ICT student textbook/Multi page text document

Making a multi page text document
In this activity, you will make a document which covers the various ideas you want to cover, comprehensively, for a topic. You will learn to use different features of a text editor to make this document clear and coherent.

Objectives

1. Creating a rich text document, containing text, images, tables
2. Formatting the text document, to arrange and highlight data
3. Learning the use of different functionalities in text editor

What prior skills are assumed

1. Familiarity with ICT environment
2. Familiarity with the text editor LibreOffice Writer
3. Understanding of data organization
4. Familiarlty in using LibreOffice Calc to create spreadsheet for recording, analysing and presenting data

Resources needed

1. Computer lab with projection equipment
2. Student generated data sets
3. Secondary data sets
4. Handout for LibreOffice Writer

Digital skills

1. Preparing a rich text document

Description of activity with detailed steps

Teacher led activity

Creating a multi-page document

Your teacher will help you create a document, based on all the work you have already done. To make the document more useful to the reader, she will show you the following:

1. Entering the information about the topic being worked on
2. Entering the information tabulated earlier in a spreadsheet, in the form of a table in the document
3. Adding section headings to the document whenever a new idea or sub-topic is being discussed
4. Highlighting sections of the text, using features such as making the fonts bold or italicized. You can also change font size and colour
5. Creating an automatic 'Table of Contents' for your document

Student activities

You should prepare a document for your topic. Practice creating sections in your document, to discuss different sub-topics. Run an automatic spelling check on your document, did you identify any spelling mistakes with this tool? Insert a 'Table of Contents' at the beginning of your document. Insert page numbers and name of your document in the footer of the document. Your document will now look like a professionally prepared output.

This 'digital writing' is quite different from writing in your notebook.You can move text across sections, create new sections, delete sections etc. This fluidity in organizing your text can help you in working on the document in an iterative manner, to produce a good document. It is also easy to make changes in the document created by another student, by adding sections, modifying text etc. Thus digital writing also makes collaborative writing easier. The 'digital writing' processes can enable more students to become comfortable with writing by allowing iterative thinking and writing as well as peer support to the writing processes. You should practice 'digital writing' by revising your own work, including based on feedback from your friends.

You can also export your text document to the PDF format. The PDF format is not editable and can create a version of your work that is available for ever.

Portfolio

1. In your continuing portfolio, you would include a text document, which will discuss your selected topic in detail, across sections (sub-topics).