March 20, 2019 - LAST CLASS 91 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. Students were also reminded to check out the eSchoolPLUS app that's available from Google Play and the iTunes Store. Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  For our break today everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room. Finish Basic HTML Project:  All students had some time to finish the website that we were working on in HTML. Students were shown how to change the font color, and the font style. Students were also shown how to embed a YouTube video into their page.   Click here to enlarge the project description.(PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.S, 15.4.8.H) Online Surveillance:  We watched a short video about how Florida's Orange County Public Schools and local police using a service called SnapTrends to monitor student's social media accounts. March 18, 2019 91 minutes  Finish the Full Page Ad Project: All students had time to finish the advertising project. Students printed out a rough draft in black and white and a 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) Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  For our break today everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some and share their project ideas. 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 Moana 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.  Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video from BlueHost about how websites work. March 14, 2019 44 minutes    Collaboration Skills Video: We finished this activity with a short video about the importance "soft skills" in group work. March 12, 2019 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today we explored the online version of  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 whole class followed a specific list of locations. Next week 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) Work on Full Page Ad Project: All students had time to work on the advertising project that we started last class. Finished projects will be turned in next class. Students will print out a rough draft in black and white and a 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) Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  For our break today everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some and share their project ideas. Online Game: Our class played a Kahoot game with Mrs. Gershman's Computer Class at Newtown Middle School. We were also joined by several English language classes. From Greece we played with Mrs. Kyrikakis's students at Winners Education in Athens and Ms. Xynta's English language class in Skydra. From Hungary we played with 8th grade English language students at Boglári Altalanos Iskola, a Primary School in Balatonboglár. Ms. Wood, a teacher at Signal Mountain Middle/High School near Chattanooga, Tennessee also joined us to watch the game today. The topic of today's game was Earth Science and Geology and the questions were written by Mrs. Kyrikakis's students at Winners Education. Maddox at NMS came in first place, second place went to Josh at HMS and Sarayu at NMS came in third place. We used a Google Hangout to share the Kahoot questions with the other schools.  Students playing Kahoot in:  Balatonboglár, Hungary; Holland, Pennsylvania; Athens, Greece and Skydra, Greece.  Technology Current Event Video: Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video. March 8, 2019 60 minutes*   Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a Channel 4 News interview of Hans Rosling in the U.K. He is the creator of GapMinder.org and in the interview he discusses how the world is actually much better off than you think. * Class time was shorter today due to the half day schedule March 6, 2019 44 minutes  Finish Brochure Project: Everyone had some time to finish typing this project today. Students were reminded to use Google Images and Bing Images to find free images that were in the public domain. Once they had finished they could review a rough draft with the teacher. Tri-folding as brochure was also demonstrated. Everyone had time to finish this project in class today.  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) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from PBS OffBook about careers in graphic design.  March 4, 2019 0 minutes* * Class cancelled due to a Snow Day February 28, 2019 104 minutes   Mystery Skype Game: We played a mystery skype game with Mrs. Wood's 6th grade class from Signal Mountain Middle/High School in Tennessee. During the game students try to guess each other's location by only asking yes and no questions. The students in Tennessee figured out our state first and then we continued to play to see if we could guess each other's county. The students in Tennessee guessed as close as King of Prussia, PA and we guessed as close as Chattanooga, TN.   Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a video from Microsoft about possible uses for technology in the future.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) February 26, 2019 44 minutes  Internet Moment: To help our students understand cultural diversity on the internet we investigated what our own accents sound like by taking the NY Times Dialect Quiz. Students then had an opportunity to compare the dialect heat maps from all the students in our class using a shared Google Slideshow. (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. Internet Moment: As a followup to the Geoguessr game that we played last class we discussed how Google used specially outfitted cars and GPS to collect the street view images. Students were also shown how Google was using specially outfitted backpacks, tricycles and carts to create additional online tours of places. We watched the video below about how the interior of the White House was photographed. February 22, 2019 91 minutes Mr. McNulty was absent today. Students worked on the following activities: Internet Moment: All students went to GeoGuessr and try playing the single player game. In the game you are dropped off in a Google street view image and you have to guess where you are on the map of the world.  Publisher Flyer Project:  Students created a flyer in Microsoft Publisher using a built in flyer template. The finished flyer advertised one of the following school activities: any field trip, the magazine drive, any concert, and school social (dance), any sporting event, or the school play.  Make sure you click on "BUILT IN" and scroll down to the "Flyers" templates. Also make sure each project includes the WHERE - WHO - WHEN information for the event. Use the Holland Middle School webpage to find more information. Video: Students will be watched a video about the creators of Google, Larry Page and Sergi Brin.  During the video student answered these questions online. February 20, 2019 0 minutes* * Class cancelled due to a Snow Day February 14, 2019 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. We also discussed how federal government publications, such as the NWS website, can not be copyrighted and are therefore in the public domain. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.3.5.V, 15.4.8.A, 15.6.5.L)   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 everyone had a chance to get up and move around.  Library Database Project: Students worked in small group to create a shared Google Doc with the username and password information for 9 Library Databases that our students have access to. To do this project students had to access their CRSD Google Accounts, create and share a Google Doc and then search online for the URL's for the various databases. Students then made their own copies of the shared documents and completed their project by arranging it using a table.   Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from Google about online collaboration using Docs, Sheets and Slides. February 12, 2019 0 minutes* * Class cancelled due to a Snow Day February 8, 2019 104 minutes     TED 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)   Logo Design Video:     We finished class today with a short video from Vox about the basics of logo design. 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 6, 2019 44 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. We also discussed how Google continues to track a mobile devices location even when the settings are turned off by using WiFi and cell towers. 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.Finish MLA Paragraph Project: Students opened up this project as a Google Doc and finished the typing. We then downloaded the Google Doc as a Word Doc. Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-B.C.I.T. Standards: 15.3.5.A, 15.3.8.A) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class with a video from the Corning about some potential future uses for their glass products.   (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) February 4, 2019 91 minutes   Students were also reminded to not use their school email for anything inappropriate.     Assigned Seats: All students have an assigned seat/computer in the lab. Students have a responsibility to report any problems with the machine they have been assigned. In this way we all participate in maintaining our school computers. Everyone should use the same computer every time they come to the lab. Students were also reminded to adjust the keyboard, mouse, chair and monitor to meet their ergonomic needs when they come to class. We then visited the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) website and searched for their recommendations concerning computer workstations. We also discussed employment laws in the workplace.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.2.8.I, 15.4.5.D, 15.4.2.B, 15.4.8.F)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 promotional video from the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.    January 31, 2019 50 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, Cortana and the various programs available to them at school. We also talked about the importance of time management and the many distractions that students face because of technology. All students are encouraged to avoid online distractions and games while in class. 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) Students 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. Click here to enlarge the project description.  Technology 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 remix of the original presentation was done by Katy Scott in July 2018.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) |
