cover for DP Tuesday 30th October

8S1
As you are no doubt aware, we are launching a school website that has blogs, wikis and some networking - similar to sites like bebo in many ways (but I control it!)

Obviously, given some of the concerns that have been raised about these sorts of sites, we are not making it available online just yet - one of the prep activites is asking students to define what they consider acceptable ways to behave whilst using sites like this ...

Your task:

research online, discuss with friends and think yourselves how you feel students should behave.

Keywords for internet research: AUP, acceptable use, responsible etc

Once you have some ideas, create a powerpoint aimed at explaining to a year 7 audience what the rules are and why they should be followed. Remember - rules are not all about DON'T - try to come up with at least as many DO's as well!

Potential topics to cover:
respect for others
ownership of work
copyright
bullying
ofensive language
positive cooperation
collaboration


Year 10 ICT

For the second part of this project you have to produce a series of short essays/reports about different aspects of ICT.

Today I'd like to you to research the Data Protection Act

You need notes on this for 2 purposes:
1) As a set of revision notes for your exams (end of year 10, mocks and GCSE!)
As such, copy and paste just isn't good enough - you'll need, at the very least to include YOUR explanaitions of what the different parts actually mean ...

2) Tied in with this is the fact that you have to produce a guide for the film club on what the data protection act means for them - what can they and can't they do with the member details that they store. We'll be discussing this in more detail next lesson, but you need to make a start reviewing the notes that you made for part 1 (Above) and considering how they can be explained to someone your own age.

Try:

http://www.teach-ict.com/
http://www.ictgcse.com/

google for Data Protection Act / data protection registratar

Cover for DP 15th October

All year 11 classes.

As some of you are aware, I went on a course last week run by the exam board on how to mark the coursework that you are working on at the moment. The key feature that they stared was that all evaluations (of suitability of software, hardware, database design, form design, report design mail merge template design etc) need to be related to the user requirements, so these need to be made far more specific…

Here are the things that you need to tweak urgently:

1) Make your user requirement statements more specific: e.g. “add a record” becomes “Mr Smith needs to be able to add member’s details when they join the club”; “change a record” becomes “Danny tells Mr Smith that he has a new mobile number. Mr Smith needs to update Danny’s records” etc.

2) If you are aiming for a C+ grade, you’ll need to add user requirements so that you can evaluate the forms and letters – the improvements that you have made all focus on making them look more professional etc, so you need to add a requirement for solution that you design to be professional looking and match the company/team colour schemes / logos etc

3) If you are going to recommend one PC over another based on the cost, you’ll need to add a user requirement that the system shouldn’t cost a lot …

4) If you have said that you want to be able to produce letters, you’ll need to include a printer in the spec that you produce. You’ll need to find a printer that prints only black and white and another that prints colour – explain which is the better, and why.

Letters to and from Mr Smith.

You’ll remember that I said that you are supposed to be doing this project for real – the moderator from the exam board has stated that you have to include evidence that Mr Smith replied to you in writing when you wrote to him asking for an appointment to discuss his current filing system.

To do:

Write a letter from Mr Smith to you, agreeing to meet with you on the date that you suggested and saying that he looks forward to discussing with you how you’ll be able to help him.

DO NOT write this in your template

Now – print this out and fold it as though it was going in an envelope. Add to your folder.

Cover for DP - Thursday 11th October

11C
Review "ICT and society" section of text book p.209+, answer questions: activity 3, page 217, case study p231-2, question 232-9 in word doc called "theory.doc"

Many of you have left your notes from yesterday on the desk - they are on the filing cabinet at the front of the room. It is certain (since I am writing it) that there will be questions in the Mock exam (in 2 months' time) on the impact of ICT on Society ...)

year 10 B,C,D

Ensure that all the gaps in the template are completed. if you "don't know what to do", try reading the instructions - it does help!

For evidence of different formatting techniques in MB 17-19, you need to show that you have used the master page to format the whole leaflet, tables to lay things out or styles to format your work. EXPLAIN what these techniques do and WHY you have used them.

