The Buzz Contest

The buzz contest is not your playstation game, it is a contest in which you have to think about numbers,
This is what I am considering as a competition or test for my year 12 programing class

For the purposes of this, I will be using only Buzz, Wizz and Pop

The Buzz Contest is the mathematical equivalent of a spelling bee. Its 1992 revival at Texas A&M University marked the 10^th anniversary of the last time Texas high school students had played the game at the 1982 Lamar Mathematics Day competition. Since then, this contest has been a popular feature of the Texas A&M University Math Tournament.

The general structure of the game is as follows: The students line up and count off. The first student calls N, where N is an integer between 1 and 20, which is randomly determined, the second student calls N+1, and so on. If a student gets his or her number wrong, he or she is eliminated and the next student in line must say the number the previous student should have said. All of this is done very quickly; a student may be eliminated for "delay of game".

So far, the game as described is too easy. To complicate matters, some numbers are designated as special. When it is a student’s turn to call out a number and that number is special, the student should not say the number, but should instead say some combination of codewords relating to the number. The codewords and their meanings are:

BANG: The number contains a 5 (in its base-10 representation) or is divisible by 5.

BUZZ: The number contains a 7 (in its base-10 representation) or is divisible by 7.

CRASH: The number is prime.

FIBBI: The number is a Fibonacci number. The Fibonacci numbers are constructed as follows:
F₁ = 1, F₂ = 1 and F_n+2 = F_n+1 + F_n. . So F₃ = 2 , F₄ = 3, F₅ = 5, etc.

Thus, the first 6 Fibonacci numbers are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8.

POP: The number is the product of two distinct primes.

SQUAWK: The number is the sum of two squares. For example, 9=3² + 0², and 5 = 2² + 1²

WHIZZ: The number is square-free (is not divisible by a perfect square other than 1).

ZIP: The number is a perfect k th power with k greater than or equal to 2.

These codewords are not all in force at the beginning, but are introduced or removed gradually at the will of the moderator and in any order. For example, suppose Michael, Deena, Christa, Heath and Amy are still in the game. The codewords Fibbi, Bang, Pop and Zip are in force, and it is Deena’s turn on number 29. The sequence would sound something like this…..

Deena: 29

Christa: Bang

Heath: 31

Amy: 32 (This is wrong; Amy is eliminated.)

Michael: Zip

Deena: Pop

Christa: Pop, Fibbi

Heath: Bang (This is wrong; Heath is eliminated.)

Amy: Bang Pop (The next number is 36.)

Please note that a lot of students are likely to fall in the 40’s and 50’s as it is very easy to lose track of what number we’re on. The proctor will not advise the students. It is the responsibility of each student to keep track for themselves even as others are eliminated.

The discussion at this link should help you determine which, if any, of the code words apply to a particular number.

http://www.math.tamu.edu/hscontest/buzz_contest_rules.html

Virtual Machines Year 12

One of the exercises that i do with my year 12 programming students is get them to use an unlocked down version of windows xp, this means that get the right click and all the features, not the managed version that we use on our desktops. We use Virtual PC 2004 to allow us to do this. It means that we can get a better compare and contrast from the students as they use two operating systems, it also means that they can have the two operating systems running at the same time. the other operating system that I get them to use is Ubuntu 7.04, I know it is an old version but that is what I had available to me this time last year, Students are able to play, have fun and destroy the copy is needed.

This year I also require to get it running in a second room, the copy and paste method from one computer to the network share on the others caused me a great deal of suffering this year with errors popping up all over the place, this was solved by copying the folders to two servers, to balance out the load. It then required that I log into every machine and do the copy and paste on it. This has also revealed that the other classroom has some issues with network points not working, yet another email to the helpdesk to come and sort it out.

It is a good way to get students looking at various operating systems, i just wish I had mac OS running in a virtual environment. Then we can compare and contrast three operating systems which is required at level 3 in Unit Standard 2783.

