Year 10 Thursday 10th September

Good morning, Year 10. Today I am on a course, hoping to get some good ideas for our class project next term. There are two jobs that I want you to work on today:

1. Consultation

For your collections project, you need to "consult the stakeholders". This means to ask questions of the person who owns the collection and anyone else who might care about it. Your goal is to understand the collection as well as possible, and to get some idea of what problems the collector has that you could help with. Good questions start with these words:

• What...
• Why...
• When...
• How...
• Where....

Please write a list of questions for your collector, either my father Frank or a person of your choice. Email your questions to me. If your collector is not Frank, you should also either eamil your collector if you know their email address, or print the questions to take home for homework.

2. Preparation for Multimedia

Next term, we will spend a couple of weeks looking at multimedia, and we will make a story using PhotoStory. You can find the story here. Your job to day is to find (or create using Paint etc) pictures that will let you tell the story. I suggest you use Google images and save the images you find (right-click, save picture...) in a folder called shark story inside your DigiTech folder.

Year 10 Friday 4th September

Good afternoon, Year 10. Sorry I cannot be there today - I am not sick this week but have taken leave to travel out of town for the weekend.

It is hard for me to set relief about our collections project, so I am giving you a lesson out of sequence. It is about pictures in DigiTech, so it is still relevant but does not fit in this part of the course. To find it, go to iNet -> ICT -> Year 10 -> For Students -> Graphics, save in your DigiTech folder and fllow the instructions. Please do as much as you can - some parts are harder than others so if you are stuck on one question, try another one. Please email me (fy@cashmere.school.nz) your work at the end of the period.

Friday 28th August

Good afternoon, Year 10. Today's work is about applications.

Applications are computer programs that let you do specific jobs.
Use this web page to make notes on the three different sorts of interface:

1. Text
2. Text and menus
3. Graphical

Then use the right-hand menu on the same page to make brief notes on the different sorts of applications:

1. Word Processing
2. DesktopPublishing
3. Spreadsheet
4. Database
5. Graphics
6. Presentations
7. Communications
8. Browser
9. Web Pages
10. Email
11. Project Management
12. PIM
13. Integrated & Suites

Then do the quiz.

Your period's work should either be posted on your blog or emailed to fy@cashmere.school.nz

Thursday 27th August

Instructions for Year 10

Good morning, everyone. Your work for Thursday is to investigate Web 2.0. One of the great things about Web 2.0 is that everything can be labelled with tags, also called labels in Blogger, or key words when you are searching. At the top left of my blog, you should see a white box labelled Search Blog. If you type Web 2 into this box and click on Search Blog, you will find all my posts that have labels of Web 2. On Monday March 9th, I posted some questions about Web 2 and used the label of Web 2. You will need to do some research to answer these questions. Please email your period's work to me at fy@cashmere.school.nz

Hardware Task

Your job is to use hardware and software to describe hardware! You are allowed to be creative! You will hand in your work at the end of the period by emailing it as an attached file to fy@cashmere.school.nz

Hardware to use
· Your computer and its attached “peripherals”
· Headset and microphone
· Webcam

Software to use
· Anything you like that is on the school network

Questions to cover are:
Why do computers need hardware?
Find a definition of hardware - copy it and say where the definition came from.
Explain the difference between hardware and software in your own words.
Hardware can be split into four sorts: input, output, processing and storage. Give an example of each sort of hardware.
What special hardware do networks need?
What hardware is used by other sorts of DigiTech?

Things to do with hardware:

1. Use a webcam to take pictures of hardware in the room and add to your work.
2. Use a headset to record your voice talking about hardware. You could add this to your PowerPoint, or save it as a separate file.

Things to do with software:

1. Use PhotoStory to make a video about hardware.

Evaluating Technological Practice

One of the tasks in your Gantt chart is to evaluate your technological practice. This means that you should write a page for your folders responding to questions like these:

• How did your Gantt chart help you to organise yourself?
• How did you use your project diary?
• How could you organise yourself better if you did another similar project?
• How well did you relate to your client and stakeholders?
• How much did your code of practice research influence what you did during your project?
• What have you learned from doing this project?
• How did storyboarding help you to plan your video?

Don't just copy and paste the questions!