Open a new internet connection
Go to drupaled/thsweb - this is the school blog/wiki software (Do NOT google for it - type it into your browser as you see it)
login using your school email number (2004xxx) and the password: pass

locate and subscribe to a group - I'll leave it to you to work out which one!
Find your first assignment and complete the tasks.

7S
create a powerpoint on the following topic:

What do you think the rules should be for using the internet in school?

Go to Start/my computer/shared/ict/year7ict/school rules.ppt

For each rule, say why you have you think that it is important

Format the slideshow for students your own age.

Make sure that it is easy to read - do NOT do really fancy backgrounds!

Save your work as"school rules" in your my documents/schoolwork/year 7/ict/ folder.

Thanks

DP

Cover for DP

Thurs Period 1 9S

Continue with spreadsheet model from last lesson.

Todo:
Make sure that all data from info sheets 1-3 are entered – after each sheet is finished, the questions at the bottom need to be recorded on the Answer sheet document.

Once the model is complete, load the test sheet doc from the shared files. Record the answers next to the questions up to question 6.

At question 6, add the new data to the model, save it with a different name and repeat the first 6 questions – record your answers next to the previous answers for the first recording studio.


Thurs Period 2 10C

Review work so far – ensure that everything is complete. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS – they explain everything that you need to do!

Make sure that your leaflet is consistent – that means that the layout should be the same for every page, that you have used the same font, size and colour for the descriptions, titles etc.

You need print screens of 2 double pages – annotate to say what fonts etc you have used – read the instructions for more information!

Think back on our discussion about which web site is most suitable for you to use as a source of information:

Imdb.com (internet movie database)
Film distributor’s site
Blockbuster.co.uk

Who is the audience for each site? Do any of them have an audience in common with your leaflet? If so, explain why you think that this would make if a useful source of information.


Thurs Period 3 10D

Remind Dominic Cowles to go through his work updating the areas for improvement identified yesterday.

Review work so far – ensure that everything is complete. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS – they explain everything that you need to do!

Make sure that your leaflet is consistent – that means that the layout should be the same for every page, that you have used the same font, size and colour for the descriptions, titles etc.

You need print screens of 2 double pages – annotate to say what fonts etc you have used – read the instructions for more information!

Think back on our discussion about which web site is most suitable for you to use as a source of information:

Imdb.com (internet movie database)
Film distributor’s site
Blockbuster.co.uk

Who is the audience for each site? Do any of them have an audience in common with your leaflet? If so, explain why you think that this would make if a useful source of information.


Thurs Period 4 10C

Review work so far – ensure that everything is complete. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS – they explain everything that you need to do!

Make sure that your leaflet is consistent – that means that the layout should be the same for every page, that you have used the same font, size and colour for the descriptions, titles etc.

You need print screens of 2 double pages – annotate to say what fonts etc you have used – read the instructions for more information!

Think back on our discussion about which web site is most suitable for you to use as a source of information:

Imdb.com (internet movie database)
Film distributor’s site
Blockbuster.co.uk

Who is the audience for each site? Do any of them have an audience in common with your leaflet? If so, explain why you think that this would make if a useful source of information.



Thurs Period 5 10C

Create a new Word document called “Theory”

Save it in your GCSE ICT folder

You will need to get a copy of the ICT for You text book from the shelves at the back of the room. As I have mentioned before, you will have to do some theory exams – one at the end of year 10, your GCSE mock at Christmas in year 11, and your GCSE – we need to start putting together notes and doing work towards it!

Review chapter 1 – hardware and software.

You need to do:
activity 1 – to warm up your brains!
Activity 2 – starting to create a set of revision notes
Activity 3 – download, don’t draw a diag of the internals of a computer and annotate.

Web sites that you could use:

www.ictgcse.com

www.teach-ict.com

Blogging and acceptable behaviour on social networking sites

Over 200 students at Tenbury High School have taken part in discussions to come up with a set of guidelines for using social networking and blogging sites in school.

Please read them and think about what they imply – we hope that if the ideas come from students rather than from adults, there is a better chance that they will remember them (at least some of the time!).

At the bottom of this post there is the possibility of commenting on what we have been doing – please feel free to join in the debate.

