Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Ada Lovelace Day

via Wikipedia...
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; as such she is often regarded as the world's first computer programmer.

In celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, I pledged to write a blog post about a woman in science or technology that I admire. This year I'd like to write about someone more local. Beth Still is a social studies teacher at an alternative high school in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. She is the creator of the Nebraska Educators Network.

For about two years, I've been following @bethstill in Twitter and love her passion for technology. Beth seems to understand technology is a tool for learning and not an obstacle to overcome.

After following her Twitter, I found her blog, Nebraska Change Agent. A good read for anyone involved in educational technology. She's passionate about technology use in education and promoting the importance of a Professional Learning Network (PLN). Perhaps that's why I'm intrigued about Beth. Her passion for learning and interest in technology. Both are very important to me as well.

I know I'm not the only one who admires Beth. She was interviewed for an article, Spreading the Ed Tech Word 140 Characters at a Time, on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) website. Beth wrote Creating the Perfect Social Networking Profile for the September issue of the Nebraska Educational Technology Association Newsletter. She has also been a guest blogger on Free Technology for Teachers and Moving at the Speed of Creativity. When ever I hear that Beth has written something or contributed, I make a point to read it. I hope you will, too.

You may think from reading this that I know Beth personally, but I do not. We've tweeted, but we have not met in person. Someday I hope to change that. In the meantime, I'll continue to follow her via Twitter, her blog and what ever else she picks up along the way.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Word 2007: AutoSummarize


Word has a little used but handy feature called AutoSummarize. It identifies the key points in a document. You can select whether to highlight key points in a document, insert an executive summary or abstract at the top of a document, create a new document and put the summary there, or hide everything but the summary.
Please note that AutoSummarize works best on well-structured documents, such as reports, articles, and scientific papers.
Before you can use AutoSummarize in Microsoft Office Word 2007, you need to add AutoSummary Tools to the Quick Access Toolbar.
  1. Click the Microsoft Office Button Button image, and then click Word Options.
  2. Click Customize.
  3. In the list under Choose commands from, click All Commands.
  4. Scroll through the list of commands until you see AutoSummary Tools.
  5. Click AutoSummary Tools, and then click Add.
Show me Demo image for adding AutoSummarize Tools