Library Competition Developments

Thinking more of developing a Library Comp,

ideas Follow

Website

Bookmarks

Things

subject choice

Changes made,

I will have to take down the subject choice system for a little time today to fix up a bug. We do not allow or was it in that the subject codes could be changed. Subject codes are normally set in stone and have been for the last up-ten years. This affect all year 12 business classes. This will require the whole subjects table to be exported, changed and imported back in.

Another things, after all the science subjects were allocated to there teacher in change, two weeks ago, I have now needed to do this for another department as well. I probably should have created a all in compassing department id that multiple people could have used. Oh well. We all learn from our mistakes.

Email that was sent to all HoDs...

Due to a number of requests for changes to the option choices online program, this will have to be taken down for a hour to sort out re-coding of some subjects as well as adding extra users. This will happen between 4-5pm today.

Sorry for any troubles, as usual any issues please email

This was managed without having to do a full export, instead it was easier than that, I was trying to rename a 12ACA subject to 12ACC before the 12ACC subject had been rewritten to 12ACF. Working this around fixed the issue. I still took it down to do some maintenance on the software and to do a full export, drop and import, just to make sure the backup will work if need be.

Email

All systems are back up and running, if any Authorized staff made any changes to their subjects between 4:00 and 4:35pm these may not have been changed in the database.

All the functions on the staff and student interface have been successfully tested are are functional,

Sorry for any inconvenience during this time.

Google Maps and Copyright

I have been watching a listserve and a conversation about the use of Google Maps and copyright came up. I read and sort of past it off. though I have been thinking about my project a little more and google maps is going to be a part of it.

Does anyone out there know what the Copyright regs are that apply to googlemaps? Is it legal to put a copy of a map on their websites. Could it be an image or does it have to be a link? Does the information of where the map came from have to remain if it is an image (I'm assuming so).

Thanks

Another person brought up the fact that copyright does not apply if it is in an assesment.

Earlier discussion still applies I believe. From the Act 1994

Things done for purposes of examination Copyright is not infringed by anything done for the purposes of an examination, whether by way of setting the questions, communicating the questions to the candidates, or answering the questions.

This suggests to me that students don't need to do anything since Copyright Infringement can't happen when doing an assessment. ie answering the questions.

What do others think?

The reply

I realise that for exam purposes it can be used, but some of these kids are building real sites for real people.
Cheers

The last post probably provided the most useful information

Google maps have a Terms of Use section (very bottom right of their maps). Lots of gobbledegook, but it's worth the students reading it. There's also a section (once you go into the Terms of use bit) about permissions etc.

This is the stuff that I will need to point the students to, they will have to include as part of there key factors information about copyright, this is also a point that they will have to make about the content of the books that they will be using to populate the website.

Terms and conditions of the google maps are here.

2. Restrictions on Use. Unless you have received prior written authorization from Google (or, as applicable, from the provider of particular Content), you must not:
(a) access or use the Products or any Content through any technology or means other than those provided in the Products, or through other explicitly authorized means Google may designate (such as through the Google Maps/Google Earth APIs);
(b) copy, translate, modify, or make derivative works of the Content or any part thereof;
(c) redistribute, sublicense, rent, publish, sell, assign, lease, market, transfer, or otherwise make the Products or Content available to third parties;
(d) reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise attempt to extract the source code of the Service or any part thereof, unless this is expressly permitted or required by applicable law;
(e) use the Products in a manner that gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of any Content, including but not limited to numerical latitude or longitude coordinates, imagery, and visible map data;
(f) delete, obscure, or in any manner alter any warning, notice (including but not limited to any copyright or other proprietary rights notice), or link that appears in the Products or the Content; or
(g) use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with (i) real time navigation or route guidance, including but not limited to turn-by-turn route guidance that is synchronized to the position of a user's sensor-enabled device; or (ii) any systems or functions for automatic or autonomous control of vehicle behavior

Been busy

It's been busy over the last couple of days working through trademe and watching my auctions, not that I have been selling stuff I have been busy purchasing items. The problem I have now is waiting for the items to arrive from the north island to where I am in the south. I have a project that I wish the students to plan, design and get running in a tight timeframe. When they walk in the door that first day of class they will have 6 months to have the site designed and working as well as getting it onto a domain that they have to research and present to the client before purchase. All they will get at the start is a book with the instructions that they want this created as a website. That's it. Though interviews with the client they will learn more and the client will start asking questions of them and probe them to find the answers. I believe that this will be a good assessment task.

