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

Sun Jul 3 18:27:03 EST 2005

Thanks Bill and Robert. You are having an impact on me! I have started
to explore CSS, and was totally blown out of the water when I discovered
how easy it was to make something happen exactly the way I wanted after
arm-wrestling with Front Page for years trying to get it to do the same.
Wow!
One site I found helpful is http://www.tizag.com/cssT/pclass.php etc.
When I experienced Front Page 2000 responding obediently to CSS
instructions, yet crashing when I wanted to use it to edit the CSS file
( I used Notepad instead) I decided to explore Dreamweaver that I have
had for some time, but lacked the time and motivation to get into it. It
certainly seems to support CSS more fully, but time is early...
Fundamentally I am not a programmer so am content to use a web editor
such as Dreamweaver, but want to exercise maximum control over the
finished product, and have it do precisely what I have in my
'designer's' mind.
Keith

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 15:19:17 +1000, "Robert Hind" <robert at yinnar.com>
said:
> Re year 10 plus:
> 
> I too am a fan of teaching students to use HTML directly.  Mainly because
> I believe that the students should know what is going on "behind the
> scenes" before they launch into a wysiwyg program such as Dreamweaver.
> Non-standards-compliant programs such as Front Page should be relegated
> to the lowest rank, even if they are easy to use and readily available.
> 
> CSS, HTML, JavaScript: all great and I think that our IT students should
> be following this path rather than even Dreamweaver because part of their
> IT education is learning how things work rather than just being able to
> "do it".
> 
> But so many of the students are after the "quick fix". What do they
> want?" "Results."  "When do they want them?" "Now." - or preferably last
> week. They have chosen to study IT and it should be made clear to them
> that we are not simply following the ICT path, but rather showing them
> how things work.
> 
> Robert Hind
> Ashwood College
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Bill Kerr 
>   To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
>   Teachers'Mailing List 
>   Cc: List Yr7-10it 
>   Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 1:03 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] New Yr10IT Course - Construct-ion-ivist
>   Approach
> 
> 
>   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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> 
> 
>   _______________________________________________ 
>   http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe 
>   IPM Mailing List kindly supported by 
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>   Teachers Association Inc
Keith Richardson
IPM List Moderator
Head of ICT, Leibler Yavneh College
Elsternwick
Ph: 03.9528.4911
k.richardson at yavneh.vic.edu.au