an attachment to the professor with a CC to TA.

WEEK THREE

Online Communications & Digital Identities.

Emailing (review).

Tracking changes on documents.

Collaborating on a document.

Online ethics & responsible online behavior (email accounts, email signatures, social media presence, avatars, comments & online reviews, personal branding)

Ask students to google themselves and see what information may come up.

Activity: Have students write an entry on google docs (or other online collaborative document with editing capability; alternatively, students can do this by tracking changes on a Microsoft Word doc). Engage students in a peer-editing process to add comments, and make suggestions & edits to a document that belongs to a peer.

Students can also use this as an opportunity to draft an essay if they are working on one, or they can write a paragraph/journal entry based on a prompt provided by the professor.

Students should engage in a peer response/editing process by adding comments or suggesting changes to the collaborative document.

Best practice is to pair up students in groups of 3-5 to more strategically work on collaborative documents.

Remind students to share the document with professor and TA.

WEEK FOUR

Spreadsheets & Digital Tools.

Using digital spreadsheets to create databases.

Activity: Use excel (google sheets and/or alternative program) to create a budget for 2-3 colleges & universities students wish to attend. Students should include the cost of tuition, fees, room & board, food, social expenses, transportation, savings, and more.

Activity: Students can create a database for scholarships they find. This should be on an online digital program so that all students can add content simultaneously. They can then choose to download and keep this database for their future college plans.

WEEK FIVE

Digital Archives & Online resources for coursework.

Accessing online libraries (CUNY, NYPL, BKLYN Public Libraries, Schomburg Center, Google Scholar).

CUNY Digital History Archive.

How to cite and plagiarism.

Activity: Using the CDHA (link TBA).

Students can practice finding academic resources of their choice and developing a collaborative course bibliography (also known as a references page, or a works cited).

WEEK SIX

Final Digital Project

Optional subtopics: Graphic Design, Website Development, Multimedia Creation and Editing (wordpress, academic commons).

Activity: Student showcase for what they learned. Students can create an online digital presentation to show what they learned throughout the program.

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Notes