Prerequisite Technology Skills

All students are required to have certain technology competencies before beginning graduate work at the Graduate School of Education.

Instructors will assume that you have the following skills on the first day of class:

  • Ability to create folders/directories
  • Ability to find files
  • Ability to save files to removable media
  • Ability to use a web browser and search the Internet
  • Ability to bookmark web pages for future reference
  • Ability to play audio and video files
  • Familiarity with a word processing program
  • Familiarity with a spreadsheet program
  • Familiarity with a computer operating system (Windows or MacOS)
  • Have and use an email account
  • Ability to send and receive email attachments
  • Ability to troubleshoot basic technology issues
  • Familiarity with fair use and ADA considerations

To acquire these skills, students may take courses at a continuing education program, a computing-training center, or community college. These skills can also be self taught with the help of a textbook or the instruction manual for the specific software.

Because numerous courses in the program require additional technical competencies, students may wish to augment their basic proficiencies after entering their program by taking advantage of a variety of workshops on campus. Workshops are offered through UB Information Technology and the UB libraries.