[Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007

Thu Oct 12 21:35:44 EST 2006

It is not unknown for the Robert Hind mouth to open wide and the foot to be 
firmly planted therein!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Kelly" <kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
To: "Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management 
Teachers'Mailing List" <ipm at edulists.com.au>
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 8:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007

>
> Potter, Stuart J wrote:
>> No HTML not a "programming" language, although it is often called that. 
>> e.g. http://www.programmingtutorials.com/
>>
>> HTML is coding, rather than programming. I shouldn't have used 
>> 'programming' instead of 'coding'. If I were to use Javascript, I would 
>> ask my students, who have never attempted any programming/scripting 
>> before to do some HTML 'coding' before they attempted Javascript 
>> 'scripting' at year 11. I just threw both in together loosely under the 
>> term 'programming'.
>>
>> Clearly I need to be much more pedantic.
>
> hehehehe.  That's what we're REALLY good at here  :-)
>
> But seriously folks, no-one here would want to discourage a colleague for 
> trivial matters.
>
> When I re-read most of my posts I am glad that no-one has noticed MY usual 
> glaring typo, bad edit or misspeaking - or bombastic declaration... I'm 
> really GOOD at doing that.
>
> It is the nature of the beast that we usually post in haste so we can get 
> on with more pressing matters at work.  We know our fellow posters post 
> during 5 minutes free at recess and don't have the luxury of crafting 
> their responses to win a Pulitzer prize.
>
> It's often the rapid-fire recess reply that is misunderstood as being 
> critical.  It's usually not meant to be critical.
>
> I would be NOT happy if people ever felt bullied or embarrassed to 
> contribute to this list.
>
> HappyJolly.com everyone!
>
> Mark the Moderator
>
>
>> Stuart Potter
>> IT co-ordinator
>> Donald High School
>>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Robert Hind
>> Sent: Thu 10/12/2006 5:34 PM
>> To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management 
>> Teachers'MailingList
>> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
>>  HTML programming!
>>
>> Please. HTML is surely not a programming language.
>>
>> Comments please.
>>
>> Robert Hind (Semi-retired)
>> Ex Traralgon and Ashwood
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Potter, Stuart J" <potter.stuart.j at edumail.vic.gov.au>
>> To: "Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management 
>> Teachers'Mailing List" <ipm at edulists.com.au>
>> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 5:14 PM
>> Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Donald High School will be using Filemaker Pro, for two of the reasons 
>>> listed.
>>>
>>> - It's easy to learn and easy to use. (good for the students and me too)
>>> - The school has a fully licenced copy of Filemaker Pro 8.0 (which is a 
>>> recent version). We used to do our reports on it.
>>>
>>> Incidentally we're also a Macintosh school (45 desktops and a couple of 
>>> laptops) shared by 165-170 students....although we do have one lab of 
>>> Macs (20) with Intel chips meaning we can use Windows as well.
>>>
>>> Incidentally what programming / scripting  languages are being planned 
>>> by teachers? Having done very little programming, I'm vacillating 
>>> between Visual Basic (seems to be a few support materials around) and 
>>> Javascript or HTML programming (obviously ties in well with web design 
>>> and doesn't need any extra software apart from the source code.)
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Stuart Potter
>>> IT co-ordinator
>>> Donald High School
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Mark Kelly
>>> Sent: Thu 10/12/2006 12:39 PM
>>> To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management 
>>> Teachers'Mailing List
>>> Subject: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
>>>
>>> [7th attempt - our whole school has been blacklisted by SpamCop - and we
>>> hope we are now off the blacklist!]
>>>
>>> Hi all.  Here's a frisky cat to throw among the pigeons.
>>>
>>> I'm curious what database management software will people be using for
>>> ITA Unit 3 Outcome 1 next year?
>>>
>>> At the VITTA presentation I did on ITA in August, I recommended that if
>>> we got organised and agreed on a standard tool we could be much more
>>> efficient when sharing tutorials, sample tasks, tips and hints, sample
>>> outcomes etc - all of which will be a big in 2007 as we adjust to the
>>> new course.
>>>
>>> The main DBMS contenders I see are:
>>>
>>>
>>> --- MS Access
>>> - Access is not a standard part of the average MS Office suite (AFAIK),
>>> so many kids are unlikely to have it at home, so it would be hard to
>>> assign homework or practice tasks using it.
>>> - It costs big money if kids have to buy it for home.
>>> - It costs big money for non-government schools.
>>> - For most people, it's not as easy to learn as Filemaker is.
>>>
>>>
>>> --- Filemaker
>>> - Even fewer kids are likely to have Filemaker at home, so assigning
>>> home practice would be nearly impossible.
>>> - It's easy to learn (especially creating programming scripts) and easy
>>> to use.
>>> - It costs big money if kids had to buy it for home.
>>> - It costs big money for schools to buy.
>>>
>>> (Having said that, it's the database I use for McKinnon's reporting
>>> package, and the database I'm most skilled with.)
>>>
>>>
>>> --- OpenOffice.org Base
>>> - It's FREE for students and schools.
>>> - It's compatible with MS Access (and can read Access database files)
>>> - It's pretty much as easy to use as Access.
>>> - There's some online support for it, but more is coming and we can work
>>> as a team to develop all we need!
>>> - Did I mention it's FREE?
>>> - It comes with other open source replacements for Word, Excel,
>>> Powerpoint, drawing software etc.
>>> - It even has its own equivalent of VBA for programming macros.
>>> - Oh yeah - and it's FREE!
>>>
>>>
>>> --- MySQL
>>> I only include this because I've heard of one school planning to use it.
>>>  I would not recommend it because it's far too complex for kids to
>>> learn from scratch in VCE: too much programming required to get the job
>>> done.  Way overkill, IMHO.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If you get some time as the year winds down, how about getting a copy of
>>> (http://openoffice.org) - it's about 50M to download, and is available
>>> via WWW and Bittorrent.
>>>
>>> Have a play, see what you think.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Mark K
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Mark Kelly
>>> Manager - Information Systems
>>> McKinnon Secondary College
>>> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
>>> Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
>>> School Phone +613 8520 9000  <<< NEW NUMBER
>>> School Fax +613 95789253
>>>
>>> IPM Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
>>> Moderator: IPM Mailing List
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
> -- 
> Mark Kelly
> Manager - Information Systems
> McKinnon Secondary College
> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
> Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
> School Phone +613 8520 9000 << new number!
> School Fax   +613 9578 9253
>
> Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
> IPM Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
> Moderator: IPM Mailing List
>
> Doctor - We must all face reality sooner or later.
> Dowd   - I wrestled with reality for 35 years, doctor, and I'm happy to 
> say I won out over it.  ('Harvey', 1950)
>
>
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