Pamela Passman, a lawyer who's been with Microsoft for 13 years and oversees the company's feel-good efforts, is launching a new program to educate technologically illiterate Americans. She could start with herself!

Here's Passman in 2006, talking about her ineptness with Microsoft PowerPoint, a cornerstone of Microsoft's $12.5 billion-a-year Office franchise:

don't know if any of you have ever listened to a speech by someone from Microsoft, but my colleagues love to use PowerPoint slides to illustrate their talks. I am a bit of old-fashioned, much to the disappointment of my 11-year-old daughter, who-being far more versed in the multimedia capabilities of the PC than I-offered to prepare a whiz-bang PowerPoint deck for my speech today. She insists that I'm just afraid of a computer glitch while giving speeches-and hey, what can I say. Bill Gates may be able to finesse his way through a technology breakdown on stage…but I'm sticking with paper for now!

Pamela, may we recommend, for $14.99, "Course 5431: Getting Started with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007"?