Computer Bootcamp

I spent 9 hours in the schools doing volunteer work. Three at Fox Hollow and six at Lindon Elementary.

I learned that most of the students outpaced the basic skills by a good bit, but when it came to the HTML at Lindon, they were a little further behind.

Motivation wise, they were more interested in playing flash based games on the internet than in completing the various projects they had. If someone wasn't there to make sure that they had stayed on task (in the moving pictures class) then they were playing games instead. But in the HTML class, the students would get up and help each other with the assignment if we were all occupied in order to help get them all to the same level.

I learned that I can learn HTML, but that I really don't know much about it. Just open and close tags pretty much.

I plan to play some more video games since I don't have classes for two months, I guess that could be a tech related goal? Besides that, I'll keep researching new education blogs and try to keep up one of my own, which I haven't updated in almost a year now.

Internet Safety Reflection

It's important for any adult authority figure to model correct, lawful behavior around students. That includes practicing good cyber ethics and safety.

Anytime my students are to use a computer a for my class, I'll be sure to remind them of the pitfalls that social media and the internet contain. I could also address it as part of unit on crime and the justice system in a government/civics class. History and the social studies generally require a lot of research type papers, so a lesson how to do proper research would easily fit a section on proper use of intellectual properties and internet safety.

The fliers, brochures and what not that we've created could easily be included in geography classes for part of a country report, in history as a mini biography or in government for election campaigns. The possibilities are near endless!