Educational Technology

May 10, 2011

      Today I learned how to create a text box in Microsoft Word and take out the fill and outline if I wanted to. It's pretty easy. You click on the text box button, I used the custom box tool, and draw the box. From there, you can play with the shape fill, outline, and settings. I like that I can make nice, neat boxes without having all the lines if I don't want them. It's easier to work with then fighting with columns, and I think that it's just as neat on the page. It's easier - can't say that enough - and with being a busy chick, I like easy and fast. The text box was definitely faster then reworking the columns tool. So much more enjoyable.

May 16, 2011

      Clickers are totally awesome. I thought that it was going to be so hard to do, but it's easy with the software. You need to download TurningPoint and work through that, but it's so worth it. The presentations look great, and it's so much fun to play around with when you're learning to use it. There are a plethora of grafts that you can choose, and it's just as easy as using PowerPoint.

      I've seen these used throughout my career at Otterbien, and I always thought they were so neat. I think that it would be great to use in a high school classroom, and I'm kind of sad that my high school never used them. We actually didn't have them when I was there as far as I knew. (We were a po-dunk little school in the middle of a corn field. I would get pretty distracted come harvest time, I tell you!)

       But really -- the clickers are so easy to use and make. And I think that it really will help kids feel more confident and comfortable - especially in the first few weeks when they don't really know everyone very well -- because the answers can be submitted without giving names. I know when I'm not sure of a question, I don't want to be wrong in front of people I don't really know very well. It's comforting, I think. And I will campaign to get them at whatever school I work at in the future if we don't already have them.

5-20-11

     SmartBoards. I've seen them, but I've never used them. They're neat, but they're intimidating if you don't know how to use it. Surprisingly, it's not so hard. It's just like doing a PowerPoint, and we all know how to do that. It really is that easy.

       I'm going to go off in a completely different direction for a second. My middle niece and nephew attend the same Catholic school that I did when I was there age. Then, when I attended, we had nothing but chalk, a board, and a projector that some grades/classrooms had to share. There was a TV in the room - amazing! - but that was about it. We didn't even have AC, so we were pretty stinky when spring rolled around and we had to wear our stiff uniforms.

      Anyway, I went back to sub-tutor a few months ago, and, lo and behold, there were SmartBoards in every single classroom. (Hey, with the amount of tuition momma and daddy paid, we should have had them, too -- or something like that back then!) I've had some experience with the boards, but not enough to have felt comfortable using them to teach a lesson on - some experience means seeing them, touching them, but never using them before. My nephew, whom I taught that day, couldn't stop laughing to himself at my stand-offishness. He teased me all the way home -- good naturedly, of course, but teased nonetheless.

        I'm just amazed how much a place can change in less then a decade. But now, it needs to buy AC. It's still HOT in there!!

Senior readings:

      There was a really interesting Senior reading that I went to the other day. Justin gave one on social media. Wow! It was good - funny - but I would have never thought to give one on social media. He talked about the evolution of interaction - how it grew from ear to ear to writing to messaging, and finally, SpaceBook as he called it.

       It's a little creepy to think of how much of ourselves we put on the web nowadays. There's a ton of info out there - and I myself am guilty of adding my match to the fire. I have a FaceBook -- there's a link to it on this very blog... and vice versa. We basically vomit our personal feelings and thoughts onto the web without much thought as to who reads it and what they may or may not do with the information. When you stop and think about it, it's a scary thought. (And I'll let you in on a secret: I didn't have a FaceBook until I was a Sophomore in college.) We put things about ourselves on site like that, and we don't think about how it will effect our futures. People Google us now - and that's another creepy thought that I don't even want to think about right now.

        That's why, I guess, I'm always pushing on my older nieces and nephews that they should never give out any personal information on sites that will help people find them or track them down. They shouldn't give out phone numbers on FaceBook or addresses, for that matter. They should never meet anyone they find on the web without an adult there... or just period.

         I have this irrational fear of Big Brother -- have ever since I read *1984*. That book is the only book that's ever given me nightmares. **shudder** Anyway, knowing that I'm spitting info about myself out left and right - and yes, even now - makes it so much easier for Big Brother to track me... it scares me. (But that doesn't mean I'll quit using it, because I'm 68% sure that Big Brother doesn't exist... I think... I hope...) But it's important to be safe. Safety is the biggest concern for parents, guardians, and teachers today with the ability kids have to make themselves to open to the world.

        So, be safe.

Computer role model:



Momma and Daddy a few years ago.



        My father is great with computers. He fixes them - tinkers with them. We didn't get a computer in the house until I was in probably sixth grade... I think. Anyway, he was like a duck to water with that thing.



Daddy... back in the 70s... he had hair.



        Daddy is older then most parents - he's in his 60s. So, that means that he was younger when Nam was happening, and he was, in fact, drafted into the war. He never saw action - his father had passed away, and he was the main income for the family. But he was drafted into the radio faction back in the 1960s. Before that, he went to college for engineering. So he was always building things back then. If I remember the story correctly, one of his professors worked on building the first computer, and he always reminds me when I have my laptop or e-reader that the first computers were the size of our classroom or living room. They had to have clean suits because a speck of dust would break the computer. I can't help but think of those old tape recorders with the big reels, and I always picture it in black and white for some strange reason. Don't ask me why, because I don't really know. It's funny.

         Anyway, as much as it annoys me sometimes, hearing the same story over and over again - or the fact that he performs "surgery" on the computers and calls himself "The Brain", the man still taught himself a lot of what he knows. Plus, on the bright side, I have my own computer tech in my home!



UPDATE: This picutre is from 1970. That means the other was from the 80s then, I think!

White Noise and Ghost Hunting Tech!

      Ghost Adventures rocks - they're so dramatic. It's almost worst then a Soap Opera. Almost. I laugh. But the technology they use isn't a joke. There are so many stories that are in circulation right now that deal with EVPs and White Noise. There are some other EVPs on the blog that I talked about before - I love ghosts and the paranormal - and they're so easy to try to catch... or make.

       All you need is a digital recorder. Set it to record and start asking away. It's so easy. If you really want to freak someone out, have a friend whisper answers in the back. And I bring this up again because it's something fun to do in the classroom. Pick a historical figure. Do a ghost hunt. Create an EVP -- or catch one, if you're lucky. It can be done in any class, and it will make the class so much more interesting. I would have loved to have contacted a dead mathematician instead of learning logX. I would still get how to do the theory, but it would have been so much more cool if we had done it that way. It works in English, Science, Math, History, Music, Art, Gym - anything! And all you need is a digital recorder. How cool. How cheep. It totally rocks.