Vocab quiz #3; Xtranormal

We will take time to review for the quiz.  Once we are ready to take the quiz you can go to Classmarker - do not go there until you are instructed to do so.

Internet Safety
Today we are going to start by choosing a partner for your project.  Once you have chosen a partner you will need to get with your partner at a computer and then go to Xtranormal.

Once at Xtranormal you will need to choose a setting for your project and then choose 2 characters.

If we have enough time we will look at some cyberbullying statistics.  This is an important area to understand as the use of social networks and online communication continues to be a large part of our everyday lives. Here is the website:  Cyberbullying

Finish Xtranormal movie; create your blog; practice

REMINDER - Friday is the vocab quiz over word list #2.

You will have the entire hour today to complete your movie in Xtranormal.  As I have mentioned several times...use the rubric on the Internet Safety page to guide you in completing the movie in a fashion that will help you earn the maximum points for this assignment.  Once you are done with your movie, and you are absolutely sure that you are done editing, you may publish your movie.  *Caution* - once you publish your movie you can no longer make any changes to it!!  You need to have your movie done and published before tomorrow's class period - we will be going over how to embed your movie on your blog.

Which leads me to the next item - you need to create your own blog.  Below is a video that will guide you in creating a blog on Blogger (which is where the class blog is "housed").  It really is not a difficult process, but it is something that everyone will need to do.  If you have a Google account (which all of you do), creating your own blog is pretty simple.

In addition, here are 2 links that may also help you get your blog up and running:
Blogger instructions
About.com instructions to create a blog

Once you have finished creating your blog (some of you completed this yesterday so you are starting at this point), you have practice to do in Word.  Here's what you need to do:

P. 6, 2E, all lines
P. 7, 3C, lines 3-8
P. 8, 3E, lines 7-10

If you get this done print it out and show me.  Then you can go to the following website to practice:
Free Typing Games.  While there you should ONLY! be working on Lessons of keys that we have learned so far.

Internet safety project; vocab reminder

Here is the latest of the Internet Safety videos that I want to share with you:





Today we will again be working in our groups to create our movie.  You will need to log in to Xtranormal today instead of signing in (that's what we did yesterday to create an account).  Your job (or assignment) is to meet the criteria I have set up for you in the rubric (found here).  Be creative while you meet the requirements for the assignment!  Using Xtranormal allows you to use your creativity to make a movie that should be fun and interesting to watch!  Remember that all the bells and whistles are neat - but they need to enhance your movie rather than be a distraction.


If you are responsible for defining words for next week's vocabulary, please make sure to get that done by Tuesday of next week (Sept. 11).  If you are having problems with a definition or with getting into your wikispaces page, please see me so we can get your problem solved!

Is Internet information reliable? Xtranormal

Let's take a look at Xtranormal - the website you are going to use to create your animated Internet Safety movie!

As you create your movie, don't forget to look at the rubric so you know what your requirements are.  I want you to be creative, but you must meet the criteria set out in the rubric in order to get all the points that are possible for this assignment.  One important aspect of this assignment is making sure that your movie is school appropriate - for example, one of the animations available is called "up-yours" and should not be included in what you create.

After learning how to use Xtranormal you and your partners can start working on creating your movie. However, I highly encourage you to "map out" your movie first (that was the reason for the storyboards) before you blindly go into creating your movie.

Monday, September 12

Internet Safety:



Today we will continue to work on our Internet Safety project.  Right now I am thinking that this will be due on Thursday - which means that you need to have your entire video completed by the END OF CLASS on Thursday (in other words, this will not be due at midnight - please plan accordingly!).

In addition I will show you how to use Xtranormal.  This is a fairly intuitive (that's computer-speak for easy to use) website.  Nonetheless, there are a couple of things that you do need to know before you start to use it.

In case you have forgotten what the requirements are for your project, they can be found here.