The books will have to be scanned, I have managed to get three book, I hope two are the same, the other one focuses on a area more specifically. Scanning them should not be a issue, though it will have to be a page at a time due to I dont want to cut the book. The reason behind this getting scanned is that more than one student can acces it at a time. Will have to look at the copyright statements at the front of the book just to make sure I am meeting what I teach.

Storage will be another issue, I have so far over 100meg of 5 megapixel images with the logo and other requirements that they will have to meet. WHy I am not saying too much about the project, because I don't want anyone else doing it, I don't want the students doing a copy and paste. I want them to think for themselves. Why am I posting it on here, because I need to get some of my thoughts out and onto paper or screen.

not to sure what to call it, .1b

Trying to work this out in my head isn't helping,

This is a specific function that is unlikly to have any design, rather than the function of seeing what jobs have come in and been sent out in the fact of royalities.

This is going to be showing a lot of information... Previous sales, as well as those that have yet to be paid.

select * from cp_royal where paid = 1

select * from cp_royal wehere paid = 0

iinsert into cp_royal set id = NULL, date = '$sub_date', quantity = '$sub_quantity', .. how do we work out the total to be paid,
if paid = 0 then find out the royality payment for the book, this also needs to go against the author, so there almost needs to be a three stage process - > book -> author -> payments...

could create an array that adds it all in, though we do not know what ones have been paid of not and I do not want to make the tick go on automagically. As there could be a slip up, do I get staff to enter a verification code when payments are made, or is this too much

One thing I would like to see is a template on how this works. Possible to do one on paper and check that all the requirements will be meet.

Library Competition

The library reading competition has started again at school this year, 4-5 weeks of students getting books out and getting a point for every book taken out. Yes there is a flaw in this which is the students can get the books out, keep it in their bag for a couple of days, and then put it back in the slot. Some of the students will read the books. But I have been thinking about how the competition can be modified for the last couple of years. I have posted about these before, though I always come back to the concept of wild on books.

One idea I would like to try is a weetbix concept. This is having a unique code that the students can enter on a website. This is another way to see how many students read. Last year I tried a concept of coxing the students to enter there name, form class in a web form and what brand and model cellphone they have, I gathered over 400 pieces of information about cellphone trends throughout the school from it. One of the issues I didn't foresee was that students have more than one cellphone, one on vodafone, the other telecom.

A way to get this out to the students is to develop a wallpaper with the information on it, the house values and reminder to enter the competition. We have a managed network environment which allows us to define what the homepage is when the students open up Internet Explorer. However there has been an issue with the runonce environment and it is ignoring our constant requests for http://intranet so the students have been missing the intranet site.

Why do we have to just lock it down to school, we don't. We have shown through the open choices last year that students will access the site from home. This raises another piece of work for me, is that there was a request last year to help incorporate this for the maths week. When is maths week?

Back to this,

The easiest way to get the unique code out is to create a bookmark with the unique code as part of it. Four bookmarks, one for each house, Pohutakawa, Kauri, Kowhai and Rimu. Each to have a image of the tree on it, with the house colour and values for each of the houses.

I can't seem to find a copy of the Values placed on each house at the moment.

Off track

And I am sorry but this has got to be one of the lamest endings to Life on Mars, I want the English version back. The americian version was lame.

So we have a wallpaper, or four wallpapers?

bookmarks and a way to create the unique codes for the website, unique code starts off with the house letter associated with it, no same code after this must exist.

and an interactive website, student id/login, what is enabled for each code you put up.

Bookmark size - 45mm x 210mm this would allow for how many on a page?

The bookmark size was found from a free bookmark from the Stoke Library

The bookmark beside this post is from the LIANZA website.

An idea for a student project?

