Blog Post #10: Happy Holidays After a Great Semester!

I enjoyed looking at other students’ blogs because it wasn’t responding to each other JUST about school. It was nice to see other peoples’ lives and that they’re busy, stressed, happy, sad, etc too. The other thing I liked about it is that the class did not allow for a lot of peer to peer communication during class, which is definitely normal for college courses, but the blogs really allowed the classroom to feel like we knew each other even when we didn’t talk. It was also fun to try to figure out who was who… I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would.

I’m interested to see where technology will go next. It’s weird though because when new things come out, I sometimes don’t want to cross over and it makes me feel like one of those old people that cant adjust to the changes, or when someone loses their job to a younger person for lack of knowledge of the new skills needed. It’s hard though, it’s like you learn something and then they’re out with something new! I guess technology related, I’m especially interested in the new cars coming out. I really hope a hybrid truck can be invented because someday (when gas isn’t a hog), I’d like to have my own truck.. I guess my car will do for now haha

I think I need to accept the changes -- I usually do, it just takes some time. When I bought an iPod at the beginning of 2006, it took me a year to actually start putting my OWN music on it. For the longest time I was just letting my friend add everything he had on his onto mine -- so none of it was really my music, but I just didn’t feel like learning how to do it because it was being difficult keeping his songs and adding my own. I finally just deleted all of his and began adding my own. It’s hard because our generation doesn’t like to read directions and I find that when I start to get frustrated with something I don’t want it anymore haha It’s okay, I’m learning…

Happy Holidays to All!

Blog Post #9: Presidential Candidates!

The web-based tool I would use while teaching a high school level history or government class is http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460 up until an election. Of course it may not be able to be used every year as presidential candidates are not heavily discussed every year. However, the year before presidential elections, I think would be a valuable time to teach students not only about the candidates, but also about the importance of looking at all the candidates, the issues/their stances, their experience, etc. It will also help students discover which party they tend to lean towards.

I feel that a tool like this is important because while many Americans have the opportunity to vote, quite a few choose not to. I find the reason for this is lack of knowledge about the candidates. I think a tool like this emphasizes the importance of considering each candidate, each issue, and how they feel about both. If students learn this at a younger age, there is a better chance of adults voting in the future.

The next technology-related skill I would like to learn is mostly just to use excel with greater ease. I find excel to be an extremely valuable program that can be used for many different things. I hope to become much more skilled with it as I continue to use it because I think it could help organize basically ANYthing and can be advantageous in any profession. To continue learning about excel, I hope to use it to organize things such as the financial preparation for a trip, college tuition budgeting, etc.

Blog Post #8: Viruses & Ethics!

Chapter 8 begins with a portion about computer security issues such as viruses, hackers, theft, system failure, etc. Viruses sends a code through the computer and “spreads to any program that accesses the infected file.” Another form of a virus is a worm which gets in a computers memory or network and copies itself repeatedly forcing the computer to potentially shut down. Hackers are people who break into other peoples computers with the intentions of theft or corruption of data. Theft has been a difficult problem in many public places, unfortunately including schools. Although there are some ways to prevent theft, it is becoming increasingly difficult with the popularity of portable equipment. Computer ethics are general moral guidelines for the use of computers, and especially the internet. In schools, it is important to prevent the ability of students to access various objectionable material with teacher observation, parental controls, filters, educational controls, etc. There is consistently emerging technologies today that also help in the classroom. First, the web has been supportive of many classroom activities, research, etc. The classroom has become filled with much more digital media than ever.

I found our final project to be beneficial because it really culminated a lot of the things we did this year. It made us really think about the classroom as a whole like a professional teacher. Our plan was for a marketing class and their assignment was to create an add for a new or newly developed product. It was hard because there’s so many potential things that could better the students’ learning experience, and more importantly, many things the basic classroom needed us to purchase for the students as it was rather bare when we started. It was interesting “pitching” an idea to the fictional principal, and I like to make PowerPoint’s!

Finally done with exams and it feels GREAT!! I’m really excited to start the new semester and see how my classes are… I had a great semester with a new job and involvement in a lot of organizations I wasn’t involved in last year. I am burnt out though and definitely ready to head home for the holidays!

Blog Post #7: Extra Credit

Evaluating educational technology is just the idea that instructors must determine the “value or judge [the] worth” and the appropriateness of a piece of technology before it is used as a teaching method. It’s important, as the book mentions several times, to evaluate the technology before, during and after instruction, along with making an necessary revisions. Teachers should look to “material from school districts, state Departments of Education, professional educational organizations, hardware and software catalogs, recommendations of colleagues, published evaluations, technology conferences, and Web sites” for new educational software.

I found the excel project to be useful because it made me realize how many types of information could really be organized in this program. Excel is a really easy way to make information look really organized as it offers many different ways to illustrate the information: basic spreadsheet, graphs, charts, color/font/etc, and even graphics to make it kinda pretty! Haha Although I do prefer the Office 2007 version of excel, the program in general is great to use for a lot of things.

I am so ready for school to be over, it’s disgusting. I had a lot more on my plate this semester than my first two in the line of organization/job involvement. I’m excited to get home to my family and friends in NY!!!

