Welcome!

Computer Related Technology class is intended to prepare students to be able to use a lot of different technology tools. Get ready to spend a lot of time on the Internet! You will learn how to blog, how to use an igoogle account, how to use Flickr, and lots of other things. You will also review and practice some basic software skills using Microsoft Word, Power Point and Publisher, as well as other programs. I think you are going to enjoy all the different things we are going to do!

The calendar below appears both here and on my school web page. You can check here for assignments.

Deidra's Wordle for Government Class

Deidra's Wordle for Local Government

Google Sketchup House

Extra Credit Assignment

Go to Storybird   
Sign up for a free membership and create your own original story of at least 6 pages. When you are done, get the embed code for your story and put it in a new entry on your blog.
When you are done, send Mrs. Ort an email letting her know.  This will count as one of your blog entries and will give you extra credit toward the Glencoe documents you are making in class.

Biola Math Teacher's Halloween Joke on Class

This was shared with me via Facebook. I thought it was pretty clever and wanted to share it with you, too.

PE4 Google SkectchUp

EMDT Karl Peterson: BP12_OMM World of Warcraft

EMDT Karl Peterson: BP12_OMM World of Warcraft: "Hello everyone, I have made another one minute video this time it is for World of Warcraft. Yes I know they do enough advertising on ..."

Please enter your name and blog URL in the form above. You can cut and paste the URL into the form if you like.

Between today and next Friday, October 15th, I will be making sure each student has at least 3 entries on their blog. I will also be checking to see that students know how to embed code for pictures and movies on their blogs. Finally, you will choose a classmate, get their blog address, read their blog and comment on at least one of their entries. Remember, these comments are meant to be helpful.

Mrs. Ort

Sweet Animation Video

Extranormal Animated Movies

To try out Extranormal, go to

You must set up a free account before making a movie, or Extranormal will not save your movie. Once you are done, you can post your movie on your blog, on Facebook, on YouTube, or on a web page. To post the movie, you will need the embed code. You can also choose just to put a link on your Facebook that will send people to your movie.

After you have tried out Extranormal, let me know what you think of it in the comments that go with this entry.

Putting your Video on Your Blog

Adding Your Own Video to Your Blog

You can easily add your own video to your blog. The tutorial on this entry will show you how. If you want to create your own videos, software like Photo Story and Audacity are good to start with. Photo Story makes a nice slide show with the kinds of transitions that make it look like a movie. Audacity will help you if you want to bring in music in MP3 format. Make sure you give credit for the music and that you avoid infringing on anyone's copyrights with any images or music you use.

Other Student Videos

Five students in our CRT class had the opportunity to create their own PSA (Public Service Announcement) using Photo Story and Audacity. These will be added here as the individuals who made them make some small alterations.

Please note that if you use more than about 15 seconds of a song, you need to give credit somewhere to the artist and give the song title. Be careful not to violate copyright laws. Also, if you use images, make sure you are not using a copyrighted image without permission. If you have permission, you may want to give credit to the artist who created the image, probably on a credit slide at the end of your presentation.

If you choose to create your own You Tube account, there is information there to help you avoid infringing on a person's copyright.

The video presented today was made by Carrie. I think she did a good job of matching her music with the emotions elicited by the slides in her PSA.



Taryn produced this PSA. Again, I think she did well on emotional impact.



Mariel created the following PSA to encourage moms to stay healthy so their baby's can be healthy.



Dottie created this PSA to encourage volunteerism.

Student Projects

Hey, guys. Get a load of this! Several students have learned how to use Photo Story and Audacity to create their own, slick slide shows! Check these out, then in the comments below, tell me what you think and if you'd like to learn how to do this.

Go to our class web page at: http://www.sturgisps.org/145420618123458797/podcasts/browse.asp?A=399&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=59224

A couple of these videos still need a little editing, but students did a really good job putting their PSAs together.

Using Audacity to Create Sound files for Photo Story

Those students who are working on PSA's using Photo Story may want to use music other than the type you can create in Photo Story. For this, students will need to download Audacity and the Lame file (found on the same page). Both of these are free.

Once you have imported your music into Audacity and edited it to your liking, you must convert it to an MP3 file if you want to use it in Photo Story.

I found a tutorial that goes through the steps of using Audacity and Lame to convert to MP3.



In the comments below, let me know if you found the tutorial helpful.

Photo Story 3 Tutorial Continued

Once you have selected your photos and saved them to a folder on your h-drive, you will want to follow the directions in the first Photo Story 3 tutorial and import your pictures into your first Photo Story show.

The first tutorial showed you a little about manipulating the photos and adding text. Use the tutorials which are on this entry to continue creating your Photo Story PSA.

Using Photo Story to Make a PSA

To make your PSA:
1) Choose a topic that is important to you.
2) Collect at least 10 graphics (pics, clip art, etc.) and save them to your h-drive.
3) Go through the Photo Story tutorial to help you import your pictures, add text and sound.
4) Get Mrs. Ort's help to post your finished Photo Story on your blog

The video below gives detailed instructions for using Photo Story. It is not as entertaining as the one at the beginning of this entry, but it explains what is going on better.

Remember, once you've viewed the videos and started working on the Photo Story PSA, you can ask me at any time to help you. When you are done, please post a comment for this entry. Let me know how helpful (or not) you thought the videos were in helping you get started with Photo Story.

Collaborating on a Document in Google Docs

When you are working on a document in Google Docs, you can invite other people to work with you. You can both be working on the document at the same time and can even chat about changes you want to make. Be careful, though. Since all the collaborators can be changing things at the same time, you can end up with text in odd places.

We are going to try this with a Google Docs slide show. You will be teamed up with one or two classmates to create the slide show. The best way to do this without getting in each other's way is to decide which slides each person will work on and just work on those slides.

Since it is October, choose a Fall theme or holiday, like Halloween, for your topic. Divide the slide show up so that each team member does 4 slides. Be as creative as you can, and, just for fun, there will be prizes for the best group slide show! Due date for this project is October 23.

In the comments, let me know what you liked and didn't like about collaborating on your slide show in Google Docs.

Taking Stock

This week I am doing a progress check to see who may still need help. You should work on the lessons 1-20 Keyboarding lessons in Glencoe. I am not giving any new assignments for a few days so people can get caught up both on their Glencoe lessons and on the blog and google docs lessons. You will want to finish lessons 1-20 As quickly as possible and record them on the syllabus page. You should start lesson 36 by Monday the 28th. Please watch the tutorial on this blog before starting lesson 36.

In the comments, tell me if there is anything you need help with.