May 8, 2014 - LAST CLASS 91 minutes
Computer Vocabulary Quiz:  After our break today students had an opportunity to study Computer Vocabulary Lists 1 & 2 before taking the online quizzes.  These quizzes give many of our students credit for the computer knowledge that they already know.  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.  Many students in this class needed to finish or re-submit projects and everyone had time for that today. 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.  Students were also reminded that this was their only required computer class here at Council Rock and that should they wish to learn more about computer technology they should look carefully at the High School Program Planning Guide for the many elective classes that incorporate computer skills.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.6.8.M, 15.2.8.E) Technology Current Event Video:  For our last current event this year we watched a TED Presentation by Gary Kovacs, the CEO of Mozilla, about how internet users are tracked.  He demonstrated how many companies were following him and his daughter when they were online during a typical day.  During the presentation he demonstrated how a free download for Firefox called Collusion can be used to find out who is tracking you online.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.5.8.J, 15.9.8.L, 15.9.8.M) May 6, 2013 91 minutes  Finish First Aid Posters:  All students had time today to finish this project and print a rough draft in black and white.  Each student had a chance to review their rough draft with the teacher before printing their final draft in full color.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  Almost everyone finished today.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.H, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.B) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a TED Presentation by Peter Norvig of Stanford University about using internet technology to teach thousands of students online. May 2, 2014 91 minutes Internet Moment:  Students were shown GeoGuessr.com today and allowed to spend 5 minutes playing the game at the beginning class.  The highest score in our class today was just over 9,700.  Office Yoga Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  Breaks should be taken at least every 30-40 minutes.  For our break today we practiced a simple yoga stretch for your ankles and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some.  Students were also encouraged to share their work and ideas with each other during this gallery walk activity. Google Earth Tour Quiz:  As a follow-up to our previous tour on Google Earth 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 last class. 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) Technology Current Event Video: As a follow up to the online collaboration activity we did last class we watched this tutorial by Anson Alexander, of ansonalex.com, about how to collaborate online using Google Drive at home.  Students were encouraged to watch the rest of the tutorial at home. April 30, 2014 69 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 what spatial memory is and how it is used to make modern video games so engaging.  Students were then introduced to the memory palace or method of loci as an effective way to use 3 dimensional visual imagery to help a person remember large amounts of information.  We then went to Google Earth and 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) Google Earth Tour Quiz: Next class, as a follow-up to our Google Earth activity, all students will take a quiz to see how much of the virtual tour they remember.  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from "Stuff to Blow Your Mind" about Constructing a Memory Palace. * Class time was shorter today due to the PSSA testing schedule April 28, 2014 44 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.  We also  Finish Full Page Ad Project:  All students had time to finish their full page ad project in class today.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.D, 15.4.8.G, 15.9.8.A) GE Spring Break Video:  Since everyone was finished a little earlier today we watched a couple of the "Spring Break" videos that were created by some engineers at the GE Corporation like this one. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from the BBC in which Hans Rosling describes how Gapminder.org can be used to identify trends and misconceptions by looking at the data. April 24, 2014 91 minutes  Full Page Ad Project: All students had time to work on their full page ad project today. Student had an opportunity to print a rough draft on scrap paper that they could review with the teacher. Final drafts were printed in full color and turned in today.  Most students finished this project today. Click here to enlarge the project description.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.D, 15.4.8.G, 15.9.8.A) Office Yoga Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  Breaks should be taken at least every 30-40 minutes.  For our break today we practiced a simple yoga stretch for your neck and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some. Technology Current Event Video:  After finishing the full page ad project we watched an 11 minute whiteboard video about the universal principles of persuasion to introduce students to some basic marketing concepts. (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.9.8.A, 15.9.8.E) April 22, 2014 104 minutes   Brochure Project: Students had time to finish the copyright brochure project in MS Publisher today.   Students were also shown how to print on both sides of a sheet of paper and how to trifold a brochure.  Each student then had an opportunity to review a rough draft of their project with the teacher.  Not everyone turned in this project today.  There will be time to print this project out next class.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.1.5.B, 15.3.5.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.5.D, 15.3.8.D, 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.3.8.U, 15.6.8.L) Check Grades:  Since we are at the halfway point in this class students were asked to log into the Home Access Center and check their computer class grades.  Students were also reminded that if they could not log in their parents had to go to the Newtown Middle School website and follow the directions at the bottom of the webpage to create a student account. 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 he became a graphic designer and how he used technology.  He also did a presentation about content & form that demonstrated the use different of different fonts to convey meaning. Students were encouraged to watched the rest of the video on their own.  (PA BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A, 15.8.8.K, 15.9.8.A) April 15, 2014 91 minutes Internet Moment:  Today all students had a chance to visit www.SOS.FBI.gov and try the online learning activities for 8th graders. This is part of a monthly competition that is run by the FBI and the intent of the online activities is to help students develop safe internet habits.  