January 30, 2020 - 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. Technology Current Event Video: 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. January 28, 2020 44 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. After the activity everyone had a chance to get up, move around and check out each other's Scratch creations. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about various project initiatives by DARPA, which stands for Defense Advance Research Projects Administration. * Our class time was shorter today due to the half day schedule January 24, 2020 104 minutes Internet Moment:  All students should go to earthcam.com and explore their world. Students have 5 minutes to visit live streaming webcams from all around the world.  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 Slide Show 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)Capetown Travel Video:  We watched this short video about tourism & vacations in Capetown, South Africa. Soft Skills Video: We finished this activity with a short video about the importance "soft skills" in group work. We also discussed the difficulties involved in developing soft skills when working in online virtual groups. January 22, 2020 44 minutes   International Video Conference:  Some of our students had an opportunity to meet and talk with some high school students in Greece. The Greek students were from Ms. Xynta's English language class in Skydra, Greece. They asked each other questions about what schools was like in each other's country. We also talked about how college is different and the similar in each country.  Technology Current Event Video:  Unfortunately we ran out of time for a video today. January 17, 2020 91 minutes  Finish Full Page Ad Project: All students had time to finish the advertising project that we started last class. Finished projects were turned in using a shared Google Slideshow. Students also printed out a final draft in class.  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)  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from PBS OffBook about careers in graphic design.  January 15, 2020 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.  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:  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.   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). January 13, 2020 12 minutes*  * Class time was shorter today due to the High School Arts Presentations rotation schedule January 9, 2020 91 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) 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. January 7, 2020 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.   Vietnamese students were mostly against the death penalty, Irish students were evenly split and our class was mostly for the death penalty. Above you can see what our class looked like in South Africa during the activity. We experimented with the video and file sharing features in Microsoft Teams. Sound quality was poor, the video quality was moderate, and the file sharing worked very well. Planning the meeting in advance in MS Teams also went well. (PA-BCIT: 15.3.8.K, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.X) (ISTE Standards: 2b, 2c) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video about some of the new gadgets on display at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. January 3, 2020 44 minutes   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 20, 2019 49 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) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from Danny Winget about the best technology gadgets from the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. * Class time was shorter today due to an adjusted schedule for the afternoon basketball game. December 18, 2019 84 minutes* Internet Moment: Today we looked at two online resources for fonts. DaFont.com offers over 43,000 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)  Online Typing Activities: As a follow up to the typing test students were given some time to find at least 3 online typing activities (tutorials or games) that they enjoyed. They were shown how to add these typing activities to their favorites or bookmarks list so they can go back and practice their typing skills in class when they finished their projects. We also talked about how to find and use the home row on the keyboard. Everyone was reminded of the importance of practice to improve their speeds. (CRETS: 1a, 1c, 1d, 2e) Email Etiquette Video:  We finished this activity with 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)   Logo Design Video:     We finished class today with a short video from Vox about the basics of logo design. * Class time was shorter today due to a fire drill December 16, 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. Profile Pictures: Students opened up their school Google Accounts and we talked about how their profile picture works and that it is public. They were then shown Cartoonify.de and students had time to make a custom profile picture. Students were also shown a collection of generic profile pictures that they could use. We discussed the difference between your professional and personal persona and what online "personal branding" was all about. Students were reminded of the importance of learning of manage what they looked like online. Students then shared their images using network drives.  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:  34.6 WPM.  We also reviewed the typing speed graph below and discussed what a bell curve is.  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about using a Makey Makey invention kit. December 12, 2019 91 minutes    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) Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video about some of the robots that are being developed by Boston Dynamics. December 10, 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 discussed the importance of not being distracted by online games, social media and other online distractions while at school and when they need to get something done at home. 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. It was also explained to students that this software was actually on a web based computer server in Connecticut and that we were accessing and using it though the internet. This was an example of cloud computing.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  For our break today students had a chance to get up and move around some. Identity Theft: We discussed some of the reasons kids are easy targets for identity thieves and some of the things students can do to protect their information. Strong passwords and being careful about what information they share and who they share it with was stressed. We also watched a video from Channel 3 CBS News about a ransom-ware attack on a local school district.   Students were also reminded to not use their school email for anything inappropriate.  Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video about some of the newest drones at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. |
