Technology Tip of the Week - February 7, 2006

Using Virtual "Sticky Notes"

All of us use the famous Post-It© Notes as reminders but did you know that Outlook has this same Notes feature? That's right - no more getting adhesive all over your monitor!

To use Outlook's Notes feature:

Click the Notes button on the Outlook bar (for Outlook 98/2000/2002 XP) or at the bottom of the Navigation Pane (Outlook 2003)

Click the New Note button on the toolbar OR press Ctrl -Shift - N

Type your virtual "sticky" note

Click the Close button to save the note

All notes you create will appear in the Notes view. To access the Notes view in Outlook 2003 from the menu bar, click on Go - Notes or press Ctrl - 5. To modify a Note just double-click on it in Notes view to open it. To delete a note, simply select the note you want to delete and press the Delete key.

Using this feature, you'll never lose a sticky note again! This is also great for jotting down quick notes when you are on the phone.

For more help with this feature, please contact one of the faculty mentors - Tony Basilico (abasilico@ccri.edu) or Luis Malaret (lmalaret@ccri.edu) or one of the IT Instructional Support team (Norm Grant, Gene Grande or Linda Beith).

Website of the Week

Music and the Brain by Laurence O'Donnell

"The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activate the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, causes the brain to be more capable of processing information.

According to The Center for New Discoveries in Learning, learning potential can be increased a minimum of five times by using this 60 beats per minute music. For example, the ancient Greeks sang their dramas because they understood how music could help them remember more easily ). A renowned Bulgarian psychologist, Dr. George Lozanov, designed a way to teach foreign languages in a fraction of the normal learning time. Using his system, students could learn up to one half of the vocabulary and phrases for the whole school term (which amounts to almost 1,000 words or phrases) in one day. Along with this, the average retention rate of his students was 92%. Dr. Lozanov's system involved using certain classical music pieces from the baroque period which have around a 60 beats per minute pattern. He has proven that foreign languages can be learned with 85-100% efficiency in only thirty days by using these baroque pieces. His students had a recall accuracy rate of almost 100% even after not reviewing the material for four years." Read more at: http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

Some faculty may use music as students are filing in before class to set the tone, some may use it playing softly during group work to enhance productivity or creativity. Do you use music with your classes?

Feel free to post your thoughts or opinions of the site in the Teaching Forum message board.

These tips are provided by the Department of Information Technology instructional support team. If you have any questions on these tips, or wish to offer your own, please feel free to contact Linda Beith at lbeith@ccri.edu. View an archive of past technology tips at http://it.ccri.edu/Training/Tips/tip_week.shtml