This could also link in with the Library Week 10-16 August (currently the website is being rebranded - End of June, Early July), this years "theme" is Escape, Explore, Discover - Sounds like a space theme, though we should let the students see where this goes. A question is why do we have the house reading competition outside of this time,

I managed to get the bookmarks that were used as part of this promotion, they are located in my google docs area - currently private, this provides the student with a place to start, what needs to be included and sizes. Though an issue is what paper, we need to start looking at different paper and supplies in our classroom. Why do we have to get the office standard 80 gsm. Why can't we start looking at gloss, matte and other papers in different weights.

man, I have been looking around and www.mathsweek.org.nz and www.libraryweek.org.nz are on at the same time. I wish people would talk to each other. I can see some issues surrounding this.

Catch you later...

not to sure what to call it ver .1a

Yay we have reached a milestone today, we have gone up a version, this means you you add an author, book, and job. You can edit a author, book or job. Completly searchable and has a few extra features as well.

Now on to royalities and colour coding where a job is up to.

Courses

I have been thinking about the courses that we are running at school for our students and where the need was 5 years agao, and where that need is now.

This blog post today started because of a post from Alfred Thompson's blogs where he asked for ideas about a First Computer Science Course:

http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/05/15/a-first-computer-science-course.aspx

In this blog he mentions a couple of aims that a Computer Science course should offer students:
a) get students interested in computer science and
b) give them some basics so that when they get to college/university they are ready to start if they have the interest

Yes, at the moment our courses are catering towards this, giving the students some basics/intermediate skills towards programming and the social issues of computing and Information Technology.

One of the comments from the post, looks at what makes up the three major topics that a Computer Science Course at High School Level
1. Computer Apps - how to use popular software to its fullest.
2. Computer Technology - the basics of hardware, networking and how to fix things when they go haywire.
3. Programming
Of the three the first is by far the most critical to a HS student. If they do not understand Office, job opportunities just go away. Is that technically CS though? It has the computer part but I am not sure about the science part.

I agree with his statement on the compute part, but we need more of that problem solving and thinking.

Computer Tech is kind of handy. To be able to walk in to a store to buy a computer and understand what the salesperson is saying is a useful skill. To be able to hook up a wireless network in your house is kind of nice. I have had several of my students get jobs at college computer help desks because of their knowledge from just those two classes.

Programming, on the other hand, I consider more of a specialty or industrial art like auto shop or wood shop. It teaches a skill as opposed to knowledge that is useful day to day. I teach programming to 8 – 11grade kids. I like the argument that it teaches logical thought processes, etc, etc. Of course, after having taught it off and on for 25 years, I am beginning to suspect that sophomores are not capable to logical thought. I think Computer Science should be more on how to make a movie using a video camera and software than programming. If we are going to attract kids to CS I do not care what language you are going to use, programming is not the way to do it.

A first course in CS should be a combination of software applications and a watered down A+ course. This would be the most useful to all students.

Do we need bells?

The school that I am doing relief at has very little bells;

- one bell signals the start of the day, form class.

- the next bell is at the end of Interval

- next end of lunch

- last bell is at the end of the day.

They still have a 5 period day, however there is no bell to signal the end of class and move to the next class. It works well. I like it because it gets away from the bell and cell structure of the school day. Why do we need bells at the end of each class?

I can see some teachers taking advantage of this structure, "oh there is only 5 minutes to go, I might as well let my class go." But after a while things will settle down and get to where there is no abuse of this. The students would be more settled and the teacher has the control of the class.

We have periods where there are no bells at my other school, there seems to be a more calm feel around the place where there isn't that sudden ringing. You don't get bells when you are work. Why do we have bells in school?

Sorry, something was brought up at a meeting I went to earlier in the week,

I caught a conversation that was happening with a couple of teachers and it has got me thinking. Primary school and Intermediate teach there students literacy and Numeracy in the morning, And topic in the afternoon. Secondary schools teach Literacy and Numeracy when? Well we teach it right throughout the day, why, because that is the way it fits into our timetable structure. This had me thinking, The year 9 students we get at school have been taught english and maths for 8 years in the morning, they hit us and are expected to be able to do these subjects at all times of the day. Is this fair? I think of those junior classes of the low ability students, are they really that low ability or is it that we tested them in the afternoon? Could the school structure be allowed change to allow junior students to be taught Literacy and Numeracy in the morning?

