Crossword puzzle; Finish FA7; Keypad practice; Alice

I will be handing you a crossword puzzle today during class - this will be due this Friday, May 3rd.

If you have not yet completed FA7 you need to get it done immediately and emailed to me.  If you have completed that assignment you need to grab a green, keypad handout and type it in Excel.

If you have everything done (including missing assignments) you can work on the Alice project - the dragon world (on the blog from last Wednesday).

Reminder - your podcast is due a week from this Friday (May 10th).  You still have plenty of time to get this done, but time will quickly get away from you.  Make plans to get this assignment completed soon so you aren't scrambling at the last minute!

Vocab Quiz - Multimedia/Graphics #1; finish FA7

We'll take a few minutes to review for the vocab quiz.

After completing the vocab quiz you need to finish FA7 (numbered and bulleted lists).

If you finish FA7 you can go back to working on the Alice project (that was split into 4 parts) that is linked to on the blog from earlier this week (Wednesday).

FA7; vocab quiz tomorrow; podcast reminder

Here is a video regarding the vocab list - specifically streaming video - for this week:

I want to also remind everyone of the vocab quiz tomorrow - please take a few minutes to review the vocab words.  We will discuss in class the difference between .mpg/.mpeg, .mp3, and .wav.

Also, your podcast is due in 2 weeks.  While that is plenty of time to complete the assignment I want to continue to remind you so that you can plan out what (speech you are going to read), how (at school or at home), and when (before school, lunch recess, etc.) you are going to get it done.

Today we will be learning to create bulleted lists and numbered lists within Word.  These are often used to make what you enter into Word easier to read - the numbers and/or bullets help organize a set of information.


Activity 7

Finish FA6; Alice project - methods

Today you need to complete FA6.  It should be printed out and handed in.  Make sure to follow all directions!

Once you have completed FA6 you will again be working in Alice.  This project  has 4 parts and they are below:

Part 1 - Scene setup and animation

Part 2 - Writing Methods and Events

Part 3 - Camera Control, Invisibility, and 3-D Text

Part 4 - Sounds, Billboards, 3-D Text, AsSeenBy

You will not get all of these parts done today.  However, Parts 1 and 2 should be mostly a review of what you've already accomplished.  It will be during Part 3 that you will really begin to learn new Alice concepts and incorporating those into your Princess & Dragon world.

Formatting Activity 6

Today's formatting activity has you learning how to insert symbols into your document.  Symbols can be used for a variety of reasons - to represent currencies, arrows, greek letters of the alphabet, and other symbols such as a trademark.

Also, this is the only formatting activity that doesn't get embedded on the blog.  You will have a handout that you are given and will need to type the handout in order to complete the formatting activity.  

There are a couple of reminders for today...they are as follows:

1. Vocab definitions need to be posted to the wiki page by tonight.  
2. You still have your podcast that needs to be completed.  You have plenty of time to get this done (it is due Friday May 10th - almost 3 weeks from now).  However, remember that you are not able to use class time to complete this project so plan accordingly.  I already have had a couple of people submit their podcast (super job to those who completed theirs already!).  Below is the podcast rubric (it is worth 10 points).

Week 9 vocab (Multimedia/Graphics #1); podcasting; completing work

One of the vocab words for this week is PODCAST.  You will be creating a podcast using the website called VOCAROO.  I will be showing you today how you can create a very simple podcast; you will be doing this on your own OUTSIDE OF CLASS TIME!!! This is due on Friday, May 10 - that's 3 weeks from now to give you plenty of time to complete this project.  However, I highly recommend that you get this done as soon as you can...if you wait until later you will forget and/or not get it done.

