Sunday, November 11, 2007
Blog #7
Chapter six touches a lot on the same topics as chapter five as far as technology is concerned. As far as curriculum is concerned, it is 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…” Through the integration of technology with these standards, the possibility of running into problems is very likely. When introducing something new, it is very important to use guidelines and formats to ensure the correct teaching of the information. The ASSURE model for planning instruction is an excellent method to make sure that all levels of learning are covered and planned for. We analyze state, select methods, utilize methods, require participation, and evaluate from each angle in order to accommodate the different learning styles.
Since my last post, I have done a lot with iGoogle.com. I have created my own personal homepage and have been able to customize it to my liking. I didn’t even know this was possible! I can create the pages I use most on the internet to fit all on one page. As an educator, this efficiency will come in very handy when trying to manage my time well and keep myself organized. The possibilities on the internet are endless, it just requires a little bit of time and research in order to find what I am looking for.
Lately its been very difficult for me to visualize my future and see what my goals are. After seeing my advisor I realized that I have to consider a back up plan for my life in case teaching doesn’t work out for me. I am continuing to take all the necessary steps in order to become a teacher, but also forming a back up plan in case I don’t get into the College of Education for the fall. I am realizing as it passes that this EME2040 class is one of the most useful classes I will ever take as a future educator and that if I remember the things I’ve learned, my life will be a lot easier later on.
Since my last post, I have done a lot with iGoogle.com. I have created my own personal homepage and have been able to customize it to my liking. I didn’t even know this was possible! I can create the pages I use most on the internet to fit all on one page. As an educator, this efficiency will come in very handy when trying to manage my time well and keep myself organized. The possibilities on the internet are endless, it just requires a little bit of time and research in order to find what I am looking for.
Lately its been very difficult for me to visualize my future and see what my goals are. After seeing my advisor I realized that I have to consider a back up plan for my life in case teaching doesn’t work out for me. I am continuing to take all the necessary steps in order to become a teacher, but also forming a back up plan in case I don’t get into the College of Education for the fall. I am realizing as it passes that this EME2040 class is one of the most useful classes I will ever take as a future educator and that if I remember the things I’ve learned, my life will be a lot easier later on.
Blog #6
Chapter five describes digital media as technology, multimedia, and digital media all sort of jumbled around together. Technology was first used in describing computers, which were used to help us organize information more efficiently and accurately. Multimedia includes a variety of terms such as “text, graphics, audio, video, and animation.” Digital media is defined as the combinations of these technologies in order to produce new forms of communication and information processing. The types of educational software programs that are discussed throughout the chapter are all aids to future generations of teachers in order to make our lives simpler. Virtual reality, web based training, educational games are all examples of types of information that are made available through the internet.
Since my last post, I feel that I haven’t really aquired many new schools, but I have improved on the skills I have learned thus far. Every day I use the Microsoft Word program for several of my classes. I am still learning the shortcuts and options available for the program, but each day it becomes easier. I continue to find new ways to explore the internet, ways to narrow my searching and find exactly what I am looking for. There will always be something for me to learn.
As for an update on my friends April’s dad, he is doing quite well. The beam ray machine, of which I discussed in an earlier post, has become a daily activity for April’s father. He seems to be making progress by following a strict agenda and menu. This past weekend I actually got to experience the beam ray machine for myself. It is much different than I anticipated, looking very similar to a telescope. I did the “de-bug” program which uses light waves and frequencies to kill the bad cells in my body. I didn’t have time to do a full treatment but it was so neat to be able to experience this kind of technology. It is not available to many people because it is such an expensive machine, but I will keep you posted on his progress and the research I find on the machine.
Since my last post, I feel that I haven’t really aquired many new schools, but I have improved on the skills I have learned thus far. Every day I use the Microsoft Word program for several of my classes. I am still learning the shortcuts and options available for the program, but each day it becomes easier. I continue to find new ways to explore the internet, ways to narrow my searching and find exactly what I am looking for. There will always be something for me to learn.
