Excel Knowledge

Excel is a very complicated program. It can be quite intuitive, but one has to be familar with its settings in order to take advantage of this. I am really glad to have the chance to learn more about excel now. Most of my chem and bio labs demand the ability to use excel. More importantly, how well one knows excel determines how long (and difficult) your lab reports will be to complete. For this reason, I want to learn as much as I can. I have never needed to use excel before I started this year, but it is integral to all my science classes. For example, in the recent past my lab group needed to make a histogram. I definitely did not know how to approach that. Luckily for me however, my lab partner easily created one. Also, today in lab we graphed growth curves of E. coli cultures. The difficult part of this assignment was that we needed not only the growth curves, but the the log of the growth curves. I don't know how to make a graph of the log of a growth curve either. I suppose these are all examples that I can look up in the textbook, but it is so much easier to learn when we go through it in class.

Regarding "Teaching with Tech: Does it Work?"

Using technology furthers learning. I don't understand how anyone could question that simple point. I grew up learning on computers, which is inexplicably tied to using them.

However, regardless of my personal experience, it is my belief that the use of technology in the classroom brings forth an unimaginable amount of opportunities to learn. The use of the computer enables one to learn not only on the subject at hand in class, but about so many other topics as well.

Not to be two sided, but I also understand the complications that can occur from having this technology accessible. By giving students this chance to view the world from their desk, one is also asking them to be very responsible, perhaps more responsible than their age allows for. Ideally, learning in class is great fun. Realistically, everyone knows that this is untrue. The point Mr. Leyes is trying to make, that by working harder for the information the student understands the concept better, is asinine. Perhaps by reading more to get the point the student will have more context about the subject, but not by wondering through the library hunting for a book. The money spent on bringing technolgy into the classroom is well worth it.

My Experiences Using Word

So far in my life, I have enjoyed using Word. It has been both simple and convenient. I have never had any problems. I do not think, however, that I know every function in the program. I would like to learn more of the details about it. This might be odd, but I can recall having trouble dealing with the preset margins on documents. I might want to learn how to better control that part of Word.

Intoductory Blog

I'm Sara Ghazi and I am from Conroe, Texas. I am a pre med here at Trinity and I live in Beze Hall. My new sport is tennis, which I am still learning, but for the past ten years I swam competitively for The Woodlands Swim Team. I attended a large public high school for my freshmen, sophomore, and junior years. However, for my senior year I attended the small private John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas. I would say I'm just the average computer user, mainly using Word for school and Mozilla for internet. My younger brother is very adept when it comes to computers, so he mainly kept our computer at home under control.