Tuesday, October 18m 2011

Introduction

Part of what we are doing in Semester 2 is trying to get you used to studying for tests.

Two tests have supplied you with the questions and answers that would be on the topic. The third and last test gave you the questions, page numbers and asked you to look up and write down the answers yourselves.

The results have showed that several of you are not able to pass the tests – even when you know the questions and answers.

Please consider whether you  are ready to try Year 12. Ask yourself if there might be an alternative to Year 12 VCE that you might be able to do instead. Would you be better suited to a TAFE Certificate course in an area that you are really interested in?

There are some of you that have no interest whatever in doing any school work. I hope you will be able to find something that you are passionate about and that you will really enjoy doing next year.

In class for the next two weeks

The Tuesday class is having a resit for the Chapter 7 Theory test. It will take more time to complete.

Thursday class will be resit for the Chapter 5 Theory Test. It will also take more time to complete.

And the Tuesday class on October 24 will be the resit of the Chapter 6 theory. If you have made it through the previous tests, then this one will be harder for you.

Dreamweaver stuff

For those of you that have passed all the tests – good on you!

Please continue working your way through the Dreamweaver modules.  If you need the Chapter 5 version of the pdfs and support files, just ask me for them.

 

Sunday, October 9, 2010

Does this look familiar? thanks, Meet!

In class this week

Tuesday – continue working on Chapters 3 and 4 of DreamWeaver. Start Dreamweaver Assignment 1 which will be the class work for SAC 3.

Thursday – 45 minute test on your answers to the Questions 1 – 25 from Chapter 7 on website planning, design, creating, and evaluation. Then continue on with DreamWeaver  Chapters 3 and 4.

More Questions for the Test

A few more sample questions for the test on Thursday. No pages given this time! I left my book at school!

Q12. What are some of the different ways that  you could gather data during the evaluation stages of a website that you have built for a client?

Q13. Explain the meaning of file collaboration in the workplace.

Q14. Why are file naming conventions needed when you are creating a website?

Q15. You are asked by your parents to plan, design, build, implement and evaluate a website promoting the Young Liberals political group. Your parents are willing to pay you $1500 for doing this. What steps can you take to ensure that when your are finished, you do not get asked to do a lot more work for free than was originally needed? Think tests and criteria!

Q16. Explain the part that typography plays in designing a good website. And by the way, just what is typography? Is it just a rude word?

Q17. First we had HTML 4. Then we had CSS 2. Then we added JavaScript!Now we have HTML 5. Explain the differences between them and the purpose of each one.

Q18. What is the purpose of a test plan and when do you use it in the problem solving methodology?

Q19.List the advantages and disadvantages of a book and a website.

Q20.  list and explain five of the key elements to the success of a web interface. that means if you look at a web page, what makes it look good or terrible?

Q21. What is a colour and how can it help you in designing a website?

Q22. In your website, you have decided to place the navigation bars at the right hand side and the bottom of the web pages. Good idea or bad idea? Choose one and explain why!

Q23. What are the three file formats that may be used as images? When would you use a gif rather than a jpg?

Q24. What is meant by “web safe” colours?

Q25. What pages would you expect to find on a real estate company website? Hint – start with a home page!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

second try to provide a clear explanation!

(1) Test on Thursday, October 6, 2011  for 45 minutes on Chapter 5 theory questions and answers.

• The test will start at 10:35 and go until 11:20 p.m. anyone that is late for the test will not be allowed into the room until after the break. Late arrivals will have to arrange a time in the next week to sit the test in the morning at 8:30 a.m.

(2) Test on Thursday, October 13, 2011  for 45 minutes on Chapter 7  theory questions and answers. these are questions that will be given out a few at a time

• The test will start at 10:35 and go until 11:20 p.m. anyone that is late for the test will not be allowed into the room until after the break. Late arrivals will have to arrange a time in the next week to sit the test in the morning at 8:30 a.m.

(3) SAC 3 – creating websites with Dreamweaver

• By Monday, October 10 you will have worked through Modules 1 – 4 of either Dreamweaver CS4 or CS5 and created a website called TravelWise.
• When you have completed the Travelwise website, get practice by creating a website for advice to new Year 11 students at RMIT in 2012. Include a home page, a contact page (use my name and email address if you want to) and an advice page (where to eat lunch, which classes are interesting, etc.). Your RMIT advice site should include images and a horizontal navigation bar using either text or buttons.

