Due Dates

Any work for Project 3 (including quiz) will be due by the end of class on Friday. No exceptions!

If you are in Web 1 you should not move on to Project 4. Help your classmates get done.

If you are in Web 2 then you SHOULD move on to Project 4. I will add more notes later but let it be known that the Flash buttons will probably not work in this project.

Web 4? Tick tock tick tock. Monday's rough draft deadline approaches.

Get it done.

Reading

Some interesting articles this weekend in the NY Times. Please be sure to write or comment about one, or all, of these articles in your blog.

The first is about athletic scholarships for college and all the misinformation that is out there. Athletes are continually surprised at how many scholarships are actually out there. I can't tell you how many times I hear of coaches or trainers saying they have the "secrets" for getting scholarships.

A second article is the growing trend of academic scholarships. This was talked about by the coaches in the first article, that you have a MUCH better chance of getting a full ride academic scholarship. MIT just announced that if your family income is under $75,000 per year that they will waive tuition for accepted students. Several other schools have adopted similar programs.

Finally, there is an article about paying students to excel. This article focusses on younger students. Many people object to this idea, that students should receive cash for getting high marks. However, I do see some inconsistencies as we certainly support "paying" students by giving academic scholarships.

And, this one is just for fun. What do you think about texting?

So, what do you think? Be sure to include links to the articles in your blog entry. Web communications is about taking many sources and forming your own message. This is how we practice. Your article should be a few paragraphs long (at least) and should invite more conversation. If people leave comments, then you made a good article.

Monday

Web 1 and Web 2 students should be working on Project 3. If you finish Project 3 please do not move on to project 4 yet. We do several activities (including a big exam) between these projects.

If "done" please work on:
1. Web2 Quiz.
2. Web 1 Quiz. Take your quiz from Project 1 (your class schedule). Code this project again, but use tables to format the page and your schedule.
3. Blog connections. Several of you choose colors on your blog that are hard to read like this or this . Please change this!!

Global Communication

Since the Korean War the North Korean society has been closed. What does that mean? Basically that means nobody gets in and nobody gets out. The North Korean government has controlled all aspects of the society, culture, and economy. This has had a crippling effect on the country. Over one million people reportedly died in a recent famine there. On the left is a satellite image that shows North and South Korea. Notice that North Korea can't pay for any lights.

So, the visit by the New York Philarmonic (text link) this past week may be one of the most remarkable events I have ever seen. The concert was broadcast here in the USA two nights ago. It was a thrilling concert. In a world where we have taken for granted that we can talk to anyone at anytime we were confronted with a culture where most in the audience had never been out of the country, seen a foreign TV broadcast, or been able to use the internet. One reporter remarked that "there are no fat people here". They don't have enough food.

I have said before that you can be many things in this world, but there is no excuse for ignorance or inaction. How can you use your skills to effect change? I would like you to try today to make a connection on your blog. Using the front page of blogmeister make a connection with a student from another state or country. Leave a comment about one of their entries or just say hello.

Making connections is an essential skill for this class. If you cannot connect you will become isolated and "isolation is the enemy of improvement". How will I judge this? Our blog can collect great data: number of reads, number of comments, and your clustrmap data. If you do not have a clustrmap, get one today.

Have fun, be respectful, and make those connections. Remember, this may be the first and only connection someone has made to a person from America or Connecticut. What will you say knowing that you might be their first impression??

This assignment is for all classes: web1, web2, web4.

Transition

The next six weeks will be an interesting time for this class. Next week we enter the CAPT testing period. For two weeks we will bounce around in the schedule. Some days we meet, some days we don't. It can be difficult to keep up with the work.

As many of you know, my wife and I have a baby due soon. At some point in the next month or so I will be out for about a week.

Finally, I will not be in class tomorrow and a few other days (track meets).

It is important during these periods that you keep moving forward. I will be disappointed if some of you (you know who you are!!) take a step backward. When I am out I will monitor your work from home through both this blog and your blogmeister.

Today I will be grading. There is a lot of work for me to check. In addition I am giving you the assignments for Project 3 if you are ready to move on:

Web 1:

• Chapter Summary for Project 3.
• Project
• Apply your Knowledge
• In the Lab 1
• In the Lab 2

Web 2:

• Chapter Summary for Project 3.
• Project
• Apply your Knowledge (Lawn Service)
• Lab (Plant City)
• Quiz

Web 3:

• Complete or Edit blog entries from yesterday.
• Rough Draft due March 17. That is sooner than some of you think.

Quiz: Monday

Web1: Quiz: (20pts total). Due end of class Tuesday.

• Create a folder in your WDrive-Web1. Label it "Quiz2".
• Download a clip-art image of an American Flag. Save in Quiz2 folder
• Create a two-page website.
• Title Page 1: "American Flag". Add heading, background color, and flag image.
• Center image. Add alt text to any images.
• Title Page 2: "American Flag History". Add heading. Add short description of Flag history with two links to further information.
• Link pages together: Make image on Page 1 the link to Page 2. On Page 2 include a "home" link back to page 1.
• Save folder in UDrive-WebSchneider-Web1-Period. Test links.

Web 2: We will start the quiz for Project 2 today.

• On your Crosby High site add a new page for directions. Add content.
• Link the two pages.
• Have the same format, colors, etc...
• Add a clipart picture of a "school" to the front page. Format the picture correctly.
• Save a copy of your folder in the UDrive in the Crosby folder.

Web3: Thinkquest

One member of your Thinkquest team must write a blog entry that answers the following questions:

• What is the most important fact that you want to use in this site? Why?
• What is your most important source? Why?

One member of your Thinkquest team must write a blog entry that answers the following questions:

• List as many facts (use proper HTML in blog entry) about your subject as you can. Put most important facts on top.

One member of your Thinkquest team must write a blog entry that answers the following questions:

• How can you ensure you will meet the coding requirements for Thinkquest? How will you stay under the 50mb limit? Be specific.

One member of your Thinkquest team must write a blog entry that answers the following questions:

• How is your team working? Are you producing your best work? What can you do differently?

History

I have been working on my family history. I have a relatively small family. Both of my sets of grandparents had two children. My sister and I are their only grandchildren.

I had a fair amount of history on my father's side, but only back to around 1880 or so when that part of the family arrived from Germany and Ireland. By using familysearch I was able to go back an additional generation, which was kind of exciting.

But last night I started to work on my maternal grandmother's side. I had a name Thaddeus Stocker and that he lived during the Revolutionary War. From that name I was able to use the site to travel back an additional ten generations!! I got all the way back to 1470 in England (John Wyllie). Needless to say this was pretty amazing to me.

I found out that our family lived in Fairfield, CT (Henry Jackson, Mary Morehouse, etc..) for over 150 years and were among the first European settlers. I found that parts of the family were Tories and parts were fighting in the Continental Army. And this was only in about an hours worth of work. I am probably related to half of Connecticut.

Much of this was inspired by the amazing PBS series by Henry Louis Gates which traced the history of several African-Americans. Now history can be enlightening, powerful, and painful. But the internet is a VERY powerful tool in this regard. I urge you to try to connect with your past.

Update: I think I got back to the year 1256!! Alexander de Forbes in Scotland.