INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

You may wonder why you need to keep up with Information Technology, or you may be a person who only occasionally uses computers.  The days are gone when books and publications are the only learning resources that you can tap into, and most future employers will expect you to have a basic competency with standard word processing and/or spreadsheet packages.

Try to keep abreast of current developments in IT, particularly in your chosen field but do keep a balance. Using computers can absorb an enormous amount of your time and it is all too easy to play rather than learn.  You can, of course, learn a lot about techniques of presentation from games; games for example do need to keep their audiences 'interested and participating', but it is all too easy to get carried away so you need to ration your precious time accordingly.

If particular IT skills are necessary for your future employment, or you feel weak in any particular area then there are several ways in which you might improve yourself.

• Look out for courses run within the university
• Look out for courses run at local further education colleges or other local universities, particularly during recess periods.
• Local libraries often have suitable equipment and training packages, but you may need to pre-book.
• If you are working part-time, you may find your employer offers some IT training.
• Use the university 'help sheets'.
• In addition, the University Book shop carries a wide range of self-teaching books on IT.  Of particular note are those that 'visually' show you how to use a piece of software by displaying coloured screen images of each function and how to apply them.

It seems from the lecturers' side, that students seem to cope more easily with computers than they do, but this is not always the case and so don't be put off if you feel bewildered or lost with IT.  We all had to start somewhere and given the rate of computer development it is impossible to keep up with everything.  So if you start getting that familiar 'I'll never remember it all' feeling try not to be discouraged.  We all feel like that most of the time. Don't expect to remember everything and don't be afraid to ask; staff and fellow students are useful in these circumstances.  Frequent use and repetition will help things become more familiar and less overwhelming.

In fact you are often better off not trying to learn where a particular menu item is on the screen or what short-cut keys do what.  These are useful skills if you use a particular package very regularly, but will be of little use if your prospective employer uses another package.  Instead try to learn what a particular type of package is capable of, rather than how do I do it with this package.  If you learn for example that most word processing packages can 'check your spelling'; 'search and replace text'; produce a number of different type faces - italic, bold, etc.'; 'automatically add page numbers'; 'alter the justification and line spacing' … etc., then these are valuable lessons.  And when facing a different word processing package you will simply need to search the on-screen menus (or the help files) to locate the correct one for that particular package.  It's a bit like learning to drive a car.  Cars have their hand brakes, their light switches, their gear levers, their seat adjustment levers etc.… all in different places.  But we soon adjust within a short time of getting into an unfamiliar car because you already know what these items can do, you simply have to find, by trial and error, where they are.

'Housekeeping'

Finally for this section some very important 'housekeeping' tips.

• Keep backup copies of everything you do – Yes I know it takes a little longer, but think what happens when you lose all that work because the disk gets corrupted or the computer goes wrong!  Get into the habit NOW of saving your work to more than one disk.  Ideally you should save your work every hour.  In this way you would lose, at worst, only one hour's work.
  
  
• If you can afford the extra floppy disks, try to keep an additional 'daily' backup of your work.  And when you get home, store it safely and separately from your bag or your home computer.  This way if things get lost or stolen, you are unlikely to lose the backup.  Again I know this takes time, but it happens all too often, that students lose their major piece of coursework right near the end of the semester and panic to catch up.  Plus it never seems as good as the first attempt.
  
  
• If you use your own computer, remember to keep your files organised and tidy.  Delete any really unnecessary files or, if not sure, back them up onto disks (see above) and off your machine.  They take up space and slow down the performance of the machine.