By: Aylani

Read More..

Today we are going to try and embed your video(s) in your blog.  The first thing that you will need to do is make sure your video is loaded into your class/hour group on GoAnimate!  Once that has been taken care of I can then copy and send you (through email) the embed code that you will need to post to your blog (some of you might notice that you have already been sent the email).

Additionally, when you receive the email that contains the embed code from me you will need to forward that to your partner since they will also need to embed your video(s) on their blog.

To complete the Internet Safety project you will need to embed your video(s) on your blog.  If you have only one video you will embed it in one blog post - if you have more than one video you will have to embed each video in a different blogpost.  Once you have embedded all of your videos you will need to send me an email that contains the names of you and your partner(s), as well as a link to your blog and your partners blog.  Here is what I would do if I were Jimmy Fallon:

Mr. Pardoe:

Here are the links to our groups blogs for the Internet Safety project:

Jimmy Fallon - tonightshow.blogspot.com
Tina Fey - funnylady.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Jimmy Fallon
Tonight Show host

After completing this, what I want you to do is choose a practice website to go to and practice.  Use your speed skin while you are practicing.

Read More..

Today is going to be pretty basic.  Well review all of the keys weve learned so far, and then well add two new keys to the mix - the N (R1) and the G (L1).

Read More..

The crossword puzzle 1-6 is due today at the beginning of the hour.  If you have handed in the crossword puzzle you need to complete any missing work and get it handed in.

If you have everything done you can go to the following website where there are Halloween games to play.  The rule for today is that you can go to this website, but you are not allowed to click on any other link once you get to the game you are trying to play.

Halloween website

If you decide to go trick-or-treating tonight, stay warm, and have fun!!

Read More..

As always CS & IT was amazing this year. I got back from California Wednesday night. Our presentation about CS Pricniples went well. At least I assume it did. Lots of good questions and no one threw anything.

Every presentation I sat in on was great. Ill summarize those later when I am a bit mor caught up and my kids stop asking who the strange lady walking around the house is. All the presentations are here.

Of course one of the best parts about the confernece is seeing everyone. I still find it a bit funny to talk to folks that wrote the books I turn to all the time in class. I have not yet asked anyone to sign anything, I dont want to come off as too stalker-ish.

We are still hard at work planning our own Virginia conference this September 28th. Lots of fun things planned for everyone. I hope to bring a small slice of the energy from CS & IT back home to Virginia.

Read More..

I have had a few CSTA folks ask, so here are some tools weve been using for the CSTA - Central VA Chapter.

The hardest part of running a chapter is communication - who is a member? How do we let folks know about meetings? I have found this collection of tools really helps.

• Dominoes Pizza App - because pizza makes things better. It also lets you save a standard order to speed things up. We have some gluten free folks, so we use Dominoes. Insert Foodstuff of choice.
• Doodle Poll- lets you easily poll several people to find a common meeting time. We use this when the leadrship team needs to meet.
• Evite - We use these for chapter meetings. It really helps since it lets folks RSVP so you have an idea of how many folks to expect.
• Facebook - I put all the links here and meeting info. A lot of folks start with Facebook searches.
• Google Contacts- I keep our membership list here and have a canned response saved every time we get a new member.
• Mail Chimp - We use this to create a membership form. In hindsight I could have used a Google form too. Here is what the page looks like.
• Wordpress - This is our chapters main landing page. I have it set so I can post using emails, and this email is included in our distribution list, so any updates or Evites I send to the chapter are automatically posted on the blog. Warning - dont put personal phone numbers in these emails, not that I have done this or anything...

Read More..

For those who have vocab definitions due please remember that your definitions needs to be posted to the Wikispaces webpage by tonight!

We will be working on our Internet Safety project during class today.  I have new login information for you - please be sure to write this information down!!  You will have to start over with a new video, but you should be ok because you would have only had a maximum of 30 seconds from your last video.

Read More..

I was at Grace Hopper two weeks back as a part of teh CSTA leadership Advocacy meeting. As always lots of great information.

I spotted this video posted in LinkedIn earlier today - it is a great view of the types of jobs available in tech, and how girls fit in to the picture.

Google Loves Grace Hopper

Read More..

