Category Archives: Featured

How Technology Can Help Students Learn

November 4, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiese-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, teaching tips for computer instructors, tips for teaching computer skillskwalker

With the proliferation of social media sites and gaming apps, it’s easy to see why technology is oftentimes perceived to have a negative effect on our kids. But is it really that bad?

Technology isn’t entirely bad, especially when you consider the role of education technology (ed tech) plays in schools across the nation. When educators use technology in learning, these mentors are helping students use their mobile devices to their advantage instead of their detriment.

Here are a few effective ways to use technology inside the classroom:

Support open source technologies: You don’t have to spend a lot of money on ed tech. Open source applications are free, and they’re also stable and versatile. You won’t have to worry about limiting yourself to one platform.
Support technology adoption: Transitioning to new technology can be challenging, especially if a solution has a learning curve. Make time for familiarizing yourself with a new technology so that you’ll be comfortable using it.
Support teacher empowerment: Ed tech empowers both the students and educators. You can help your students more if you use a solution that gives you the ability to do your job more efficiently and easily.

Need more tips like these? Visit us at Labyrinth Learning or send us a message!

Why Your Accounting Department Should Start Using Quickbooks

October 31, 2013Featured, UncategorizedBettering a Business with Technology, computer accounting methods, tips for teaching computer skills, Uses and applications of Quickbookslablearning

People who have studied accounting understand the tedious and time-consuming effort needed to complete even a single financial statement. Not to mention the frustration of having to start over because of a single mistake, which can render an entire document useless. For businesses, using a robust and easy to use accounting software like QuickBooks is a great solution.

Why Your Accounting Department Should Start Using Quickbooks — Utilize Quickbooks to better manage the accounting in your business.

QuickBooks is the number one rated accounting software in the United States for a good reason. Here is a small selection of the reasons to start using QuickBooks:

QuickBooks can help accountants produce the same results in much less time compared to manual calculation. Better still, its speed means that new information can be incorporated into its financial statements as soon as it comes in, meaning that businesses will have up-to-date information for use in their decision-making processes at all times.
The chance of human error is reduced because QuickBooks can pull information straight from common business programs.
Considering the benefits of using QuickBooks, it is relatively inexpensive.
QuickBooks is scalable because it can continue providing businesses with the same benefits even as their operations expand and increase in number. At the same time, QuickBooks is versatile because it can be customized to meet the needs of organizations ranging from non-profits to retailers and manufacturers.
Given both the length of its existence and the number of its users, there can be no doubt that QuickBooks is reliable.
Learning to use QuickBooks is simple so as to minimize the disruption to businesses from switching over.

For more on QuickBooks, contact us at Labyrinth Learning.

Image Source: jannoon028 (freedigitalphotos)

Lighten Up with These Fun Uses for Microsoft Excel

October 22, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiescourse management software, e-learning resources, Learn How to Use Excelkwalker

Lighten Up with These Fun Uses for Excel — Source: freedigitalphotos

Excel users have found that the software can be used for much more than just spreadsheets. Have fun with Excel by trying some of these creative ideas that will help students and employees become more familiar with the software.

Turn photos into spreadsheets. Through utilizing the conditional formatting feature, you can convert photos into spreadsheets to make pixel art.
Create works of art. With the shapes and illustration tools in Excel, you can create beautiful pieces of artwork. The only limit is your imagination.
Create animated GIFs. By treating every cell in the spreadsheet as a pixel, you can make form cartoon pictures that can be easily transformed into animated GIFs.
Play a game. Arena.XIsm is a free role playing game created for Excel featuring more than 2,000 enemies at different difficulty levels, 12 pre-programmed arenas, and four endings to the story. If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you can even modify the game.

For more ideas for teaching software in your organization or school, contact us at Labyrinth Learning.

Labyrinth Learning Provides Assessment Tools to Help High-Reaching Students

October 3, 2013Featured, News & Eventsassessing student performance, e-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, teaching computer literacy, tools for studentskwalker

Education is changing rapidly due to technology for students and many bright teenagers would like to move quickly through the secondary school system. A new bill introduced in the Wisconsin legislature would allow middle school children to earn high school class credit, similar to the advanced placement programs in many states that allow high school students to take community college classes for credit.

Student Assessment Computer Software — Source: Shutter Stock

12 and 13-year old kids may be lacking in the essential computer skills needed to use word processing programs or spreadsheets. These programs are necessary in high school and college. Labyrinth Learning has the resources to help bridge the gap between what students have learned and what they need to know and help them more easily excel in their new environment.

