The Final "Chapter"

I have enjoyed this final course. It forced me to look into and learn about the way the computer works, which I would probably never have done otherwise. I also have become more aware of how important it is to maintain a preventative schedule of backups and SpyBot searches to keep my computers working for me.

Reaching the end of the Masters Program is bittersweet. It's nice to be nearing the end of all of the work and to have the knowledge to pursue different career positions, as well as earn more money in the position I'm in. Even if I never change positions I will be a benefit to my district as they make technology changes and to my coworkers as they work through the changes. On the other hand I will miss seeing all of the people I have gotten used to working with and learning from/with.

1 more point

I frequently need to do updates on my computer. I had to do one for my Windows 7 last night so I could install the latest version of Java, which I had to download because I had never used it on this computer.

How a Computer Works

How a computer works…well, my knowledge and understanding here is very limited, but here it goes:

When you press the "On" button on the computer and the monitor, you begin to see the BIOS software doing its job. It begins by doing the power-on self-test (POST). On many machines, the BIOS displays text describing data ,such as the amount of memory installed in your computer and the type of hard disk you have. During this boot sequence, the BIOS does a lot of work to get the computer ready to run.

First, the BIOS determines whether the video card is operational. Next, the BIOS checks to see if this is a cold boot or a reboot. If it is a cold boot, the BIOS verifies RAM by performing a read/write test of each memory address. It also checks for a keyboard and a mouse, and any expansion cards that may be connected. If the BIOS finds any errors during the POST, it tells you with a series of beeps (I just found this out a few weeks ago when I was troubleshooting a problem with one of my computers),or a written message displayed on the screen. An error found at this point is almost always a hardware problem.

If it is a cold boot, the BIOS verifies RAM by performing a read/write test of each memory address. It also checks for a keyboard and a mouse, and any expansion cards that may be connected. If the BIOS finds any errors during the POST, it tells you with a series of beeps (I just found this out a few weeks ago when I was troubleshooting a problem with one of my computers),or a written message displayed on the screen. An error found at this point is almost always a hardware problem. The BIOS displays some details about your system. This typically includes information about the processor, floppy and hard drive, and memory.

Finally, BIOS launces the Operating System (OS), commonly referred to as boot (short for bootstrap loader).
The bootstrap loader loads the operating system into memory and allows it to begin it function. Now the BIOS turns the work over to the Operating System.

To be continued...

Pirates of Silicon Valley and other things...

This week I got "Pirates of Silicon Valley" from Netflix and watched through the Wii. My kids took one look and quickly cleared the room. My husband graciously went to bed early. Who knew it was so easy to clear a room. Personally, anything with Noah Wylie in it can't be that bad, and even if it is....Noah Wylie's in it so I'll keep watching. Anyway....I had seen parts of the movie several times on TV, but this was the first time I watched all the way through. It was interesting to see the ups and downs of their creative escapades and how it fluctuated back and forth between the two pairs of inventors. Apple's ahead, now wait....Microsoft is ahead. They pretty much sacrificed everything, including relationships in order to create these dream machines. Of course most people would say that they've been more than compensated for their sacrifices. The one thing I found annoying, and I usually do, was that they kept switching from modern day (1999) to flashbacks the characters were having about the process, trials and tribulations. Overall, I thought it was a good movie and they picked good actors to play the parts of each of the characters.

Also, this week I decided to trade computers with my daughter. At home I had to use Vista and she got to use my Windows 7. It was a very long week for me. I found myself just waiting until I got to work to do things on the computer, whenever possible. I hated Vista. It kept freezing up, seemed really slow and nothing was where I expected to find it. I am really glad that I jumped right from XP to Windows 7 and didn't end up with Vista on any of my computers!

Another experiment was to play around with the additional features on Windows 7. I found some useful child safety features that allowed me to control my children's Internet usage. It's safe to say that they were not the least bit impressed. I also set up for backups on my computer. I tried optimizing set-up on my laptop, but I didn't notice any difference really.

CEDu 581-Week 1

This is our final course. While I am extremely happy to be finishing this master's program (and can't decide what to do first with all of the spare time I'll have), I have to admit that the time has gone quickly and I've learned so much that I've been able to apply in my classroom immediately.

