It's Been Awhile

This is my dad on a cruise in the Caribbean in December 2007.


This is me and my dad on his 53rd birthday in Weston, FL.

This is my mom and dad in Mexico in December 2007.

After reading my friend Chelsea Wilder's new blog on this site, it reminded me of the blog I made a couple years back for one of my classes. I decided to look and see if it was still up, and here it is! I don't expect anyone to read it, but I'm gonna start making a few entries from time to time for myself more than anything. It has been a long time since I have written on here, and a lot of things have happened in my life, good and bad. Four months after I started this blog, my father passed away from colon cancer at 53. Being there as he died was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I didn't even recognize him the weeks before he passed. As hard as this was on me, if anything good came out of this, it has made me a stronger person. It has helped me realize that life is short, and to live life to the fullest. He was a good father, and I loved him very dearly. I will miss him more than words can explain, but after 1 year and 8 months I have realized that he is not coming back and that he is in a better place. As my mom said, he's having a great time in heaven talking with John Lennon about music lol. As for my mom, she is doing well. Being in Florida was too hard for her after dad passed, and she's always been a midwestern girl at heart anyway, so she moved to Memphis, Tennessee. She lives in a town called Collierville, TN which is about 30 minutes east of downtown Memphis. Her house is beautiful!! I joke with her that everyone in Florida had a pool except for us, but now that she lives in Tennessee, she has a pool lol. She loves it there! It is a beautiful town, and she is able to visit our family more because they are closer now. I'm really happy for her! As for me, I am still in school. I will be graduating in fall 2010 from FSU. My plan is to take classes in Tallahassee until the end of the summer, than finish up school online in the fall. Hopefully I get the classes I need so this works out for me. **crosses fingers** This is all for now. - Megan

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is all about technology, digital media, and integrating it into the curriculum. In Chapter 6, there is a section called KWL charts. This stood out to me more than anything because I have never heard of it before. It is a chart that helps teachers know what students Know and Want to know. The teacher then fills in what the students will Learn. This is a simple way to set standards of curriculum in the classroom.
Since the last post, I have learned many more new topics about Microsoft Powerpoint 2007. I learned how to put navigation buttons on slides to automatically go from one slide to another with just a click of the button. It can be used for fun activities or even for quizzes for the students.
I have enjoyed this class, but unfortunately I do not believe that I am going to stick with Education anymore. I am taking EDF1005 and EME2040 to see if I want to become a teacher. I enjoyed the classes, but I realized that I do not want to become a teacher for my career. I think I am going to stick with Criminology.

Chapter 5

In Chapter 5, there is a section entitled Electronic Books and References. You can download complete novels onto your computer. When you do this, you can read, save, highlight, bookmark, and add notes to the text. I had no idea that this even existed. I guess it makes sense, because technology is so amazing today, that there would be something like this, but I did not know about it.
Since the last post, I have learned how to work Microsoft Powerpoint 2007. I knew how to use Powerpoint 2003, but the 2007 version is much different. The layout is different, so I had to learn all over again where everything was.
In one of my service learning classes for EDF1005, the 3rd grade class that I was working with was using computers in the classroom. They all seemed to be having fun working on schoolwork on the computers. It kept them more interested and focused, so I thought that was cool.

Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, there is a section called Internet Telephony on page 93. It talks about being able to call someone using the Internet. You talk into a microphone or a telephone hooked up to the computer. This was interesting to me because I had never heard of that before. I knew that you could hook up a microphone and use it to type in Microsoft Word and to talk on a Webcam, but I did not know you could use it as a telephone.
Since the last posting, I learned how to use all the features of the search engine Google. I used to just think that you could only search on the Web and for pictures. I found out about Google Video which is in partnership with YouTube to search videos on the Internet. I learned about Google Maps which was really cool. When you type in an address or city, you get an actual image of what you are looking for. I searched for my house, and I found an actual aerial image of my house and my neighbor's houses on my street. I also learned about Google Scholar, which lets you search articles from books and magazines online.
So far, this class has taught me a lot more than I thought I would learn. I came into this class thinking I knew many things about teachnology and computers. When in reality, I did not know how big the digital world was, and I really did not know that much about technology. There are so many things on the Internet that I did not know was there.

