Spreadsheets in the classroom!

I don't like spreadsheets. I admit it. I find them intimidating. I use them when I have to for budgeting and finances, but I don't like them. (I know that I said that before!) I do like how they make some of my work easier, but I've never really learned how to use them. I know how to plug numbers in to pre-formatted cells like I do for my budget, but I don't really know all that spreadsheets can do. I have learned how to format and create functions, but I don't use them enough to remember from one time to the next, so I find that every time I use a spreadsheet, I have to learn all over again. This is frustrating. This being said, I was pleasantly surprised by this weeks assignments. It never would have occurred to me to use a spreadsheet for a recipe, but it was slick. The lesson that I found was interesting too. Although the basic use for the spreadsheet was fairly predictable, I liked the thinking that was incorporated into the process. The students were really being asked to evaluate and analyze the information that they had inputted. Then they had to speculate about how the numbers would change if they changed certain statistics, etc. and how they would be able to use this information.

I'm not sure that I will ever come to love spreadsheets, but maybe if I continue to work at it, I can learn to peacefully coexist and accept that spreadsheets might have more to offer than I had once believed.

On-line life

As an LMS I was aware of most of the searching techniques that we discussed in class and the google game, but I hadn't looked at many other search engines. I'm as bad as the kids, I just resort to google because it's familiar. I did find a number of different search engines that were specific for education, and would be great to use with my students. The one I really liked is www.infotopia.info. I have already suggested it to a few teachers, they all loved it, and I put a link to it on my library home page. I need to spend some more time working with this. We have specialized databases that we encourage students to use, this would just be another good step to take.

I was also familiar with google docs as an on-line word processing tool. I like the idea of collaborating on a document and having it available wherever you are. There is nothing more frustrating than getting home and realizing that I saved an important project to my server folder instead of my computer documents and therefore I can't access it from home. However, people have a habit of using what is convenient and familiar which, in this case, is usually Microsoft Word. Again, I am also guilty. As on-line programs become more sophisticated I think people will use them more and more. The one drawback for using these programs with kids is that our students don't have a school e-mail account provided to them so that they often can't create an account. Our new technology coordinator seems to be in favor of this in the future, so maybe there is hope.

Using Productivity Tools - Graphic and Presentation Programs

This week we worked of Graphic and Presentation Programs. I was excited to look at some programs that I was unfamiliar with. I liked the variety of the programs, some of them required little or no skill, and others would be great for some of my more artistic students. I used Pixton for my graphic because it doesn't require much skill, but has many more options that make your comic look more professional. I am a huge comic fan, and love looking for opportunities to use them in the classroom. I find that comics can help students really narrow down the topic to focus on the really important points. They need to be concise and specific in their word choice to make them effective.

The presentation program that I used was less impressive. Although I like the idea of being able to access a presentation from anywhere, I felt like Empressr did not have enough of the features that I use to make a presentation effective. I have used slideshare often, not to create my own presentations yet, but to view those that others have posted to the web.

I have to say that I am not particularly fond of the textbook at this point. I am finding that it is difficult to follow with all of the sidebars. I was reading the first chapter via the posted pdf since my book had not yet arrived and it was a nightmare to get through. Another frustration is that most of the links are no longer active. I know that this is an issue with the rate of change on the internet, but it is still frustrating to see a site that looks like it might be worthwhile, only to find that it no longer exists.

Computers and How They Work Experience

This class was very frustrating for me. I was way out of my comfort zone for most of the time. Although I have to say that I learned a lot. For instance, when I was thinking about my perfect computer, I understood what was meant by the different components. I had never opened a computer before or looked at different processors, etc. Much of my research was also time consuming since I needed to read and re-read in order to make sure that I understood the jargon and the definitions that they were using.

I was really hoping that I would have learned other practical information as well. For instance, when my desktop crashed, how do I go about reimaging it, or what are some things I could try to get my icons back up and running? Some actual troubleshooting techniques. Maybe this is information that will be coming later, but it is an area that I feel that I'm lacking in. We have a tech. department to deal with these issues at school, but they are often occupied elsewhere when we need them and if I knew a few things to try I might be able to fix it without having to wait for them.

