May 6, 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.  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. May 2, 2019 104 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. 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. Student Technology Use Survey:  All students in this class participated in the annual Student Technology Use Survey. Students will be able to view the survey results here.  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. April 30, 2019 30 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. Â
Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from Wired about the various robot projects that Boston Dynamics is currently working on. April 26, 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 and move around. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from Pond5 about how public domain works. In the video the three ways content enters the public domain is explained (through government, through dedication and time). April 24,2019 55 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. Collaboration Skills Video: We finished this activity with a short video about the importance "soft skills" in group work. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a TED presentation by Margaret Stewart about how copyright issues are handled by YouTube.  April 22, 2019 44 minutes  Brochure Project: All students had time to finish this project in class 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. Everyone was also shown how to print and tri-fold the finished brochure. 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.  April 11, 2019 91 minutes  Brochure Project: All students had time to work on this project in class 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. Everyone will have a chance to finish this project next 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) 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. International Online Game: Our class played an online quiz game today.  Today's game topic was identifying foods and we were joined by several other classes and teachers from around the world.  Ms. Xynta's English language class in Skydra, Greece and Ms. Maskaeva from Ivanovo, Russia joined us from Europe. Mrs. Gershman's computer class at Newtown Middle School and Mrs. Bovino's computer class here at HMS also joined us. In our game Dom from HMS came in third place, Andrew from NMS came in second and first place went to Avery in our class. We also played the game a second time in Greek and Avery in our class won that round. Below you can see a view of the different classrooms as they played the game today.  Technology Current Event Video: Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video. April 9, 2019 104 minutes  Internet Moment: Today we looked at three online resources for free ebooks and audio books. We started with the Gutenberg Project (Gutenberg.org) which offers free access to 54,000 ebooks and over 100,000 additional free ebooks from other resources. We then looked at Lit2Go which is a free online collection of audio books in MP3 format that is available from the University of South Florida. Finally we visited Google Books (books.google.com) and discussed how to access and search the text of the free ebooks available there. We also discussed copyright laws and how these books came to be available online or in the public domain. Students were also reminded to search for free ebook reader apps for their phone and tablet devices. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.1.5.B, 15.2.5.L, 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.B)Finish Library Database Project: Everyone had time to finish the project we started last class making  their own copies of the shared documents and completing the project by arranging it using a table, adding hyperlinks and adding colors.   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.  Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a video from Brigham Young University about how art such as origami can be used to inspire engineering and design in science. April 5, 2019 94 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)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) Library Database Project: Students worked in a 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. Next class we will finish this project.  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. April 3, 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. TED Video: We watched part of a TED Presentation by John Maeda, the President of the Rhode Island School of Design. We only watched a few minutes of his presentation in which he talked about the relationships between content & form and 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)  Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference". April 1, 2019 104 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: Everyone had time to finish and print the project that we started last class. Students practiced 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.  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:  35.9 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 promotional video from HUVrTech Inc. about the most recent developments in hover board technology. Since the creation of this video in 2016 HUVrtech was acquired by Facebook Inc. which also owns Oculus VR.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.1.8.R, 15.1.8.S, 15.1.8.U, 15.1.8.V, 15.5.8.E, 15.6.8.O, 15.6.8.S, 15.7.8.N, 15.8.8.L, 15.8.8.N, 15.8.8.O) March 28, 2019 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 short video about an alternative way to type using the SwiftKey Tilt typing app on a smart phone. (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A)  March 26, 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)International Online Game: Our class played an online quiz game today. Many teachers at the middle school and high school use online games such as Kahoot, Quizlet and Quizizz for review activities and all of our students should be familiar with how to play them. Students were reminded that these games can also be played on smart phones and they can even be assigned as homework. The concept of gamification in education was also discussed. Today's game topic was world capitals and we were joined by several other classes and teachers from around the world. Mr. Marx and Mrs. Minner, middle school teachers at Realschule Sundern in Germany and Ms. Xynta's English language class in Skydra, Greece joined us from Europe. Mrs. Gershman's computer class at Newtown Middle School and Mrs. Bovino's computer class here at HMS also joined us. In our game a student "J" from Greece came in third place, Avery in our class came in second and first place went to Mr. Marx in Germany. Below you can see a view of the different classrooms as they played the game today.    Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a review of some of the new roll-able TV from LG that was displayed at the 2019 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. March 22, 2019 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. 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.  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:
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 conducted a probability experiment about matching birthdays that you can read about here. Everyone was asked to get up and find the other person in the room who shares their birthday to see if there was a match.   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 version of the video was created in 2019 by Jose Esteves, a professor at the I.E. Business School in Madrid, Spain. (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) |