Blog Post #5: Chapter 6 and ASSURE (education's scientific method)

Technology and curriculum integration has grown exponentially over the years and will continue as technology improves. Curriculum integration is the idea that technology is being used in the classroom to meet the standards of learning that the curriculum requires. Technology is used through all sorts of classroom activities, both individually, in groups, or presented to the whole class. Technology has become a “tool to enhance or support instructional strategies.” There have been many specific types of technology created to aid specific learning styles, topics, teaching methods, other needs, etc. The ASSURE model was interesting because it could be completed to evaluate where a class is at as a whole or each individual. ASSURE first asks to identify the learner, their skill level and their learning style. Next it asks to state the objectives and expected outcomes of the classroom. Then it asks to list the materials, technology, resources, and overall methods of the teaching process, and how each will be used to achieve the desired outcome. Next it asks how participatory the lesson is and how much the learner will be expected to respond/engage. Lastly, the teacher is asked to reflect on their teaching and the methods used to figure out what worked and what needs revision. This step by step plan outlines success because it asks for a very detailed explanation of what will be happening in the classroom so when the lesson is done problem areas can be pinpointed. The ASSURE model reminds me of a variation of the scientific method.

Since my last posting, I have found the PowerPoint projects to be really beneficial. As much as I had a really general knowledge of how to use it, I had not used it since probably middle school. Furthermore, going through it like this helped me learn about a lot of other options available on the program to make it look even better. As much as I think SAM is redundant and a little boring, I really do find it very helpful and therefore don’t mind doing it.

My family came in this weekend and it was the first time two of my nieces and one of my nephews had ever visited FSU. My nieces are 10 and 13 and my nephew is almost 4 years old. It was really fun and they were planning on sleeping in my dorm room but they fell asleep at the hotel. It was cute because they woke up the next morning asking where I was and why no one woke them up. But anyways, my Mom decided to come back to the dorm with me to sleep over. We had SO much fun!! We went to the diner at 1am hahah everybody looked at me like I was a goofball for bringing my Mom in, but I absolutely loved it. It made me miss her a lot -- Cant wait to go home to NY in 16 days!!!

Blog Post # 4: The Internet offers info about anything we could ever imagine learning about...

The internet is amazing because it offers so many services, tools, learning opportunities, communication methods, entertainment, shopping, etc for people around the world. The world wide web (www) offers web pages full of information that people look for through search engines. Search engines, like www.google.com allow people to enter keyword information, look up topics in a subject directory, etc. Internet services include anything from e-mail, to blogs, to blackboard, to edutainment for classrooms, etc. As the search section mentioned, it can be very important to use certain search engines to receive specific results, as some may be more for business and one for books, etc. Something that is extremely important, but kind of made me giggle was the “netiquette” section. This section offers online etiquette for users with its golden rule being “Treat others as you would like them to treat you.” It’s so weird to think how quickly our world is changing and how now we even need rules for behavior for this web tool. What made me laugh though was the translation of abbreviations and acronyms because I have really only used BTW and FYI, and also TTFN when I was in 5th grade. haha

I found the in-class web hunt to be amusing because while looking for the specified websites, a lot of other interesting websites came up! I also liked doing the word training/practice test because it showed me a lot of simple ways to complete tasks. It also showed me a lot of features that I didn’t know Word even had! I think all of these training assignments will help me out in the long run. I’ve been using Word 2007 for another class though and it’s amazing. I definitely recommend getting the 07 edition because it feels like there’s so many other options to make your paper (or whatever it is), look better, plus it’s just easier!

I cant believe we’re already so far into the semester; time has been flying like I’ve never experienced before. This year has kept me really busy and I feel like I’ve actually been learning a lot in my classes -- maybe the things they’re talking about have just been more interesting to me? This weekend was fun though -- my family came in for Parent’s Weekend and we had so much fun at the game, even though it rained! Going to school so far away from home really makes me appreciate my family more than I already did. :-)

Blog Post # 3: Online learning games (edutainment)... meant for our future students, but still fun for us! haha

Chapter 4 included input/output devices, storage media and devices. Input is basically anything recorded into the computers memory. This data is put into the computer through several different devices including the keyboard we type on, the numeric keypad we type numbers with, the mouse we point to items with/direct computer to, and many other technologies for either more specific programs or more technologically advanced programs, like joysticks, touch screens, digital pen inputting, etc. We also use these devices for activities like downloading pictures onto our computer from our digital cameras. Output is everything in the computer that can be “processed into a useful form called information.” This is presented on the computer through things like text, graphics, audio, video, etc. Some output devices include the monitor itself that we use to see everything we perform on the computer, printers for turning our text/images into tangible items, data projectors, etc. Storage media and devices are the way we store or save what we have done. Some methods for storing include floppy/zip disks, CD’s/DVD’s, CD-rom, etc.

I thought this chapter was very similar to the previous chapters in that it covered many concepts I already knew. However, also like the other chapters, it put a name on items that I did not know the names of. I did get very caught up though in the “Learn it Online” section on page 261 because there is a game called “Wheel of Terms” that I looked up online and played for quite some time hahah yeah it’s definitely kinda goofy, but I have a job where I sit at a computer for 3 hours not expected to do very much -- so let me tell you, it was a fun game!

Since my last posting, I feel like Ive learned a lot of new vocabulary words. I’ve also learned a lot in class about different programs. I enjoyed using the Inspiration program! Most importantly, the Windows XP training and test we did was very helpful. It showed me a lot of little things that I didn’t know that make finding my way around the computer a lot quicker!