Week 8 Blog: Computer Security

In today's technology age, we use computers for practically everything it seems. From paying bills to ordering a birthday gift for your child, computers can make our lives much easier. However, computers and  the Internet in particular, are not always safe and secure. Computer hackers can hack into your network and steal personal information. Child predators can stalk children via the internet causing every parent's worst nightmare. Another threat to computers are viruses that can infect them and cause irreparable damage. All of these things are dangers that we encounter when using the Internet. That's why it is vital to take the necessary precautions to prevent these things from happening.

I am not yet teaching, but on my personal computer at home I have anti-virus software installed. I am also very careful about what I download or click on when using the Internet. Unfortunately, these precautions are not always enough because some viruses, like the Trojan Horses, disguise themselves as something else, so the user unknowingly downloads them onto his or her computer. My sister had something like this infect her computer last year. A pop-up box kept showing up on her computer prompting her to click yes or no as to whether or not she wanted to download a program. She clicked "no" and didn't think about it again. Over time her computer virtually shut down. My husband was able to fix it, and discovered that her computer had a virus that she had unknowingly downloaded when she clicked "no." The virus was set up to infect the computer no matter which you chose. She would have had to have closed out the box without choosing an answer to not contract the virus. It definitely pays to be extra careful with the internet.

I am not yet teaching, but I did work at my county's middle school for the last three years as a case manager, so I know a little about the precautions made with the school's computers. Every staff member has a password that must be entered before they can access any computer. This is a good precaution because it prevents students from being able to access the computers without knowing the username and password of a staff member. One concern I have with this system, though, is that the password is not required to be changed after so long. I worked there for over three years and was never once asked to change my log-in password. Teachers can take it upon themselves to change it every so often, and they probably should, but honestly, I never changed mine because I was worried that I would forget it if I kept changing it. I kept it the same for my own convenience, but at what risk? My guess is that if I did not change my password, other staff members probably didn't either. Looking back, I can see that this was not the best way to go about things. Changing passwords is a simple way to increase security and prevent students from getting onto computers and retrieving information.

With the prevalence of social networking sites like Facebook, new safety and security concerns are occurring in our schools. My county recently had an incident with a teacher communicating with a student via Facebook in order to illicit sexual contact with her. After this happened, our schools are now requiring that teachers do not have students as friends on Facebook. I personally think that this should have been policy before this happened, but thankfully it is now. We have to keep our students and teachers safe from things like this. In the end, I feel that it is best to err on the side of caution when using the internet.

Taking precautions with the internet and teaching our students about internet safety addresses the NETS-T standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. It is our responsibility as educators to keep our students safe while using the internet. It is important that we monitor what they do in the classroom and teach them safety tips that they can use at home as well.

Week 7 Blog: Educational Software

One of the things we have been learning about this week in Educational Technology is educational software. Educational software can be very beneficial to students if utilized in the right manner. One of the most important aspects of using this software is choosing the appropriate kind for your classroom. The software needs to be high quality and should be tied to the instructional goals we have for our students. It should also be fun and engaging for students to use, while simultaneously enhancing the content we are teaching. I remember when I was in elementary school, two of my favorite educational games were Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I was actually surprised when I saw these two games listed in our textbook as examples of good educational games to use today (Lever-Duffy 216). My first thought was, "These games are still around?" It's interesting that games I used to enjoy twenty years ago or more are still being played by students today.

I am not yet teaching so I have not had the opportunity to use educational software in the classroom. However, my mom, who is a first grade teacher, actually recommended a website called Starfall to use with my preschool age son to help him learn the alphabet. She uses this website with her first graders, and she says that they really enjoy it. I have explored the site, and I could definitely see myself utilizing it not only with my own children, but also with my future students. The website features reading activities based on where the child is at the in reading process. These stages include: ABCs; Learn to Read; It's Fun to Read; and I'm Reading. Each part of the website includes various activities, songs, videos, and more for students to use to help with the reading process. The content of the site is both educational and entertaining, which I think is the combination needed for quality educational software. Another aspect of this website that I liked is how easy it is to navigate. This is extremely important in order for students to get the most benefits from using it. Everything is easy to find and easy to get to. Children could use this website with assistance or on their own.

This software would be very useful for early elementary teachers. The degree I am pursuing is Special Education, which is one of the groups of students that this site recommends using it with. This website could help me to meet the instructional goals of teaching my students how to read and also teaching them to enjoy reading. This website helps make reading fun, and I think that is such a crucial aspect of teaching kids to read. If it something they enjoy, they will be more likely to spend time doing it. If I teach Special Education at the early elementary level, this is a website I will definitely utilize with my students.