Subject choice .6b

I had a email today with a bug issue in it. "had a bit of a problem with this. Once you press submit you cannot go back, I have made a mistake in *subject removed* but have pressed submit and now can’t change it."Whenever an HoD submitted there changes to the subject information it would replace the subject name with the department code and would empty out the name field. This was found when an HoD made a mistake and wanted t

o go back and change it, all of a sudden the subject was not available.

name=name

dept=name

should have been

name=name

dept=dept

all fixed but included this as a version update. Also included a extra feature that allows teachers with the code of dept=all to go through and print off all subjects, so these can be copied and pasted into another application.

A Busy Day and ideas

It has been a busy day down here, taking part in all three jobs.

1) First was the NZC Teacher Only day which I must say I have learnt a lot from, not only about the NZC and how it will impact our curriculum and unit planning, including more of the vision and key indicators through to how to include the DTG model. With the DTG, it became apparent that not everyone knew what it is about and how it came into being. The DTG is the Digital Technology Guidelines. We probably spent an hour looking into the DTG website and presentations that have been used previously to explain its purpose and get people thinking about the process, getting away from the assessment driven to the knowledge driven and knowing your students. This then started the sharing from the teachers, we talked about how we have designed our programmes, what is coming up, resources that we use and how we have developed our courses. It also came out that June 9th will be an interesting day with the new Computing Unit Standards being released. I have made notes to contact certain people to ask then questions about there course and development in the future.

2) Had emails from old job wondering why staff could not access the subject choice information. This was due to the staff member was not allocated anything due to I was not told to allocate him anything. Other issue was that I typed in a staff member incorrectly. I have also had to make a modification to the program that allows staff members with full access the ability to print off all the subjects with information so they can enter it into the curriculum guide. I may have to go through and do some design issues with this later on.

3) Went into new job and helped move stuff around, we have the 4 metre long plus copier being moved tomorrow into the new shop, this will then allow the guillotine to be moved at the same time. It is really starting to open up and we are creating new spaces all the time. It will be interesting to see how this new space will be utilised.

It seems that I also may have seven days of teaching coming up, will be teaching gamemaker to year 10 students. I look forward to this prospect, as well as I learned something today, you can run the gamemaker files within gamemaker you do not have to create a exe file every time. So when I get back to my old job we may just install gamemaker on the network as a package and use it this way, rather than the way I have been doing it for a while.

Another thing that I have started thinking about is developing contexts for students learning, I have a couple so far with developing material for a barista competition. But I have started thinking outside the square about a few of them now. I went for a drive at the weekend to Cable Bay, through this I saw a familiar man made structure, we used to go for a walk down around Bluff Hill and the Waihopai River stopbank and would see these all the time. The Walkways NZ icon, this started me thinking, is there a walkways nz website, what would it entail. And then, bang, no not my car crashing, I had an idea for a context of a website development. Getting the students to develop a walkways nz dynamic website, it involves a number of things, a php/mysql development. planning, look, feel. it would be a great context for them to work on and there is a number of walks around the region that could be used as a field trip. Ok, that is pretty mean, but it gives them an idea. I plan to go back to cable bay to walk a couple of the tracks, just for my own benefit, as well to take my camera and get some shots of this past icon of New Zealand.

Included on the DoC website is a old version of the nz walkways as a pdf.

Another idea for a year 10/year 11 class is to develop a number of pieces of marketing material for the school library. We are about to run a library competition at school that normally lasts for five weeks and has approx 2,250 books issued from the library. We need posters showing a possible 100 books that are in the school library, these book covers are available from the the internet, google images, amazon and a number of other book sites. this will introduce them to image manipulation as the book size will be different for each book depending on where the get the image from. Another is a bookmark with each of the house values on it, plus a unique code that can be entered on a website to enter a competition, like the weetbix cards. This allows the students to research bookmarks and devlopment, as well as poster ideas and book covers.

I add the top 100 list to this Blog as a resource, talk to your own school library and get them to do the same.

Top 100 Report

Rank Loans Title Author

1 45 Harry Potter and the half-blood prince ROWLING, J.K.

