Webquest

The webquest may have been one of my most challenging, yet most rewarding assignment this semester. This is the one assignment that I feel really challenged me. The challenge of creating the assignment in full was probably the most work for me, but the programs were also somewhat of a struggle. I had gone through three programs before I was able to get one to work for me. I ended up using questgarden.com which both made the assignment go smoothly and quite difficult due to the lack of personalization.

Creating a research type assignment for business classes was quite difficult for me. I do not feel that a lot of research is done as it may be for history or similar subject. For this reason I decided to create an assignment were the students would research something and create a business document from the information they gathered. The challenge for the students is to research their hometown (in this case Morgantown) and create a marketing/tourism brochure, booklet, or webpage that promotes this town. Through this assignment the students would not only be doing research to figure out what aspects of the location would be useful for promotion purposes, but would also be utilizing their computer skills in creating the final document. This webquest could be altered in numberous ways to creat different experiences or outcomes. Each group could be assigned a different city or state, additional elements could be added or changed, and the final outcome could be changed to a poster or oral presentation rather than a brochure or webpage.

WEB QUEST

Fun with data

I guess I didn't completely understand the directions for this assignment. From what I was reading, I was under the impression that we did not need to submit the assignment until all the components were complete. The smart thing to do would have been to submit my work as soon as I had finished it early last week, but I've been a little scatter brained since my husband returned from Iraq on Friday. I'm just now starting to get back into real life after being so off for a few days.

This assignment was quite easy once I got a grasp on what was required of me. I love using Excel and enjoy formatting the equations and the document. The formatting assignment was simple; just make the second and third worksheets look like the first worksheet. The manipulating assignment let me have fun with the equations and express what the data really reveals. Finally the narrative puts the data created through the equations into a written statement. Being able to use and manipulate data in Excel can prove to be useful in a wide variety of situations. I personally have used this program for market research, a wedding guest list, homework outlines, and a household budget. By teaching the students this program and the variety of ways it can be used, they will be able to use it in so many different ways in the future.

Formatting
Manipulating
Narrative

Rubistar - a day late

Unfortunately I did not get this assignment completed on time. It didn't take long to actually do the assignment, but life seemed to get in the way this week. I imediately knew what I was going to base my rubric on since I have been grading assignments in the clinical assignment. This rubric would be used to grade assignments completed in Microsoft Excel. Students are required to follow the 5 case assignments at the end of the chapter and the results should look identical to the final example given in the book. All assignments consist of primarily numbers and entering one number incorrectly will cause three other numbers in the spreadsheet to be incorrect.

I liked what Rubistar had to offer and it makes creating rubrics amazingly easy and I know that I will be bookmarking this website to use when I do teaching in the future. Creating a rubric when creating and grading assignments helps not only allows the students to know what is expected of them, but also allows the teacher to have a guideline as to the grading standards. This helps eliminate any vairation in how the assignments are graded.

Rubric

Movie Maker

This assignment was the worst so far. First, I was not expecting it to be the next assignment that was due, so as of Tuesday morning, when I received the email about the change of schedule, I had not even started working on it. I already had the program installed on my computer, so that was not a problem. However, when trying to actually create the movie, I encountered more problems than I was capable of handling. After the program was open for about five minutes my computer would shut down completely. Finally I had to start timing myself and make sure that I saved what I had finished before the computer shut down. In order to completely finish the movie I restarted my computer over twenty times. Not exactly my idea of a pleasurable evening of exploring technology.

If this program ever worked properly, I think it would be a good device to use in order to present information to my students. The program itself was not hard to use, if I could just get it to work for more than five minutes at a time. I have used other similar programs in the past and although Movie Maker was simple to use, I feel that I could do more with a different program.



