Thursday, June 23, 2011

Internet Resources- The greatest, but do you have the latest?

Well, concerns about technology?  Do you have time for concerns?  By the time you have a concern, there is something new.  In fact, by the time I finish typing this blog entry, there will probably be several new things.  The biggest concern I have is keeping me and my sources/resources current.  The Internet is changing rapidly, so what is there today might not be there tomorrow.  So when planning, say a WebQuest for instance, you must make sure your resources are up to date and working.  There is nothing worse when you the sites do not work and you have a classroom full of kids not able to get on to a site to complete an assignment.  So you must be able to allow yourself an adequate amount of time to check these resources and swap out any that do not work.  I would be concerned they are not current and I would have to make sure they have been updated with the correct information.  Remember, just because it is on the Internet, it is not always true!
To alleviate these concerns, again, I would leave myself enough time to check the resources.  Perhaps you chunk your exercises so they are not overwhelming.  The Internet is an important part of our day to day lives and there are a vast amount of resources available for everyone to use and to find.  The key is to make sure they are still available to use, they are relevant to the task at hand and they are appropriate to the audience you are using them with.  Giving myself the time to check and review would make me feel a lot better.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Access Databases...Creating my own data warehouse!

The two main software applications I use are Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.  I use these to communicate by writing memos, directions for the staff, notes to parents, keeping track of data and tracking trends in the data.  They are very important to my day to day tasks on the job.  I even use Word as my email editor to make sure I am not making any errors, as I want to communicate clearly to whoever my audience is.  As an administrator and school leader, this is very important and critical to me.  Although I use them frequently, I have not scratched the surface on what I can do and how I can apply it to my job.
I still want to learn more about Microsoft Access and create my own databases for the data I collect for various projects.  I know how to use the databases, but I want to have more knowledge in how to create them and create forms to increase parent communication.  My plan would be to take classes on using Access, practicing building databases and make practical use of the database.  This would make data collection more succinct and the process of communicating this to parents more streamlined.  We have an Adult Education Instructor in Access, so I would take his class and use him as a resource.  And of course, I would use good old fashioned trial and error.
There are many database programs out there you can buy, but with the current economic climate, you can save your school a ton of money by developing your own.  This is what I would like to set out to do, then I would have my own and a sense of accomplishment.  And the staff would have access to all of the data in one place, which would make them able to find it in one spot.  Creating this would make this portion of my job easier, once it was built.