Unit 1: Computer Technology - Introduction, Careers, and Safety

Unit 1: Grade 10 Computer Technology - Introduction, Careers, and Safety

This course introduces students to computer systems, networking, and interfacing, as well as electronics and robotics. Students will assemble, repair, and configure computers with various types of operating systems and application software. Students will build small electronic circuits and write computer programs to control simple peripheral devices or robots. Students will also develop an awareness of environmental and societal issues related to the use of computers, and learn about secondary and postsecondary pathways to careers in computer technology. Focus will support robotics and the Robo program here at Western. The course will be 8 weeks in duration with your final mark made up from all of your term work, with later term work weighted heavier than at the beginning of course.

Course Units and Descriptions

Use this table for an overview and navigate to each of the course unit pages.

Unit	Description
Review course outline for more details
1	Careers & Safety- Intro, computers, organization, safety, and research careers
2	Computers- organization, hardware, design, software, maintenance, building, repair, and troubleshooting
3	Circuits- Electrical characteristics, calculations, components, digital logic design, project build, and troubleshooting
4	Boe-Bot- micro controllers, electronics, robot builds, circuit building, programming, robot navigation, testing, and troubleshooting
5	Web Portfolio- Showcase course work, projects, and understanding with web portfolio and presentation

Unit Activity Breakdown Format

You will notice each unit activity below is broken down into five subtopics using SPICE, to guide and help you through the project and assignments related to the unit activity:

Situation - This is the introduction, big picture, or you can think of it as the setting of story/novel
Problem/Challenge - What must be resolved or completed, i.e. what you will need to accomplish
Investigation/Ideas - includes gathering ideas, research and organizing information to help create, construct, and/or complete the Problem/Challenge
Create/Construct - take your best idea and complete and/or build the needed solution
Evaluation - did the Problem/Challenge above get resolved and/or completed

In this unit, students will be introduced to the course, look at safety, organization, journals, and research and learn about several related careers

Unit Content Activity Quick Links, Click to Jump to Specific Activity!

Unit 1, Act. 1: Introduction, Computers, Organization, and General Safety

Tech Info, Safety, Shortcuts, Journals, Evaluation

Unit 1, Act. 2: Related Career

Ideas, Prezi, Prezi videos, Steps, Evaluation

Unit 1, Act. 1: Introduction, Organization, and Safety

Situation:

Students are starting a new course in Computer Technology and will be introduced to the course, given some organization and support documents, and safety awareness.

Problem/Challenge:

Getting familiar with what the course is all about, related careers, class routines, expectations of the course and the teacher, general administration of class, and safety are all important issues to know and understand. This activity will allow students the opportunity to organize and prepare for course and understand administration, evaluation, marks, routine, possible career direction, and expectations for classes to run smoothly.

Investigation/Ideas:

The following is list of items that are to be reviewed by students to understand what is going on in this course:

Course Details
General Safety
Detailed Safety Issues
Shop/room Layout
Shop/room Resources
Emergency Procedures
Expectations
Assessment & Evaluation
Class Policies
Routines
Remote learning
Attendance and Lates
Moodle Log-in

It is important that students feel comfortable with the above points and should know what is happening in the course.

Create/Construct:

Room 174a Layout

Introduction

Start by organizing your supplies and materials for taking and storing your notes and assignments in a binder. A duo-tang will be provided for your in-class journals and safety related paper work and stored in the classroom filing cabinet share. Review the course outline and class routines and write down any questions you have about the course, requirements, expectations, or responsibilities you need to be clear on. Timetable and school policies will also be reviewed using your agenda as a guide. A room and school tour will be conducted to familiarize students with our facilities.

A Survey - Getting to know you will be handed out for students to fill out in-class so that the instructor can get to know you and allow you to write down any important information that you feel the instructor should know about such as extra support, health, social, and/or interests you may want to pass on..

The following is a list of related support document links for students, which will be reviewed in class:

Tech Info Page

One of the first things in class we do is review the Introduction to Technical Classes, point number three above which gives you a great overview of the course operation. The top section of the page has ten blank boxes to be filled in with the important things we will cover in this course. You will find this information by reviewing the course outline and listening to the teacher discussing what is happening in the course. The bottom section will also need to be filled out with two in-class peer partners for contact information and support with-in the class to help foster team support. collaboration, and responsibility.