The instructions for completing the podcast are as follows:

1. You will use the Vocaroo website to create your podcast, and you will need to make sure that the computer you use has a functioning microphone (all of the computers here at school in the labs and the library have functioning microphones).  
2. The podcast will be you reciting a famous historical speech.  You can choose any speech you want from one of the 3 following websites:
1. Famous quotes
2. American Rhetoric
3. History Place Speeches
3. The podcast ONLY needs to be 1 minute in length; therefore, depending on the speech you choose, you may not have to read the entire speech.
4. After creating the podcast you will embed your podcast on your blog (you will need to give it a proper title).  To do that, click on "HTML Code" at the bottom of the yellow box when you are done with your podcast (shown below).  Copy that information (the HTML code), and then you need to open your blog and create a new post.  In the new post you must click on the "HTML" button BEFORE! you paste the HTML code from Vocaroo!  Once you have this completed you can publish your podcast.
   
5. Once your podcast has been embedded on your blog you will need to send me an email with a link to your blog so I can listen to and grade your podcast.  Please make sure that you include a proper subject line for the email.

For today work on whatever needs to get done (yes that includes vocabulary definitions - if you want to post your definitions to the wiki page you can do that today).  If you have nothing to work on for me you either need a book to read or homework from another class to work on - you will be busy with one of these 2 things the entire hour.

Vocab Quiz; Finish FA5; email blog post; missing assignments; Alice

There are several different things that you may need to work on today.  First we will all review for the vocab quiz.  After being given several minutes to review we will all go to Classmarker to take the quiz.

Here are the other items that you need to get done:

1. Finish FA5 if you did not get it completed yesterday.  Remember that this must be printed out and that you must sign your name at the bottom between the complimentary close and where your name is typed.
2. Complete the blog post that was given to you on Monday.  Here is the writing prompt:  "In what ways do you see learning how to format documents in Microsoft Word useful, or important, for your future?" When you get done you need to send me an email with a link to your blog so I can read your response.
3. If you have missing assignments now is the time to get these done.  The missing assignment list on the wall has not been updated since Tuesday, but you should know which assignments since then you have not turned in.  Zeroes have a devastatingly bad effect on your grade - getting some credit (even if it is only 50%) will greatly improve your current grade.
4. If you have all of the above done, and you have no missing assignments, you may work in Alice and complete the Fish Fairy world. 

FA5; Video

The following video will help you to understand what HDTV is for this week's vocab quiz - which will be tomorrow.  Also remember that you have a blog post to enter on your blog, and it is due tomorrow.  The writing prompt is:

"In what ways do you see learning how to format documents in Microsoft Word useful, or important, for your future?"

After posting your response on your blog make sure to send me an email with a link to your blog.



Here is the explanation of how to complete FA5.  After watching my explanation you will be able to work on FA5, which is embedded below this video.



FA5

GB/Bytes; Alice - finish Fish Fairy world

We will start today discussing computer memory - the most important of which will be bytes and GB.

Additionally, you will be working to complete the Fish Fairy world in Alice.

Finish FA4; Cache video; Alice Fish Fairy project

Tomorrow, at 8 am, grades need to be completed for progress reports.  If you have a missing assignment you need to get it turned in as soon as possible so I can have an opportunity to get it submitted to Skyward (check the wall for updated missing assignments - just posted today).

Today you will need to finish your formatting activity and email that to me.  Once you get that completed there are two things you can do.  First, if you have vocab definitions to post on the Wiki page you can get that done now.  Secondly, if you have everything done you can start working on the next Alice project, embedded below.  When you are saving make sure to save to your account, and you should name this project "Fish Fairy".

Beginning Fish Fairy tutorial -

Firewall; FA4; Blog post for week of Apr. 15

Vocabulary definitions for this week (week #8 - TECHNICAL) need to be posted by Tuesday night.  Please post yours as soon as possible!

Here is a short video on what a Firewall is:

The Formatting Activity we are going to cover today helps explain how to use Tabs within a Word document.  We will cover some basic information as a class before we start working on the Formatting Activity.  

FA4


 The last thing I want to make you aware of is that you need to create a blog post by Friday for the following writing prompt:

"In what ways do you see learning how to format documents in Microsoft Word useful, or important, for your future?"

