Desktop Publishing

Desktop publishing is a great way for students and teachers to provide information to their selected audience in an easy and creative way. Teaching students to plan what information they want to convey and then giving them the opportunity to choose from different formats, i.e. poster, newsletter, greeting card, sign, etc... helps students think critically and consider design aspects as well. Students in my technology club are going to be working on print and video public service announcements towards the end of the semester about our school. They will use desktop publishing and word for their print ads. I then hope to use these students as peer tutors for other students and perhaps for their teachers .
I, like most, have used Microsoft Word for basic word processing. It was very enlightening to find out about the tracking capabilities. My daughter is a freshman at Texas State and often sends me papers to critique. I have played around with inserting comments, but she or I knew how to get them off once they were there. She'll be glad to know that she does have the option of accepting or declining my changes. This will also be great to share with language arts teachers to use with their writing students. I'm already planning staff development sessions on all the skills I've learned through this course. I can't wait to learn more!