This week the Help Desk viewed the application Snag-It. Snag-It is an app that allows one to produce a screen cast or take a picture of their screen. Snag-It appears in the middle of the top of the screen.
The President of the United States, Barack Obama, encourages that students and teachers participate in the “Hour Of Code” in the United States, going on during this week of school. At Burlington we participated in the “Week of Code”. During this week I completed three tutorials. I completed the Star Wars Coding tutorial, the Scratch Advanced Coding tutorial, and also the Javascript Advanced Coding tutorial. I chose the Star Wars Coding Tutorial because anything with the name “Star Wars” is always a popular choice. Secondly, I chose Scratch because I have heard much about Scratch over the years I have been at the Highschool and was wondering why it was so highly praised. Finally, I chose the JavaScript tutorial because I have always wondered what JavaScript was since I saw it on my computer. I liked the Scratch tutorial because the Star Wars one was too easy, and the JavaScript tutorial was too hard and confusing. Scratch was the easier for me to learn than the JavaScript tutorial because Scratch is meant for more of a young adult range with an easier setup than JavaScript. The tutorial I disliked the most was JavaScript. This is because there were many times where there are confusing codes to enter. If you do not put the correct word,letter, number, or symbol in its correct place then you cannot proceed. After the “Hour Of Code” I am more motivated to explore and learn more tutorials like Scratch and Star Wars. On the other hand,I am less motivated to complete tutorials like JavaScript. I say this because I enjoyed going through both the Star Wars and Scratch tutorials but was confused and angered by some instructions of the JavaScript tutorial. Three skills I used while completing these tutorials were memory, diligence, and the ability to follow instructions. I used the skill of memory by using information from previous instructions to complete new tasks. I used diligence by completing two out of three tutorials with accuracy and speed. I demonstrated the ability to follow instructions by simply following the directions I was given. One computer programming skill I need work on is Data Structures. I can improve this skill by creating more codes with differing data structures, so I grasp the understanding with practice. I think that all students should be given the opportunity to be exposed computer programming. I find this so because computer programming pays very well and it gives you a beginner understanding of the field to determine if you would like to enter the field or not. https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/91086871/Versal is an online website that allows people to take online courses. On Versal people can take courses for education, and courses for business. This week, the Burlington Help Desk took a Versal course on Twitter for College Admissions and Job Seekers created by Alan Katzman. Alan Katzman is the the founder of the company Social Assurity. This course specialized in the social media app Twitter. I learned many new things from this course, even though I am a frequent Twitter user. The Twitter for College Admissions and Job Seekers created by Alan Katzman, was a great course in my eyes. I learned many interesting facts, and learned them in a fun and interactive way. The material of the course was taught over videos, voice recordings, pictures, games and mini quizzes. Due to the material being interactive and colorful I had a very fun time taking this course. I was engulfed in the subject and connected to the subject more than I would have if I took a course out of a textbook. I feel that online courses are the future, and textbooks will be a thing of the past. I also feel that if real life classes used courses like this one students would be more interested in the course and have more enthusiasm to learn.
From the course I found many interesting facts and points. I learned many little points on Twitter such as basic account information, creating a presence, engaging and interacting, and proper etiquette and tools. For basic Twitter account information I learned how to set up a profile, the components of a tweet, and Twitter lingo. For creating a presence on Twitter I learned how to create a network, such as who to follow and how to get people to follow you back.The best way for people to follow you back is to have a detailed bio about yourself, because it is the first thing they see and is sometimes a deciding factor if that person follows you or not. In engaging and interacting I learned how to engage in the Twitter environment, and how to interact with other Tweeters, such as replying to tweets. The final things I learned were from proper etiquette and tools. From this section I learned how to present myself professionally on Twitter, and work the tools of Twitter such as TweetDeck and a Twitter chat. Overall I found this course to be very helpful and interesting. I would surely recommend this to my peers and even to teachers, because technology is becoming apart of everyones life. For all students and teachers who forgot their passcode to their apple device, there is a quick, and easy way to save it! If you backed up your iPad either through iTunes on a computer or through iCloud, you can salvage your last synced data to the computer or cloud, when it is being restored. Restoring your device through iTunes When restoring your device through iTunes you will want to follow these easy steps. 1) You will want to connect your device to the computer you have synced your device with prior to, and open iTunes. 2) Since iTunes recognizes your already connected device it will not require a passcode, but if it does then you will have to use the Recovery mode 3) After the sync is complete, you will want to restore your device, which is under the summary of your device. 4) Once in the summary of your device, simply click Restore device. Restoring your device through Recovery Mode If you have never synced your device with a computer or cloud then this is your last option, Recovery Mode. This mode is reached through 4 simple steps also... 1) First off, connect your device to any computer and open iTunes. 2) While waiting for your device to connect, you have to force restart it, or hold the power and home button for 15 seconds until the apple symbol comes on, but you will not want to stop when you see the apple button. Keep holding onto the force restart until you reach a page that looks like this. 3) In iTunes, ont he computer, you will be given a window that gives you the option to restore or update your device. At this window you will want to hit restore.
