Week 4 Comprehensive Assignment

The reading this week was at times almost comical because of how rudimentary it broke down all of the components of the computer’s hardware and software.  I guess it is because I am so familiar and comfortable with computers that I tend to forget that there are those people who are unfamiliar and even scared of computers and sometimes technology in general.  One thing I did appreciate about the chapter was some of the little tidbits of trivia that I never knew.  Specifically, the term “booting up,” meaning to start a computer, comes from the old phrase, “picking oneself up by your bootstraps.”  Though I have always disliked this saying, because it is physically impossible and therefore a ridiculous goal to set for someone, it was interesting to find out the lineage of that common tech term.  I also was glad to see that the chapter addressed the ever evolving complexity that is associated with networking, intranets, and file sharing—all of which are important for the modern age of education.

The PowerPoint (PPT) I created—for use during a tutoring experience at the local high school while I was in college—was for a lesson experiment construction and identification of a control, a dependent and an independent variable, and the hypothesis.  I took four different scenarios, and after reading through the experiment I let the students work on identifying the control and the variables.  Then I also made sure that they were able to assess the results to determine if there could have been a better method for constructing the experiment.  With the first three, I went around the class and looked over the students work to give immediate feedback.  The fourth scenario, I allowed the class to spend time and focus on the process without feedback until we went over it as a class.  Then as a wrap-up, and an opportunity to provide the students’ a chance to put their knowledge to action, I let the students create an experiment based on a question, which they would turn in for some extra credit.

The whole PPT revolved around “The Simpsons.”  The different characters were used as a familiar, funny touch and the circumstances where humorous.  The PPT background was yellow, but not too bright to be painful to the eye.  The text was black, so that it could be easily read.  The text was generally big enough that the students didn’t have to squint, or get lost in the words.  All the students that spoke up said that they really appreciated the experience because it helped to clarify questions for them.  Also, it made the experience a little less stuffy, because they were able to laugh at some of the experiments.  If there was anything I would like to fix, it would be maybe change the background to something a little more neutral, even though it was a Simpsons yellow.  Also, I would like to be able to print out the slides so that the students did not have to write out some of the info to make the initial process between slides a little more speedy.