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!