A Mississippi State University professor is earning recognition for her contributions to a new text that teaches keyboarding and two popular computer software packages.
Connie Forde, a professor in technology and education, is a co-author of "College Keyboarding," published in three books by South-Western Educational Publishing. Other authors are Susie VanHuss of the University of South Carolina, C. H. Duncan of Eastern Michigan University and Donna Woo of Cypress Community College (Calif.).
Forde is in New York this week to attend a national meeting for the National Business Education Association, where South-Western is hosting an autograph session for the book's authors. Forde is immediate past president of the organization. She and co-author VanHuss are presenting their teaching approach and demonstrating the texts to business education teachers from around the country.
Developed to give college students proficiencies in keyboarding skills and in using recent WordPerfect and Word for Windows software packages, the three-volume text, now in its 14th edition, also contains new information about applications such as presentation graphics and spreadsheets.
"We're taking an entirely new approach," Forde noted. Geared for three class semesters, the text lets students master basic skills before progressing to more sophisticated tasks. A keyboarding software program allows them to check their work while it is in progress and will indicate the speed and accuracy of their efforts.
In the advanced class, students learn how to produce compound documents and learn applications such as desktop publishing.
A new feature throughout is "news and views," which provides information about workplace issues and trends. Also new is a section on ergonomics for computer-users. Its comprehensive approach makes the text unique, the publisher says. "This is the first keyboarding text designed exclusively for the computer user," according to South-Western.