Year 9 Information and Software Technology Test Generator January 1, 2008
Posted by Steve in Elearning, Information, Web2.0.Tags: Elearning, onlinelearning, testgen, testgenerator
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I will be teaching the Year 9 Information & Software Technology course for the first time in 2008 and I am looking forward to it. I hope to use some strategies that have been written in Web2.0 discussions. The first topic that I will do will be Digital Media but the focus will be on printed media. We will leave multi-media for a later time.
During my initial preparation and research, I discovered my textbook by David Grover was included in Course Compass and that an online presence is a definite possibility. Unfortunately, students need access codes to gain access to the course which will cost $7.60 each. I can afford that to come out of my budget.
Among several facilities, is an application entitled “TestGen” for test generator and the version is 7.4.1. The idea is to create a test on your computer and upload it to the IST course in Course Compass. I did some initial experimentation starting off with 5 multiple choice questions and uploaded them to the site. It worked quite well. I came unstuck trying to create True / False questions. I have not been able to indicate which alternative is the correct response. After several hours of trying different things and combinations, I gave up and sent a question to the Support Team. I did have to wait longer than 24 hours for a reply since it was the weekend. A correct solution was offered but it was NOT straight forward NOR were there a special set of instructions for the True / False type. It was not intuitive.
Technical glitches such as this hurts the online, elearning concept. It has to work if teachers are going to take it up across the curriculum. Course Compass is based on Blackboard but I did not find this out immediately. I assumed a commercial product should be operational and intuitive. Perhaps I will be proven incorrect and should have gone the Moodle route for a learning management system?
Conceptually, I am excited by the possibilities and can see some innovative experimentation happening. Technical glitches, please stay away! Sigh.
Postscript:
- I finally located a PDF file on TestGen where it indeed explained how to indicate which True or False option was correct. It still is not intuitive.
- I spent a long time experimenting with the Matching type question but I could not get it to operate on a web page. It did seem to work when printed out as a page, however.
- Upon checking the Users Manual (PDF file), I found a little phrase that indicates the Matching type question CANNOT be carried out currently on a web page. Now that was a waste of time.
- I think I am safe if I just stick to multiple choice questions and True / False questions for use in a web page such as Course Compass.
- Creating a large bank of questions, that can be dragged and dropped onto a new test is worthwhile pursuing, however, I won’t see the benefits until I teach this unit twice.
Google Talk / Reader: ZAPPO December 20, 2007
Posted by Steve in Information, Musing, Web2.0.Tags: googletalk googlereader socialnetworking blogs
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This may be the only time that I write about a new product that is only 5 or 6 days old. I can see that the product’s use and review is zapping around the blog world at a rapid pace.
Unfortunately for me, I was NOT a user of Google titles but that could be changing. Google Reader is a nifty RSS feed reader that is free. Too bad it didn’t exist before I purchased my first RSS feed reader, Feed Demon, which is now syncronised with Newsgator. However, it took little or no effort to export from Feed Demon my RSS feeds and import them into Google Reader.
Next I downloaded Google Talk. Registering was a bit of a problem because I insisted on using my main email account, not Gmail and I have no intention of using it excepting in emergencies. It took a little bit of preserverance to get Google Talk operational.
John Pederson (via Twitter) added me to his Friends List within Google Talk. John also Shared a number of his specific blog posts through Google Reader which in turn allows any of his Friends to read the specific Blogs as well. Neat. (Google Reader and Google Talk now interact with each other).
This seems to have a lot of potential and ties a lot of loose ends together into a possible central place. I am confident it will be one of those concepts that will evolve as the months progress.
Certainly, as a result, my social networking contacts are expanding at a good rate globally and the contacts are high calibre. I am learning so many new things from them!
Flat Classroom Project Student Awards December 20, 2007
Posted by Steve in Elearning, Information, Web2.0.Tags: flatclassroom web2.0 Ning
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I have been attempting to get involved in the 2007 Flat Classroom Project but I was not able to keep up with the pace of progress by the organisers. They have not one site, but two sites: one a wiki and the other a ning, with the ning being the newer concept.
It was very dense reading and a significant amount of material to assimulate. About the time I thought I had internalised a concept, a new event or activity took place and I was again left in the wake. I had tentative thoughts about involving our school students but I was just a bit too far behind. Regardless, I knew our students were very capable of producing reasonable quality videos.
While I didn’t get actively involved, I did join the Ning as an observer and watched the series of events unfold. The task of the students were to produce a video on a given theme but they had to work with students in other timezones and the vision had to come from two or more different schools.
The students were asked to post a ‘Reflection’ onto the Ning site. As a reflection was posted, I watched their video and left a comment which seemed to be appreciated. The students knew they had an audience.
Below are links to the winners of the Flat Classroom Project:
Winner 1.a.1 Theme: Connecting the World Online
Title: A Ring for Jimmy
Student Name: Amalia B. - LACHSA, USA
Winner 2.c.12 Theme: How the WWW has changed the World
Title: Impact on Life
Student Name: Carmyn S. - LACHSA, USA
Winner 3.b.17 Theme: How workflow software has enhanced productivity and communication
Title: Workflow Software and Students
Student Name: Fatma M. - QA, Qatar
Winner 4.a.20 Theme: The Changing Shape of Information
Title: Semantic Assistant
Student Name: Sarah H. - Westwood, USA
Winner 5.b.31 Theme: Why we should be promoting Web 2.0 tools for sharing information
Title: What is Web 2.0?