Bring on Tuesday when I use this with my class, and bring on tomorrow when it is used in the other room.

Just some figures now, the two Virtual Hard Drives come in at around 8-9 G, that means that I am moving approx 660gig around the network and it is still holding strong, though I would like to put this on a server that is in this block rather than taking it down the fibre from another area of the school (Like the furthest end of the school). Which is what I just realised I am doing... Whoops.

I have to now look at pushing out vmware player to be able to handle usb support so we can push out the software required to run the xbox controllers. Next step will be XNA with C# to run the development. Also needed is an virtual hard drive to run visual basic. Though i would like to run a terminal service environment such as what was running at a school a number of years ago that I was involved with. In their situation that had fat client machines running that linked into the terminal services environment and also had citrix thin clients running. Only problem was that the programming students learning delphi would develop application that would loop infinite and crash the entire system causing everyone that had logged in to lose their work.

Useful Web links for Computer Science/IT/Computing/ICT/Programming teachers

I have found a number of these websites useful for developing some programmes that have been useful in teaching students programming and included in these are some fun innovative projects.
If anyone has any other useful websites they use for encouraging students to get into IT I would love to hear about them!

K-12 Faculty Community Site http://www.microsoft.com/education/FacultyConnection/precollegiate
A source for curriculum resources, teacher forums, and program announcements

Programming Languages for Beginners

• Alice – http://www.alice.org/ – A 3-dimensional, drag and drop programming language from Carnegie Mellon University
• Kodu - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ A graphical programming tool for younger students. (Not available for public release yet!)
• Scratch – http://scratch.mit.edu/ – a light weight 2-dimensional, drag and drop programming language from MIT, for learning resources visit http://learnscratch.org/
• Small Basic - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.
• Microsoft Popfly - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950523.aspx Popfly includes a simple way to create and share games with your friends. Choose from a variety of built-in templates or start from scratch to create a side scrolling game, a 2D shoot-em-up, or a host of others. And best of all, you can get started without writing a line of code. You can also build mashups. Mashups are a kind of application that take information from many places and mix it together.

MSDN Academic Alliance http://www.msdnaa.net/
A Microsoft program for schools to get Microsoft Development software for labs, teachers, and students - costs attached

DreamSpark for High schools https://www.dreamspark.com/HighSchool/Default.aspx
DreamSpark High School provides professional-level development and design tools to students enrolled in an accredited, secondary educational institution at no charge.

XNA Game Studio Express http://msdn.microsoft.com/xna
Software for developing games for Windows, the Zune and the XBOX 360. Also links to the XNA community with sample code, tutorials and support forums.

Visual Studio Express Editions http://msdn.microsoft.com/Express
Free development tools (IDEs) for Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C# and Visual Web Developer

Beginner Developer Learning Center http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308754.aspx
A web site for people of all ages who want to learn programming and web development. Tutorials, videos, projects and web casts

Microsoft Robotics Studio http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics
Visual Programming Language for robots, runtime libraries for higher level programming, a 3-dimensional robot simulator with sample simulations, tutorials, and videos

Coding 4 Fun http://blogs.msdn.com/Coding4Fun
A web site for hobbyists and computer tinkerers - sample projects and information for doing fun and interesting thing with programming; often combined with interesting or unusual hardware

CSUnplugged http://www.csunplugged.com/
Computer Science Unplugged is a series of learning activities that reveals a little-known secret: computer science isn't really about computers at all!

Privacy
Also I know that we are back at school now, but 28 Janurary was Data Privacy Day 2009

January 28th, 2009 is the second annual Data Privacy Day. Intel has a great information page about this day and includes this explanation:

Designed to raise awareness and generate discussion about data privacy practices and rights, Data Privacy Day activities in the United States have included privacy professionals, corporations, government officials, and representatives, academics, and students across the country.

