Reflection for assignment 6

Assignment 6 was very useful to complete. This assignment was to make an annotated bibliography for a specific topic. I really enjoyed doing this because it refreshed how to do it. This is a very important skill to have because for a lot of papers, especially research papers, most teachers require an annotated bibliography. This assignment also helped to narrow down sources for a paper. It allowed us to see the strengths and weaknesses of a website to determine if we will use it for our paper or not. One common problem I was finding was that certain websites had barely any information on them. They were designed poorly and I was unsure if they were a reliable source. Certain sources were much more creditable and showed evidence of that. The most reliable sources were .edu, or .org websites. A lot of the .coms were very general and did not provide good information. This assignment was very helpful and is definitely needed in the field of teaching. Students are being introduced to works cited pages and bibliographies at a much younger age and it is important for them to learn how to do these things to avoid plagiarism. They also need these skills for almost every class they will take from middle school onto higher education.

Reflection for Digital Story

The digital story was a fun assignment because it allowed me to be creative and make up a story or use pictures from an actual event that occurred in my life. I chose to create my story about a concert I went to last year with my sister Samantha. There were three bands. The first one was Taking Back Sunday, the second was Weezer, and the third and my favorite one was Blink 182. For my digital story I put pictures from the concert and narrated about the bands a little bit. At the end I tried to record a song. This assigment wasn't that hard. It was hard in the beginning, but once I familiarized myself with the program it was very easy. The hardest part was narrating because sometimes the narration wasn't in the right spot for the picture. I was having a really hard time adding music as well until I decided to record a narration of a song from my ipod dock. That was the only way to add some. I overcame my difficulties with this assignment and assignments in the past by trial and error. Each task was not correct the first time I did it. I had to constantly change and move things around. After awhile, I was able to produce a successful project. This project was beneficial because this program is definitely something I will use in the future. I can use this program to document important events in my life as well as use it for educational purposes. Students in a classroom can use this program to make an assignment creative and present it to the class. Teachers can use this program to present material in an interesting and creative way. Technology is all around us and it is important to introduce ourselves immediately to what is being offered. I thought, at 21 years old, that I knew a lot about technology, but I am finding out through this class that there are so many programs that I never knew existed. These programs are so beneficial and will really open more opportunities.

Reflection for Assignment # 3

For this assignment, we were asked to make a fictitious grade book using Microsoft Excel. I thought this assignment was really interesting and taught me a lot about using Excel, a program that I have never used before. This program is very easy to use and has a lot of features that make things a lot easier to, such as mathematical problems. We were also required to make a powerpoint, showing that we know how to embed a file into a document, and also to show our skills using powerpoint. We had to include hiding a slide and using action buttons to navigate through our slide shows. After this we were also required to write a letter to the principal explaining our grade book and how we created it, and then embed the grade book into the document again. This assignment included many different skills, all of which are important in the field of education. Microsoft programs are used all the time in the field of teaching and are essential for papers and projects. Microsoft Excel allowed me to easily make a grade book and the math functions of "sum" and "average" made the math very easy to compute. It is interesting that you only have to write the formula once and highlight the column and it will apply it to the entire column. This is definitely something I will use in the future for teaching. It is easy and organized and I will never have to use a written gradebook and do the math myself. After completing multiple assignments, I can really understand the benefits of technology in the classroom. It is important that we can present material in a way that is interesting and memorable. The benefits of all of these assignments so far are that these programs have introduced me to many different ways I can present material as a teacher. Students can also use any of these programs with ease and present their material to the class. I will definitely use these programs from now on.

Reflection # 5

Our group chose to do a rubric and evaluation form for Microsoft Word. We chose Microsoft Word because we use this program all of the time and we wanted to find out more about it. While doing the software evaluation form for Microsoft Word, it was interesting to see the qualities of the program. The form helped me to understand how to evaluate a program and see what it can be used for. It is also beneficial to see the help tools and who to contact if something is confusing or not working properly. There are so many help tools available in almost every program, but the help tools in Microsoft Word can help with almost any problem in the program. It shows you a step by step way to figure something out. I did not really consider this assignment to be too difficult because we were able to make up our own rubric for what the program contained. It was also not difficult to find the information about the program. I understand the point of the evaluation form to be to inform people about the program and what it can be used for. Microsoft Word is definitely a program that should be used in teaching and everywhere else. I understand the importance of integrating this program into the field of teaching because this is the main program associated with typing essays and projects. Many students have this program and they are learning to use it at a very young age. I would like to be a teacher in the future and I am trying to learn about every feature of this program to be able to help the students out.