After having 10 minutes to try the online activities our students took the exam. The average score for this class was 93% on the exam.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.6.8.M, 15.4.8.B, 15.4.8.A)  Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video from SafeInternetBanking.be about an amazing mind reader and how he knows so much about his clients. April 11, 2014 44 minutes Internet Moment:  Today we explored NewsMap.jp which is a graphical interpretation of the top news stories on Google News that was created by Marcos Weskamp, a self described software architect.  He is was also part of the team that founded Flipboard which seeks to bring the design experience of magazines to web and tablet technology.  Students had a chance to explore Mr. Weskamp's website and learn a little about how software engineers work with design and computer coding. (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.2.5.B, 15.2.5.C, 15.2.8.E)    Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from How Stuff Works about Tim Berners-Lee and the invention of the World Wide Web. April 9, 2014 76 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.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.6.5.M, 15.4.5.A) Online Survey About Globalization: We had problems taking the survey on April 3rd so we tried again today and it worked for everyone.  You can access the actual survey here.  Results from the online survey can be viewed here.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.3.5.S, 15.4.5.A, 15.4.5.B, 15.3.5.T)  Hour of Code:  Today our class participated in the Hour of Code. We started by going to the Favorite Links webpage that we had previously made in Word and viewing the source code.  Students were told that this code, a mixture of HTML and JavaScript, was the list of specific instructions that tell your web browser how to display the webpage. When students saved their Word document as a "single file webpage" Microsoft Word wrote this code for them.  We then watched the tutorial video below to introduce the online coding activity.  Students then went to the online Blockly Maze Tutorial to write JavaScript.  Introduction to Scratch:  After all students had time to complete the Blockly Maze Tutorial the class was shown Scratch which is a free online code editor that was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Students who enjoyed using Blockly, were told that Scratch would be the next step for them to try.  All students had about 10 minutes to experiment with Scratch and to view some featured student projects. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from code.org about what most schools don't teach - computer coding.  This video featured many famous and not so famous people talking about how they learned to code. * Class time was shorter today due to a fire drill April 7, 2014 104 minutes 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 of Yosemite National Park.  Students had time to explore these websites.   Font Presentation:  In this presentation the development of the two basic font families (serif & sans serif) as well as the best uses for each of them was covered. Students were also shown how they read primarily through identifying sight words and why it's so hard to spell and grammar check your own work. (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. Almost everyone finished this project in class today.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  Breaks should be taken every 30-40 minutes.  For our break today we did a gallery walk to share project ideas.  We then practiced a simple yoga stretch for your shoulder. Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference": April 3, 2014 94 minutes 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 and that will be the blog or web log 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.  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: 37.3 WPM  Click here for more information about typing speeds at Newtown Middle School. We also discussed this graph:   Online Typing Activities: As a follow up to the typing test we looked at the typing speeds for the whole 8th grade in Excel and looked at graphs of past speeds for Newtown Middle School students.  Students were then 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.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.6.2.L)   Technology Current Event Video:  We watched a TED presentation by Keller Rinaudo about a smart phone powered mini robot and some of the things it could do. (PA BCIT Standards:  15.4.5.A, 15.4.8.A) April 1, 2014 0 minutes* *Class time was cancelled today due to the PSSA testing. March 28, 2014 104 minutes Internet Moment:  Students were asked to compare three popular news aggregator websites:  Google News, Bing News and Yahoo.  We looked at their home pages, their features and their overall appearance.  All of the students said they preferred Google News when looking for current events online.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.6.5.L) 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 will finish the presentation next class. (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.1.5.B, 15.3.5.V, 15.3.8.T, 15.6.8.M)  Technology Current Event Video:  Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video today. March 26, 2014 44 minutes 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 were reminded that it's important to also get used to helping each other. Log On & Explore: All students were given time to explore the start menu and the various programs available to them at school. Online Survey for Students in Denmark:  Our students participated in a research project about racism by four 9th grade students at the Vonsild Skole in Kolding, Denmark.  The survey only took a few minutes and it was an example of the kind of international and cross-cultural communication that is currently possible using free web tools like Google Drive.  The survey that was created by the students in Denmark can be viewed here.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.3.5.S, 15.4.5.A, 15.4.5.B, 15.3.5.T) Setting up Student Passwords:  All students were given some suggestions to help them develop good passwords.  Some suggested good password practices were:  Come up with a collection of passwords to rotate through instead of just one, make a pass phrase instead of a password, mix number, letters and symbols together.  Student passwords must be at least 8 characters long and fit the following parameters:Â
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 here: Click to enlarge.  Next class we will use the survey as the outline for a presentation about basic things everyone should know about computer technology. Technology Current Event Video:  At then end of most computer classes we watch a current event video about emerging trends in technology.  Today's video was inspired by a presentation that was created by a high school teacher in Colorado, Mr. Karl Fisch. Here is a link to his blog:  THE FISCHBOWL for more information. |
