Meme Generator Tech Tip

The meme generator I used for this meme was called ImgFlip. This tool was really easy to use, and before I even opened the website I knew what meme I wanted to make. Ironically, the exact meme image I wanted was the first one listed on the site, so that made making this meme even easier. The inspiration for this meme was from Spring Break giving me a ton of extra time to work ahead on this class. In result, my chances to watch Netflix went way down, but I think that was a reasonable trade off. I have now effectively finished enough points to finish this class early, and I am so glad that I can focus on my other classes for the rest of the semester. This was a really fun class overall, and I wish the best to everyone else working through this class!

Typing Game Tech Tip

The first typing game that I played was called Ninja Cat. This game seemed fun in concept, and I only played it on the easy level. The tutorial went okay because it just explained that you had to type the letter under the dinosaur to kill them with a shuriken. This worked when there was just one dinosaur coming at me one at a time, but when there were six dinosaurs surrounding me, the whole game started to lag a ton. This was a really unpleasant playing experience since I could not actually play the game at this point. I am not sure this issue was just caused by my computer or what, but I would definitely not be able to increase my typing skills with this game.

The next game that I played was called Type For Your Life. This one was pretty cool and a much better experience than the last one since there was not nearly as much lag. This had a guy jumping up a building, through the clouds, and into space. Before he could jump, you had to accurately spell the word underneath him. Once I got into space, the turnaround time for spelling each word correctly greatly got reduced, so in space is where I finally lost all three of my lives. Since this game pushes you to slowly get faster at typing to save your character, I think it would help me get better at typing faster and more accurately.

A game I would suggest not on this site is TypeRacer. This one is really fun for me because I get to go up against other people that can type quickly. You also get to see your progress in the form of a little racecar against all of the other racecars. This one also does not let you progress in the race if you do not type accurately, so this one easily forces you to work on your speed and accuracy if you want to do well in the race. In result, this is one that I would recommend out of all of the ones listed.

Typing Test Tech Tip

The first typing test that I tried was KeyHero.com. This site was really cool because it gave you a fairly long quote to type, and it tracked for you how many words per minute you were typing and your accuracy. This site also gave a nice visual as to what you typed as it tracked every character typed and highlighted it either green or red to show how accurate you were and what speed you were going when you typed it. I was able to get up to 80 words per minute, but when I looked at the high scores, I saw some people were typing at 200 words per minute which is crazy!

The second typing test that I tried out was called TypingTest. This one gave you 60 seconds to type as much of a passage that it generated. This one did not give me as much feedback as KeyHero did, but I was able to see what I was typing, so I readjusted and corrected myself. I also got about the same speed on this test as the last one, so it is nice to see that I am at least consistent.

I have tried to increase my typing speed. I first took a typing class in middle school that was really helpful, and from there I greatly improved. Past that, at one of my previous jobs, I often opened up a speed typing site when there were no customers to try and increase my typing speed and accuracy. Games like that helped pass the time, and I think I did slowly get faster. I really do think becoming faster at typing is useful in today's modern society. Since most of my work is done online nowadays, the faster I am at typing, the faster I am at getting my work done. Especially for this class where everything is typed, typing accurately and quickly has helped reduce how much time I have spent on each assignment. In addition to schoolwork, I have a job where I am a programmer, so again, everything is typed. The faster I can type, the faster I can test out new methods for making some code work.

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I have been using the mobile app for awhile now. The app makes checking some assignments and grades really easy. I use this app a lot whenever I do not want to pull out my laptop. This way I can check Canvas Announcements, discussions, and messages from my professors. I will say this app makes checking certain details like due dates convenient for me. There has been a number of times that I thought I forgot to do a homework before class, but I just pulled out my phone and saw that I still had a few more days to complete the assignment. I have also been able to use my phone app for quizzes in class. This is useful for whenever my laptop dies on me in class, so this is really nice to have as a backup plan when things do go wrong. There is really no reason to discontinue using the Canvas app, so I will definitely be using the app in the future.

Tech Tip: Canvas Gradebook

The Canvas Gradebook was a new addition to the list of Tech Tips. Apparently, Canvas updated the way they work their gradebook just this semester. Reading through this Tech Tip helped me learn a bit more of how this class is arranged grade-wise. I learned that the current week's assignments are at the top and the previous week's assignments are moved to the bottom. Luckily, each week's assignments are grouped together, so this makes finding your grades for that week super easy. I have already been referencing my gradebook a lot to make sure that I am staying on track of the assignments that are due.

Another useful part of this tech tip was that the weekly totals are located at the bottom of the gradebook page. This will help me know that I am hitting the required amount of points each week to stay on track. I am hoping to do some extra credit each week, so this will help me figure out how many points I should aim for each week to achieve any goals I may have of finishing early.