PAT based on Xmas shopping, or very similar to a PAT

Before you turn immediately to Amazon, or your favorite online shopping source, think briefly about your gift giving goals and prepare to make some considered decisions! Quick review….

1. Big6 #1 - Task Definition - Select a suitable and pleasing gift for friends and family, on time and within budget.
2. Big6 #2 - Information Seeking Strategies - Do you need gift advice? See online wish lists? Email a relative for ideas? Gather gift idea suggestions? Check what’s hot this year? Consult online sale flyers?
3. Big6 #3 - Location and Access - Do you know where to find the gift? Narrow the possible online locations, check who has the item in stock? Compare pricing?
4. Big6 #4 - Use of Information - Read online reviews, check prices, colors, sizes, determine if items are available or on back order?
5. Big6 #5 - Synthesis - Add items to your online shopping cart! Select quantities, colors, and sizes if necessary. Be prepared with your plastic cards and specific shipping address information for online shopping. Select delivery timelines to meet your goals.
6. Big6 #6 - Evaluation - Whew! You did it! Now you have time to get those other things done before the unwrapping big day!

Found at <http://www.big6.com/>

Qualifications for a teacher or subject advisor

The 2008 Matric results will be released soon. I have no idea what they will be like but may I propose the following qualification for every CAT

• teacher - Basic ICDL qualification OR a B.Ed. in CAT OR an ACE course in CAT, as a minimum
• subject advisor or facilitator or whatever name the boss goes under - Advanced ICDL qualification in 4 packages, as well as management qualifications

I am aware that CAT is not ICDL but that is a starting point with respect to skills. The ICDL is my preferred qualification as it is recognised and valid. (My certificate number is ADV001 - passed Basic, and Advanced spreadsheets, Advanced presentations, Advanced databases and Advanced word processing.)

Here is hoping the results are …

Examination dates

The Grade 12 dates for the final CAT examinations in 2009 have been announced:
Wednesday 07/10 - Speed Test (Optional) 8h00
Thursday 08/10 - Paper 1 (3hrs), Practical Speed Test (Optional) 8h00
Thursday 05/11 - Paper 2 (3hrs) 14h00
Here is a copy of the full timetable.

Examinations

Marking of the Gr 12 CAT examinations is taking place around the country. I am part of a group marking the Theory paper. What a wonderful experience it has been so far! So much bonding and learning about the subject and answering examination questions. I am sure that everyone is going to go home at the end of the period having benefited from the experience.
Here is a picture of the group of teachers in the Western Cape who marked the Theory Gr 12 paper in 2008.

Gr 10 and 11 examinations - Results

The CAT November examination results at my school:
Gr 10 - Theory 60% and Practical 66%
Gr 11 - Theory 42% and Practical 43%
In general one grade did little work, did not complete their class work, left their textbooks at home, did not complete nor hand in their PATs, spoke during my teaching - you guess which class.
In general one class did a great deal of work at home, brought their textbook to class, handed in their PATs and listened in class - you guess which class.
The learner's individual results accurately reflect what the examination was meant to assess. Hopefully the weak grade will take note of their results and take corrective actions.

I am looking forward to getting the 2009 PATs and planning my work for next year making sure all my learners work and the low marks are not repeated.

Enjoy the holidays when they start.

Gr 10 Written examination

Poorly answered questions
4.8 The question asks for Function but very few learners gave the function of the different kinds of memory.
7.1.a) The question asks the learners to fit the table on a single page. In this question it became apparent that many learners do not know the terms – change the orientation to 'Landscape’, and ‘narrow’ or ‘widen’ the columns.
7.4.b) The question asks for ‘other factors that could be considered to ensure that the secretary’s health is not compromised.’ Now it asks for ‘factors’. It does not ask how to prevent problems.

Learners need to pay close attention to the phrasing in the questions.

Gr 11 Theory examination memo

Gr 11 Theory examination memos - Afrikaans and English

Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Awards 2008 - Hong Kong

Congratulations to Sarietjie Musgrave of Eunice High School: Free State for her project Spread the Sunshine which gained her runner up position in the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Awards 2008, category Innovation in Community Category. It was awarded in Hong Kong early this month.
The project for Grade 10 Computer Applications Technology involved learners investigating the needs of disabled people and then using their skills to create useful ICT based artefacts for disabled people. A range of applications were used including an animation package to design a public awareness campaign and Clicker to design software to support the disabled.

Thamsanqa Makhathini of Mpophomeni High School: KwaZulu-Natal also went to the ceremony with his project Local is Lekker@Mpophomeni in the Innovation in Challenging Contexts category. Below is his description of his entry.
Groups of Grade 11 Computer Applications Technology learners designed research instruments and interviewed community members about pre- and post-1994. Findings, photographs and audio-clips (recorded using cell phones) were then used to create a website.

