June 25

Year 10 - Time is up!

Let's finish up with the Evaluations.

Before you leave let's get things ready for moderation.
1- Make a table of contents
2- Include page numbers
3- Include a header with your name and the project
4- Include a Bibliography
Then reprint everything. I need an unmarked copy for Moderation purposes.
Thanks a bunch Year 10.

Have a wonderful summer!

See you in September!

June 23

You should finish your Evaluate today.

Then we will have the fun of creating a Table of Contents and Bibliography page for your project. Remember we will print out a fresh FINAL copy of your document for moderation for next year.

June 16/18

Welcome Back Year 10. It was a well deserved break and now we just have 3 more week of school left.

Before you get started, let's take a few minutes and look at this interesting article I came across: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/2114884/Booker-author-Indra-Sinha-in-hunger-strike-over-Bhopal-tragedy.html

What do you think about this? Reflect on this non-violent form of protest/non-cooperation.

June 11

Year 10 - This is a great school week: Tuesday and Friday holidays;-) All this and Euro 2008 - what could be better?

In the meantime keep working on your projects. Wednesday June 18 is our target date to finish. . .

June 9

Year 10 - Keep pluggin' away - We are almost finished. You should be on the CREATE portion of your project.

June 4

Activity Day - have a great day!

June 2

Year 10 - Looking into the future is always fun.

Check out this link to hear what "those in the know" have predicted for the year 2058: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/365088_future30.html?source=rss

Take 10 minutes and make a prediction in your blog about the future.

We then have 3 more Presentations to watch.

Finally, finish the PLAN portion of your project (Flowchart and Gantt Chart).

Now, let's look into YOUR future for June.

June 4 - Activity Day - no classes

June 11 - Last day to resubmit Investigations for better grade (otherwise the original grade stands).

June 18 - Project Due Date

Remember when resubmitting work you need: 1) the original document, 2) the grading sheet, and 3) the new work;-)

May 28

Peace, Love, Dove - find a more gentle way

Year 10, 2 more presentations today

Our presentations offered the chance to gather feedback. This is a useful tool and you now have the opportunity to rework #9 and #10 (if you so desire).

Then on to the PLAN portion of the project.

May 26

Year 10 - Let's continue with the presentations.

Why are presentations valuable?

1 - They help you to really FOCUS on your subject (in this case a solution to the Guincho Beach problem). If one has to explain your project to someone else, especially a REAL audience, one tends to delve into the problem/solution further.

2 - Presentations help one to ORGANIZE their thoughts and therefore ORGANIZE their material in a way that the audience will not only understand it, but also remember it.

It's not an easy process (focusing and organizing) but the more practice one gets, the easier it becomes.

May 21

Year 10, you all are busy as bees as you buzz around to get your presentations done on time. "BEEfore" you make your delivery take a few minutes to check out this site I came across.

Check it out - it's way cool:-) http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/

May 19

Year 10 - Let's check this out: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2008/05/nr_20080507

Let's schedule the PowerPoint Presentations for Wednesday.

Remember - the ppt is basically used to support you. It is not the focus of the presentation - YOU ARE!

May 19

Good afternoon Year 10.

Today I would like to you visit the site Slideshare and register for an account. As we talked about, Slideshare is an online host for powerpoint presentations. I would like you to open an account and upload your powerpoint presentation. You can then obtain an html code and embed this presentation into your blog.

Also, please open your blog - so I can quickly evaluate your progress;-)

We will present on Wednesday.

May 14

Year 10 - Things are "lookin' good." You are working hard on your Systems Technology project.

Now, it's time to organize your thoughts and prepare a small PowerPoint Presentation to deliver to your classmates.

Wow! So far, we've done/used:

• Reasearch on the internet
• Microsoft Office Word 2007
• Microsoft Office Visio 2007
• Blogger.com
• Inserted images, polls, and embedded videos on the process journal/blog
• Youtube
• Transformed documents into JPEG files to upload easily
• Introduction to Google Docs
• and now Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

Well done, Year 10!

May 12/14

Year 10 - Design - This is where we can Imagine the Impossible and make it a reality . . .

9. Choose own method(s) of communicating information (1 page)

Here you should state precisely your method for use at Guincho beach. You should outline what you think are it’s benefits (cheap to construct, cheap to manufacture, easy to use, etc.) and what you think are it’s disadvantages.

10. Decide if a 2-Way system is worth the extra time and expense to develop (0.5 pages )

If your system involves 2-way communication, you must justify the extra time taken to manufacture and develop. If your system is only 1-way, you must explain why you chose a simpler solution.

11. Produce a 2 minute oral presentation to rest of class outlining your strategy

Note any feedback from fellow students as this will be helpful in the evaluation section of your project.

May 7

Year 10 - Begin the DESIGN #9

Clear Lines of Communication Are IMPORTANT

May 5

Year 10 - Continue working on the Investigation - there's not much left to investigate!
If you have any questions. please raise your hand!

April 30

Year 10

#'s 6 & 7 are due today at the end of class

April 30

Year 10 - Let's talk about Google Docs.

Sometimes students begin working on a school project (homework, classwork, group work) during class time and don't finish it. It is necessary to complete the project at home. Now comes the student's dilemma - how to "take" the project home. Well, for some it's possible to access his/her school folder from home but for others with Microsoft Vista this doesn't seem to work. Emailing the document to one's self isn't the most efficient means and memory sticks get lost.