Anyway....This week we learned about the history of the computer. It's interesting to me because I have lived through most of it. I can remember when computers took up whole (large) rooms and most people never saw one. Our assignment was to take apart a computer and label its parts. I first saw the inside of a computer about 19 years ago when I took a computing for educators course. At the time I thought that was the first and last time I'd ever want or need to do that. Who new the machines would grow on me as they have. Looking inside reminded me of the time when my husband decided to add memory to our Macintosh computer. He dragged me to Circuit City on a Sunday morning to buy it because it was on sale. At the time I was student teaching and about 2 weeks from graduation. All the way home I begged him not to touch the computer until I had time to save all my lesson plans and my portfolio to a disk. Unfortunately, I fell asleep when we got home and awoke about 45 minutes later to find him with the computer in pieces. You guessed it....I hadn't save to a disk and EVERYTHING was gone. It's okay though because, "He didn't think that would happen and he didn't mean to." That's when I learned that I always need a back up and I usually have a back up for my backup.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!

534 week 5

For this week I created a WIKI on WIKI Spaces. Since I can't access it from work I made one for a personal project. It was an easy WIKI to work with and it is an effective way to organize and share information.

Throughout the course I enjoyed all of the different tools that we had the chance to look over and practice with. I found so many things that I can do with my students and use personally. I would rather not have had to do a videocast--only because I prefer not to be in front of a camera. My students on the other hand will probably love it.

534 week 4

This week we looked at different Nings. I had fun looking over them and I think they are are great resource for education, but I think there needs to be an adequate amount of training for teachers first before they are added to the curriculum. My district is not there yet. We also looked at bookmarking sites. We had been introduced to Delicious in a previous course, but I never got into using it because I can't access it at work. I saw a couple of others I liked so I want to try to access them from school. Sure would be convenient for me and a useful tool for me to teach my students for their use. Podcasting and videocasting is a project I have been wanting to do with my students. I will have to try the sites we checked out and see which ones work in our district and practice so I have the knowledge and patience to do it with my students.

534 Week 3

I'm finally getting caught up on all the work I let go when I was sick--better late than never I hope. I really enjoyed the things we tried and experimented with for this week. Many of them are not applicable in my work situation right now, but who knows in the next couple of years. I will definitely be able to use them in my out of school life. The one thing i think will be beneficial in the classroom is the use of RSS. This isn't my first attempt at using it, but I will be much more selective this time and only subscribe to publications I read frequently and get the most info. from.

CEDu 534 Week 2

I got the Book, Yeah (and managed to get out of Barnes and Noble without making any additional purchases)!

This week's introduction to the use of podcasts and weblogs in the classroom was interesting. I've wanted to do these for awhile now, but my district has a strict policy on their use. Even the words in a web search will cause the search to be blocked by our firewall. The readings this week have been encouraging and give me ammunition to continue the fight to have them made available to our students on a limited, supervised basis. I wish I had the response (an appropriate one) for the usual argument I get, that some people won't/don't supervise their students and we can't take those chances.

CEDU 534 Week 1

Lots to do, read and contemplate this week. I would really like to try to incorporate Blogs into my classroom curriculum. I think for many of my reluctant writers it would be motivating. They would be able to get that more immediate feedback that they have become accustomed to, thanks to video games. Also, it's exciting for them to see their writing published and i think that they would feel the need to put more effort into spelling, punctuation, capitalization and overall sentence structure if they knew their peers were going to be reading it. At this point I cannot access any blogging sites at my school. Anything with Blog in the name is blocked by the firewall and deemed inappropriate. It will be a battle to convince the powers that be, that blogging is a worthwhile education activity.

CEDu 527 Week 6 The Finale

When we first talked about this course I was kind of annoyed that we would have to take it. After all, I'm not pursuing an administrative license. After the six weeks of this course, the readings, discussions, reflections and the game, I can say that I definitely see the value in this course. I have learned a great deal about my role as a member of my school community and the different ways that change occurs. I've learned how change should occur and how I can be a positive factor in that change. I was amazed to find that although I have less than no desire to take on an official leadership role in my school, there are many different areas where I am already serving as a leader and could potentially serve as a leader in the future. It has definitely been an enlightening 6 weeks.

Week 5 The Game

This week we met in a casual atmosphere, which was a nice change of pace, and played a game that simulated the change process a school would go through. It was interesting to work with an entirely different group than i'm used to working with. At first we tried to be very strategic about the game and were very frustrated when that didn't work. We made very minimal progress the first year-not unlike a real school. About half way through the second year, things started to click and we were beginning to make some movement across the board. The interesting thing that we found was that constant communication with all stakeholders was necessary in order to make progress. I think that is the downfall of my own district when attempting to implement change. Things tend to come from the top down and involve a handful or fewer of the other stakeholders.