Reflection - Assignment 4

Using Cmap to create a concept map was not hard at all. The program is very user friendly and almost anyone would be able to use it. It is really fun to be able to create a concept map exactly how you want to and place things where you want to. Our assignment was to create a lesson plan using cmap and I chose to write one about preschoolers learning to wash their hands. Using Cmap is definitely a useful tool for the field of education because it is well organized and visually stimulating. It is a lot easier to look at and read compared to a text document in Microsoft Word. When I become a teacher, I will definitely use this program to set up objectives for each class and daily lesson plans. I might also make my students use this program for organizing thoughts for essays or projects or for any other assignment. I think it is way easily than writing something out or typing a long document. This can also be used in a business setting for examples of new proposals. It is short and concise and the person can elaborate when they read their notes. I think the most difficult part of this assignment was putting the concept map into the powerpoint document. Once I was given directions on how to do so, it became very simple. Before doing any assignment that I am unsure of, I always ask for help to make sure I am doing the right thing. This assignment had many benefits. I never knew this program existed (This seems to be the case every time we cover a new topic). This program is very useful and definitely something I will use in the future. I can definitely see why technology in the classroom is such an important thing. All of these programs are very beneficial for teachers and especially students, who are growing up with all of these new programs.

Online Assignment for 9/28

Teachers should definitely know a lot about Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, especially if they are teaching students who are in high school or college. These two programs are the programs that are used the most frequently for every assignment, especially Microsoft Word. It is very important that the teachers know how to educate the student about the format in which they want them to write their report. They must also be able to use the new version of Microsoft Word because everyone has a different edition. All teachers should know how to change the spacing of the text from single spaced to double spaced or vice versa. For powerpoint, teachers must know how to create slides that include text and pictures so they are eye catching for students. They shouldn't put too much text on the slides because the powerpoints are used for learning and if there is too much text, they won't retain any information. They must also know how to make each slide colorful, meaning the text and the background. Along with what I thought, I found a list online that shows basic things that teachers should know.
1.Word Processing Skills
2.Spreadsheets Skills
3.Database Skills
4.Electronic Presentation Skills
5.Web Navigation Skills
6.Web Site Design Skills
7.E-Mail Management Skills
8.Digital Cameras
9.Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
10.File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
11.Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
12.Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
13.WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
14.Videoconferencing skills
15.Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
16.Scanner Knowledge
17.Knowledge of PDAs
18.Deep Web Knowledge
19.Educational Copyright Knowledge
20.Computer Security Knowledge
These are 20 basic things in technology that teachers should be able to do.
(http://thejournal.com/articles/2005/06/01/20-technology-skills-every-educator-should-have.aspx).

Reflection 2

Creating the website was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to do using a computer. It was a very difficult concept for me to grasp in the beginning but once I familiarized myself with the program it became a little easier. I still believe that if I had to do this assignment again I would not be able to do it without assistance for some things. Adding pictures and links were the easiest parts for me. It was also very simple to type up little blurbs about myself. The hardest thing for me was to link the two pages back to one another. At first it wasn't working at all, but then with help from you (the instructor), I was able to see that the reason it wasn't working was because the index file was inside of the About Me folder and it needed to be separate. I also used the help resource in the program to help me overcome the obstacles as well as resorting to the internet to fix some things. When I finally got everything working it was interesting and exciting to see that everything worked when I opened it all on the browser. There were a lot of benefits from doing this assignment. It introduced me to something I never knew existed and forced me to learn about it and to complete an assignment that was rather difficult. This program will definitely aid me in the future when I become a teacher because I can make webpages to teach lessons more effectively and make them more interesting to students. Students prefer visual aids usually all the time instead of listening to a teach just talk the entire class. This program will be a useful tool for that. I can also make the students deisgn their own webpage for a project, similar to what we did. This assignment definitely helped me realize the importance of technology in a classroom because nowadays, students at very young ages are being introduced to technology of all kinds, such as the smartboards. It is very important that I am up to speed with this and able to teach them and relate to their learning.