As for an update on my friends April’s dad, he is doing quite well. The beam ray machine, of which I discussed in an earlier post, has become a daily activity for April’s father. He seems to be making progress by following a strict agenda and menu. This past weekend I actually got to experience the beam ray machine for myself. It is much different than I anticipated, looking very similar to a telescope. I did the “de-bug” program which uses light waves and frequencies to kill the bad cells in my body. I didn’t have time to do a full treatment but it was so neat to be able to experience this kind of technology. It is not available to many people because it is such an expensive machine, but I will keep you posted on his progress and the research I find on the machine.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Blog #4
In Chapter 2, "Communications, Networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web," there are mass amounts of information to be absorbed. The chapter begins by prefacing that the fastest growing areas of computer technology are networks. In college, we belong to one of the greatest networks on the web, Facebook, allowing us to access most people in any part of the world! There are millions of internet services available such as "e-mail, blogs, newsgroups, message boards, mailing lists, chat rooms, instant messaging, online games, facebook and Internet telephony." As we continue in this advanced age of technology, more and more things are available to us via the internet, we can even grocery shop online! Just like when learning to surf in the ocean, learning to use the internet requires the same "just get out there and try it" attitude. Search enginges such as google and yahoo make it very simple to find whatever it is that you are looking for. Our book even gives examples of over 200 links that provide useful information when cruising through the net.
Since my last post, I have definately dived deeper into the wonderful world of Google. Before class, I never used the "I'm feeling Lucky" tab or the links above google such as Google Scholar. Learning to use the right key words and knowing where to look makes finding things on the web such a painless process. The WebHunt assignment was actually quite fun, almost like a scavenger hunt across the world wide web. It is almost hard to fathom how much information must be sorted through to find the specific examples that Mr. Gentile was looking for, but in the end, the search engine prevailed and I learned something new.
This last section is more on the serious side, but also very interesting. Recently, my best friend April's father was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. It has been almost a month and the cancer has spread to his liver and now his hip. We are praying and expecting a miracle, and in the mean time, April's family is doing everything they can to fight the cancer. This weekend when April went home to visit her family, they decided to buy a Beam Ray Machine that sends out flashing light signals to the affected person and it is supposed to reduce the amount of pain and cancer in the user. Upon first hearing about it I was very skeptical, "how could flashing lights fix this," I thought. There has been extensive research done by doctors and April's mother about this machine, and I wish I knew more about it. It is a simple screen that allows you to pick the illness such as "Cold/Flu Symptoms, Back Pain, Cancer," etc... There is a large light above the screen that upon picking the treatment program, flashes the light in a specific sequence to eventually kill the cancer. They actually purchased the machine today and April's dad will be trying it out. I will probably keep you updated on this because it is so close to my heart and quite related to technology. Who knows what this advancement may bring and I thought it would be interesting to share with the class. The cure for cancer may be found in a lightbulb!
Please keep April and her family in your prayers. Thank you! <><
Since my last post, I have definately dived deeper into the wonderful world of Google. Before class, I never used the "I'm feeling Lucky" tab or the links above google such as Google Scholar. Learning to use the right key words and knowing where to look makes finding things on the web such a painless process. The WebHunt assignment was actually quite fun, almost like a scavenger hunt across the world wide web. It is almost hard to fathom how much information must be sorted through to find the specific examples that Mr. Gentile was looking for, but in the end, the search engine prevailed and I learned something new.
This last section is more on the serious side, but also very interesting. Recently, my best friend April's father was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. It has been almost a month and the cancer has spread to his liver and now his hip. We are praying and expecting a miracle, and in the mean time, April's family is doing everything they can to fight the cancer. This weekend when April went home to visit her family, they decided to buy a Beam Ray Machine that sends out flashing light signals to the affected person and it is supposed to reduce the amount of pain and cancer in the user. Upon first hearing about it I was very skeptical, "how could flashing lights fix this," I thought. There has been extensive research done by doctors and April's mother about this machine, and I wish I knew more about it. It is a simple screen that allows you to pick the illness such as "Cold/Flu Symptoms, Back Pain, Cancer," etc... There is a large light above the screen that upon picking the treatment program, flashes the light in a specific sequence to eventually kill the cancer. They actually purchased the machine today and April's dad will be trying it out. I will probably keep you updated on this because it is so close to my heart and quite related to technology. Who knows what this advancement may bring and I thought it would be interesting to share with the class. The cure for cancer may be found in a lightbulb!