In addition middle school teachers need tools to evaluate computer technology skills and work with students as facilitators while students learn and improve their skills. This facilitation will be made easier with technology for students that can be implemented in the classroom for these students who are excelling.

Labyrinth Learning has the necessary resources to bring young students and teachers together for a positive learning environment.

Labyrinth Learning Textbooks & Learning Solutions Offer An Affordable Alternative

September 30, 2013Featured, News & Eventse-learning resources, Excel keyboard shortcuts, Labyrinth Learning, textbookskwalker

For many adults, the first experience with sticker shock happens in the most unlikely of ways – buying textbooks for college. After working hard, saving money, and scraping together the funds to pay for ever-increasing tuition statements, it can be heartbreaking to see the prices of the textbooks in the college bookstore. In an article by NBC contributor Martha C. Wright reports college textbooks have experienced triple-digit inflation over the past several years. The average college student has to spend $1200 on books each year, $1250 if they attend a private school.

student textbooks — Source: Freedigitalphotos.net

As a result, professors, administrators and students are looking for more affordable alternatives, but so far there isn’t a mainstream solution. In fact, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group reported that as many as 70% of students have admitted to not buying textbooks that are “required” because they simply can’t afford them, which negatively impacts their academic performance. One of the biggest contributors to expensive textbooks is that the publishers continually create “new editions,” using virtually the same material, making it difficult for students with old copies to find the same chapter or practice materials by page number.

This is one of the reasons why Labyrinth Learning has been so committed to producing high-quality textbooks and eLearning materials for an affordable price. We love learning, and we don’t think finances should limit students from getting the best possible education. Contact us at Labyrinth Learning to purchase top-quality, affordable textbooks for your classroom.

Add Symbols With Alt Codes

September 26, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiese-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, Microsoft Excel 2013, Microsoft Office 2013, teaching computer literacy, tips for teaching computer skillskwalker

At the most basic level, computer literacy means being able to navigate universally utilized software programs, such as the Microsoft Office Suite, knowing how to type in a reasonably quick manner (QWERTY style preferred!), and understanding how to use printers, scanners, and other basic computer accessories. Then there are the tricks that take your computer literacy to the next level; adding symbols with Alt codes is one example.

In a basic computer course, students learn to insert codes by using the editor feature of the program, scrolling to “insert” and then selecting the code they want to use. This is fine for the very occasional code, but what about the symbols you use on a regular basis? Perhaps you’re writing about a product that is trademarked™, you work with products or scenarios that are temperature specific°, or you incorporate foreign words that use accent symbols to enhance their pronunciación. In these cases, the Alt codes are your most efficient choices.

Keyboard short cuts — Source: Stock Exchange

To insert an Alt code (on Macs, use the Option key), you simply place the cursor where you want the symbol to appear, and then press Alt+Number Code. Voila! The symbol, or letter with an accent, will appear.

Here are some common examples:

Alt+0153 = ™
Alt+0162 = ¢
Alt+0169 = ©
Alt+0177 = ±
Alt+0225 = á
Alt+0233 = é
Alt+0237 = í
Alt+0243 = ó
Alt+0250 = ú
Alt+0241 = ñ

Visit Labyrinth Learning to review textbooks that will enhance your students’ computer literacy.

How Can Technology Enhance Learning?

September 19, 2013Featured, News & Eventse-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, technology enhancing learninglablearning

Technology education enhances the classroom experience for instructors and students. In addition to keeping information organized and accessible 24/7, technology allows the learning process to be more social, which can be a more powerful learning experience for students.

Here are ways technology can enhance the learning process for both educators and their students.

Technology for the Educator

Paper-free organization. Online technology allows educators to keep materials organized, and allows access to video streaming and YouTube. This eliminates the need for making copies, purchasing/ storing DVDs, and minimizes time spent putting materials together for students who have missed class.

Enhances instructor-student communication. In many classrooms, the outgoing students get their questions answered, leaving introverted students at the wayside. Technology allows professors to communicate via chats and emails with students who might not have reached out otherwise. Teachers can also communicate with students outside of class regarding project updates, text/quiz reminders, etc.

Become a facilitator. As education breaks away from the top-down teaching approach, technology allows educators to be more like facilitators, using technology as a self-directed learning modality for students.

Technology for the Student

Self-paced learning. When resources, lectures, notes, etc. are available to students online, students have control over their learning process, and can work at their own pace, any time, anywhere.