Student ideas for acceptable use of online networking resources:

• Anything that you put on the internet can be seen by anyone else who can get on the internet (including adults!)
• Remember that this applies to:
• personal details
• postings about what you have done
• where you go and what you do
• photos about you and your friends
• the language you use
• what you say about others
• Things that you post on the net can be there forever – even if you try to delete them!
• Use private messaging for private comments – do not use publicly visible comments
• Using offensive language directed at others can be hurtful and will result in punishments
• People who are trying to insult you are just trying to show off – ignore them, or report the abuse
• Websites have tools to let you report problems - use them!
• Take responsibility for what you write – be prepared to defend or explain what you have written
• Use sensible login details and keep your password safe
• Be yourself – don’t pretend to be other people (it’s creepy!)
• Think how you would feel if you were cyberbullied
• Don’t just copy stuff of the internet and pass it off as your own.
• Report abusive comments and things that you don’t think ought to be there
• Treat people with respect. Do not use postings or comments to harm people or groups
• Don’t abuse the system that you are using

To post a comment, please click on the link below.

Work for 9W

Go to google and use the define:keyword operator to research meanings for the following computer security related terms.

To do this type the word define, followed by a colon, followed by the word which you are looking for.:

Define:hacker

NOTE: There are no spaces on either side of the colon!

You will get a list of dictionary definitions of the word or phrase. Copy and a definition for each word/phrase in the following list into a word doc entitled

“Computer security”

Hacker
Virus
Trojan
Spyware
Scumware
Malware
Exploit
Spam
Adware
Firewall
Phishing
DDOS (distributed denial of service)
Zombie
Botnet

What advice would you give someone to make sure that they minimised the risk from these different threats?




Work for 10 B and C 15th January

Use text books (on window ledge by printer) and web resources:
www.Ictgcse.com
www.Teach-ict.com

… to review the following sections.

Hardware: Input and output

Use google and the define:keyword operator that we used to research security terms, work out what the following devices do. Group them into input devices (send info TO the computer) and output devices (get info FROM the computer)

Concept keyboard
Plotter
Graphics tablet
LED
Touchpad
Actuator
Scanner
LCD monitor
OMR reader
Touch screen
printer
Webcam
MICR reader
Speaker
Microphone
Joystick
Projector
Mouse
Thermistor
MIDI
Bar code reader


Databases review:

Define the following:
Database
Table
Record
Field
Data
information

Use chapter 31 from text books:
How big would 1 record of the table which you have just planned be?


Look at chpt 32: Questionnaires / data capture forms (DCF)

Design a DCF to collect membership details for the table which you have planned.


Work for 9T to follow

work for 11B


What to do:

1) first of all, you have all the work to complete re testing. At the front of the room there is a box with a sample piece of coursework that you can have a look at to check what the exam board considers a* grade work.
2) look in Shared / ICT / GCSE ICT / Project 2 / Mark guides and read through the testing section for information
3) in the shared / ICT / GCSE ICT / Theory there is a file called Software.doc

Use Google's define:Keyword operator to find out what the different terms mean.

e.g. Define:"device driver"

see also:

ICT: GCSE revision books at front
www.ictgcse.com
www.teach-ict.com

Cover for Mr Phillips
Year 10s: Please download this worksheet

Year 9s: Please download this worksheet

Year 11s: Please download this worksheet

Cover work for year 7 students

Monday, 10 July 2006

Task: Produce a news report about a sporting event.

Audience: Students in KS3

Software: PowerPoint

Event: A sporting final – e.g. the world cup or the wimbledon final

Contents: title page

Profile of the two players/teams in the final (2 pages)

Did anything of interest happen in the match? (1 page)

What was the match like? (1 page)

What was the score? (1 page)

What did they win? (1 page)

What was the track record of the teams/players getting to the final?

(1 page per team)

Who did they beat to get there? (1 page)

What is next for the players/teams? (1 page)

Images: Research images on the net – but BE SELECTIVE!