Please keep April and her family in your prayers. Thank you! <><
Blog #3
In chapter four, the book talked about three very important topics that I had a basic knowledge of. Input devices are things that are entered into the memory of a computer and it can be accessed and processed from input to output. It has four categories: data, programs, commands, and user responses. All of the different categories work together to help the computer function properly. Some specific examples of input devices are the mouse, the keyboard, joysticks, digital cameras, scanners, and much more. Output devices is data that has already been processed and is used to generate output. These also are divided into four types: text, graphics, audio, and video. These are four of the most common types of output we use. Laser printers can print pictures, regular printers can print a hard copy of text, speakers give audio, and with a combination of cathode ray tubes and monitors, we can see video. All of the different things we can do on computers are of no use to us if we cannot save the information. Storage media is the best way we physically keep our information. Weather it is on a magnetic disk, zip disk, or floppy disk, it is one of the greatest inventions in the transport of information and recording of history.
The other day I went onto FSU's website to look at my course mapping to see how on track I was. When I realized that I would probably not be able to enter my "Elementary Education" major until spring of my Junior year, I entertained the thought of minoring in International Affairs. I thought to myself, "OK so what does this all mean?" I sat down and had a long chat with my best friend, Meghan, who is an International Affairs major with her concentration in Religion. Through what I thought was a disaster might actually be the answer to my prayers of teaching overseas. I have to do some further research to find out how exactly these things will all fall into place, but in the meantime I am excited to take the next step on my education journey.
I thought the previous Inspiration assignment was so useful! Of course I have to be corny and say that it was actually an inspiring assignment, and that the tools we used to create our concept maps really got me thinking about all the technology available to teachers. If my dream of teaching overseas does happen, I doubt we will have computer access for every child, but practicing the assignment has given me a clearer understanding of how a concept map is supposed to ease the transition and relativity of topics to one another. There is still so much to learn!
The other day I went onto FSU's website to look at my course mapping to see how on track I was. When I realized that I would probably not be able to enter my "Elementary Education" major until spring of my Junior year, I entertained the thought of minoring in International Affairs. I thought to myself, "OK so what does this all mean?" I sat down and had a long chat with my best friend, Meghan, who is an International Affairs major with her concentration in Religion. Through what I thought was a disaster might actually be the answer to my prayers of teaching overseas. I have to do some further research to find out how exactly these things will all fall into place, but in the meantime I am excited to take the next step on my education journey.
I thought the previous Inspiration assignment was so useful! Of course I have to be corny and say that it was actually an inspiring assignment, and that the tools we used to create our concept maps really got me thinking about all the technology available to teachers. If my dream of teaching overseas does happen, I doubt we will have computer access for every child, but practicing the assignment has given me a clearer understanding of how a concept map is supposed to ease the transition and relativity of topics to one another. There is still so much to learn!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The Integration Corner
After exploring the Integration Corner section online, I discovered that there are so many tools available to make teachers lives easier. At first I thought, "What a shame that there are thousands of online tools, yet hardly any teachers know about them." When I become a teacher, I know the digital craze will be a large part of my classroom, so using online tools, like the lesson plan maker, will be habit to me. It is amazing that all these things are available to us at the click of a button. Since I am an elementary education major, I clicked that section and came to many more online tools specific to the elementary level.
Since my last blog post, I am becoming much better at making things, other than research papers and plain word documents on Microsoft Word 2003. Making this past weeks newsletter was a fun way of exploring all the different tools offered on the program. I learned to make banners and filling them with pictures, I also learned how to adjust collumns to format my teaching style. Also, discovering the website and integration corner is a great new way for me to get fun ideas and plans for my future classroom.
With the lesson plan website, teachers are able to select any subject and age, and build lesson plans and find clever teaching ideas right on their very own personal computers! It was so specific in picking a grade, a subject (such as science, art, etc...) and brought up tons of websites with project ideas and fun learning styles to introduce into your classroom. Even through this blog, I am learning that I have the ability to keep this websites, in an easily accessible place, to use someday when I actually am making my own lesson plans.
Since my last blog post, I am becoming much better at making things, other than research papers and plain word documents on Microsoft Word 2003. Making this past weeks newsletter was a fun way of exploring all the different tools offered on the program. I learned to make banners and filling them with pictures, I also learned how to adjust collumns to format my teaching style. Also, discovering the website and integration corner is a great new way for me to get fun ideas and plans for my future classroom.
With the lesson plan website, teachers are able to select any subject and age, and build lesson plans and find clever teaching ideas right on their very own personal computers! It was so specific in picking a grade, a subject (such as science, art, etc...) and brought up tons of websites with project ideas and fun learning styles to introduce into your classroom. Even through this blog, I am learning that I have the ability to keep this websites, in an easily accessible place, to use someday when I actually am making my own lesson plans.
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