Vocabulary:
The following people are responsible for the vocab definitions for this week:

3rd hour - Barakat, Charlet, Lewis, Lovett, Ramsey, VanQuakebeke
4th hour - Bravata, Frerichs, Henderson, Neff, Payne Olson, Whittington
6th hour - Cosgrave, Esparza, Mielke, Moore, Rice, Snider
7th hour - Anderson, Andrios, Hager, Miller, Williams
8th hour - Bergheger, Himmelman, Hofer, Monson, Pettifer


The vocabulary definitions should be posted before Wednesday so everyone can view the definitions and have time to review/study/learn them before Friday.  Remember when you post a definition to put your name in parentheses after the definition (first name followed by first initial of last name).  Those who don't pull their fair weight will lose points.  



Remember, it's important to post early in the week, and the definitions need to be something that everyone can understand!


If you haven't bookmarked the wiki webpage I would highly recommend you do that so you aren't constantly typing in the URL.  I think I forgot to mention this on Friday, so it would be wise to do that as soon as you can.

Computer Applications for the Week of Sept. 12

WEEK OF SEPT. 12


Internet Safety:
We again have a lot to accomplish this week.  We have several different objectives, the most notable of which is the finishing of our Internet Safety project, and learning how to use Xtranormal.


Vocabulary:
In addition to that we are also having our first set of vocabulary words this week.  This means that one group of 5-6 people will be doing research to find definitions for the 11 words on this weeks vocab list (shown below).  It also means that you will be having your first vocab quiz this Friday - please plan accordingly when it comes time to preparing for it.  It would be great if everyone could add to what is written on the wiki by including a video (school appropriate, of course!) or a link to a website that might also help everyone else to understand more about the vocab word.  Or, you could also post a link to an online image so everyone can see what it is that we are talking about - this is particularly effective for Hardware words (which, coincidentally, are this week and next week!).  


Last week I sent you 11 files - 10 Microsoft Word files (each file contains the vocab words for a specific week) and 1 Microsoft Excel file (this file contains which week you will be responsible for working collaboratively to find definitions to that week's vocabulary list of words).  The vocabulary definitions should be posted before Wednesday so everyone can view the definitions and have time to review/study/learn them before Friday.  Remember when you post a definition to put your name in parentheses after the definition (first name followed by first initial of last name).  Those who don't pull their fair weight will lose points.  The people responsible for definitions this week are as follows:


3rd hour - Barakat, Charlet, Lewis, Lovett, Ramsey, VanQuakebeke
4th hour - Bravata, Frerichs, Henderson, Neff, Payne Olson, Whittington
6th hour - Cosgrave, Esparza, Mielke, Moore, Rice, Snider
7th hour - Anderson, Andrios, Hager, Miller, Williams
8th hour - Bergheger, Himmelman, Hofer, Monson, Pettifer


Remember, it's important to post early in the week, and the definition needs to be something that everyone can understand!






Wiki:
And...speaking of posting (which is done on the wiki)....there are 2 additional pages on the wiki besides the vocab page.  One page is labeled "Everything I learned, I learned in Computer Apps".  This page is designed to find out exactly what you have learned in class.  I would like everyone in class to post on this page with anything new they've learned while in this class.  It may be something you hear me talk about that you didn't know before, or it may be something that we do in class.  Either way, anytime you learn something new post it to this page.  THE CLASS WITH THE MOST ENTRIES ON THIS PAGE WINS A REWARD AT THE END OF THE QUARTER, AND AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER!


The other page on the wiki is a FAQ page.  If you are not aware, FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions (believe it or not this is another one of our vocab words this year).  So, if you have something you want to ask, put it here.  One of your classmates may be able to answer your question, or if I think it's something that may be a little more advanced and they will not be able to answer then I will post an answer.  Some questions may have several answers (for example, if someone asked how to Bold in Microsoft Word there could be about 4 different answers).  Realize, however, that this should NOT take the place of asking a question in class if you don't understand something we are covering.  This is just a place to ask technology-related questions that may not be covered in class.




