September 2009 Archives

These sessions are designed with the busy person in mind.  Each starts @ 9:30 and runs about an hour and thirty minutes.  They are hands-on and delivered in a very laid back setting, focusing on single skill or topic.  This allows you, the student, to ask questions and interact with the instructors and try it for yourself on the spot.  We have had a good response to these offerings and folks seem to be learning new skills and enjoying the relaxed sessions. 

Here is a list of the next 6 sessions.  Don't wait to sign up because class sizes is limited

Class Schedule:

Class #1 - October 13th, 9:30 a.m., - "Using First-Call - Learn how to access First-Call and how to use the new support/help desk system" -instructors Aimee Sandifeer and Weldon Floyd

Class #2 - November 10th, 9:30 a.m., - "Learning how to use Adobe LiveCycle - How to create interactive PDF forms using Adobe LiveCycle" - instructors Jim Segers and Jeffrey SoRelle

Class #3 - December 8th, 9:30 a.m., - "Collaboration via GroupWise 7 - Learn how to collaborated with others via GroupWise and discover the real power" - instructors Aimee Sandifeer and Greg Thomas

Class #4 - February 9th, 9:30 a.m., - "Computer Tune Up! - Learn how to use basic free tools to tune up your PC for better performance" - instructors Weldon Floyd and Aimee Sandifeer

Class #5 - March 9th, 9:30 a.m., - "Collaboration via Social Networking  - Learn how to collaborate with others around the world using tools like Google Docs, Face book, and Twitter" - instructors Jim Segers and Greg Thomas

Class #6 - April 13th, 9:30 a.m., - "Learn to how to use Word 07 to create Labels and Envelopes- you must have Word 07" - instructors Steve Paz and Jeffrey SoRelle

To sign up for any session please visit IT Tuesdays

You can add a great customer service feature to your Extension website with just a little bit of know how. This article is focus on County Extension Offices using TECO as their website tool, but Ask an Expert can be used on any website.

What if a visitor to your website has a question?  They get the phone number and call or they could pick out the email address and email.  How about asking online!

The Ask an Expert "widget" can adds a small dialog to your website for your customers to submit a question. Easy as pie. The cool part is you can answer the question, or you can lean on other extension experts nationwide.  Here's how to get started:

No matter what your area of expertise managing in todays tough economy concerns all Extension audiences.  A cooperative project hosted by eXtension named MiTTNet  has assymbled resources to help Extension educators prepare relavent programming.

Here's the link: http://mittnet.extension.org/

MiTTNet has more than 900 educational resources that can be viewed and downloaded for use in local programming by Extension faculty and staff. Unlike www.extension.org, this is NOT a resource for the public, but a directory of educational materials and resources available to Cooperative Extension faculty and staff to use as they help to meet the challenges their clientele are facing in today's economic environment.  The directory is but one part of the Managing in Tough Times initiative.  It will be supplemented by other resources including targeted webinars on relevant subjects as well as alerts about new additions and contributions to the MiTTNet directory.

Twitter has become popular with many people as a way to stay in touch. If you haven't encountered Twitter, it is a micro-blog - meaning you can type in a short message and it goes out to anyone who has chosen to follow your messages. By the way, the short messages are called tweets.

So the natural question is:  how can we use Twitter to reach our customers in Extension?

Let's assume you want to offer Twitter as way for your customers to keep up with Extension in your county.