This needs to be posted on your blog by this Friday, Apr. 19th.  You will need to send me a link to your blog so that I can see that you have posted this assignment on your blog.  Here is the grading rubric:

Vocab quiz; Alice

You will be given time at the beginning of class to review for today's vocab quiz.

After completing the vocab quiz you will again be working in Alice.  First, I need to clarify what I was talking about yesterday concerning saving.  When the message box pops up after 15 minutes of NOT saving your project, you need to click on "Remind Me Later".  This is different than what I stated yesterday.  Once you have closed the pop-up window go to File and choose "Save World As".  Remember to save into your account (and remember the folder you save it into)!!!

Space World project finish

Saving in Alice:

When this message box pops up on your screen you should do a SAVE AS!  If you click on "Save right now" you will be able to save your file where you want by doing the Save As.  Remember...do NOT save to your desktop!  Instead save your files into your documents folder of your account.  Also it is very important to make sure to give your files descriptive names - otherwise you will easily get confused about which file belongs to which project.

You need to complete the Space World instructions that were embedded on the blog from Tuesday.  Once you complete those instructions, you need to modify your world the following manner:

You are going to have your Humvee drive to a different place in the world, pick up an Astronaut from the Lunar lander, and then go back to the "base camp".

1. Add an object to the current world in order to create a "base camp" for the original Astronaut.  This can most easily be done by adding a building of some sort (you can choose what type of building since there are no "space" buildings to choose from) near the Humvee.
2. Your Humvee will drive to the Lunar Lander in a different area of your world.  You will need to create a method in which the Humvee moves to the Lunar Lander as part of your program.
3. Once the Humvee arrives at the Lunar Lander, the second Astronaut will "de-board" the Lunar Lander and enter the Humvee (just like the original Astronaut did to the Humvee when you set him to the Humvee).
4. After the second astronaut enters the Humvee, have the Humvee drive back to the "base camp".
5. Both Astronauts should exit the Humvee, stand next to each other, say something, and then wave at the camera.

When you get this done let me see your finished product!

Alice - space project; practice timed writings

Today we are going to cover the different domain names possible on the Internet.  Several are included with this week's vocabulary quiz (the ones included on the vocabulary quiz are the 4 most commonly used domains on the Internet), but there are many others that you may not see very often.

After discussing the Internet domain names you will have time to work on your Alice project.

If you complete the Alice project I want you to go to the Free Typing Games website and practice your timed writings.  However, this time I want you to work on your 3-minute timed writings instead of the 1-minute timed writings we completed for a grade last time.  You can use any of the Classic Tales, 26-35, to practice your speed tests.  You are not working on just completing one speed test - you are practicing your timed writings until the end of the hour.

Last vocab reminder; Alice project

Today is your last vocab reminder for those of you who still have not posted your definition to the wiki page.  You will need to get this done by tonight!

Today you will be working on an Alice project.  The Alice project is embedded below - you will want to go through each slide one at a time and follow the instructions to help you understand how to use Alice.


Alice Space tutorial

Vocab list #7; Alice introduction

As a reminder to anyone who has not yet completed their definitions on their respective Wiki, you will need to get this completed by tomorrow night.  Use the websites listed on the vocabulary page to help you find a definition.  NOTE:  if you have the "Internet filter" definition you may need to use the term "web filter" when looking for a definition.  They are the same thing, but I have found that finding a definition for web filter is easier than finding one for Internet filter.

ALICE!

Opening window: Tutorial, Recent Worlds, Templates, Examples, Open a World

To start - select a template (for today, select grass).  Then select open.

Saving:  Click on the File menu in the top-left, then click on Save World.  Save to your documents folder for now, but I highly recommend you bring your flash drive from now on to save it to.  Also, notice the extension for Alice files is .a2w.

Alice Interface:  you will see 5 distinct areas in Alice.  They are the Object tree, World window, Events area, Details area, and Editor area.  These areas are what you use to create your world, with each area having a specific "responsibility" in helping you create that world.