2 37 Anne Frank - the diary of a young girl [Text Paperback]

3 35 (un)arranged marriage [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

4 34 To kill a mocking bird [Text Paperback] LEE, Harper

5 34 Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix ROWLING, J.K.

6 31 Harry Potter and the deathly hallows ROWLING, J.K.

7 31 A child called "It" [Text Paperback] PELZER, Dave

8 30 Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban ROWLING, J.K.

9 29 The skin I'm in [Text Paperback] FLAKE, Sharon G.

10 29 Love you to death [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

11 29 The secrets of love / [Text Paperback] RUSHTON, Rosie

12 28 Chinese cinderella and the secret dragon society [Text MAH, Adeline Yen Paperback]

13 27 The wish list / [Text Paperback] La'Brooy, Melanie.

14 27 The flood / [Text Paperback] Dietz, William C.

15 27 Rani & Sukh [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

16 26 All American girl : ready or not / [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

17 26 Charmed : seasons of the witch, Vol.1 [Text Paperback] BURGE, Constance M.

18 26 Girls in tears [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

19 26 Girls in love [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

20 25 Chinese Cinderella - the secret story of an unwanted daughter MAH, Adeline Yen [Text Paperback]

21 25 Girls out late [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

22 25 Bend it like Beckham [Text Paperback] DHAMI, Narinder

23 25 Drama queen [Text Paperback] RAYBAN, Chloe

24 25 Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone [Text Paperback] ROWLING, J.K.

25 25 How to be popular : when you're a social reject like me, CABOT, Meg Steph L. / [Text Paperback]

26 24 The day after forever [Text Paperback] SKIFFINGTON, Erin

27 24 Harry Potter and the goblet of fire ROWLING, J.K.

28 24 High stakes [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

29 24 Text game [Text Paperback] CANN, Kate

30 24 Does my head look big in this? / [Text Paperback] Abdel-Fattah, Randa.

31 24 Memoirs of a geisha / [Text Paperback] Golden, Arthur.

32 23 Lost for words [Text Paperback] LUTZEIER, Elizabeth

33 23 Mean spirits CABOT, Meg

34 23 The ghost next door [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

35 23 Sanctuary / [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

36 23 There's a boy in the girls' bathroom [Text Paperback] SACHAR, Louis

37 22 Nightmare hour [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

38 22 Noughts & crosses [Text Paperback] BLACKMAN, Malorie

39 22 Grave doubts [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

40 22 Something Wiccan this way comes [Text Paperback] HARRISON, Emma

41 22 Changeling places [Text Paperback] Ostow, Micol.

42 22 The lovely bones : a novel / [Text Paperback] Sebold, Alice.

43 22 10 things to do before you're 16 / [Text Paperback] PLAISTED, Caroline

44 21 Pride and prejudice [Text Paperback] AUSTEN, Jane

45 21 The Princess diaries [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

46 21 Soul of the bride [Text Paperback] LENHARD, Elizabeth

47 21 Falling leaves - return to their roots [Text Paperback] MAH, Adeline Yen

48 21 Eragon : inheritance [Text Paperback] PAOLINI, Christopher

49 21 The Princess diaries : take two [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

50 21 Heaven sent [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

51 21 Holes [Text Paperback] SACHAR, Louis

52 21 Artemis Fowl [Text Paperback] COLFER, Eoin

53 21 The Princess diaries : third time lucky [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

54 21 Jahanara - princess of princesses LASKY, Kathryn

55 21 Garden of evil [Text Paperback] HARRISON, Emma

56 20 The power of one - young readers edition [Text Paperback] COURTNEY, Bryce

57 20 The haunted school [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

58 20 The power of one [Text Paperback] COURTENAY, Bryce

59 20 The haunting hour [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

60 20 Every boy's got one [Text Paperback] CABOT, Meg

61 20 Best friends [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

62 20 Forever [Text Paperback] BLUME, Judy

63 20 Liz Jone's diary... ...how one single girl got married JONES, Liz [Text Paperback]

64 20 My desperate love diary by Kelly Ann / [Text Paperback] Rettig, Liz.

