Blog 10

Checking out the other students blogs, I found a number of interesting things. First of all, it was relieving that many of the other students in the class also had simple basic or minimal experience with technology, particular educational technology, before joining this class. Mostly everyone seemed a little uncertain yet excited and anxious to learn the new skills. As the blogs progressed, everybody seemed to be learning more and more and becoming more comfortable with the technological applications. Sometimes technology can seem intimidating or only for “rocket-scientists”, but it seemed everybody learned something new and learned they are capable of using a wide variety of computer programs. It also seemed everybody made the connection between the value of educational technology and its importance in the classroom.

The next technology related skill I would like to learn is how to create and post podcasts. I-pods are becoming more and more popular, and serve purposes other than just musical entertainment. Teachers are giving audio lectures and lessons via podcasts, which students can download and listen to on their I-pods. It serves as a convenient way to learn at your own leisure and luxury. You can listen to the podcast in the car, while walking through campus, or cleaning the house. They can be saved and replayed at a later date. A single post can make them available to as few or as many people as you like. I think they are very effective and appealing and I would love to eventually create a podcast of my own.

My technology goal as a future educator is to keep up with the times while preserving and fully utilizing valuable tools and resources. To achieve this, I will continue to practice and learn more about the important programs we used in this class, such as Powerpoint, Word, Excel, and Inspiration. I will pass some of this knowledge on to my students and anyone else who is interested. I will also keep an open mind to new and upcoming technology and will encompass it into my classroom to the fullest appropriate extent. I will support the used of educational technology and fight for my students to have the best materials available. Technology will complement rather than control the classroom setting and curriculum.

Post 9- Web Resource

A web-based resource that I find highly interesting is completely online degree programs. Some of the most popular universities that offer these programs include University of Phoenix, Walden University, and Kaplan University. Click here to learn more about Kaplan University and online degree programs in general. Also, schools that are mostly on-campus, including Florida State and our rival University of Florida, are beginning to offer more and more distance programs. The online programs offer a wide variety of majors and specializations (also depending on the school) and at the associate, bachelor, and masters level.

I think this is a wonderful option for students who have families, busy work schedules, unreliable means of transportation, or do not live near a desirable university. I also think it is extremely beneficial for teachers who have these same issues or responsibilities. I would be very interested in teaching online courses. The majority of teacher education and training is based on classroom, face-to-face curriculum and learning. I think it takes a dedicated, organized, knowledgeable teacher to be able to construct a distance course that is as equally effective as traditional classroom learning. I have gained some knowledge and experience by setting up a course on Nice.net.org, as well as taking several online courses here at FSU. I hope to one day have more experience with online courses, both as a student and an educator.

I would love to see more teacher and educational meetings and conferences conducted online in a web chat type of forum. I foresee you being able to click on profiles of user to get more information on the person's school, position (i.e. administrator, teacher and their grade level and subject), and educational background. There would be a "host", likely a principal or administrator, that would bring up a topic and allow others to chime in and comment at will. If desired, there could also be a time limit set for each topic that would be recorded and displayed on your computer screen. This would keep conversations from getting off task or out of hand! Online conferences would be great because everyone could log-in from the convenience of their home or office, rather than struggle to make it somewhere in time for a meeting. Also, I feel that educators who are a little on the shy side but have some great thoughts and ideas would be more likely to speak up (or rather, "type up") in an online forum. Many people can also write more clearly and confidently than they speak. Plus, you can't take back something you verbally said, but you can backspace something you wrote! I think online meetings and conferences would not only be convenient and comfortable, but highly effective.