Object tree:  this area shows all of the current objects in your world.  The plus sign next to an object shows that it has sub-parts (click on the plus sign to see an object's sub-parts).  World, camera, light, and ground appear in every Alice world.

World window:  this area contains a view of the virtual world you are creating.  Below the area there is a set of 3 arrows that allow you to manipulate the Alice camera.  Next to the arrows you will see a green ADD OBJECTS button.  If you click on this button you will see a big change in the Alice world - at this point you will have switched to the scene editor mode. 

In the scene editor mode you are able to add objects to your world and position them where you want them.  You have a gallery of objects listed by category - click on the category to see all of the available objects within each category (some categories have sub-folders with other sub-categories...the animals category would be one example).  If you click on an object you can find out how many parts the object has (we'll come back to this in a little bit).  Once you find what you want, click on the object then click on "Add instance to world".  You can add as many objects as needed for your world.  When you are done inserting objects, click on DONE.

Additionally there are 7 buttons on the top right of the screen that are important to your positioning objects in the world.  The cursor allows you to move the object parallel to the ground.  The vertical tool allows you to move the object up and down.  The turn tool is used to rotate an object parallel to the ground.  The rotate tool allows a user to rotate the object forward or backward.  The tumble tool allows the user to freely turn and rotate the object in any direction.  The resize tool allows the user to change the size of the object (click on the object and hold down your mouse, then move your mouse up or down to change the object to be bigger or smaller).  The duplicate tool makes a copy of your object.

Below these 7 buttons you will see a rectangular button that says "more controls".  This button is what you use to change your camera.  In Alice you "drop" cameras at points in your world...later you have the ability to move from one camera spot to another.

Events area:  this part of the interface shows existing events and is used to create new events.  An event consists of and event trigger (a condition) and an event handler (a method).  For example, if the skater were to fall through the ice you might hear a splash.  Falling through the ice would be the event trigger (or condition), and the method that makes the splash sound would be the event handler.

Some events allow the user to interact with the world.  For example, you can fly a plane by using the arrow keys, or you could have a character make a statement every time you click on a particular key on the keyboard.

Details area:  the details area is located below the object tree (bottom left of the interface).  It has 3 tabs - properties, methods, and functions.  The properties tab contains information about an object, such as its color and position in the world.  Methods are programs that manipulate objects, such as the method to make a bird fly from point A to point B.  A function is a method that returns a value, such as the distance between two objects.

You select an object by either clicking that object in the world or by clicking its tile in the Object tree.  To manipulate the different parts of an object you will need to either click the plus sign next to the part of the object you want to manipulate or click it in the World view.

Editor area:  this is the largest area on the interface.  The methods are assembled here and edited by clicking and dragging tiles from other parts of the interface.  The bottom of the editor area has a row of logic and control tiles that can be used to loop (do a certain number of times), do together, if/else statements (if object A goes then left object B goes right, etc.), etc.

Undo, Redo, trash can:  these should be self-explanatory.  I highly recommend using the undo button as often as possible.  Many times you will attempt to create certain movement or motion within your world and it won't work the way you want.  No problem!  Just use the undo button to get back to where you began.

Complete assignments; Begin Alice tutorials

Today you will have the hour to complete any work that you have not yet completed.   That could be either of the assignments we've had this week (the blogging assignment or FA3), or it could be an assignment that we've previously worked on that you have not handed in.  Use today to get done what you need to get done.

If you have all of the assignments completed, and you have no missing assignments, then you should begin the Alice tutorials.  To open Alice, go to your Finder menu and choose Applications.  Once you have opened the Applications you will find a software program called Alice.  Open it.

Once you have Alice open there will be 4 tutorials that you can work through to help you learn a little bit about how Alice works (we'll learn more at the beginning of next week).  Today you need to start with the Tutorials (the red arrow in the image below points to the Tutorial tab that you need to click on once you've opened Alice); then you can move through the tutorials in order (shown with the blue arrows in the image).

FA3

Just a quick reminder about a few things...