65 20 Sold [Text Paperback] McCORMICK, Patricia

66 20 Pounamu pounamu [Text Paperback] IHIMAERA, Witi

67 20 The haunted car [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

68 20 '... and thats when it fell off in my hand.' : further RENNISON, Louise fabbitty-fab confessions of Georgia Nicolson

69 20 Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging [Text Paperback] RENNISON, Louise

70 20 Love lessons / [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

71 19 The dead of the night [Text Paperback] MARSDEN, John

72 19 Soulmate [Text Paperback] SMITH L.J.

73 19 Startling moon [Text Paperback] HONG, LIU

74 19 Between you and me [Text Paperback] CLARKE, Julia

75 19 Ghost beach [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

76 19 My heartbeat [Text Paperback] FREYMANN-WEYR, Garret

77 19 Lola Rose [Text Paperback] WILSON, Jacqueline

78 19 Bindi babes [Text Paperback] DHAMI, Narinder

79 19 Mao's last dancer - young readers edition [Text Paperback] CUNXIN, Li

80 19 Stuff / [Text Paperback] STRONG, Jeremy

81 19 Princess [Text Paperback] SASSON, Jean P.

82 19 The village by the sea. [Text Paperback] DESAI, Anita

83 19 The legacy of Merlin [Text Paperback] FLOOD, Eloise

84 19 Sugar and spice / [Text Paperback] URE, Jean

85 19 Two-timer [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

86 19 The whisperer / [Text Paperback] RAI, Bali

87 19 The boy in the striped pyjamas : a fable / Boyne, John.

88 19 Eldest - inheritance [Text Paperback] PAOLINI, Christopher

89 19 The amulet of Samarkand / [Text Paperback] STROUD, Jonathan

90 18 Of mice and men [Text Paperback] STEINBECK, John

91 18 The joy luck club [Text Paperback] TAN, Amy

92 18 Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets [Text Paperback] ROWLING, J.K.

93 18 Fifteen love [Text Paperback] CORBET, Robert

94 18 Locker 13 [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

95 18 Cupid & co [Text Paperback] JONES, Carol

96 18 When a girl is born [Text Paperback] GRANT, Pamela

97 18 One day at horrorland [Text Paperback] STINE, R.L.

98 18 Throwaway daughter [Text Paperback] YE, Ting-xing

99 18 The phone goes dead [Text Paperback] HOROWITZ, Anthony

100 18 You're the one that I want [Text Paperback] von ZIEGESAR, Cecily

unsure of what to called it 0.1d

i have been working on an issue for the last couple of hours, this is to grab the author details from the authors table and display it in a combobox for the client to select. This has been an issue of mine ever since developing the subject choice system, today I found the easiest answer,

If only blogger would let me copy and paste the code in...

anyway here is the website

http://www.swish-db.com/tutorials/view.php/tid/630

getting the job information in now that I have the author details working right, though I have yet to test it under a new job or new title being entered. as I said this is just getting information displaying and updating for now. As we will be using pre loaded information when we get it.

Have been asked to develop extra on the book page, to include sales of book so royalities can be paid out.

unsure of what to call it yet system 0.1b

Today was getting the books database created, I have added some fields which will be useful, though there will probably need to be some extra added at a later stage. Today was more about getting the fields to update so they should the new information from the database. This caused me some issues surrounding the UPDATE SET, this should have been UPDATE table SET. I know something so simple cause me so many problems. Though it is starting to come together. Now that the information from the online shopping site will be imported tomorrow, we will be able to develop this further. the last part will be the quoting system or job management system, this will require some css styles to help differ the status, this will also require a separate reporting schema to help the developers show where they are at.

Also working out where this is going to be hosted? At the moment this is all sitting on a usb stick running XMAPP lite on a Asus eee pc running portable apps.

Will probably need to tidy up the database before I bring in the large imports. Matching authors with books/quotes.

An issue I have found is that with the book binder to remove the glue from the tank requires a rather large crescent to remove the bolt holding in the glue.

Another project I have been interested in is the Asterisk Project, Making your own PABX system, I am intrigued by this. the Asterisk Project is Open Source, http://www.asterisk.org/

I just wish I had a bit more understanding in it and access to some of the cards.

pdf explaining it all here

unsure of what to call it yet system 0.1a

With a lot of luck today and some reading I managed to get the interface working to a standard of getting the information out of the database and onto the screen. It looks good and has a purpose now.