Post 8: Chapter 8

Security issues with our latest technology have become a serious concern. Security problems within the field of education can have especially devastating effects. There are computer security risks and computer crimes. Risks are simply any action or event that has the potential to cause some kind of detrimental loss in the computer system, where a crime is an illegal, deliberate act involving a computer. Viruses are one common type of computer crime. Viruses are potentially damaging computer programs designed to negatively and unknowingly affect your computer by altering the way it works. The viruses payload is the specific symptom(s) or damage(s) that virus causes you. There are countless numbers of types and kinds of viruses which include the boot, sector virus, file virus, macro virus, worm, Trojan horse, logic bombs, and time bombs. These viruses differ in their payloads and severity.
Luckily, there are effective measures we can take to enhance our network security and help prevent ourselves from viruses and other threats. Antivirus programs, also known as vaccines, can detect and cure computer viruses, as well as prevent you from acquiring them. Rescue discs can save your computer if you are infected with a boot virus. Passwords and user ID's have greatly reduced the amount of hackers and unauthorized use. Firewalls are larger, more complex systems that prevent unauthorized usage on a network. Proxy servers are often utilized throughout all means of communication within a school system. Personal firewalls are an inexpensive yet still very effective way to protect your own personal computers. Backing up your computer is probably the best preventive measure you can take to ensure that you do not lose important files and data.
Since my last post, I learned a lot about computer viruses. I had heard a number of stories about them, and had heard of "boots", "worms" and "Trojan horses", but I never really knew exactly what these viruses are all about. By reading chapter 8, I learned that a boot sector virus replaces the whole entire boot program with an infected version, a worm repeatedly copies itself onto the memory, and a Trojan horse disguises itself either s a harmless program or embeds within an existing program. By having this knowledge, I have a much better idea of how to diagnose possible problems with my computer, as well as be prepared with some satisfactory solutions. Furthermore, my dad is a computer analyst and spends most of his time setting up, modifying, and repairing firewalls. This chapter gave me concrete yet easy to understand definitions for "firewall", "proxy server" and other terms I had heard my dad say, but was never quite sure what he was talking about! now, I not only better understand these important concepts, but I have a better understanding of my dad's profession! (Awww!)

Chapter 7

There are three criteria educational technology must meet in order to be considered "appropriate". First, it must be considered appropriate for the educational situation. Secondly, it must be motivational. Finally, it must promote learning at the correct levels of student ability and academic achievement. Evaluation should occur before instruction, during the instructional period, and after the instruction has occurred. At each of these stages, you should continuously evaluate and revise. There is a wide variety of resources available to educators that will help them determine the appropriateness of educational technology. These tools come from a variety of sources including school districts, state Department of Education, professional educational organizations, catalogs, colleagues, published evaluations, conferences, and most popularly, the Web.

So what exactly should you be looking at and looking for when determining the appropriateness of educational technology? Software evaluation rubrics can be very helpful. They provide important evaluation criteria including content, documentation, technical support, ability and academic levels, technical quality, and ease of use. Evaluating web resources is also very important to do, as discussed in the class when we created our own web evaluation forms. Evaluating technology integration is taking a look at the big picture and seeing if the school as a whole is properly utilizing and implementing educational technology.

Since my last post, I learned many new things about Wikipedia! I have used Wikipedia extensively in the past to conduct research and gain information. It was especially enlightening when I did a speech on different kinds of wine grapes. However, I had no idea it was an interactive Encyclopedia, where you could add your own information at any time! I had no experiencing design a site of my own, so it was a really cool experience for me. I do think Wikipedia sites would be a great tool for teachers who shared something in common, such as subject area or grade level taught. Also, reading chapter 7 taught me that it is not only important to use technology in our schools, but to evaluate and ensure appropriateness of those technologies.

Chapter 6

Curriculum can be defined as the knowledge, skills, and performance standards students are expected to acquire in particular grade levels, or through sequences or clusters based on subject matter units of instruction. The Departments of Education provide districts with documents called curriculum frameworks or curriculum guides, which describe curriculum standards and the benchmarks for learning. Sometimes there are Grade level Expectations (GLEs) and Mastery Objective Checklists built into the curriculum as well. In current years, technology has become a huge part of our curriculum. Technology integration (also known as curriculum integration) is the combination of all technology parts, such as hardware and software, together with each subject-related area of the curriculum in order to enhance learning. One example of this movement is attempting to put computer labs in every school and, in many cases, even multiple computers in every classroom. Today you don't only just use computers in your computer class. You will be using computers and technology in basically every one of your classes, regardless of the subject area!

This chapter also discussed the learning process and the many benefits technology brings to it. Authentic learning experiences are instructional activities that demonstrate real-life connections by associating the concept being taught with an actual real-life experience. Active learning occurs when students become engaged in inquiring, investigating, solving problems, and formulating and answering their own questions. Can you think of any device or tool that is more capable of promoting this type of learning than a computer!? It also promotes and enhances anchored instruction, problem-based instruction, and discovery learning. Two popular softwares that have proven to be great learning tools are Body Works, used to teach concepts about the human body, and Microsoft Encarta, an interactive computerized encyclopedia.

