Delicious social networking

Delicious is a collection of favourites - yours and everyone else’s. To learn how to use it view this video and or listen to my comments about it. Each of these files are about 6 MEG, so wait! And here is a much smaller file with almost the same information but without sound - click the slides to move forward. The video made by www.commoncraft.com on Social bookmarking is very good.

WHY USE DEL.ICIO.US
Cuts down on online clutter to deliver more relevant bits of information.
Makes it easier to find desired information again.
Allows users to make their list of tags and sites available to (and searchable by) either a closed community of individuals or all other web surfers.

HOW DEL.ICIO.US CAN BE USED IN EDUCATION
Storing links that might be lost to time, scattered across different browser bookmark settings, or distributed in emails, printouts, and Web links.
Tagging can offer new perspectives on one’s research, as clusters of tags reveal patterns (or absences) not immediately visible by examining one of several URLs.
Finding people with related interests can magnify one’s work by learning from others or by leading to new collaborations.
Creating multi-authored bookmark pages can be useful for team projects, as each member can upload resources discovered, no matter their location or timing. Tagging can then surface individual perspectives within the collective.

WHAT A TEACHER CAN DO
Get information to students on different topics and have students subscribe to RSS feed. Organize resources for courses and subjects they teach, which is useful if a teacher teaches more than one class or subject. Create accounts for workgroups or entire classes with each student in the group having the password to the account so he or she can add bookmarks.

LIMITATIONS
Can be seen as a rejection of the search engine status quo in favour of tools that are both created by the community and beneficial to the community.
Traditional publishing made evaluation of material simple – was done by ‘authorities’. With del.icio.us new democratic format. Which is better – collective voice of public or of expert academic?
Need tagging standards so there can be real sharing but benefit of tagging is that colloquial or community meaning can be attributed to tags.

ACTION
My students will learn to use deli.icio.us as their bookmarks are not kept in their profiles on a network! They work at home and school and need their bookmarks! They need to collaborate to work effectively.

Gr 11 PAT - Phases 1 and 2

Here are examples of my Gr 11 PAT Phases 1 and 2 - Krause and Peterson. We have struggled with this as the learners had difficulty reading the instructions and planning the way ahead. That is the focus of 1 and 2 and they must just learn to focus! Have a look and see where they lost their marks.

Gr 12 PAT Phase 6

Phase 6 - it really is a sales pitch about how wonderful the Office suite is to solve a specific problem. You show, demonstrate and convince the Board of Governors of all the wonderful features of Excel, Access and Word which help solve the problem.

Gr 12 September Written Paper Memo

The Memo for the Gr 12 Written paper - English and Afrikaans.

Grade 11 PAT - Phases 1 and 2

I have just marked Phases 1 and 2 of the Grade 11 PAT.

• The first challenge, and this part of the PAT is deciding on what is required! My learners had difficulty clarifying what was required.
  
• The table, indicating what questions need to be asked was not complete! They did not add the survey, database or general questions. They also did not indicate the category of each question.
  
• The survey was well done, with a first section and then questions on specific types of social networking applications.
  

I am going to show mine this PowerPoint and make them redo the whole of Phase 1 and 2.

Gr 12 Written paper

Grade 12 September written paper Afrikaans and English.

Problems

Week with service providers, power and computer problems.

• Friday – No Gmail or Google access from home computer. Links on blog not working – service provider hosting blog has had a hard drive crash so data not available.
• Saturday morning - Phoned my Internet service provider, overseas connection down. Went to Internet café to check Gmail. Links on blog not working.
• Saturday evening – Storm in Cape Town, power down, sat at laptop with candles marking Grade 12 practical papers until laptop’s power was used up. Links on blog still not working.
• Sunday – Power up. Overseas connection up so Gmail and Google working. At 11 power went down, trees on line, until 5.
• Monday – Go to work. Internet at school not working. Links on blog still not working.
• Tuesday – Internet at school not working. Links on blog still not working.
• Wednesday – Internet at school working. Service provider hosting blog says I can upload all the work again.
  

Summary

• My home service provider – Overseas connection went down for over 24 hours
• Service provider hosting blog – Hard drive crash
• School’s service provider – I do not know what their problem was but believe it was first their problem then a Telkom problem.
• Eskom – Two power interruptions in 48 hours. One reason unknown to me. Second untrimmed tress falling on line.

