3/27/07

Congratulations, everyone. This is our last blog. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

I'd like to take a moment to ask a favor to all of you math gurus out there: help!?

I have a test on Friday, and I might be f'ed.

But, onto the point.

The most interesting blog that I read was probably by Alan. I found most of his humorous, so that made it easier to get through the 5 comments. I know that Alan is good with computers so, and since the book was terrible it offered some comic and insightful relief to what would've been a terrible read.

A technology related skill I would like to acquire is just computers in general. I am fairly competent, but I know there is a ton of stuff that I have no idea how to do. I have a rip of a finale program that I would like to know how to put on my laptop, but I cant because I dont have the skills required. I want those skills. I also want the skills to use finale to its utmost potential, but for that I need a midi keyboard.

I'll reach my future educational technology goals by gaining a competency in the areas I want to improve. Because there is so much content to technology there will always be learning, so it will always be interesting. There will always be a way to reach a ed tech related goal. So I am not worried. I will only be worried after I lose interest in technology, and since I am not a Neanderthal, I dont see that happening.

Your liberal yet independent idiot,
-T

3/20/07

Woo hoo! Up until reading the description of the post last night, I was under the impression that we had to "read" another god awful chapter of the cursed book.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully this blog doesn't take me too long, as I've still yet to do the hypermedia program power-point thingy. I have no idea what I want to do for that.

So, the teacher web tool I researched is a site called "edHelper.com." It is a elementary/middle school focused (with limited focus on high school) site offering various resources for teachers to use to help accent certain parts of curriculum. The site is also very navigable, and fluid with several hyper links offering passage into other parts of the site.

Some of the areas of the site include: Reading and Writing, PreK-3, Language, Special Education, Foreign Languages, Math, Social Studies, Science and "more" which includes the high school focused things. The site also has a useful "theme" feature which offers teachers potential themes for lesson plans. For example, the theme for 6-7th grade tomorrow is Human Rights in South Africa. All in all the site is a very useful teacher web resource tool.

Our last paragraph is to talk about a tool that we have not yet seen. I don't exactly understand that. If I haven't seen it, how am I supposed to explain it? I will attempt to do so through the sense of taste. It might be easier than sight. No, its not.

I guess a search engine similar to Google, but perhaps more focused. Much like the other features that Google offers (ie: Google Scholar, Google Blog, etc.)

Thats my spiel.

One more blog to go!

Your liberal yet independent idiot,
-T

3/13/7

Yay for no education class!

Yay for spring break

Boo for power points

Boo for blogs

Boo for late classes

BOOOOOO for SAM.

So, chapter 8. What's chapter 8 about? Security Issues, Ethics, and Emerging Technologies in Education.

Pretty much everything we're familiar with and have heard about in the media for the past few years.

The beginning of the chapter talks about computer security risks, which I'm sure we're all familiar with. Along the line, at some point in time I'm sure we've all done some action that caused the computer to f up. That would be a computer security risk. The text also talks about computer crimes...which I'm sure we're all guilty of....cough downloading music, cough...

The chapter goes on to explain about viruses.

I'm sure we've all had a virus at one point or another. The text distinguishes different types of viral infections computers can get including boot sector viruses, file viruses, macro viruses, and malicious software programs.

I'm sure we're also all familiar with anti-virus programs. McAfee, Norton, AVG, etc.

Also, I'm sure all of us are familiar with system failure, Mac users especially.

The next section of the chapter talks about internet ethics. I thought this section was especially funny. Internet ethics have gone out the window with the dawn of the youtube age.

Also interesting was the health related stuff. Some of my friends back home have CTS from playing too much war craft. I laugh. They cry.

This past week I have learned relatively nothing in the world of computer technology. Why? SPRING BREAK BABY! YEAH!

I did learn how to do a power point extremely fast, though. Of course, I still am not finished with it. But a few minutes in class will change that.

Your liberal yet independent idiot,
-T

2/27/07

Holy feces! I completely forgot about this blog until Bruno's class today!

