:TECHBRARIAN

Oceans, grasslands, and rain forests aren’t the only place with wildlife, New York City has it too!

1. Watch the slideshow below to see some of New York City’s wildlife:

2. Now, pick a habitat below and watch the slideshow.




3. Next, use Kidspiration to draw the habitat you chose for its animals. Click HERE to see how to use Kidspiration for this project.

4. Finally, put your Kidspiration on your blog and explain why you chose to create it the way you did. Click HERE to see how to put your Kidspiration on your blog.

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1. Get ready to see some incredible videos of nature.  Choose 3:

2. Now answer the following questions in your blog:

a) Describe the environments shown in the videos you chose. What plants or animals lived there?
b) How are the places you saw different from the nature we have in New York City?  How, if at all, are they similar?
c) Of the environments you saw, which were the most interesting?  If you could travel to one, which would it be and why?

–> Click HERE to see an example

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Now that you’ve used images I chose to create a poem, it’s your turn. One little thing, though: many of the images on Flickr are copyrighted– meaning you’re not allowed to use them without permission.  But there’s a section of Flickr called “Creative Commons”.  Pictures in Creative Commons are free to use in your as long as you give credit to the photographer.

Go to Flickr’s Creative Commons page by clicking HERE.  Find a picture that sparks your imagination or makes you feel something deeply.  Write a poem about it in your blog.

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TeenBiz3000 is a site that sends you interesting news articles to read and write about.  All Island Schoolers have an account with TeenBiz3000.  Please ask Mr. Lahana for your Login and Password, then sign in by clicking HERE.  The first time you sign in you’ll be given a short test to see your reading level.

After the test, spend some time exploring TeenBiz3000. Please feel free to copy and paste anything you write in TeenBiz3000 into your blog.  It will INCREASE your grade in technology.

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Pick a pic by clicking below.  Write a poem based on what it makes you think about…

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In your first blog post you will write “8 Random Things About Me”.

Click HERE to read an example from GCalcano

Click HERE for directions on how to write your first post.  Click on the movie below to see me writing my first post:

Click on the movie below to see how to put a picture in your post and publish it:

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Okee dokee…now that you have your Apple and Gmail accounts, you’re ready to make your blog! Click HERE for directions.

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Before you get started blogging, you’ll need to have a school email account.  Even if you already have an email account, make a GMail account for school.  CLICK BELOW for directions:

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…so let us in on it! Welcome back 7th and 8th graders. Your first assignment of the year is to create a slideshow of what you did this summer. Think your summer was boring? In that case create a “top 10 list of why my summer was boring“. Was your summer A M A Z I N G ? Tell us all the details and don’t forget to include pictures.

Below is slideshow about my summer:

Now it’s your turn:

Create a Powerpoint about your summer. Click HERE to see how. If you don’t have pictures to bring in, you can use other people’s photos from Flickr that are similar to what happened to you.

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Imagine this:  you are instant messaging with two “people”.  One of the people is human and the other is really a computer.  Can you tell the difference?

This is the question that a man named Alan Turing had in 1950.  He called this test– to see if humans could tell the difference between Man and Machine– The Turing Test.  So far, no machine has passed.  That said, ever year computers come closer and closer to passing the Turing Test.

Now it’s your turn to test some of the machines.  This is not exactly a Turing Test because there are no humans on the other end, but your job is to talk with two machines and figure out why you know they’re not human.

1. Click on each of these machines and have a conversation with them:

Splotchy

Suzette

2.  In your blog answer the following questions:

a) Did either of the machines come close to passing the Turing Test (did they seem human?)

b) What were some of the questions you asked them?  Why?

c) Why do you think it’s so hard to design a machine that passes the Turing Test?

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