December 7, 2012 - LAST CLASS 44 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) we also found other websites that would independently verify that FreeRice.com was real. This activity is a good reminder to students that they have to be very skeptical of everything 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 87 minutes*  Finish First Aid Posters:  Everyone finished their First Aid Posters today.  Each student had an opportunity to print out a rough draft in black & white on scrap paper and review it with the teachers for any possible improvements.  They then printed their final draft in full color and handed it in.  Technology Current Event Video:  We watched two short videos from MSNBC.  The first one was about the 20th anniversary of the first text message.  The second one was about a mother who decided to stop using technology for a while. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy * Class was shorter today due to morning circle scheduleDecember 3, 2012 104 minutes Newtown's Holiday Parade: We started class today by watching some highlights from yesterday's holiday parade in Newtown. Some of the students said they had participated in it but we didn't recognize any of them in the short video that was produced by PhillyBurbs.com. Internet Moment: Today our students were introduced to the "joy of statistics" by visiting 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. Finish the Full Page Ad Project: All students had time to work on and finish the project we started last class. Everyone finished and printed this project.  Office Yoga Break: Since we were doing a lot of typing today we took a break and did a simple office yoga stretch for our shoulders and then got up and moved around. Students are always reminded to take breaks every 30-40 minutes when working on the computer.  Video Conference about Weather Extremes in Canada: For about 12 minutes near the end of class we joined in a live online presentation about extreme weather in Ontario, Canada. The presenter spoke about the causes of tornadoes, blizzards and 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 94 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 87 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.  Video Chat with Indonesia: Four of our students did a brief video chat using skype with Mrs. Palupi, an English language teacher in Pekalongan, Indonesia that will eventually be used as part of an English language educational TV boradcast. They also practiced a phrase in Indonesian: "Selamat Siang" which means "good day." Technology Current Events Video: We watched a short video from the Today Show about password security and then we watched a video from 60 Minutes about KhanAcademy.org which offers free 10 minute video lectures in mathematics and many other academic subjects. * Class was shorter today due to morning circle schedule 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 44 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. 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 87 minutes* 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 settlement to date was also discussed. Downloading ebooks from Google Books to various devices such as ebook readers, tablets, computers and smart phones was also discussed.  Office Yoga Break: Since we were doing a lot of typing today we took a break and did a simple office yoga stretch for our necks and then got up and moved around. Students are always reminded to take breaks every 30-40 minutes when working on the computer. Technology Current Event Video: We watched two videos from the Wall Street Journal concerning copyright laws and YouTube. The first video was about a court ruling that found Google (the owner of YouTube) to not be liable for certain copyright violations that were made by YouTube users. The second video was about YouTube's Copyright School which is an example of the steps YouTube was taking to prevent and minimize copyright violations. * Class was shorter today due to morning circles November 12, 2012 104 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. 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.  Students also practiced their typing by re-typing the text. The brochure topic is copyright law. Part way through the project students took a break and did a gallery walk to share their brochure designs. Click here to enlarge the project description. We will finish this project next class. Technology Current Event Video: We watched the first part of a TED presentation by Steven Johnson about how maps are used to better understand the cholera outbreaks in London in the 1850's. November 8, 2012 44 minutes Internet Moment: Students looked at a website from Microsoft today called PhotoSynth.net. They were able to view 360 degree pictures all around the world. Finish the Publisher Font Guide Project: Students finished this project today, printed it and handed it in. Click here to enlarge the project description. Technology Current Events Video: We watched a humorous video about the "characters" behind the different fonts. November 5, 2012 87 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.  Office Yoga Stretch: Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers without taking breaks. Today we practiced a simple yoga stretch to help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. Video Conference with Eric Rosenbaum of the MIT Media Lab: For the last 20 minutes of class today we were able to participate in a live interview of one of the inventors of the Makey Makey device. This device allows you to input to a computer using just about anything youc an alligator clip to. Eric also talked about the development and implications for Scratch which was also developed at MIT to help teach programming. A YouTube video of the entire video conference can be viewed here. Technology Current Event Video: To finish class today we watched a demonstration video made by Eric Rosenbaum and his partner Jay Silver. *Class time was shorter today due to morning circles October 30 & November 1, 2012 Classes cancelled due to storm damage in our area. October 26, 2012 87 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 how to use this resource to check our local weather, the national forecasts and weather events such as Tropical Storm Sandy. Finish Favorite Links Project: Students finished this project today and we saved it as a single file webpage. This will become the first webpage in the website that our students will create in this class. We also did a gallery walk so all students could share their work.  Technology Current Event Video: Today we watched the first half of a TED presentation by John Maeda, the President for the Rhode Island School of Design. In his presentation he talks about the connections between art, technology and design which is a good follow-up to our Logo Project and introducing our students to the use of technology in graphic arts. * Class time was shorter today due to morning circles October 24, 2012 104 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.  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 91 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. |
