Blog Post 11

I work in excel often, but every time i open excel and I start a project I seem to always learn something new. This week we had to import the data and create visual representations based on the data in excel. Although I have done importing, mean, median, mode, and charts in excel before I was able to learn some new ways of going about doing them. I thoroughly enjoy excel for the main fact that you can always learn something new and you can always figure out a new way to use it. The only thing I’d say I did not like about the excel assignment is that we are not really using excel to its fullest potential, and a larger project maybe based on grades or something applicable to teachers may have been more appropriate of an assignment in my opinion.

Personally after looking at peoples blogs throughout the semester I would like to spend more time in excel which was what I originally thought this class would do. Excel has many applications and is constantly changing and being made better by Microsoft. Excel is probably one of the most useful programs I have ever used and by far one of the ones you are likely to use most in your everyday life. I personally use excel for budgeting, future expectations of income, dividing expenses among people and as an accounting major I have had to use it in all my internships thus far.

Since I have mentioned that I will not be a teacher in the future I feel that I will touch on my goals of using this class in the future. Some of the items learned in both power point and excel I can see myself using in the future for presentations, budgets, and justification to people within a presentation. As a student I think i will continue using social media to see what the latest trends are in technology to make sure that I am an early adapter and understand the technologies to be better prepared for my job.

Comments:

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Blog Post 10

Peripherals are almost always in classrooms, from posters on the walls, to diagrams around the classroom and items on the teachers desk. Often in Science and history class I saw the most non technology peripherals, and they were often the cooler ones because you were able to look at them or touch them and its obviously more realistic.

The web based resource I would use and review is one that almost everyone has used already which is skype. http://www.skype.com/en/ allows for people to communicate via video, or just call and has the potential to be used in many different ways to answer questions in a chat type scenario or the ability to communicate with classrooms in other countries. As a student I was first introduced to skype when my classroom skyped with a class in Africa after we had helped to provide with a computer and internet.

The biggest thing about skype is that it is free to use and means that anyone could download and access it. This makes the platform a great one for having students, it also is private calls so that there is no outside contact. Being able to communicate with classrooms in other countries is an invaluable resource when teaching students about other cultures.

Excel as a teacher is used for so many things. The main thing I can see myself using it for grades. Being able to input grades, add curves, etc. all without having to do it to individual people. The other major thing Excel can be used for is when teaching any subject that uses math because you are able to show formulas in each cell of how the numbers got there. Excel is an invaluable tool in everyday life even, keep track of items, banking, etc. are all really easy to get done when you are able to input numbers and manipulate them with descriptions.

Power Point 1 I had not completed (Jing). However the power point assignment that required all slides being linked I retouched on skills I had learned earlier in life on how to connect slides to one another. It was a fun assignment for me because I did it on European countries that I am planning to visit in the future. 

Comments:

https://stephaniesalkay.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/post-10/comment-page-1/#comment-28

https://campus.fsu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_group=courses&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Fcontent%2Ffile%3Fcmd%3Dview%26content_id%3D_7101507_1%26course_id%3D_6406955_1%26framesetWrapped%3Dtrue    – Rachel Sinclair Blog 9 Comment Awaiting mdoeration

Blog Post 8

I personally would use power point and other presentation software in a multitude of different ways. The first way is incorporating pictures, and links that I would open and use to further illustrate a point on a specific topic. Second I think when you are using Microsoft Office Suite it is great because you can copy and paste information and its layout from one suite to another flawlessly. In addition to all of this you can easily illustrate numbers and charts with excel, incorporate it into your presentation that you are doing using power point, and at the end you can turn your power points into outlines in word.

Adaptive technologies can be technologies that help someone who are disabled in some way. I have not personally known the students but I have seen students use hearing aids, and recording devices to re-listen to or scribe lectures down. The only problem I have with the scribe and recording devices is that only one student would be required to attend class for this, and other students who do not attend would be able to benefit from this.