*** MOVIE MAKER ***

PDF

Exporting my presentation as a PDF was so simple. I didn't even have to do anything. Simply upload it to GoogleDocs and publish it. This type of file will be quite useful for sending the document to someone that may not have PowerPoint or when printing it out. I chose to use my Jeopardy game for this assignment, so in the end I lost quite a bit of the effect from the original presentation. The slides are presented in numerical order and the viewer is not able to choose a hyperlink in order to view a corresponding answer and question. This form of file also allows the creator of the document to ensure that it cannot be edited by anyone who may view the file. I know that it is also common practice for documents or items that are scanned into the computer to be saved as PDF files. Items such as articles from a magazine, pages from a book, newspaper clippings, or flyers. I have used this type of file routinely when doing reseach and other class assignments.

When opening a PDF file it launches Adobe Acrobat Reader. This program allows the user to view the document as well as print it. The user is able to zoom in or out on the document so reading it directly from the program is made easy, eliminating the need to print.

Jeopardy

This assignment was wonderful. I have a great deal of experience with Microsoft Office applications, but I had no idea that you could create a Jeopardy game that was so easy to use. I was excited to create the game using the information we are covering in out BCA I class during my clinical observation. The students are finishing up their first chapter in Excel and have previously covered Word. I decided to cover areas that they have learned thoughout the year which also included basic keyboarding. I can't wait to give this to my cooperating teacher and see if maybe we can find a way for the students to actually play the game. The only problem will be that there is no way for project the game onto a larger screen so that all students can see it. Perhaps we can split into teams and have the student take rounds where only one student on each team can answer a question. This way there would be at least a little control over the commotion that I'm sure would result from 20 students trying to play at the same time, even if they were split into teams.

As far as the actual process of creating the Jeopardy game. I have quite a bit of difficulty at the begining, but that was completely a result of my failing computer and my own stupid fault of not saving the work I had done. Finally, on the third try I was smart enough to save my work periodically. I find this a bit ironic seeing as how we repeatedly tell the students in class to save their work so they do not risk losing it should something happen to the computer or program.

Once I finally got working the process was quite easy. I did have a problem with two links where it would not go to the appropriate page, even after fixing the link several times. I finally deleted the entire link and started over with a new one. Changing the action button to a mouse over instead of a mouse click was simple, but cutting and pasting it onto each slide was tedious. If I were to be creating this type of powerpoint from scratch I would choose to copy and paste the entire slide to save time.

The only time I encountered a irritating problem when with trying to get it to connect to my blog. I saved the powerpoint as both a .ppt (power point) and a .pps (power point show). Saving it as a show is supposed to cause the powerpoint to open in the slideshow view so that the user does not see the individual slides or the formatting part of the program. When I open the file from 'my documents' or even directly from my ftp folder it works fine, but when I connect a link in my blog to the ftp file it opens in the program rather than the slide show. I don't understand what is going wrong. The file itself is a slide show, but it is not opening that way. It still works fine this way, but I would prefer to have it open directly into a slide show rather than open the program.

BCA I Jeopardy Game

Podcast

The first step I took toward creating my podcast was coming up with a topic. Initially, I thought it would be easy since so much of business education consists of technology, but then I realized it's not so easy to explain something about a program without being able to exactly point it out. I ended up deciding to do a podcast on the new Microsoft Office programs. Primarily focusing on just exploring the new layout of Microsoft Word. I wrote out my entire script, then realized that I hadn't yet even thought about how to record it. Since the initial instructions mentioned Audacity, I decided to try it out. I found it to be very user freindly and didn't have any problems with the program. My problem was primarily with me. I really aimed toward recording the entire script in one single shot, but ended up doing at least 30 recordings. Finally, I thought I would give it a shot one last time and made it most of the way though. I ended up deleting all the previous recordings and just using the last one. I guess after rehearsing those 30 times in addition to prior run throughs I had gotten a lot better at it. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to have two people speaking in the podcast or not, but I don't have anyone else around to help me with that. It is evident though, that two people could easily participate in the podcast I created.

In order to save my podcast and prepare it for posting, I exported it as a WAV document and downloaded a WAV MP3 converter. This was very easy to do once I found a decent converter to download. I did publish my podcast to podbean.com.

