In Computers class, we do many things to help us become better computer users. For example, we write a blog every morning either about math, science, history, language arts, or our own choice to help us develop our typing skills. We also keep a digital portfolio of everything we do in all of our classes to make sure we are getting the full amount of learning possible from our work, and update our website when necessary. Occasionally, we do some more activities to help with keyboarding skills, such as Dance Mat Typing, or Typing Web. We have also done some curricula (plural of curriculum) like My Digital Life and Power Searching with Google. We even use tools like Google Docs, Screen Clippers, Paint, etc.
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PresentationIn the making of this presentation, I solidified much of the knowledge that I sort of knew about the formation of our solar system. Most of the information was from a documentary that I had heard a long time ago, and making the presentation made it where I will remember the facts much longer than I would have. The project provided a creative opportunity to learn about something that interested us, and so many students tried their best and hardest, which helped them learn the presentation better. This reminded me a lot of our Newsletter, in which we used Microsoft Publisher to make collection of news articles on things that interested us, under a general topic. It also reminded me the Crispin project that we are currently doing in Core (English and History). The project is on the general topic of the book that we just finished reading, but we are allowed to do the project in the form of almost anything, and is again designed to have us do schoolwork while doing something that interests us. The same was true for the Histoire Creative Projet in French class, where we created a history project on anything that interested us.
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During this project, I used Google Presentation to make my presentation. I had used it before, but this time I used the built-in Google Drawing for almost my whole presentation. Some of the figures took a little more time to figure out how to use, but I was able to create passable images that represented my ideas well.
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The Formation of the Solar SystemMaking this animation helped me remember much more knowledge about the formation of the solar system. I called on the knowledge many times and each time has helped me remember more and better. I do think that this was an effective learning tool, and I also learned valuable lessons about improvisation in less capable online softwares. This project reminds me of a programming project that I did it French recently, where I created a history-oriented game using MIT's program Scratch. I also created a game for Core based on a book, where the viewer plays through the plot, and watches the main character change. GoAnimate was interesting to learn how to use. The fact that characters were limited, props could barely move, and it was impossible to freely draw anything makes it extremely difficult to create an animation in this program that doesn't include superheroes blasting one another. Nevertheless, I feel that I was able to create an worthwhile project from this program, and certainly enjoyed the end result.
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Solar System Review Quiz
For the IF quiz, I decided to also provide feedback on why an answer was wrong, instead of just why it was right. I mainly rephrased my question from the other quiz, but I also learned a lot of other things from telling why an answer was wrong. I learnt about the formula for strain, put my knowledge of the scientific definition of a bubble into actual words, and many other things. I used page breaks and drop down or multiple choice questions to create a net of responses and actions. I certainly remember most or all of the things that I learnt through this project and thing that it was very effective.
This project reminded me of the project that I did for Algebra, French, and Core with the program Scratch. Almost all Scratch programs use a variety of "if," "else," "until," and other variables, much like the "Go to page based on answer" of Google Forms. It was much easier the second time to use Google Forms after the first time, and it was not difficult at all to learn how to use the instant feedback tools.
This project reminded me of the project that I did for Algebra, French, and Core with the program Scratch. Almost all Scratch programs use a variety of "if," "else," "until," and other variables, much like the "Go to page based on answer" of Google Forms. It was much easier the second time to use Google Forms after the first time, and it was not difficult at all to learn how to use the instant feedback tools.
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Solar System QuizThis quiz, and the one after it, have helped me finalize my knowledge of the Solar System. I had to find an way to summarize the information in the presentation into questions that didn't give too much away. I put the questions in the order that they appeared in in my presentation, so that helped me with ordering the questions. I had to know the information in my presentation to create this quiz, so referencing my presentation helped me remember my quiz better. Also, the practice with Google Forms helped me make my IF quiz easier. I do think that I remember everything that I learned well and that making a Google Form was time well spent.
This quiz reminds me of when we did a "teaching" project in Algebra. One of the main purposes of this quiz was to learn through teaching others. In Algebra, we used different programming tools to teach the computer program how to do what we were learning. To teach the computer, we had to know what we were doing ourselves. We also did many "teaching" projects in my sixth grade class. Google Forms was pretty easy to learn how to use. I just chose the question types and entered in the answers. I then used blank page breaks to separate the questions. Then I simply embedded the HTML in my website. |
My Digital Life
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The My Digital Life curriculum involves seven modules, or units on the topics of "Choosing a Computer," "Wireless Communications," "The Viral World, "Internet Resources and Credibility," "Creating Multimedia Products," "Digital Relationships and Respect," and "The Future of Technology and You." In side of these modules are smaller topics, such as texting while driving, cyber bullies, and plagiarism. This course was designed to help students understand the dangers of the internet and the need to respect others privacy and feelings on the computer, along with picking good software and hardware and understanding how to protect against and get rid of malware and viruses from your computer. I think that the course is a great way to learn rules about digital literacy and responsibility and I and most people I know remember most or all of the guidelines and advice given though the Ignition classes. This curriculum reminds me of one from my sixth grade year called Brainology. Brainology's purpose was to teach students how to fully activate and use their brains, from brain food to the best ways to study. Brainology also had units that were divided into smaller topics and was a big focus point in my class for the first semester. Although electronic tools weren't used in the completion of My Digital Life, to get my certificate on my website, I used Screen Clippers and Paint. Screen Clippers was easy enough to learn, I just had to open it, and drag the cross hairs around the area I wanted clipped. In Paint, all I had to do was erase my last name, and then my first name, because My Digital Life made the second J lowercase. After that, I just inserted a text box with "JJ" in it, saved the file as a PNG and inserted it into my page.
Typing Test 1
Power Searching with Google
The host of Power Searching with Google, Daniel Russel.