It's all about the Pentiums, baby!

All the students that emailed me have received their MS ITAcademy access code.  Please click on the link below and follow through with the registration.  You can begin the course at any time, but we will not be formally looking at it until later this week.

Any questions?  Email me.

Students are required to have a Microsoft Hotmail or Live email address to partake in this section of the course.  Once you have your email address set up, please log on to IT Academy

You will have you own access code that will open up the  intital training in the structure and deployment of the Windows 7 operating system.  You will need to secure your code from me.  Email me from your hotmail account and I will send you the necessary code.

Today's instructional component will be on hard drives.  Please make sure you have the assigned reading done before class starts.

Smartboard notes will be posted to the blog at the completition of class.  These are to supplement your own notes, not replace them.

We will finish with the reassembly of our computer systems today, making them ready for BIOS setup on Wednesday.

This new technology looks very interesting.  This should have a big impact on HD video/audio editing.  It looks like it is showing up on the newly update Macbook Pros first.

More information can be found in the Intel press release.

Last day for presentations. Period.  'nough said.  Make sure you are organized and ready to go, including having a completed rubric, handout/pamphlet, write up, and visual presentation.

    

This is the last opportunity to present the Emerging Technologies assignment.  Expectations are that an oral presentation and defense, written portion, and class set of pamphlets will be ready to go today.

If there is time left, we will start with our reassembly of our computers.

Today is presentation day.

Who is going first?  There might be something in it for the group that makes themselves the guineapigs ;)  Make sure you have a rubric printed off for each member of the group before you begin.

Now that the computers are here, you are going to claim one for you own, and following directions in class, take it apart.

Once the computer is in pieces, please take an inventory of all the components.  Guidlines are posted on the front board.

Tomorrow, we will be cleaning the CPUs (if you have a clean rag at home..please bring it), replacing the heatsink compound, and putting the computer back together.

Remember I am looking for people who can follow procedures.  Trust is built upon those who can fo

Fingers crossed, the computers that we have been given from the Board office should arrive today (I'm even crossing my toes).  Students who have completed the Mainboard exercise from yesterday will be permitted to work on the computer systems, carefully take them apart, catalogue the components and assess their condition.

We are also going to be distributing the Dreamspark license codes (everyone is to keep their code to themselves...sharing will close the account).  If there is time, we will also introduce IT Academy and start the process for rolling it out next week.

Today we are going to start learning about the physical components that make up a computer system.  We will be working on mainboards, interfaces, sockets, and slots.  All the files we need for the lecture are located here.  SmartBoard notes will be posted by the end of the day.

Hopefully (fingers crossed), the computers that we are receiving will arrive on Wednesday of this week (if not sooner).  Students who wish to purchase their computer will need to bring a cheque for $60 as soon as possible.  A letter indicating the process and expectations for the system will go home later this week.

Wednesday's class will finish the PowerPoint lecture that was started yesterday.   This handout should help with your understanding of the basic function of a CPU.  We will also take another look at the expectations for the course, and discuss the culminating project proposal that is due Monday, February 14th.

Since I will be at a tech conference on Thursday and Friday, we will also need to get prepared for the next two days..incl. a discussion of the assignment that you will be working on while I am away.

Today we will be start to explore computer system basics.  The power point is meant to be an overview, and will contain many new terms (there is a lot of jargon involved with computers). 

Over the next few days we will be looking at the following with a little more depth:

1) Input/Output
2) System Components
3) Mainboard Components
4) Interfaces

You are also expected to have your culminating project proposal in draft form by Monday February 14th.  The expectations handout can be downloaded here, and the planning sheet here.

For homework students were asked to:

• work on their weebly.com website (which will act as a record of their learning this semester and an outlet for their creative thought)
  
• think of a possible course culminating project that they would like to work on.  In past semesters students have built mini-ITX computers, developed programs for robots, wrote games for their XBOXs, and set up homeservers.