Do write full sentences and paragraphs!

Resources

As you work towards completing your video project, keep an eye on the time. We have one CD writer in C3, so you can't all burn CDs at the same time! And if you want to make a sticky label for your CD, there is only one computer that can do this and it has been taking people a couple of periods to do this. I will provide you with a CD. If you want a case for it, you need to provide your own. As I write this, I am thinking that we need a booking sheet for the CD writer and labeller. And it might be useful for you to make a day-by-day plan of what you still need to do to have your project complete by the due date of September 18th.

Year 10 DigiTech Blogs 2

Students in my Year 10 DigiTech class are making blogs to learn about Web 2.0 tools.
You can see the blogs here:

• Aaron
• Adam
• Amy
• Cameron
• Chrissy
• Greg
• Harry
• Jacob
• James
• Jesse
• Josh H
• Josh L
• Kayla
• Kimberley
• Nikki
• Sam
• Tesha
  
• Tom
• Chris
• Kharn
• Mel
• Angelo
• Bradley
• Iyesha
• Robin
• Todd
• Bryden
• Jack

Evaluation

When you have finished making your video, you need to evaluate it thoroughly.
To write your final evaluation do this:

• find your refined brief
• start with a statement of what you have made and who you have made it for
• for each specification in your refined brief, say whether you have done it or not
• for each specification you have not done, explain why
• summarise the feedback you got from stakeholders
• state how well you think you have solved the problem

Presenting your CD

You should give some thought to presenting your CD. Questions to think about include

• how to label it
• how to package it
• what information needs supplying with it

Note that it will be marked by Cashmere teachers and then sent away for external marking with your folder.

Final Video Files

When your final files are completed you will need to put them on to a CD. There is a CD Writer in C3. It is usually in the drawer under the middle table. It looks as though you need to be logged on to the teacher computer to use it, though maybe you can take it to your computer and pulg it in. Joseph is going to be our class expert on using this, as he is the first to get to this point.
Things to consider include:

• Size of your files - will they fit on the CD?
• Names of your files - will they make sense to someone else?
• Storing your CD safely.
• Labelling your CD

Use of Logos

You are required to find out about the terms of use of the Christchurch City Council logo. The search box on their website will help you to find information. You can also read their "Terms of Use".
The Rugby World Cup logo is harder to find information about. The contact details provided are only a postal address in Ireland. There are two versions of the logo for 2011, the official IRB one and the Rugby NZ one. The NZ Rugby Union website offers email contact details, but they do not show the World Cup logos on their home page so may not be able to grant permission.
If you are requesting permission, you could ask on behalf of the class and let us know how you get on.

Flickr for Photos

Finding good quality copyright-free images is a challenge. One option is to use Flickr, but you will need to do this at home as it is blocked at school. Like Google, Flickr has an advanced search option. At the bottom of the page there is an option to search within Creative Commons-licenced content. Check under Additional Information and look to see what the conditions of use are (may need to clcik on"some rights reserved".)

Video Versions

You will be delighted to hear that consultation with Mr Molyneux convinced me that I was making things too hard for you!

Your assessment handout asked for the video to be provided in "two versions (one for the display screens and one for mobile phone distribution)". This is a requirement. What you should be thinking about here is whether your video will look good on a mobile phone screen - you may need to reconsider some design features for this version. Movie Maker and Elements both offer options when you save/export your project as a video. You need to explore the options and decide which is appropriate for your requirements.

Also, note that the CCC briefing paper suggested that it would be helpful to have "two versions of the video, one with spoken narration and one with a musical soundtrack added." If you put this into your refined brief, you need to do it.

Requirements

A number of students are starting to ask me whether their video is good enough. This is not for me to decide. What you need to do is:

• Check your Refined Brief for the specifications - have you done everything you said you were going to do? If not, why not?
• If your Refined Brief does not have detailed specifications, refer back to Briefing Paper 1 for what the council wanted.
• Check your assessment handout for what it requires from the video.
• Get feedback from a range of other people.
• Keep a record for your folder of each of these steps.

I suggest that you do all this before finally exporting/rendering your project files!