One of the primary goals of Data Privacy Day is to promote privacy awareness and education among teens across the United States. Data Privacy Day also serves the important purpose of furthering international collaboration and cooperation around privacy issues.

At the Intel Data Privacy Day page you will find educational resources that you may find useful in class. Items include:

• Teen privacy online (ZIP 2.69MB)
• Teen privacy online script (PDF 159KB)
• Teen privacy online sources and resources (PDF 32KB)
• Teen privacy online highlights (PDF 124KB)
• Privacy Today slide presentation (ZIP 39.3MB) and manual (PDF 522KB)
• Secure your computer to protect your privacy presentation (ZIP 594KB) and speaker notes (PDF 319KB)

Fun Stuff

Ok, now some fun stuff, got a webcam, now you can have your own Microsoft Surface,

One of the hottest new technologies in computer interfaces is Microsoft Surface which uses multi-touch to allow several items (like hands for example) to control things happening in software. The hardware for this is a bit expensive. OK it's a lot expensive. Microsoft recently released some software as an open source project that makes this technology a lot easier and less expensive to try out. It requires a webcam to use and the following Touchless SDK video shows what it is about.

http://www.codeplex.com/touchless/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=17986

And something for you Mythbusters fans out there, what is the difference between a CPU and a GPU?

Well there is cost for one thing. And prep time for another. Oh wait, you don't know what I'm talking about. Let me back up. Apparently at some sort of event the NVidia people wanted to show the difference between how a CPU works and a GPU (graphic processor) works. They also had an interest in entertaining people so obviously they hired the people from the TV show Mythbusters to create the demo. You can see the demo here. Now if you know the show at all you probably know that they are big fans of robots and of shooting things – all sorts of things with all sorts of shooting apparatus. Yep, there is some of that here.

Programming problems in High Schools

We use a managed network system at our school which limits the students ability to run .exe files.

I have been using gamemaker through a virtual environment and discovered problems that would not allow students to run the executable in the virtual environment, due to Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 would not allow a graphics card greater than 16meg to be created, gamemaker requires a 64 meg graphics card or greater. We solved this by enabling an area on the network to run .exe files so the students could test.

The other programming software environments we teach run fine in virtual environments, visual basic and visual c# run well in Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, but this does not have USB support.

When my year 13 students asked whether we could create games for the xbox 360 through the XNA creators kit using the skills they have gained in Visual C#, I thought sure, this sounds like something we can do and works in well with Achievment Standards and the competition/learning resources for STUDENT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DESIGN COMPETITION located at http://www.nzfact.co.nz/education.html.

After a couple of months figuring out that Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 won't run the xbox 360 for windows game controllers, installing vmware player and getting all the systems working and testing we have encountered our next problem, vmware player does not support directx3d, there is no drivers or solutions around.

We cannot create the exectable file and copy it through to another area as XNA reequires you to debug the program first. How are other schools providing computer programming experiences, do you dual boot, run liveCD's run off USB sticks? have a complete computer science lab that is setup just for those classes?

Your help would be appreciated.

Note: 28/7/2008 While reading Lance Armstrongs book, it's not about the bike I came up with the answer for my troubles, give the students privileged user rights on the machine. they cannot access anywhere else or so anything on the network due to permissions, but user rights on the machine might just work. I just need to work out what machines they privileged  use and grant them access, no messy creating different user rights or anything like that. Why did I not think of that 6 months ago. I think it because I had my mind on something completely different. Shows what reading a book can do for you. Also we can test out the web browsers that we are going to create...

Respect for creativity part II

Just as I get introduced to the resources available through the education gazette, I then find an article on one of the blogs that I read. This one is on intellectual property and the information is from microsoft. They have created a curriculum that helps introduce the topic to teens.

Reality Check: Teaching students about Intellectual Property Rights

More and more computer science programs are including units on ethical and legal issues. Perhaps one of the most controversial issues involving computer technology these days is that of intellectual property (IP).