If you listen to my podcast, you may have noticed that it ends by saying to move on to Podcast #2. I have not created a second podcast, but I would like to. I think this is an amazing way introduce this type of material. I want to record several podcasts to eventually be used in my future classroom. Of course, by the time I have my own classroom to teach, I will have to start all over because WORD 2010 or something like that will probably be out and be completely different. The one thing that could possibly be considered a downfall (but at the same time a good thing) about teaching technology, is that sometimes the teacher is learning with the students. It's so hard to stay ahead of things. I know that I will continually be learning new things and will be teaching new things each year. I just hope I am able to teach a few business courses as well to hopefully keep me grounded with some consistant material. I can't wait to make more podcasts for my classes. Maybe I can create one for my clinical classes that I observe. I'll have to see if that would be possible.

Podcast

Script

Photo album and Photoshop Express

I have created photo albums before, more for my own personal use rather than sharing, but I found using photoshop to be quite easy. I added a few of my favorite pictures to my album. I enjoyed playing around with the various editing options that are offered and probably went through every single option before deciding on my final editing options. I originally wanted to edit one of our wedding photos and make the red on my dress and his uniform pop, but once I edited it, there didn't seem to be any change at all. Everything was already pretty much black and white. Instead I went with a picture of my husband that was part of my birthday present. The first new pictures I have seen of him in over 7 months. I used the draw feature to turn him into a cartoon like character. I think it's a little funny that the draw feature made him look like he has a mustache because of the shadow in the original picture.

Original Picture:

Edited Picture

I believe that I could use this application in my classroom, especially in having the students create their own graphics or editing pictures of their own. Photoshop would not only allow them to edit pictures, but also store them and share them with friends. By storing them online, they would also be able to access and edit them from home or any computer in the school.





****my photo album****

Crappy Graphics

I thought I would get ahead of things a bit last week when I had a little down time, but of course decided to just post about each assignment as it came due. That was a good idea until I forgot that the assignment was due last night.

When I first went to the crappy graphics website and explored a little, I was taken back by the graphs that some people had created. I guess I was expecting something a little more professional or educational. Some where funny though. Creating the graph was simple, deciding what I would make the graph about took a little thought though.

I thought that this site would be a great source for not only teaching kids about the graphs, but also to allow them to take what they have learned and create a graph themselves. My only concern would be that some of the graphs that can be seen on the site are not appropriate for the classroom. The more we get into this course the more I realize how much of this technology I can use in my classroom. I am going to start keeping a detailed list of all the technology we are using and any ideas I happen to come up with about how this technology can be used.

Kids Zone Graphics

Discovering Kids Zone was a wonderful thing. Making graphs and other items on this site was easier than using other desktop programs. It took only about ten minutes to create both graphs. I decided to create two different types of graphs so that I could explore how to use the different functions. For the first graph with theWest Virginia 4th grade NEAP scores compared to the national average I chose to use the line graph so as to be able to visually see how each progressed. Although West Virginia scores continuously fell below the national average, the scores did improve over the seven year, much as the national scores had.

In order to best compare the number of IEPs for each of the four states with the lowest per capita income, I chose to use a bar graph. Since each item that I was comparing only had one value, it seemed to be the most logical. Of the four states presented, West Virginia had the fewest number of IEPs. It also had the second lowest per capita income. All that can be concluded from this graph is that West Virginia, when compared to other low per capita income states has the lowest number of IEPs. The question remains though, does West Virginia have a low number of IEPs because students who need IEPs are being overlooked or a lack of funding for adequate resources? Or are there possibly fewer people in the Wild Wonderful state than there may be in states with a more dense population?

Image Capture

For the image capture I chose to capture the blogger dashboard and explain how to manage to use it's components. By using the Paint took, I was able to crop the needed portion of the screen as well as add in arrows and text boxes.

In order to actually capture the image on my laptop, I had to hold the "function" key while I selected the "Print Screen" fuction. From there it was simple to paste the object into the Paint screen. I chose to save the picture as a JPEG image which covered a space of 128 KB.