Getting feedback on your work

People are starting to ask me to look at their videos. I am happy to do this, but it is important to get feedback from a range of people. Ideally this would include people who are are in the target age group and are not working on the project themselves.

It is also good to have specific questions to ask them, so they do more than just say "great". Some possible questions to ask are:

• What do you think the point of this video is?
• Can you suggest any improvements?
• What do you like best about it?
• Would it make you want to come to Christchurch?
• How clear is the link to the Rugby World Cup?

Video Length

The Christchurch City Council has asked for a one-minute video.
This means that they want it to be one minute long! (State the obvious, why don't you?)
This means that one minute and 30 seconds is too long! And 45 seconds is too short!
I think a reasonable "tolerance" would be ten percent - this means that the video could be shorter or longer by 6 seconds.
It matters because charging for showing on TV is based on length.
It also matters because you need to DO what the client wants.

If it was impossible to do what they asked for, you would need to go back to them with a new proposal. This would involve renegotiating the brief.

Selecting footage

Selecting footage means making decisions for each video clip we have given you:

1. Do I want to use it at all?
2. Do I want to use all of it?
3. What part(s) do I want to use?

The result of this stage might look like this:

ArtsCentre1: no. Better to use a still, but Art Gallery is not going to attract young people much.

Botanic Gardens: yes, but needs trimming at both ends, to give 10 seconds. Would be good to get a shot of canoes on river.

Interesting discussion: Storyboard before or after selecting footage? If you were taking your own footage, I would suggest storyboarding first. However when you have video clips given to you it makes better sense to decide which are good enough to use and how long they are before storyboarding.

Copyright

When you are making something for a real customer and a real reason, you need to be "squeaky clean" about copyright. This means that EVERYTHING you use MUST be either copyright free or your own personal work. If you wish to use something that is copyrighted, you must ask for and get permission, and keep the evidence.
Just so there is no excuse for misunderstanding, EVERYTHING includes

• Video
• Still images
• Music
• And anything else!

And MUST means MUST!

Finding copyright-free material can be a challenge. When looking for still images, use Google Advanced Images Search and under Usage Rights select "labeled for reuse". At home, you could try Flickr - amateur photographers are often keen to share their work.

You may not use mp3 files, even if you own the CD. If you want to read more about the laws around this, try these sites:

• NZ Law Society 2009
• Creative Freedom NZ
• Consumer (this is from 2008, so slightly out of date, but explains things simply and clearly)

YouTube

YouTube is great for sharing videos, but of course you can't access it at school. I went looking at its policies and found a page of terms and conditions that you are agreeing to by "using andor visiting" the website. When I copied and pasted the text into Word, it came to 11 pages and 3914 words! I intended to summarise the main points for you but it was just too hard! You can look at the page yourself at home!

Instead, I found YouTube's Community Guidelines and saved them in iNet > ICT > Year 11-12 >CCC Problem. This webpage goes onto two Word pages and is only 745 words long. And it gives us eight guidelines that are easy to summarise and understand. I suggest using these as the YouTube Community Code of Practice. These guidelines are a good place to start when thinking about the standards that the Christchurch City Council is likely to set.

Gantt Charts

A Gantt chart is a way of managing your time when you are working on a project.
It may show time in weeks or days.
It shows all the jobs that need to be done to complete the project.
At the beginning of the project it shows how long you think each stage in the project will take.
It is useful to help you keep track of where you are up to.

A Gantt chart can and should be revised as things change. If something takes longer than expected, there is less time to spend on something else. If something is faster that expected, you can spend more time on something else, or even finish earlier! It is important to show that your Gantt chart has need adjusting during the course of your project.

Instructions for Monday 20th July were to

1. Open your Gantt chart.
2. Check that you have included storyboarding.
3. Revise so that you can complete everything by the due date.
4. Print an updated version.
5. Handwrite comments about changes needed.
6. Put into your folder - do not remove the old one.

Happy Birthday to the Library!

Christchurch's Public Library is turning 150 this year!
There is a website especially for this event.
As part of the celebrations they are running a competition, asking people to make a 1-3 minute video about the library and upload it to YouTube. The information on the competition page gives some guidelines which are also relevant to our Rugby World Cup video project and may be useful for developing codes of practice.

Videos for YouTube

What makes a video popular?