The web quest was a different assignment to me as I have never done an educational type website. I have used wordpress website development software online in the past in making and editing websites for a company, but they weren’t instructional as much as they were basic information, contact information and pictures of what the company does. After doing the web quest assignment though I definitely think I could improve the quality of my information and instructions as well as with more time and years of refining perfect an assignment and links for the assignment to be done easily and properly. In my personal career I do not think it will benefit me as I will be doing wholesale insurance, however I think that website building is important for many careers and whether its a web quest or actual website it is important to know how much and what information to put on each page of your website.

Comments:

https://ach13b.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/blog-post-8/comment-page-1/#comment-26

https://dt12b.wordpress.com/2015/03/03/post-8/comment-page-1/#comment-27

Blog 9

The biggest advantage I think of using presentation software no matter what the grade is that you can include pictures, diagrams, and information all in one presentation which allows students to see and compare at a quick glance. In addition I think that presentation software has many different options in terms of linking to outside sources to be pulled up, web links and with software like jing, you can include a video of yourself or someone else with recorded information and embed it.

The digital divide is one that can be looked at in many ways. The digital divide can be between people being able to use new technology or not or be unwilling to use new technology. Personally I think that I am very good with technology and have been using it all my life so I am always open to trying new technologies and programs to see if they will make my life easier. I also prefer to use technology whenever possible as it is much easier to backup, transfer and access from any where without having to carry things around (example excel vs a piece of paper). As technology has advanced though many people especially in certain industries would prefer not to go paperless, or  switch to email as much as telephone calls because of the way they have succeeded for so many years.

Educational articles I have seen recently are a lot of posted by Google education on twitter. These articles are focused mainly on how to properly incorporate technology and programs into an educational setting. I think this is a major issue at the moment because a lot of teachers want to use technology in their classrooms, but do not know how to incorporate it into their current lessons properly. I think as time goes on and more programs and technology come about, and also as young teachers are thrust into the workforce this will change majorly and it will begin being used properly.

Comments:

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https://sammgronau.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/blog-post-8/comment-page-1/#comment-21

Blog Post 7

Personally I think if a teacher were to have and maintain a website it could pose as a very useful tool. Certain documents could be saved to a students computer and filled out, or printed and filled out and it would cut down on the amount of prep work for the teacher. I also think once the website is setup for one year you could continue using it by just adding and removing documents as you choose. Course websites could pose as very valuable for extra information the students may not be able to get, give direct links to safe websites to learn and even be used for sharing information to students who were absent that day.

https://www.blendspace.com/  – Blend Space is the tool I could see being very useful as it helps to create and organize lesson plans in a super fast and simple way. The more tools you have at your disposal to create and make your life easier the better. The lesson plans are also on computer format, which makes it easy to post to your personal website so that students could see upcoming lessons.

Web 2.0 technologies are going to almost all be useful in the classroom as time goes on, but as of now teachers are still lagging behind in the technology department. Some teachers are older and have not yet adapted to all technology and thus Web 2.0 technologies could be to difficult to use and further complicate things in the classroom. Web 2.0 technologies include a variety of different things, from converting formats, networking, concept mapping etc. all of these are useful skills and could make things easier to view and see but without proper use it could be more complicated for student in a k-12 environment.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs I have had to do web evaluations before, and thus I enjoyed the last assignment because I have learned in the past some of the not so fun things of typing in a web address I think is correct. Below is a screenshot of part of my web evaluation which I did on finding information about the White House and Structure of the Federal government.

Blog Comments:

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https://stephaniesalkay.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/post-7/comment-page-1/#comment-17

Blog Post 6

Technology is advancing everyday, however with that being said I can see myself using today’s technology in different ways to teach students. Blogs could be a great way to post assignments or prompt “journal responses” for younger students to learn how to write. Twitter and Blogs could also be a great way to give assignments, check up on students or communicate with those that maybe missed school or class that day so that they can retrieve and learn on their own as much of the material that they missed as possible. Twitter and Blogs are also a great resource to connect with others in the teaching profession to see not only how they do things, but share experiences and how different teachers handle situations differently.

Teachers and parents will both need to be active as technology advances to ensure that students are beginning to look at legitimate resources from a young age. I can remember as a child wondering about things and just going to Google and typing in a question to get an answer and basically believing anything I found. Previously though the internet wasn’t as good of a resource and much of what I read was false. I think it will be very important for people to teach students what is a good resource and what is not, and to get students familiar with technology at a young age.

