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!