My Relfection of IT 365

This course was definitely a challenge for me because I have never been proficient with computer use.  Generally, I could navigate through the internet and change my wallpaper.  Technology has become so abundant since I was a child that now computers are absolutely dominating the classroom now from the early grades going forward.  When I was a child in 1^st grade we just had pencil, paper, and crayons.  Nowadays, the same kids are using innovative tablets and constantly using computers to learn.  It was time for me to catch up!  As far as my favorite things from the course go, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the gender gap and gender bias throughout the college campuses.  Computer Science never interested me as a major but I found it interesting how exponentially lower the women are than the men in that major.  Computers are everywhere and everyone uses them so I figured more women would be interested in delving deeper into computers and wanting to utilize it as a career.  Still, it was nice to see the numbers steadily growing.  The assignment I found the most fascinating was the assistive technology power point because I was completely unaware of all the different modes one could change in their computers to help people with sight, hearing, and other deficiencies in order to assimilate anyone who needs to use a computer.  I personally found it the most useful because whenever I have a classroom and I am teaching to several students, I will be able to help out any child who has the aforementioned deficiencies. I also really enjoyed playing with the concept maps from Kidspiration and making my own rubrics as well as crosswords.  I feel like this generation of teachers are so blessed and fortunate to have so much access to all of these wonderful tools that most teachers (such as my mother) did not have in her day.  Creating a crossword puzzle in general was a blast for me because I personally enjoy solving them.  I will more than likely use that program to make some for my friends and some for myself for future entertainment.  One thing that definitely terrified me at first was the use of Google Documents and using their version of a slideshow program instead of my comfort zone, which is Power Point.  The main reason would have to be because I am certainly not used to the document saving itself.  I was always paranoid it was not going to save when it clearly did.  In general, I thought it was a great tool for group work and it can easily be worked with among four individuals. 

            Overall, this was one of the most important courses I have taken here at USM.  The future is here, so I had to prepare for using word processing programs, Google Documents, and learn about all of the ways computer users can overcome deficiencies.  I am glad to have to have this blog so I can refer to all of the work I have done all semester.  What a great tool this class has been for me!

-Bethany

Google Groups and Functions

We had been using Google documents to show the extent of how easy it is to share our slideshows, word documents, and ideas in general.  One thing I truly loved was how easy it was to be able to work in teams with Google Docs.  I thought it was quite extraordinary to be able to each write a few paragraphs within the same document without much of a hassle.  In addition, I was completely not used to not having to worry about saving my document with a click of save button.  The fact that it does it automatically is great, but it also made me feel insecure about it.

The slideshows were fun and interesting to make as well.  To be quite honest, I can see myself using the Google Doc's slideshow as a helpful tool due to convenience, but I prefer PowerPoint's flexibility with adding music and pictures.  Regardless, I had fun doing it.

My slideshow on Fruits and Vegetables

-Bethany

My Website

Bethany's 1st Grade Classroom

I found this assignment to be one of the most challenging because as easy it may look, creating a good website with all of the information needed while making it aesthetically pleasing was no easy task. As a future teacher, I had to make sure all of my contact information was there and that I was posting enough to keep website visitors coming back.  In other words, I had to keep things fresh for both students and parents.  I want them to come back and see all of the assignments and also see interesting words of the week or my favorite: the "this week in history" section.  Overall, my aim was to make things interesting for the visitor, give them as much information about me as possible so I could be more approachable, and to be inform everyone about all things going into my classroom.  The assignment was tough due to formatting issues with posting the links in columns and figuring where to put stuff, but overall a rewarding experience.

-Bethany

Assist technology

This slideshow presentation really opened my eyes as to people with disabilities or deficiencies involved in a class with computers.  Whenever I have a class of my own, I will make sure to utilize these tools so that any student with a sense deficiency will be able to learn from my electronic lectures. With the tools that I learned, there are no excuses to learning more and more about every day computers.  For whatever reason, it will not actually allow me to post the slideshow, so I posted some pictures of my discoveries. 

My film Project

This was probably my most favorite assignment of the entire class.  I thoroughly enjoyed going through several pictures, putting on music from my favorite band, and playing around with the transitions to make a solid directorial debut.  It also showed me that it is very user friendly for people who are not as tech-savy as others. This was a blast and I cannot wait to do this again.



-Bethany

Turnitin

I really enjoyed this assignment!  The first portion of the assignment was meant for showing us how the software works.  We copied and pasted materials to the document and saw how much it was similar to the original.  The main point of the assignment was to express how plagiarism can be caught with software such as Turnitin.  Plagiarism can cause a student to fail an assignment.  The second part of the assignment was to paraphrase the document into our own words and submit the work if it was less than 25% similar.  I think it was great exercise to show how easy it is to plagiarize without even knowing it.

Web Tools

I was not very fond of the software when I first started to create my concept map.  I guess it just took time to understand everything.  I think I will try to incorporate Kidspiration into my classroom because I think children would enjoy using it.  A child could create endless amounts of beneficial learning material.

The crossword puzzle had to be my favorite of the bunch.  I thoroughly enjoyed making one out of one of my favorite subjects: Anatomy.

Of course, I would not want to give this to first graders! Regardless, this would be fun for my friends who are also big fans of anatomy and physiology. 

Now, the Quiznet website is a phenomenal tool.  I could make great note cards and even test myself with a basic test format one would be familiar with in college.  It does all of the hard work for you.  It has definitely helped me out in my other classes to say the least. 

Flash Cards

Test