Using this software in the classroom will help me to meet the NETS-T standard 2-Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. This software will also help my students meet the NETS-S standard 1-Creativity and Innovation and the NETS-S standard 6- Technology Operations and Concepts. This software will allow my students to make good use of  a quality technological tool that will improve both their reading and technology skills.

Blog Post 6- WebQuests

This week's blog assignment included something I had never done before: create a WebQuest. According to the article, "How to Plan a WebQuest" by Tammy Andrew, a WebQuest is "an assignment or short project that engages students in searching for information via the world wide web."  Honestly, before this assignment, I was unfamiliar with WebQuests, and had never actually seen one. Now, I not only know what a WebQuest is, but I have actually had the opportunity to create one of my own. I did not realize how little I actually knew about the various educational technology tools out there until I took this class. I am definitely learning something new every week.
My WebQuest is about the book Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I chose to do my WebQuest on a literary topic since that is what I am most familiar with. I geared my assignment toward middle school age students, specifically seventh graders, since I have worked with this age group as a case manager for a mentoring program and also because I hope to teach at this grade level eventually. I chose the diary of Anne Frank because it is a personal favorite of mine and also because it is on several middle school classic literature lists that I researched. Deciding on a topic for the WebQuest was probably the most challenging aspect for me. It took me awhile to come to a final decision. Once I decided on Anne Frank, I had to design the assignments that the students would have to complete. Since Anne Frank is a historical figure and her diary was written during the Holocaust, I chose to have the students research both World War II and the Holocaust to get a better understanding of the book. To further incorporate technology into the assignment, I had the students create a Powerpoint presentation on their findings. As an additional assignment, I asked the students to create a series of diary entries to be written from the point-of-view of a teenager living during the same time in history as Anne Frank.  My WebQuest can be found at http://questgarden.com/130/01/2/110806203147/


I really liked the Quest Garden website. I liked how it takes you step by step through the entire process of creating a WebQuest. This was especially beneficial to those like me who are new to WebQuests. When I first saw this assignment and what we would have to do, I was a little intimidated and also worried that it would be difficult to complete. I found, however, that once I got started, the rest fell into place. Like I said before, choosing my topic and figuring out the specific assignments was probably the most challenging aspect of creating my WebQuest. 


Creating a WebQuest for students addresses several of the NETS-T standards. It addresses Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity: Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. It also addresses Standard 2: Design and Develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. This assignment also addresses the NETS for students standards such as: Standard 3: Research and Information fluency and Standard 4: Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making.


Overall, I feel that creating this WebQuest was a good learning experience for me. I have been exposed to a new technological tool that I can utilize in my own classroom. I am glad that I now know how to create a WebQuest for my students to use.

Online Communication Tools

This week we have been learning about the various types of online communication tools and how they can be utilized in the classroom. Some of these tools I use on an almost daily basis, like email, others I have never used, wikis, for example. Blogging is a communication tool that I am new to. This class is actually my first experience with using blogs, so I am learning as I go.
I am not yet teaching, so I haven't had the opportunity to use online communication tools in the classroom. However, I have used some on my last job, which was working as a case manager for a mentoring program at my district's middle school. For this job, I used email almost daily to communicate with program staff, potential mentors, and my supervisor. My school district provides email accounts for all employees, and the one we used was through Microsoft Outlook. Email is an efficient, convenient means to communicate with people on the job. It saves time by allowing you to compose a short message and send it immediately. However, there are a couple disadvantages that I have come across when using email. One of these is that it might take someone a few days to reply to the email. If time is not an issue then this will not pose a problem, but if an immediate answer is needed, email might not be the best tool to choose. Another disadvantage of email is that sometimes it can be difficult to get a message across in the exact way you mean it. The email recipient could misunderstand the message or the tone of the message, and this could cause unnecessary miscommunication issues. How many times have we read an email or any other type of written message and mistakenly thought someone was upset or aggravated when they actually were not. Email is not always the best means of communicating with people, but for the most part, it work really well. Also, if you're like me, you would rather send an email than have to make several phone calls. Sometimes email is just a more feasible solution. Some other disadvantages of using email were mentioned in the article "Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication Tools" by Julia Ashley. This article mentions that email can be "misused as a collaboration tool and can become overwhelming."
One collaboration tool that I would like to utilize in my classroom in the future are blogs. I think that blogging would be a great activity to have students participate in, much like we do in this class. Blogging is a good way to integrate writing and technology and can be used to improve skills in both areas. My school district's website features  teacher blogs and web pages, so blogging seems to be something that educators are using more and more. I am glad that I have had the opportunity to create a blog in this class because now I can teach my future students how to create and use them as well. One of the assigned videos this week, "Technology Support for Teachers: Supporting the Profession" mentions the importance of modeling technology use to students. If my students see me utilizing the different types of online communication tools, they are likely to want to learn how to use them as well.
Using online communication tools addresses the NETS-T standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. This standard states that "teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society." This standard will be met by modeling the use of different types of online communication tools to students and by using them to communicate with parents and coworkers.
Overall, I think online communication tools can be used successfully in the classroom if utilized in the appropriate manner. I plan on using some of these in my future classroom, such as email and blogs, and I hope to become more proficient at using them, and I hope that my students will become proficient as well.

