January 27, 2016 - LAST CLASS 44 minutes 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. 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) January 25, 2016 0 minutes* * No class due to a snow day January 21, 2016 104 minutes  As Seen Online:  Students used a shared PowerPoint Online slide show and different search engines to create a show that consists of all the pictures of Newtown Middle School students that we could find online.  Next class we will use this show for another activity.  Students were reminded to search for themselves from time to time and to think more carefully before posting and sharing pictures online.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.H, 15.2.8.L, 15.6.8.M, 15.3.8.T, 15.3.8.T, 15.3.5.V, 15.3.8.Q, 15.5.8.J, 15.6.8.M, 15.8.8.J)  (ISTE Standards: 1d, 2c, 3c, 4a, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 6b) As Seen Online Video: As a follow-up to the think before you post presentation we watched a short video from Kim Komando about some of the negative consequences that have happened from posting photos without thinking first. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.H, 15.2.8.L, 15.6.8.M, 15.3.8.T, 15.3.8.T, 15.3.5.V, 15.3.8.Q, 15.5.8.J, 15.6.8.M, 15.8.8.J) (ISTE Standards: 1d, 2c, 3c, 4a, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 6b) 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 practiced a simple yoga stretch for your shoulder and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around some.  Finish Online Collaboration Project: Each group of students finished planning their travel itinerary today. Students were reminded to use Google Earth to check out where they were going. Using Google as a currency converter was also demonstrated and students were reminded to use the calculator on their computers to total their travel expenses. Once finished all groups printed and turned in their finished Word Online Document.Click here to enlarge the project description. Click here for the project directions and here for the project rubric. (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) (ISTE Standards: 1c, 2a, 2b, 2d, 3b, 3c, 3d, 4a, 4b, 4c, 6a, 6b, 6d) Computer Vocabulary Quiz: All students participated in an online vocabulary activity using Quizizz.com today.  The quiz was based on Computer  Vocabulary List #1 and students had some time to study the list before the quiz.  The highest scoring students are listed to the right. 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. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.6.8.M) January 19, 2016 44 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) 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 356 will be an important part of their future.  Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video about Winter tourism in Austria. January 14, 2016 91 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)  Introduction to Webinars: Today students were introduced to what a webinar or web conference is and what online education could look like for them in the future. AnyMeeting.com was used to project presentations from the teacher's desktop to the student's screen and the use of webcams in a webinar was also demonstrated. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.5.J, 15.3.5.K, 15.6.8.M, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.A)    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 sides. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from "Stuff to Blow Your Mind" about Constructing a Memory Palace. January 12, 2016 104 minutes Review the Blogging Activity:  Students had time today to review the blog entry project that we worked on two classes ago.  We used Google Maps to learn more about the City of Moscow Secondary School with Advanced Study of Foreign Languages, Number 1302. Unfortunately their school webpage is blocked at our school so we couldn't view it.  Students were shown the Children's Internet Protection Act and we discussed that the puzzle of censorship is not just deciding what to censor but deciding when to stop censoring.  Students also finished the blogging activity by posting their entries on the blog today.  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 Star Wars Tutorial to write JavaScript.  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 back and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some.  Post Blog Entries:  Students finished and posted their blog entries for the English language students in Russia. January 8, 2016 12 minutes*  * Class time was shorter today due to the High School Arts Presentations rotation schedule January 6, 2016 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today we explored NewsMap.jp which is a graphical interpretation of the top news stories on Google News. It was created by Marcos Weskamp, a self described software architect. He was also part of the team that founded Flipboard which seeks to bring the design experience of magazines to web and tablet technology. As part of this activity we discussed the important relationship between internet technology and design. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.B, 15.2.8.C, 15.2.8.D, 15.2.8.E)  Full Page Ads: All students had time to finish this project today. Completed projects were printed in full color using the color printer in the back of the room. Students wrote their names on the back of their projects before turning them in. Unfortunately there were some technical problems with the color printer. 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 ankles and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some. Student Blogging Activity: Our students prepared a one paragraph blog post reply for Ms. Chernaya's English language students at the City of Moscow Secondary School with Advanced Study of Foreign Languages, Number 1302. Mrs. Chernaya's English Language students are practicing their writing skills by blogging and they will be reading our students' comments and replying to them. You can view the comments here. In this activity our students are demonstrating appropriate internet communication skills and paragraph writing skills by commenting on their blog entries. Students were shown how to open their Microsoft Office 365 accounts and we used the online version of MS Word as a resource to help with spelling and grammar. Students were reminded that whenever they post anything online they should make an effort to make sure it will reflect positively on them.  