[Year 12 IPM] databases

[Keith Richardson]

Databases used to scare me, but I have found that once you get used to
them they are really quite fun in a nerdy kind of way.
I use one almost every day and it has become second nature. Cannot
remember why they gave me such trouble originally.
I think that it wass because I did not really understand where they were
coming from. Once you have tracked that down, and been exposed to what
they need to work, and how they are basically structured, and what data
actually is, much of it falls into place.
There is obviously a opening for VITTA to run a few successful hands-on
seminars in (dare I suggest it) Access.
>From experience, I would recommend a full-day session, to allow people
time to play and get used to the program.
A good idea can be to have a real information problem you would like to
solve using a database. Thinking about the data you need to have, and
the information you want to get out of it, goes a long way towards
helping you make sense of Access.

For example, the Phys Ed department ask me to give them house lists,
with all of the students in a given house together, girls first, sorted
alphabetically within year levels. Data required - names, sex, year
level, house for every student, plus something that is guaranteed unique
for each child (you may have 3 John Smiths all in Yr 7 for example).

Another conceptual framework that I find helpful is to draw on the board
the following labelled diagram (attached)

I trust that this long-winded answer helps some people.

Keith





On Tue, 28 Mar 2006 17:37:42 +1100, "Trish Cotter"
<tcotter at koonung.vic.edu.au> said:
> For what its worth - this is my opinion about teaching databases
> 
> whilst some of us may think that databases aren't sexy enough, they
> aren't a step backwards in my opinion. Databases are the bread and
> butter, heart and sole of information management - concepts taught when
> developing relational databases are extemely useful in IT. Content
> management on the web is the next huge area for kids to get a grip of so
> maybe I'll need some retraining in using MySQL, but I still think that
> for students to get even a little understanding of basic relational
> concepts is very important.
> 
> 
> ---
> Regards,
> Trish Cotter
> Koonung Secondary College
> ^^^^^
> tcotter at koonung.vic.edu.au
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Keith Richardson
IPM List Moderator
Head of ICT, Leibler Yavneh College
Elsternwick
Ph: 03.9528.4911
k.richardson at yavneh.vic.edu.au

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