Conclusion and recommendations

• Will upload to site hosting blog links over weekend and use up all my CAP.
• Encourage more people to use Gmail which can be accessed via a cell phone even though overseas connections may be down.
• Will laugh at things I cannot change.

Disaster

Server where links are stored is down. My school internet is down.
Disaster all round. Thank goodness 4 cellphones.

Internet access

This weekend I have just been forced to use an Internet cafe although I have ADSL at home. My service provider, Internet Solutions, has problems with its international bandwidth. My Gmail and the Blog are hosted by Google, which is international so no access - so annoying. I have also just bought an extra Gig of bandwidth to use this weekend and no access! Ugh!

Gr 12 CAT Practical paper

Please check the following amendments to CAT Practical marksheet.
2.2.3-Gender and Amount attached: These are Check box Form Fields, not Text Form Fields
4.7.1-Column in formula should be K, not J - they are asked for the highest percentage achieved, not the highest mark achieved
4.7.2-See 4.7.1
6.7-"Sculpture" in the criterion for the query should be "Sculpting"

Some alternative answers:

4.2-Condition in IF function could also be C2>=10
6.2-Validation test for Grade can also be Between 8 And 12
6.4-Input mask for CellNo could also be \0000000000 This forces the first number to be a '0'.

Gr 12 Practical Paper

Memo and solutions - Afrikaans and English

Grade 12 September Practical Paper Errata

Errata on the Gr 12 Practical English paper. SORRY.

Grade 12 September Practical exam papers

Grade 12 September CAT Practical exam papers

• English question paper and data files
  
  • Errata on English paper
• Afrikaans question paper and data files

Read the previous post on downloading and installing.

According to the posting on 18 July:

• Passwords for the papers will be made available by SMS 2-3 days prior to the date of the exam (not earlier than that!).
• The passwords for the memorandums will be made available on the day of the exams.
• The practical exam will be written on 29 August.
  

Saving and using files from the web site

When you wish to use exam files from the web site or blog follow the points below:

1. Right-click on the file name and SAVE it on your hard drive.
2. Then, in Explorer, right-click on the Zip file name and Extract all.
3. The data files will extract to the folder DATA Arts Festival (for English) or to the folder DATA Kunstefees (for Afrikaans).
4. Check that you can open these data files (WITHOUT ENTERING THE PASSWORD FIRST) on the computers that your learners will do their prac exam on.
5. Make sure that you make the correct folder with data available to the learners.

Gr 12 PAT Phase 5

Here are some examples of my learners Phase 5 - Meiring and Woollgar. They did not get full marks! They should have if they had followed the rubric. This project lost one mark - Galer.
The rubric lacks something or else I missed something. I told my learners to name all files, queries, reports, etc. in a way that they answer a question or solve a problem. The rubric in future should require a word document listing the questions to be solved and where they are solved / answered so that we can mark in a meanngful way.

AIDS lessons

I would like to collect lessons on AIDS which fall into the skills taught in CAT and make a repository of them. I recently made a call for such AIDS lessons.

Congratulations to the CAT teacher, Fieroza, at Durbanville High who responded!

• Gr 12 CAT lesson using Excel and Access

Gr 11 PAT

The Gr 11 PAT is now available - so nice!

• English instructions and Read more
• Afrikaans instructions and Read more

Gr 11 Access

My learners have just begun with Access. We started off using the video on What is a database which helped. Have a look at the quiz which has a new section on queries, which my learners have found very useful.

Gr 12 PAT - Phase 5

These PPTs may help you help Phase 5 of the Grade 12 PAT. Thanks to Peter Davidson.

Gr 10 Activity 11

The Hoaxes activity on page 292 has caused such interest in my Grade 10 class! Nice activity. I wonder how other teachers found it.

Selection of learners for CAT

CAT is one of the most important subjects for academic and economic success when a learner leaves school. We must give as many learners as possible the opportunity to study the subject.
IF the classes are over subscribed I recommend a skills test, based on and dependent on the opportunities the learners have had for skill development at your school in grades 8 and 9. I normally give my learners a ‘test’ of creating a PPT based on rather simple instructions. If they cannot read the instructions or cannot create / save the file on the network, then they do not get in. Long beforehand they are told they have to create a PPT. I assume that they can ask someone how to make a PPT if they have not made one in grade 8 and 9 classes. I selected a PPT as it is so simple to use. I expect them to be able to save on the network, especially if they have been at the school for 2 years – if they were interested in computers they should have gravitated to the computer lab and saved on the network.
Maybe in the future CAT will have restrictions based on language and maths ability, but I hope not.
I also give them a lecture about attending school on a regular basis when they do their subject choice. They also see me which may influence their subject choice. And if they did not bother to come for the PPT test, they did not even get onto the selection list.