Week 4 Change Continues

Thinking about my participation in a change for the table was a good exercise. It's not often that I look back over things to evaluate why they did or did not work. It seems like change is the inevitable in education and you just need to hold on and ride it out. Sometimes it's for the better and the benefits are obvious. Other times it's not so obvious. Often I've found myself wondering if it isn't merely change for change sake. As an educator we typically don't have the opportunity to evaluate in such a formal manner, but it would be valuable to do that more often. It definitely would make it easier to determine the reasons why something was a success, near success or out right failure.

Week 3 Cedu 527

Change This week we read and discussed change and the need to accept and address it in our instruction. The Beloit list was quite an eye opener. Thinking of all the things that this year's college freshmen take for granted and don't remember living without. Times, they definitely have changed over the past 18 years! Change will continue to happen, especially from a technology stand point. We need to be willing and prepared to adapt our teaching styles to meet those changes.

we read the Who moved My Cheese story. I have read it before and find it to be a reminder to lighten up. I find too that it tends to be my mantra. It seems that as soon as I start to be comfortable with something and feel like I have a "groove," it changes. That is especially true with respect to how special education services are provided in school districts. Don't get used to it because it's going to change...

I think our future explorations into dealing with change will be enlightening and beneficial.

Week 2 Cedu 521

Here it is Week 2 and already I'm behind. I'm a little late with the Blogging this week...funny story, or I'm sure it will be in 10-15 years. I needed a new desktop computer and about 2 weeks ago Best Buy had the one I wanted on sale, so my husband and I went to get it. All the while I kept telling my husband (we'll call him Mike) that I needed to clean a bunch of things off the old computer and back them up, and under no circumstances was he to switch them before I had a chance to do it. I also warned him it would be a few weeks before I had time. Well, last Saturday I got home from 13 hours of riding on a cold school bus and judging 4 rounds of forensics competitions--you guessed it, he had switched the computers. Not only will the old computer not boot up so I can get everything off of it (including my action research, but our wireless internet wasn't working. Well, a new router and a new receiver later, I have the two desk tops working and 2 laptops going, but one laptop is still crippled. No luck getting info. off the old computer either. Mike's still alive, but it might be temporary. Maybe that's one of my leadership skills. When there was a mess everyone looked to me to clean up the mess. Gee thanks.

I have found that people I work with see me as compassionate, understanding and organized. They look to me to solve their technology problems, which is great because I enjoy solving the problems and explaining to them how they can do it themselves. i think a lot of times people think I'm organized because I use Excel a lot to keep the things in my life organized. Lists I can manipulate and merge. I also use my outlook calendar to keep all aspects of my life merged. I have trained the members of my department how to use Outlook calendar to schedule meetings and invite/remind attendees. They are amazed at how simple it makes things.

Cedu 521 Leadership-week 1

From the first week of class I have found that I serve in more leadership roles than I would have ever guessed. If you had asked my last week what leadership roles I have at my school and/or which ones I would like to have, I would have told you none. With my "old" idea of leader, I would have told you that I am not a leader now and I never want to be one. I tend to avoid the political agenda that is a part of every school. I go to work and do my job and go home. If people want my help, I am happy to help them, but I'm not going to interfere or tell them how to do their job. I'm not there to complain about the job or the people I work with. I never want to be department leader, and I most definitely do not ever want to be an administrator.

After the readings and all of our discussion posts, I have found that I truly am a leader, in ways that are comfortable for me, and that I can see myself in different leadership roles in the future. Leadership is just a matter of sharing your individual strengths to strengthen the group as a whole. I can do that!

cedu 533 final week

While I was very frustrated by the html, overall I really enjoyed this course. I feel as though I missed a lot between having conferences and the snowstorm. It probably would have made more sense to me if I had been in class, especially the first week. I learned a lot about what makes a good website and that you don't have to be a computer wizard to set up a good website. There are so many free or low cost options out there for people to use. I would like to take another class to learn a little more about programming. I'm happy we were required to do a web page as an assignment. It motivated me to do my Forensics page that I have been intending to do for 2 years, but never quite got around to it. I expect it to be a very useful communication tool.

Cedu533

As the weeks pass and we've used html and css to do some of our own programming, it's making more sense and is getting to be a lot less stress inducing. After evaluating various sites for an assignment I now find myself evaluating all of the sites I visit. It's amazing what I am aware of now that I didn't think about in the past. Websites are the doorway to many businesses, and will become more so as time passes. Clearly many businesses will need to tweak thier sites if they want to attract and retain customers.