2010 curriculum ideas, junior secondary school

I have been thinking about our courses, I know that we are looking at skills and development of the technological process, but we are leaving a huge chunk of work out, that we probably need to look at in more detail to make sure that we are creating that all round student.

A great place to start looking at resources is http://www.thegrid.org.nz – It is the netsafe group version of a connected, safe, Responsible student. These are the same things that the new curriculum key competencies are looking for.

The other area that we need to identify and improve students in, is not only technogicial literacy, but also digital literacy;
A nifty digital literacy resource to encourage reflection and stimulate discussion :: http://www.nwlg.org/digitalliteracy/

Microsoft Education - bits and bytes

In my view this has been one of the most annoying part of researching a topic. Every time I think I have found all the learning and articles for a topic I then find more.

The Microsoft Visual Studio Express Editions Beginning Developer Learning Centre is my new find.

There is two parts to this, the Web Development, and Windows Development. The one I am focussed on today is the Windows Development.

Windows Development
Would you like to customize your desktop with cool utilities or build fun Windows applications and PC games? Then you should explore this Development Track

There are Five lessons in the Bits and Bytes section:

• Bits & Bytes: Lesson 1 Problem Solving in Life and Technology
  Introduction to Programming Concepts – Understanding problem solving patterns and strategies is the first step to computer program design and development.


• Bits & Bytes: Lesson 2 Things, Things, and More Things
  Introduction to Programming Concepts – How do we represent the complexity of real-world situations to a computer? This lesson will introduce the idea of Object Oriented Design.


• Bits & Bytes: Lesson 3 The Data Game
  Introduction to Programming Concepts – This lesson will explore how computers process and store data.


• Bits & Bytes: Lesson 4 Computer IQ
  Introduction to Programming Concepts – How do computers "think" and make decisions? This lesson will answer this question and see just how "smart" computers actually are.


• Bits & Bytes: Lesson 5 Life before Mice
  Introduction to Programming Concepts – This lesson explores human-computer interaction and the concept of graphical user interfaces (GUI). You'll learn some best practices for designing GUI applications.

I am now working on downloading the various lessons both the audio and the articles, this will be an interesting addition to the microsoft virtual pc 2007, which as well I have just found out that it is free, I hope it will be better than the microsoft virtual pc 2004 that we have on the school system at the moment.

So I will have the bits and bytes series as well as the Microsoft Curriculum on Digital Literacy that I found the other day, or would it be better on the managed network, so it can be allocated to various rooms.

Microsoft Education in New Zealand

I have been to the Microsoft Education site in New Zealand http://www.microsoft.co.nz/education a lot in the past years I have been a teacher. I have looked for may varied and interesting ways to teach a multitude of topics ranging from webdesign, piracy, ethics, and operating systems. You would think the Microsoft site would be a good place to start. Well you are right, just not the New Zealand one.

I subscribe to a number of Computer Science teachers blogs from overseas and have found in the last couple of days good resources from them, and they are from Microsoft!

Number One: Digital Literacy
http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/citizenship/giving/programs/up/digitalliteracy/eng/Curriculum.mspx
The Digital Literacy Curriculum consists of five courses:

Computer Basics

The Internet and the World Wide Web

Productivity Programs

Computer Security and Privacy

Digital Lifestyles

Each course has an e-learning module and an assessment. You can also take the Certificate Test, which covers topics from all five courses. If you pass the Certificate Test, you can print out a personalized Digital Literacy Certificate.

This original version teaches generic ICT skills and concepts, and features screen shots and simulations from Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Microsoft Office 2003 to illustrate and provide hands-on examples for students. Version 2 of Digital Literacy uses screen shots and simulations from Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Number Two
Microsoft Academic Alliance High School Membership

The alliance that I'm referring to is the Microsoft Academic Alliance which allows any high school computer science department and computer science students to install Visual Studio. In addition, you get the following:

Three Microsoft e-Learning Library (MELL) collections:

• General Programming
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
• Programming in Visual Basic .NET

• Teaching Tools CD
• Student Tools CD
• Teaching Tools Manual
• Student Tools Manual
• Introductory Kit
• Monitored Newsgroups
• MSDN Library

• Documentation
• Technical Articles
• Code Samples

• Access to the Member's Area of the Web site
• Private MSDN Academic Alliance newsgroups
• Additional "Members Only" special offers
• 2 Professional Technical Support incidents

There are three ways for students to obtain the software for their personal use.

1. Member departments may make up to 50 copies of MSDN AA software for students to check-out from a library or lab. Students are required to return the physical media within a reasonable period of time.
2. Member departments may put the software on a secure server and have students download directly from the server. If a department desires to utilize both methods, that is perfectly acceptable.
3. Microsoft has partnered with e-academy to provide electronic software distribution for students and faculty free of charge.

Students must sign an agreement before they can download the software. The school administrator keeps track of the software and the agreements.

Number 3
Academic Resource Centre
http://www.academicresourcecenter.net/curriculum/facetmain.aspx
A number of programming resources are available here, as well as high education.
I have gathered some C# and visual basic resoures that I plan to use with the year 12 and 13 programming classes.
Example:
Code Rules: Introduction to Programming with Visual Basic - 12/19/2006
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 really annoys me, and I have made it known in a couple of emails, one to the msdn alliance, and the other to the innovative teachers Australia and New Zealand network. Why is none of this on the New Zealand Microsoft Education website, are we not important. No wonder that there is the call for Open Source. Ubuntu has just released training for students and instructors on how to use 7.10. Maybe there is the need to change. Just because Microsoft are stuffing us around.