Skills like we learned in the web hunt could be great skills to teach a very young student so that they are able to find different websites for different needs at a young age and thus it will make their research as they get older much easier. I personally did not mind the web hunt, however I think the instructions for what link to paste and what exactly we were looking for could have been more straightforward. I was able to find much of the items via simple Google search, however some took going through an intermediary website. I personally posted the link of the final product, though I think some people may have posted the link of their Google search bar. Thus i think instructions could have been clearer. Also if it was my assignment I would make 20 or so easy to find, a simple Google search and post the link, and then 5 extra that are difficult, 2 graded and 3 extra credit. That way finding hard ones is a requirement but you make the extra credits very hard to make up for if a student can actually find them and it would fix if they somehow missed a different hard one or easy one.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/1264/12-Quick-Tips-To-Search-Google-Like-An-Expert.aspx

Comments:

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https://stephaniesalkay.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/post-6/comment-page-1/#comment-15

Blog Post 5

Web based resources are great for a variety of different things. Web based learning can be used to interact with people all around the world and share. Software like “electa-live” serves as a virtual classroom software for teachers. https://www.e-lecta.com/Default.asp seems to be a great bit of software for virtual classrooms where you can share and teach from a remote location. A great use for this would be helping students prepare for a test or answer questions that they have so you can show them what it is you are doing.

The internet is the only way these days to do research. As stated in chapter 3, the internet is a growing network with a tremendous amount of information, but as you get older and as the internet has advanced we have realized that almost all information is currently online. Research online is useful almost always today, however if you do now know how to research or differentiate between good and bad sources you will fail at doing proper research.

Over the years, classes have assigned research papers that require primary and secondary sources. In addition I had to do an assignment for AP English in high school in which we found “accurate” Wikipedia pages vs. Non-accurate Wikipedia pages. This was a very interesting assignment as it made me realize that although Wikipedia is one website, each individual “topic” can be true or false, or have truths or lies in it. Knowing what I do now about research on the internet and how to best search for items to get exactly what you want using quotes, plus signs and other tricks, i find that a lot of the “primary” information requires logins, which can be a pain if you do not have access to them. As time goes on I hope that more information becomes free to the public so that anyone can learn about what it is that they want to learn about.

This weeks inspiration assignment was different. I have never worked in inspiration, however it was super simple to use and very intuitive which I think is important for teachers as they are going to always be busy and pressed for time. A simple software that helps them outline and create diagrams is a huge help to them and should be utilized more. It allows for the saving as a word document which gives an outline of the diagram which I feel like would’ve benefited me in some of the classes I took throughout my educational career. Below is a screenshot of my basic “history” lesson.

Blogs I commented on:

https://klh13e.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/blog-post-5/comment-page-1/#comment-15

https://jmi13b.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/blog-5/comment-page-1/#comment-5

Blog 4 – Website

The website I choose to critique is http://www.basspro.com/. The website is for Bass Pro Shops store and is laid out very well according to the ideas in chapter 6. Chapter 6 emphasizes simplicity and general design principles. On Bass Pro Shops home page you have pictures with words over them, and all words are a similar type style making it easy to read. There is also no superfluous items because everything has a purpose. At the beginning of the page you have your advertisements and pictures you can scroll through, with each picture being a link to what it is talking about. At the bottom of the page you have lists to further help you navigate if necessary. These are both Rules outlined in Chapter 6 that make a website better to view. Since this book is slightly outdated, it expects that the internet is still in a developing phase. As time has gone on, many people may have noticed that their favorite websites have changed. These changes are people realizing that graphic design and easier navigation is key when developing and running a successful website.

Open software is software that can be created, used, shared and altered by anyone. Often Open software has a specific purpose and is created by people with similar needs. I personally think open software is great in teaching because it is probably software created by another teacher to ease teaching or doing something that is difficult in their day to day routines. If i knew how to contribute I would, or give feedback to those who created it. I could also see schools beginning to make donations to creators if its software that they use regularly.