One of the problems is that young people (and many older people) really don't understand the laws around IP. From a recent press release about a survey commissioned by Microsoft said:


Microsoft Corp. today announced the results of a new survey that found teenagers between seventh and 10th grades are less likely to illegally download content from the Internet when they know the laws for downloading and sharing content online.

About half of those teens, however, said they were not familiar with these laws, and only 11 percent of them clearly understood the current rules for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software. Teens who were familiar with downloading rules credited their parents, TV or stories in magazines and newspapers, and Web sites — more so than their schools — as resources for information about illegal downloading.


To help with educating students Microsoft has created some teaching resources for teachers (available here) that make up "a comprehensive set of cross-curricular classroom activities designed for grades 8-10 (but easily adaptable for use in grades 6-12) and organized into thematic units."

A companion site for students called MyBytes allows students to create their own content (or Intellectual Property) and to learn more about the why and what about IP. There are a number of interviews there with creative artists who talk about what IP means to them and their way of life.

Now on the other hand not everyone agrees with these ideas of intellectual property, especially where copyright is concerned. At Wikipedia you can read about the anti-copyright movement. The Creative Commons organization supports a number of licences that allow various kinds of access rights for different purposes. The use of technical means to protect copyright, often called Digital Rights Management or DRM) is the heart of a controversiy that is both of its own and part of the greater discussion of copyright. The Free Software Foundation has a lot to say on that score. I think of them as extremists but others see them as heros. Your views may vary.

Now are ethics and the law in agreement or in opposition here? That is the big question. I'd love to hear the thoughts of others but especially of students. If nothing else I think this is an important topic to discuss with students no matter which side you stand on the issues.

Respect for Creativity

In the Education Gazette on the 18 February 2008 there is an article on Respect for Creativity.
In the article there is a competition for students on a serious topic, respecting copyright law.

Respecting Creativity Competition 2008

The student competition will again promote the theme of respecting creativity and is linked to World IP day. Students will develop design work, a short film, soundtrack or article for a copyright and intellectual property campaign aimed at the under-18 age group.
It is open to all Y11-13 students. entries must be received by the Ministry of education by October 28.

Visual art and design, music, media studies, technology, graphics and English students may develop entries as part of study towards assessment of relevant achievement standards and unit standards. Full details of the competition can be found on the website: www.lovemusic.co.nz/site/

Part of the article form the Education Gazette is posted below,

A design competition touches on a serious topic for schools and students alike – respecting copyright law. WAYNE ERB reports
Respecting creativity is a concept that Yang Gan truly understands as a budding design student – he can see the rewards flowing from respect for his work.
After winning an intellectual property design competition last year as a Year 13 student at Hutt International Boys' School, commercial interest has been shown in Yang's work. T-shirts by another entrant, Alex Austen, are also likely to be put into production.
For Yang, it is exciting to see rewards and respect for his creative output.
"I put a lot of hours into this work and it was great afterwards to see the results and think that my work could be out there in the world."
He created a logo, a poster and a wall display for a photocopy room – all to convey a message about following copyright laws. That got him thinking too.
"I am trying to make all my work original. I am trying not to copy anything so that is one of the main things I have got from it."
This year, he begins a design course at Massey University in Wellington and is interested in a creative career.
For senior students with similar aspirations, the Intellectual Property: Respecting Creativity student competition runs again in 2008, and is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Economic Development and the Copyright Council of New Zealand.
The competition is designed to raise awareness among students of intellectual property (IP) rights, a topic worthy of discussion in classrooms, and staffrooms in the country's schools.
It is part of a wider public awareness plan by the three agencies to promote the themes of World IP Day (April 26) which include the contribution made by creators and innovators and how IP rights promote their work.
IP might seem an esoteric topic, but with the high levels of creative product consumed and created in schools, it is a topic worthy of classroom discussion.
Respecting creativity can mean students are aware of what they can and can not download from the internet, and what they can do with it next. It means teachers understand the boundaries around how they use copyright material in the classroom.
Ministry of Education secondary education publications senior adviser Nigel Evans says the Ministry is aware of situations where schools could unwittingly be in breach of the law.
He says schools could look to the tertiary education sector where robust procedures are in place to check and clear copyright material before use.
Nigel suggests teachers not only consider their own knowledge of copyright but also raise the issue with students.
"We have to ensure that schools are educating young people to understand their full responsibilities in relation to other people's property," says Nigel.
Mark McCall, director of anti-piracy for the New Zealand recording industry, shares those concerns.
He says young people are among the savviest at copying music clips off the internet, and he sees teachers having a crucial role in changing the perception that whatever is on the internet is free.
He backs the Respecting Creativity competition as an awareness-raising exercise, because today's students will be tomorrow's creators and stand to benefit if a framework for protecting intellectual property is maintained.
"We want to make sure students know how to negotiate that framework because that will allow them to protect their own creativity. It's about the safeguards on their own creative works.
"In the broad strategic sense, we're looking at the knowledge economy and showing the world that New Zealand not only has great creative talent but also respects and protects their own and others' creativity."
He says it is important that creative industries listen to schools as well.
"We want a way where we plan and grow together and create resources that can be used within the education sector whilst respecting copyright and rewarding creativity."
http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/articles.php?action=view&id=7500