Introduction

Hi every body. Did you have a good break? I did!

What is coming up?

All work has to be completed by Monday, October 17, 2011.

Had to delete “Howse about dem apples?” as causing more problems than it was worth. But then decided to leave it in. It is actually Brooklynese local dialect!

First, we will have the Chapter 5 Theory test on this Thursday for about forty five  minutes – just long enough to find out who has studied and who has not.

This gives us about four classes to have a go at creating a website for SAC 3. We will start with the Dreamweaver tutorials on Blackboard (modules 1 – 4) for this week.

Are you wondering what we do for the last two weeks? So am I – Twitter, Access, Dropbox. Who knows? Probably Access so that we can be ready for SAC 1 Year 12 IT Apps.

DreamWeaver notes for you

The first time that you work through the notes, you will be creating a website called TravelWise.

Then I want you to go through a second time and create a website that provides information for new Year 11  students in 2011 that want to sign up for Year 11 Info Tech.

Here are some notes to help you with these modules:

Module 1

1. Read Pages 1 and 2 closely. They are important.
2. Work through pages 3 – 15 and try the exercises to become familiar with using DreamWeaver for inserting text and formatting it.

You may be wondering about the difference between the Properties box and the CSS boxers. HTML is used to create the content on the web page. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls the layout of the web page – or where everything is placed.

Don’t worry about this for now. You will get lots of practice as we go along.

Page 16 starts off with how to create a folder for your site.

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS WHOLE 20 MODULES!!

Please read it carefully.

1. Set up one folder on your student H drive. Call it dreamweaver_yourname.
2. Create two sub folders to begin with. Call the first one Travelwise. Name the second one after your event management company that you created for the Media Kit assignment. You might call it alvin_and_the_chipmonks_stupendous_events (if your name is Alvin that is).
3. Save your work every 10 minutes.
4. Back it up at the end of class.

Homework: Create a Contact page for students to email you with any questions that they may have.

Module 2

Module 2 is all about formatting text and adding pictures. Work your way through this tutorial.

1. Save your work every 10 minutes.
2. Back it up at the end of class.

Homework: Create a home page for new Year 11 students in 2011. Call it index.htm.

Module 3

One way of getting the layout of text and pictures that you want in your web page or Word document is to use tables for your layout. You can even use tables within tables to get the look that you want.

So this Module 3 is one of the most important for you to get through this week.

Do not worry right now about switching between CSS and HTML modes in the property inspector panel. It is not until we get up to Module 9 that it all starts to come together.

Homework:  Create a page with your opinions and thoughts of classes that next year’s students might wish to try. Please make your advice positive rather than negative. Please do not tell them how many students fall asleep in my Maths class! Oh, the shame of it all.

Module 4

This module is about creating links between pages and other websites. It introduces you to the idea of  horizontal and vertical navigation bars like what you have been using in your WordPress blogs with different themes.

Homework: You now have three pages – home, contact and services.htm. Create a horizontal navigation bar using text for links that will connect the three pages. Test your links to see that they work.

Zip your folders for your Travelwise and Event Management Company and email them to me by 6:00 p.m. Friday, October 7, 2011.

Want to take it to the next level? (not assessed)

Another good source is Alibaba’s 1stoptutorials.com website. Here is the link to the one for starting to build a DreamWeaver.

Bill, did you forget the Chapter 7 Theory questions?

Thanks for the reminder. Here they are to get you started.

Q1. What are the four stages of problem solving? (page 278)

Q2. List five steps to consider when doing your analysis of the problem? (page 279)

Q3. What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness? (pages 28 – 30)

Q4. How can you use surveys and interviews to help you solve the information problem? (pages 125 – 131)

Q5. How do you define the problem? (page 280)

Q6. How do you decide which information needs to be produced? (Page 280)

Q7. What ever do ASP and PHP mean??? Give an example of how you might use these in your website. (page 281)

Q8. What is meant by constraints? Give three examples. (page 281)

Q9. What are seven steps to consider when designing a website? (page 283)

Q10. Explain and give an example of the following design elements – proportion, orientation, clarity and consistency, colour and contrast, useability and accessibility and last but not least – formats and conventions. (pages 284 – 290)

Q11. Stay tuned for more thrilling and dangerous questions and answers next week!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

In class this week

Complete Steps 3 and 4 of SAC 2.