Important Information, Routine Details, and Support

To help everyone understand daily routines, expectations, student responsibilities there are some steps that you must be aware of, that we will discuss in detail such as:

Paper Hand-in Bin

Resource Binder

Current Events

Class schedule day
School/room map layout (tour)
Late arrival process and class entry
Absent - note name, reason, & dates to office VP
Pre-project preparation
End of period journals
Paperwork hand-in bin
Paperwork over-flow out bin
Class share resource table/area
Extra handouts & digital copies
Daily current events board
Supply teacher respect and learning
Due date - beginning of class
Leaving the room - process (ex. - washroom - 1)
Class Sign-out resource binder
Seating - support, proximity, and behavior
Partners, groups, and leaders - collaboration
Late/missed class lesson/work responsibilities
Clean up process - yours and others
Contact process - e-mail
Extra support/help options
Don't know, or not sure? ... ask!

Remote Learning

Remote learning is something relatively new for High School students and the following points should be considered.

Make a schedule and keep a routine to help with even breakdown and consistency of learning - requires self-motivation and being self-sufficient
Create a study area and stay organized, use a distraction free environment, in an open public area, so you can focus on learning
Require appropriate technology - microphone, webcam, good Internet connection, lighting, ergonomic comfort
Communication- hand-up, chat, normally muted, clarifications & understanding of content
Read assignments and course material, post in discussion forums (chats), work ahead, participate, and seek help if/when needed

Safety

In this activity, we will review the General Safety Presentation to get an overview of safety concerns students must be aware of in the school and classroom. Students will review and sign a General Safety Contract then take home to parents to also review and sign. Safety awareness and lessons in this class will be on-going throughout the course, and specific to each project so that it is fresh in your minds when starting work on that specific project. Although there are less physical dangers, there are other safety concerns such as working with digital work safely as an example.

Given our current situation with Covid-19, a presentation on Covid-19 Safety and Well Being is to be also reviewed.

USB Memory Stick, Files, Folders and Shortcuts

Next it is highly recommenced that you get a USB memory stick, for saving your work on to. It does not have to be large, 2 Gig is plenty of room (use your school H drive temporarily if you do not have your USB flash drive). You will need to follow instructions on the Tech Info handout (PDF page printed and handed out recently, that can be found above) to create six shortcuts inside a main folder named with your course code, and a sub-folder named "year- month-day_shortcuts" (use the same folder name convention for future folder topics) with the following shortcuts created:

Pick-up Folder
Drop-off Folder
Web Course Main Page
Web Course Details Page
Web Course Journal Page
Web Course Marks Page

To keep your electronic work for this course organized, you will need to create more folders for future projects as you continue with the course. The intent is to work off of your USB in school and save to your H: drive when you are finished at the end of class as a back-up process. This way you can take your work with you and work elsewhere if needed and it is usually faster to access a flash drive then the board network. If you are at home, a similar process should be followed, work off of your USB, save to your USB, and back-up to your home desktop drive when you are finished all of your work.

File Naming Conventions and Shortcut Demonstration

To finish you will need to use all three shortcut links in an exercise called "shortcut-demo" and copy and paste the correct shortcut addresses to demonstrate you have done this correctly.

Using your newly created shortcuts, go to the pick-up folder and get a file called "shortcut-demo"
Save the text file to your shortcuts folder (this is a good time to review file naming conventions in the Tech Info Handout again and save it right away with the correct file name, and then open it up
You need to type your name in, using the same format you would when writing your name on paperwork handed in
For the shortcut addresses, right click and click on properties, then copy the shortcut link address and paste it into the text file in the appropriate location and do the same for the other two
Next right click on your web site shortcut link, and click on properties, then the General tab to copy the location where you saved this shortcut link to "Franzens-web-site" which should be your USB Flash drive and then add the actual shortcut file name and correct file extension (more here on File extensions)
Do the same steps as in previous, but now for where you backed up your digital work. Again, it is recommended you use your H drive
Go to the Tech info page on the site and open up the PDF file and copy the section called "Organizing and saving your work" that explains about file naming conventions and paste below
If you did not re-name your file according the file naming convention instructions you just copied, then do that now, then either copy and paste or drag and drop the text file you just finished onto the shortcut Drop-off, to submit for marking

Ensure your work is saved first on your USB, then drag and drop onto the Drop-off folder shortcut. As you don't have access to this folder, drag and drop one more time and you should get a message saying the file is already there... confirming you were successful in copying the file over to Drop-off. Note: trying to save your work directly to this Drop-off folder will result in your file not being saved and not handed in as students do not have editing privileges inside the Drop-off folder.