THIS WEEK:

*Formatting Activity 2
*Formatting Activity 3
*Learn new keys:  the numbers (across top of keyboard)
*Speed Test
*Technique grade
*Vocab quiz #4 (list is SOFTWARE)

One note from last week (this will be important as we go forward and continue to work on Formatting Activities) - once you submit a formatting activity and I grade it if you do it correctly you will NOT get an email in return; however, if there is some part of the activity that you do not complete correctly I will be sending you an email with details on what you didnt do correctly.  In most cases you do not need to respond to these emails - I just send them to you so you know why you got the grade you got.  There may be an occasional case where you need to resend me something, and if thats the case Ill mention that in the email.

This is another week of vocabulary, and this weeks vocabulary list is on software.  If you have vocab definitions to complete they should be posted by Tuesday night.

We are going to start today with working on Formatting Activity 2.  When we do these activities they will be embedded on the blog (you can see it below); on most days I will be discussing with you what you need to do to complete the formatting activity correctly, but if I see people working on the assignment while I am talking and explaining how to complete the formatting activity I will be taking 10% off of your grade.  Do not start working on these activities until I tell you to start.


Activity 2.pdf

Read More..

The video we are going to watch today will help you to understand a little more about an amazing piece of software called Photoshop.  This is used in many different graphic design careers, and it is easily the most dynamic image editing software on the market.

After watching the video you will be working on completing the Funspots formatting activity in Excel.  You will have the entire hour to work - this will be due tomorrow.

Lastly, for those of you with vocab definitions to enter on the Wiki spaces page, that has to be done by tonight.

Read More..

          
The modern world lives on computers, which became an indispensable element of our society and everyday life. However viruses, spyware and adware often inflict irreparable damage to computers not only by erasing valuable data system but also by the crash of hard disk in some cases.

Adware is actually a software that displays advertisements in the form of pop ups, banners, pop-unders and promotional materials often with adult content. Some of these are extremely harmful adware as is often rummage through your browser that hinder the activity of your privacy to a large extent and cause more harm than just taking you to certain websites. Adware gathers information on websites youve visited, and slows your computer as a shipping line can become frustrating. They may even change the settings on your computer. A adware blocker can stop this situation.

Some of adware are so powerful that they often have control of your browser. May They even send you to another Web page without your permission of course. Often, adware add toolbars in the browser window you unintentionally. They use cookies to track your personal habits and sometimes even personal data such as credit card numbers, social security number, name and address and a host of other things.

Adware is blocking software that blocks adware jeopardize your privacy. There are different types of software blocking adware is available on the market. But when installing an adware blocker, you need to know to be appropriate for you. There are different magazines, websites and also experts who can give you information on apt the myriad types of adware blocking programs that can be purchased to protect your PC against the code of this vicious circle.

After acquiring a good adware blocker you must ensure that the software is updated regularly. Because blocking a adware fails to perform effectively if it is not updated on a regular basis. So get a adware blocker that you know will deliver results for you, and keep updating, and you can be sure that your computer is secure.

Read More..

By: Jaquwan

Read More..

Please hand in your crossword puzzle - when you do make sure your name is at the top of the paper.

Today we are going to do a little competition, and instead of trying to describe it here I will explain what we are doing in class so you have a better idea of what you need to do.

Read More..

I will be handing out crossword puzzle 1-6 - it is a review of all words on lists 1 through 6 and is due Friday.  As usual, if you get it done before Friday you are welcome to turn it in early.

Today we are going to begin creating your blog.  We will need to go to Bloggers website - www.blogger.com.  This is going to allow you to be creative to a certain degree, and we will also have some assignments that will be required to be posted to your blog.  Since we are doing this at school you will have a few rules you will have to follow:

• Your blog will need to be school appropriate at all times
• There will be no games on your blog
• You will open your blog (or be on your blog) ONLY when you are told to.  You will not be on your blog during class changing designs or posting information (or for any other reason) without permission
• You are responsible for EVERYTHING that is on your blog, so be careful with what you do
• Once the semester is over you can do with your blog what you want.  You are the owner/creator, so you have full power to use it as you wish (continue to use it for whatever purpose or completely delete the blog)

Read More..