So, I did not get a chance to read the entire chapter and realize how completely worthless it is :'(

I guess I'll just have to use the summary due to my lack of time.

However, it still wont change my opinion on how worthless this book is.

Chapter 7: 7 x 3 is 21 + 2 = 23!!!!

OMG the number 23 is in the text!!!11!!! It's a sign from the big guy up stairs!!!23!!! OMG there it is again!!

Anyways,

This chapter is all about evaluation. What are we evaluating, Thomas? Well, let me tell you. We are evaluating Educational Technology. What?! Isn't that what this class is about?! YES!

Apparently, evaluation of educational technology is important before, during and after instruction. As if that wasn't already a given. Educators can rely on a variety of resources to help identify and evaluate the appropriateness of educational technologies, including those available from school districts, state Departments of Education, professional educational organizations, catalogs, and Web sites.

The next few sections detail the assignment that we worked on in class. Namely, the Web Resource Evaluation Form (WREF). The assignment was fun, c'mon guys, admit it. In all actuality, though, the assignment was helpful and the chapter provides further insight onto how and why the WREF's are helpful.

Our 1 page dissertations that we had to provide with the assignment would be a beneficial part of the blog for this particular idea, but I trust we all embrace the point.

Next, the chapter presents a number of strategies for integrating technology into one-computer classrooms and other K-12 instructional settings (such as multi-computer classrooms). These strategies include: Presentations, demonstrations and also hands-on experiences for the students. The chapter also includes strategies that can be included with the seven subject-specific curriculum integration activities. Such as curriculum pages, which are teacher created documents that contain hyperlinks to teacher-selected sites that have been evaluated for content and age appropriateness...e.g. the Wikipage's crap...

The last part of the chapter talks about how to be successful when integrating technology and creating lesson plans. The chapter finishes by talking about ways to obtain funding to increase the availability of technology in our classrooms. Including people within school districts, businesses, private organizations, foundations and the government. But there are numerous other ways to obtain funds.

Wasn't that fun and rushed?

Your liberal yet independent idiot,
-T

2/20/07

Post 7. I think?

I'm actually not sure. But we're definitely on chapter 6. I hope. If not, then I read the wrong chapter...

Chapter 6: Technology, Digital Media, and Curriculum Integration.

Yay, so now we get to integrate what we already know into what we're planning on majoring in.

Haven't we been doing this all year?

The chapter begins by explaining curriculum to us. Education majors. If we are education majors, shouldn't we already be aware of what curriculum is? I am. And I'm not about to summarize it in a blog at 1230 in the AM.

As I page through the chapter, I am bombarded with tidbits of information that I already know. I wouldn't be so against these blogs if it weren't for the content. I want to learn something. This book only serves as a reminder of how incredibly wasteful and greedy our culture is. Many trees could've been saved had this book not been published. And, it cost at freaking butt-load for us to buy. What the hell?

Aside from my rant. The chapter explains to us how we can integrate technology into our curriculum, via learning styles, instructional strategies, learning processes, lesson plans based on instructional models, and learning centers.

So it is basically a more in-depth analysis of what we discuss in Intro to Ed and whatever the name is for the class we're in this semester.

Anyways, the second half of this blog has to do with what we learned this past week.

I've learned that I hate, with the burning passion of a thousand suns, the SAM program.

Your liberal yet independent idiot,
-T

2/13/07

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

And by Empire, I mean computers, and by computers I mean Digital Media, which our chapter is about!

Oh, joy of joys!

Multimedia is ultimately, bling-bling for your computer. It is literally defined as the combination of text, color, graphics, digital manipulation of photographs and music, presentation capabilities and production. I am completely sure that we are ALL familiar with Digital Media, if you happen to be that random anomaly that isn't familiar with digital media, please get help.

To summarize. The sections that explain the broad concept of digital media are completely irrelevant, and would've saved a few trees had they not been printed, because everyone and their mother know, or have experienced digital media.

