blog 3

I can relate to the portion of the article “Oh, the Changes We’ve Seen” on page four that describes how the use of a computer frees us from using up a lot of time by using a paper and pencil. I know that it would take me a lot longer to write a ten page paper by hand than it would be to type it. I also like how I can move around sentences or portions of sentences easily, whereas it would be time-consuming to erase and re-write the words by hand.

This week I learned about rubrics, Backflip, and creating a newsletter. I learned how to create a rubric using Rubistar’s templates as well as how to create and edit my own rubric without using a pre-done template. I learned to research which rubrics are available before making one from scratch. I learned about how rubrics can be beneficial for students and teachers by putting the responsibility back on the student and keeping teachers honest. I also learned that if a parent asks about why a student got a certain grade I can show him or her exactly what information was missing according to the rubric. I learned how students can use Backflip in their research, which will make them think twice about copying and pasting the information from those sites. I learned that using Backflip can be more efficient than book marking a page because of the descriptions that show up next to sites. I learned how to create a newsletter by using the header, creating columns, inserting word art, and drop capping the first letter of the first word on the page.