I read an article in Canterbury that talks about a lecturer at Canterbury University who has put some teaching videos onto YouTube. You can see her videos here. She has used some creative techniques to keep people interested. In the article I read, she is quoted as saying

• "Some of the other YouTube videos in this subject area are quite painful to watch."
• "I wanted to make mine a lot more entertaining and it helped that my son has the creative talent to do that."

Her clips include

• her son's drawings
• anime images
• a dose of humour
• a character, Helen
• voice-overs

She says that keeping the action and narration fast is important, and aims to keep the videos short.

Storyboarding

The idea with storyboarding is that you plan your video, animation or presentation. There are different ways to do this, depending on what you are making and what works for you.
One possible template is provided by the Center for Digital Storytelling. This is a pdf showing ten shots on a page. It has lines for images, transitions, effects, voiceover and soundtrack. If this looks good to you feel free to print it and use it. You can also see an example of a completed storyboard and the story that goes with it.

Action Plans

To write an action plan, you need to do the following things. You can choose whether you want to use a Word table or an Excel spreadsheet or another method of organising your thoughts.

1. List all the steps you need to take a to solve the problem.
2. Put the steps into order.
3. Include testing the solution if you have not done so.
4. Include consultation with clients and stakeholders if you have not done so.
5. Decide on milestones. A milestone will occur after a group of related steps have happened. An example of a milestone might be "All resources have been located and saved".
6. Set target dates for each milestone.

Example Code of Practice: Website Design

Rules of making a good website include:

1. Homepage called index.htm
2. Images in a folder called images
3. Consistent use of colour schemes and fonts
4. Each page laid out the same way with navigation in the same place
5. Text organised with headings, subheadings and lists
6. Images all copyright free, or used with permission and acknowledged.

This list of rules came from my head, but I also looked at these websites to help me:

• http://www.articlealley.com/article_82455_4.html
• http://www.corriswebsitedesign.com/website-design-rules.html
• http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol23/rules.htm
• http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/5rules.html
• http://www.sharpened.com/web/about/rules.html

Relevance to my project

In my project I am making a website for my client XXXX. Because they are going to use this website to get people to join their organisation, it is important that it is a high quality website and I want to follow these rules which are important to me.

Screen shot of work

A screen shot of the file structure would provide evidence of rules 1 and 2.

A photo of your sketched page layout would provide evidence of rule 4 and possibly rules 3 and 5.

Evidence for rule 6 could be a screen shot of copyright policy from an image site, or permission to use from the owner of an image.

Evaluation (written after the project is finished)

I followed these rules carefully. It was hard finding copyright-free images of the ****. Breaking the content of each page up into small chunks was good because I had to make sure that I understood it all. I am pleased with my finished website, and the client says "I am thrilled with what you have done for me. It looks really professional. And I love the colour scheme!"

Screenshots for evidence

In your Code of Practice I have suggested taking a screenshot of your work. For example, when you do the survey CoP, you might screenshot your final survey. You can do this using your keyboard - find the print screen key, usually top right. You might like to use it with the ALT key, or the CTRL key, or try it on its own. What this does is put a copy of your screen (or part of it) onto the mysterious "clipboard". When you go to Word, or any other application, you then paste (CTRL+V) and it will appear. You may need to "crop" your picture - use the Crop tool under Picture Tools to cut off the parts you don't need. Then resize as necessary by dragging a corner handle.

Questions for Christchurch City Council

After writing your initial brief, you need to think about what further information you need so that you can create a good video for the Christchurch City Council. You should

1. write a list of questions that you would like to ask the Council
2. print out the questions with space between them
3. use the Briefing Paper in iNet to answer as many of your questions as you can - there are links to some resources at the bottom of this document.

Any questions that are still unanswered should be kept for when we have a person from the Council come to visit us.

Key Factors and Implications

Key factors are the "factors which have a bearing on the outcome of your project" (Camilla Reith). Another explanation is that they are "elements of a project considered more important than others". I suggest you start by brainstorming all the thigns that you can think of that affect you and your project. If you have more than seven, then group them into related ideas and give each a heading.

In the My Project Management Tools folder in iNet you will find a file called Key Factors.