Week 4 blog: Powerpoint Presentations

This week for our blog assignment, I created a Powerpoint presentation. I have to admit this is the first time I have actually created one. I had to learn the program as I went, and I found it was fairly easy to figure out. There are a lot of different options for customizing the look of the presentation, which I found somewhat overwhelming at first. However, the more I explored the program options, the less intimidating it became. I graduated high school eleven years ago, so Powerpoint was not used that often, and in my early college years, I did not have to use it either. This is just one of the many ways that the use of technology in the classroom has changed over the last ten years.
One of the things that I seemed to have the most trouble with was deciding on colors. This probably seems silly, but I had a hard time trying to decide which font and background colors to use for each slide. I wanted to make sure that my presentation was easy to read, and would not pose difficulties for any viewers. I chose to keep the background plain, I used white, because the words and graphics stood out better against it, and I didn't have to worry about colors clashing. This probably sounds boring, but after trying out several different background colors, I decided that plain and simple was best for this presentation.
 I utilized the online clipart feature throughout the presentation to find graphics that helped to illustrate the lesson I was wanting to teach. I found that the online clipart option gave a greater variety of graphics than the clipart that is already on the program. This feature made finding graphics for my presentation quick and easy, which I definitely appreciated.
Since I am not yet teaching, I did not have a group of students to create a presentation for, so I made one for my preschool age children. My presentation is about the letter "A." I kept it fairly short, 7 slides, considering the age group I was doing the presentation for. I explained that the letter "A" is the first letter of the alphabet, and also the two different "A" sounds, short "A" and long "A." Then, I included a list of examples of words that begin with the two different "A" sounds. I created a slide for each letter "A" word, and inserted a clipart graphic to illustrate the word. My oldest son's name is Aiden, so I used his name as one of the letter "A" words and included a picture of him in the presentation, which he was excited about.
What I am most proud of about this Powerpoint is the fact that I was able to use the Powerpoint software for the first time and create a presentation.  I am probably more proud about being able to figure out how to use Powerpoint than the actual presentation itself.
One thing I would change about the presentation is that I would like to include media clips. This was one aspect of Powerpoint that I could not quite figure out, so as you can see, I still need a great deal of practice in order to become proficient at using this program. I want to learn how to use Powerpoint in an effective and creative manner in the classroom. My goal is to improve my presentation skills and learn how to use all the features of Powerpoint, not just a few of them.
Something I heard in the chapter 5 video we watched that stood out to me is that technology cannot replace the human element of teaching. In other words, technology cannot replace teachers. I thought about the use of technology, including Powerpoint, in the classroom, and thought about how a presentation, no matter how creative and visually appealing it may be, cannot replace the teacher giving it. Presentation software should be utilized as a means of enhancing the lesson the teacher is teaching. It should not be expected to do the teacher's job.