Student Name: Betsy B. - Westwood, USA
6.b.39 Theme: Globalisation and Outsourcing.
Title: Who is Affected by Outsourcing?
Student Name: Patty - SAS, China
Winner 7.c.48 Theme: Google Takes Over the World
Title: Google and the World
Student Name: Michael R - MICDS, USA
Winner 8.b.52 Theme: Personal learning environments and social networking
Title: Blog Heroes
Student Name: Zak S - LACHSA, USA
Winner 9.c.62 Theme: Mobile and Ubiquitous
Title: Fun and Convenient World
Student Name: Megan S - LACHSA, USA
Winner 10.a.64 Theme: Virtual Communication
Title: Virtual Communication: Design & Innovation
Student Name: Perola L. - QA, Qatar
Winner 11.b.77 Theme: Wireless Connectivity
Title: No Wireless=No Internet=No Life
Student Name: Amir N. - QA, Qatar
Lad Bypasses Gov’t Internet Filter December 19, 2007
Posted by Steve in Information, Technotrivia.Tags: internetfilter, tomwoods
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I was listening to an EdTechTalk interview that involved one Tom Woods. Tom was the lad that allegedly hacked the Australian Federal Government’s Internet Filter software. According to Tom, he did
not actually hack into the system at code level. He used different techniques to try to bypass the filter which he successfully accomplished. The media blew the event out of proportion. Tom and his peers developed different strategies for bypassing the internet filters used at their school. Tom basically used the same strategies to humble an umpteem million dollar project.
He has become rather famous throughout Australia. During the interview, Tom came across as a level headed 16 year old teenager. Others must have thought so as well. He made mention that a huge amount of media has been clamouring for his input. In addition, various government departments have invited him to join in evaluations / discussions of various aspects of the Internet. Not bad for a 16 year old.
Can a person make a difference? In this case, a 16 year old lad seems to be doing just that.
CSTA 2007 December 14, 2007
Posted by Steve in CSTA, Information, Musing.add a comment
2007 saw myself elected as the President of the Computing Studies Teachers Association as the past President, Glenda, desired to step aside since she had been President for a number of years.
I spent considerable time going through the past minutes and other documents to get a feel as to what needed to be carried out specifically. The core business of the CSTA is an easy one: inservice computing teachers once a term on a Monday evening at a school in the Sydney urban area.
The members voted with their feet and the number of participants at our inservices continued to be between 110 and 140 people at each inservice. The quality of the workshops are the key to the continued, impressive numbers.
A different strategy evolved when it came to assigning sessions to presenters. From research, I emailed several willing presenters that had not been used in the past and they all gave the ‘thumbs up’. However, instead of organising just one inservice, I found I was co-ordinating the three other inservices as well since presenters were not always available on the desired date. Most of the presenters came outside the committee in 2007 and that took some pressure off the committee.
I also took up the option to make use of docs.google.com where I uploaded the proposed agendas for each meeting as well as the proposed session assignments. This allowed for transparency in the decision making processes and it allowed the committee to see what I was on about. This software truly allows for proper collaboration where committee members can have input at their convenience.
The CSTA has been involved with the changes of the current IPT syllabus for a number of years. Thanks to Bill Biddle who provided the continuity for the lengthy process. The end result is a changed syllabus that encourages teachers to focus on practical projects that integrates several concepts. Of course, we hope that the changes will attract more students to our course.
A sub-committee successfully printed out the Certificates for inservice participation over the past three years. Hopefully, the printing will be carried out once or twice a year.
A sub-commitee has been investigating the revamping of the CSTA website which is ordinary at best. Joomla has been chosen as the content management system and the new site should come online at the end of 2007 or early 2008. It was vital that it interacted with the current scripting that takes place in the background.
The new website development had a rippling impact in that the CSTA logo was deemed to ancient and needed to be updated, hence, a new logo was created.
The CSTA was involved in the SIMERR project where we collated a huge number of bookmarks with Delicious. Several people worked on this over a weekend at Bowral. We received some funds from a grant to carry out this task. The funds went to reducing the cost of accommodation and hiring of a conference room over the weekend. A second group focused on the proposed changes to the IPT syllabus.
I attended my first Professional Teachers’ Council where we as an association received a certificate acknowledging the efforts we have given to education over the past year. In addition our nominee, Ellen Sheerin, received an Exceptional Service Award. It was a satisfying evening.
The committee members are the best group of people I have ever worked with and it is very fulfilling to work with people that are on the same page as oneself. It is a good opportunity for me to network with other computing teachers since there are now so few in schools.
2008 sees the CSTA Annual General Meeting moved to Macquarie University where we hope to make use of facilities that may not be found in high schools. It is hoped that we can increase the membership of the committee in the near future.
