Crossword puzzle due learn 3 6 and 2

You need to turn in your crossword puzzle at the beginning of the hour.  Please make sure your name is on your paper.

We will review the numbers that we have learned so far, then we will learn the last 3 numbers - the 3 (L2), the 6 (R1), and the 2 (L3).

This is the end of the 3rd quarter - believe it or not we are 75% of the way through the school year!!

Read More..

Learning to create a bulleted and numbered list FA7

Today I am going to show you how you can use Word to create a bulleted list and a numbered list.  Usually, a numbered list is created to show rank (such as your favorite athlete, second favorite athlete, and so on) while a bulleted list is used to show a list that has no rank (a shopping list would be an example).  These are fairly easy to create, modify, and format so Ill show you how you can do that today before starting on your next Formatting Activity.

Again, I want to remind those of you who have vocabulary words to define to get those completed as soon as you can.  If you want to come in here before school or during lunch recess to do that you are welcome - just let me know.


Activity 7.pdf

Read More..

Computer Science and The Digital Native Myth

From the Washington Post this morning: Survey finds gap in Internet access between rich, poor students
So the basic summary - half of students from upper income families have Internet access at home, only 3% of students from poor families have Internet access.

No surprise there. I have students that do not have electricity or running water at home. Food is an issue. It is hard to imagine that Internet is a possibility.

So what does that mean for us in Computer Science education?

As educators we have to challenge the assumptions about digital natives with the push for 21st century learning. Weve have several readings in our professional development recently about digital natives and how they are different from us "digital immigrant" educators.

All true, as far as it goes. Some of my students have had access to technological devices since they were toddlers. They are comfortable with using technology to solve problems. They live in a world with constant access to humanitys  largest storehouse of information. They have never lacked for a fact or access to information. They also do not naturally question a lot of the information they receive.

But that is only some of my students. A real wall has grown over the past five years between the students with access and without.

And that is not to say that project based learning is only good for some students. It is a natural way to teach in computer science classes. I have been doing some version of it since the mid 90s when I started teaching computer science. It has been sort of funny that it now has a name.

But what other assumptions about digital natives are we carrying into our classrooms? As technology has shifted from something we visit to something embedded in the lives of many of our students it is too easy to assume every student in instantly comfortable in our labs.

The access issue needs to inform everything from how we recruit to the examples we use in class. I know I am guilty of using smart phones often as an example of something in the "real world". A real world that only exists for a section of my students. It is probably about like trying to explain English grammar by comparing it to Japanese.

And the question then becomes, is computer science really for everyone?

I say yes, and it is something we may need to fight for. It is easy to attract the kids with access. Really, how hard is it to convince a kid that spent last summer at  robotics camp that computer science might be interesting?

For the rest of the kids computer science classes are the one chance they have of really climbing over that wall. We offer an Ellis Island opportunity for the "digital immigrants" in our classes.

So do we do the easy thing, or the right thing?

Of course I am crazy enough to think that computer science should replace the traditional geometry class for all students. But we can debate that one another day.

Read More..

Vocab quiz 3 Caps Lock key Question Mark key and Tab key

Today we will review at the beginning of the hour for vocab quiz #3.

After the quiz, if you did not finish yesterdays assignment you need to complete it and send it to me.

If you are done with both please open Microsoft Word and turn to page 17.  Youll need to type lines 1-3 on 8B using the Caps Lock key (L4) once; after you complete those lines you need to complete lines 4-6 once on 8B - here you will learn the question mark key (Left Shift + R4).

Once you have completed the above lines go to 8C and complete each of those lines once.  In this section you will learn to use the TAB key (L4) - a TAB allows you to move your cursor to a preset position on the line of writing.  For you, as you will see when you type these lines, the preset position is 1/2" from the left margin.

After completing all of these lines raise your hand and I will come and check your work.  Then you may go to any of the practice sites listed on the Website Resources page of the blog.  Make sure to work with your speed skin on your keyboard for the entire hour!

