EDOL 533 Week 8--Security

The main focus of this week's lesson was on computer security and the proper management practices required in order to keep your machine safe from malicious software. Undoubtedly, the Internet is the most valuable resource available to educators and students. However, it is the job of the teacher to make sure that their computer is protected and that students do not access any material that would be considered inappropriate. The teacher must explain the school district's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) with their students to ensure they know their responsibilities while online.

Malicious software is a term used to identify any program that may have detrimental effects on your computer, with the most common type being a virus. This software has the ability to affect the how your computer operates daily by deleting or corrupting saved data and has possibility of being spread to others via E-mail. Malicious software can also be spread to others by USB drives, CD's, an e-mail attachment, or any other computer files. The only way to ensure that your PC is safe is to keep an updated version of a virus protection program, such as Norton or AVG that can locate these files immediately and remove them.

In order for the students to browse the Internet safely they need to be informed of a couple safety issues. Both teachers and students do not need to open any e-mail attachment unless they know who sent it to them. There is software that can be disguised as an attachment, which will start installing itself when you open it. Students need to know not to download or install any software to any computer that belongs to the school district without specific approval given by the appropriate administrator. It is important that students follow all safety rules when using the Internet and it is the job of the teacher to ensure they do at all times.

At Barren County High School, we have two computer labs, a library, and several classrooms that are equipped with computers for student use. The district technology office has properly installed virus protection programs on every machine within our district to ensure that they are safe. However, I do have a couple of concerns. All computers in every school district is connected to their schools networking system, which gives the opportunity for malicious software to spread to other machines connected to the network when one computer becomes infected. Their needs to be a way to isolate infected computers to ensure that the program does not spread. Students must also be informed to not give out their login passwords to anyone to allow access to their own personal files. I know for a fact that both teachers and students are capable of doing this because I have witnessed it happen within our school system. By allowing somebody else access, it allows them view your own personal data and files that you have stored there.

Each district needs to be aware of all the malicious software available that could have harmful effects on their machines. We are responsible for informing students on the potential dangers that lurk while browsing the web. Remember, it is the job of both teachers and administrators to provide students with a safe learning environment.

EDOL 533 Week 7--Educational Software

The main focus of this week's lesson was on how educators are incorporating different types of educational software into their curriculum to promote student engagement and learning. The use of certain software has been found to enhance the students' problem solving skills, as well as to initiate higher level thinking between the individuals in the class. However, it is important that the instructor follow a specific criteria when choosing a program to use in their classroom in order to meet their instructional objectives. The instructor does not need to choose a program based on if the students will find it "fun" or if it might be used to motivate the children. If the program does not meet the objectives set forth by the teacher, then the program will not be a valuable learning tool. During the selection process, the educator must keep in mind that the main goal is to enhance student learning and engagement throughout the lesson.

Microsoft Office is the most commonly used software program on a day to day basis, both in and out of the classroom. Students are able to produce professional-looking documents or presentations to aid in the teaching process. However, in the realm of science, a simulation software package can be very effective to enhance the learning environment. The use of simulation software allows the students to experience certain situations that might otherwise cost too much or be too dangerous to perform in a classroom/laboratory setting. A simulation also will allow the students to run long-term experiments that would otherwise take months or even years and see the results instantly. This type of software that is unique to the science classroom can range from virtual dissections or labs to modeling Graphic Information Systems (GIS).

There is one software package that I have seen used in other science classrooms, that I have personally not used in mine yet is called "The Digital Frog". This software will walk the students through a virtual dissection of the frog with just a click of their mouse. The use of this software allows the students to focus on the anatomy and structure of the frog rather than the dissection process, which is the overall objective of the unit. The two major advantages of using this software over a hands-on dissection is: 1.) decreases the cost of lab materials required for completion and 2.) decreases the amount of time needed to complete the dissection in half! After completing some research I found that the software package comes with a workbook of materials to be used by the instructor. The workbook comes equipped with student worksheets and study guides that the teacher may modify to meet the needs of his/her classroom. This virtual simulation has been found to be more effective in meeting the instructional goals set forth by the instructor over the typical hands-on dissection.

