December 7, 2012 - LAST CLASS 104 minutes Internet Moment: Students had a chance to explore FreeRice.com today. This website, created by John Breen who also created Poverty.com, gives students and others a chance to practice their vocabulary skills while helping to support the United Nations World Food Programme. After having time to use the site students were asked to prove whether or not this website was bogus or real. After doing some research we learned that though it is a legitimate website (according to snopes.com) another website called the Daily Cow claimed that FreeRice.com does not donate exactly 10 grains of rice for every correct answer. We then looked at a website about the 1993 Velcro Crop Failure in California. This bogus website and others like it serve as a good reminder to students that they have to be very skeptical of what they find online and to always independently verify the facts themselves.  Make-up Time: Since this is our last class all students have time to make up any work they may have missed. All projects were handed back and students could submit anything they missed or re-submit a project that they hadn't finished for full credit. Closure to Computer Class: Students were reminded that computers are constantly changing and that they had to learn to adjust to new programs, new hardware and new ways of using technology all the time. We are all constantly learning to adapt to new technology. December 5, 2012 44 minutes  Start First Aid Posters: This is the final 8th grade project in MS Publisher. Students are to use all the skills they have learned in Publisher to create a series of three first aid Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video about how to set up documents, presentations and drawing in Google Docs that multiple people can collaborate on at the same time. December 3, 2012 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today our students were introduced to the "joy of statistics" by viewing GapMinder.org which is a free online resource where statistics from all around the world are presented in an easy to understand visual format. We looked at the "Wealth & Health of Nations" chart. As a demonstration of how the website works we tracked the life expectancy and income changes in the USA and Japan over the last 200 years.  Students then had time to explore the website on their own. Continue Full Page Ad Project: All students had time to continue to work on the project we started last class. Many students completed their rough draft and several students printed and turned in their final, full-color draft. Everyone will finish printing this project next class.  Our 8th grade collaborators in Joliet, Illinois:  Technology Current Event Video: As a follow-up to the internet moment we watched a segment of video from the BBC about GapMinder.org. In the video Hans Rosling, the creator of Gap Minder demonstrated how you can use the resource to learn about important trends in 200 years of history in just 4 minutes. November 29, 2012 104 minutes Austrian Prom Video: At the very beginning of class we watched some of the HLW St. Veit - Schulball 2012 which is a prom at a high school in Austria. Internet Moment: In continuing with the theme of protecting yourself online students were shown the website OnGuardOnline.gov and given an opportunity to try some of the games in the Video & Media section. Some of the games were: Phishing Scams, Invasion of the Wireless Hackers, Cyber Criminal & Invest Quest.  Office Yoga Break: Students are always reminded to take breaks from technology and to get exercise. As part of our break today we did a simple yoga stretch for your arms, shoulder and back. Technology Current Event Video: We watched a video from NBCNews.com about the newest tablet computers. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy November 27, 2012 94 minutes  Internet Moment: Today we explored another free download from Google called SketchUp. This free CAD (computer aided design) program is great for giving students introductory skills that they would need to do any kind of design work in the future. It also has many applications in school. Students were given some time to experiment with the program and encouraged to download it at home. Technology Current Events Video: We watched a video from 60 Minutes about KhanAcademy.org which offers free 10-15 minute video lectures in mathematics and many other academic subjects. November 20, 2012 44 minutes* Internet Moment: Today we explored Google Earth and discussed how a 3 dimensional virtual environment can be used to augment human memory. We started by discussing how people had to memorize much more before technology gave us so may ways to store information (books, calendars, pictures, the internet...). Students were introduced to the memory palace or method of loci as an effective way to use 3 dimensional visual imagery to help you remember large amounts of information. We then talked about how the most popular video games that students play are so engaging because of the 3 dimensional visual imagery that is used in them. Students then opened Google Earth and we began a tour of the earth and the moon. The whole class followed a specific list of locations. Afterwards students were challenged to list everywhere they had gone and what they had seen on their tour of the 3 dimensional visual imagery in Google Earth. This activity helped to demonstrate the effectiveness of using 3D spatial references, such as the virtual environment of Google Earth, to augment memory. During the Holiday Break: Students were encouraged to download Google Earth at home over the Thanksgiving break and spend some time learning some geography. Technology Current Event Video: To wrap up this activity we watched a video about how to improve your memory using the memory palace technique. * class time was shorter today due to the half-day conference schedule November 16, 2012 104 minutes Internet Moment: Today students had an opportunity to play a financial education game from Visa called: Financial Football. Students had 5 minutes to play the game which involved answering multiple choice questions that tested their financial literacy.  Finish the Publisher Brochures: Students finished the copyright brochure project that we had started last class. Specific instructions were given about two sided printing and how to tri fold a brochure. Everyone finished and printed a brochure today. Technology Current Event Video: We watched a Tech Gadgets clip from the Today Show about spy cameras that can be easily put in your home or even carried around with you. