I first saw Excel in action in the early 1990s at a gathering of journalists on the education beat, the annual conference of the Education Writer’s Association in Atlanta. This demo changed the way education reporters around the country handled the piles and piles of test score printouts handed over to us by our local school districts.
I was fascinated by Excel. And intimidated. How do I get from watching this spreadsheet demo to creating stories using this powerful calculator on steroids?
I tell my data journalism students at Ohio University: “Don’t freak out about the math.” If you can do middle school calculations, you can do this. I share the math phobia I had before learning computer-assisted reporting, and confess that I was never all that into computers. But as a working journalist, I knew I had no choice but to learn these skills. And as a faculty member, I have no choice but to teach these skills.
MediaShift
https://mediashift.org/2017/08/overcome-students-fear-excel/