Isle of the Dead

     So, the other day I am walking around Ikebukuro in Tokyo with a friend when I see a HUGE poster for Island of the Dead (Romero's Latest Film) advertising that it's playing in the theaters.  I thought to myself, "If I could find a theater today, I'd probably go see it.'
    A little later, my friend had to go and I still had another 4 hours to kill.  So I went back to look for a coffee shop so I could take a break, read my book and kill some time when I see the theater playing the movie.  I know that Island of the Dead came and went with out anyone realizing it was even made.  You had to be a fan to know anything about it.  Anyway , I forgot all about the coffee and immediately bought a ticket.
     The theater was small and I had a reserved seat. It was towards the back, but it wasn't an issue because I was going to get to see Romero's latest film.  I'm jazzed up.  While I'm sitting there, a young Japanese couple comes and sits behind me on my left.  The boyfriend starts talking to his girlfriend in a conversational tone and since I have nothing else to do, I'm half listening.  Then he says, "I always feel a little awkward watching movies with foreigners because the timing when they laugh at something is different (from when I do reading the subtitles). "  Seeing my window of opportunity I turned around and said, " You are soo right."  His girlfriend was the first to realize that I was a foreigner and she looked really surprised. It wasn't until after I comment again that I understood and he was right on that he realized that I was a foreigner.  Needless to say, he looked surprised and a little embarrassed because he hadn't seen me there when he was talking.
    After the initial shock, we talked a bit about zombies and I gave them both zombie stickers. After the film we even talked some about Zombie Land, which comes out here NEXT month.  Can you believe it?!!   Needless to say he was really jelous that I had not only seen it once but 5 times and had the DVD already.  We parted ways with him saying he'd find me on the internet.
    So, the moral of this story is always be careful of what you say.  You never know who is listening. That and there are really cool zombie fans all over the world.

How has this course helped me...

     Before taking this course, I have always thought of myself as being pretty tech-savvy and pretty geeky, too.  That being said, a lot of my friends are way geekier.  This course helped me catch up to their level of geekiness.
     I was familiar with many of the parts of a computer, but now I am definitely more confident with what they do and how they work together.  This class totally demystified building your own computer. I feel I could probably do that now by going back and watching the video Dave had posted about doing it, along with re-watching all of the student made videos.
     Up until now, I also kind of assumed that you couldn't home build a Mac, for whatever reason.  That I see now isn't true.  Not to mention the plethora of other operating systems available. While I tried a couple out, I still think I will stick with the two major OSs until another system like Unbuntu becomes a mainstream choice, more so than it is now.

     Overall, this class has filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge. It was like pouring sand in the cracks of your driveway. I learned more about anti-virus protection and data-protection, adding to what I already knew.  Overall, I think the information I learned in this course will carry over to other technological decisions I need to make in the future, providing me with a better decision making process based more on my understanding vs. basing it all on reviews I have read.

Class #4 Parts is Parts

     This class was really interesting for me.  While I've always kinda known what parts of a computer do in a very general sense, I still always felt as though they were still too confusing. Now that is a different story.
     Now I feel as though I might actually be able to go out and make my own computer. It will be more of a hassle but is looking to be more of a challenge I may want to take on in the future.
 
     The presentations about each component, along with the video by Dave on how to build a PC has made it look a lot easier than I once first thought.  I've had friends who've made them, but they're also complete computer nerds.... so "easy" for them doesn't necessarily equate "easy" for me.
    I also completed the anti-virus research and the data back up plan in time for this class.  Those two assignments were very enlightening.   As a Mac user, I still need to worry about viruses, but not to the Nth degree like PC users.  However, as we Mac users get more and more mainstream, we have to start looking out for ourselves.  But, then again, a little common sense goes a long way in preventing viruses.

I don't have a lot to comment on this time, as my comments will be left with the presentations.  But this was one of the best classes for me.  I just may have to make myself a computer one of these days.

(I wonder how much cheaper or better it works out to be?)

What do I already know about computers?

     In the words of that great band 2NU, "This is ponderous."   I definitely have a long an interesting history with computers.  My next door naeighbor had a TI64 Computer.  I had a couple of different friends with Commadore 64 computers.  We mostly used them... or I should say I used them to play games.  I think a couple of my friends actually did do some simple basic programming.  Then, Apple IIe computers came out and my school got eight in our LMC with the "green screen".  I was even fortunate enough to convince my parents, along with my brother, to get an Apple IIe for home home with the amber screen.  Now we we cutting edge.   From there on out I've had pretty regular access to computers for word processing.
     Since high school I've used mostly PCs, with a Macs in graduate school and then more recently, so I feel pretty comfortable with my familiarity with computers.  That being said, there are somethings I would like to know more about.  I know that the higher the number when it comes to RAM, memory, storage space and processor speed is better.  I also know that a TB is bigger than a GB with is bigger than a MB, which is in turn bigger than a KB.  However, I'm not really sure of what all the numbers mean in comparison to each other when specking out a new piece of technology.   Is a 3.0 megahertz processor that much faster than a 2.4 megahertz processor? How much faster?   Or, how about RAM?  I know what it's function is.... but how much do I "need" for my computer to operate smoothly.  The same goes for graphics cards, etc.

