[Year 12 IPM] New Yr10IT Course - Construct-ion-ivist Approach

[Bill Kerr]

hi keith,

Thanks for sharing your plan. 

Task 10 - Website

I'm a big fan of *not* using FrontPage because it is not standards 
compliant, for example, the pages may not appear correctly in popular 
alternative browsers such as Firefox.

That's a pragmatic issue but the whole issue of web standards is an 
important issue in its own right IMHO. 

One approach (the FrontPage approach) is to produce a webpage as quickly and 
easily as possible. 

The other approach is to follow the modern, forward looking path of clean 
separation of structure (HTML), style (CSS) and behaviour (javascript) which 
will make webpages look better in a variety of browsers, last into the 
future (as browsers improve CSS2, CSS3), incorporate features such as 
disability access which ought to be of importance to teachers, etc.

I'm also a big fan of teaching raw HTML markup directly but that's a 
separate issue. Dreamweaver, for example, is standards compliant and so is a 
perfectly acceptable alternative to Frontpage. 

-- 
Bill Kerr
http://billkerr.blogspot.com/
http://intranet.woodvillehs.sa.edu.au/kerrbi/index.htm

On 6/29/05, Keith Richardson <keithcr at fastmail.fm> wrote:
> 
> I have been impressed by the various approaches to ITC discussed
> recently on these lists, and so decided to create an experimental
> learning setting for my Year10IT class for Semester 2. I have played
> with various forms of scenario-based integrative units before, as I
> guess we all have, but decided to go all out with this one, utilizing
> full-immersion lasting a full semester.
> My kids seem to work best in situations where they are involved in the
> content, where there are clearly defined expectations, yet where there
> is also 'room-to-move'. I have built each of these elements into the
> course.
> I would like to eventually move towards a Moodle style of course
> delivery, but at this point in time the learning curve (for me) is
> toweringly steep, so have decided to be more conventional and during the
> semester in my own time try adapting it across to Moodle. We will see...
> Please feel free to modify and adapt in any which way (all I ask is that
> credit be given for original authorship). It should be easy to change
> the cultural setting to suit your kids, and to adjust the various
> software and tasks to suit what you prefer to do.
> My whole thesis is that ICT and associated software programs should be
> there to serve other purposes. There will be times when it is essential
> to pause from the theme and teach just software but just sufficient to
> put them onto the right track with correct procedures and the discipline
> of organized logic particularly in the field of file management.
> As an aside I recommend taking a look at the Florida Gulf Coast
> University tutorials for Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access, as well as
> Wikipaedia for definitions and extended explanations.
> Attached please find a copy of the course.
> I would be very interested in and appreciative of critical feedback
> please.
> Regards, Keith Richardson
> Keith Richardson
> Leibler Yavneh College
> Elsternwick Ph (03)9528 4911
> keithcr at fastmail.fm
> 
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