June 17, 2013 - LAST CLASS 91 minutes Google Earth Tour Quiz:  As a follow-up to our tour on Google Earth last class, 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.    QUIZ:  Where I went on Google Earth Today  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M) 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.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.I, 15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.L) Make-up Time: Since this is our last class all students had 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 have 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. June 13, 2013 104 minutes Internet Moment:  Today we explored Google Earth and discussed how a 3 dimensional virtual environment can be used to augment human memory.  We 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 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.  Students then opened Google Earth and we began a tour of the earth, the sky, Mars and the moon. The whole class followed a specific list of locations.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M)  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about the Memory Palace technique and a second video about a virtual memory palace program. June 11, 2013 44 minutes Internet Moment: Today we explored Google Sketchup which is a great example of a free CAD program.  CAD, or computer aided design/drafting, has become very common across many fields and students should have some knowledge of what 3D designing looks and feels like on a computer. Though it is available at school, Google Sketchup is a free download that students can download at home so they can continue to learn more about this important skill on their own.  (PA-BCIT Standard:  15.9.8.F) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a trip to the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV to see some of the "hot stuff" technology that was on display.  (PA-BCIT Standard:  15.4.8.A) June 7, 2013 91 minutes Internet Moment:  Today we discussed what a wiki is and visited the largest wiki in the internet: Wikipedia. Students were shown how easily a wikipedia article can be edited and we discussed some of the reason it can't be used in academic work.  However, students were shown what parts of a wikipedia article they could use to help them when they are doing research for school projects.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.G, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.T, 15.3.8.I)  How Online Behavioral Tracking Works:  Students were reminded that when they are online many private companies from all over the world are carefully tracking everywhere they go and what they do.  These companies then develop a "digital profile" of who they are that they can use for marketing purposes.  Mr. McNulty demonstrated how it works by shopping online for Uggs boots and then showing the class that Uggs ads continued to show up on his screen as he traveled to other websites.  We also reviewed the recent revelations from The Guardian in the U.K. about tech companies in the U.S. (including Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Apple) who were secretly sharing their user's data with the government since 2007.  We finished with a TED Presentation by Gary Kovacs about free software that Firefox is offering called Collusion that enables you to see who is tracking you while you are on the internet.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.9.8.L, 15.9.8.M) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today by watching part of the Samsung presentation at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in which they demonstrated their newly developed flexible OLED video screens. June 5, 2013 104 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 China over the last 200 years.  We also looked at how 8th grade math scores and changing in Japan and the United States.  Students then had time to explore the website on their own.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M, 15.7.8.A, 15.7.8.F, 15.7.8.H, 15.7.8.L) Student Technology Use Survey:  This class was selected to participate in the annual survey of what technology students have access to and use routinely.  After the survey students were shown the results of the previous Student Technology Use Surveys going back to 2006.  The top 10 trends in technology use were also discussed. Full page Ad Project: Today students started a classic graphic design project to help them continue to develop their own sense of design and their skills in MS Publisher. Each student  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.  June 3, 2013 44 minutes  Technology Current Event Video:  As a followup to the online collaboration project we watched a 2010 TED Presentation by Jane McGonigal.  In this video she shared her ideas about Online Computer Gaming and the importance of online collaboration skills.  We only watched the first 8 minutes of the video in class. May 30, 2013 91 minutes  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with the first part of a video about Tim Berners-Lee and the development of the Wold Wide Web. May 28, 2013 104 minutes Internet Moment:  Students were shown Weather.gov (the National Weather Service) as an example of a huge online database that's full of real-time and archived information. We checked our local weather and spent a few minutes checking the satellite images and Doppler radar for the whole United States. Students were also shown how to access the hourly weather graphs for our area to get precipitation predictions.   Technology Current Event Video:  Today we watched about 5 minutes of the TED presentation by Vijay Kumar of the University of Pennsylvania featuring robots that fly autonomously and cooperate. May 23, 2013 0 minutes* * Class was cancelled today due to the 8th Grade Class Trip to Great Adventure. May 21, 2013 44 minutes* Internet Moment:  Today we looked at two online resources for fonts.  DaFont.com offers over 20,000 fonts that are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or in the public domain.  These fonts can be downloaded and installed but students were also shown how they can use the Snipping Tool to get images of the fonts they might like.  Students were also shown how they could make their own font using a website like YourFonts.com. Technology Current Event Video:   We watched part of a TED Presentation by John Maeda, the President of the Rhode Island School of Design.  