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy November 14, 2012 44 minutes Viewed Student Presentations Online: We started class by watching some presentations by students in a science class in La Lima, Cortes, Honduras that were being broadcasted by their teacher Mr. Popoff at the Sunshine Christian Bilingual School. You can watch their presentations about water here. Our students attempted to give them feedback about their presentations using a shared Google Document but some of our students just couldn't get it to work. Internet Moment: Students explored Google Books as a resource for free ebooks and they were shown how to search the text of a book. The legal controversy surrounding the Google Books Project and copyright laws as well as the Start Publisher Brochure Project: Students take an existing brochure for computer class and recreate it in Publisher 2010 using a pre-made template as a starting point.  The topic of the brochure is copyright laws and students also practiced their typing by re-typing the text. Click here to enlarge the project description. We will finish this project next class. Technology Current Event Video: Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video today. November 12, 2012 94 minutes* Internet Moment: Today students had an opportunity to explore Google Maps. They found their houses, our school, got directions, used the street view cameras and explored the world. Video: Students watched a video biography of Bill Gates and answered questions during the video. Publisher Flyer Project: Using a pre-made template in MS Publisher, students made a flyer for an activity here at Newtown Middle School. *Mr. McNulty was absent this morning November 8, 2012 104 minutes Internet Moment: Students looked at a website from Microsoft today called PhotoSynth.net. They were able to view 360 degree pictures from all around the world.  Technology Current Events Video: We watched a humorous video about the "characters" behind the different fonts. We also a second video from the Wall Street Journal video about a new way to telecommute using robots. November 5, 2012 44 minutes Internet Moment: Today our students had an opportunity to view zoom.it which demonstrates Windows Azure and Microsoft Silverlight to create very large images that you can easily pan and zoom through. As an example of a zoom.it project students checked out the NMS Mosaic Project.  Publisher Logo Project: We started with an introduction to MS Publisher 2012 and a description of why learning basic graphic design skills is important in communicating your ideas effectively. Students then became familiar with Publisher 2010 by making a simple logo. We saved this project and will share them next class.  Click here to enlarge the project description. Technology Current Event Video: We watched a NBC News Gadget Box video about the new Nexus 4 Phone by LG. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy October 30 & November 1, 2012 Classes cancelled due to storm damage in our area. October 26, 2012 44 minutes Internet Moment: Students were shown TodayInComputerClass.com and told that they can check here anytime to review what work was done in class. Their parents will also be sent an email with a link to this website so they can also review what we are doing in computer class. We also checked out Weather.gov and students were shown  Video Conference with Students in Mexico: We had an opportunity to speak with students at an English language school near Mexico City. Four of our students volunteered to speak them and the rest of the class was able to watch the conversation.  Technology Current Event Video: We watched a video today from ABC News about the new Windows 8 operating system which is being released today. October 24, 2012 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today we looked at Bing News & Google News. Students were shown how to use these popular news aggregaters to find current events, search for specific news stories, and find news videos. Finish the Basic Computer Knowledge Presentation: Today we finished the second part of the presentation based on the student computer knowledge survey. This introductory lecture covers basic background information that every student should know about computers such as the development of desktop computers (Apple, IBM & Microsoft), internet connection options and speeds, and protecting yourself online. See the video below for a summary of the entire presentation.  Assigned Seats: All students have an assigned seat/computer in computer class. Students have a responsibility to report any problems with the machine they have been assigned to. In this way we all participate in maintaining our school computers. Typing Test: All students took a typing test using TypingTest.com. Each student had 10 minutes to take the 1 minute test multiple times. Their best adjusted speed was recorded and graphed in an Excel spreadsheet. The average typing speed for this class was: 39.5 WPM Click here for more information about typing speeds at Newtown Middle School. Online Typing Activities: As a follow up to yesterday's typing test we looked at the typing speeds for the whole 8th grade in Excel and looked at a bell curve of the speeds. students were given some time to find at least 3 online typing activities (tutorials or games) that they enjoyed. They were to then add these typing activities to their favorites or bookmarks list so they could go back and practice their typing skills in class when they finished their projects. Technology Current Event Video: Today we watched a video that was a follow-up to a TED Video shown to most 7th grade classes last year about 6th Sense Technology. In this new video the ideas of MIT Media Lab student Pranav Mistry are developed further. October 22, 2012 104 minutes  Log On & Explore: All students were given time to explore the start menu and the various programs available to them at school. Pixlr.com Project: Students were shown how to use the online photo editor http://www.pixlr.com to edit a photograph. Students then shared their modified photos using various district network resources and demonstrated basic skills such as  Computer Class Survey: All students take a computer class survey. The results of this survey are used to guide the instruction for the class. You can view the survey above. Click to enlarge. We then used the survey as the outline for a presentation about basic computer knowledge. We did not finish the presentation today. Technology Current Event: We ended class today with a short video from ABC News about the release of Windows 8 and other technology developments. |