Here is another video for this weeks vocabulary:

STARTING TODAY: ANYONE CAUGHT WITH THEIR SPEED SKIN OFF OF THEIR KEYBOARD WILL LOSE 10% ON THE NEXT ASSIGNMENT.  YOU WILL LOSE 10% EVERY TIME I SEE YOU WITH YOUR SPEED SKIN OFF THE KEYBOARD, SO IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOSE MORE THAN 10% IN ONE ASSIGNMENT.


If you have not yet finished FA6 you will have class time to get that done.  If you are done then you need to finish any missing work that you dont have turned in.  I have not yet graded FA5 so if you did not complete it you need to get it turned in ASAP.  If you dont have any missing work then you need to complete the Alice tutorial from Monday - here is the website again:

http://www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice09/tutorialsAlice3/gettingStartedTutorials/witchCauldron/witchTutorial.pdf

Tomorrow is obviously the last day before Spring Break and our vocab quiz over Technical terms - lets make sure to end the week on a good note and go into Spring Break with a good feeling!

Read More..

(This is a day by day of the Data: Lets do the Numbers Unit in CS Principles. The overview is here.)

So far the Data Portfolio has gone really well. Students are excited about their data sets and questions. Today we moved on to using these data sets to explore the questions they posed last class.

Number Crunching on the Eniac

Today I also realized I have been worrying about this too much. I was coming at this as a math major that hated statistics and absorbed as little of it as possible. I was worried about all the high end statistical analysis they need to do. Really I was making it too complicated. 

By giving them some positive experiences with data early in the unit, and steering the process of asking questions and selecting a data set they were in a position to handle the computation part of it with minimal trouble.

I have also realized there are some institutional barriers to getting this portfolio done. Some things teachers really need to think about ahead of time:

• Computer Equipment and software. Due to budget cuts we still use Office 2003. Students have had difficulty with some of the larger data sets and Excel.
• Internet filtering: Many data sets were blocked by our school filters. Also sites like Google Docs  are blocked, which is making collaboration between students difficult.
• Limited storage space on the school network makes it hard to store the datasets. 
• Many of my students do not have Internet access at home. In addition they live an hour or more away from school and staying after is not possible for many families. This is limiting their ability to collaborate outside of school. I am having to provide a lot of class time for them to write.

Bumpass Virginia - a real place

(You can see all the CS Principles documents here)

Here is the listing of what we did:

• Work with Partner: today they started looking at their data and answering their questions. Today was a half day due to Kindergarten registration so we only had 45 minutes. Several groups are having to come back to the lab to finish up.
• The prompt for the Data Portfolio rubric is:

apply computational tools and techniques to answer your questions, e.g., by finding patterns in the data, by transforming or translating the data, or by finding connections between the data and other sources of knowledge

Read More..

In case youre hungry and want to order pizza or food with delivery at office or at home , we have from now available and an application,developed for iOS and Android."Pizzicato" is called and is made of Ascend
NetSolutions. The application has been downloaded of Google Play and App Store,before the official announcement.

Immediately after the user place an order,this is contacted by phone of an operator Pizzicato which will confirm delivery.

The applications can be downloaded on phone : for Android & for iOS.

Read More..

What is Robotics


Lego Robotics


Institute of Robotics

Read More..

I have been asked to share this - I usually do this during my second unit in APCS Principles - The Internet Unplugged.

Writing is a big part of doing well on the new Performance Task assessments for the course. I have found this activity to be a great way to get them writing. I do not grade for grammar or spelling at this point. I want them writing, we can work on mechanics later.

---

One activity that works really well to get students writing is an online debate using a discussion board. The point of this activity is to get them used to thinking and debating a topic and responding to other students. In the beginning students tend to take a very surface approach to topics. Debating lets them really delve in and explore the why behind the points they are making.

This activity works well in several areas of the APCS Principles curriculum. It is simple to grade and really gets the students engaged in writing.

To get them ready we play a game in class to get them used to pros and cons, then we debate a current event topic online. The in class debate topic does not necessarily need to relate to computer science. For the online topic I usually pull a current event that relates to something like privacy or online ethics.

The in Class Game:

Have the students line up into two equal lines. Make one like pro and one line con.

