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 18 weeks in duration with your later term work weighted heavier than at the beginning of course, and a will include a culuminating project.

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	Tetrix-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, Routines-info, Remote Learning, Safety, Shortcuts, 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
GC 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 similar 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
End of period journals- finish & discussions/collaboraton
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
Communication - email, chat, phone, video, txt, forum
Foreperson/moderator leadership/support
Late/missed class lesson/work responsibilities
Clean up process - yours and others
Back-up digital work daily (routine)
Work on current lesson work right after lesson
Contact process - e-mail, details and what you tried
Extra support, instructions, resources, help options
Don't know, or not sure? ... ask!

Remote and Digital Process of 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, web cam, 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

More information to support this course can be found on the Virtual & Digital e-Learning Support page and is a must to check out. This page can also be accessed from any page by going to the main menu, selecting the Support drop-down, then Virtual e-Learning.

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 will be also reviewed, for process, support, and clarification.

USB Memory, File Naming Conventions, Folders, Back-up, and Shortcuts

It is highly recommended that you get a USB memory stick, for saving your work on to. It does not have to be large, 2 Gig or larger (use your school 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 shortcuts inside a main folder named with your course code, and a sub-folder named "shortcuts". With an organized folder structure, you now have a place to save work to. You are to create the shortcuts below in your shortcuts sub-folder using similar suggested TIJ course codes for your own course code letters.

Course Google Classwork (TEJ-GCW)
Your course folder root directory (TEJ)
Your back-up folder at Home (TEJ-BKH)
Your back-up folder on the cloud (TEJ-BKC)
Franzen website Home Page (mfranzen)
Franzen website Course Details Page (TEJ-Det)
Franzen website Course Journal Page (TEJ-C-Jou)
Franzen website Course Marks Page (TEJ-Mrk)

Note Google Drive File Stream -G Drive (replacing H: Drive) should be avaliable when you sign in to TDSB computer with a Google sign-in window which will connect you to your G: Drive and place on your file browser as G: Drive letter. If you cancel or not sign-in, then just relaunch the Google Drive File Stream application from your start menu.

With all your shortcuts created and saved to your USB sub-folder-shortcuts, you can also copy these shortcuts to your desktop, so you can use them from multiple locations, but the desktop is not a safe place to save work from, as it could be deleted at any point in time.

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 local or cloud drive when you are finished at the end of class either at home or at school, as a daily habitual back-up process. This way you can take your work with you and work elsewhere if needed and it is faster to access a flash drive then the board network or a cloud drive.

In school we also make use of and use the internal network for getting work and handing in work. These locations are found clicking on the Western Tech shortcut on your desktop on your school computer, then navigating to either selecting the "Pick-up" folder, for getting work from teacher or the "Drop-off" folder, for handing in work.

File Naming Conventions and Shortcut Demonstration

To finish you will need to use all three shortcut links in an exercise called "tij_d-joe_shortcuts-files-folders-v-txt" and copy and paste the correct shortcut addresses to demonstrate you have done this correctly. This is a good time to save the text file to your shortcuts folder (review file naming conventions in the Tech Info Handout and save it right away with the correct file name, then open it up, and update the correct course coded in 1 to 8 shortcut sample names.

Type your header information which you are required to have, on all assignments when handing in,being aware that it is always in the top right of the page with you name having your just your last initial, first name name
Update TIJ part of shorcut name to your course letters, then several shortcut target addresses will be needed from your recently created shortcuts by right clicking on shortcut to get to the properties, then copy the shortcut link address to paste into your project text file just underneath the related shortcut name/description
You are also required to get the actual shortcut file location of the specified shortcut in the required folder locations you are keeping your files in. You can get the address location for the shortcut by right clicking on your web site shortcut link, click on properties, then the switch to the General tab to copy the location where you saved this shortcut link to, then add the actual shortcut file name and correct file extension (more here on File extensions). For Google drive, use the worded file location, not the link.
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
Check over your shortcuts assignment and ensure you have checked that your file naming convention is correct for this text file.
Convert your text file to a PDF by either printing to a PDF or using an online converter along with other PDF tools in the red column Digital Org. link resource tools
Submit a single combined PDF file, of your completed text document and below, an image (screen capture) of: 1. your whole school desktop showing your shortcuts on right side of the background, 2. an opened system file browser window with your main save location showing main course folder, course sub-folders on left, and what is in your "Shortcuts" folder on the right (to show all your required shortcuts and shortcuts text file), 3. and a web browser window showing your cloud backup folder structure on the left and the same "Shortcuts" folder contents on the right, See Sample

Evaluation:

These assignments are very important as they 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. Journals are a very powerful tool when used with learning and if make the effort to fill out correctly and fully, this will not only earn you marks, but also significantly help you with all of your course work and learning. 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-semester Weekly Summary Journal

Evaluation Breakdown Component Descriptions	Marks
Always double check instructions and ensure all required work is done correctly.
Survey - Answer all 12 questions fully	12
Course Outline Signed - Review, highlighting, and signed by parent	15
Tech Info - 10 course components, highlighting, and two peer contacts	14
General Safety Contract - Read, highlighting, signed by student & parent	15
Shortcut Test - Folders, shortcuts, file naming, and screen-shot	26

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 Technological Design that you may feel interested in learning more about. If you are having trouble deciding on which area, you could try a Free Career Aptitude and Career Assessment Test to help you decide which field might be best suited. Below are some resource links to get you started with finding more information on a career field:

Choosing a career as a student can be very difficult when you don't have enough information to make the right decision. Using Google Slides (sample template) will be your best practical option although Microsoft's Power-point, Prezi, or similar presentation software could be also used to design some really interesting and dynamic presentations. An important place to start, to get information on your career field, will be to look at related associations (official and unofficial) and school programs that support the industry, that area you are looking up. 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 you make the right decision in your career direction. An important place to start, to get information on your career field will be to look at reputable associations. In Computer Technology, there are a lot of unofficial but well named associations that can be used to support a plan towards that career. View the Prezi presentation here.

Prezi Related Career Videos

Resource links

Check out these resources for your PPT creation and presentation:

Create/Construct:

Sample Rough Report PDF

The Create/Construct step, is the point where you pick your best solution after you have exhausted all your investigation and ideas step to following through building or completing something. This is where you will find instructions/steps in these unit activities to complete the assigned project.

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 doc file as a guideline for areas to research (template)
Research your topic areas, compile all of your information (6-10 detailed points per sub-topic) into a rought report
Create a customized template for your presentation
Add your content from your rough report, 4-6 detailed points and image(s) to each of your slides
Add talking points (only presenters can see) for each of your slides
Practice presentation for preparedness, clear communication, and timing (4-5 minutes)

More Details of Major Steps

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 report showing key points of your interested technology related career
Remember any digital content to include title, name, date, section, along with file naming convention.
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 at the bottom as you get them, i.e. focus on your research first, the key information required for this presentation
Next, 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
For the actual presentation, you are to talk about (do not just read presentation slide points) details of each topic in detail, and be prepared to answer questions details at the end of your presentation from your partner timing/peer marking you. 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
When complete, submit your presentation in Google Classroom (export as a PDF) on or before the due date with standard file naming convention, ex: tej2o1-1a_d-joe_my-career-eng-field-name.pdf
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 a minimum of 4 good detailed points of the related topic information, 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.
Researched Report - doc with all topics, related info, resources	33
Content - included all required information and resources	20
Layout - organized, visually appealing, and easy to read	15
Presentation - Content, communication, knowledge, and time	20

Self and Peer Evaluation - slides and presentation	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!