Take my computer survey.

Here is the computer survey. Thank you for completing it.


https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dHJ4UW1xN3ZiNWpHUFpfQXFya2NIY3c6MA

Homework due 11/11 - My class assignment

MY CLASS ASSIGNMENT:


This assignment went quite well with a glitch or two that were beyond my control. Our entire school was just set up with each student and each teacher having their own Google account (through woodsidehighschool.org, not google.com) and it is controlled by the school. It is a student web portal and all iGoogle pages/dashboards are predesigned with links to their E-mail, Google Docs, News, Dictionary, NotePad and Calendar.

I first talked about Google Docs and its many advantages and uses. I demonstrated what a regular Google page looks like and where to find Google Docs, etc. Then I showed the students what our Woodside Google page looks like and where some shortcuts are located. Next I showed them the different kind of documents they can create, many of the menu items and icons, how to rename & share their files. I then showed them one of the documents I created with my partner in this class so they could see what the Revision History looks like. I also talked about the proper way to save an image or the url to an image and how to insert it into their presentations or other documents.

We also talked about searching the web for news articles. I showed them the school’s library site and showed them where to find current news articles. Then I showed them how to get to news through Yahoo.com, Google.com, abcnews.com, foxnews.com, cbsnews.com, msnbcnews.com, etc.

I told all students what their new Google login was and their password. This is where the first glitch occurred because some students didn’t have Google accounts, even though they were supposed to. It took over 24 hours to get the administration to fix this problem so those students were on temporary hold.

I had students form groups of 2 for this project and had them decide who the owner would be. For the students who couldn’t get into their Google account, obviously they weren’t the owner. The owners set up the first slide with the required information and the editor made sure they received that file.
Next we went over the requirements of the assignment:
Title slide with title of article and names of partners
Three slides per student summarizing the article
One image required per student
Reference page citing the article and the image.

The other glitch was that a few students had formatting problems in their presentation. For two students the text would only fill about 1/8 of the screen before wrapping around to form a very long narrow box of text that went completely off of their slide. One I was able to easily fix easily by creating a new slide and copying the text into it. Another one took much more effort and I ended up retyping the text on a new slide. Another student had her font size change every time she clicked out of that slide. After a few attempts, we decided to just let it go.
When adding backgrounds, some students wanted to change the background to only one slide but if they were using the Themes, this was not possible. If they made a mistake changing the background, “Undo” didn’t work.
All in all, after we got over the main humps, it went pretty well. Because I know MSOffice so well and all that it can do, the restrictions of Google Docs was quite frustrating to me and also to my students who know it well and use all of its many features but I can certainly see a use for Google Docs, especially for students.

Homework due 11/4

I finally decided on a project to do with my students. This one combines both Internet searching and Google docs. Since I don't teach a subject like English or Social Studies (I teach various computer classes and I am going to present this lesson to my Computer Applications class), I am going to put them in groups of two and have them search a news story. It will have to be hard news, no tabloids and I decided on no sports either. They can use Yahoo News, Fox News, The New York Times, the BBC or any other news source in that category. They will then create a PowerPoint presentation in Google Docs that will be a minimum of 6 pages (3 pages minimum per team member). A PowerPoint presentation will be perfect because we just started using PowerPoint in class last week. Each team member will also each have to include a picture on one of their slides. I will first review searching for news stories with the class. I will also teach them to insert a picture both as a jpg and also as a link. The good news is that after I had just written up a lesson plan as to how to set up a Google account, I received an e-mail from one of our administrators informing us that all teachers and all students now automatically have Google accounts. We were told what the user names were for the students and the passwords so now I just have to get everyone to log into their new accounts. This will be a great way to introduce the schools new system to my students.

I only see my students every other day so I hope to start this lesson on Tuesday but Thursday at the latest since I’m not sure how long it will take them (I have a wide range of ability/motivation in this class).

HOMEWORK due 10-27 - Article about On-Line reading and research

After reading the article, I will be more clear and more specific about how my students should search the web for information.