Certain software packages can be used as a very effective tool in aiding instruction within your classroom. They need to be carefully selected by the educators and administrators to ensure they are aligned with the instructional goals and objectives for your classroom.

EDOL 533 Week 6-- Webquests

A Webquest is a project that totally lives online that guides students through a process of learning by breaking a large project down into smaller parts. Students can either complete the webquest individually or in a group by each member completing a section. Most teachers utilize a Webquest as a group project to promote communication and collaboration skills amongst the students. The current Webquest model completely breaks the down the learning activity into different sections, allowing students to complete small portions of the webquest at a time and guiding them guiding them through the complete activity.

The traditional Webquest format consists of the following seven parts: Introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, credits, and a teacher page. These individual sections guide students so that they can work in groups or by themselves. The sections also provide structure which allows students to browse the Internet, use data from various sources to answer questions, and to solve problems that require higher level critical thinking skills. Using webquests in the classroom have been found to enhance collaboration between students, which will increase student motivation, and also create opportunities for students to become experts within a certain area of study.

Webquests can be applied to fit a wide range of topics; however there are some topics that are not appropriate. Educators do not want to use a webquest to teach factual information, such as multiplication tables or chemical symbols on the periodic table. The best use of a webquest is for a topic that isn't clearly defined, a task that sparks creativity among the students and problems that may have multiple possible answers. Webquests are "inquiry" based projects that require students to think outside the box in order to solve a problem. Webquests promote communication and collaborative learning, since students are required to work in groups. These projects help students to practice higher level critical thinking skills that they will have to use for the rest of their life.

During this week I had the opportunity to create my own webquest that I could possibly use in my own classroom. I created a webquest entitled "Cell City"; where students would have to work together in order to create a presentation regarding the specific functions of organelles inside plant and animal cells. Students are required to research the Internet to find the functions of at least eight different cell organelles, then create an analogy of that organelle function to a structure inside their city that has a similar function. The overall objective of the group was to market their city to an audience to persuade them to visit their city.

The biggest challenge that I had putting this webquest together was finding enough resources from which the students could find helpful information to complete their presentation. After browsing the Internet for a while I was able to put a list of websites together that the students would find very helpful in completing the webquest. My webquest was primarily intended to used for high school level science classes, but it could be modified to fit the middle school level as well.

Webquests are great way to incorporate technology immediately into your classroom. They promote collaboration and communication between students in order to solve a problem. The URL for my webquest has been posted below for you to view. Enjoy!

http://questgarden.com/109/66/5/100928075827/

EDOL 533 Week 5-- Online Communication Tools

As part of the most recent developments in technology, our society is creating more ways for users to work anytime and anywhere, and these new tools are slowly finding their way into homes and classrooms around the globe. The use of online communication tools allows students to keep in touch with distant family members, experts in their field, and their peers. This technology is creating an avenue for the exchange of information between and among students and teachers, keeping classroom populations in touch with each other more than ever before. Online communication tools are easily adaptable to almost any teaching and learning environment, and indeed we are seeing an increase in classroom use of these types of programs. These programs make it simple for the students to move outside the walls of the classroom and connect with almost anyone around the world. The majority of these applications may be used from a computer, a cellular device with internet access, and some can be used from any cellular phone.

Online communication tools are found in many forms. Access to these tools gives the student an opportunity to experience learning in a multiple of ways. It does this by letting the student establish his/her own voice, connect with others from around the world, and compare their ideas with others. These applications allow the teacher to manage their own classroom activities outside of school hours through online communication via Twitter, online chat room, or instant messaging. This is a huge advantage for the instructor to be able to provide vital information about certain projects, due dates, or tests to multiple students at once.