Journals

Part of the curriculum requirements is to keep a log of your learning and report on which can be done in different ways. Rather than focus on tests, quizes, and essays, a daily digital journal is a great alternative to planning, tracking, and recognizing one's learning. Some additioal details include:

Providing a constant and consistent way to measure/see your learning, growth, and progress throughout the course
Consciously track what, how, and when you learn in the course which allows you to recognize, focus on, and take more responsibility with your learning
It also helps you plan and organize your daily activites and work load
Plan homework ahead of time, keeping you engaged in the course, and up-to-date with work

Journal Entry Process

Each day at the begining of class while instructor is doing a review of last days work and an overview of the current day, you can already start entering-in, information about the current days activities. This can be obtained by either listening to the instructor, copy from the whiteboard, and/or use the website online journal, to fill in the start of your journal.

Throughout the class or closer to the end of class, enter what you actually did, your peer collaboration, and your new learning as it is recognized. Your information must be in point form, be specific, and have detailed information. Anything vague, broad, or general will not get full marks.

At the end of the class (usually the last 10 minutes), you can complete the journal by filling in the clean-up/organization, and homework sections. *** Discuss with partner about your entry details and see if there is any refinement needed.*** Remember to only put about 15 minutes of homework which could include, things such as: what was done in class and needs to be finished or continued to work on, an assignment coming due, and/or reviewing the next part of the project or assignment. Remember to be specific with your details, so it is easy to see the 15 minutes of actual work intended. When making entries, give it some thought before putting your detailed specific points down, so that they are informative using appropriate technical terms, in-order to get full marks.

Before you leave class, submit your journal for review and marks. After normal class time, the journal will be considered late and my not be marked until next block marking time. If you have submitted your journal and it has not been returned, you can pull it back by un-submitting, to make current day's entry, so you don't get another late mark.

It's All in the Details

Digital Journal Sheet Sample

Some examples of what not to put down

Start XYZ presentation
Research XYZ topic
Finish XYZ assignment
Review XYZ information
Continue XYZ handout
Work on XYZ project

Some examples of what would be good to put down:

XYZ PPT, slides 1-3
Research XYZ topic, sub-topic 1 & 2
XYZ assignment-step 5
Read XYZ info, section 1
XYZ questions 5-9
XYZ project, part A

Box Details

Attendance/hmwk: time you showed up: OT = on-time or AB = Absent, late with quick reason, how you feeling today, on the next line start and finish of class, total time in hours.minutes, then on third line how long you actully spent on homework and accomplished
Lesson/topics: what was covered, main topics - use whiteboard and/or class journal and put into main points
PT: (practical time) what did you accomplish/do with free class work time today, remember be specific with points
Peer Collaboration: either helping or getting help, having a discussion/chat - who and what, be specific with points
NEW Learning: fill in new learning (pick your most significant points in the form of

KNOWLEDGE - new information you have learned such as new terminology, a new process, or information that you did not know
SKILL – practical work done such as computer file naming/saving process, cutting cardboard correctly, using a tool or machine properly, etc
VALUE – is a new opinion formed or feeling based on your experience with new knowledge and/or skill that you have completed

Clean-up/Organization: Cleaning, sanitizing, organizing your working space, learning equipment, learning tools, hard and soft resources, putting things back, planing future work, saving and backup, and preparation for next work period are some general things to look at, but again, be specific with details
Hmwk: what assignment is coming due, 15 min of specific detailed work, possible future work to review

You may find teacher comments directly in cells (small yellow triangle , just hover mouse over to access/see) or in the bottom Tips row, below your teacher assigned mark. Ensure cell comments are either resolved or replied to.

To resolve, click on the green checkmark at the top of the comment box, and this means you have read and understood the comment, usually explaining what was done wrong and/or how to improve your mark in the future.

With the Tips row, below your assigned mark by the teacher, these comments will be more generic, on the whole entry for that day.

The information on your daily journal will may be used to summarize your accomplishments end of the course reporting on tasks completed and your learning process through your newly acquired knowledge, skills, and values. This will be a part of your culminating work to showcase your overall progress, process, and learning throughout the course.