I know this function will be used quite often in my classroom. As I said in the previous post, I will be teaching business classes which will most likely include Word, Excell, PowerPoint, etc and by copying the screen I will more easily be able to express to the students where something is on the screen or how to perform a particular action.

Desktop Graphics

After reading a blog of someone elses desktop graphic assignment I decided to make a chart of sorts that displays the assignments that are due before Evaluation 2. She had done something similar and said that she thought it would make things easier with keep the assignments straight. I'll take any help I can get at keeping the assignments and their due dates straight. I've already confused myself several times as far as what I had to do and when, so hopefully this will keep me on track.

For each assignment I posted the name, embedded with a link to its assignment page, the due date, as well as the program in which I will need to perform the assignment. From there I have then linked each assignment to the appropriate location in which it needs to be saved. I found Google Docs to be a bit more easy to use and understand; therefore, the assignments that do not specifically state where they need to be saved have been designated as being saved in Google Docs.

At first, I considered using Microsoft Word and originally created the graphic there. However, when I saved the document and then attempted to open it as an outside user (through the internet link) I was still able to edit the graphic and information and it was fairly difficult to access the links. At that point I decided to put the graphic into Microsoft PowerPoint instead. I was able to copy and paste the graphic from Word to PowerPoint, but it did need some editing to reposition the date to fit the slide. Saving the presentation as a web page allowed me to share the document as a finished product. When someone clicks on the link, they will now be able to see the document in thier web browser and may also select a link to the assignment page without needing to do any further steps. I did have a problem however with initially opening the file in my browser. I was prompted that my browser did not support some of the informatoin and if I chose to continue anyway I would only be able to see the chart itself, without the informatoin. Once I chose to allow the blocked content by right clicking the yellow announcemant bar at the top of the page, everything came up perfectly.

The file is saved as an HTML document which allows it to be opened in a web browser when someone clicks on the link below and is 2.44 KB in size. I think that using graphics such as these to present assignments would be fairly useful in the classroom, especially if there were numberous assignments that are completed or saved in various locations such as in this course. Also, seeing as how I will be teaching business education and classes that will involve using programs such as Microsoft Office, I will need to teach students how to do these type of things themselves so incorporating student created graphics will play in important role.

http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dkgb5sw_63wnb5wdn

Dale's Cone AGAIN!

Sorry I was a little confused with this assignment. From reading other people's blogs and not looking ahead at the next assignment I was a little off on what exactly needed to be done. So here's the real assignment.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dkgb5sw_2fgwfg2fd&hl=en

Dale's Cone

So, please disregard the previous post regarding Dale's Cone of Experience as my actual reading assignment. I didn't look ahead and see exactly what the next assignment was asking for. It does however give an opinion of what I thought about the article. A more adequate response will follow. Sorry for the confusion.

Price of Procrastination

I left doing the FTP assignment until after work last night. Of course that would also be the night my internet decides to give out on me. After two hours of trying I finally cracked and gave up. That's what I get for waiting. Hopefully this will teach me a lesson. Get done today what I could leave for tomorrow. Technology is never 100% reliable so either get things done early or have a backup plan. FTP seems useful, especially if you will be doing things in different locations; however, I found it to be a bit inconvenient. I am using Explorer 7 so I had several sets to go through in order to get to the location and it was a bit confusing. I think I would prefer to use Google Docs instead when possible.

