Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Choice Blog #1 Grade Appropriate Skill Set

Technology skills vary from person to person and district to district. The age of technology is here but that does not mean everyone has been properly exposed by this point. The author of the article Great Tech Expectations mentions that her students come from low income families where there is little to no access to new technologies outside the school walls. How can you compare that to the district where most or the parents are engineers or computer programmers. I believe we need to evaluate where our students stand before we make any general rules of where our students need to be by certain points. I like how the teaching in the article used a grading system of Introductory, Developing, or Applied skill to evaluate her students. I think after we evaluate the level of knowledge our students are at then we should teach them as much as possible. There are many technologies out there that they will eventually come across, even if not now. Why not make them prepared to utilize it? Setting standards on grade levels concerning the use of technology can hurt some while helping others. The students who already know the skills being taught are losing vital time experiencing what they already know, while some students that may not even have an email address are completely lost on how to make a blog. Basically we can't have a standard yet, because the age of technology is too new.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Blog #3 My Digital Autobiography

              There has been a great deal of technologies that have influenced my life. Although, I do believe I am behind in many areas of the latest technology compared to most of my peers, I still believe that my world almost revolves around technology. I use it to organize, prioritize, for school, work, social networking, musical and artistic creation, as well as entertainment. Every area of my life is influenced or rather, affected by technology.
             Organizing my important files and photos are no longer kept in a filing cabinet, but they are now neatly compact into a folder on my desktop. I use an application on my Mac called Stickies where I can just jot down my what to do list. School is greatly affected by technology as well. I used the Internet to find my school and I now use programs like Black Board and WESS to keep up with everything from classroom assignments and materials to the payment of tuition.
              Social networking a big one. This has changed my life in so many ways. Social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace have allowed me to connect with a wide variety of people who I would probably not be able to connect with otherwise. If I did not have a Facebook account I would have missed out on several job opportunities and musical showcases. Sites like vimeo are highly inspirational as well. There is a creative network of people that want to share their skills and skills of others. I have also been able to show my artwork and get into gallery shows by having a blog about my artwork called BlackAcrylicArt.com.
               Other than the Internet I use programs like Adobe photoshop, word and PowerPoint. Most recently I have been using a program called Garage band as well as I movie. Garage Band allows me to record songs or ideas for songs that I need to remember. I can actually convert the file and send it to my band mate over the Internet and have her make music with that. It is a hug time saver. Since I am in one of my last semesters in school, taking 7 classes we do not have time to meet up and show each other ideas.  Being able to send her that file and have her understand the piece on her own time has made this process of creation possible. Without all these technologies, I believe my life would be moving at a far slower pace. I would have not been able to do everything I want to do without the use of these various forms of technology. Thanks Internet!