Congratulations to both. Information from http://www.schoolnet.org.za/itf/index.htm and http://www.schoolnet.org.za/

Gr 10 Theory examination papers

Gr 10 November theory memos - Afrikaans and English

Gr 11 Theory examination

Theory papers - Afrikaans and English

Gr 10 Examinations

Gr 10 November Written - Afrikaans and English

Gr 11 Practical examinations

COMMENT from CAT teacher in Gauteng about Gr 11 Practical Paper from Study Opportunities:
I think the paper was: “doable”, Balanced, Different to the norm – this is a good aspect.
I also think it is a good thing that they have been exposed to a paper set by someone else and not by me. Every teacher has their own unique way of setting a paper and pupils get used to that way. They are then only exposed to a different way of setting in the matric exam and can then flounder.
It was in my opinion maybe about 30 minutes too long depending on the child. I am not worried about my pupils who have not been working during the year not finishing – they need a wake up call and would have still not finished even with extra time. But my top pupils should be able to finish and they battled hence my decision to give them an extra 20 minutes. As this is an internal exam, I think we as experienced educators should be able to use our discretion about increasing the time given during an internal exam. I have not marked any of my weaker pupils’ papers yet so I cannot comment on their results as yet. Maybe they are going to have been more affected by the length.
In my opinion, there was nothing “unseen” or extremely difficult and it was not unreasonable. The database form was more complicated than I had done in class with my pupils but my top pupils managed it well. It is something I will have to work on next year as I seem to never do enough work on forms. My pupils also seem to generally battle with Access in grade11 but with more exposure in grade 12 improve.
There was also quite a lot of reading which they have to get used to as it seems that this is the trend with most subjects in the new syllabus and a weakness of our “modern” pupils.
In my opinion it was a matric standard paper that grade 11’s had to write and they have not yet had as much exam practice as a matric child has had. My matric pupils found both the prelim practical exam and the final practical exam long, but my top pupils finished comfortably.
My top child has got a steady 91% per term this year. For her June prac she got 94% and for this exam 85%. When I asked her afterwards how she found the exam, she said she could do everything but she felt very rushed for time and hence made silly mistakes. When I marked her paper, I realised that she was correct as she made mistakes on sections she knows well and would not normally make mistakes on. She has never been rushed for time before as she always works quickly and efficiently and knows the applications very well. She did not have time to go back and check her work either.
My top 2 kids had just finished question 6 when they had 5 minutes left. I therefore gave them an extra 20 minutes. Once I have marked them all, I am going to look at their year marks and if I feel they are too low, I may moderate the prac slightly. However, an end of year exam mark is normally lower than during the year as it is set on a much larger section of work. When all the years’ tasks and PAT are added together, I am sure it will even out. I also don’t want to have my pupils arriving in matric with inflated grade 11 marks but at the same time would not want them to be demoralised.
The paper marks well (I have only marked 2) – the marking grid is great. I think that we should have the solutions printed out to see what certain documents should look like: for example the table in question 5. Just check the ticks as in one or two questions the number of ticks does not match the overall mark.
Question 6, the type of question I normally dislike marking as it usually takes so long, marks beautifully thanks to the way the memo is designed.
I also think for the second year of grade 11’s and a new syllabus, Study Opportunities has done very well to set a paper of such a good standard. I for one am very grateful not to have had to set CAT papers for my school but could rather spend my time on marking the PATs. Everyone knows how long it takes to set an exam paper.
CAT should not be seen as an “easy” option for the pupils and it should challenge the bright pupils who choose to take CAT rather than IT or other subjects. It is such a pity CAT is not yet recognized as a subject for university entrance as it is such a useful subject to study.

Gr 11 Practical examinations

English marksheet and solutions
Afrikaans marksheet and solutions
Addendum for question 3.4

Examination papers

There have been repeated requests to get the password for the exam papers. There is only one way to get them. You must have completed the document found on the studyopportunities.co.za web site and faxed it back to the correct place. The password would then have been SMSed to you. It is also pointless putting a request in a 'Comment' if you do not add contact details, and the password cannot be put onto the blog as that defeat the point of having a password.

Gr 10 November Practical examinations

English marksheet and solutions
Afrikaans marksheets and solutions

Gr 10 and 11 Written papers

Length of Written papers – next week:
We decided to stick to the SAG which specifies:
Gr 10: 100 marks, 2 hours
Gr 11: 150 marks, 3 hours.

Experience has however shown that many learners do not need the full time.

Gr 11 Practical Errata

Slegs AFRIKAANSE vraestel - Vraag 4, eerste bullet moet wees (R0-00 vir lede en R20-00 vir nie-lede).