Anyway, attached is my response to Dale's Cone. All I have to say right now is that it really makes you think about the information you are given. I seemed to be more impacted by the fact that this information has been passed on over the years with no substantiating sources to back it up.

ftp://studentsftp.fairmontstate.edu/users/mscammell/6305%20dales%20cone.doc


On another note, today was quite a day. I am visiting my parents this weekend so my mom and I were out and about this morning when, on our way home, we came upon this car that had flipped on it's roof less than a minute before. I immediately threw the car in park and jumped out. A woman came running out of the house across the street and yelled that she just called 911 and that there was someone still in the car. I ran over and found the woman laying on the roof of the car with her leg pinned between the steering wheel and door. I laid there on the street talking to her while a gentleman who pulled up behind us opened the drivers side door and got her leg out. (He was an off duty firefighter so he knew what he was doing, don't worry) Emergency services arrived only minutes later and the woman was fine. I was high on adrenaline for hours later, didn't even realize that I had cut my legs and hands from laying on the glass from the windows. I am just very thankful that she was okay and that there were so many wonderful people there to warn other drivers before they came flying around the turn and hitting the car on it's roof. In a way it seemed like a scene from a movie. Everyone just jumped into action and did what needed to be done in order to ensure the best outcome.

RESUME!!!

So I finally completed my resume. I had lost my past resume when we had a freak computer accident that erased all the files. It took me a little exploring, but I think I got the hang of uploading documents to Google. However, my question is, when we publish our resumes, should we be able to see each others on the GoogleDoc site?

Also, I've found out that you can attach a Link to the title of each post. So, you can view my resume by either clicking on the post heading or the link attached within the body of the post. I found that this was pretty convenient especially within this class where we will be posting numerous links to our work.

Blogs and Videos

I went through the shared file on Google docs yesterday and visited all the blogs that were listed so far. I figured it would be much eaiser to follow the blogs and have the updated blogs come up on my dashboard rather than having to go to everyone's blog individually to see if anything new has been added. I found that I was not giving the option to follow some peoples blogs, so I'm not sure if that was an intentional move on the bloggers part of if it was due to the layout that was chosen.

I also viewed the video of those who either had them embedded into their blog or a link attached. Everyone has been doing a great job and it is nice to be able to put a face to the names and to get to know people a little better.

I hope everyone is having luck with their photostories and other assignments. If I can be of any assistance, please feel free to ask.

Who are you???

My who are you video can be found below, but if it happens not to work, it is also on YouTube.com titled "6305 Who are you," or by clicking on the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpjJEsWu-LQ

I have made videos such as this before, but never using PhotoStory. In high school I made the video for the band's senior class. I've also used Roxio Easy Media Creator to make videos for my husband while he is out of the country. One of the videos can be found on YouTube as well. I found that PhotoStory was quite easy to use, much easier than the other prorams I have used. However, it does not allow the extent of customization that I found with Roxio. I have never added my own narration to a video before so that was something different. It was no doubt strange hearing my own voice recorded to a video.

I hope that you enjoy the videos!

Introductions

Hi everyone! My name is Megan Pintus and this is my blog for EDUC 6305. I graduated from WVU in 2007 with a bachelors degree in Marketing and am now in my second semester of the MAT program. I am specializing in Business Education and want to teach business courses at the high school level. In high school, I had one teacher encouraging me to go into education and another encouraging me to go into business. I guess now I'm just combining those two and finally figuring out what I really want to do for the rest of my life.

Outside of school, I work full time as a receptionist in a veterinary clinic. The experience I am receiving there is amazing. I have constant interaction with the clients as well as fellow employees. I have grown both professionally and personally since being in this position and I hope that I will be able to carry some of my experiences on with me into the classroom.

I guess you could call me a newlywed, but it all depends on your opinion. I was married in early May of 2008; however, my husband left for his second deployment to Iraq on Memorial Day. He is in the infantry with the Marine Corps Reserves and will hopefully be returning home before the end of the spring semester. Outside the military, he is a sheriff deputy in Monongalia County and upon returning home will be finishing his bachelors degree in Philosophy. We recently bought a house in Fairmont and live there with our four fur children, two dogs (both of which are pure bred mutts) and two cats.

When we manage to find any free time, we enjoy camping (the real kind with a tent, no running water, a camp fire, etc), hiking, and fixing up the house. I'm not sure if fixing up the house is enjoyable, but the end result is nice and spending the time together is wonderful. When you've gone through deployments or anything similar, you learn to cherish every minute you have with the ones you love.