PC Maintenance and Security Lab

The videos that were listed on this site were obviously geared towards PC users and not Mac, but a few of the videos still peaked my interest.
        What hardware firewalls do and do not do is the first video I watched.  I learned that Hardware firewalls do not block virus installations.  Software firewalls alert you to everything going into and out of your computer.  There was no information in this segment that surprised me, but I did like the idea that software firewalls are like your second line of defense.
        Next up is the second video I watched which was on purchasing wireless routers.  This video focused more on the brand names then what the features actually meant.  It brought up brands like netgear and Linksys.  I was hoping they would describe what the difference between n and g are...but they didn't touch on that.  There were no surprises in this segment either.
        The last video I watched was comparing different type of back-ups.  Full backs ups involves a complete system back up, but require additional software like norton.  A partial back up involves documents, bookmarks, and other things you can not afford to loose. You can also back up other information online in gmail. What surprised me on this video was that it showed that this particular lesson was a little out of date. Presently gmail and other servers can store way more than  1 GB, and the general trend is to go to more of a cloud based back up.

GTD Post

      Organizing my process will be very difficult for me.  I find this to be true because I have been using technology for a while and I have way too many email accounts(and other non email accounts.)  These separate accounts help me to divide my personal and professional lives and allow me to explore other possible professional opportunities privately(currently my school district reads many of my emails--nothing to hide but it creeps me out.) Having all these separate accounts is all fine and great, but keeping track and managing them is very difficult. 
      Due to this, I would like to make GMail my inbox and my device for organizing my process.   Going through the process for the first time was very time consuming and a little bit confusing.  Some of my other email addresses are difficult to enable forwarding.
      I think this process will help me for multiple reasons.  First of all it will save time.  It will also allow me to keep things private while still consolidating information.  Lastly due to both this class and that my current school district has switched over to GMail---the ability to use google docs and share with others streams lines even more of my life. I hope I can continue this process of streamlining. As long as I get all of my accounts to interact, I think I should be able to continue it.

Social Networking

I believe social networking sites are an amazing resource for teachers.  They allow us to communicate with teachers from all around the world.  For example last year a few of my colleagues and I started a band director PLC on facebook.  This group started with 15 members.  Presently we have over 8,000 members.  The basis of this group and many other educationally valid groups on a social networking site is that one teacher asks a question and receives multiple responses.  Through these actions we have been able to connect with directors from all around the country/world.  We have started writing articles and a depository for classroom materials.  We even had a member meeting from the group at a national conference that is held annually in Chicago.  Due to the fact that facebook came out when I was in undergrad I am pretty used to checking it regularly and being an active member in the groups that I currently am in.   Social networking is part of my personal and professional work flow and as a young teacher I have been able to really find deep answers as part of social network.  I feel that many of my peers don't know how to implement social networking in their professional lives, but our students certainly are using social networking daily. 

Webpages vs. Blogs

The main purpose of a  blog is to provide as much collaboration as possible, this is achieved by having multiple authors with the goal of having as many comments and points of views as possible.  On a typical web page, the creator or author is the only one that usually post comments on the page. With a blog, many can post and share to create a more classroom environment .  The creator of the blog acts more as a facilitator of ideas instead of the sole originator of ideas. This gives more people the chance to share their ideas, stories, and insights.  It allows people from all professions (not just writers and scholarly journals) to share insights and ideas.  With all this info and the variety of sources comes much responsibility.  Obviously with the number of blogs, authors, contributors all information from blogs (and many websites too) must be checked for facts.  Through this is true, Blogs can and do provide a great starting point for generating ideas.