Test on theory questions 1 – 48 from chapter 5 on data visualisation will be on Tuesday, October 4, 2011. You may bring in a sheet of A4 paper with invisible writing on it. You may not use a photocopied sheet of invisible writing.

Chapter 5 Theory

You will find the answers to the assigned questions on the class wiki. Compare your answers to those and ask about any questions that you may have.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Source: http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=44130&

Step 2 – Design

Due: at the end of class today

Some of you as mid year intake students may not be familiar with a few of the tools used in the design stage – such as paper and pencil! That’s right. you read that correctly – paper and pencil.

The design stage has two parts:

(1) creating the solution design using a combination of:

• data dictionaries,
• data structure diagrams,
• data tables,
• IPO charts,
• flowcharts,
• storyboards,
• layout diagrams,
• mockups
• and a few others used in programming and with databases.

(2) Specifying evaluation criteria (how do you and the client agree that the job is completed?)

These are created in the design step so that everyone involved is aware of what will be the benchmark for success of the project.

in class today – task 2 (design)

(1) Use pencil and paper to create a flow chart showing how you would locate a source for the data. (text – pages 146, 236, 237 and 2910 and website 1 and website 2)

(2) Use Google to find a source of data that includes;

• which continents and countries have access to the internet.
• how has this increased or decreased over the last ten years (2000 – 2010)

(3) Use pencil and paper to create a layout diagram to show the data visualisation that you have come up with. (text – pages 28, 29, 204, 231-233, 292)

(4)  Create an Input/Process/Output table using Word. Start with the information that you need  to be created for your data visualisation. Then think backwards to which data do you need to input to get your information. For example, if I wanted the output to be my address of house number, street name, suburb, state and postcode, then I might show this as:

 Where does Wally Live??

Input	Processing	Output
House Number	Input and saved in memory, processed to give the address details.	Address Details
Street
Suburb
State
Postcode

(5) Complete parts 2 b, c, d in the SAC handout

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Chapter 5 Theory

You will find the answers to week 1 and Week 2 assigned questions on the class wiki. Compare your answers to those and ask about any questions that you may have.

SAC 2 – data visualisation

We began the first part of this in class for Step 1 (analysis). the marking scheme for this is:

• State the problem (2 marks)
• Identify the solution needs (4 marks)
• List any constraints (2 marks)
•  Describe the scope of the solution (2 marks)
• Identify the factors that affect the problem (2 marks)
• Identify the data visualisation needs of the user (2 marks)
• Identify the data visualisation product to be produced to meet the user’s needs (2 marks)
• Identify appropriate sources of data to be produced to meet the user’s needs (2 marks)
• Total of 20/80 marks

So, there is Step 1 completed.

SAC 1 theory test

The theory tests quickly revealed that some of you are not putting in the effort needed for success in VCE. You might want to consider your options for other courses that might be more suited to your needs for 2012.

The theory tests also showed that some of you are having difficulty with your ability to read, write and speak in English. Please consider your options for 2012 as well because you will need to improve your English levels a lot more to cope with the needs of Year 12 VCE.

Overall, I was pleased with the efforts that you put in for the test. Well done, ladies and gentlemen!

 

 

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Source: http://lolako.com/?tag=bizarro-modern-world-cartoon

social bookmarking with diigo

Today we will have a look at social bookmarking.

Social bookmarking is a way to:

1. Let you bookmark your websites that you want to come back to any time, any where, any browser. How about dem apples!
2. Saves you time when you are looking for a new topic by using the bookmarks from other internet surfers. For example, if I type in the tags “many, eyes, tutorials” I get 2,400,000 hits. When I search in Diigo, I get 42 hits that have got comments added.  All the work may have been done for me already.
3. It is easy to set up Diigo for a group work assignment. Team members simply post their promising websites to the Diigo group. Like WordPress, you can set it as private or public.
4. And lots of other goodies

Do this

1. Go to the Diigo website.
2. Watch the video clip.
3. Open up a Diigo account.
4. Do a Google search for “many eyes tutorials”.
5. As you come across any good websites or videos, bookmark the page in Diigo.
6. We will do the group thing on Diigo next week.

data visualisation with Many eyes

Charts five and six from the Exercise 1 are to be done in Many Eyes during class time.

Next, use class time to complete the rest of the exercise questions 1 – 6 about smoking in Victoria.

With a bit of luck, maybe this will persuade some of you to quit smoking.