Saturday, December 5, 2009

Evaluating Websites

It is essential to know what makes a good website.
A good website will
-contain worthwhile content
-be easy to find your way around
-be kept up to date
It is difficult to talk about a typical website because they are all different based on the purpose and audience.

The best way is to make a checklist and make sure the website does not make some of the common mistakes.

You are required to make an evaluation checklist for a website
Produce a checklist for 20 things you should look in a website.
There are two ways of evaluating a website
-Self
-peer (a friend or classmate does it for you).
It is best using both the methods.
1. Some things to watch
2. Too many moving images
3. Long scrolling pages
4. Information that out of date
5. Long download times
6. Links that do not work

Tips on website creation
-Keep it simple
-Do not put music or sound
-Make it pleasing to the eye
-Do not put slow loading graphics on the page
-Make sure the important information is at the top of the screen
-Avoid the use of pop-ups

Reviewing School Websites

Most Schools now have websites. In this activity look at the websites listed below and find out
-Why school have websites
-What the main features of these websites are
- What makes a good school website?
Here are the sites to use
www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/index.html
www.perse.cambs.sch.uk
atschool.eduweb.co.uk/heartihs/
atschool.edu.co.uk/sirwilf/index.htm
www.hamsteadschool.org.uk/
Our school
2 Schools in Mombasa
2 Schools in other parts of the country

What to consider when creating a website

When making documents to be used by others you need to consider who your audience will be.
Typical Audience include
Teenagers
Young parents
Males
Females
Senior citizens

Questions
1. In which of the above audiences would the size of the type used for the text be important.
2. If the site is to have lots of flash graphics with rap music which audience would be aimed at?
3. Which audience is more likely to be interested in cars and football?
4. Which audience is more likely to take a holiday outside school-holiday time?
5. Which audience is most likely to be interested in a site on cosmetics?

Expectation of Website

When you log onto a website, you have certain expectation about the site. Your experience of looking at websites has given you the expectations. When you design a website it important to meet your audience’s expectations.

Task 1
You are now required to thoroughly investigate the official website for singer Britney Spears at www.britneyspears.com
On the website for a pop star you might expect certain things.
Complete the following table by writing in the left column what you would like to see and in the right column state weather or not the site contained it

What I would expect to see Did the website contain it?


Task 2
Using the same website, fill in the following table by saying what you liked and disliked about the site

What I liked about the site What I did not like about the site



Task 3
You are an up coming pop star so it is time you had your own website. Write a list of features that you would include in your website. For each feature write a sentence to explain it would be useful.

Two things that you need to consider when creating a website is Audience and Purpose

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

INVESTIGATING WEBSITES

For this activity you are required to investigate certain websites. For each website you have to answer the questions that follow

• The NASA website: www.nasa.gov/home/index.html
• The McLaren racing car website: www.mclaren.co.uk
• An official website on the footballer David Beckham: http://www.davidbeckham.com/
• The Pop Idol website: http://www.popidolwatch.co.uk/
• CD-WOW – a company that sells CDs on the internet: www.cd-wow.com

1. Who is the intended audience for this website?

2. How do you know?

3. What are the main features of this website?

4. Which of the following things is it possible to do on the website?
a. download a file
b. play music
c. watch a video clip
d. play a game
e. buy goods online
f. search the site for specific information
g. obtain photographs
h. find out the news
i. find out the weather

5. Give the website a rating of one to five (one being worst and five being best)

(Keyed in by Keshni Haria)

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Comparing a website with a book

In this activity you will compare a website with a book to find certain information.
1. first look up the following words in a paper dictionary:
Access
Audience
Evaluate
Think about how you performed the task

2. Now look up the same words using an on-line dictionary at
www.dictionary.cambridge.org/

Think about how you performed this task.

3. Write a few sentences to explain the difference in the two task.
Which way was easier, and which did you prefer and why?

Monday, November 30, 2009

Website Identification and Analysis

On publishing on the WEB we need to know what is a webpage and what is a website?

Write your answers.

We need to investigate a website and look at its characteristics.

Task: IDENTIFY FIVE WEBSITES PRESENTING INFORMATION ON CULTURES(YOUR OWN or SOMETHING CLOSER)

Analyse the websites look for
-Date display
-Weather information display
-Feedback portal or guest sign up
-Site map
-Last update information
-Search button
-Time display
-Number of hits display
-Navigation
Write a short comments on the website after the analysis.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

My Identity, Your Identity

We are joining the project

My Identity, our Identity,

Our link http://foro.iearn.org/webx/.1eb07854

You will get in and introduce briefly your culture.

