March 20, 2019 - 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. Students were also reminded to check out the eSchoolPLUS app that's available from Google Play and the iTunes Store. 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  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.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 and see each other's projects.   Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video from BlueHost about how websites work. March 14, 2019 104 minutes   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.  Asynchronous Online Collaboration Project:  Today our students finished the international peer editing project with the English language students at Winners Education in Athens, Greece. Our students had prepared a writing sample that we posted in a shared Google Doc. The students in Greece read and comment on our student's essays and then write an essay of their own. Our students then read their essay and edited their work.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.3.5.M, 15.4.8.F, 15.4.8.G, 15.3.5.X, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.A, 15.4.8.B, 15.4.8.D, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.12.W) Collaboration Skills Video: We finished this activity with a short video about the importance "soft skills" in group work. March 12, 2019 44 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. March 8, 2019 0 minutes* * No class today due to the half day schedule March 6, 2019 104 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) 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.  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. Our students also demonstrated using the MLA format in Google Docs as part of this project.  Everyone was also reminded that whenever they post anything online they should make an effort to make sure it will reflect positively on them.  Everyone had a opportunity to share their Google Doc with another student and have it proofread before we posted the comments online.  This activity gave us an opportunity to  talk about the differences and similarities between cultures and schools around the world.  (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 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 91 minutes   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, move around and see each other's work. International Kahoot Game: We played a Kahoot game with Mrs. Gershman's computer class at Newtown Middle School and Mrs. Bovino's computer class here at HMS. Also joining us from Kerala, India was Sebastian Panakal of the Women of Wiki Project as well as a student, Blaise, from St. Theresas' High School in Manappuram, Alleppey.  Mrs. Wood's 6th grade class from Signal Mountain Middle/High School in Tennessee also joined the game. The topic for today's game was famous landmarks around the world. In our game Nicole from Mrs. Bovino's class here at HMS came in third place, Dylan from Newtown Middle School came in second and Carter from Signal Mountain Middle/High School in Tennessee was the winner. 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 104 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.   Technology Current Event Video:  We watched a 2010 TED Presentation by Jane McGonigal about her ideas about Online Computer Gaming and it's potential for the future.  We were only able top watch the first 10 minutes of the video in class today.  (PA-BCIT Standard:  15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M) February 22, 2019 44 minutes Internet Moment:  All students went to GeoGuessr.com and tried the online geography game. It drops you off in a Google Street View picture and students had to guess where they were in the world.  Students had 5 minutes to see who could get the highest score possible. Griffin won with over 19,000 points. After the game 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 the way the interior of the White House was photographed. 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 video from Google that takes a look inside one of their data centers. In the video our students could see one of the possible locations of their Google Drives. 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)  Finish Font Guide Project:  All students had time to finish the MS Publisher project that we started last class.  Everyone printed and turned in their finished font guide.   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) 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.   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 12, 2019 0 minutes* * Class cancelled due to a Snow Day February 8, 2019 91 minutes       Technology Current Event Video: We watched a short video about Professor Clive Neal who is a planetary geologist who has worked with NASA.  February 6, 2019 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.  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.  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) 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:  40.2 WPM.  We also reviewed the typing speed graph below and discussed what a bell curve is.  Online Typing Activities: As a follow up to the typing test students were given some time to find some 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 finish projects. Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a video about a new typing technology called the tap strap. February 4, 2019 44 minutes   Students were also reminded to not use their school email for anything inappropriate.    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:  Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video today. * Class time was shorter today due to the 3 hour delay schedule |
