My Semester in IT 365.

All in all, this has been a wonderful semester in IT 365.  I, honestly, did not know what to expect coming into this course.  I knew it had to do with technology and computers, that like our IT class mandatory before this one.  I had no idea, however, that I would take so much away from this class.  There were tons of new programs I learned how to access and use, programs I had no idea even existed, right at my fingertips this entire time.  Starting from the beginning, one of our first assignments was creating and using a concept map through Kidspiration; I have, in a previous blog, reflected on this, but I will definitely be downloading the Kidspiration software on my home computer for future use.  Once we got into the Web Tools, things really became at my fingertips; this was a fun assignment to learn about Quizlet and EclipseCrossword.  Making a movie was a blast and learning about free Google Groups was even more fun.  Once again, the website I found to be a little bit more agonizing, but I know it will come in handy in the future because I will need something for my students' parents to look at for contact purposes, as well as keeping up with what is going from a day-to-day basis.  I can honestly say that my weaker points were definitely the website, but everything else in this course I did pretty well on and it came easy to me.  I cannot wait to integrate technology into my future teaching and I will probably do it almost every single day.  Technology is not something teachers can avoid anymore; it is a must.  In order to improve my weak areas, constantly tweaking the website that I have already created in class would be necessary.  I only have a year left before I actually start teaching, so learning these things now--at this point in my career--is pertinent.  Back to integrating technology into my future classroom, there are TONS of ways to do this, as I have learned in IT 365.  Students, these days, have cell phones as young as elementary grades and right there is one way to integrate it into lessons; if a student needs to research on the internet, that is the perfect to do so without causing commotion.  I know that I will be using all  of the programs and tricks that I have learned in IT 365 throughout the rest of my career and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to learn it and pass it on.

Assistive Technology.

My last and final project of this IT 365 course was an assistive technology assignment.  In this assignment, I had to explore the internet help options and figure out ways to accommodate certain things on web pages.  The reasoning behind all of this is to make things easier for people that have disabilities of sorts, such as visual disabilities, hearing disabilities, etc.  This is assignment was, actually, rather confusing at first, but once Dr. Parker went over it with us, it was a breeze and tremendously helpful.  I had not known before how to do any of the things in the assignment or how to accomplish any of the learned tasks from this assignment.  It was extremely helpful.  Learning how to use the magnifier and print screen, as well as toggle keys and the accessibility keyboard, will be of great worth to me in the future.  I thought I knew computers before taking this class, but I obviously had a lot more to learn.  I think that this assignment would fall into the CC objective of presentation of knowledge and ideas: Making strategic use of visual displays of data to enhance understanding.

http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/asun.html

Google Site.

For my next to final assignment for IT 365, I was asked to create a Google site for a potential class that I will teach.  This assignment was especially difficult for me.  There were plenty of things that I could not quite get the grasp of.  When I went to the Google site page and looked at the examples that were posted, I then realized that I was extremely disappointed with the way mine came out.  As I was sitting at home finishing it, I tried over and over to change the color of the text, but--for some reason--it would not work for me.  Besides the color of the text, another thing that I had difficulty with was an announcement box.  I could not figure out how to put an announcement box on my homepage, in order for me to 'create and last update date at the bottom of each page'.  It seems like the only things that I could figure out on my own were attaching an e-mail link to every page and using different layouts for each page, as well as choosing appropriate graphics for each page.  I understand that this resource, Google site, could be used in a creative, productive way; however, I would need someone to show me how to get through the steps as opposed to me having to figure it out on my own.  The frameworks that go with this assignment were "Research to build and present knowledge: gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility and accuracy of each source, and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism" from CCSS.

https://sites.google.com/site/it365autumntrahan1

Google Functions.