Rise of the Videogame

Five part series by the Discovery Channel on The Rise of the Videogame

Level one:
The video game started not with a bang, but with a ping. Where did simple games like Pong and PacMan come from? And how did these global phenomenons usher in the videogame revolution?

Level two:
In the late '70s, early '80s, video games gained their face. Game creators became more liberated to create more complex video games and icons like Mario and Zelda began to give way to grittier characters. Learn how video game technology has evolved.

Level three:
Video games go 3-D, but the details they capture in the new virtual worlds are both awe-inspiring and disturbingly realistic. Critics begin to question if games are becoming too real, too violent, too addictive. Game designers begin wrestling with ethics.

Level four:
"God Games" begin simulating entire worlds and allow players to experiment with sometimes troubling cause and effect. Artificial intelligence creates lifelike characters and opens up opportunities for new learning tools and for artistic expression.

Level five:
Can a computer game make you cry? Games gain an emotional dimension, interpersonal connection, and Hollywood worthy story lines as they evolve and move onto the Web. What do these virtual world games tell us about the way we live in the 21st century?

Code Rules - Visual basic programming idea

I have been busy looking for ideas for my students next year, some new ways of introducing programming for visual basic. One of the websites I came across provided me with a full course that teaches the students programming through four teenagers and a trip across America.

It is called "Code Rules" http://www.academicresourcecenter.net/curriculum/pfv.aspx?ID=6667

Code Rules introduces students to basic computer programming concepts. The simulation involves four students who travel the country in a Winnebago stopping at offbeat places to face coding challenges. This is a complete introduction to a programming course using Visual Basic 2005 Express.

This set includes student curriculum that can be printed, as well as an "eBook" that can be burned to CD for each of your students. For instructors, there is an annotated version of the curriculum, projects and solutions with notes about teaching strategies, possible student questions, and points to emphasize.

Also included are PowerPoint slides to introduce the key concepts of each unit; exams, quizzes, and exercises; explanations and solutions sets for projects; additional projects; and a list of additional Web-based resources.

Designed to be used with VB 2005 Express in high schools it can also be used with Visual Studio 2005.

I hope to use this with my students next year.

This is from Microsoft

Code Rules! Visual Basic Programming Course
Category: Teaching Resources
Submitted Date: 08/06/2007

Code Rules is a course designed to introduce high school students, with little or no background in computers or computer programming, to the basic concepts of computer programming. The course teaches students to create fun and engaging applications using Visual Basic.Net. Through the course students are introduced to the basic concepts of programming, such as writing pseudo code, creating forms, defining and declaring variables and more. Code Rules has been designed to allow students to explore the world of programming, practice creating code and develop a better sense of what it means to be a computer programmer.

