James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Chapter 9 & 10

What is visual literacy? Where and when is it learned? Why is it important? Contrast Internet broadcasts, live cams, and Net meetings. How can each of these Internet-based video technologies be used in teaching and learning?

Visual literacy is an ability that is developed over time. More specifically, one develops visual literacy from things that they see and just by looking at those things one can know exactly what is expected. One example that the text uses is the symbol for “recycle” and places it over a newspaper. The question asked, “What does this suggest you should be done with your newspaper?” A person that has seen this symbol knows that the suggestion is for the user to recycle the newspaper. Therefore, one has learned visually. Visual learning takes place throughout the course of living. Students learn visually throughout their educational career whether a teacher formally introduces a visual. This is important because we learn from our surroundings.

An Internet broadcast is the broadcasting of live events and performances over the Internet, using streaming video technology that compresses digital video and plays it back while it is being received. On the contrary, a live cam is a digital video camera that is connected to a computer, which in turn is connected to the Internet so that the digital images from the camera can be seen by those connecting to the live cam web site. Next there are internet meetings. An internet meeting is an internet based “face to face” conversation with people around the world via compressed video. Each of these is extremely powerful tools and can be used in a multitude of ways to enhance one’s learning experience. Perhaps the best way to illustrate how useful these Internet-based technologies are, is to point that this class, IT645, is being taught using these types of resources. There are some students in this class who do not live anywhere near the Hattiesburg campus of USM. Because we have these capabilities, we are able to learn from our homes the things that the confines of the regular classroom might not allow.

James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Website Assignment

This has been the most enriching assignment that I have had to complete. However, it has also been the hardest to get started with. My first reason for saying that this was the hardest assignent to get started with is because it took over and hour for me to make the "Edit Page" option work. I don't know if it were a problem with my computer or if I were doing something completely incorrectly. After I figured out how to edit my page it was a matter of placing the correct information in the right places. Creating a website for a classroom is a great thing to be able to do. It will be very beneficial to parents, as well as, students. In addition, the tutorial really helped as well. I found that creating a website isn't as hard as one might think. Moreover, that might be because google has many of the options preset for the user. Bellow is a link to my page. I hope that you enjoy.

Website

James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Web Evaluation, Web Tools, & Trackstar

This has been the hardest assingment. The primary reason is it is hard to get the links to function as they are suppose to. However, this has proven to be an enriching experience. All of the assignments were beneficial to me because I can use several of the websites for classroom purposes. The test making exersise is probably the most useful because one can use it to make any type of test desired. The hardest thing about it is selecting the information that is to go into the test. This experience was great and I will use the things that I have learned to progress my students.

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James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Chapter 7 & 8

How can a classroom web site improve communications with students, parents, and community? What is an acceptable use policy? What impact does it have on the use of the Web in the classroom?

The World Wide Web is a powerful tool that can be used strategically to promote positive communication with teachers to students, and parents, thereby, reaching the entire community as a whole.

When it comes to the communication of the teacher and the student, the teacher can put all homework assignments, weekly assignments, FAQ sheets, and other links that could be helpful to the students on the web site. For example, the text suggests that the web site would be beneficial to students that are shy and usually don’t ask question in class. This could be made easy by having an email system set up on the website so that the students can communicate with the teacher or other students in the class that they might be taking. A classroom website can be created for what is called community learning. The students could share their thoughts or ideas by having a blog section on the site.

Moreover, parents usually share the interest that the teacher has for his or her students. A classroom web site could be designed so that it is parent friendly. Just as it would benefit the student to have assignments posted it would equally benefit the parent so that he or she can know what is expected of his or her child and be able to enforce it as the teacher does. As one can see, the a classroom web site can should be designed for a community because it takes the teacher, parent, and student to make a success story.

Because the internet is a powerful tool, there are certain rules that must be followed while using it. This is the purpose of an acceptable use policy. An acceptable use policy is usually done by a district or school and is designed to articulate the ways in which the Internet can be used by students. This is needed primarily because it sets the guidelines for what the teacher can do with the internet.