Chapter 9 Log

I had never heard of GIS until I read this chapter. To be honest, even after the reading, I am a little unclear on what exactly it is and how it works. I looked at the ESRI site, but it did little to help explain GIS in depth. I was unclear on the relationship between Google Maps, SketchUp, and GIS - are those Google products based on GIS? Those two paragraphs do not discuss GIS, only maps in general. As I am familiar with Google Maps, this is a relationship I hope to get cleared up in the chapter presentation on Wednesday morning.

I appreciate the inclusion of graphing calculators in this chapter. Although we were always told we needed a graphing calculator in high school, most of the time we were not allowed to use them on tests, because of the ability to program them to carry out functions. I taught myself how to create a program for an equation so that I could simply input values and the calculator would do the math for me. I always thought that it would have been more useful to learn how to program the calculators than disallowing us from using them at all. After all, in order to properly program the calculator one must know what the equation is and how it works. It can get complicated when you assign variables to parts of equations and then have to tell the calculator to carry out the equation with the new variables that have just been assigned. It sure helped me understand the intricacies of the actual mathematical process better, as opposed to just plugging in numbers. Basically, I ended up carrying out what I was trying to avoid.

I think having students use digital cameras and camcorders to make videos, take pictures, and edit these media is an excellent idea. We are seeing one use of this technology in working with our stop-motion animation project in class. We also had our booktalk, which was a form of digital storytelling. Also, it's worth noting here that I received a comment on my YouTube version of my digital booktalk the other day, from someone I didn't know, who stated that his English teacher had shown their class MY booktalk! I was so excited!