Notes: Your powerpoint needs 11 slides

Use the outline tool to plan what you are going to do, BEFORE you start to write about the event (use the plan above)

Consistency – make your background/colour schemes and fonts the same all the way through

Cover work for year 10 students

Monday, 10 July 2006

Students are working on their coursework. They should ensure that they have completed as many of the following tasks as possible:

• Create database
• Provide evidence of setting up database table using screenshots of everything that they have done
• Entered 30 records into the database
• Planned and annotated 2 forms by hand
• Created their final form in access
• Provide evidence of setting up database form using screenshots of everything that they have done
• Provided evidence that they have spotted an error in the database plan that they made, and corrected it (phone field from number to text …)

Cover for Mr Phillips

Thursday 25th May


Period 1: Year 8 ICT

Things to do:

a) You need to add 2 more pages to your web sites:
1) make sure that you have links to at least 3 websites on the internet
2) make sure that you have thought about consistency - all your pages should have the same background and layout.
3) try looking on google news to se if there is anything in the news about your website's theme. Try adding up to date information about your topic that you have found out about.

b)

Period 2: Year 10 ICT

1) Find details of the cheapest PC system that you can find to buy on the internet. This must be a new PC, and include the following:

Monitor
keyboard
mouse
CDRW
modem

Also, get a price for a cheap printer

You may NOT get a price of ebay.

Copy and paste the details into a word processor. Make sure that you include the price and the retailer from whom you are going to buy it.


2) Produce a summary table like this if the specification:

|component name | details
|========================================
| processor type and speed
| RAM (amount)
| type of optical drive
| Size of HDD
| size of monitor
| type of monitor
| graphics card (?)


Friday 26th May


Period 3: Year 10 ICT

1) Find details of the cheapest PC system that you can find to buy on the internet. This must be a new PC, and include the following:

Monitor
keyboard
mouse
CDRW
modem

Also, get a price for a cheap printer

You may NOT get a price of ebay.

Copy and paste the details into a word processor. Make sure that you include the price and the retailer from whom you are going to buy it.


2) Produce a summary table like this if the specification:


|component name | details
|========================================
| processor type and speed
| RAM (amount)
| type of optical drive
| Size of HDD
| size of monitor
| type of monitor
| graphics card (?)

Cover for DP 2-5-06



Year 11s – period 1 and 3
Anyone who has not already completed the evaluation sheet (Shared – ICT – GCSE ICT – Project 2 – Evaluation – EvaluationGuide.doc) should do so. Work to be printed out and put on my desk with name CLEARLY visible!
GCSE Revision: Use a range of web sites and revision books to revise the following topics:
Effects of ICT on society: consider how computers affect how we work – what jobs have been affected and how.
Laws relating to ICT:
· Data Protection Act
· Computer Misuse Act
· Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
· Health and safety regulations


Year 10 – Period 2
Make sure that USER REQUIREMENTS (inc analysis of how tasks are carried out and problems encountered) are completed.
Continue with the section on collecting information.
Tasks required:
· Write up of how appointment was made
· Details of visit
· Questionnaire to collect information about the organisation (i.e. the facts that you wrote about in the user requirements section)
· Think of different ways that you coud have got the information that you needed (phone, fax etc.) – write up a section explaining how you would have used these methods if you had not been able to go and interview Mr Smith.
· Analyse these different methods – what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these methods (inc. conducting and interview). Decide which method (the one you used?) would be the best way of collecting the information that you need.


Year 9 – Period 5
Keeping safe online: Please ask students to suggest a range of ideas for keeping their personal information safe when going online. They should use these ideas to design a poster for year 6 students (AUDIENCE) to advise them on what they should and should not do.
Anyone who has done this/needs something to do should do this:
Data entry: Students need to open their databases and make sure that they have details of at least 15 cars entered into their database.

Tenbury High School
GCSE ICT revision sites

All this information (and more) is available through the virtual workspace.

• Didcot school - there are a wide range of revision notes available here, including sample tests for you to take based on GCSE questions.
• teach-ict.com - check out the mini sites for each of the sections of the GCSE theory
• ictgcse.com - the whole site is useful, but the general theory section is particularly good, and written for students to understand.
• Some self-marking past papers are available here.

the virtual workspace has resources available from SAM learning and LETTS that can help you too.
Click on Resouces - Information and Communications Technologies to find links to the different sections

I have found a rather useful tutorial for creating a database in MS Access. The tutorial can be found here.