Since last week I talked about my Word and Graphics Assignment 2, Today I will talk about my Word and Graphics Assignment 1. Word and Graphics Assignment 1 I think was rather basic, and is actually an assignment I have had to do in middle school for computer classes. I did like that we had to pick a topic though and create a quiz on it because it gave me an excuse to research something fun for a bit

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Blogs I commented on:

https://masternewknowledgedaily.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/module-4/comment-page-1/#comment-6

https://klh13e.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/blog-post-4/comment-page-1/#comment-13

Blog 3 – MS Word

As a student I have used MS word for a variety of different things. I’ve had to produce resumes, write papers, taking notes and making displays for people to look at. Although Chapter 9 is outdated, I would say that using charts and tables to show information in MS word next to where you are talking about something makes it a lot easier for a person to see, especially if its a wall of text. Chapter 9 also mentions spell check which is common in almost all software today because of its importance. The chapter also mentions having links to the internet. I feel that the links is one of the most important things you can have because its a direct link to facts you are talking about, and it allows people to see where the information was coming from.

Every class I’ve had since about 8th grade there has been an assignment with a “plagiarism” check. It is important to ensure both as a teacher and student that the information you are using is accurate and you are allowed to use the materials. Many schools have purchased rights to use material in certain textbooks and related works. It is important to make sure students understand what plagiarism is and that even teachers need to be granted access to use certain works.

This weeks assignment was an interesting one. I would say it was interesting to see how you can use a combination of both text-boxes, word art and breaks to make a post. I think if I were to redo this assignment again I would be able to do it at a much more efficient pace. What I did not like about the assignment however was that I originally tried to make it only using breaks, and when only using breaks I was unable to produce a sufficient looking newsletter. The other thing I disliked about it was that If it was a true newsletter I would have saved it as a PDF to send out to eliminate any issues of items moving when opened in a different version, however I saved it as a Word document and upon submission to blackboard things moved around and did not look right. I’d say that some of the things I learned in this assignment such as breaks in a page could be useful in the future as a teacher making newsletters, or applicable to everyone in making resumes. Below is a screenshot of my Newsletter!

Blogs I commented on (From the comment below).

https://masternewknowledgedaily.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/module-3/

https://se11b.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/im-getting-the-hang-of-this-blogging-thing-3/comment-page-1/#comment-7

Blog 2 – Computers Importance in Teaching

Computers are very important in the educational experience mainly because it grants access to an incredible amount of facts and knowledge. The most important part I believe though it the ability to instantly find answers to questions you have or to be able to instantly show someone a fact that would generally take a long time to find in a book. I agree with many of the issues in Chapter 1, however I believe the benefits of computers out-way the costs. One of the biggest issues raised and presented is the amount of people that have access to computers, however this was done in 2004, and times have changed.

I agree with the label Digital native for today’s youth. As you look around at restaurants or in passing, you see many children these days with cell phones, tablets, and able to use them at a very young age. The digital natives are much better at using and operating technology as well as adapting quickly when new products come out. Over the years I have seen many teachers, parents and co-workers struggle to adapt with what I believe to be “simple tasks” on the computer, however they are digital immigrants learning a new way. I once took a computer class on MS office and when it came time to answer questions that students had the teacher was unable to give a confident answer. I knew the answer however and answered the question for him. I would say that this is a major issue and still exists today with teachers and professors who have not become completely comfortable with software that they are using and teaching. When another student is able to answer a question that a professor is not it makes many feel as though the teacher is incompetent or that they shouldn’t have to learn the material if the professor doesn’t know it. From an outside perspective I anticipate that there will be differences between many students and teachers, however I feel that the differences will be less as much of the new technology is improvements on previous technology that the teachers will have already learned on or about.

Personal networks are an important part in finding a job as well as networking. LinkedIn and Facebook seem to be major platforms used by almost all business professionals these days. The most important part of personal networks for both learning and networking is that you portray yourself online the same as you would in front of co-workers, bosses and others. The internet is a public place and you must make sure you portray yourself the way that they would expect to see you. In terms of using online platforms for learning it is up to you to follow, share and keep up with articles that may pass by your online networks that relate to your line of work.

Blog Comments:
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https://masternewknowledgedaily.wordpress.com/2015/01/26/module-2/comment-page-1/#comment-1