Hi Nicholas,
Could you give us a bit more information (a screenshot might be very helpful here..please not in top, orthographic view).
Two things that come to mind, are that you don’t have the correct Faces or Edges Selected, or you have Individual Origins enabled as Pivot Point.
But, seeing that you have a problem with Extruding, please consider watching this first:
https://cgcookie.com/courses/blender-basics-an-introduction-to-blender-4-x