Google Docs is another option. With Google Docs it's easy to store documents online. By doing so, the student can access the document from any computer (with an internet connection) anywhere in the world. Wow! That covers a lot of territory.

To learn more about Google Docs check out this video.



For more info and to start using Google Docs today visit this site: http://docs.google.com/

April 28

Year 10 - Let's work on #'s 6 & 7.

According to Wikipedia, "To be "at sixes and sevens" is an English phrase and idiom, common in the United Kingdom. It is used to describe a state of confusion or disarray."

April 23

Year 10 - Let's continue with the Investigation. Let's finish # 5 today!!!

5. Investigate different number systems ( 1 page ) Here you should look at base 2
(binary ), base 8 ( octal ), base 10 ( decimal ), ( hexadecimal ), and any higher number systems. You need to explain how a bigger/more complex number system would result in more information being represented with a smaller number of characters. Bigger number systems are therefore more efficient or what we call elegant in Computing. So, if your system has a large number of instructions, a bigger number system would be the way to go.

http://www.dacs.org/archive/9911/feature1.htm

April 21

Year 10 - let's follow through on our "YouTube Sharing Project". You have 20 minutes to ask the person sitting to your right for their blog address. Visit their blog, watch the video they would like to share, and make a comment on their post.

*Remember that we are a Community of Learning and as such we only comment positively to enhance someone's learning;-)

Now, back to the Investigation. #'s 2, 3 & 4 are due today.

April 16

Year 10 - Let's get involved. Earth Day is April 22, 2008. According to Wikipedia Earth Day events "are intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment." Let's give our 2 cents and participate.

The first thing we can do is add to the Voicethread which will be added to an Earth Day wiki.
1. So, I would like you to visit this site and register: http://voicethread.com
2. Browse: SDIS Earth Day - April 22, 2008
3. Click on the Voicethread
4. Click on Record
5. Allow
6. Speak

It's as easy as that;-)


Thanks Year 10 - you are stars. Now back to the Investigation portion of this program.

April 14

Year 10 - We have 2 periods and 2 different tasks today.

1)You Tube is quite a phenomenon - mini movies at our disposal 24/7. I spend quite a bit of time keeping you on task and not allowing you to visit YouTube during class. However, I would like you to know that there is a time and place for such things - and Today Is That Day.

YouTube is also a tool that teaches. This video depicts part of a lecture delivered by a college professor, Dr. Randy Pausch, at Carnegie-Mellon University in November, 2007. He is offering good advice . . . I would like to share a video with you as I found it uplifting and valuable. I hope you do too.



To learn more about Dr. Randy Pausch please visit this site: http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch

Students today all have quite a repetoire of YouTube videos that they also think need to be shared. Not music videos because we all see those - but videos where we learn/experience/feel or videos to inspire us. Please share a video with us by posting it to your blog.

2) Thank you for sharing. Now, let's continue with our investigations. . .

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler

April 9

Year 10 - Before you continue with # 2, 3, 4 . . .

Student Rights and Responsibilities
-Arriving on time
-Meeting Commitments (handing in assignments on time)
-Behaving in a Respectful Way
-No inappropriate language

Investigation - #2, 3, 4 Due Wednesday April 16

April 7

Year 10 - You have already started your Investigation. Today # 1 is due! Please finish and submit today. (Thank you)

1. Research the history of communicating information and produce a timeline (3+ pages)
This section should include everything right from prehistoric times until the present day. You should explain the reasons behind your 30 most significant choices. Remember the purpose of your research is to look at communication methods see how they developed / evolved to fulfill a particular need. Also state any natural patterns that have occurred and if any previous method could be of influence in your final solution. Remember it is not a History project and your research must have purpose!


Your deadline for #1 is Today - Monday April 7 at the end of class

1st DEADLINE - Investigate #1

Monday, April 7 - #1 from Investigation Due

April 2

Year 10 - We are back to research. For full marks, please be thorough.

1. Research the history of communicating information and produce a timeline (3+ pages)
This section should include everything right from prehistoric times until the present day. You should explain the reasons behind your 30 most significant choices. Remember the purpose of your research is to look at communication methods see how they developed / evolved to fulfill a particular need. Also state any natural patterns that have occurred and if any previous method could be of influence in your final solution. Remember it is not a History project and your research must have purpose!

Your deadline for #1 is Monday at the end of class.

March 31

Welcome Back Year 10 - We get to spend another fab term together.

This time we have a brand new blog to help us organize our time and ICT project.

During Term 3 you will be working on a special project - Communicating Information.

The problem is as follows:

Guincho is considered both one of the best and most dangerous windsurfing beaches in the world. How can we better communicate to people, once in the sea, about changes in weather and sea conditons?

Challenge:

Create a new method of communication that could be used by life guards or the general public. The system should be cheap to produce, easy to learn but complex enough to communicate a range of instructions. The system can be visual, audible, sensory, or a combination of these.

There you have it Year 10 - Term 3 in a nutshell. Keep your mind open and allow your creativity to drive your solution.

I can't wait to see what you come up with. Let's get started!