After completing our assignment on Google Functions, I have learned that you do not necessarily need Microsoft Office to accomplish tasks on the computer.  This is extremely helpful to me because my laptop does not have Microsoft Office.  It is good to know that all I need is the internet to be able to create a word document, create a power point presentation, or to create a group and members of the group be able to edit what is being created.  I am beginning to get a grasp on how important technology is going to be in education in the future.  It is unbelievable to me, actually.  One of my favorite parts of this assignment was being a group leader and figuring out how to work the Google Groups.  For four of us in class to be able to sit there at four different computers and add on to a story started with one student and each other student adding on to it was very enjoyable and also hilarious.  The presentation that I created could be taken from the First Grade, Language Arts MS Frameworks: 2) Begin to use knowledge of vowel digraphs, diphthongs, and r-controlled letter-sound correspondences to decode unknown words. 4) Begin to use common spelling patterns to make new words (e.g., make, take, lake, cake, etc.).  I am excited to learn even more in this class before the semester is over!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Iup8t1iBYukk4zCMb-Y-qU_DtbfZ208lljPD7o_GFkU/edit#slide=id.p

The Great Outdoors: My Movie Story.

Our fourth assignment was making a Windows Movie about myself.  I chose to take an aspect of my life from when I attended MGCCC Jackson County Campus.  In the outdoor recreation program, many outdoor trips were offered as course credits and I took every single one of those advantages.  I went on as many of those outdoor trips as I possibly could.  This was the white water rafting trip where we traveled to Tennessee to raft down the Ocoee and Hiwassee Rivers.  Not only did these trips offer social and emotional learning, but these trips taught physical well-being.  One way that I could relate my Outdoor Movie Experience to the frameworks and objectives would be in the health department, definitely.  I think that incorporating physical well-being and health into any and every lesson is great.  Every subject could somehow be related to health in a way to teach kids to better their lives by what they eat, how they spend their spare time, or how they interact with others socially on a daily basis.  The outdoor trips that I took with MGCCC Jackson County Campus were life-changing and I would suggest that anyone attending this community college take advantage of these programs; they are such positive reinforcements!

Web Tools.

For the Web Tools assignment, there were four activities that we had to complete.  The first was creating a rubric.  The second thing we had to do was create a vocabulary set.  The vocabulary terms I chose to incorporate into this assignment fit into the frameworks of first grade life science.  The third thing we had to do for the Web Tools assignment was print a worksheet.  My four other teachers have been stressing this entire semester NOT to use worksheets, but--at some point--in education they are necessary in teaching.  Lastly, we had to create a crossword puzzle with our prior vocabulary terms.  I enjoyed this assignment.    Unfortunately, for me, I was absent the day that the class went over how to do the rubric, but I figured it out on my own, eventually.  It was very self explanatory and even had all of the options available to you in drop-down boxes.  By going to quizlet.com, we were able to create a digital set of our vocabulary words and use all sorts of awesome tools; some examples of these tools were flashcards, tests, glossaries, and tables.  I, definitely, see myself using this website in the future many times to come.  When choosing a worksheet, the website abcteach.com had many, many great worksheets to choose from.  Getting to the best part of the assignment, though, the crossword puzzle was a lot of fun to make.  Basically, all that was asked of the person creating it was to type in the terms and their clues.  The Eclipse Crossword program did all of the rest.  These are some very great and neat tools that I will be coming back to in my future teachings.

Turnitin.

Assignment number two was to write a report describing concerns pertaining to social, ethical, legal, and human issues of technology.  We were asked to include the answers to five questions including:  1) What is the definition of gender bias?  2) Is there evidence that a technology gender gap and gender bias exist?  3) Why are girls in their adolescent years losing interest in computers?  4) What are the differences and similarities between how males and females perceive and use technology?  5) What role do parents, educators, and manufacturers have in encouraging technology use among females?  I would say that this assignment could fall into any grade level in the MS Frameworks.  All of these questions are relevant when it comes to gender bias in technology.  I agree that these issues very well do exist and I also believe that they will begin to deteriorate sooner or later.  Technology is becoming such a constant and normal thing in every person's life now that software programs will not be made with strictly male aspects including: the rewards in games, the characters taking on the form of males, and only males being talked about in the technological world.  Completing this Turnitin assignment also helped me to realize how big of a problem plagiarism is in education and every day life today.  When I copied and pasted the information from the resources, my similarity percentage on the website was 97%.  However, when I revised my paper and, basically, rewrote it in my own words, I got the similarity percentage down to 6%.  One thing that I've learned over the years is that it is okay to quote from resources; just make sure that you cite your source!

https://www.turnitin.com