• In the first column, list your key factors (the headings if you had to group your factors)
• In the next column, explain what this key factor means for your project - what you have to DO or THINK ABOUT.
• In the third column, put a number that shows the priority for each key factor, with 1 being the mots important.
• In the last column, explain why you have given this priority number to this key factor.

Codes of Practice

Remember we talked about the Road Code, and how it is the rules of how to drive well?
A lot of the things we do in the world have rules about how to do them well. These sets of rules can be called Codes of Practice.
While you are working on your project, you need to collect evidence of the Codes of Practice that you have investigated and used. You will collect evidence from two places

1. Research on what the rules are - from the Internet, a text book, interviewing an expert...
2. In your own project, you should show how you followed the rules.

There is a file in iNet that you can use to do this with, called - wait for it! - Code of Practice.
In the top left box, you put the rules in yoru own words, and where you found them.
In the bottom left box, you explain how you have used these rules in your project.
In the top right box you can put a screen shot or other picture of your work.
In the bottom right box, you write about how well you have done this part of your project.

You will need to work on Codes of Practice several times during your project. The one we started tow ork on in class was about writing a survey to collect information. Other possible topics to do Codes of Practice for are

• storyboarding
• copyright
• video editing
• credits
• file management

I suggest that you do at least three relevant Codes of Practice, and show this in your (revised) Gantt chart as happening throughout your project.

Software and Hardware

Software you may wish to use includes

• Movie Maker for making the video - we have some text books to help with this
• Audacity for recording and editing your sound track
• Adobe Premier Elements for working with video - the C3 computers may find this hard going
• Any animation software on the school system
• PhotoShop for working with photos - we have text books for this as well

Hardware available:

• Scanner
• Headphones with attached microphone
• Still and video cameras for use around the school

If you want to take your own video or still photos, you are welcome to do this with your own gear in your own time.

Key Factor Research

When you have chosen your key factors, you need to researach them. You may not need to research every key factor, and each key factor may need researching in different ways.
So, you should take one key factor at a time, ask yourself the following questions, and record the answers - probably in a Word document.

1. What information do I already have about this key factor?
2. What questions do I have about this key factor?
3. Where can I get answers to these questions?
4. What are the answers to these questions?
5. Are there any more questions about this key factor? If so, go back to Step 3!

Key factor interactions

When you have identified your key factors, you need to consider how each key factor affects each other one. You can do this by

1. Finding the Key Factor Interactions file in iNet > ICT > Mr Molyneux > My Project Management Tools.



2. Copying and pasting your key factors down the side of the table.



3. Copying and pasting your key factors across the top of the table.



4. Filling in the boxes for half of the table - see example above.

Briefs: Initial and Refined

Your initial brief should include:

• a statement of the problem in your own words
• who the client is
• who the stakeholders are
• what solution you are going to make

Your refined brief is written after you have done some research and consultation. It will include more details of what the solution will involve - these are called specifications. Also, any things that are definitely required - these are called constraints. You can do it by taking your inital brief and adding more details about the problem and solution.

Year 11 Monday 18th May

Hi everyone,

Sorry that I can't be with you today.

We are starting a new topic. We will be looking at

• methods of advertising and marketing
• techniques of designing and creating multimedia
• using DigiTech hardware and software to advertise and market
• what makes Christchurch special and different.

Today, please work throught these questions, recording your thoughts and what you find on the Internet in a Word document.

1. Define advertising and marketing.
2. What are the similarities and differences between advertising and marketing?
3. Make a list of as many different methods of advertising as you can.
4. For each method in your list, identify good and bad points.
5. Define multimedia.
6. Give examples of multimedia.
7. For each example of multimedia in your list, say what hardware and software are needed to (a)produce and (b)view.
8. Compare Christchurch to one other place where you have been or know about.
9. Find out about and report on viral marketing.

Applications

We are going to spend a couple of weeks exploring computer applications. You can choose do take an applications course in Year 11.
Applications are a type of software. They are computer programs that do specific jobs for the user.
Either in your blog, or in a Word document, make notes from this website about the different types of applications and what each one does. Remember to use formatting features to make your work easy to read.

