What are you passionate about?

Mark Hayward Question 1: What are you passionate about?

Teaching computers is my biggest passion. I’m a certified Microsoft Office instructor, which usually means teaching in a classroom to students who either want to learn or have been told to take a course for their job. The former are the easiest students to teach. They’ve usually had a chance to use the program and have formed their own questions about it already. But the students who are most fun to teach are the ones who’ve been told they have to learn this stuff. The ones who are reluctant to even walk in the door. Those students are the ones I try and infect with my enthusiasm.

Teaching a good class takes a lot of energy. You explain the concept and show them how to do it. Then they do it themselves and ask you questions. As an instructor, you have to be mentally prepared to answer any and all questions. And I’d rather take the time to explain the concept properly than just skip past it so quickly the student doesn’t have a chance to take it in.

A different type of teaching is by example. I’m sure there are many Moms and Dads around who know this. But when you want something done correctly, then you have to be able to display and demonstrate that action correctly yourself. It’s a very tall order.

For example, at The Working Centre, we had placement students. I would have them type documents, and to save on time I would be incredibly specific about the formatting I wanted. Bold here, underline there. 3 points of space here, Calibri there. I would usually hand the placement student a sheet with hand-written notes all over detailing precisely how I wanted everything formatted. As their teacher, I’d tie in skills learned in class, such as format painter. It’s one of my favourites; one of the greatest commands in MS Word, it allows you to copy formatting and apply it from paragraph to paragraph, document to document. In fact I thought I’d ranted about it’s usefulness before on the blog. (I know I have in the real world!) It’s going on the list!

This kind of teaching has also served me well at the OnTech Computers store. The co-op students need to learn the correct way to do things as quickly as possible. And being 16/17 years old, they’re going to pick things up quickly, regardless. So it’s best to show it right the first time.

I have a lot of knowledge about MS Office, and I love sharing it with others. I’m very proud of my accomplishments in training.

Web View: Password Protection

We’re constantly being told to make sure passwords are strong enough. But the word is out. We’re lazy. And being lazy, we choose the easiest way out of picking a different password for each site we sign up for. The most common passwords are variations of:

• Your first name/spouses name/children/parents names


• 123456


• QWERTY


• ABC123


• Movies/singers/TV shows

So listen up, people. It’s time to learn. To keep your personal information secure, change your methods. Instead of a password, use a pass-phrase. For example, pick your favourite movie. Let’s imagine it’s Ghostbusters. What’s the catchphrase? Who you gonna call? Et voila! A new passphrase. It’s longer than normal, automatically making it harder to guess. It’s not directly related to you (unless you quote that phrase all the time, in which case choose another phrase). Mix some numbers into it to make it harder to guess e.g. Wh0y0ug0nnacall?

Do NOT write it on your computer. Or near your computer. You must remember this in your head! It sounds silly, but we just had a customer hand in his laptop this week with the password written on the outside lid of his laptop, in permanent marker. Get in the habit of changing your password every few months. And consider why you implemented the password in the first place. So often, I hear parents talk of setting up a password to keep their kids off the computer, only to give the kids the password the next day.

Progress and news

Well, I've got a lot to catch up on. Updates to post, questions to answer ... and blog mediums to consider.

It's about 9:30pm right now. I'm just having supper, having spent (another) long day at the store. I don't begrudge to time I spend there, but it leaves me with very little time to focus on the blog. Or at least in the format the blog currently exists in.

Everytime I want to make a post, I have to go to the www.blogspot.com webpage. Then I log in. Then I click New Post and start typing. Which is pretty frustrating when I have an idea for a post that I want to start now and save for later. It means saving a file, making sure I can take the file home, saving any files I want to attach like photos (which I prefer to link to directly) etc.

What I want to be able to do is to start a blog post at work, NOT post it immediately, and then continue it from another computer anywhere I like. It sounds pretty ambitious, but I think I've found a way to do it. John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing (someone I'd recommend to anyone starting their own business!) has been strongly recommending a program called Word Press for a while, and I'm going to give it a shot. The address will still be the same, and the text will all still be mine, but it is intended to be easier for me to post to, giving me more incentive to post more often.

Combine all this technolomogical stuff with the hour or so I want to spend writing each day (wish me luck!), and the added bonus of answering 31 blog post questions from Mark Hayward over the next month, and I think we're looking forward to a very busy time for the next little while.

My statcounter says that over 1000 people have viewed this blog so far. Thankl you all so much! I hope you've found the blog helpful. If any of you have any questions, please don't be shy. I will answer all questions that I can, and find answers to those I don't know, for you! My email is officegirlgreen@gmail.com, and you can ask anything you want! As much as I want the blog to stay focused on MS Office and basic computer tips, I also want it to be able to showcase our storea little, and to focus on interesting things I find online. To help with that, I will be inviting Rob (my husband and business partner) to post here sometimes too. There are several really useful applications he's found online recently that I thought he might like to share with you, so expect to see an additional writer here in the near future.

Take care,

Jess

Make a Referral - jump start the economy

I'm pledging to make a referral to a business I want to help as part of a national campaign to make 1000 referrals March 9-13. What a great small business stimulus plan.

View >>

Tee hee, that doesn't sound too cheesy. It's an interesting idea though, that I'm experimenting with. The idea is that you refer people to other businesses online. There's a week dedicated to the promotion at the beginning of March, and it should be interesting at least. So for any of you reading who own a small business, please feel free to join in by clicking the link above. For everyone else, we'll be resuming normal service this week!

Busy busy busy!

Well, we've been incredibly busy recently, so I'm sorry that I haven't posted in the last week or so. I'm still trying out blogging programs, but it looks as if I will need to upgrade my computer to XP to run some of the better programs.

I'd like to thank everyone who has emailed asking MS Office questions, and I'd also like to share some of the ways we've been promoting OnTech Computers recently.

We're in the process of renovating the main website, and hope to change the address to something more representative of the business soon.
Our Facebook page has been very popular, and we are posting photographs there, which were taken by one of my formar students. They look great, and show some of the interesting gadgets on display.
Since the store opened, we've been showing movies which are rented from Far Out Flicks, just up the street from our store, and this week we're watching Hero on the Custom Built Gaming PC, with a 22" Widescreen LCD monitor! It looks amazing, and we're very grateful to Far Out Flicks for the oppurtunity to show their movies in the store. Thanks, guys!

We're also promoting with Kava Bean Commons, by the Charles St bus terminal, so you will be able to grab a free coffee there with every purchase you make at OnTech Computers! Coupons are limited and restricted to a first-come, first-served basis. Enjoy!