Though this isn't the news of the day, it more more working through the various informtion that the business holds.

1) The online shopping mall

2) The information held on pieces of paper

3) The accounting program

It is trying to marry all these pieces of information together that is one of the hardest things,

I grabbed a copy of the piece of paper that had all the books that the shop itself can sell, 134. I gathered the information from the accounting program, they have 303 books one it. And then there is the online shopping mall which has 94 books on it. With that there are Authors, I managed to extract all the debtors from the system in a workable format that I am using to marry them up against the books.

All of this while waiting for school to get back to me to make the changes needed to the subject selection program. I also wish that they would give me the scores for the house football as I need to get the graphics done. I am still waiting on this even though I have sent email to those in charge. I don;t think they realise how important it is to get the information out to the students.

unsure of what to call it yet system 0.1

I am busy starting to create a new application that is made in php and mySQL. it is to hold all the book information required for the business that i am working in at the moment. I have thought about this for a couple of weeks now and got started designing the database structure around it today and have hit a bit of a wall around the issue of what happens when an author is deceased, where do the royalities go. This means that we need to include an alternative contact in the system to help with this.

So far I am busy working on the author table and author page. Adding a new author and changing the details of a author, I have had to include a extra piece into the system already, with two addresses, one for shipping and one for the bill. Easy enough to do.

The second table will be the titles of the books, not too sure what information is required in here, I am thinking about tapping into the schools library system and having a look at what information we are required to have. As I think we have to start thinking about description, size and other details of ISBN numbers. I would love to have access to an ISBN database to gain some of these details, but that is unlikely at present. multiple titles against one author.

the last is the quoting system where more information is held about the text, cover, details, prices and design issues. This will the last one that I hit as I will have to add some extra ajax features to help with this. I look forward to it, and will start versioning the system at 0.1. this versioning will be added to the system tomorrow.

I will say, it makes a huge difference adding a simple graphic that I accidently scanned on the Konica Minolta Multidevice System. It does not look like a lifeless webpage now, it has a human touch.

Trying to remember the php and mySQL that I need. So glad I still have access to the Subject Choice System that i brought in last year, will take me a few days to get into it again, as i don't do this fulltime.

Also reading more information about ISBN numbers, http://www.natlib.govt.nz/services/get-advice/publishing/isbn which is interesting, I am wondering of I can grab a whole lot of information out of the database, if I have access to the database?

Note:

When showing Author information, quotes need to be shown, status of quote - colour New quote, handover, proof, production... this may need to be adjusted.

When this is put into production information needs to be able to be changed over with ease, select fields in quote to be able to be changed over to title table. These fields will have to be able to be edited and a warning put on to make the use aware that this is happening.

One of the other things is that I need to find out what it means when the LCD displays "FF" on a efi Fiery Device, good luck working that one out Jess.

Teachers Urged to stay current

I read this article at the weekend with some interest, I suppose I have a different view on the situation. We are urged to stay current with current ICT trends and situations. However, when the assessment materials that are provided to you from NZQA and the assessment judgements that are in it are out of date and expired two years ago it is rather difficult. As we have been told and shown, ICT is a ever changing environment.

Rose review: ICT could replace Science in primary curricu

The Rose review recommends ICT replaces it from September 2011

Science should be dropped as one of the tested core primary subjects to be replaced by ICT, according to a government-sponsored report recommending changes to the curriculum from 2011.

Sir Jim Rose, who carried out the independent review for the Government, has suggested “literacy, numeracy and ICT should form the new core” and should be assessed.

Science has been a core subject of the national curriculum since 1989, while ICT did not even become an official curriculum subject until 1995. The key stage tests in the core subjects of English, maths and science were introduced in the mid-1990s. Science is the subject in which 11-year- olds have done best: 88 per cent reached level 4 last year compared to 81 per cent in English and 79 per cent in maths.

But with no national targets, it has never been as politically sensitive as the English and maths tests.

The key stage 2 science Sats may still be retained as the Government was expected to leave that decision in the hands of the “expert group” examining assessments, which includes Sir Jim.

The National Association of Head Teachers is due to vote this weekend over whether it will join the NUT in balloting for a boycott of the tests next year.

