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