Spreadsheets

We will start this week off by turning in our digital literacy projects in for grading.  Students have been working hard on them, and there was even an article in the local paper about the project.

Next, we will be working with spreadsheets.  Students will get experience using both Microsoft Excel, and Google Spreadsheets.  Below are some simple tutorials of activities that we will be doing early on in the unit.

Introduction to Formulas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_e0EOy1Ydo

Introduction to Functions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=yZvrHvspMok&x-yt-ts=1421914688

Introduction to Fill Button
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534&v=8cHeQTgcz3k

Introduction to Charts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPf8cPP2CJw&x-yt-ts=1421914688&x-yt-cl=84503534

Digital Citizenship Project

We are finishing up our digital literacy unit!  Students have started working on the Digital Citizenship Project.  They will be making a digital product of their choice (poster, video, brochure, slide show, etc...) that promotes awareness of digital citizenship.  Their project must contain the 5 topics we discussed.  These topics are digital literacy, social media, cyberbullying, online safety, and digital footprint.  Each category must contain the following information Definition/explanation of topic (3 points each), information we learned from our activities (4 points each), and sources where information was found (3 points each).  That equals to 10 points for each topic, and 50 points for the whole project.  This is a BIG grade, so it is important students show all that they learned, and are as creative as they possibly can be!

Digital Literacy

Next week, information technology class will be learning about digital literacy.  Digital literacy is about being savvy on the web.  We will talk about how to tell if web pages are valid sites for research, cyber bullying, social media, online safety (being safe with your identity), and digital footprints.  Each day we will be learning about a new topic and will have various activities that will reinforce our learning targets.  When we complete the unit, students will create a product that promotes awareness for all the areas of digital literacy that we learn about.

One of the tools we will learn about early on is Google Scholar.  Below is a link to a short overview and tutorial to get you started with a great resource that Google offers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE5rLGnnPyw

Cloud Computing, Collaboration, & Google Drive

Thursday we will be finishing up with our business letter portion of the word processing unit.  The last activity we will do in this unit is our cloud computing document.  Students will be using their school google accounts to collaboratively put together a news-letter that reviews technology that they are familiar with.  We will look at some examples of technology reviews in class to see what they all have in common.  Next, students will be told that they will work in groups putting their news-letter of reviews together, but they need to all be working on the same document at the same time.  We will then look at our google drive and create/share a document with each other so they can accomplish this task.

Google drive is great for our students because it allows them to access their work form anywhere, and they can also share files so they may work with group members even if they are not in the same room as each other.  We will be using google drive so students can collaborate together on various projects throughout the term.

Above is a video that explains how google drive works, and why it is so beneficial in today's day and age.  Check it out!

Word Processing

We will move on to word processing basics using various applications (Microsoft word, google docs, etc...)  From then, we will use those skills to help us with business communications and business letters.

Tomorrow we will be using wordle as an introduction activity to go with our lesson.  Here is a tutorial how to use wordle.

To see how we use our header/footer sections on our assignments, review this tutorial....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJMj7IlVUbI

4th Quarter

Final quarter of the school year, but information technology classes are just starting!  We are getting familiar with classroom expectations, rules, and procedures.  Next we will be learning about the field of information technology and finding out the role of technology in today's world, as well as how it has been impacted by past technologies.

Wrapping Things Up

This is the last week of the term, which means last week for this term's information technology classes.  We will be finishing up our digital video projects and get them published by the end of class Tuesday.  Wednesday we will review for our comprehensive final exam, then Thursday we will take our final test to measure our overall learning from the term.

Friday will be the last day of class for this term, and will be used to check our final grades for the course, clean out our info tech folders, make sure everything important is in our school google drive, and then will reset our passwords to have them ready for the next group of kids.

Although the end is near, it's important to finish strong through the finish line.  Make sure you earn the grade you want, and not settle for what is easier.