      I generally know what I need, but I want to know the specifics on what those numbers mean, besides "larger number = good, small number = not so good".  I want to know more about the specifics needed for each type of computer (i.e. one for gaming vs. one for video editing) and what all of the various numbers mean in more concrete terms.  When I hear "faster", I want to know how much faster like when you talk about cars.  The don't say a Porche can  go 0~60 really fast..... faster than a Camery. They tell you exactly how many seconds.  I would like to learn more about those numbers and how fast they speed things up for the same process, like booting up or rendering video.

    Recently I had a talk with a co-worker about the changing roles of computers.  We were talking about the iPad vs buying a laptop.  My coworker commented on how she views the iPad as a way to make things portable.  Instead of hauling around a much larger laptop, it would be more conveinent. That got me to thinking.  As more and more things go onto the Internet and streaming, we may not need as much "power" per se'.  So, I am also interested in the various and changing roles technology is starting to take on.   I think this will also affect how we as teachers choose the technology we use in our classrooms.

My Computer History

     Let me think..... it seems like 1,000s of years have passed since I first touched a computer.  My school had Apple IIe computers with the really cool amber screens.  I even convinced my parents to get on for home, with a green screen, that we used mostly for games.  I never really got into the programing aspect.
     In college, I used computers for email and accessing the ISCA BBS.  If you don't know what a BBS is, think of an all text-based FaceBook with forums and instant messaging.   Ah.... those were the days. Oh...and I also used them for typing up papers for class. For me, word processing made my life a lot easier since I had bad handwriting and didn't like to write things by hand.
     When I moved to Japan, I used my computer to keep in touch with friends and create activities for my students.  It was during this time that I started dabbling with making webpages.  A friend of mine showed me some basic HTML and I started coding my own pages by hand and had a website.
     After moving back from Japan to start graduate school,  I continued to use my computer for word processing and the internet.  I also started a small internet store.  When I first started my store, I was still writing code until I discovered un time I was still hand coding until I discovered DreamWeaver.  Wow... that was an awesome discovery!  It made my life sooooo much easier.
     During graduate school, my whole Japanese department used Macs, so I ended up getting one as well out of necessity.  At this time I wasn't the rabid Mac fan that I am now.  
     After moving to Wisconsin to start my teaching of Japanese, I continued to use my PC to create learning activities for my students and do various things on the Internet.  Then, about 4 years ago, I attended the WAFLT conference where I saw a great presentation on various things that the newer Macs can do.  It blew me away, but I was still skeptical.  So I borrowed a coworkers Mac laptop for a couple of days to play with it.    Been a convert ever since.  I got my own Mac the following fall.

Since then,  I've used my Mac(s) everyday to create new things and have found some really cool programs to run on it.  I use it to make crosswords (using Crossword Forge), flashcards (iFlash), podcasts/listening activities (Garage Band) and "comics" using Comic LIfe.

I dabble with WordPress and ZenCart as well.  I don't know what I would do without my technology.  I incorporate it into my work, hobbies and free time.

Indocturnating the Unknowing

So, I have been using Google docs for awhile now.  This past week some colleagues and I were working on a list of students we needed to see for conferences.  The original idea was to send out an email to all of the 7th grade teachers and have them check  the names of the kids they wanted to see.   Not wanting to put whomever was going to be compiling all the data under the gun and behind about 20 different emails, all with different answers, said that I'd compile the list on Google docs and then we could all edit it there.
 So I made the list and send out the link.   Well, it worked out really slick I got some really good feedback about how it worked.  On teacher who isn't really tech savvy said that, "Even I could use it.  It was really easy."   So, hopefully with this success, I will slowly begin to convert some people over for when we have to do collaborative documents.

I was also talking to another teacher who lost their jump drive this week about Google docs and online storage ideas.  I do feel terrible for her because she lost the only copy of some of her homework she is doing for some classes she is taking.  Not cool.   But she did say she had a Google account and would be looking into all of the stuff I had showed her.

Class #2: What can I take to my classroom?

       Yesterday's  class had lots of things that I found would be useful for my student and for my classes.  Right now I am re-assessing what I've been doing in the classroom in general and already making notes for what I would like to do differently, and hopefully better, next year.  I want to get myself organized so I can start the year off using introducing technology I think is the most useful.
     At the beginning of the year, I had them all make Google accounts so that they could use Google docs.  Unfortunately,  most of them have forgotten their passwords.  I really believe Google docs is the way to go for them.  The problem is that we have to use so much time to set it up, or in this case, set it up again. But, again, if I spend more time at the beginning of the year doing this, by this time next year it won't be an issue.

    I also actually applied for a Diigo educator's account yesterday after reading a forum reply some one had written.  Then, after hearing people talk highly of it last night, I am sure that will be another thing I will incorporate along with re-discovering my Delicious account.
    Another thing I think would be useful is fur.ly (http://fur.ly) because it allows you to take several websites and create one, really short (but not very memorable) URL.  This could be used if you have several websites that you are related that you want your kids to go to. A great use, I think, would be to use it for web quests and making one for all of the sites they need to go to.

    Lastly is the issue of online storage.  Right now, I don't currently use or teach anything about these.  Google docs takes care of the majority of my storage needs.

   The one thing I don't like about all of this is that students (and teachers) will have more passwords and IDs to remember.  I really wish more places would use the "Open ID" or something that allows you to do more with out having to keep creating more things you need to remember.  That being said, putting all of your eggs in one basket could be bad if your master identity is stolen. That being said, that won't stop me from using any of this in my classroom.