Blog #5

SKIPPED WEEK 7 BY PERMISSION
:)

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! <><

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!