We will finish this activity next class. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.G, 15.3.8.M, 15.4.5.A, 15.4.8.B) Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a logo design video from Przemyslaw Jakub Wolosaczonek, a graphic designer in London, England. January 4, 2016 104 minutes   Office Yoga Break: Students are always reminded to not spend too much time in front of computers and to take breaks every 30-40 minutes. Today we practiced a simple yoga stretch that helps prevent carpal tunnel syndrome.  Before the stretch the causes and symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome were explained to the class.  After the stretch all students had an opportunity to take a short break and move around.  (PA-BCIT Standard:  15.4.5.D,) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a TED presentation by Margaret Stewart about how copyright laws are handled on YouTube.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.1.5.B, 15.3.8.D, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.A, 15.4.8.B, 15.6.8.M ) December 22, 2015 44 minutes  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) December 18, 2015 91 minutes   Finish Font Guide: Students had time to finish the project we started last class. Everyone printed the completed project.(PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) Online Quiz Experiment:  In class we experimented with an online quiz service called quizizz.com by playing a sample trivia game.  We used desktop PC's, iPhones and Android phones and all of them worked well. 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. 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) December 16, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment: Today we looked at two online resources for fonts. DaFont.com offers over 27,000 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)  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 stretch for you neck.  Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference": December 14, 2015 44 minutes Internet Moment: Students explored PhotoSynth.net today which is an online service from Microsoft that used their Silverlight technology. It allows you to "knit" digital photos together to make large 360 degree images that you can pan and zoom into. We also looked at the NMS Mosaic Project as an example of this technology from (PA BCIT Standards: 15.6.8.M)  Publisher Logo Project:  We started with an introduction to MS Publisher 2013 today. Publisher was described as a graphic design program which is used to express your ideas visually. The field of graphic design was also explained. Students were reminded that learning basic graphic design skills will help them to communicate their ideas effectively. Students then became familiar with Publisher 2010 by making a simple logo. We saved this project and shared them with the class during a gallery walk activity. Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.S, 15.4.5.G, 15.6.5.M, 15.3.8.X, 15.9.8.A, 15.9.5.L)  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. Students were also reminded to check out the free eSchoolPLUS Family app that's available from Google Play and the iTunes Store. 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.  We also discussed the use of cell phones and other electronic devices at school. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from Source Fed Nerd that highlighted the Top 10 gadgets at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show that was held in Las Vegas in January.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.4.5.A) December 10, 2015 91 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.   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: 41.6 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 looked at the typing speeds for the whole 8th grade in Excel and looked at graphs of past speeds for NMS 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.Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video from The Verge about the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge. (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) December 8, 2015 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. Though the results were split, a plurality 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) Using Outlook Email in Office 365: All students logged into their Microsoft Office 365 accounts and had some time to explore it. Students then opened and set-up their Outlook email accounts and practiced sending to emails other students in the room. Each student then finished the activity by sending an email to a teacher on their team.(PA-BCIT Standards 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.O, 15.3.8.Q15.3.8.R, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.D, 15.3.8.M, 15.4.8.F)   Using OneDrive in Office 365: Students started organizing their OneDrive by creating folders for all their subjects.  They were also shown how to upload and download files from their OneDrive.  (PA-BCIT Standards 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.A, 15.4.8.D, 15.4.8.F) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about what life might be like in the year 2020.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) December 4, 2015 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. We also discussed professional digital photo editing with Adobe PhotoShop. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.F, 15.4.5.G) Unfortunately we ran out of time to complete this project. Next class students will share 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 will also be explained.  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.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) |
