Week 2 of productivity

This week has been another interesting week of online learning.  We had to compare search engines as well as discover new ways to make our searches more productive.  Up to this point, I have used Google for the good majority of time when I need to search information.  I don't think that is going to change, though after looking at some other sites, I think I will be more inclined to use them if I feel my Google searches aren't producing exactly what I need.  I did look into Exalead, another search engine, and I found it's home page a lot more welcoming than Google's.  You are able to book mark your favorite pages and they are bookmarked as pictures, not text.  You can also access your computer from this website, no matter where you are are what computer you are on.  It was nice to see something that was a little different than Google, but again, Google has seemed to work well for me and I probably will still use Google a lot. 

Another thing that we did this week was look at more online word processing websites.  During this class, we have been using Google docs for our papers and presentations.  It really has been a great tool because  you can do your work from anywhere and you are not dependent on your own computer.  You can also share your work with anyone and they can edit the work (great for group work).  The two other programs that I looked into were called ThinkFree and Zoho Writer.  ThinkFree is a lot like Google docs.  You can do word processing documents on it, spreadsheets and slide presentations.  You can also share your work with others, like Google docs.  Although I will be continuing to use Google docs for class, it was nice to see something different in case I need to use it for work or in some other aspect of my life.    Besides ThinkFree, Zoho was also another interesting online word processor.  It felt a lot like Microsoft Word, so I liked how i felt familiar with it, even though I never used this particular program before.  I did notice that this sight only offers word processing, and not spreadsheets and slide presentations like Google docs and ThinkFree does.

Overall, this has been an eye opening week.  I feel that I may not be changing everything I do because of what I learned this week, but I may be doing some things differently in order to get more work complete in a faster manner. 

On to the third class!

This week I started my third class of my online cohort, Using Productivity Tools Effectively.  One of the things that we are supposed to do is make a presentation using a presentation product other than Power Point.  We need to use one that is web based.  I have to say, I am pretty pumped about this because I do use power points with my classes, but they always seem to be a pain to interact with the students on their work.  In my district, there are community folders where students can put there work and I can look at it, but it isn't very easy to put comments on their work.  I'm hoping that a web based presentation program will be easier to make comments and help students as they are working.  It will also be nice to be able to see the work from any computer I am at, home or school.  In addition to that, we are also going to be making a graphic for the class and then posting it.  I'm still not sure how I will use this, but I'm sure I will find some way to incorporate it into what I do.  This class has a little different twist to it because we actually have a text book!  Wow, I feel like I'm going back in time actually having a book for a class!   I just got finished reading the first chapter and it basically got me to think what is technology's place in the classroom?  Do you need technology all the time?  When is it or isn't it appropriate.  It has been pretty interesting and I think my ideas of what technology should do for me is very similarly in line with the authors prospective. 

What if microprocessors and software failed?

For our fourth blog post in "Computer Systems: How do they Work?"  the class was asked what they would think would happen if microprocessors and software that we use on a daily basis were to fail.  First off, I don't think it would be the end of the world, but man, would it be one of the biggest headaches we would have to deal with!  As my life is now, I am so dependent on computers working the way they are supposed to.  I manage all of my money and the bills I pay online.  This class is 100% online and if something were to happen, I would be in a lot of trouble because ALL of my work is on my computer or on the Internet.  My life at school is also very dependent on computers.  I have years worth of work saved on my account at school as well as grades for students and important emails that I have to save.  I think the reason my instructor asked this question is because the past couple of weeks we have been talking about backing up our information in case of some type of loss of data disaster.  I now know how important it is to back up all my work, whether it is for class, school, or personal reasons.  I can now say that I confidently back up my laptop on an a cloud based backup site as well as on my laptop.  If some kind of disaster ever does happen, I feel secure in knowing that my information is backed up and should always be assessable if something does indeed happen. 

How does this apply? (Part 2)

I have been working a lot the past few days on three major projects.  I have looked at two alternative operating systems, made a presentation on pen drives and set up a plan to help avoid a disaster on my personal computer.  While all the projects were intriguing, I feel I learned the most from the disaster plan project.  This really made me think and analyze what I am doing right and what I need to improve when it comes to protecting my personal computer.  Presently, I feel I have done a fairly good job at protecting my computer.  I always keep an update anti-virus program on my machine (Microsoft Security Essentials, take a look at it, it's free!) and I try to back up my files with a large pen drive fairly often.  However, as I was making this presentation, I decided that I should use a better back up plan.  If something were to happen in my home, I could have a big problem if my computer and pen drive got destroyed. I am going to start saving work on Mozy.  It does cost some money, $4.95 per month, but that is a very cheap price to back up so much that is important to me.   It is also amazing because I could save an unlimited amount of files on Mozy, so I not only can save my personal files, I could save all my school files if I would like. 