Who you are?
Where you come from?
Some of your traditions?

Welcome

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

WELCOME TO TRIMESTER 2

The projects were very good and we saw how ethics plays a role as we handle information.

We also addreesed the issues of our enviroments while we learnt how to present our information on line.

This trimester we shall cover publishing on the website.

Our AOI will be Community and Service as we want to present the evolution of our cultures. Our AK strand will be cultures. Approaches to learning will be
• Informational Technology Skills
• Higher Order Thinking Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Research Skills
• Cooperative Learning
• Intercultural Awareness
• Independent & Personal Responsibility

Learning experineces will involve
Introduction to publishing on the Web
Reviewing what is needed when creating a website.
Creating web pages using HTML
Creating web Using Microsoft Word
Using FrontPage
Creating Website using a wizard
Creating a Cultural website
Creating a Feedback form and table of content for the cultural project
Checking and publishing the website
Evaluating the website



Congratulation for completing Trimester one.



Our first task is to understand what is CULTURE.

Design a poster to explain what is culture.
The poster will be judged on
Design
Layout
Information
Colours.

Time One Lesson.
Print it out and submit.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

WikiSpaces Design

You have made up your Plan.

Now you are at the creat point.

Go to Wikispaces.com
Sign up with a user name

Let the Wiki Name be your Project.

Start the Wiki.

Use your design specification to come up with your desings.

Do not forget the theme of the challenge Our enviroment promote, conserve and sustain"

Monday, October 26, 2009

Using Key Words and Boolean operators for searching

A warning on Plagiarism

A) If you have copied a piece of work from the internet it is possible for your teacher to do a search using an exact phrase from the piece of work.

Explain how the teacher might do a search using a sentence from an essay to see if the essay come from the material on the internet.

B)This cooperation requires trust and mutual respect, which are only possible in an environment governed by the principles of academic honesty. As an institution devoted to teaching, learning, and intellectual inquiry, Holy Cross expects all
members of the College community to abide by the highest standards of academic integrity. Any violation of academic honesty undermines the student-teacher relationship, thereby wounding the whole community. Th e principal violations of academic honesty are plagiarism, cheating, and collusion

The Above information was presented by James.

Find out the source of information.

Print out the link

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Worksheet: Searching for information

Information needed
The environmental campaigner in the coastline of Kenya,

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
The distant between your home and School

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
Information about keeping a tank of marine fish in the home

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
How to make your school eco friendly

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer
Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
Dangers of air conditioning

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
How to desalinate sea water for use domestically

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
The potential of solar energy in Kenya

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Information needed
Do we have enough bio-energy in Kenya?

The exact query you would type into the search engine
Answer

Notes on how you would narrow down your search
Answer

Find out

1. A synonym is a word which has the same or similar meaning to another word. Write as many synonyms as you can for each of the following words
a) Soccer
b) Computer games
c) make-up
d) animation
e) Graphics
2. Perform searches against the clock and get the required information as quickly as possible for the following:
You are going for a short break with your parents and you want the website for the Travel Inn ( A good place to stay)
Write down the web address of the site on which you can find a list of Travel Inn Locations and can book rooms.

What is the date for the next solar eclipse in Kenya?
Write down the date of the next eclipse and also the website you got the information from.

Can you find a table of the latest premiership football results? Write down the website address where this can be found.

I want to go fishing. I need a website which tells me where the best places for sea fishing are in Kenya.
Write down the web address of a suitable site.

I would like to attend the African cup of nation’s championship I need to know where it is.
Write down the web address of the page where this information can be found.

I would like to know the Ministry in charge of environment in Kenya. Write down the Website address.

I want to know what the Forest coverage of Kenya is today and what the world recommended percentage is.
Write down the answers and the websites you got the answers from.

Using Searches

When you want to get information from the net how do you do it?


What is a search engine?

List some of the search engines used.

What is a query?

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

End of Session 1

Self Rating

Rate yourself before and after the Session
Use the following criteria Not at all/some knowledge/good knowledge
Before the Session
I understand what is meant by the terms reliability, validity and base.
Answer
I can distinguish between fact and opinion
Answer
I can spot bogus information
Answer
I know how to check information accuracy
Answer
I am able to spot bias in information
Answer

After the Session
I understand what is meant by the terms reliability, validity and base.
Answer
I can distinguish between fact and opinion
Answer
I can spot bogus information
Answer
I know how to check information accuracy
Answer
I am able to spot bias in information
Answer

Thank you.
Where you said NOT AT ALL you need to revise or see me for guidance.