Common Things to Know, to Maximize Your Journal Mark

The following points should be kept in mind when filling in your daily entries. Most common place that marks are lost is being too vague or not specific enough with your details in each of the cells. There are common concerns, issues, and problems that students should be aware of:

Include all class and individual tasks, during period
Include three things learned in the form of K, S, and/or V
Careful not to repeat the PT task in the learning section, be specific and detailed to your experience
Remember not to repeat previous learning, as that is no longer new, and not worth marks
Be specific with your new learning entries as a generic broad entry means you learned all of it, limiting what you can put down in the future
You are responsible to work with partner and collaborate, so make the effort to work with someone, so you can report it
You are expected to clean-up, organize, and sanitize at the begining and end of the period, so participating here = marks
Hmwk must always be filled in with something to support that day, to finish work, and/or support next day/project

What if You Miss a Day? How to Still Get Those Marks!

You may have missed a class for a number of reasons. If you are have to miss a class and can control which day, prioritize which day by looking at asynchronous, sychronous days first before missing in-person days. Remember that asychronous days can be flexible if necessary... i.e. even though you may, for example, have slept-in, you can still put the indepent time in, later in the day.

Here is what you can do to get your journal marks back for the day you missed by filling in the following box/cells:

Attendance: Fill in as usaual - AB with reason, time missed, and your homework,
Topics: what did you miss, - see online journal and speak to partner to get the full picture/details,
PT - what you could have worked on and completed,
Partner - who you checked with, to get class details,
KSV - what you plan to do, to catch-up - i.e review material missed, discuss with partner, what you could do to catch-up,
Clean-up - if you were able to, what you did to actually to catch-up,
Hmwk - What you could do for preparation for the next day

This will get you 3 out of 5 marks (showing your attention to what was missed and your good intentions to catch-up) the next day, otherwise it will be late. ----- Also: If you can bring/show the work completed for lesson/topics and PT work missed the next day, then you will also get the last two marks for a 5/5

Evaluation:

Although these are not heavily weighted, they are important project assignments that will benefit you throughout the rest of this course. You can see a student journal sample done by another class with limited expectations and reduced marks, but you will get the idea and see the learning process throughout. The following are paper entry student daily log samples (another class with different format, but similar entries) can be viewed here Assorted Journal Daily Logs, Full semester of Daily Journals, plus end-of-semster Weekly Summary Journal

Evaluation Breakdown Component Descriptions	Marks
Always double check that you have completed all components for full marks.
Survey - Answer all 8 questions fully	16
Course Outline Signed - Review, highlighting, show parents, and get signed by parent	5
Tech Info - 10 course components, highlighting, and two peer contacts	14
General Safety Contract - Read, agree, and signed by both student & parent	5
Shortcut Test - 3 shortcuts done, folders, file named correctly	15
Journal Comments - Read, review, copy, and reply	10
Journal - Att, topics, PT, Peer, learning, clean-up, & hmwk for 10 marks @ 1/2 weight daily	50

Conclusion

If you feel comfortable that you know all the details of the class/course details, you are ready to move on to the next activity. Be prepared to use what you learned in this unit activity to apply to future class work and process. At this point you should be ready for the rest of the course for use with computers, keeping organized with binder and digital files, routines, daily journals, and general safety. If you are still having trouble with specific things, PLEASE ASK!

Unit 1, Act. 2: Related Career

Situation:

You are new to this field area, unfamiliar with possible career directions that this may offer and what steps may be taken to go into a related field.

Problem/Challenge:

Select a related career field that you may be interested in and research it to present in the form of a presentation 13 to 15 slides in length. The presentation must show a titles and key information in different forms such as text, charts, maps, illustrations, and/or images. Text points should be 50-60 % of slide while images and/or charts should be no more than 40-50% of slide. Content on slides to include the following topics (bracketed info is extra explanation of what is on those slides):

Job Title and General Description
Contents
Responsibilities (daily expectations)
Salary/Wage Levels (based on current entry, mid level, senior level positions, company, and location)
Related Skills (soft and hard skills)
Interests (hobbies, spare time, games, material things, sports, relaxation, health)
Values (opinions, importance of specifics, beliefs, standards, commitment)
Schooling (possible schools, program information, application, etc.)
Preparation (what you can do now, resources, planning, all the facts, building maturity/responsibility, etc)
Requirements (related association, certifications, what you need to accomplish, complete, learn, experience, etc.)
Future forecast/outlook (3, 5, & 10 years down the road, stats on growth rate, comparisons)
Summary/Conclusion
Resources and Further Support (your research sources used, great places to check for more info, etc.)