Alternate OS

This assignment was very frustrating for me. I was nervous about starting it because I was worried about accidentally installing the program and overriding my current OS. The only computer that I could use to try this project was our desktop - I don't have the rights to download onto my school laptop, and our desktop was out of commission for a while. I finally got it up and running again and then started my project. I chose Ubuntu because it seemed more user friendly, but I think there might have been something wrong with the file itself. Once I got everything downloaded and burned correctly the file wouldn't boot. It just stalled and kept cycling instead of booting up fully. Like I said, a frustrating assignment.

Anti-Virus Experiences

Okay, this topic could not have come up at a more opportune time. We have a desktop that is about 7 years old and runs windows XP. We have had issues with it in the past and have tried a variety of anti-virus programs. We started with McAfee, since that was the program that was installed on delivery (you got a free year with purchase). Then we started having issues and got the dreaded blue screen of death, even after scanning multiple times a day. We had the computer wiped and then used AVG and Webroot Spysweeper with more success. However, we have been experiencing a lot of problems lately, AVG seems to be able to find viruses when it does a scan, but it doesn't seem to be preventing any (it is regularly finding and removing a number of viruses on each scan) So I took this opportunity to try a new program. I uninstalled AVG and installed a free trial of Vipre Anti-Virus Premium to see what it could do. The reviews all said that it was rated high when it came to preventing viruses from getting through in the first place. I installed it and tried to run a scan - I got a message that said it needed to update the definitions, so I did that. The definitions still said "0", so I did it again. I uninstalled the program and then reinstalled it, with no success. So I accessed the help desk - good way to see their customer support first hand. I got a pretty quick response and we tried a number of things for about an hour. Then the tech. person gave me a link to completely uninstall the program and re-start my computer. Upon restart, I have no icons whatsoever. I can't access anything. I have used the right-click on the desktop, control-alt-delete, etc. and the computer just shows my wallpaper. So....., any thoughts? Was this a problem with the anti-virus software, or was my computer just too far gone for it to help? Maybe the viruses already on the computer where battling with the program and keeping it from installing all of the components. This was not quite what I was hoping for from the experiment. If any of you have suggestions, please let me know. I am at a loss right now!

My Computer Experiences

My first computer experience was as a member of the computer club in Middle School. We worked on a Tandy computer, and learned how to write simple programs. There was absolutely nothing fancy about it. This was actually the first time I had ever seen a computer, and I think it was the only one in the building. At home I typed (and I mean typed) my papers on an old manual typewriter and I took typing in high school. I say typing, because that's what it was. We did not learn keyboarding, we typed (at least the school typewriters were electric!)

My brother got a personal computer when he graduated from high school. It was an IBM and used DOS programming. You had to insert a floppy disk every time you turned it on to run the program. Then you had to insert a different floppy disk to run the word processing program (I can't remember what that was called), and then I would print to a dot matrix printer. When he studied abroad for a semester I actually got to use it for my work. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

When I went to college, we had 2 computer labs for student use. We used Word Perfect for writing papers. All of the computers still used the actual floppy disks, and they crashed often. I can still remember hearing people scream in frustration as they lost their entire term papers.

When I began teaching, we still used an actual gradebook for keeping track of grades and there was one computer in the department office for us to use. Eventually we all got our own computers and actually began using computerized grade books. I couldn't believe how much easier it was, although all of the information was still kept on a disk. The Internet was just beginning to take off when I stopped teaching to stay home and be a mom. I only had a couple of students that last year who were getting information from the Internet and using CDroms.

When I got back into education a couple of years ago, I was astounded by how much I didn't know. My first class "Information Literacy" was a terrifying and exciting whirlwind of technology. I was thrilled with the potential that all of the new technology presented for lesson planning and learning. I immediately started revamping my old lesson plans and couldn't wait to implement the changes.

I have always found computers intriguing, and I have also found that I seem to be able to learn to use new aspects fairly easily. I think that this ability has helped make me more desirable as an educator, and it has certainly made me better at my job.