Personally, I have not had any experience using an online communication device in my own classroom with the exception of a teacher website. The main reasons for me not using these tools is because of lack of exposure and knowledge of the applications. I did not want to get into a situation that I didn't feel very comfortable working in and especially where the students didn't feel comfortable. The first online tool that I heard of being used in the classroom was Twitter, where the teacher can provide brief messages to all students pertaining to certain assignments, due dates, projects, tests, and so forth. I think that this tool is very feasible for all teachers and students to use because of its simplicity. All users must set up their own free account and you're ready to start "Tweeting".  This can easily be done simply by the teacher scheduling a day in the computer lab and walking every student through the steps in creating their own account to ensure that nobody has any problems and feels comfortable using the tool.

The first baby step I will take in applying an online tool into my classroom will be via Twitter. By using this, I can post important brief messages to all students concerning any classroom activity. Online tools provide such an opportunity for all students to learn in a nontraditional way. Online communication is certainly being viewed as the next best learning tool for the future.

EDOL 533 Week 4-- Powerpoint

Out of all off the software packages that have been discussed in this class, the use of a presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint is the one that I feel the most comfortable working with. This software can be used for either teacher of student-led presentations, which help organize and enhance the delivery of the desired content. The versatility of the program allows the creator to incorporate several multimedia elements such as text, graphics, animations, sound, and video clips into his/her presentation. The flexibility of the software allows the user to create a presentation that is appealing to a variety of different learning styles that may be found in a typical audience.

The use of this presentation software is especially valuable when used by students to create their own presentations. This software helps the students organize their thoughts into certain chunks on any given slide. By using this software, students will gain valuable experience using multimedia software along with incorporating basic computer and software skills. In my experience, I have found that students become highly motivated and have fun creating a presentation with this software, which in turn will result in the students ability to retain the material and improve learning.

Throughout my young teaching career I have always used a presentation software package such as PowerPoint in creating presentations for class lectures. Students will find the material more appealing to them when the content is delivered through a presentation rather than a teacher writing everything down on a chalkboard. The teacher is able to incorporate certain elements such as images, graphics, animations, and video clips to ensure that all learning styles are being covered.  I recently created a presentation that I presented to all of my freshmen science classes about converting between different units using the metric system of measurement. This skill is essential for all science students to master, but it is a skill that students struggle with the majority of the time.

There is several different methods that can be taught to students on how to convert between different metric units. I have found through my experience that the "Ladder Method" is the simplest and most effective strategy to use. Using this method, students have to find their starting and finishing points on the ladder, count the number of spaces between the units, then move the decimal accordingly in the right direction. I am most proud of the image of the ladder I was able to add into my presentation that broke down each step for the students to follow in converting the units.  I was able to walk through the entire process with the students to ensure everyone understood completely. Just by judging their facial expressions, I thought the majority of them were catching on faster than I expected. I have uploaded the image of ladder that I used below for everyone to view.

One other item that I added to the presentation after walking through the entire process as a class, I created a slide that contained several practice problems for the students to solve. After an adequate amount of time, I called on volunteers to provide a correct answer to each problem. I found this very effective for me to check for understanding of the content and if the students were capable of applying it for their own use. Overall, I thought the presentation was really effective and thought the students enjoyed it for the most part.

EDOL 533 Week 3-- Word Processors and Desktop Publishing

Throughout the course of this week's lesson, I have been enlightened on a lot of different uses for word processing and desktop publishing software that I was unaware of. I have used word processors the majority of my life as both a student and now as a teacher for preparing and editing text. I am now aware that word processors can be used for much more than just a text-oriented task. One can use word processors to prepare signs, flyer's, newsletters, calendars, etc... Furthermore, the user also may access several pre-formatted templates with a certain design, but contains no text. The user may then just enter the text that he/she desires. Word processing software can perform some of the same tasks as desktop publishing software, but they cannot make some of the particular adjustments to a page as a desktop publisher can. Desktop publishers have the ability to include a custom graphic or clip art, one can easily arrange text into tables and columns, and one may create a fancy, colorful title using word art. All of these features make both of these processors very useful for the student and teacher.