Please open and fix the data files 6Answers.doc (English) and 6Antwoorde.doc. It should refer to Question 6, not Question 7.

Gr 11 Practical Exam Papers

The Grade 11 Practical examination paper in English with its data, and Afrikaans with its data files is now available.

Gr 10 Revision or Disaster

Did you do the Pug Dog Club set in 2006 question paper (data files and memo) as revision with your Gr 10 learners? Did you see the fat fawn pug who had to be taken for a walk, and was also used in other questions in the paper. Well, he is fat and this morning became even fatter.I could scream at him!
Long story. I managed to get some special green mealies from Gauteng. I made some special green mealie cake (not carrot cake, green mealie cake). I had it wrapped in heavy Alcan foil in a Checkers packet along with chips, peanuts, dips, biscuits, cooldrinks, etc. especially for our weekend in the Cedarberg. All the bags were on the floor in the garage ready for leaving straight after school today. This morning, I was busy dressing and organising the house. Friend went outside to open the garage door and get my car ready, not thinking of the contents of the carrier bags and the dogs. When it was time to lock the front door we looked for the dogs, and found the fawn pug with his nose in the bag and 3/4s of the cake gone! Thank goodness it was not the fruitcake which was still on the shelf in the kitchen. Now when you do that old exam paper, you know why he is fat!

Gr 10 PAT

I have just finished marking the Gr 10 PATs. I believe we have left out an important point, or we did not leave it out but we did not allocate enough marks and the learners ignored it. The learners did not properly draw the research project to a clear conclusion: do the public (not disabled people) have a clear idea of the abilities of the disabled and all the different kinds of disabled people, and are there facilities to help the disabled. I think we must allocate more marks to this section and perhaps give more criteria in the checklist. We gave 1 and 4 marks respectively to this and my learners seemed to ignore it, maybe because the rubric did not specify more criteria. Most learners did not answer the main question or problem.

Gr 10 November Practical examinations

The Gr 10 Study Opportunities Practical examination papers are now available in English and Afrikaans. The data files are available - English and Afrikaans. The password will probably be sent on Thursday or Friday. It may be a good idea to relook at the details on 15 June.

Gr 11 PAT Phases 5 and 6

I have just finished marking the Gr 11 PAT Phases 5 and 6 and certain aspects are common to most of the learner's work - in the handout they did not

• introduce the work
• properly explain how the particular technology works
• discuss/introduce/explain the database query and report
• draw the work to a clear conclusion.

Otherwise the handout was well done.

Gr 12 Learners

Here are pictures of some of the Gr 12 learners whose work has been available on this blog in 2008 - Galer, Justus, Hobbs, Machado, Walbeck. Woollgar

Gr 10 PAT

Final report

• Headings need similar styles, i.e. font sizes and fonts
• Readable font, i.e. Arial or Comic Sans used
• Same font used for all the body text, and includes table
  
• URLs must be placed in the bibliography, not as headings or in the text
• Page borders should only found on the first page
• Headings should not be bulleted
  
• Headings underlined - so old fashioned, that is what typists did, not those with word processing formatting features
  
• Results from spreadsheet - Do a copy and paste. Whole spreadsheet not required. Cells of the table must be widened so that it looks like a ‘neat’ table.
• Needs a clear conclusion based on the results of the spreadsheet and what has been written about.
  

Gr 10 PAT

A strange thing is happening in the Gr 10 PAT final report: The learners are copying the data/advertisements for hardware/software they find on the Internet. It is meant to be a report - they have to rewrite the information on the hardware/software in their own words. They have to change the person or tone! If they just copy a section off the Internet and I pick it up they will get 0 for that section.
They are enjoying the topic!

Gr 10 and 11 Nov exam papers

Some one asked about the Gr 10 and 11 Nov exam papers from Study Opportunities. Look at the posting on 15 June.

Gr 10 Nov Exam

TIP from Sandra for Gr 10 Final Prac Exam from Study Opportunities.

Gr 11 PAT - Phases 3 and 4

Here are examples of the different kinds of databases - one is on general social networking sites and others on Mxit in the media - Erasmus, Leroux, Naidoo

Gr 10 PAT

My Gr 10s are working so hard on their PAT about computers and the disabled. They had problems getting their questions correct but that has now been sorted out.

Yesterday at the gym all the disabled parking bays were occupied by able-bodied males (not gentlemen). I will not mention what I think of them!

I had to take my Father out for supper last night. He is 85 and will not use a wheel chair although he is what could be called disabled. I have managed to get a disabled parking ticket. The only place where we could go to eat was at a shopping centre as that is the only place where there are managed parking bays for the disabled.

The PAT has made me more aware how challenging life for the disabled is. I think we should try to make the learners more aware and considerate of others in this exercise.