Where you said SOME KNOWLEDGE please read more and be more knowledgeable.

Validity of information

We usually come across information. The information is required to be accurate. Although the information might be accurate it also needs to be relevant to the task.

James wanted to know about weather. He was searching information to find out about weather.
How Does the Thermometer Work?


A thermometer is a device that measures the temperature of things. The name is made up of two smaller words: "Thermo" means heat and "meter" means to measure. You can use a thermometer to tell the temperature outside or inside your house, inside your oven, even the temperature of your body if you're sick.

One of the earliest inventors of a thermometer was probably Galileo. We know him more for his studies about the solar system and his "revolutionary" theory (back then) that the earth and planets rotated around the sun. Galileo is said to have used a device called a "thermoscope" around 1600 - that's 400 years ago!!


Is this information Accurate?

Is it valid?

What advice will you give to James?

Share your responses.

Biased Information

How do you tell that a piece of information is biased. Briefly explain how you would evaluate information to check if it is biased.

Using your explaination above identify some piece of information, review it and explain if the information is biased or not. Explain in details your answers.

Write your reflection on the process.

The accuracy of information

What does the words accuracy and accurate mean?

How are they different?

Rate the following websites on accuracy and reliability.
Use the rating scale for
Reliabiliy
Most -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 Least

Accuracy
Most -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 Least

Site 1 www.flat-earth.org/
Accuracy score:
Reliability score:

Site 2 www.upmystreet.com/
Accuracy score:
Reliability score:

Site 3 www.bbc.co.uk/
Accuracy score:
Reliability score:

Site 4 www.ovaprima.org/mission.html/
Accuracy score:
Reliability score:

Site 5 www.amazon.co.uk/
Accuracy score:
Reliability score:

Share your answers in the class.

A visit to the LIBRARY

People visit the library to look for information.

As you think of designing your web based information resourse it is very important to find from the library how the information is presented in the print media.

You will look for information based on enviroment interms of
-Advertisement for business, tourism and study
-Protection and conservation

You will use a variety of resources from journals, magazines, newpapers and books.

You need to design a grid to fill in the information you get.

Type of source Type of Information Layout


You will use the grid in the library during the next lesson.
The design of the grid is of your choice and it will be graded on layout, content sought and tracking evidence.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Website Review Activity

This activity is to be done after describing the parts of a website and the usefullness on these parts.

Identify a website on coastal environment. Review the website based on the parts such as counters, navigation, date last updated, links and advertisement.

a)Write an analysis of the website.

b)Write a recomendation for the website.

Mail it to gioko@akam.ac.ke

Monday, September 7, 2009

Parts of a WEBSITE

A websites may contain
Links
Advertisements
Date of last update
Counters

What are these parts?

Why are they useful in a Website?

Navigation is how one moves around in a website, through buttons, icons and keys.

Explain why navigation is important in a website.

Some key navigation terminologies are BACK and HOME what do they mean?

SHARE YOUR WORK

URL

What is a URL?

Predict the URL for the following companies

Tesco
MArks and Spencer
Amazon
Thomson Holiday
Nakumatt
Nation Media
The BBC
Kenya Airways
Kenya Wildlife service
Scuba diving

Write down the predicted URL.

Now Check out the URL in Google

Write a reflection on your performance.

SHARE YOUR WORK

Reliability of information

There is a Subtle diffrence between some of the terms ACCURATE and RELIABLE.

Briefly explain your understanding of the term Reliability.

List some of teh sources of information that you think are reliable e.g the school timetable...

Type the word Reliability in a word document.
Use thesaurus and find out other words which imply the same meaning.

Briefly explain the meaning of reliable information NOW.

Send your work to gioko@akam.ac.ke
Please make sure the subject reads MYPCT Reliability of information.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Information: Reliability, validity and bias: Bogus Information

Bogus Information

What is bogus information?
Write a sentense describing what is bogus information?

Spot bogus information

Visit the websites and write a paragraph about each website. The paragraph should explain the nature of the information presented by the website
Site 1: www.glsc.genetics.utah.edu/
Site 2: www.genochoice.com/
Site 3: www.zapatopi.net/afdb.html#WHAT
Site 4: birdfood.co.uk/
Site 5: www.pestorfood.com/

Type your work and send it to gioko@akam.ac.ke
Point to reflect on "Why should anyone put in time and effort to creat bogus sites"

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Creating Models: Spreadsheets

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Creating Models: Spreadsheets

1. Give the cell reference of the cell:
a) below G5
b) to the right of A4

2. If the range of cells from A4 to A8 is A4:A8 give the range for:
a) the five cells to the right of G7,
b) the four cells below G7,
c) the four cells to the left of G7.

