October 13, 2016 - LAST CLASS 104 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. Office Yoga Break:  Today we practiced a simple yoga stretch for your wrist.  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers and that they should take breaks every 30-40 minutes.  After the stretch everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room.  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) October 10, 2016 44 minutes  MLA Paragraph Quiz: As a follow-up to the MLA Paragraph project that we did several weeks ago all students were asked to take this short quiz to demonstrate their knowledge. Link to the MLA Paragraph Quiz.  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. They used the Council Rock High School - North web site to find the answers. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a 2011 TED presentation by Eric Whitacre about his virtual choir project.  This was an example of asynchronous online collaboration.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.A, 15.3.12.W, 15.6.8.M) October 6, 2016 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. For our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your calve muscles. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class with a video from GCFLearning.org about the collaboration tools in Google Drive. Google Drive Mobile Apps: Students were reminded that they could download mobile versions of the Google Drive Apps for their phones and tablet computers.       September 30, 2016 104 minutes Internet Moment: Today we explored Google Earth and discussed how a three 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) 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: 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 forearm.  Online Collaboration Project:Today we started a group project in which students will use online collaboration tools to plan a travel itinerary. Students will work in groups of 4-5 and they will use a shared Google Doc to create a travel itinerary. For this project our students will be planning a 7 day trip to Cape Town, South Africa where they will participate in some tourism activities of their choice. Click here for the project directions and here for the project rubric. 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. Click here to enlarge the project description. (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) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about tourism & vacations in Capetown, South Africa. September 28, 2016 44 minutes   Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a TED presentation by Tanvee Patankar, a student at Stevenson High School in Illinois.  In the video she described the importance of teaching financial literacy at the high school level. Students were reminded that we do offer a Personal Finance & Investing class at our high school as an elective.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.E, 15.2.8.J, 15.6.8.G) September 26, 2016 91 minutes Internet Moment: Students were shown GeoGuessr.com today and we spent about 5 minutes playing the game at the beginning class today. The highest score in our class today was Andrew with over 22,000 points.  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. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from BlueHost about how websites work. September 22, 2016 69 minutes*  Internet Moment:  To start our class today Mr. McNulty demonstrated how Google and other companies use GPS data from cell phones to track the locations of individuals.  In the demonstration Mr. McNulty showed the class a detailed map prepared by Google of exactly where he and his family were in August of 2014. Using location history (now known as timeline) students could see that he was riding Dumbo the Flying Elephant at precisely 1:08 on August 10, 2014. Everyone then had a chance to open their own Google Accounts and check their location history.  Students were also shown how to access location history on an iPhone. 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.   Introduction to Scratch: As a follow-up to 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. Students were also encouraged to check out the Scratch Tutorial Videos page on their own and consider joining Scratch. We also watched a short video by the MIT Scratch Team about some of their latest developments. Technology Current Event Video:  Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video today. * Class time was shorter today due to the Magazine Drive Assembly September 20, 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)  Brochure Project:  All students had time to work on this project today.  Students were reminded to  use Google Images and Bing Images to find free images that were in the public domain.   Students were shown how to print on both sides of a sheet of paper and how to trifold a brochure.  Everyone had a chance to finish this project in 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) English Dialect Activity: To help our students understand cultural diversity on the internet we investigated what our own accents sound like and compared them to others. All students took the NY Times Dialect Quiz. Students then shared their results with Mrs. Morgan's students at Steam Middle School in Burleson, Texas using a shared Google Doc. We also had an opportunity to see the dialect heat maps from Mrs. Morgan's class.  You can view the finished dialect maps here.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.3.8.J, 15.3.8.K, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.D)Language Differences Video:  As a follow-up to the dialect activity we watched a short video from The Atlantic about the various dialects in the United States. 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)  September 16, 2016 91 minutes   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.  Student Blogging Activity: Our students prepared a one paragraph blog comment for students at the Darbari Lal DAV Model School in New Delhi, India.  Our students were asked to choose one of the following blog entries to comment on:  Our students were asked to demonstrate appropriate internet communication skills and paragraph writing skills. Students were reminded to use the spelling and grammar checking features in Google Docs to help them. Students were also reminded that whenever they post anything online they should make an effort to make sure it will reflect positively on them.  This activity also gave us an opportunity to talk about the differences and similarities between cultures and schools around the world. We will finish our blog comments 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 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. September 14, 2016 104 minutes  Finish Font Guide Project:  All students had time today to finish the Font Guide project that we started last class.  After completing the project all students printed and turned in their final draft. Click here to enlarge the project description.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) 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 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) September 12, 2016 44 minutes Internet Moment: Today we looked at two online resources for fonts. DaFont.com offers over 30,000 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)   Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference". September 8, 2016 91 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 examples of 360 degree streaming video on Youtube like this one of surfing in Tahiti.  (PA BCIT Standards: 15.6.8.M)  Favorite Links Project: Students started this project today. Each student used Word Online to make a list of six favorite websites. They then turned the names of the websites into hyperlinks. The hyperlinks were then laid out on a table and we talked about using and formatting tables. We also discussed appropriate websites for school. Everyone had time to finish and turn in this project today using a shared Google Doc. The shared Doc can be viewed here.  Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.4.5.G) Office Yoga Break: For our break today everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room and review each other's work. Then, before getting back to work, we practiced a simple yoga stretch for your shoulder.   Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a logo design video from Przemyslaw Jakub Wolosaczonek, a graphic designer in London, England. September 6, 2016 104 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 short video about email etiquette tips for college students from Dr. Tracy Brown at California State University in San Marcos. (PA-BCIT Standards 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.O, 15.3.8.Q, 15.3.8.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) September 1, 2016 44 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) Finish Pixlr.com Project: All students had time to finish using the online photo editor pixlr.com to edit a photograph from our school's network drive. We then shared the modified photos using a shared network drive. Students demonstrated basic skills such as drag & drop. The best use of the H:, S: & X: drives will also be explained. Click here to enlarge the project description.  Technology Current Event Video: Most classes end with a current event video. Today's video was inspired by an original presentation created by a high school teacher in Colorado, Mr. Karl Fisch. Here is a link to his blog: THE FISCHBOWL for more information. This version of the video was created by Jose Esteves, a professor at the I.E. Business School in Madrid, Spain. (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A)  August 30, 2016 43 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. 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 fit the following parameters:Â
 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. Click here to enlarge the project description. *Class time was shorter today due to the extended homeroom periods and a fire drill. |