Gr 11 PAT - Phases 3 and 4

Into Week 2

• I am still walking the room watching and giving help where it is needed.
• Learners are busy creating the database, Word planning document, PowerPoint planning document, finishing off their spreadsheets and completing their tables with regard to trustworthiness.
• I am worried that many do not have the basic information/sources/evidence on the 6 technologies.
• While I was walking around the room I marked some things on the rubrics.
• The work is due in 2 more periods.

Gr 11 PAT Phases 3 and 4

Thursday Day 4

• Work is going well - Putting data into spreadsheet and database. The Countif function is being used to analyse the data in the spreadsheet.
• Little or no work is being done at home. How they are going to finish collecting all the data, and plan the word document and the presentation I do not know.
• The Grade 11s do not have lessons on this Friday so in one week they are going to have to work very hard if they hope to hand in on Friday 17 October.

Gr 11 PAT

The latest You magazine has a good article on Cyberbullying. Most useful for the PAT. I suggest learners buy it now.

Gr 11 PAT Phases 3 and 4

Wednesday, Day 3

• Reminded the learners what had to handed in on Friday next week. - Spreadsheet with all the data from the survey. Information collected on 6 things – how they work, advantages, disadvantages, etc. Database of records.
  
• Most of the learners collected their survey forms and started working on putting the information into Excel. This was interesting. Many first started writing down all the options the people had filled in which took a long time to type. I reminded them of the SportShirts spreadsheet done in Theme 3 (page 189) and the DresscodeQuest spreadsheet (page 317). They then changed their spreadsheets using codes. Look at what Dinika and Kareesha have done so far. Look at their code worksheets.
  
• A few learners are collecting information and highlighting the important bits on the computer. One silly child started formatting the information correctly – this is not needed now. The learners must just collect relevant information.
  
• A few learners have started collecting information for their database. The Copy/paste feature is so useful. Collecting the information is going well. Viewing it on a report has required moving the fields and labels so it can be viewed nicely. When there is a long field and it cannot be seen properly, I have helped by right clicking on the field, Properties, Can grow, Yes – and the text appears in 2 or 3 lines as required.
  
• I am continuing to walk around the whole time monitoring and giving advice.

Gr 11 PAT Phases 3 and 4

Day 2

• The learners are busy filling in survey forms. A few learners have started putting the information from the forms into Excel. A few stupid learners put the survey information in Access – I then helped them export the data from Access to Excel.
• A few learners are collecting information for their databases.
• I walked the room giving guidance where necessary.
• I kept the PowerPoint I used earlier on the data projector screen to help some learners who still do not know what to do.
• I am scared the learners will not complete this phase for Friday 17.

Gr 10 Pages 231-243

My Grade 10 learners are currently busy with templates, pages 231-243. They made a letterhead for their homes. Their homework this week is to install the letterhead on their home computers as a template. To prove to me that they did install their letterhead as a template, they have to make a screen dump of the new document dialog on a letterhead document.

Gr 12 PAT Phase 6

Here are some examples of Phase 6 of the Grade 12 PAT done by learners at my school. The files are large - Casswell, Kolbe, Marankey and Wolmarans.

Gr 10 PAT

The Gr 10 PAT is now available in English and Afrikaans. I believe that many teachers and learners are really going to enjoy doing this PAT.

Teaching of CAT

1. How do schools with economically disadvantaged learners cope with CAT? Those learners have probably not used the computer before starting CAT. How are these learners meant to get up to speed in 3 years of lessons where they use the computer for I period a day? They cannot! The LO talks about ‘Operational knowledge’. Learners cannot get that knowledge unless they operate a computer! May I suggest that such learners do a subject such as computer literacy in grades 8 and 9 in order to expose them to computers before starting CAT in grade 10.
2. Headmasters must appoint people to teach CAT who are able to ‘teach’ and have knowledge of computers and the Office Suite. I have become aware of a number of schools where the teachers need upskilling in teaching and/or computer skills. We cannot expect our learners to achieve good results if the teachers do not have the office competencies.
3. When is there going to be a minimum skill requirement to teach CAT such as Advanced ICDL or a university course? .
4. How many universities offer an in-service qualification in CAT? Very few! Where are teachers meant to get training? The subject advisors cannot be expected to do it as well as their own jobs. National Education did a wonderful job by providing training from TUT but many more people need training and on-going training.
5. Why do schools offer CAT when they obviously do not have the infrastructure to do so? How many schools have Internet access which forms such a large part of the work, or a printer, scanner, digital camera, data projector, networking staff, etc.

This subject is NOT too difficult and does not need to be watered down. What is needed are other things to make it function better. This one subject, if learnt, is a superb vehicle to uplift and empower people, especially in disadvantaged communities.

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.