James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Final Project

James Stewart

Being enrolled in IT 645 Computers in Education has been an extremely enriching class. I have learned many helpful things about myself and my capabilities when it comes to technology. Most importantly, I have learned that hard work pays off extremely well. The things which I have learned I will use to enhance the education of my future students.

Though this is an online class, I feel like I have been provided with as much help as I would have gotten if I were taking a class on a college campus. The technology that we have learned about is greatly responsible for me being able to say the previous. Since I had never done a blog before, I was completely in unknown territory; however, the course calendar, video clips, and detailed instruction that were given gave me all of the help I needed. The first blog I did was probably the worse one that I have done, and if I say so, they have progressively gotten better.

One of the main requirements of the class is to read either one to two chapters for whatever week they are scheduled. After the chapter or chapters have been read, a blog on 1 of 3 questions have to be submitted to the blog and each group member has to submit a post to each of his or her group members’ blog on the particular chapter that is due. This aspect of the class makes the reader understand the chapter better because a different view of what is in the chapter is presented. The requirement that really brings the concept of the class into perspective is the projects that we must do. Each project is helpful in its own way.

The first project was creating a flyer, excel document, and, power point. Knowing how to do this is a necessity because power points and excel documents can be used for multiple tasks and assignments. I was appreciative of the excel assignment because I hadn’t created one in quite some time. This assignment refreshed me on how I can use it to keep record of student grades. The second project which is the trackstar and web evaluation assignment was very beneficial as well because trackstar is good to use so that all of the websites that you would like your students to use are conveniently in one place. I will definitely take advantage of that tool. Next, was the assignment were we had to create a website. I was totally unaware of the availability of it before this class. Every teacher should have a website for parents and students. The things that can be done with having a website are numerous. Lastly, the movie and listserv assignments were probably the hardest and longest. However, they were also extremely helpful as well. It was a very exciting assignment to work on because I have never created a movie before. Creating the movie has given me the confidence that I can be technologically savvy.

The entire class was a very good class. I have no complaints because everything was in order and I feel that enough time was given for each assignment. In the future, I plan to continue to learn about technology and how it can be used in education. This class has been insightful. The real test will come when I implement the things I have learned into my future classes.

James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Chapter 11 & 12

What advantages can broad bandwidth and wireless networking offer schools? Describe the current technologies available for wireless connectivity.

Broad bandwidth and wireless networking are very important to schools. Wireless networking connects computers to a server and to each other just as wireless cell phones are connected to a phone company network, although the technology that is used to connect them differs. Broad bandwidth is a technology that allows the access of large files almost instantaneously. These things offer schools accessibility for the most part. It allows them to be able to connect students with the world almost at a virtual level.

Some current technologies that are available through wireless connectivity are WiFi and Bluetooth technology. WiFi stands for wireless fidelity, and it is a wireless networking technology that is based on the common 802.11 standard, a standard set for Wireless LAN technology. Bluetooth technology allows for different types of devices like the computer and printer to be able to communicate with each other.

Technology is constantly changing and it is the educator's responsibility to make certain that students get what they need.

James Stewart Learning Portfolio in IT 645 Week 12 Movie and Listserv

This has been a very enlightening assigment to work on. My initial difficulty with the movie assigment was figuring out what I needed to do to put my voice on the video that I had created. I never knew one could create a video from pictures. Any student would be excited about doing such a project. Moreover, the listserv assigment was very easy to do. I didn't encournter any difficulty with it. The group email address is 3rdgradelanguage@googlegroups.com.

Classroom Video

Listerv