Within the course, students are cast as contestants in a new game show called "Code Rules." The game involves four young contestants who travel the country in a Winnebago stopping at offbeat places to face coding challenges which must be mastered before they can move to the next segment. As the students travel from place to place, their traveling companions, Jen, Kirk, Nikki and Cliff will teach them the programming skills needed to face the next coding challenge. At the end of each segment of the trip they will face a variety of engaging, real-life challenges to demonstrate their newly acquired programming skills. These projects will be items useful to students as they travel such as developing an interactive travel journal, a simple form to track mileage and gas consumption, etc.

This curriculum is available in the Academic Resource Center.

programming ideas

http://www.thornhill.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/Departments/Computer%20Science/ICE4M/ICE4M.shtml

Game programming links
http://www.schoolgamemaker.rupert.id.au/links.htm

Ethics in Computing

I started off this year with Year 12 Programming looking at ethics, some of this involved some brand new resources from microsoft. They have the privacy page there with a number of GSI videos that microsoft has developed to educate the public.

There are four videos on the microsoft privacy site at the moment all looking at different areas of privacy, from licensing, counterfeit, piracy of software, and the proper licensing of software.

These are some fantastic resources for my students.

Counterfeit
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/genuinefactfiles/counterfeit.aspx

Proper Windows Licensing
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/genuinefactfiles/plp.aspx

Piracy Perils
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/genuinefactfiles/ipr.aspx

Legalization
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/genuinefactfiles/legalization.aspx

How do I put this together, information packs for the students, online kit? Or direct them to the site? What is the best way for this information to be passed down? I have to start looking at how I put my lessons together. Do we need to use computers all the time. My view on this at the moment is that they can cause a distraction, they have to play with them. Even getting them to stand up away from the computer just to get their attention they have to touch the computer. I have another way of getting there attention through a network monitoring program that takes control of their computer, they have to play, just to try and get around my attention grabbing technique.

I look at the other material I have looked at lately that I have posted to this blog and even though it is in electronic form I still have printed it off, I have made notes on it and included it in my reference library. Could this be the same for the students, would they keep copies of it? Do I make them include it as part of the big project. Research to be included as part of there technological knowledge.

This is where I start to get confused. Technological knowledge is more about the "technological design? process" and not about the knowledge and skills of computing. Or is it. Even though the technological process involves ethics, knowledge, skills, constraints in the key factors and constraints. Under the brown technology curriculum document there was a strand on society. This is probably where I am aiming this to go. But under the new draft curriculum I am not too sure where this goes.

Going back to the earlier section on how could I use this, electronic portfolio, use blogging as a new means of assessment, however this does lead to a bigger issue of whether it is the students own work, or have they copied it from someone else. Email it into me would be another and then I have to put it onto a site for them to include as there electronic portfolio. maybe use knowledgenet new reflection and assessment tools available next year.

I am working on two things, a keynote show to display the information contained in the pdf's as well as have them downloadable for the students to use if need be. Also having the magazine and whitepapers printed out for students to work through questions and form an opinion of the information contained in each.

The next thing is to have all of this available on the net... probably do this at school next week.

Notes?
The use of this blog to down my ideas is fantastic, I think of it was a notebook or visual diary. Being electronic helps me, I also carry a visual diary around with me in my bag when I am out as well as a digital camera, just in case I see something and might want to use in in a class of mine.

One problem however is going over my cap on my internet account, just means I have some slow days at dial up speeds <64 kbps.

Year 13 Programming - Hackers

Have rethought about the topic of this, more of a year 13 course topic.

I have been thinking about my programming course and enjoyed the lessons on gaming addiction as seen previously in this blog,

I am now looking at hackers, this actually provides a great bit of history within computing and looks at some of the founders of the computer industry and how they came to be, Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak (Apple Computers)

Introduction
'Invasion of the data snatchers,' screamed a New York Times headline in 1989, reflecting rising panic over insecure computer systems.