Recently, I have been practicing Microsoft Word through SAM training and tests, as well as through creating my web evaluation form. I always considered myself pretty proficient with Word, especially compared to how little I know about most of the other computer programs out there. However, my recent usage has opened my eyes to whole new wonders about Word! I did not know that there is a Forms toolbar where you can create form fields to be filled in and check boxes to complete. You can then protect the document so those who access it can only complete the form; the system will not allow them to make any other changes. I believe I will often create these types of forms throughout my educational career. I also learned how to do a “mail merge” on Word. This is a very efficient way to compose the same letter addressed to many different people. Also, it was pretty cool to create a web evaluation form. The lack of credibility of online sources is something I am aware of, but I had yet to consider its ramifications in the classroom. After the activity, it made me realize that it as an issue my students need to know, and I plan to use a similar form when I have a classroom of my own.

Chapter 5

Interactivity is one of the vital features of digital media applications. It allows for individualized instruction and exploration. Digital media is those technologies that allow users to create new forms of interaction, expression, communication, and entertainment in a digital format.Multimedia simply means "more than one media", but they do not necessarily have to be digital. The text and graphics found within digital media software is a great asset to those who are visual learners. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is the standard for how digital musical devices represent sound electronically, allowing the the composition and editing of music! Similarly, the Motion Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) is that standard for video compression and decompression.

Computer-based training (CBT), also referred to as individual lead training (ILT), is a tool that allows you to learn by using and completing exercises using instructional software. This is popular with employers in many fields of business. E-books are a popular way to reference certain parts of books by a click of the mouse.Project Gutenberg is working to make thousands of e-books free to everyone! Virtual reality is also based off of digital media. It also makes online classes and distance learning possible! Computer-assisted instruction (CAI), tutorials, and educational simulations are among the many educational software applications that exist today!

Since out last blog, I learned about Google Scholar as an easy and excellent way to search for scholarly journals and articles. By conducting our web hunt, I learned that there are free, easy to use online websites that allow you to convert to different units of the metric system, and to convert American dollars into any other type of currency! How cool! Chapter 5 also enlightened me on some of digital media software that exist today. I have had previous exposure and experience with quite a bit of it, but I did not know all the technical terms and jargon for all of it. Now i feel like I could speak about it in a more professional, informed way. I also was not aware of all the applications that were directly related to education, so it is comforting to know there are so many options as a student and a soon -to-be teacher!

Ch 4 Blog

This chapter gave an overview about computer hardware and how it may be applied in a career in education. A system unit is a boxlike case that houses the electronic components a computer uses to process data. It is typically metal or plastic and serves as a protector for these electrial components. Data representation for a computer is digital, which means it only understands the on state, represented by the numerical digit "1", and the off state, represented by the numerical digit "2". This numbering system is called the binary system, and each of the on or off digits are called"bits". Bits then form together to create more complex units of data. When eight bits combine to form a unit, they are called a "byte". The system unit consists of many components, with a large number of them residing on the motherboard. Some of these components include the CPU, control unit, arithmetic/logic unit, system clocks, and many types of memory. Ports and connectors are used to attach external devices such as modems and printers. There are four types of input: data, program, commands, and user responses. Input devices include the keyboard and mouse. There are also four types of output: text, graphics, audio and video. Comon output devices include monitors, printers, and fax machines.

After browsing through some fellow EME2040 students' postings, I found that I share a lot of similarities with them! It seems we collectively tend to have the most prior experience with PowerPoint and Word, but want to learn more about Excel and Inspiration. Hardly anyone had used or even heard of Inspiration prior to this class! Many of also were also pleasantly surprised to know that there were so many technological tools geared toward teachers and education to make our job a little bit easier. I also noticed that a significant number of students wanted to learn about web design. I also noticed that a handful of students, like myself, had already taken the computer literacy course here at FSU, which gave us background knowledge and a head start on SAM and some of the skills we will be expected to know in here!

Since last posting, I brushed up on my Windows XP skills and learned a few new things about it as well. I did not know how to format or copy a disk until I learned how to do it on SAM. I also learned how to save documents to different formats such as the .rtf format. Also, I I learned the basics to Inspiration. I did not even know that this program existed, but I think it is really cool! Concept maps can be a great learning tool, and Inspiration makes them fun and easy to create. Finally, I learned about some of the more technical aspects to computer hardware. I now know about all the different units on the motherboard and exactly how to define bits and bytes!