Under Sir Jim’s proposals, science will continue to be key to the curriculum. It will be included in “scientific and technical understanding”, one of six broad areas of learning (see panel, below) designed to encourage more cross-curricular teaching and smooth the transition between early years and secondary. But Sir Jim stressed that this would not mean scrapping traditional subjects. “Subjects remain as recognisable, powerful organisers of worthwhile curriculum content in the areas of learning,” his report said.

Sir Jim has not budged from his recommendation in the interim report that all children begin reception in the September after they turn four, which is the case in most authorities, but is not supported by the Government’s early years advisers. The final report nods towards widespread concern saying that parents’ views should be taken into account and part-time attendance allowed.

Sir Jim was also asked to review two of the 69 early learning goals for five-year-olds: that children begin to write simple sentences and use their phonic knowledge to attempt complex words.

The emphasis on ICT has been welcomed by Becta, the government agency for technology in learning. Stephen Crowne, its chief executive, said: “Without an appropriate emphasis on technology from an early age there is the risk of a digital underclass developing.”

The Government will now decide which recommendations to take forward, then the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority will carry out a formal 12- week consultation. The new curriculum would then be sent to schools at the end of this year, giving teachers and heads about five terms to prepare for its implementation in 2011.

Before any major changes are adopted, a general election must take place and the Conservatives have made it clear they will abandon the Rose review if they win.

Sir Jim’s six areas of learning

Understanding English, communication and languages
Mathematical understanding
Scientific and technological understanding
Historical, geographical and social understanding*
Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing*
Understanding the arts*
* Changed since the interim report.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6012613

ICT teaching model near to public release

ICT teaching model near to public release
Detail to be released after minister is briefed
By Stephen Bell Auckland | Friday, 1 May, 2009

Collaboration between the teaching profession, the Ministry of Education and the NZ Computer Society has produced a “model and framework” for putting computer-related education in schools on a more relevant footing.
By agreement between the parties the detail of the new structure is not being released “until they have been formalised and the minister briefed”, says NZCS CEO Paul Matthews.

However, he believes they “finally lead to resolution of many of the problems outlined in the NZCS Report and since”.

The report he refers to, published last year, identified substantial shortcomings in the ICT-related material being offered in schools and particularly a lack of relevant and workable NCEA achievement standards in the subject (Computerworld, June 2, 2008).

It was written by Gordon Grimsey from the Auckland University of Technology and teacher Margot Phillipps, and edited and reviewed by a team of 13 senior academics and ICT professionals from around New Zealand.

“We’re happy also to report that a new Computing Subject Association has been established,” Matthews says.

“NZCS, along with PPTA, pushed for the formation of this group and ICT teacher Vilna Gough-Jones, from Burnside High School in Christchurch, and others carried this through and formed the association.”

A Subject Association is formed by a group of teachers of a specific subject, to look after the professional development of teachers and curriculum development.

“It’s excellent to see one finally in place for computing teachers,” Matthews says.

“NZCS already has a strong relationship with this group and are looking at how we can continue to support their work further.”

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/care/35F15B7628A17764CC2575A8007226D3

Mobile Learning

Just as Sesame Street helped transform television into a revolutionary tool for learning among young children four decades ago, advances in mobile technologies are showing enormous untapped educational potential for today’s generation.

This report released last month by a research centre based at the Sesame Workshop claims that children’s lives have been caught up in a tide of mobile digital technologies—games, cellphones, and smartphones— and that, if carefully managed, these could significantly boost their learning.

“It is no longer a question of whether we should use these devices to support learning, but how and when,” to use them,” writes Michael H. Levine, the executive director of the New York City-based Joan Ganz Cooney Center, at Sesame Workshop.

This The 52-page “Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning” draws on interviews with a cross-section of research, policy, and industry experts to illustrate how mobile technologies such as cell phones, iPod devices, and portable gaming platforms might be more widely used for learning. More than half of the world’s population now owns a cell phone and children under 12 constitute one of the fastest growing segments of mobile technology users in the U.S. Examining over 25 handheld learning products and research projects in the U.S. and abroad, the report highlights early evidence and examples of how mobile devices may help re-define teaching and learning in the decade ahead.