Gr 12 Revision

At school we have been told to prepare a revision schedule for the learners. Many of my colleagues will be doing revision in the holidays and over weekends. I have decided to use the PAT work as my revision for the practical. I may be forcing the learners with respect to the PAT but some need supportive forceful measures.
I have started with Access. The learners had to create a database and in the field structure use the following: Different data types, Required, Input masks, Primary key, Field sizes, Captions, Format, Validation rule and validation text, etc. They have to do the Access quiz mentioned in a previous posting. Today I looked at Reports and grouping and calculations in grouping. Later this week I will look at a switchboard. They have the videos on the tips page to guide them, and we have just bought headphones. I will then go on to look at Excel and Word. All these activities are obviously done in keeping with answering their questions in the PAT.
Chapters 6.1 and 6.2 are great but I will leave them until I have forced some of my challenged learners to get going with their PATs.

Gr 12 PAT - Phase 4

Here are two examples of my learners's Phase 4 - Abrahams and Kolbe. They both achieved 37/40. They both lost marks where they were told to list things.

Excel quizzes

Here is a link to a collection of Excel quizzes I made. Please feel free to use them. I am just sorry that they cannot be downloaded and used off line.

Access switchboard

Phase 5 of the PAT mentions a Switchboard in Access. You may want to use my video for help. I suggest you download it, open with a browser and use in the classroom.

Examination question papers

Have a look at the wonderful information re availability of examination papers!

Gr 11 - Third term assessment task

In the third term Grade 11 have a task, Item 5 in SAG : Assignment using additional package. It is based on using PowerPoint or FrontPage and is about cell phone use.
This task is one of the best I have yet seen. The learners have to think and it is within their sphere of interest. They are doing real Internet searches! Luckily I am on the part-time staff of a university and am able to access academic online journals and databases (Science Direct) through their library. The learners have also matured and are not putting all their information on the slide, rather just key words.
The learners are also required to create a document describing their strategy based on pages 306 to 308 of their textbook. This is such nice preparation for their PAT.
On the CD there is an assessment sheet but a colleague and I made this one before I found it there.

Videos for learning

I had a wonderful time during the holidays training CAT teachers. I was asked to create some videos. Here are some new videos.

Working with long documents - Section breaks, Column breaks, Using styles
Excel functions - Round
Always look on my tip sheet for videos.

Excel functions videos

Some Excel functions videos to download - Sumif, Countif / Count and Round.
Other videos can be found on my tips page.

Access quiz

This Access quiz may be of use.

Word - Working with long documents

Have a look at some videos I made to teach aspects of working with long documents. You can download them and then view them off line in a classroom by opening them with a browser.

Modifying styles, Modifying styles of Captions, Table of Contents, Table of Figures, Cross references, Track changes

There are many other teaching videos on my tips page. If other videos are required please just send a request - you may just get your request.

Grade 12 PAT

My Grade 12 learners are just finishing off Phase 4 of their PAT. A problem has become apparent. Although they are showing what they intend doing with the applications, they are not using enough features of the applications to warrant marks. They should look at Phase 5 to see all the features they are meant to use, and bring them into Phase 4. They must also rephrase some of their questions so that they DO use the required features of the applications.

I recommend that in future I print out the whole PAT instruction manual and give it to them. This year I did not as I thought they would lose the pages. I am learning how to manage the PAT.

Keyboarding

End of year examinations are coming up and on reflection I realise that I have neglected to test my learners on their keyboarding skills. In the coming term I must check that. I must also check how to assess their keyboarding skills correctly so that I can give my learners a correct indication of their ability. This may be a problem as I do not have a clue how it is done in examination conditions.

Instructional videos

Look at these instructional videos created by the first ever CAT Hons students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology - the Round function and Mail merge.

