Post #5

Chapter 5 deals with digital media, and everything that lies within in it like: audio, video, sound graphics, ect. It talks about the different uses that digital media can have not only in the classroom, but in everyday life. Digital Media is such a part of our daily lives. We are constantly using the internet and watching videos, listening to music, and reading articles; all of which lie under digital media.

As future teachers we can utilize digital media to our advantage, and I truly believe that our students will be the better for it. With it we can come up with interactive presentations that will help the students get a visual of what the lecture is on. Whether in math with different graphs and interactive problems, in an English class with the possiblity of watching a play you're studying with your class, or in so many other different ways. Digital media provides the students many different ways in which to help them better understand the topics, and integrating these things like sound clips, videos, graphics, and videos will improve the students chance of truly understanding the topic.

This past week I haven't really learned anything new. I had however, never used the crossword puzzle program which I thought was a pretty cool program; that would be interesting thing to use in the future.

Post #4

Chapter 4 talks about Hardware for Teachers; and all of the different components that make up the internal computer. It talks about the input and output of information, and the progression from floppy disks to fash drives. These new technological advances can be very benificial to teachers; helping their students better understand major concepts through educational programs, online teachers to help tutor the students in trouble areas, and so much more. Technology is in high demand in our society and there are thousands of people who constantly try to innovate exciting new programs, games, computers, and so much more. We've already developed the touch screen, and through web cams we can communicate globally; whats next for this new digital age?

I found that most of the comments that are posted on all of our blogs, not only share the same ideas and concepts, but also expand on those ideas. Some comments show reveal how much we have in common with each other, not only just teaching in general, but also the subject, methods, ideas through which we will be teaching. Most of the comments we leave are encouraging and help to build ideas and think about particular topics from someone else's perspective.

This week I've learned a lot more about Microsoft Word than I had before. I understood all of the basics, and even some of the shortcuts; but I new nothing about formatting the envelops, and printing out labels. I also discovered new ways to get to certain tool bars that I didn't know before; like the formating and page margins.

Post #3

Chapter 3 deals with Application Software, and all of its many uses. Application Software, or application programs, are used in several different ways: as a productivity/business tool, supporting school and professional activities, assisting with graphics and multimedia projects, helping with home and personal activities, and facilitating communications. The different uses of application software in school are: school/student management, grade books for the different teachers, educational reference tool, special needs whether with students or specific topics, and note taking. Most of these tools are essential to the modern day teacher, for example the teacher's grade book. Although, teachers have a written back of up of their grade books, most rely heavily on the grade book they use through the computer which helps compute averages for tests, quizzes, and overall scores.
Using application software can help in many differents aspects of a person's life. With the home/person applications, people are able to keep track of their own personal finance, get their taxes in order, and what most of us use, entertainment. Communications is a major factor in today's world. Everyone is constanly trying to find ways to keep in contact with one another and most of the ways that they use are through application software. For example, most everyone has an e-mail account (its almost become a requirement in today's society), instant messages, web browser, blogs, and even newsgroups have their own application software.
I have never had the opportunity to use Inspiration before, and found that it was an interesting program to use. I think that it would be very benifical in the classroom, especially to help keep students attention during class because this method is a lot more interesting than the typical outline. It would also probably be a good tool to use in an English class, where students could use the program to create ideas for their paper and releating topics.