3. Use the SUM function to give:
a) the total of the five cells below G6,
b) total profits for the year if January’s profits are in C5, February’s in C6, and so on.

4. In a spreadsheet, cell B5 contains the cost of an item excluding VAT and cell C5 contains the amount of VAT to be paid. Cell D5 contains a formula for the total including VAT. Is it:
a) =C5+D5
b) =B5+C5
c) =B5+100*C5
d) =B5*C5

5. What else can you put in a spreadsheet besides text and numbers?

6. What type of operation can you do on a spreadsheet which you cannot do on a database?

7. Name three different operations which you would expect to be able to carry out on text in a spreadsheet cell.

8. Name three different types of number format you would expect in a spreadsheet cell.

9. What is the difference between an absolute cell reference and a relative reference?

10. If a spreadsheet is used to produce a model of a situation:
a) where are the variables of the model?
b) how are the rules which govern the behaviour of the model written?

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Data Manipulation-Formulaes

In the excell enviroment we can use arithmetic operations/numeric functions to
perform calculations
they include addition, subtraction, multiplication,division, sum, average, maximum,
minimum, count
This done by enetering Formulaes

Use the following data and use the formulaes to make a reporst

John Assingment 1 40/50 Assingment 2 16/20 T0TAL (Calulate/100)
Peter Assingment 1 30/50 Assingment 2 8/20 T0TAL (Calulate/100)
Mary Assingment 1 25/50 Assingment 2 10/20 T0TAL (Calulate/100)
Jane Assingment 1 45/50 Assingment 2 18/20 T0TAL (Calulate/100)
Average (Calculate) (Calculate) (Calculate)
Maximum (Calculate) (Calculate) (Calculate)
Minimum (Calculate) (Calculate) (Calculate)


Determine the class average score for Assigment1, Assignment2 and the Total
Identify the highest and the lowest score in each task.(Hint use =MAX(cell1, cell2...) and =MIN(cell1, cell2...)


Send you attached spreadsheeet to gioko@akam.ac.ke

Computer Networks-Security

We have been looking at computer networks.

Today we shall look at the following
-identify the need for encryption
-authentication techniques including the use of
-User identification
-passwords
when using common network environments such as the Internet.


Answer the following questions
-What is encryption?
-Why do we need it?
-What is authentification?
-How does it use useridentification and password as security measure?

Save the file as Computernetworks-Security(Your Name)

Send your responces to gioko@akam.ac.ke

Linking Web weather Data to a PIS

Last lesson we learnt about linking data from a web site to our Public Information system.

We used Webquerry and linked data to our PIS which we saved in excell and called it

Importing Web Data.

We imported the file blackpoll and formated the worksheet.


Today we are going to do the following
-Open the excell File.
-import the other likn i gave on santiego, California.
Karan and Keshni may help others with URL
Link it to the same excell file but in a different worksheet names PIS2

Save the file

-Check if the data in the blackpool worsheet has changed.
-Write your comments.
-Go to web query and click update.
-Check if the data has changed.
-Write our comments
-Repeat for the PIS2 worksheet.

-Discuss the advantages of linking a PIS with a website.

Send the comments and the discusion in a word file named ImportingWEBdata

Your assingment will be marked under criteria A Investigation.
Send it to gioko@akam.ac.ke

Friday, January 9, 2009

MYP CT Public information systems

Session one
You will be provided with worksheet 8.1.2 and worksheet 8.1.3.
Complete the worksheet individually.
Hand over the paper to the teachers

Session 2 exercise
Importing Data from a Web site.
Open the website
www.firsthydro.co.uk/weather/current/llanberisdata.asp
Copy the data into Excel worksheet
Format the data.
Send the formatted data to gioko.akam.ac.ke

Monday, January 5, 2009

EXERCISE 15

1. Open the document you saved in the Exercise 11.
2. Replace the text:
These customers need to be contacted for information concerning their password violations:
with this text:
Please telephone these users who made log-in errors in weeks 35 and 36. Here is a list of their names and numbers:
3. Indent this paragraph by 1.5 cm from the left margin of the text.
4. Replace the list of users in the table you placed in the document production section with the list of Users for weeks 35 and 36 showing names
and telephone extensions that you saved in the Data Manipulation section.
5. Insert at the end of the document the report you generated in the Data Manipulation section entitled User Error Log
6. Repaginate the document if necessary.
Save and Print the document.
7. Send a message to your tutor with the following subject:
IT Security Report
The message text should be:
Here is the report as requested.
Attach a copy of your report to the e-mail message and send it.
8. Print a copy of the e-mail showing transaction details (Recipient, subject, text, date, attached file).