Read More..

Internet Intranet and Extranet

This is a free online course from Education Portal. The class is Business 104: Information Systems and Computer Applications.

Not all of this applies to the CS Principles class, but the section on the Internet offers some good explanations ns of the Internet at a more technical level.

http://education-portal.com/academy/topic/internet-intranet-and-extranet.html

Read More..

Complete and submit FA9 crossword puzzle due tomorrow

You will have the hour to complete FA9.  Once you are done it should be emailed to me.

Alos dont forget that the crossword puzzle is due tomorrow.

There are new missing assignment sheets posted on the wall - take a look.  We had an extraordinary amount of people NOT hand in FA8 for whatever reason.  If you are done with FA9 you should be working on any missing assignments you have.

Along these same lines, and also regarding FA8, there were many students who either sent me a link to their blog but didnt send me a Word document attached to their email, or who dont have their blog URL in their Gmail signature and did send me the Word document as an attachment.  You had to have both (URL to your blog and Word document attached) in order to get full credit.  I would highly recommend that you check your Gmail to see if this situation applies to you.  AND...if you dont have your URL as part of your signature you should get that done (we did that in class as a group).

If you are done with FA9 and you have no missing assignments I might have you complete the bracket challenge - it will depend on who you are competing against and where you are in the bracket.  If you are not working on the bracket challenge you can go to the practice websites - your speed skin must be on your keyboard!

Read More..

Learn U and C

FOR THIS WEEK:

*Learn new keys:  U, C, W, Right Shift, B, and Y
*Speed Test
*Technique grade
*Blind assignment
*Reminders:  Google doc - passwords; vocabulary postings (due by Tuesday of the week they are on the vocab list)

Today we are going to learn the U (R1) and the C (L2).  We are making good progress towards learning the entire keyboard - keep up the good work!

Read More..

Aneesh Chopra and Big Data Resources

Much to my familys annoyance I listen to A LOT of podcasts. We have two pre-teen girls and they mostly want to listen to "Call me Maybe" right now rather that chit chat.

Heavy in rotation for the past two weeks has been the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Podcast from Stanford University.

This talk by Aneesh Chopra, the United States Chief Technology Officer, is a great overview of some of the ways the US government is trying to keep up with technological changes. I was lucky enough to hear him speak at one of the UVA Tapestry Workshops a few years back when he was still serving as Secretary of Technology here in Virginia. He is always very interesting and I end up walking away with a huge list of thing to look up.

In this talk he includes several sources particularly relevant to teaching the CS Principles Data topic.

• http://www.data.gov/ - free clearing house of data collected by the government. In the talk he mentions several entrepreneurs using this data to start companies.
• Healthcare - there is some good discussion here on privacy and how large data sets can be used to help develop treatments. This was one of the topics my students really responded to this year.
• Education - This gives a great example of high school students using data to save money for their school district by looking at electricity usage.

There is a lot more, these were the highlights. The advantage is Stanford breaks the podcast down into small snippets of video making it very usable in a classroom.

While I am on the subject, if you have the chance to get to one of the Tapestry Workshops you need to go. Great information on expanding computer science to a broader group of students. They have expanded to several universities - so there is sure to be one near you. (I am speaking at UVA briefly this Thursday, but dont let that scare you away, the rest of the presenters are amazing.)

Read More..

Google Docs password file Learn B and Y

We are now starting to have several websites that require usernames and passwords, and I feel it is best to create a Google Doc that will house that information so that you dont have to worry about trying to remember what goes where.  Therefore, we are going to create a Google Doc today that will store that important information (for the websites we have) so that you dont have to try to remember what username and password goes with what site.  You should have information for Classmarker and Wikispaces - well be adding to that list as we continue throughout the semester (and youre certainly welcome to include any other websites that you want that require usernames and passwords).