Colour Theory

Following my visit to the Monet Exhibition at Te Papa, my interest in art has been revived. Ifeel stuck art-wise because I really love colour, but want to be able to draw well before I get into painting. So I am workign on my drawing, and also doing some reading around colour.
Today, my To Do List told me to investigate colo(u)r theory and I have spent a happy half hour exploring the following websites.

1. Artyfactory has a rainbow theme to its colour scheme and offers lessons on colour theory and colour terms. A good starting place for beginners.
2. Color Worqx is a more academic approach, and more subtly coloured.
3. The luminous landscape - use of colour theory in landscape photos.
4. Color Matters offers a lot more than I have so far explored, but has the basic colour theory well-covered.

Year 11 Wednesday 25th March

Hi everyone,

Sorry I can't be there on Wednesday. Here is you work to carry on with:

1. Complete your PowerPoint presentation (on the past, present and future of either cell phone, game system or computer) from yesterday.
2. Check that your presentation demonstrates good design.
3. Post a new blog post (by going to www.cashmere.moodle.ac.nz, logging in and clicking on your user name), attaching your presentation and explaining the good design features you have chosen to use.
4. Start Internet research on your choice of cell phones, game systems or computers. Record sources of information and look for key events and dates that show how the technology has changed over time. Record in a Word document.

Year 10 Wednesday 25th March

Hi everyone,

Sorry I can't be there tomorrow.
Here are your instructions to start on: Find file in iNet - ICT - Collections - DigiTech Booklet Collection and save it in your own home drive (H:).

1. On page 1, fill in your name and form class
2. On page 2, fill in the name of the person whose collection you are doing your project on, describe their collection in as much detail as possible, identify your stakeholders and say how they will be affected
3. On page 3, fill in what questions you need to ask your stakeholders and decide how you will ask them - you may print a one page survey, or email your questions. Do some research on similar collections and record your results.
4. On page 4, fill in what your stakeholders would like in their ideal solution.
5. On page 5, fill in the problem statement, describing your main stakeholder’s problem; under constraints, fill in due date = Thursday 9th April, solution must be on my page of the wiki ; under attributes, describe the special features of your planned solution; under resources, describe what you will need to solve the problem.
6. On page 6, think about something you have planned recently and answer the questions.
7. On page 7, write a list of all the steps you will need to take to solve the problem. Then make sure they are in a sensible order. Split up the jobs so that you know when each is to be done, remembering the due date
8. Use page 8 and 9 to plan your wiki page and any other Internet resources you will use. Add extra pages if you need to.
9. Make your wiki page and other Internet resources.
10. Link your page to and from other parts of the wiki
11. Contribute to other people’s wiki pages
12. Finally, evaluate your solution on page 10 of the booklet.
13. Print out your booklet front page and hand in.

Stakeholders

The word "stakeholders" refers to all the people (or groups of people) who are affected by a problem, an issue or a solution.

Clicke here to practise identifying stakeholders and thinking about how they are affected.

A story

A monstrous shark appeared at Sumner and attacked a surfer.
People of Christchurch were scared.
The lifeguards sent out their boat with stunguns to scare off the shark.
They chased the shark and stunned it, then collected it in a net and drag it into the beach.
Everyone on the beach crowded around to see the shark and congratulate the brave lifesavers.

Post script:
The shark was taken to Lyttelton to be sent to the Chatham Islands for release.

Publishing Your Web Site

You can publish your web site by following these instructions:

1. Make sure that your web site is working correctly inside a folder
2. Right click on the folder and Send To --> Compressed folder
3. Go to home.cashmere.school.nz/mydesktop and log in
4. Under Home Pages, click on Page Uploader
5. Browse to find your compressed folder, click to Uncompress the file, and Upload
6. Click on the name of the folder and then on your main page to view it and find the URL

Note that none of your file names are allowed to have spaces or punctuation in them.

Software

Use the Internet and your brain to help you answer the following questions about software.

1. Find a definition of software - copy and paste and say where your definition came from
2. Explain what software is in your own words.
3. Make a list of different types of software.
4. For each type of software you listed in the last question, give an example.
5. Use Start -> All Programs on your computer to add to your list of types and examples. You may choose to set it out using a table.

For example, an Internet browser is a type of software. An example of an Internet browser is Internet Explorer.