A hacker is a brilliantly devious criminal mind breaking the world's most secret IT systems for money or political espionage, if you believe many similarly hysterical press reports. In fact, the truth is a lot more intriguing.

The Secret History of Hacking uncovered the real story of a counter culture that has corporate America on the run.

Confusion and anxiety surrounds this word hacking, yet, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, hacker simply means 'an enthusiastic computer programmer or user' or 'a person who tries to gain unauthorised access to a computer or to data held in one'. There was nothing sinister about these early hackers, or phreakers. The driving force for this band of techno wizards was exploration.

The same spirit was at work with the appearance of the home computer. The pioneers were keen to share and explore the technology for its own sake. Among the most prominent players was Steve Wozniak who went on to develop the Apple computer. Only when the commercial element crept in did the shutters come down on the ownership of ideas.

A strong undercurrent of mischievous daring runs through the hackers' ethos. Since the sixties, hackers have been breaking into much of the globe's state-of-the-art electronic systems involving government, military institutions, businesses and individuals. The code was always 'look but don't touch'.

But now, as the world becomes ever more entwined with the internet, some hackers are becoming more sinister, spreading damaging computer viruses and capitalising on access to personal files and millions of bank accounts.

I originally found the video on youtube, however it was in 5 parts, I wanted the whole thing, video.google.com is a wonderful resource.

Video is available here @ http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5464925144369700635

Now is the time to look at creating a lesson plan to go with this and some type of learning outcomes. This is one of the things I need to start working on a bit more, time to put that ATOL training to good purpose.
I have already managed to download the video to my computer and will be putting it on the video on demand system that we have.

Also one of the issues that I am thinking of including within the lesson is the issue of "hacker" versus "cracker" and how the media perceives the two. What were the original terms and why has the media changed how the terms are perceived. The change of the hacker and cracker, now instead of cracker it is now "black hat".

While doing research for this lesson I came across a copy of the letter that is talked about in the History of Hackers video. It is a fantastic read, especially from the point of Bill Gates about who owns software.

A fantastic site for looking at simple computer terms and how to integrate them into your lesson is @ http://startupgallery.org/education/index.php?p=lesson

Also to be looked at is Revolution OS, a documentary that looks at open source software and free software movements, and its available at my favourite video website, video.google.com
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7707585592627775409 it is a bit longer than the other one I am looking at using, but they look at two different areas of the computer world, hackers, open source software and GNU. 1 hour and 25 minutes long for Revolution OS, versus 50 minutes for the History of Hacking.

As I think more and more about this idea and research more on the internet, one site I have found is called Hacker High School and it has some great lessons for students on securing themselves on the net from attacks

Today's kids and teens are in a world with major communication and productivity channels open to them and they don't have the knowledge to defend themselves against the fraud, identity theft, privacy leaks and other attacks made against them just for using the Internet. This is the reason for Hacker Highschool.

In HHS, you will find lessons on utilizing Internet resources safely such as web privacy, chat protection, viruses and trojans (malware), and the over-all
focus on how to recognize security problems on your computer. All lessons work
with a free "live linux" CD which will boot off any PC with a CD-rom drive to perform the lessons. HHS is a great supplement to student course work or as part of after-school and club activities.

I am actually enjoying putting this unit together, though I have to think of some interesting learning outcomes, as for the impact on society, it will be interesting to see how the students take to this idea, it is being presented from two sides, the side of the old hackers, who pulled apart computers and built there own and developed the software to run on them, through to todays "media hackers" and the terrorist label that they have been given.

Just looking at this a bit further will the Bill Gates letter, there were some responses to that letter that were published in the homebrew newsletter. One of the ideas is to get the students to read the original Bill Gates letter to the homebrew club and maybe the responses from the homebrew club members and get the students to look whether in the last 30 years has this has changed, people still pirate software, why, are they the same reasons?