Hope that it helps!

Cover work for Year 10B (19th October, 2005)

Here is a checklist of work that you should have in your folders. Use this lesson to ensure that it is all there:

Evidence of:

• Paper based research (2 sources)
• Use of copy and paste
• Use of number
• Use of clipart
• Planning layouts
• Consistency
• Process of development
• Spell checking
• Saving work (file names and folders)
• Advanced searching using google
• Explanation of what search terms mean

Task:

Just as you did for the clip art, you need to compare different resources that you have found, and say why the sources that you used were most appropriate.

You will need:

Screenshots of:

• Blockbuster showing a film that you have used
• Imdb.com or another film site that is nerdy about films
• A web site produced by the company that made the film.

• Who is the target audience for each of these websites?
• Describe what you think the audience is
• What you think the audience wants from the websites (the purpose)
• Whether you think the website is appropriate for you to use or not (hint – which one is aimed, as is your leaflet, at people just wanting enough information to choose a film to watch?)

Evidence that you have used web based sources if information:

• Screenshot of a page from your leaflet
• A screenshot of that film on the blockbuster website
• Annotation explaining what you can see.

cover for Year 11D (19th October, 2005)

Use this lesson to ensure that everything we have done is up to date.

Checklist:

• User requirements
• Step by step breakdown of tasks
• Problems with current system
• Methods of collecting data – describe/evaluate different methods Explain how you went about collecting your information (times, dates, phone calls etc (make it up!))
• Inputs, processes and outputs
• Hardware - explain main components that you need to think about
• Justify choice of PC system in light of tasks that company wants to do
• Software choice – between access and excel
• Database design doc – including annotations
• Primary key
• 1 to many relationship
• set up the 3 tables in access. (for the widgets table, leave the field types as text for now, and don’t do the validation)

This is a good explanation if what a database is, and how it works:

http://www.ictgcse.com/sub_projects/ictgcse_th_dbase1.htm

If you are struggling to understand how the tables link together, try this page:

http://www.ictgcse.com/sub_projects/ictgcse_th_dbase2.htm

If you feel that you have completed all the above, try picking a topic from:

http://www.ictgcse.com/sub_projects/ictgcse_proj_theory.asp

Make some notes in Word for revision, before the mocks.

NO ONE SHOULD JUST BE BROWING THE INTERNET!

GCSE revision sites:

The following sites are ones which I would reccomend for your revision:

• www.ictgcse.com

an excellent site - especially for the theory (Theory, projects and exercises - General Theory)

• Self Marking past papers

Past exam papers and answers

• www.teach-ict.com

Look at the GCSE - General Theory or Exam links

... and of course:

• www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebytesize/

I hope that this helps!

MisterPhil

Lords Hansard text for 7 Mar 2005 (250307-06): "'On some positions, cowardice asks the question 'Is it safe?'. Expediency asks the question: 'Is it politic?'. And Vanity asks the question: 'Is it popular?'. But conscience asks the question 'Is it right?'. And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular. But one must take it because it is right'."

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws quoting Martin Luther King.

Rather than using Microsoft's Internet Explorer, I have been using a new browser called Firefox. This has just reached version 1, and is way cool!

Firefox - Rediscover the web: "The world's best browser just got better. The new Firefox Preview Release is the award winning preview of Mozilla's next generation browser. Firefox empowers you to browse faster, more safely, and more efficiently than with any other browser. Make the switch today--Firefox imports your Favorites, settings and other information, so you have nothing to lose."

The first in an occasional series, here are some reminders about writing ....

• Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
• Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
• And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction.
• It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
• Avoid cliches like the plague (they’re old hat).
• Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
• Be more or less specific.
• Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
• Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
• No sentence fragments.
• Contractions aren’t necessary and shouldn’t be used.
• Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
• Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it’s highly
  superfluous.
  
  
  Hope that this helps!

Mozilla Thunderbird: "Mozilla Thunderbird - Milestone 0.6"

Skill: National Bureau for Students With Disabilities - Quiz - DDA Part 4 - how clued up are you?: "Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 - how clued up are you?Do this quiz"