15 Last Blog

For my last blog of the semester I decided to just write about anything that came to my mind, whether or not it's related to technology, classes or even college in general. So once again, since the weather is nice and I'm in a summer mood I think I'll write about that. I am very excited for the end of the semester, which is in 15 days for me. It will be nice to go home, be with my friends and get to relax. It will definately be a strange adjustment, moving back home, and back to rules, but it will be nice too. This summer is going to be particulary great because being away from home taught me to appreciate it more. I live at the Jersey shore, Point Pleasant to be exact, and many of my friends from school vacation in the area. They always ask what its like to go to the beach every day, and if i can surf and things like that. To be honest I don't go to the beach that much, and i don't surf. I spend most of my time poolside, riding bikes and working. I can't wait until this summer though because i am definately going to take advantage of my surroundings. I love school, but there really is no place like home, especially my home.

14 College Students and Technology 2

The past few days here at Marist have been beautiful, the sun shining and it hit 80 degrees. It's funny though because even despite the beauty of the outdoors, students cannot bare to give up there i-pods, laptops, and even video games. days like this are not meant for surfing the Internet, they're for surfing the waves at the beach, witch is why there are no outlets in trees and rocks. It seems so strange to me that people can't give up technology to enjoy nature anymore. I understand when you want to listen to music, i completely agree that any outdoor adventure is improved by the proper play list, but Facebook can stay indoors. That's what rainy days are for anyway, and there's no shortage of them in the Hudson Valley. So if any of my fellow classmates are reading this now, pick up a frisbee, go for or jog, or even just lay out in the sun, but i promise it's OK to disconnect every once in a while. Besides, that's why away messages were invented.

13 Distance learning

In doing research for my portfolio, I looked at a lot of different articles about distance learning. It seems to me like an excellent way to spread the growth of education. Of course there is the problem of getting the technology for such classes. The development of distance learning fits in with the current technology trends today, which is basically, shrinking the world down. Technology makes people in England, or as far as China easy to reach, and just like close neighbors. But back to distance learning. Each Thursday my Learning Through technology Class using Elluminate, an online classroom. We also experimented with second life education. The problem with relying so much on technology is that many students simply don't understand how to use it to it's full advantage. It takes a lot of exploring, trial and error, and hard work to master any type of computer software, but its the same as a video game, and plenty of teenagers today have that down. I think distance learning is definitely going to be great for the future, if it becomes easily accessible, and easy to understand.

12 Creating Lesson Plans, and Getting Ideas Online

Between my Foundations of Education class, and Learning Through Technology class, I have had to write many lesson plans this semester. The Internet has been an excellent resource for me. It's a great place to find creative ideas for lesson plans. Plus, most have been tried out and are rated by other teachers, so you know they work well. You can also find tons of information, pictures and videos to use in a lesson plan you create yourself. Last week in class we looked at United Streaming which is a great resource for teachers. We also used another website, powermediaplus.com which had videos, pictures, and pod casts. The great part about this website was that it could be used to organize and create a lesson plan, and media could be directly attached to it. I made up a lesson plan about the underground Railroad. This ties into my project on websites very well. It shows that not only parent, and students should be able to use websites, but they can be very helpful for teachers as well. They are an excellent way to stay neat and organized, and an excellent resource.

11 Open Source Software

In class we were talking about different types of open source software. While researching for my project on websites, I came acoss Nvu 1.0. Nvu 1.o is a free software download. It is for very basic web design for Windows, Mac and Linux and is available to anyone for download. It is based on Mozilla Composer, and lets users create quick and easy websites, without having to know HTML. The software ALOS includes some more options like JavaScript coding and CSS support. Tech support and documentation are common weaknesses for Nvu. There is a forum for posting questions to other users. You will still need a hosting service to post your website. Some features include WYSIWYG editing of pages, and makes web creation as easy as typing a letter with your word processor. It includes integrated file management via FTP. You just have to login to your web site and navigate through your files, editing web pages directly from your site. There is reliable HTML code creation that will work with all of today's most popular browsers. You can jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using tabs because tabbed editing to makes it easy to work on several pages at once. There is support for forms, tables, and templates. It is the easiest-to-use, most powerful Web Authoring System available for Desktop Linux, Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh users.

Career Conference

I was skeptical at first about attending the Career Conference. I have always been pretty set on teaching, and I didn't think that i would find anything very interesting there. I dragged my friend Alicia and we walked around once, looked at the posters, asked a few questions, but really didn't accomplish very much. There were represenatives from Target, The Gap, RiteAid Pharmacy, Madison Square Garden, NYPD, and many other companies. There was also a ton of free pens, candy and other handouts to entice the students. Then Alicia ran into her Rugby coach, and she told us about who she was representing. She was from an organization called ability deyond disability. The position she told us about was that of a Life Skills Instructor. Th job consists of helping disabled people become involved in their communities. They participate in work, recrations, leisure time, and volunteering opertunities. They create a safe and friendly environment, and make sure the days run smoothly. Some events include the Penguin Plunge or The chrysalis Gala. It's a demanding job, but definately a fulfilling opertunity. I think next time I visit I will be more prepared, with more questions, and a resume. I would have liked to have done a littl more preparation for the event, but it was still a helpful expiriance.