It is worth an idea as this would go well with the literacy environment that we have at school.

Some ideas from the Start up lesson website are

1. What is the Hacker Spirit? What is the Entrepreneurial Spirit?
As a class, discuss what is meant by the phrase “Hacker Spirit” (joy of experimentation and innovation, the competitiveness with friends to build upon discoveries, the communal nature of dialogue). Brainstorm some terms and list these on chart paper.
Then discuss what is meant by the term “entrepreneurial” (risk-taking, extreme commitment, competition, improvisation and innovative approaches). List these terms on paper. Taking direction from students, create a Venn Diagram, listing descriptive words and terms that fall into the “Hacker circle,” the “Entrepreneurial circle” and the area of overlap.

2. What was HomeBrew? Discuss the development of computer hobbyist clubs like HomeBrew. These groups felt strongly that computer enthusiasts should share As Jim Warren states, “The whole spirit there was working together.....was sharing.”

3. Individually, students read Bill Gates’ letter to the editors of HomeBrew magazine.

4. As a class, discuss Bill Gates’ letter. What was his opinion? Do students have questions about his argument? Gates felt not having proprietary influence over software prevented good software from being written – why would a professional work for free? Others who defended a more communal nature software development argued that an ethos of community and sharing would produce more innovations, with developers building upon and improving each other’s work.

5. Individually, students write a letter to Bill Gates, responding to his arguments and substantiating their point of view.

Issues

Can’t sleep at the moment and I think I have a cold coming on, also I can’t stop thinking how a course could be put together for a year 13 computer science programme. If this was to go ahead, what would be involved in setting it up. What knowledge would I need to be able to teach my students for the external?
Looking at what we put together with 2783 and 18743? It looks to be a good piece of work, could I look at integrating those units into my course for next year and would the students cope, it is a rather large task. 2783 looks at the contemporary computer components while 18743 looks at the technologies that is used in today’s business. Should I look at tech 2.6, does it still exist for students to contrast and compare technologies that are used today, cellphone, cdma, gsm, blackberry?
It has been five years since I looked at some of this stuff and it is starting to hurt. This is one of the thing that I am looking at, I have been a IM teacher and have lost a lot of knowledge that I will need to rethink and look back on. Would a stage one university course help COMP101? I started to think about the packet headers for tcp/ip today and hoe they work with the internet as well as the Class A, Class B, and class C addresses, I can remember two of them 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x, what was the other one?

If I was to enrol in a uni paper, which one and where, do I look at staying in the city over the holidays and doing summer school  or is it something I can do at night? When does summer school start? How would it affect the rest of my classes. I don’t feel I could do it extramural, as I had a bad experience with that when finishing off my bachelors project. But a good experience when I helped a mate out with his e-learning paper. Maybe because it wasn’t “my” work?

Or would I be bored with it due to I have done it before in my polytechnic papers, man that was 6-9 pm at night with HF101 and SF101 and the basic programming papers I carried out, and to this day I still don’t know how I passed HF101, I can’t even remember writing the stuff I did in class down. I have it on paper, but hey.

What would look at the stuff that I need to teach, with multimedia, would it be an exam based theory or a practical project? You need a way to assess the material taught in class, would it be a combination of both.

Moving on, year 12 programming end of year assessment, Using the Technology Achievement Standards to address a client’s need, creating a database to hold an orienteering events three day competition, Relationships on the three days linking back to the competitor, the different age groups, clubs? I know I did something similar at school in sixth form computing, but that would meet the requirements of the brief and the unit standard. Getting the students to compete around a course at school would be an idea for a double period, Set up two courses with plastic plates that spell a word when complete. I have a digital map of the school, it would just involve marking out the buildings and tress and any man made features on the site. OCAD. I have been meaning to do this for years but haven’t had the time, could I give it to a student to do? To work out? A year 13 programming student maybe?