EXERCISE 11

Task 1
Download a new document with about 2 pages of text (preferably about hardware and software. Save this as DocProd.txt.
Questions below:
1. Open the file DOCPROD.TXT 3.1.1

2. Set the page size to A4 and the orientation to portrait. 4.1.1
4.1.2

3. Set the top and left margins to 2.5cms 4.1.4

4. Make the right and left margins fully justified. 4.1.6

5. Insert page numbers at the foot of the page. These should start at number one and be printed from the first page. The
page numbers should be aligned to the right.
4.1.3

6. The font size should be set at 14 point.

7. Set line spacing to 1.5

8. Key in the following text at the end of the document
Password Violations
Companies use on-going security procedures to check customers logging on to the system.
If a customer makes more than the permitted number of attempts to gain access to the system, then use of that
id is suspended.
The customer is contacted for an explanation.
These customers need to be contacted for information concerning their password violations:
3.2.1

9. Make these three points only listed under Password Violations bulleted style
Companies use on-going security procedures to check customers logging on to the system.
If a customer makes more than the permitted number of attempts to gain access to the system, then use of that id is
suspended.
The customer is contacted for an explanation.
5.2.1

10. Place the file VIOLATE.CSV (you downloaded and saved in Exercise 6) in the document to follow the above text you
have just keyed in.
5.3.1
3.4.1
10.1.1

11. Insert a page break before the sentence:
These customers need to be contacted for information concerning their password violations:
if necessary to keep the sentence with the following table.
5.4.1

12. In the top right hand corner of the first page place the image USER.JPG
Resize the image to be 2cms wide and appropriately set to height with scale ratio preserved.
The image should be placed to the right of the title and should be above the body text.
No text should be lost or hidden by the image.
3.3.1
3.3.2
10.1.1
13. Save and print this version of the document. 11.1.1

EXERCISE 10

Open the word processor and prepare a new document. Add your name and the title Sales details for last week. Make this title centre aligned, bold
and italic
Create the following table in the document.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Taipei Hong Kong Cairns Sydney Tokyo Honolulu
$12,000 $7,700 $0 $42,000 $17,000 $3,200
Lee Wong Jennings Richer Wu Schmidt
3 days 14 days 7 days 14 days 28 days

Make sure that row 1 is centre aligned, rows 2, 4 and 5 are left aligned and row 3 is right aligned.
Save and print your document.
Insert a new column before Monday which looks like this

Day
Location
Sales
Contact
Centre the text in this column and make it italic.
Delete the Sales row from the table. Save and print your document.
Time

EXERCISE 9

Open the word processor and prepare a new document. Add your name and the title Towns and Cities. Make this title centred and 18 points high.
Ensure the font on the title is a sans-serif font. Using a 12 point Serif font enter a list of towns and cities, some local to you and others further away,
like this:
London
Sydney
Jakarta
When you have entered at least 10 entries, save your document.
Add bullet points to the list. Indent those towns and cities close to you by 2 centimetres. Indent those towns and cities further away by 5 centimetres.
Save and print your document.

EXERCISE 8

Open the file that you saved in exercise 7 into the word processor.
Set the page size to A4
Set the orientation to portrait
Set the top and bottom margins to 3 centimetres and the left and right margins to 2 centimetres
Edit in the Header the text
Exercise 8 Word Processing
Make sure the Header has left (for Exercise 8) and right (for Word Processing) tabs and that the Header covers the full width of the page
Insert in the Footer the text
Page of
Make sure the Footer has left (for the page numbering), and right (for your name) tabs and that the Footer covers the full width of the page. The page
numbering should be automated and give the current page number and the total number of pages.

EXERCISE 7

Search for a previously prepared excerpt of text (which is 2 or 3 A4 pages in length) saved as a .TXT file,

Open the word processor and import the text.
Set the page size to A4
Set the orientation to landscape
Set the top and bottom margins to 2.5 centimetres and the left and right margins to 4centimetres
Insert in the Header the text
Exercise 7 Word Processing
Make sure the Header has left (for Exercise 7), centre (for Word Processing) and right (for your name) tabs and that the Header covers the full width
of the page
Insert in the Footer page numbering which should be centred on the page
Save and print your work