LEARN SOMETHING TODAY

Welcome to the Technology Learning Zone, the official blog of The Professional Admin. Here you will find the most recent technology information pertaining to the office administration field, and some other tips that will help you in your personal life, too.

I started this blog as part of a technology training I've taking through the Public Library System in my area. This is a work in progress while I learn about a variety of topics including: blogs, RSS Feeds, podcasting, social networking, language learning and more. As time pass by and I master all technological topics included in the training, I'll start adding posts with up-to-date information that I'm sure will be very helpful for you.

I hope you enjoy it.


Thursday, August 20, 2009

Get Connected

About 2 weeks ago, social networking was strange to me. I have heard a lot of people talk about it, but didn't have any interest of joining the new era of communication.

But as I said, it was 2 weeks ago. I decided to join all Facebook users. What a surprise! I started to find some of my classmates from elementary and high school. Thanks to Facebook I discovered that one of my high school friends was on vacation here in Orlando, FL, and we were able to meet after more than 10 years of not seen each other. This is wonderful, you can meet new friends and reunite with old friends.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Get Organized

Did you ever work on a team were all members had different versions of the same document? You will never need to go through that situation again. With Google documents you can have your documents uploaded to the Internet ready to share with your teammates. Everyone will be able to make changes to the same document and the best of all they'll be available from any computer without the need to be making copies on disks or CD's. Check some of my documents stored in Google Docs by clicking in the following links. And, if you want to give it a try go to Google docs and start organizing your life!

QuickBooks Pro Level 1

QuickBooks Pro Level 2

Monday, August 3, 2009

The World In Your Hands

Who hasn't used an online map application to look for driving directions? Since I moved to Orlando, FL online maps are my best friends to anywhere I go. I don't leave my home without looking for driving directions if I'm going to a place for the first time. With CommunityWalk you can create personal or business maps where you can add markers to indicate your favorite places. Look at some of places around My Neighborhood.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Tag, You’re It!

Definitely this is a good solution to bookmarking. I personally have a portable drive which came with an application that store passwords and bookmarks and is my most appreciated gadget because I carry on it all my information. But with a bookmarking site I can share the sites I want with friends and other people.

I selected Diigo for my bookmarks. I picked this one because offer the ability to highlight text, and make sticky notes about the information of your interest in every site I bookmark and keeps it available for me at any time. Others will not see it, but I'll not need to read an article twice. Wonderful!

You can start using some of my sites by looking to my bookmarks page in Diigo. Have fun!

Language Expo

Communicating with people of different languages is a big challenge if you don't know theirs or viceversa. As a member of a hispanic group I understand what it means to learn and speak someone else language, how hard it is, but rewarding at the same time. At the end, you're the one that gets all the benefits and you become bilingual.

Well, when I started reading the lesson about Language Learning and discovered I needed to learn a language I decided to go for a third one and my pick was French. Why? Since I already speak and write English and Spanish I wanted to learn another one. Why not be trilingual! It has been really hard and I'm just starting the second lesson, but I hope I can get something good from it. I have learned so far how to start a conversation when you're meeting someone like: Good Day. How are you doing which in French is Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? and you respond I go well. Thank you and you? which in French is Je vais bien. Merci, Et vous.

One curious and important thing I have learned so far is, the French language makes distintion of gender when talking to someone by using a different word. For example, the word you in English is used when you're talking to someone who is a close friend or someone you're just meeting. In French, like in Spanish two different words are used. If you're talking to a close friend in French you say "tu" (curiously in Spanish we use the same word "tu"), but if you're talking to someone you should show respect or you're just meeting you need to use the word "vous" (in Spanish we use "usted").

Well, this is going to be all for now. I'll continue my journey and keep you posted on how my language lessons are going. Au revoir!