Investigation/Ideas:

The first task involves selecting a related field in Computer Technology that you may feel interested in and researching details about that area. If you are having trouble deciding on which trade, you could try an Online Employability Skill an Attitude Quiz to help you decide which field might be best suited to look into. Below are some great resource links to assist with finding more information in a career field in Computer Technology that you may be interested in.:

Choosing a career as a student can be very difficult when you don't have enough information to make the right decision. Although a Word document will be sufficient, the Prezi presentation online tool is a great show and create some really interesting and dynamic presentations. This Prezi I made up, has a lot of the questions student may have, not just on Engineering, but also steps students can take in High School to help them make the right decision on their career direction. View the Prezi presentation here.

Prezi Related Career Videos

Resource links

Check out these resources for your PPT creation and presentation:

Create/Construct:

Create and Construct General Information

This is the section called Create/Construct step, which if you have understood the SPICE design model process from the investigation/ideas section, is the part of the process where you select your best idea and to create a solution based on the problem/challenge. With all activities we use this section or step (of the SPICE design process), to give you the actual steps that are recommended to take, to accomplish what you need to do to complete the project, task and/or goal. For this career research and presentation, here are the steps you will take:

Sample Rough Report PDF and DOC

Major Steps

Get a copy of the handout guide to review research project instructions, requirements, and mark breakdown for you to keep in your binder
Choose a unique Computer Technology related career, using the sign-up sheet that will be provided
Copy the topics to a Word doc as a guideline for areas to research
Create a customized template for your presentation to add text/images to
Add main points and images to each of your slides
Add talking points (only presenters can see) for each of your sides
Practice presentation for preparedness and timing

Details

Your presentation should have large printed points that you can use to expand and talk about during your presentation. Your presentation points should also answer/cover the required topics with some detail.

You are to create a rough career information source page (partial sample to left). The source may be as simple as a word doc using a maximum of 1 page both-sides to include text, possible illustration/pictures, and chart/table showing key details of your interested technology/robotics related career. To the left is a sample PDF and if you want it in DOC format just click on it. If you decide to create a Prezi, Slide Share, Mind Map or similar ensure that you have covered the requirements.

It is strongly recommended students start your research by copying the requirement topics to a word processor application, change your topics to separate headers, then add your researched information below each of the header topics along with source links as you get them, i.e. do/focus on your research first -information. Once you have finished accumulating all support information on each of the topics, create your presentation template/format that will accommodate, a header/footer, title, key points, and a supporting image(s) for each slide approximately 50/50 ratio. The key points must be large enough to easily read from back of room on class projected screen, have high contrast to background, discuss/talk about (do not just read presentation slide points) details of each topic in detail, and be prepared to discuss further details at the end of your presentation (detail talking points can be added to each slide as most presentation programs have this option). Presentation to be approximately 14 slides with about 20 seconds per slide on average to cover the 4-5 minimum presentation time length.

Check out 20 Great Examples of Power-point Presentation Design, 108 Best Presentation Ideas, Design Tips & Examples for ideas and best practices plus further tips can be found here.

When complete, submit your presentation file (Cloud linked presentations can still be used to present, but ensure local file is submitted and your cloud file is a public share link so everyone can see it) in the drop-off folder on or before the due date with standard file naming convention, ex: tdj_career-eng-mechanical_j-doe.xxx. It will be transfered to the pick-up folder to share with everyone in the class after the due date, and used for presentation.

Prior to presentation, use the self and peer evaluation table to double check that you have all required information. 2 marks will usually represent at least 4 points of related topic information, so ensure this is the case, then you will need to work on presentation to the class, keeping the time between 4-5 minutes and about 3 minutes of questions/discussions maximum if needed.

Evaluation:

Ensure that you have completed all requirements, included related pictures, and lots of related resources. see handout guide for breakdown of marks, self and peer evaluation to be done at the time of presentation and handed in day of presentation. Also, you can check out these 2 self, peer, and teacher evaluation sample sheets.

Evaluation Breakdown Component Descriptions	Marks
Always double check that you have completed all components for full marks.
Content - included all required information and resources	20
Layout - organized, visually appealing, and easy to read	15
Self and Peer Evaluation - based on report information.	10
Presentation - Content, communication, knowledge, and time	20

Unit Conclusion

Understanding about the course, routines, expectations, safety, assessment and evaluation, digital organization, journal entries, you will be able to maximize your learning and understanding. With your researched career and many related ones presented by your peers, will help you decide on possibles with your own future. Knowing this information will empower you and make you more confident where you want to take your future and what you need to do, to get there!