I have not had the chance in my short years of teaching to take full advantage of all the uses that these software packages offer to the teacher. My first year of teaching I created a simple sign using Microsoft Word with no color or border, just plain text that I posted on my door to let students know that it was my classroom. I come to find out that even though I posted the sign on my door so all students could see, the majority of them didn't look at it anyway. I finally figured out that because of the lack of design and eye-catching appeal that I was unsuccessful in conveying the information to the students that was intended to. Because of all the stress that comes with your first year of teaching, I was unable to put forth the time needed to create a more attractive sign that would convey the message to nearby students. However, this past year I went back and recreated my sign using a word processor that hopefully would be more successful in catching the attention of my students.  In my new sign with the help of Microsoft Word I was able to create a sign that includes a bold, colorful title that would grab the students attention. I also added a border around the entire sign that was intended to direct the students attention to the conveying message. I also added a couple of images to the sign in hopes of making it more visually appealing. One needs to be careful about the use of images because I believe sometimes they can take away from the intended message because students get caught looking at the images instead of the text.

With the use of word processing software I was able to create a sign that was more visually appealing and also helped me to convey the intended information to my students. I have uploaded the image for you to take a look at.

                                                                        

EDOL 533 Week 2-- Spreadsheets and Databases

The majority of educators share the common misconception that spreadsheets can only be used by adults to complete complex tasks. The use of spreadsheets in the classroom holds such potential for today's students, no matter the age level or curriculum area. Spreadsheets can be used in many fun and interesting ways to benefit both the student and the instructor.

Excel spreadsheets hold many uses for the teacher both inside and outside the classroom. Within the classroom, spreadsheets can have purpose in an array of different subject areas. For example, in Math, spreadsheets can be used to make graphs and solve equations or in English, the students can compile words for a word search or to complete their vocabulary. In my content area of science, I have used spreadsheets in the classroom with my students to analyze data from an experiment. By putting all of our data into a spreadsheet it helps keep the student organized and reduces the difficulty of plotting the data points and lets the student interpret the data more accurately. Teachers need to focus on the ability of the student to draw conclusions, it is great that the student can produce a spreadsheet and graph, but they need to know what it tells them. Can the student analyze the data and draw conclusions from it so they can tell the class something about it?

There is one way that I noticed that students are using spreadsheets that shocked me, and that was to keep track of  their current balance of their checking account. The benefits of using a spreadsheet allow you to keep a list of bills, when they were received, when they were paid, and the exact amount that you paid. You also have the ability to arrange the bills so they are listed by month and by category. Teachers are making this into a year-round project, where students are given an income sheet and a checkbook and then use a spreadsheet to teach them how to live on a budget. I think this is a great "real world" activity that teaches money management skills to students and provide them with knowledge they can use for the rest of their life.

In the past, I have used spreadsheets and databases outside the classroom for my own personal use more than in the classroom with the students. Teachers can use a spreadsheet or a database for a grade book, classroom organization such as seating charts, attendance, missing assignments, or even a student information database. I have also used a spreadsheet to help create different worksheets and activities that involve vocabulary or graphing data points.

Spreadsheets and Databases have a wide variety of uses in the classroom from calculating equations in math or keeping a science weather log. Although there is certain subject areas that may encounter problems trying to incorporate spreadsheets into the curriculum. By incorporating the use of spreadsheets and databases into the classroom it provides a method by which data can be more easily organized and importantly, analyzed. Below is a link to a website that provides great steps for an educator to take to incorporate spreadsheets and databases into their own classroom.

http://atr.k12.hi.us/tutorials/tutorials/data/spreadsheets.html