March 13, 2015 - LAST CLASS 44 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) Make-up Time & Checking Grades: Since this is our last full 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.  All students were asked to log into the HAC and check their grades for this class. The few students who could not log in to check their grades were reminded, one more time, that they have to talk to their parents about getting their email address registered in the system. 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 (now called Lightbeam) 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) * Class time was shorter today due to the half day schedule March 11, 2015 44 minutes   FIRST AID PROJECT DIRECTIONS: Technology Current Event Video:  To finish class today we watched a short video from Zoomin.TV news in the U.K. about the use of 3D printers to create human body parts.  March 9, 2014 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.  We also  Finish Full Page Ad Project:  All students had time to finish their full page ad project in class today.  All students also had an opportunity to print a rough draft and review it with the teacher before printing their final draft in full color.  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. Business Classes at the High School, WebQuest Project:  All students researched the computer class opportunities at our high school by completing an online webquest activity.  Follow this link to view the questions.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.2.8.E) 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.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.2.8.Q, 15.2.5.O, 15.5.8.F)  March 5, 2014 0 minutes* *No class today due to a Snow Day March 3, 2015 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 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 selected a full page, full color magazine advertisement to recreate in MS Publisher. The student version of the ad must advertise something different than the original but it should look very similar to the original. Students were also shown how to copy and paste images into either MS Word or PowerPoint and use that program to remove the background in a picture. 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) 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) February 27, 2015 91 minutes 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  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M)  Office Yoga Break: During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. As part of our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your back. Online Collaboration Demonstration:  students were shown an example of an international online collaboration project which was organized by Stefan Nielsen, a teacher in Denmark, and involved 30 teachers around the world. The 121212-1212 Project can be viewed to the right. Students were reminded that tools like Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 will be an important part of their future. Technology Current Event Video: In the coming year we hope to introduce Microsoft Office 365 to all our students. In today's video some of the collaboration features in Office 365 were explained and demonstrated. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.12.W, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.D) February 25, 2015 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 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.  Next class all students will take a quiz to see how much of the Google Earth tour they can recall.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M) Log on and Check Grades:  All students were asked to log into the Home Access Center and check their grades.  Since January 1st, 2015 all HAC accounts have been updated so that students can accessed their grades using their regular district log in and password.  All students should be able to log in and check their grades routinely. Office Yoga Break:  During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. For our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your arm. Technology Current Event Video: As a followup to the Think Before You Post slide we watched this story from Fox 47 News in Madison, Wisconsin about employers who use social media searches to investigate job applicants. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.5.M, 15.2.8.K, 15.8.8.M, 15.5.8.J, 15.4.5.A, 15.4.5.B) February 23, 2015 44 minutes  Finish Basic HTML: Today students finished creating a simple webpage using HTML code. We finished the webpage by adding images, hyperlinks and JavaScript from DynamicDrive. Students had some time to experiment with the Javascript. Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.S, 15.4.8.H) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a TED presentation by Keller Rinaudo who demonstrated a mini robot that's powered by a cell phone.  In the video he demonstrated using an interface that was similar to Google's Blockly to program the robot. February 19, 2015 91 minutes  Technology Use Survey: All students in this class participated in the annual NMS Student Technology Use Survey. After the survey students had time to review the results from previous years. All results going back to 2006 can be viewed here. Hour of Code:  Today our class participated in the Hour of Code. We started by viewing the source code for this webpage.  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.  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.  Office Yoga Break:  During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. For our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your arm.    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.  In the video they talk about his upbringing and described how he developed HTML.  They also evaluate the impact that the World Wide Web has had on the world.  Students were reminded that all the technology that they experience was created be people just like themselves. February 17, 2015 0 minutes* *No class today due to a Snow Day cancellation February 11, 2015 94 minutes   Office Yoga Break:  During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break.  As part of our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your thigh. Computer Vocabulary Quizzes #1 & #2: Near the end of class today all students participated in two computer vocabulary quiz using Kahoot.  The quiz was based on Computer Vocabulary Lists #1 & List #2.  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a TED presentation by Margaret Stewart about how copyright laws are handled on YouTube. February 9, 2015 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today we looked at two online resources for fonts. DaFont.com offers over 26,000 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)  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) February 5, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment: We looked at a Microsoft Web Application for creating zoomable high resolution photos.   Students were also shown two other examples of zoomable photos that were created using the web application:  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 was discussed. Students were also shown how they read primarily through identifying sight words and why it's so hard to spell check 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. Everyone finished this project in class.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) CRSD Acceptable Use Policy: All students demonstrated that they could search for and access the CRSD Acceptable Use Policy online.  They were reminded that they are in a network environment where their actions on the computer can be easily tracked. Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference": February 3, 2015 44 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, how blogs developed into microblogs like Twitter and now mobile phone based apps like Instagram. This website is 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.  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from PocketNow.com about a possible replacement keyboard for smart phones and tablets called the Minuum keyboard. January 30, 2015 91 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. A majority of our students said they preferred Google News when looking for current events online. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.6.5.L) Letters to School Board Members: All students practiced formal communication skills today by preparing a block formatted business letter to a Council Rock School Board member of their choice using MS Word 2013.  January is School Board Appreciation month so we asked students to wrote a letter in which they would list at least three ways that they think their Council Rock Education will help them in the future. Since many students had never studied cursive hand writing we also reviewed the purpose of a legal signature and students had the opportunity to use websites to develop a signature of their own. The letters will be shared at a future school board event. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.E, 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E)  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: 42.4 WPM Click here for more information about typing speeds at Newtown Middle School. We also reviewed the graph below:   Online Typing Activities: As a follow up to the typing test we took last class 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: We finished class today with a short video from the BBC about historical signatures in future of signatures in the digital age. January 28, 2015 104 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.  Pixlr.com Project: Students were shown how to use the online photo editor 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.  We also discussed professional digital photo editing with Adobe PhotoShop. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.F, 15.4.5.G)  Break: Students are always reminded to not spend too much time working on computers and to take breaks every 30-40 minutes.  For our break today we will be conducting a probability experiment about matching birthdays that you can read about here.  Everyone will be asked to get up and find the other person in the room who shares their birthday.  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 to the right.  Click to enlarge. We then used the survey as the outline for a presentation about basic computer knowledge.  Introduction to Computer Class Presentation: This presentation was a follow up to the survey and covered basic computer concepts everyone should be familiar with such as:
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. This 2014 revision of the presentation was created by Jose Esteves, a professor of Information Systems at the IE Business School in Spain.   |