Competition for schools in the Western Cape

Schools in the Western Cape have an opportunity of entering a competition to create an anti xenophobia screensaver with some nice prizes. Look at http://www.khanya.co.za/ (just below the heading). I created the checklist below to guide learners in creating it. We are going to get our own images taken ourselves, or create our own pictures with Word draw in PowerPoint and save them as images. This exercise is rather a nice way of teaching the youngsters file management and working with an image editor.

I ...

Folder

• created a folder with my surname, then first name for saving the screensaver
• created a folder with my surname and the word pics for saving all the images used
• created a folder with my surname and the word sound for saving the sound file used
• saved all my files in my folders
• saved all files with meaningful names

Images

• used my own images taken with my own camera or cell phone, if I used them at all
• used appropriate autoshapes and Wordart that conveyed the message, if I used them at all
• edited the images to send a clear message
• cropped images so that only the really important part shows
• used at least 3 images in the project
• balanced images on the slides/images
  
• used a background colour which contributed to the message of the screensaver
• selected a background colour

Sound / Music

• used sound files suitable to the theme, if I used sound files at all
• used small sound files
• used sound files which can loop (repeat)

Text

• used a clear font
• used a font which is found on all computers
• formatted the font with a size which is readable on a moving screen
• spelt all text correctly
• used correct grammar
• formatted the text with line spacing that leads to clarity
• used appropriate bullets in lists, if I used lists at all
• balanced text and images on the screen
• positioned the text and images on the screen

Message

• added a clear message on the title slide
• presented a clear message in images and words

Animations

• used animations with restraint

Timing

• timed the screensaver based on the number of images

Overall

• checked that the images displayed in the screensaver in the correct order

Final

• clicked on the Create button to create the screensaver.
• renamed the file as a screensaver by renaming the exe with scr
• saved the file (with my surname and name) in a folder in CSSGProjects.
• checked that the whole screensaver was a realistic size

Biblionef

When my Gr 11 learners did the Theme 1 activity on page S9, they just did it. I never really thought about it. I have changed my thinking. At the 2008 Cape Town book fair I saw a stand for Biblionef! I spoke with the people at the stand! Their South African offices are in my town of Pinelands! I found out what they do! Have a look at the website at www.biblionefsa.org.za I think we should consider doing something to help them.

Gr 12 Practical

Many teachers said that their learners did not finish the practical.

Die feit is: 200 punte se werk moet in 3 ure afgehandel kan word. Dit geld ook vir die eindeksamen.

Dit beteken:

Leerders moet in die eerste plek hul werk ken.

• As ‘n Gr 12-leerder nie meer mooi onthou hoe al die soorte tabs werk nie, moet hy/sy dit maar weer gaan verken en oefen voor sy praktiese vraestel.

Leerders moenie tyd mors gedurende die prakties nie.

• Daar is nie tyd in ‘n vraestel om 10 minute te sukkel om iets wat dalk 2 punte tel reg te kry nie! Gestel ‘n bladsynommer (Page X of Y) moet ingevoeg word maar nie op die eerste bladsy vertoon word nie. As ‘n leerder dit nie dadelik regkry nie, moet hy/sy eerder aangaan met die vraestel en nie tyd daarmee mors nie.

Van nou tot die einde van die jaar, moet leerders die prakties OEFEN. Module 6.3 van Computers, part of your life – Book 3, bevat uitstekende oefeninge vir die inoefen van vaardighede.

CAT Exam Papers from Study Opportunities

We are planning to provide the following (at no cost) to everyone who purchased our CAT Grade 12 June Papers:

Grade 12 Prelim Papers
Grade 10 Nov papers
Grade 11 Nov papers

We have given the following dates for the Prelim Papers a while ago.
CAT Grade 12 Prelim
Paper 1 (Practical): Friday, 29 August 2008
Paper 2 (Theory): Tuesday, 16 Sept 2008

I am considering the following dates for the Gr 10 & 11 Nov Papers. If your province is NOT writing common Gr 10 & 11 papers please make a note of these dates or EMAIL ME (study.opp@mweb.co.za) IMMEDIATELY if there is a problem with these dates. I can try (UP TO A POINT) to accommodate everyone, but I cannot guarantee it. Once the dates have been set, I cannot change it - there are too many schools involved.