1. The blogging assignment is due tomorrow.  You must have your essay completed, published on your blog, and your comments on 2 of your classmates' blogs.  Please email me with a link to your blog and list in your email the name of the 2 classmates' blogs that you commented on.
2. If you are responsible for vocab definitions on the wiki, please have those posted by next Tuesday.  You still have plenty of time to get this done - don't wait until the last minute!
3. The rest of the semester will move fairly quickly.  We are going to be completing quite a few assignments - being on task so you can get your work done in a timely manner will be very important!
4. Citizenship points - be where you are supposed to be on the computer at all times and be on task.
5. KEEP YOUR SPEED SKIN ON THE COMPUTER AT ALL TIMES!

Today we are going to be working on FA3, which will help you to understand the importance of using the headers and footers (something we have already touched on) as well as understand how using headers and footers works with multiple pages.  The instructions are embedded below:

Activity 3 -

Blogging assignment

Today you are going to work on finishing your blogging assignment.  Remember that you first need to write an essay about what you did over Spring Break, post your essay on your blog, and then you need to reply to 2 of your classmates.  Once all of that has been accomplished you can send me an email with  a link to your blog and a list of the classmates whose blogs you commented on.  You should have no problems finishing this in class today, but if you don't get it completed the due date is Friday, Apr. 5th.

If you complete this assignment and you have vocab words that need to be posted to the wiki spaces page you may do that in class today.

Once you complete the above work and you have no missing assignments (you might want to check the board on the wall) you will have the following to work on.  This is a program that is called Alice.  Alice's function is to teach you how to think like a computer programmer thinks in an interactive world.  Your job, as the "programmer", is to create world's in which characters interact with each other using commands that you give to the program.  Unlike many computer programming languages where you must learn the language first (much like you would have to learn a new speaking language), Alice is an Object-Oriented Program (sometimes these are referred to as OOPs) - meaning that instead of learning a language you are going to be dragging and dropping with your mouse to manipulate the objects in the world you create.

What I would like for you to do is to open Alice (go to the Finder menu and choose Applications - you'll find it listed amongst the other Applications on the computer), and then start the tutorial (see image below).  To start the tutorial just click on the "Start the Tutorial" button.

Blog posting

As a reminder to those who have not posted their definitions, you still have until Tuesday of next week to put them on your respective wiki spaces page.  Next week's vocab list is list #7 (all of the vocab words in list #7 are related to the Internet).

Today we are going to start with talking about your blog.  We are going to add your first blog post in which you are going to write something.  Your topic will be "My Spring Break", and the blog post instructions are listed below (we'll get to those in a little bit - don't start writing now!).

But first we are going to set up your blog so that we can make sure that other people can comment on your blog without putting information on your blog that you don't want.  In other words, we want to be able to review all of the comments before they are posted on our blog (this acts like a filter in that you get to read every comment before it is posted on your blog...thus you are able to make sure that anyone posting flaming comments doesn't get published).

The assignment is that you need to write an essay about what you did over spring break.  Using what you have learned in Language Arts, you need to have an introduction, at least 3 supporting details (they good be good things or bad things about spring break), and then a closing.  Once you have completed this you are to publish your spring break essay on your blog (this is called a blog post).  This part of the assignment will be worth 5 points.

Your next part of this assignment is to comment (or "post a comment" as it is sometimes called) on 2 different classmates' blogs (in other words you can't post twice to the same person's blog, nor can you comment to someone on your blog and count that as a comment). This part of the assignment will be worth 4 points total - each comment will be worth 2 points.

Let's look at the following website so we can see what can be done to create a quality comment on a blog:  comments on a blog

The last part of this blog posting assignment is to spell check your essay and your comments to your friends' blogs.  This part of the assignment will be worth 1 point.

Once you have posted your essay about "My Spring Break" on your blog and you have posted 2 comments on 2 different classmates' blogs you need to email me.  In your email you need to include a link to your blog AND you also need to include the two people whose blogs you posted to.  This will all be due on Friday, April 5th.