New Keys:
We also are going to learn 2 more keys this week - the W and the Right Shift Key.  To type the W you use your left ring/3rd finger; to type the right shift key you use the right little/4th finger.  Remember, when using the shift keys you are holding down a shift key and typing a capital letter with the opposite hand.  In other words, only use the right shift key if you are typing a capital letter with your left hand (for example, capital D, S, F or T).

Friday, September 9

TGIF!!

INTERNET SAFETY:
Today you will have all hour to work on doing research for your Internet Safety project.  Since today is the last "official" day you will have to conduct your research you need to try and get your information gathered and completed by the end of the day today.  If you finish your research today start thinking about how you want your characters in your movie to talk about the information you have gathered.


Using Xtranormal will require you to act a lot like a script writer and a director for a movie.  When we talk about using Xtranormal, you will probably want to use 2 characters - it will make the flow of presenting your information much easier.  Therefore, what do you want each character to talk about when it's their turn to talk?  Will you have each character do some of the talking about each of the 4 different areas, or will you split it up so that character #1 talks about topic A and topic B, and character #2 talks about topic C and topic D (or some other arrangement)?  


VOCABULARY:
As for the 11 files that I sent you yesterday to your gmail, 10 of those should be Microsoft Word files and have vocab words (listed as "Week 1", "Week 2", and so on) in them.  The other file, which is a spreadsheet file, should have a listing of everyone in class with a bunch of X's on the page.  The X's mark the weeks where you will be responsible for defining the words for that week.  You should notice you have several "partners" that will help you define the words for that week.


As for what you enter on the wiki, the most important thing to enter is the word's definition.  MAKE SURE YOU ARE DEFINING THE WORD SO IT IS EASY TO UNDERSTAND!  If you read the definition and you don't understand what the definition is, no one else is going to understand it either.  In addition, adding links to videos, pictures, or websites are highly encouraged as doing so will help everyone understand the vocab word better.  When you get done defining the word put your first and last name in parentheses next to the definition so you get credit for doing your job!


My suggestion is at the beginning of the week you quickly meet with the other 4-5 people and decide who is going to define which words - that way you are organized and not having multiple definitions of the same word.  


WIKISPACES:
You will use the following wiki to post definitions of words:  gmsamazon*.wikispaces.com (where the * is your class hour that you have Computer Apps - so 6th hour would enter gmsamazon6.wikispaces.com).  Once you go to the website you will be allowed to ask to join - you'll need to create a username (another one of these - UUGGHHH!!).  Use your first name and last initial for your username, create a password, and enter your email address.  Once you've done this I will receive a notification and I will allow you to join.  For those of you who think you can be sneaky - you will not be given permission to join a wikispace that belongs to another class.  If you try to join another class I will just block you from it.


The overriding concept here is that everyone shares in the responsibility of helping everyone else learn.  If it's your week to define a couple of words, then make sure that you accomplish your job - everyone else in class is expecting you to help them so they can get a good grade on the vocab quiz.  When it's their turn to define words you will expect the same - you want them to do their job so you can do well on the quiz.  Here is a teamwork quote that I think is appropriate: "Teamwork is the ability to work towards a common goal.  It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."

Wednesday, September 7

Today we start our journey to learning what Internet Safety is all about.  This is a very serious topic - people have been seriously injured (even died), seriously affected by what's happened, and lost their homes because they have not practiced Internet Safety.

Your job will be to do research in various areas of Internet Safety and then make a movie explaining what you have learned.  You will be working with a partner of your choice.  Whoever you choose you need to make sure that it is someone you can trust, and someone who will share half the responsibility of completing the work with you (in other words, you don't want to do all the work yourself!).

Your "hub" for information is here: Internet Safety Page.

You will be watching various videos as well - it would be in your best interest to take notes.  However, all of the videos are online and can be viewed multiple times.

The last part of your Internet Safety project will be to use Xtranormal to create a "movie" presentation on what you have learned.  This is what will be graded and submitted to me.  We will learn how to use Xtranormal in the coming days.