CBT we should all be familiar with, also, because we grew up with it. We are all using it now in the form of SAM...God damn you SAM... and, since our introduction to macintosh's in kindergarten we have been subconsciously trained to use computers.

The next section was about e-books and references, which I found pretty cool. I subscribe to pop-sci and they recently had an article about e-books. It is a very nifty technology that I wouldn't mind getting my hands on. Though, I do prefer hard copies while reading. Back-light's don't agree with my eyes too much, as it gives me a massive headache after a while.

They say that in order to learn a new word you have to use it meaningfully seven times. So, from 4pm Tuesday until 4pm Wednesday, I shall use the word "edutainment" seven times. Its funny how lazy our culture has become that we can't "educational entertainment" because it has too many syllables. To each his own. But its a cool concept that I know I've been introduced too. Oregon Trail for example. I learned how all about the historical trail, while being entertained for hours on end trying to keep my entire party alive. Educational entertainment at its best.

The rest of of the chapter explains how these technologies can be used in curriculum, but honestly, its telling us everything we already know. We have the unique experience of growing up in a technological boom. The generation of the authors of this book didn't grow up here, granted, they probably developed most of the technology.

Apparently the next section of our blog deals with what we've learned over the course of the past week. Honestly for me, it hasn't been much. I wish that I could've gotten some start on the training for MS word, because I hear that there are obscurities that I should be aware of. I had planned on coming in some time in the week, but have not had the time. I've had too much music and service stuff going on to find a good block of time to start. But, I did enjoy the Google activity, as it opened up a few new ways for me to use search engines.

"Why, you stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder. "

Your liberal yet independent idiot,

-T

2/6/07

Has it really been a week already?

Another blog...

Here it goes, and I promise to make it as painless as possible...

Chapter four; Capítulo Cuatro; Chap-tah fourizzle my nizzle!

This is a diverse blog.

Chapter four attempts to make clear to us the concepts and execution behind various hardware components used in schools, businesses, and homes. the first thing we learned about was the system unit. If you've ever had a computer of any kind you should have an idea what this is. If not, then you should audition for a Geico commercial as a Neanderthal. The money is great, I hear.

Soon after the system unit paragraph is a section explaining bits and bites. I'm going to be the first to tell everyone that I'm no computer whiz. Never posed as one, don't plan to pose as one. I'm not going to attempt to explain bits and bytes because I'm not quite sure I can do it coherently. Binary is a whole different language consisting of two digits, "0" and "1." Anyways...

After reading Alan's blog, I learned a few interesting things about the CPU and Processor unit that the book didn't put in there; such as some system clock stuff and other stuff. Again, its a broad understanding that if I tried to put into a coherent sentence wouldn't come out as so. I've known for a long time what CPU stands for, and it really grinds my gears when people say its short for "computer." NO! Central Processing Unit, meat-bag!

The memory unit reinforced what I already knew. I do find the concept quite fascinating, though. I'm sure that most of us know what these things are, though. We've grown up with it, and likewise have watched it grow up. For example, the first Ipod to come out was only one gig. Now they're up to 80 gigs. And the actual Ipod is smaller and proportionately speaking, less expensive, too. I'm also sure that all of us, or at least most of us have a flash drive, too. Which come in handy.

The chapter goes on to explain technologies that we are all familiar with. If not, then get out of the early 90's and get yourself in gear. Do yourself a favor and NEVER under ANY circumstances get yourself a trackball mouse. They are pointless and serve only as a projectile to injure enemies. I'm sure we've all hooked up an mp3 player up to our computer at one point or another, so we're all familiar with audio input, and I'm sure that we've all worked with some sort of video input in our lives. Be it on a computer or otherwise.

The last few points the chapter hits on is explaining monitors, printers, floppy and hard disks. All very common technologies that even my little 11 year old brother is familiar with.

T minus 34 minutes until this is due.

"Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

Your liberal yet independent idiot,
-T