4) Wait for this restoration to be done and then you will be ready to use your device again! These past two weeks many things happened. Problems that I solved the past week and this week we're fixing wifi problems, such as connecting to home wifi or being on the school wifi without being able to access the internet, and revising my screencast for Google Calendar. For the connecting to home wifi problem, I simply told the student to email his internet provider and say to allow the Ipad to have a proxy. This is done because the school Ipad has a proxy which pops up whenever you try to connect to a wifi that is not public, which keeps the student from looking up inappropriate things on his or her Ipad, and Internet providers such as Verizon, Comcast, and RCN does not usually allow proxies. For not being able to access the internet on school wifi problem I took the student to our COM-OUT spot. This is a spot in the building adjacent to the library that has a secure wifi that BHS has to connect to to check if the Ipad can connect to the internet. After taking her to COM-OUT, connecting her and opening the internet, I brought her back to the Help Desk, connected her onto BPS wifi and opened up the internet. It was success. These weeks I proved that I have what it takes to be a leader by accepting the challenge of going to my first Mass CUE Dare to Innovate technology convention at Gillette Stadium, and present in front of many. I was given very short notice about the convention, but was all for it. This was also a new situation for me due to it being my first time ever attending and speaking at a technology convention. If you would like to read more about the convention you can find a reflection of my time at Gillette Stadium. I also exercised my creativity these past two weeks by creating new layouts for my blog and trying out different setups for my posts. The challenges I was able to overcome were the fear of speaking in front of a big crowd. I offered good customer service these past weeks by providing fast and accurate information, so that they can come in when they need to and be out quickly, for their convenience. I was able to manage my time and set goals for myself by realizing that I had two posts this week due and a revision of a screencast due. So I made sure I finished the screencast in no more than one day school day. I also managed my two posts by working on my post for the convention at the convention, so it would be fresh in my mind. For my weekly reflection post I worked on it diligently in class on Thursday, getting most of it done so that I could put the finishing touches at home and have it done before class on Friday, when it was due. The skill I want to improve for next week and the future is talking in front of crowds. I did an alright job speaking but I would like to make that a great job speaking in front of people, so that if I have to speak in front of a future boss or present a new product I created. On Wednesday, October 21st, the Burlington High school Help Desk went to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough for the Mass CUE Dare to Innovate technology convention. The event is for real life technology companies and their representatives to show what they do, their innovations, and show how they can help students and teachers. At the event Ms. Scheffer showed us around Gillette, viewing vendors while waiting for our presentation to start. Our presentation was on #techteamMA and Massachusetts schools that have a technology team to help students. Many presenters from all around Massachusetts came, including Kelly Gallagher founder of the Reading Rockets Help Desk, Chris Gosselin from Wakefield, Susan Kiley from Bishop Feehan, Johanna Wilson from Hamilton Wenham, and also Ms. Scheffer with the Burlington Help Desk students. Our part of the presentation included how the Burlington Help Desk was formed, how it helps out students, and how it provides information about the latest technology. During my formal introduction of the presentation I was so nervous that I mentioned my name twice, literally. So before I presented my slides, I said, “if you didn't heat me the first two times, my name is Kevin Lynch”, to break the tension of being nervous. The slides I presented showed my work and activities I've done in Help Desk so far. After finishing the presentation and to end the day, we went to a Google portfolio session. This session was about creating digital portfolios for students. From the convention I learned how to manage pressure and conquer my fears. I learned how to manage pressure by speaking in front of a large audience and not folding under the chance that I could mess up. At the convention I faced my fears because one of my fears is speaking in front of a big crowd. However, I took the risk, faced my fear and presented myself professionally. Overall I feel the day was a success. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I greatly enjoyed. I learned a lot of information about technology that I have not heard of, and also learned a bit about technology that I have known about, such as Canvas. I feel privileged that only one other student besides me in the Burlington Help Desk was able attend the convention.
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AuthorHello, My name is Kevin Lynch and you can find more about me on my About Me tab in the top right, or at my About.Me! Archives
January 2016
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