In the video he talked about how different font choices can be used to convey meaning (to about 7:20).  Students were encouraged to watched the rest of the video on their own. * Class was shorter today due to the half-day schedule May 17, 2013 104 minutes 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.  Start Publisher Font Guide Project: After a presentation about the origins of fonts, the two main categories for fonts (serif & san serif) and the best uses for each category students proceeded to make a Font Guide in MS Publisher. The final student project should look just like the original. We also discussed the concept of WYSIWYG in graphic design on computers.  Click here to enlarge the project description. All students had time to finish this project today. Technology Current Event Video:  We watched a video from OnguardOnline.gov about how your personal information is gathered, shared and used during a typical day. Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to our last activity (the Font Guide Project) we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference": May 15, 2013 94 minutes Reviewing Pictures from South Africa:  We started class by reviewing some pictures that were sent to us by Mrs. Hallowes at Cotswold Preparatory School in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  In the pictures you can see her 2nd grade students making some of the Excel pictures that we had made for them last class.  You can view the directions for this project here.    "It's smiling at us!" Pictures from Australia:  Mrs. Mirtschin's students at Hawkesdale P12 College in Victoria, Australia also tried making our 8th graders Excel drawings:  Internet Moment:  We looked at zoom.it today which is a free screen zooming service that is owned by Microsoft.  Students were then shown two other online examples of the screen zooming technology:  The NMS Mosaic Project and the Deep Zoom image ofYosemite National Park.  Students had time to explore these websites. Favorite Links Project:  Students started and finished this project today. Each student made a simple single file webpage in Word. They used a table to layout 6 favorite websites with words and pictures as hyperlinks. As part of this project we talked about using and formatting tables and websites that were "appropriate" for school.  Making hyperlinks was also demonstrated and practiced.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  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 everyone had an opportunity to share their work with the rest of the class.   Click here to enlarge the project description. 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. May 13, 2013 91 minutes Computer Class Relocated: Due to the Keystone Test for 8th grade Algebra students our class was relocated from the Computer Lab in Room 118 to the Tech Computer Lab in Room 2. Many students were also absent from computer class because they had to take the Keystone Test. Class Blog:  Students were shown TodayInComputerClass.com and told that they can check here anytime to review what work was done in class.  We also discussed what a web log or blog was, how blogs developed into microblogs like Twitter and how this website is a blog for our class.  Students were also told that their parents will be sent an email with a link to this website so they can also review what we are doing in computer class each day. Internet Moment: Using Google Maps we traveled to Port Elizabeth, South Africa to find the location of the Cotswold Preparatory School. Once there our students had a chance to use the Google Street View images to explore the city of Port Elizabeth. Excel Picture Project: Today our class made pictures in Excel for the 2nd Graders at Cotswold Preparatory School in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Each of our students opened up Excel and made a picture in Excel that was 10x10 cells by changing the colors in the cells. You can view some sample excel drawings here. The specific directions for the project can be viewed here. The directions to make the actual drawings were then shared with the students in South Africa using a Google Document so they could try making the pictures on their own. Technology Current Event Video: We did not have have an opportunity to do a video today. May 9, 2013 104 minutes Internet Moment:  Google News - Students were shown how to use this popular news aggregator to find current event stories and how to search the news for topics that interest them or might be required for another subject area.  We also explored the news aggregator from Bing. Students were also shown how to access the Google News Archives and we did a search to find out about a major snow storm in 1964 that resulted in 250 students being snowed in at our school overnight. Setting up Student Passwords: Each student was reminded about how to create a new password today and we discussed some good password practices. Student  passwords must fit the following parameters:
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.  Basic Computer Knowledge Presentation:  Today students were shown a presentation based on the student computer knowledge survey that they had taken.  This introductory lecture covers basic background information that every student should know about computers such as the development of desktop computers (Apple, IBM & Microsoft), different computer operating systems, internet connection options, developing computer devices (like smart phones and tablet computers) and protecting yourself online.  We finished the presentation today.  Technology Current Event Video:  Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video today. Introduction to Basic Computer Skills Class: Basic rules and classroom procedures were explained. Students were specifically reminded that because technology is constantly changing they should get into the habit of helping each other out and demonstrating the ability to learn new computer skills through experimentation. All students reported that they had helped an adult with computer skills but they also need to get used to helping each other.  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 drag & drop. The best use of the H:, S: & X: drives was also explained. |