After completing the password file in Google we will warm up by typing lines 1-10 on 5C, page 11.  Then we will learn 2 new keys - the B (L1) and the Y (R1).

Read More..

Vocab quiz 2 Learn M and X

Today we have our second vocab quiz.  Just like last week we will take the first few minutes to review and then we will be heading to Classmarker to complete the quiz.  DO NOT GO TO CLASSMARKER UNTIL I GIVE YOU THE OK!

After completing the quiz we will be learning the M (R1) and the X (L3).

Read More..

Vocab Quiz 1 learn B and Y

We will take the first few minutes to review for the vocab quiz.  After looking over the words on your wikispaces page we will go to Classmarker to take the quiz.  You shouldnt be on Classmarker until I tell you to go there!

Once you are completed with the quiz you will need to open Microsoft Word and turn to page 11.  You need to type lines 1-10 in section 5C.

Once we get done with section 5C we will move to page 12 and learn the B (L1) and the Y (R1).

Read More..

Data Mining And Dsp question bank

i have uploaded Data Mining And Dsp question bank.....

file size:500kb

clik here to download

NOTE  :veriy the syllabus and read it...there may be slight difference

Read More..

GPS video review all keys learned learn P and V

We are going to start today with this video on GPS.  Again, if you have GPS as a vocab word you may want to take what they talk about here and include it with what you post on the Wikispaces page.

Today we will review all of the keys we have learned so far.

We will also learn the P (R4) and the V (L1).

Read More..

Learn Q and comma start Formatting activity 1

We will begin today with learning the Q (L4) and the comma (R2).

Once we complete learning these two new keys we will begin the process of learning about the first formatting activity and the formatting toolbar in Word.  Because we will be working on a Formatting Activity tomorrow in class (after the vocab quiz) you will want to bring your flash drive so that you can save your work to it.

We also will spend a little bit of time today talking about how to upload a file to your Google Drive, because this will also be a procedure you will be employing frequently throughout the semester (as we work on the formatting activities).  

Lastly, dont forget that tomorrow you have a vocab quiz over the week 2 vocab words (Hardware #2).

Read More..

Vocabulary technique and new keys

With the long layoff, we have several things we need to cover.

1. Vocabulary - we will still have our regularly scheduled vocab quiz this Friday.  In order to keep things on track we have to stay with our original schedule for quizzes.  However, I will add an additional day for those who still have not posted their definitions.  This means that for those of you who have not completed this it MUST! get done by tonight.
2. Technique - we will have a technique grade again this week, even though it is a short week.  One thing regarding technique grades - if you miss the majority of a week when we have technique I will take the next technique grade we have and double it.
3. Our main priority continues to be to learn the keyboard.  We will add in some other things as we go, but until we learn all of the keys learning and practicing will be the major emphasis of things in class.

Today we will review the keys we have learned and add in the U (R1) and the C (L2).

Read More..

Learn Z and colon practice websites

Today we are going to tackle the last letter of the alphabet...and also the last letter that we need to learn - the Z (L4).  Additionally, we will also learn the colon (Shift + R4).

After learning these two keys we will reward ourselves for our hard work on learning all of the keys to the letters of the alphabet by using the practice websites on the blog.

Read More..

Weaving Binary and Peeing in Buckets

Weaving! Today was craft day in CS Principles. We are starting binary numbers - and if you think weaving in a computer science class is odd, Ill have you know that one my favorite computer science book ever was A Computer Science Tapestry by Owen Astrachan. It totally relates.

I borrowed a frame from our art department and set up the warp using this description:

I used cotton for the warp and wool for the weaving. Using a  needle and thread I got us started, then we passed it around and everyone took a turn:?

So, why weaving in computer science? Binary is the mast basic way of communicating weaving and knitting patterns. Think knit - purl - knit -purl. In weaving it is over - under - over - under. Alternating rows of over - under gives a small checkerboard pattern. By changing this we get different patterns in cloth.