Learning about the insides and workings of computers

The inside workings of a computer has never been something that interested me.  I have only really looked inside a computer a few times to either add a CD-R drive or air clean the insides.  I think the big reason why I never was interested with the inside of a computer was because I really did not know what the parts were and did not really care what they do just as long as they worked.  I never took a class like this that really opened my eyes to what some of the parts do and how being knowledgeable about them can improve my experience with using a computer.  As I said before, I did open my desktop to air dust it, but very rarely.  I found out this week that having dust build up can actually insulate the parts and keep the computer hotter, slowing the machine down.  Since finding that out on Tuesday, I have shared it with my family and have been telling some of my students to make sure they don't have dusty computers at home.  Another interesting thing that I learned this week and have been sharing with others is the importance of the fan in the computer.  I really had no idea that the fan was so important.  If the fan isn't working properly, your computer will overheat and you will have major issues.  I look forward to the next few weeks in this class and know I will be finding out more information about computers that can benefit me and others. 

Computer History for Bill Raudabaugh

I have been using computers since I was a little kid in the 1980's.  I remember the Apple computers with the large floppy disks and the green screen font on the monitors.  I also remember the first PCs that I worked with in high school and the first time I used a Microsoft Word program.  Although I had many experiences with computers in school, I did not have my own family computer until I was 17.  My parents did not have much money, so it took a while before we actually had a computer for our family.  The computer we eventually got was a Gateway.  I don't remember the model, but it was a pretty good computer for it's time.  It had Windows 98 and was connected to the Internet with dial up.  I recall setting up my first Hotmail account on that computer, an account I still use up to this day.  I used America Online on it often and would chat with my friends from out of state.  I also remember installing AIM instant messenger on that computer after I no longer used AOL.  My Gateway computer had a 10GB hard drive and I thought that was pretty large....now I laugh because the laptop I am now typing on is way smaller and has 160GB, and this is not even close to the max GB some computers have today.  Also, my Gateway  had this really nice 17 inch screen, but it was a big box monitor.  Funny how those monitors are a thing of the past!  I look forward to seeing my peers experiences, because I imagine theirs will be much different depending on when they first had their own computer.

Update to Social Bookmarking

Since my last post, I have changed my Social Bookmarking site of choice.  I started with Delicious, but when  I was looking at the other options, I decided that Diigo is the best fit.  It has a lot more options than Delicious in my opinion.  I was able to import all of my bookmarks from Delicious, so that was a perk.  I really like the ability to highlight the pages I visit and save the pages I visit right away.  The toolbar for Diigo is very handy.  I can click on it and go directly to my library.  Overall, I am glad I made the switch to Diigo. 

Social Bookmarking

I just started really looking at the social bookmarking sites yesterday and started to use Delicious.  I see this as something that will be real handy for me becasue I travel a lot in my building.  Although I am on the same login at each computer, not all of my favorites will stay with me depending on which computer I am on.  On my Delicious account, I have already made about 7 different tags.  The one I am most excited about right now is the "word activiy" tag that I made.  I am teaching a low level reading course this year and am always looking for new things I can use with my students.  Now I have an easy way to store all of the websites that I feel can be useful.  I also used the social end of Delicious to find word activity websites that other people recommended.  I have added a few of them.  Again, it's great to see what I am learning in this class is being practical. 

A week of work done

I have found the past five days busy, but rewarding.  I thought I was on the computer a lot before this class, but now it's like double time!  I invested in a laptop back in April and I am really happy I did it.  I can still do some of this work without hibernating in the computer room away from my wife and son.  It has been interesting reading other people's posts and discovering Google docs.  I can see my self using that a lot and even using it with my classes.  I am now working off of the Safari browser.  I have always used Internet Explorer and Firefox.  I think Safari will be a good browser for this class because I can go back to the main screen and easily go from one spot to the other.  Well, it's Sunday morning and I have to do a few things before I can enjoy football.  Have a nice Sunday!

Let the Journey Begin

It has been six years since I have graduated with my bachelors degree in special education from UW-Oshkosh.  I kept telling myself I would like to work towards my masters someday, but never really knew what I wanted to go for.  During the past year, I have spoken to a few people who have received their master degrees online and I thought that was an interesting way of going about it.  Although those people didn't do their work through Cardinal Stritch, they did give me the idea of doing a program like this one I am currently in.  I did a lot of research to finally decide to go with Stritch.  I really wanted a program I felt would be able to benefit me now and in the future. 

I currently am a high school learning disabilites teacher and I have been working at my current building for five years.  It has amazed me how much technology has been added since I came to Appleton West High School.  When I think back to my first year at West, Interwrite and Smart Boards were not in any rooms.  Computer projectors were also non-existent.  If you visit my school today, they are in practically every classroom.  Our school has recently been wired for school wide wi-fi.  This exciting new addition has made it possible for staff and students to bring any wi-fi device to school to use as a working tool.  After attending class Tuesday, I am excited to see where this program takes me.  In these short few days I have encountered things I have never used before such as Google Docs and Illuminate.  I already can tell there will be many practical tools that I will get from this class and use in my ever changing school.  Here's to keeping up with students.... let the journey begin!