Educational Technology Week 3

This week I have learned a great deal about word processing and desktop publishing programs. Both can be utilized in the classroom by teachers and students to make their work more efficient and also more professional looking. The document I am posting with my blog is a flyer that was recreated for the school-based mentoring program I previously worked for.(Unfortunately, funding for the program ended this past school year.) I am not yet a teacher, but I worked as a case manager for a grant funded, school-based mentoring program, and I had to create several different types of documents for the program. We had a hand-book that was created by program staff to give to all mentors who served in our program. We also created agendas for program meetings, and all the necessary forms for the program such as permission slips and confidentiality agreements. One document that I personally created was a flyer to promote the program around the county as part of our mentor recruitment effort. I did not have a copy of the original flyer on my personal computer, so I created a new one. It is similar to the original in that it contains the same information and showcases a photograph of students. I retrieved the photograph from the clip art that was available on Microsoft Publisher, which is the program I used to create the document.I also used the word art feature for some of the text in the flyer.  I actually have not used this program very much. I have only made a few documents on it. However, I thought it was fairly easy to use, especially since it has a variety of templates to choose from for practically any type of document you want to make. I used one of the flyer templates to create the document, which saved me a tremendous amount of time, and when you have two toddlers running around, anything that can save some time means a lot.
I feel like the flyer I created is visually appealing. I like the color combination, and I thought the photograph of smiling students was an effective way to help get the message across. One thing I did realize after finishing the document is that perhaps it does not have enough information about the program itself. It is difficult to display a large amount of information on a flyer without making it look cluttered, which is why I kept it simple, and included contact information for those wanting to learn more.
One of the assigned videos this week,chapter 4 "Technology Supports Diverse Learners-Jr. High Students,"  actually mentioned the use of peer mentoring in the classroom. A technology class featured in the video showed older students who served as mentors helping younger students with technology and computer skills. These students were able to use their skills in these areas to help other students learn. This approach helps both the mentor's and mentee's computer skills and helps them to learn problem-solving skills as well. I thought this was interesting since I worked with a mentoring program.
Creating documents for the classroom with programs like Microsoft Publisher addresses Standard 3-Model Digital-Age Work and Learning in the NETS-T. It especially addresses parts b and c of this standard which state, "b. collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation" and c. "communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parent, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats." It is important that teachers know how to use technology in the classroom in an effective way. Teachers are role-models for their students, and it is important to be knowledgeable in the area of technology in order to help our students become proficient at using it as well.

Educational Technology Week 2

Living in such a technology-based society as we do, I often find myself feeling a little technologically impaired. I feel like my knowledge of a lot of things in the area of technology is very limited, which can make using new technology a little intimidating at times. However, I am open to learning new things, especially if it will improve my lessons and make my teaching more effective. I have very little experience using spreadsheets and databases, and have only used Excel a handful of times in my undergraduate study. I had a research and statistics class in my undergraduate work, and I think that is the only class that I had to use Excel in. Using programs like Excel is something I need to work on so that I can utilize them in the classroom.

While researching websites on spreadsheets and databases, I came across one that I found to be an excellent resource for teachers wanting to implement their use in the classroom. The site is the Trumball County Educational Service Center: http://www.trumbull.k12.oh.us/Teachers/resources/usingss.htm  , and this site has a page titled "Using Spreadsheets in the Classroom" that provides a great number of resources for teachers. The site provides links to articles, activities, lesson plans, online spreadsheet sites, and tutorials for using Excel. It's like a one-stop shop for teachers wanting to find out more about utilizing spreadsheets in their instruction. When navigating this site, I was surprised at the vast amount of possible activities teachers can do with spreadsheets. One of the links on this site is called "Excel Activities," and it has several interesting ideas for spreadsheet activities. For example, an excellent beginner activity to have students do is analyzing M&Ms data. This activity allows students to become familiar with how to use Excel functions like calculating and graphing. Not to mention the fact that you and your students will be able to enjoy eating the M&Ms at the end of the activity. I was surprised to find that using spreadsheets in the classroom can be both educational and fun.

The use of spreadsheets and databases in the classroom addresses Standard 2 in the NETS-T: Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments. Having students do activities like the M&Ms data analysis would address this standard in that it involves the students using an important technology and becoming familiar with it. This activity would also address Standard 3 in the NETS-S: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Using Excel would give students the opportunity to use technology to analyze and interpret data in an efficient and effective manner. 

One of the videos I watched "Tools for Tracking Student Success" in Ch. 7, describes how one school district implemented an online report card system that allows teachers to input student data and then have that data create an online report card. Parents can view these report cards and see how their child is progressing in his or her classes. The program is able to chart student progress over time, which helps teachers, parents, and students get a clear picture of how well a child is doing. This report card system is an excellent use of database and spreadsheet technology in the classroom. 

I am not yet a teacher, so I have not used spreadsheets and databases in the classroom yet. However, I see how I could definitely make use of both of these tools in the classroom. I could use Excel for projects like the one I described earlier. I could also use spreadsheets to track student grades and progress in the class. I could utilize databases to keep records of my students that could be passed on to their next teachers each year. This would give other teachers accurate background information on the student, and allow the teacher to more effectively meet each student's individual needs. 

After this week, I have realized the importance and usefulness of both spreadsheets and databases for classroom instruction. I plan on using both of these tools in my future classroom.