Post #3 Chapter 4

In Chapter 4, there is an input devices section. In this section, there is a section called Pen Input. I was reading this, and one sentence in the section caught my attention. It says nearly all mobile devices have touch screens. I found that really hard to believe because the most commonly used mobile devices do not have touch screens. Unless you are made of money, the screens on your mobile devices are not touch-screen, they are a regular LCD screen. Since the IPHONE and the IPOD Touch came out, now there is a cell phone and an MP3 Player that are touch screen, but they are so expensive that most of the American public cannot afford them. Also included in phones, are blackberrys but they are more than just a phone, and most of them are touch screen but also expensive.
Since my last post, I learned how to use a completely new software. I learned how to use Inspiration. It is a software that sets up concept maps which can help students learn things easier and help teachers teach easier. I learned how to change the shapes and colors of nodes. I also learned how to add pictures to make it more interesting.
In my last post I wrote about how the wireless is not working on my computer. I have tried everything I could possibly think of, and it still will not work. I did find out though that it is only FSUWin that will not work on my computer. I have used wireless at a friend's house and it works fine, so I do not know what to do. If you know a way to help me, please reply to my blog. I would really appreciate it.

Post #2

In Chapter 3, there is a paragraph about presentation graphics software. This paragraph really interested me because it reminds me a lot of Microsoft Powerpoint. It tells of all of the different things you can do in a presentation. You are able to put pictures, clip art, videos, audio files, etc. Unfortunately, it does not go into great detail about how to do all of these things, but I'm sure it is something we will learn in class. I did not know there was a "slide sorter" until reading this article. Another interesting fact is that presentation graphics software incorporates the same features that word processing software does, which to me means that mostly everything that Microsoft Word does Microsoft Powerpoint can do.

Since my last post, I learned how to use Microsoft Office 2007. I downloaded the trial version and played around with it until I got used to where all of the new stuff was. It is a lot easier to use than the old Microsoft Word. Everything is laid out for you in horizontal rows and sorted into groups. It was all very interesting to learn. I'm sure they will come out with another Microsoft Word, which I will have to learn, either before I graduate or before I begin my career.

I've been having problems with my computer lately. I am unable to access wireless internet inside classroom buildings around campus, but I can get wireless internet inside of my dorm room. I cannot figure out the problem. If anybody is really good with computers and would like to help me, either respond to this post or e-mail me at mcb06e@fsu.edu

Chapter 1

In Chapter 1 on page 27, there is a section about how teachers use computers in schools. I found these paragraphs really interesting because a teacher named Dourden Boone was able to obtain ten laptop computers from the school for his class's projects. The students are able to work anywhere on campus due to the computer's having wireless, and the campus being wired. All throughout my entire school career, there was only one computer lab for the entire school. Having this program for classes would make teaching much easier for teachers and learning much easier for students. It would have been nice to have that in high school.
Since my last posting, I really did not learn much of anything different that I did not already know. I have been using technology all of my life, and the stuff we are going over now is basic things that I have already learned. I am just waiting for the section on Microsoft Excel which I can hopefully learn more about.
As far as my career goes, I have not yet decided what my major will be yet. I was in accounting, but I decided it was not for me. So, I went back to my first two choices of majors: criminology and education. This semester is an eye-opening for me to decide which career path I want to pursue. I am taking two criminology classes and two education classes. So far, I am loving all of them which is making it harder to decide.

Introduction

Technology has been with me throughout my life. My family has had a computer for as long as I can remember. In middle school, we always had a computer class once a week. We would learn to type without seeing the keys, and sometimes we would even just play computer games such as the Oregon Trail. That was where I learned how to use Microsoft Word. My parents use Microsoft Excel, Word, and Powerpoint at work, so they would gradually teach me how to use these programs. All throughout high school, I used computers to type papers, make powerpoint projects, make spreadsheets, etc. In my senior year, I took a computer class where I used MAC computers for the first time. Then, in my second semester at FSU I took a business computer class online.

I hope to learn more about using Microsoft Excel because it is still kind of foreign to me. I know most of the basics but to make it an interesting project would be a challenge for me. I would also like to learn how to integrate technology in the classroom, and to make it fun and interesting. I'm basically down to learn whatever you want to teach me.

I've learned that I learn easier by someone showing me. If someone shows me something on a computer, I can usually always remember it. I can also teach myself to do it, but I learn faster and easier by someone showing me first. From then on, I would be able to do it by myself.