Links that may be helpful are:

• Webopedia
• Software applications
• System software

Setting up a blog

To set up your blog you need to:

1. Go to www.blogger.com
2. Click on Create A Blog
3. Enter your email address (username@cashmere.school.nz)
4. And repeat step 3
5. Enter a password and MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER IT!
6. And repeat step 5
7. Enter your first name
8. Type the letters you see
9. You may need to repeat steps 5-8 until it works.
10. Enter the title of your blog eg "Jane's Blog"
11. Enter the URL or address you would like for your blog - you may need to try different options if your choice if name has been used.

Web 2

What is Web 2?

Questions to answer - either in your blog or by eail to fy@cashmere.school.nz if you cannot access your blog.

1. What is Web 2?
2. Give some examples of Web 2, and explain the purpose of each one.
3. What is a wiki?
4. How are blogs and wikis the same? How are they different?
5. Who writes wikipedia? Do you think you can trust it? Why/why not?
6. What is Flickr useful for?
7. What is delicious?
8. If you have time, experiment with igoogle or netvibes and report on what you do.

Hardware

Computers need hardware!

Questions to answer in your own blog:

• Why do computers need hardware?
• Find a definition of hardware - copy it and say where the definition came from.
• Explain the difference between hardware and software in your own words.
• Hardware can be split into four sorts: input, output, processing and storage. Give an example of each sort of hardware.
• What special hardware do networks need?
• What hardware is used by other sorts of DigiTech?
• Take a photo - not of a person - with a webcam or digital camera. Add the photo to your blog post or your user profile (go to dashboard to edit your profile).
• Record your voice using your headset. Email this file and your blog URL to your teacher fy@cashmere.school.nz
• If you have time: use Photostory 3 to make a video clip and add it to your blog post.

Accessing school email from home

To access school email from home, go to home.cashmere.school.nz/mymail

Answer these questions in your own blog:

• What is CC? What is BCC?
• How do you attach a file in CHS Mail?
• What formatting options do you have in CHS Mail?
• How can you make folders and move emails into them?
• What is the draft folder for?
• How do you add friends to the address book in CHS Mail?

Year 10 DigiTech Blogs

Last Friday, my Year 10 DigiTech class made blogs.
They can be found by clicking here:

• Scott
• MrDuck
• Ami
• Kate
• Hayden
• Atanisha
• Jesse
• Ashleigh
• Ashley
• Jonty
• Emma
• Katrina
• Jack
• Nikita
• Jonathan
• Michael H
  
• Oliver
• Jackie
• Harley
• Josh
• Kira
  

Actv8 Activities

Choose one or more of the following activities to do.

Digital technologies

1. List all the examples of digital technologies that you can find in the magazine.
2. Choose one example from your list and research its history, uses and future.
3. Make a poster about this piece of digital technology.

DigiTech careers

1. List all the careers involving DigiTech that you can find in the magazine.
2. Choose one career from your list and research the qualifications needed, the pay rates and what people do in this job. You might find this web site helpful.
3. Make a poster (or presentation, or web site) about this career.

Competitions

1. Make a table for each competition in the magazine, showing what the prize is and what you have to do to enter.
2. Decide which competition is the hardest, the easiest and the most fun.
3. Have a look on the Actv8 web site and see if there are any current competitions you could enter.
4. Pick one competition and work on an entry for it.

Further Studies

1. Make a list of all the places you could study and all the scholarships you could apply for.
2. Choose one of the places to study and find out more about it.
3. Present the information you found in a way that you can then share with the class.

Articles

1. Pick an article that interests you.
2. Summarise its content.
3. Analyse its layout and presentation.
4. List further questions that you would like to ask about the content.

Actv8 Magazine Acitivities

I am creating student activities based around the Actv8 magazine which we get boxes of at school every now and then. Thinking that there is a lot of learning to be done in each issue, I have written some tasks to choose from. Normally, I would type them up in Word and store them somewhere on my computer, and then have trouble finding them. I thought that tagging my files would be helpful, and then thought I could do that on my blog. The downside is that the tasks will be unavailable when the network is down, which is partly why I was writing them in the first place! So this solution to my problem is only a partial solution.