In the future when I have students do research on-line, I will first discuss certain tools for narrowing their search and validating their search results (as we have learned in this class). If appropriate for the assignment, I will strongly suggest certain types of sites to use that are reliable. These would include library sites, on-line news (either through sites like ABCnews.com and sites like Yahoonews), Library of Congress and sites with a reliable extensions like .gov or .edu. Then I will have them fill out a simple questionnaire to help them determine if their website is valid.

This questionnaire will ask students to:

1. Search their topic several different ways to see if they get the same results (using symbols to narrow their search, changing word order and then searching again to see if they get the same results. They will write down how many hits they got for each search and their different searches.

2. Write down exactly what they searched when they finally got the results they were looking for and also have them bookmark their site so they can get back to it easily.

3. Identify the author, look up the author on line and write down some details about the author.

4. Identify the domain and write it down on the questionnaire.

5. Click on links from the site they found, read through them and write down information as to where these links go and write down why they think these links are credible.

6. Students will then write down several pieces of information they found and write down if these pieces of information make sense in relationship to what they thought they would get.

Searching - Homework due 10-13

I finally finished click around and reading/listening to all the links for this assignment.  Some things I already knew (like using certain symbols in your search to narrow your search) and the Advanced Search box but it was great to get a refresher course since I don't always use these features.  I hadn't used the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature in a very long time and had forgotten about what kind of results I would get.  I'm going to use that more often now.  I can see it saving a lot of time.

I didn't know about Show Options and the Wonder Wheel which I really liked and I can see using it myself.  I experimented with these options and got good results.  I also had no idea about the quick shortcut way to use Google as a calculator, to find the population, definition or to convert currency.  This will be great on many levels and it is so easy (much more direct than I thought a search could be).  I will use this quite a bit.  I will probably use the conversion and the definition features the most.

Library of Congress Homework Due 10/6

As I was watching the Library of Congress videos, I found many things that interested me. One that I found particularly interesting was the children's pop-up book that they had because they found it to be of particular interest due to the vibrant colors used throughout the book for its time period. I had no idea that the Library of Congress had childrens' books and I thought it was interesting that the main reason they had it was for the colors they used.  I wondered what other types of items were in the Library of Congress had that I was unaware of.  I wondered if they had more children's items.  Later I learned that they had a lot of children's items.  I also learned about all sorts of items to be found in the Library that I was not aware of. 

I had always thought that the Library of Congress focused only on the history and making of our country and our founding fathers.  Since I have never had the opportunity to visit the Library, I was totally uninformed.  I also thought they only had books, maps and photos but then I learned they had other items such as the contents of President Lincoln's pockets the night he was shot and the actual yellow ribbon that was tied around the "Old Oak Tree" for the Iran hostages.  I never would have guessed the ribbon would be there.

I later found that the Library of Congress even has comic strips. I never knew that they would think this was an important enough part of history to be in the Library.  Nor did I think that certain movies would be considered to be in the Library but they are.

Lastly I decided to research the history of advertising by Coca Cola. Who would have thought that television ads would be in the Library of Congress?  Their first print ad was in 1886 and is shown here. 

They began their television advertising in 1954.  They used stop motion advertising from 1954-1956.  In 1964 the used experimental color television project to determine the best lighting for their cans, bottles and performers in television advertisements.  Their famous Polar Bear campaign began in 1993 and was launched with the beginning of the Always campaign.

All in all I found this experience very interesting and I can see many, many advantages to using the Library of Congress web site for students as well as adults.

Library of Congress

Assimilation Through Education:

2 Articles with pictures:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+10032904))

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4051e+mf000045))


Link to just the pictures:


http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3c00000/3c00000/3c00500/3c00543v.jpg


http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?10031657+X-31657

The Exploitation of the Works ... - World Digital Library

The Exploitation of the Works ... - World Digital Library

Shared via AddThis

What I learned today?

I learned how to take my picture with the computer, how to create a customized google account and how to create a blog. I also am TRYING to learn how to navigate around a MAC.