CAT Grade 10 Nov
Paper 1 (Practical): Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Paper 2 (Theory): Tuesday, 18 November 2008

CAT Grade 11 Nov
Paper 1 (Practical): Thursday, 13 November 2008
Paper 2 (Theory): Thursday, 20 November 2008

An entry form will be available on the web site after the holidays. If you want to make use of this offer you will have to download the entry form, complete it and fax it to us.

The distribution of the papers will work in the same way as was done for the June Papers:

• The question papers and memorandums will be loaded on the website (www.studyopportunities.co.za) as well as on Pam’s blog (studyopp.blogspot.com).
• You will need to download these papers and memorandums yourself; they will not be sent to individual e-mail addresses.
• Passwords for the papers will be made available by SMS 2-3 days prior to the date of the exam (not earlier than that!).
• The passwords for the memorandums will be made available on the day of the exams.

Sandra

Gr 12 PAT - Phase 3

Have a look at 3 examples of Phase 3 of the PAT - the works of Caswell, Meiring and Miller. They received marks of 37, 39 and 33 out of 40 respectively.

Gr 12 Exam papers

The results of my 55 learners for the Gr 12 paper are: Theory 58% and Practical 63% - Pam Miller at Pinelands High School. (Just thought this information may be of interest.)

Gr 12 Exams

Message from Teacher in Gauteng:

My CAT kids of all grades finish far too early for every paper if I stick to the mark allocation in the SAG. Maybe we need to send out a survey to find out what happens in other schools. I think the paper should be either 2.5 hours or the allocation should be upped. Most of my kids finished with between 45 minutes and half an hour to spare – they always do this. It used to happen with the SG theory paper as well. Not one pupil out of 60 was still writing in the last 15 minutes. The problem then occurs that they start becoming a discipline problem as many of my CAT pupils are hyperactive and can’t sit still for long.

Let us know how you feel about the length of the papers.

Gr 12 Theory Exam Memo

The Memo for the Theory and Teorie is now available. The password will be SMSed on Friday.

Gr 12 Practical Exam paper

The Solutions and Oplossings to the Gr 12 CAT practical are available. Please use the PRACMEMO password that you have used for the marksheet.

Marking Computer Applications Technology practical papers

I print a memo sheet / marksheet for every learner and then sit at the computer marking each learner's work. The benefits are that you can use the Show/Hide button in Word, check the Excel formulas and open Access and see how they made the queries and reports. It is the only effective way to mark a computer focused exam. The learners can look at the memo / marksheet afterwards and see exactly where they lost marks.
I mark all question 1s, then mark all question 2s, etc. The logic is that I can focus on the various aspects presented about that specific question.
Examination of each question prior to marking is essential to understand all aspects of that question. Before you mark a question it is a good idea to study it carefully making sure you understand the memo. It is also a good idea to do it yourself.
Possibly this paper could take longer to mark than the old Computyping or Computer Studies SG papers. Reason, there are 200 marks and 200 points to be noted. Personal feedback to Sandra or myself regarding these aspects would be very useful to the provincial authorities to develop a norm time for the big marking session in December. Collated comments will be forwarded to the relevant people.

Gr 12 June Exams

How did it go??

E-mail me (docpam@gmail.com) or Sandra (study.opp@mweb.co.za) and we can upload everybody’s messages on the blog. (Indicate whether you want your name/school added or not.)

Gr 12 June Prac Memo

There seems to be a problem with the PRACMEMO password. It seems as if some cell phones cannot receive an underscore '_'
You should have an underscore '_' between the '1' and the 'M' of your PRACMEMO password, NOT a '§'

Gr 12 June Exam Papers

The marksheet for Paper 1 in English and Afrikaans is now available. You have to know the password to be able to open them.
It would be a good idea to take in the papers in case you have a learner with a doctor's certificate and ... (whatever your school does in those situations), and remember the SMS sent about taking in papers.

Gr 12 Practical Paper

ERRATA
Please change 1.3 as below.
“last week of February” to “end of May”

Please extract the data files from the ZIP file by using your password. The extracted folders and files must be available to the learners. (It should not be necessary for them to extract it during the exam.)

Gr 12 June Papers from Study Opportunities

THEORY PAPER

Paper 2 Theory / Vraestel 2 Teorie

Gr 12 Practical Data

Please check the dates of your data files. If all the dates are the same, such as the following:

change question 1.3