Spreadsheet Week

Well this is spreadsheet week in the Tech Int. program and I have mixed reviews. I personally really enjoy working with spreadsheets, in fact I developed a spreadsheet this summer that I use with some guys I golf with. It was a lot of fun to keep track of our summer long competition. We created a relatively simple game that we could play involving fairways, greens and putts, along with some penalties. We used the spreadsheet to then calculate a score based on possible points. The spreadsheet allowed us to have a season long competition and have fun with our competitiveness. I've used spreadsheets occasionally in the past, but only for personal reasons like this or a job I had growing up.

I have never found much success using them in class. My class this year used a spreadsheet to compare statistical data from the countries of Asia in the CIA World Factbook, and group countries by region and some of the kids really enjoyed seeing the differences between countries. They really enjoyed looking at countries that have 'amazing' statistics like Afghanistan's 44 life expectancy, Turkmenistan's 40% unemployment and Singapore's 2.3 Infant Mortality Rate! Students also used the spreadsheet to compare country data with U.S. The problem I ran into with my spreadsheet in class was that for every person who was really excited about the comparisons I had two or three who really struggled with finding meaning or dissecting the numbers.

What this spreadsheet didn't do was to have any formulas in it. I suppose it could have calculated regional averages, continent averages or identified highs and lows. This will maybe be something I'll do when we work with European countries next quarter. Any other ideas for the spreadsheet would be greatly appreciated.

Symsido

Week 2 Initial Thoughts - Online Storage

Week Two

The online storage sites are the items that I'm currently most intrigued by. I currently have this disastrous system not working for me right now where I try to remember at the end of the day which files to put on my flash drive, then forget the one file I truly needed at work. The next morning I then frantically work to finish/fix the file in question minutes before 30 kids come rushing into my room with a million conversations of their own. It is brilliant.

I really hope that setting up some storage online can remedy this situation for me. At the very least it will reduce some of the end of the day rush. In addition to reducing stress I'm hoping to introduce the other Geography teacher to the idea. If we both are there and sharing files we should be able to increase our efficiency and effectiveness by duplicating less work.

My students are always forgetting their work/flash drives at home and I want to try to encourage them to use this application to settle this issue.

Overall I really think this idea shows some real promise for me personally and professionally.

Final Point- In this weeks class someone mentioned the idea of collecting bookmarks as a class. I will definitely be trying to set up a situation like this for my students this semester. I've made it a goal for my class to create a one for all, all for one attitude in my room and I think this might just be the right tool for the job. Now all I need to do is figure out how to create a social bookmarking group that is accessible to all my students, but somewhat insulated from the greater online community. I'm also guessing that one of my challenges will be to set up a standard for use by the students so we can achieve some continuity in the way it is used.

First Week's End

I've learned quite a bit this first week. Some has to do with technology and the rest has to do with getting myself back into the habits of the student. The benefit that this program has over some of the other forays into education is that I am definitely enjoying the topics from the first week and I'm hopeful this will continue into future sessions. I'm excited to meet again tomorrow to see how everyone else is feeling and to hear their views on the first weeks assignments.

Google Docs Collaboration

This morning while I was working on our assignment comparing browsers, I chanced to find myself working at the exact same time as one of my collaborators. It was interesting to see the changes that he was making while I was doing my work. That was interesting and fun, but the best part was when I found that I could open a chat session and my partner and I could ask questions, share resources, and make a plan for our document, all while still in my pajamas on my in-laws couch. It almost made me forget I wasn't at home, then their puppy peed on the floor and I returned to reality in a hurry. Google Docs 1 - Microsoft Word 0

Testing out Email Blogging

I really like the idea of blogging from my email.  It allows a quicker message that could be sent from multiple devices.