Houndstooth Pattern

This brought on a whole load of questions, and we did get off topic a bit. One kid brought up that the Romans used urine to dye fabric...and in fact To dye animal fibers you need an acid to fix the color to the fibers, which is why Kool Aid can be used to dye hair, or wool. Uric acid was the first commercially available chemical. Long time ago folks used urine to do indigo dyeing, which meant collecting a lot of the stuff. In a bucket, in the barn.

We did finally get back on track and watched a video on Jacquard Looms. I know we always use the examples of punch cards coming from looms, but really who cares? Today was the first time in all the years I have taught this that it mattered at all to the kids. Doing the weaving first made them really ask a lot of good questions about the loom. And the idea of storing a pattern and algorithm in a binary system is the basics of everything we do.

?

The final Product, its a bit lumpy, but it is made with love.

They really got into this and had lots of questions. Had I known I would have set everyone up with a loom so they could make their own. Might be an interesting extension to give them a pattern in binary and see what the design ends up being.

After the weaving we started on binary numbers. Last class we spent about 20 minutes doing an activity covering how base ten numbers work. Today for the fast start their question was "if you only had 1s and 0s to represent numbers how would you represent 0, 1, 2 and 3?" Lots of good debate over how to show certain numbers.

Last we made our Analog Binary Calculators that well use the next few classes as we go more in depth on how binary works.

Thirteen!

Update: Here is a post about the weaving program at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan. I got to see the Jacquard loom in action last summer when I was there for Maker Faire.

Read More..

Review all keys learned home row H E learn I and R

Today we are going to review all of the keys weve learned so far.  Well do that by working in Word and typing from page 5 in the book.

After spending some time reviewing we will add two more keys to our "repertoire" - the I (R2) and the R (L1).

Generally speaking, if you miss a day when we learn new keys the next day we will spend some time reviewing the new keys we learned.  So for those who are gone you can use the following day, during what would be a review time for everyone else, to learn the new keys. This should be beneficial in that if you miss a day you wont need to come in before school to make up what you missed - you can just use the "review time" to make up learning the new keys.

Read More..

Review keys learned and learn T 10 Facts about me assignment due tonight!

To start today we will review the O that we learned yesterday.  After reviewing that key we will be learning the T (L1).  Remember, after today you will have already learned 50% of the letters on the keyboard!

Once we get done with the above we are going to take the short time we have left and review.  We are going to use a couple of different websites to break up the monotony and get out of using the book.  Heres the first website:

Lesson 1

Once you get done with Lesson 1 go on to Lessons 2 and 3.

If you complete the above you need to go this next website to practice:

Sense-Lang.org

On that website you can complete any of the lessons from Lessons 1 - 5.  If you complete all of these lessons you need to continue on to the following website:

Free Typing Games

You can work on Lessons 1 - 4, 10, and 15 on this website.

REMINDER: 10 FACTS ABOUT ME ASSIGNMENT DUE TONIGHT!

Read More..

JPG and GIF video Pizza menu handout schedule

Todays video will explain the difference between what a JPG and a GIF file are.  Ive already said in class a couple of times what a JPG is, but you may have forgotten.

Here is what the schedule for the rest of this week and next week looks like:

Tues. Dec. 9 - video; introduce Pizza Menu assignment; handout pizza menu instructions
Wed. Dec. 10 - video; Pizza menu assignment
Thurs. Dec. 11 - video; Pizza menu assignment (Mr. Pardoe gone 1st hour)
Fri. Dec. 12 - Vocab Quiz #10; Pizza menu assignment
Mon. Dec. 15 - Pizza Menu assignment
Tues. Dec. 16 - PIZZA ASSIGNMENT DUE!!!!
Wed. Dec. 17 - LAST DAY TO HAND IN ANY ASSIGNMENTS!!!
Dec. 18 - Games???  Movie???
Dec. 19 - Games???  Movie???

Read More..