Increased learning styles. Students have a wider range of visual and auditory learning materials at their disposal, increasing their engagement.

Collaboration. Technology education allows students to collaborate with one another on projects and in study groups.

Labyrinth Learning offers a variety of materials to enhance technology education.

What Makes an Effective PowerPoint Presentation?

September 16, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiese-learning resources, effective PowerPoint presentation, Labyrinth Learning, PowerPoint learninglablearning

Learning to use PowerPoint is the first step to creating an effective presentation. However, if you succumb to common pitfalls, or don’t maximize its potential, you may find your presentations fall flat.

Here are tips to make your PowerPoint presentations as effective as possible.

Avoid common pitfalls: Sometimes, the information in the presentation is great, but the slides are lacking because the presenter succumbs to common pitfalls such as:
- Illegible fonts: It’s exciting to see all the different font styles available. It’s not as exciting if you choose fonts that are difficult to read, or vary them so often they become overwhelming. Choose one or two legible fonts, and stick with them.
- Crazy colors. Just as differing fonts can confuse the eye, so can clashing colors, or too many colors. Make sure the colors you select increase legibility.
- Cramming. Don’t cram information on your slides. Slides should highlight key points. You are better off making more slides, so each one has digestible portions of information.
Know your audience. You don’t want to present to the lowest common denominator, but you don’t want to teach above the audience’s ability either. Keep your information aimed at the mid-level.
Graphics and animations. Use graphics and animation features to enhance your slides, but be careful not to overdo it.
Make them interactive. There are multiple features that allow your PowerPoint presentations to be interactive, and more effectively engage audience members.

Learning to use PowerPoint, or taking a refresher course, can bring your office staff up-to-date. Contact Labyrinth Learning for PowerPoint instructional materials.

Advanced Excel Spreadsheet Functions You Need to Know

September 13, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiese-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, Microsoft Excel 2013, tips for teaching computer skillslablearning

Every time students or employees take a course on Microsoft Excel 2013, they learn valuable skills that increase their efficiency. Some of these skills are simple, such as copying and transferring formulas from one spreadsheet to another. However, there are more advanced functions that make Excel even more valuable in the workplace.

Creating drop down lists. Using advanced spreadsheet functions, you can create a drop down list. Taking advantage of drop down lists limits the amount of entries that can be entered into a specific cell to a pre-determined list of entries, providing a higher level of quality control. It also saves time on data entry and prevents errors.

Conditional cell formatting. We would wager most regular Excel users don’t know how to take advantage of this feature. Conditional formatting allows users to create specific formatting rules, depending on the information or data contained in the cell. For example, you may want number higher than 1000 to appear in bold, or negative dollar values to appear in red. Cells can have up to three different formatting conditions.

Goal Seek feature. Excel ‘s Goal Seek feature works in the opposite way of formulas. You enter the goal you are trying to attain, whether it be total retirement earnings, or determining what it would take to decrease your total business loan payments, Goal Seek will show you what’s required to get there.

Labyrinth Learning has a wide range of textbooks and learning tools to help your students and employees master introductory and advanced features in Microsoft Excel 2013.

Businesses Seek Tools to Improve Teamwork

September 9, 2013Featured, News & Eventseducational software for adults, Labyrinth Learning, tools to improve teamworklablearning

As the modern workforce becomes increasingly mobile, businesses across the globe seek tools to improve teamwork and company-wide collaboration. One of the most effective innovations to break down geographic barriers is Microsoft 365. As this article in The Guardian points out, it’s not just the “whenever” and “wherever” that appeals to corporations, but also the “however” factor that matters.

Whether your offices are spread out across the sate, the nation or the globe, Microsoft 365 allows employees who have never met face-to-face to collaborate on projects. Prior to cloud-based technology, this might involve complex time scheduling across differing time zones, multiple copies of the same report or spreadsheet and a ton of wasted paper. Now, with just a little technology education to learn Microsoft 365 employees can collaborate from anywhere, anytime and within the same documents, spreadsheet and presentations.

But, let’s take a step back for a moment. In order to use Microsoft 365 effectively, users need to be proficient at the tools in the Microsoft Suite. This is where Labyrinth Learning comes in. We have developed a wide range of training materials and tools that are specifically designed to keep professionals up-to-date with current MS Office software.

We even offer a FastCourse series, in three different levels, that work in a day or less to get employees up to speed on the newest MS features and changes. Once their skills are honed, they can effectively collaborate with team members across the company spectrum.