Week Five-- Chapters Five and Six

Question 2: Define database management software and describe how you might use it to help you in teaching responsibilities. How might you construct a learning assignment for your students that used this productivity tool?

Database Management software is a type of productivity software. It is usually found in a package along with other office productivity applications including a word processor, spreadsheet application, and presentation application. Database Management software is used to organize, maintain and retrieve many types of data. This type of software is usually designed for business use, but can easily be put to use in the classroom. In a classroom setting database management software could store student information (names, addresses, phone numbers), or related pieces of information for a particular lesson the teacher is planning. An electronic database can be described like a card catalog of a library. “Records” are thought of as cards in the catalog. These records contain data relevant to that card. The data on the card is stored in various “fields.” Since these records are electronic it becomes very easy to sort them based on some criteria; find records containing certain information; or enter new information and edit existing cards.

Surely the most obvious use for database software in day to day teaching responsibilities involves a student roster. Records may be made for each individual in the class. Fields may include: name, address, phone number, email address, parents names, special considerations, seat assignment, etc. The possibilities are endless and up to the teacher to decide what is necessary. The teacher can then easily print a list of addresses for a mail out, send out a newsletter email, or sort the students alphabetically.

It would certainly be a great project for a classroom to have the students collaborate on a database. A bug collection, for example, could be organized using a database. As students brought in their captures they could set up new records in a shared database for each of their bugs. They could record the common name, scientific name, color, length, width, shape, location found, finder’s name, etc. They can also record the location of the collected specimen in the physical collection so that it may be found easily in the future. They could even take a picture of the specimen and attach that to it’s record. This database could then be used in the classroom, shared with the whole school, or even published to the web for all to use and enjoy.

Week Four--Chapters Three and Four

Question 1: What is a computer virus and how is it transmitted? What can you do to protect your computer?

Our book describes a computer virus as “a program written specifically to disrupt computer operations and/or destroy data.” As this definition points out, viruses do not just pop into existence from nowhere! They are maliciously created by programmers. Some of them, like “spyware,” are created for the intention of obtaining information about people and their actions from their computers and sending it to the creator. Other viruses are purely disruptive in their actions. Some can simply delete random items from an infected hard drive. A virus might have a directive to launch a DOS (denial of service) attack on a particular website, data center, corporation, or government agency. This type of attack is designed to overwhelm its target by sending many requests that the server cannot fulfill thus rendering the target unable to be productive.
Viruses can be transmitted in many different ways. The increasing connectedness of todays computers yields many routes of infection. People often unwittingly download viruses from the internet when trying to download files or checking their email. Viruses can be sent as attachments that appear to be benign files, and novice users will often open these files without checking them first. These viruses could perform their intended action immediately, but they could also just copy themselves to the hard drive and wait for a predetermined time, or even a signal from their creator to start their mischief. Computers not connected to the internet can get viruses by introducing infected media (floppies, CDs, thumb-drives). In a school environment it is particularly hard to prevent since students could bring media from home containing infected material. Once the virus has been introduced it can easily propagate throughout the network.

There is defense against viruses! Many companies sell antivirus software. This software scans files on a system and monitors media connected as well as traffic coming in through the network. When antivirus software detects a known threat it can isolate the file and ask the user what should be done with it. An extra layer of protection is often helpful when dealing with email. Many email providers, including many webmail providers like Gmail, provide virus scanning before you even open your email.

Any antivirus software is only as good as it’s “definitions.” As new viruses are created the antivirus software creators catalog them and provide downloads to their customers that instruct the antivirus software what to look for. These updates to definitions must be done regularly to ensure the best protection. In the modern world of computing it is considered irresponsible to not have antivirus software running on your computer, but even when it is present one should always be looking out for malicious applications.

Week Three Chapter Two

Question 3: What role do educational technologies play in teaching and learning?

While we all agree that technology has a place in the classroom, we have to make sure it is used appropriately. When teaching a subject a teacher has to complete his instructional planning before adding technology. The teacher must have a clear plan for what he is teaching and how he should reach that goal.

I enjoyed the discussion of learning environments in this chapter. This is a place where technology can be used, possibly indirectly. “Stations” are used in many classrooms where different activities and lessons are taught in different regions of the classroom. Using technology certainly helps designing these environments. Complex climate control systems can be put into use if the teacher wishes certain areas to have different climates. Also, often today we see a “station” for computer learning, but technology should not be relegated to one station! Many areas could be outfitted with technology for learning all sorts of subjects.

The section on media and methods discussed how to use media (audio, visual, and digital resources) to carry out your methods (strategies to achieve lesson objectives). Media is used every day by teachers and does not have to include technology in the way we think about it today. It may be “old technology:” posters, bulletin boards, models, etc, but it may include technology of the types we are used to. A presentation teaching method, for instance, can be implemented using old technology media, but also by presentation software and the use projectors or monitors. A demonstration method is also a clear candidate for the use of technological media. Obviously, teaching software is easy to convert to a model of demonstration with the students following along on their own computers.

As the book and I have already mentioned, teachers must make sure to develop their teaching plan before implementing technology. Using technology simply for the sake of using technology will not be effective. It must serve a clearly defined purpose in the teaching of the subject, otherwise it’s misuse could represent severely misappropriated funds!