Then explain the rules:

• the two lines take turns
• after a student goes they move to the back of the line
• if you are in the pro line you must be for the resolution, if you are in the con line you must be against it, no matter your own personal opinions
• whoever is at the front of the line earns a point for every time they
• add a new point or
• rebut a point made by the other team
• No points are awarded for repeated points or responses

Once they understand the rules reveal the topic reveal the topic. As they take turns keep score.

Topics that work well are things like:

• Resolved: the minimum driving age should be raised to 18
• Resolved: cell phones should not be allowed in schools
• Resolved: social media sites should be limited to people over the age of 18

As you move to the online debate a similar format works. In addition students may earn points by by responding with a related fact as long as they provide a link to a reliable source.

I usually let the online debate go on for 3 - 5 days. In the end you can add up points and declare a winner. You can even post a daily point tally. I do usually try to keep the total points close to keep everyone interested.

For topics for the online debate try to pick something currently in the news. The first time I did this activity Congress was debating some Internet piracy legislation that was being heavily covered in the news.  Computer Science is constantly in the news there is almost something in the headlines related to the Learning Objectives.

Read More..

So we are wrapping up conditionals in the CS Principles course. We have come so far this year, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Part of me cant believe how much we have covered, and part of me wishes there was more time. I suppose something always gets cut.

Anyway, my goal this unit is to teach simple if thens, throw in some Boolean conditionals and relate all this to digital circuitry ala logic gates. Our final project for the unit will connect this to the Simulation part of the Abstraction Big Idea.

No small task.

For now I am stuck with C++, we have an existing curriculum I am doing the pilot in this class, so I have to get the students through arrays in C++. No wiggle room there. I am ambivalent about C++, it is a great language and I love working in it, but it is not the best vehicle for teaching good programming. It is fiddly to say the least.

On the other hand- BYOB Scratch is a great teaching tool. My original approach this year was to do Scratch first, then transition to C++. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

About two weeks back we were having a hard time getting though the classic leap year problem. I have taught this for years, and typically some kids get it right away, and some kids never fully get it. I had one of those "well, duh" moments, and we switched over to scratch. Within 10 minutes every student had a working leap year tester, could explain why it worked, and could explain how to choose good test data for this problem. We then went back to C++ and used the Scratch visual to build our C++ solution. Amazing!

So this will be my approach next year. Scratch as a prototyping language for C++ rather than two distinct topics. This will let us hit the coding about 6 weeks earlier next year, and if the last two weeks give any indication they should grasp the C++, and the underlying concepts, much faster.

Read More..

This has gotten to be a bit of an obsession over the past few days. Using paint to create electric circuits.

Seriously, it is all I can think about. I am making a lot of  "this sweater is OK, but it would be awesomer with some LED light bulbs" statements that make my children hover between interest and a deep tween embarrassment that only mothers can induce.

It started with a CNN article on Pens that can be used to draw circuits. I know, great idea.

Except they are from the UK, and kind of pricey (12 pounds which is about $18 today). And according to my sources on twitter the conductivity isnt great once it is dried over long distances. That said the site has some nice classroom kits that include thumbtack batteries. There has been a hollow empty void in my life that is filled now that I know thumbtack batteries exist - you know what I mean?

Also according to the website these pens are available in Radio Shack, so good for those of us stateside.

Think Geek Conductive Paint

For about $30 you can get a 50ml tub of paint from Think Geek. I have visions of renumbering the computers in my lab using this ...possibilities are endless.

This appears to be the same company, so it is probably the same stuff that is in the pens, but it is a better price point for just the paint.

I also found a video describing how to make copper based conductive paint. Sounds fun, but given my overall free time...I might just head to Radio Shack.

MIT also has some resources listed:

• A Kit of No Parts has a great list, including sources

One of the main reasons I am interested is the application for wearable electronics. I am curious to see if the paint can be used to attach conductive thread to the power source. Ill let you all know if it works.

Need more inspiration? Here is a video of interactive wallpaper made with conductive paint. It plays music.

We do some very simple circuits and logic gates in the APCS Principles class suing play-doh. The play-doh works well because it can be changed and experimented with very easily, but the stuff dries out so nothing can be taken home. This paint would make a nice extension, especially if they can make something to take home. Prototype in play-doh then paint for permanent.

Read More..