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The Sun Will Come Out on a Dreary Day

School Days, School Days... #1

When I was in Kindergarten, I remember being so excited to go to the library, because we were able to get onto the computers and explore. There were a number of educational programs and games that allowed us to become more acquainted with the computer. We were allowed to express our creativity by being able to print the paint drawings we created or the color pages we made using Crayola. We also learned how to type correctly with a program that was really fun and interactive. It was something myself, as well as the rest of my 5K class looked forward to every week. Revisiting my childhood school memories, I began to realize how important the computers were to our curriculum...and that was 12 years ago. Now, it seems, computers are even more integrated into the classroom. Using computers allowed us to explore the World Wide Web to do research and collect information that could never have been possible to find in our small library. We were able to create creative projects that allowed us to express ourselves in a neat and scholarly way.

Computers and modern software are very important, in my opinion, to modern day curriculum. There are so many more opportunities that will allow students to think and explore outside the "box". The Internet and search engines allows students to participate in research that would otherwise overwhelm students. Students can also explore resources to find other resources. Once the students have obtained the information needed, they can then display the information using programs such as Microsoft Word, Power Point, Inspiration, Excel, and the list continues.

While the technology and resources are for the students, my only concern is that they will take advantage of their time using the computers. Email is fine, as long as it is appropriate and educational, and should only be accessed during free time. Also, the Internet is full of inappropriate sites. Even with software that prohibits access to these sites, it is still possible to get on them. In high school, it was an endless quest to access Facebook. There are so many proxy sites. Even with these issues in mind, computer use in the classroom is still important to the curriculum, as well as, preparing students for life after school.

Referring back to my endless "school days" memories, I recall many teachers not knowing how to use the computers effectively. For the us, as the students, it was difficult to figure out programs because the teachers knew just about as much as we did. In this class, I hope to learn enough about computers where I can be the one teaching the students, not vise versa. I hope to complete this course with a new found knowledge for programs that I previously shied away from. Interesting tricks and short cuts will help me to be able to teach my class more efficiently in the future. In addition, I would simply like to become more aware of the programs on my computer.

If you have any suggestions for me or opinions about my blogs, please do not hesitate to post them. I will be sure to answer back as quickly as possible.

Thanks, Ariel.

A Look into my Technological Past #0

What can I say, what can I say...? Using technology has been a major part of my education, especially over the last four years. Programs, such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel have been my best friends. I have never had any actual courses on how to use the programs, most of it has been trial and error...mostly error, however, I learned. I may not know everything there is to know about them, but I am fairly comfortable using them. I like to be extremely creative, I think that is how I learned some of the hidden secretes of PowerPoint. By trying to jazz up every presentation to catch my audience's eye, I would spend hours working on it until I found what I was looking for. I have also experimented with other programs, like Windows Movie Maker. I found this and immediately fell in love with it. I am now able to take home videos and/or pictures and create a DVD with them. It is a perfect program for my siblings and my short film making adventures.

Over the past years, I have learned a lot of information, but this year I hope to learn even more. I would like to become more comfortable with Excel. I feel that Excel is an extremely important program that can be used in a multitude of ways, from home financing or a simple list. I believe that knowing how to use the program efficiently would greatly benefit. I would also like to learn the more detailed information about Microsoft Word. I am comfortable with the basics, as well as some of the more detailed information, however, not all of the hidden secretes that would make difficult tasks simpler.

My learning style was all over the board. The only area that I was balanced was the sequiential and global areas. I have learned that I am an active learner. I retain information better by doing something with it. I like to do activities and projects on infromation I have learned. For the next category, the quiz determined me as intuitive. I have discovered that this is very true, because am not a fan of boring repetition, or excessive memorization, I prefer to have my specific facts written down and then speak freely about them. I am also a visual learner. Things tend to "click" quicker when I have something to look at such as a diagram or a picture. for the last specification on the quiz I found that I am fairly balanced between the two.