Thursday, October 31, 2013

SOFT6008 Recording of Exam Attendance

I was advised today by the head of department that I made a number of students uncomfortable last week when I used my mobile phone to record attendance at the exam.  I apologise for making anyone uncomfortable.

I was necessary to record who was at the exam so that in the event of an issue, like a script being lost or unidentified, I could establish who was there and who was not. A roll call would have eaten into the time we had available to the exam. Not all of the people there on the day were personally known to me. I did not want to interrupt students by asking those I did not know for ID. And there was no certainty that they would even have had ID.

It clear, however, that I made some students uncomfortable. I am sorry for that.

It was always my intent to keep the recordings for only a few days until after the results were published so that if there was an issue it might be a useful record.

The recordings were never actually viewed. They were never copied nor backed up.

I deleted them from my phone today immediately on discovering that their existence made some students uncomfortable. However, they would have been deleted over the next few days in any event because there were no issues.

It is clear that different people have different comfort levels when it comes to the recording of their images or voices, or indeed any data about them. It is always difficult to find the right balance between the convenience provided by technologies and the risks they pose. In fact, I think this is one of the big questions of our time. I clearly got it wrong, and, again, I apologize for this.

I have decided to err on the side of caution from now on and so will be more sensitive in future. I will also discontinue my practice of recording lectures and putting them on YouTube. There is a risk that this practice may prevent some students from asking questions or may make them uncomfortable for other reasons.  Since I never actually asked anyone's permission I will cease the practice and I have removed those recordings that were made in the past without permission.


SOFT6008 COM2B Class 26

Students worked on coding check digit algorithms for PPSNs and DNIs

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 36

Students worked on forms

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

SOFT6008 CA Results

The results of the first assessment are available online at http://tinyurl.com/soft6008ca. They are sorted using the last 4 digits of student ID numbers.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 26 & 27

Students worked on coding forms.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 27 & 28

Students worked on coding forms.

SOFT6007 Class 25




We looked at forms.

As I highlighted in class there was a mistake in the slides.  Checkboxes must have different names if they are all to be sent to the server correctly. So the hobbies example should show something like hobbies1, hobbies2, hobbies3. [There is a solution involving arrays. But you guys know nothing of arrays just yet]

Thursday, October 24, 2013

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 24

Students worked on code. I'm please with the progress students are making. Of course I have no idea how the missing students are doing.

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 24

Students were interested in studying for exams they had today. No one was doing any web stuff, so I headed away after a few minutes.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 23 & 24

Some students worked on code. But most spent time preparing their cheat sheets for the exam today.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 22 & 23

We had an exam.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 23 & 24

We had an exam

SOFT6007 Class 21

Class was canceled. I wasn't feeling well.

Monday, October 21, 2013

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 22

Some students worked on check sum calculations. But most did preparation work for the exam.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 22

Some students worked on colour coding the timetable. But most did preparation work for the exam.

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 22 & 23

Students continued coding check digit algorithms.

I advised against tackling cookies just yet.

I passed around a list of the dropboxes that have been shared with me and students who have yet to complete that task got it sorted.

SOFT6008 Class 21



We looked a cookies.

I talked a bit about getting inspiration from the web.

Friday, October 18, 2013

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 19 & 20

Students worked on coding check sum algorithms. Most students are still working on the credit card code, which puts them a bit behind schedule.

Some students were struggling with functions so I talked a little bit about them on the board.








Thursday, October 17, 2013

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 18

Students worked on coding the check digit exercises

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 20

Students continued working on check digit exercises

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 19 & 20

Students continued coding the check digit exercises

SOFT6008 Exam Practice

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 18 & 19

In the first part of the class I gave out colour chips and asked students to find the corresponding RGB values using a colour picker.



In the second half of the class I explained how classes worked in CSS and we colour coded the timetable using classes.

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 19 & 20

In the first part of the class I gave out colour chips and asked students to find the corresponding RGB values using a colour picker.



In the second half of the class I explained how classes worked in CSS and we colour coded the timetable using classes.

SOFT6007 DWEB1/ITM1 Class 17



We looked at digital colour systems.

To get some practice using the RGB system students can use a colour picker in a program like PowerPoint or play Colin's HTML Colour Picker Game (HTML5 Browser required)

Students may also be interested in the videos online.





The video below explains number systems and Hex.


Monday, October 14, 2013

SOFT6008 Dropbox feedback

If you successfully shared a dropbox folder with me you will fine a note from me in the folder. If you didn't do that then you need to take some corrective action.

If you uploaded your credit card code you will also find some feedback.

SOFT6008 DWEB1 Class 17

Students worked on coding check sum calculations for various schemes. Some are still struggling with the Luhn algorithm

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 18

Students added style data to their timetables.

SOFT6007 ITM1 Timetable change

The ITM1 timetable has changed. This means that the date of the in-class exam has also changed.

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 18 & 19

Students worked on coding various check sum claculations

SOFT6008 Class 17



We looked at some more check sum calculations and discussed strategies for coding them.

We briefly discussed the upcoming exam.

Friday, October 11, 2013

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 15 & 16




Students worked on coding the credit card validator. However many struggled so we went through it on the board and developed some (not-JavaScript) code.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

SOFT6008 COM2B Class 14

Students started writing the credit card code

Friday 25 October is a holiday

Friday 25 October is a holiday. There will be no classes on that day.

Monday 28 October is also a holiday.

SOFT6008 Assessment 1

Assessment 1 will be a written in-class exam in Week 05/06. The exam will take 60-70 minutes.

Students will be permitted to bring with them a single A4 sheet of notes. (not 2 single sheets stuck together)

COM2-B will have the exam at 1100 on Friday 18 October in C134
COM2-A will have the exam at 1000 on Monday 21 October in C128
DWEB2 will have the exam at 0930 on Wednesday 23 October in IT2.1

If you know you will be missing on the day of your exam please advise Colin in advance.


SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 16

Students added styles to the timetables.

SOFT6007 Assessment 1

Assessment 1 will be a written in-class exam in Week 06.

Students will be permitted to bring with them a single A4 sheet of notes. (not 2 single sheets stuck together)

DWEB1 will have the exam at 1400 on Tuesday 22 October in IT1.2
ITM1 will have the exam at 1600 on Tuesday 22 October in IT1.3

If you know you will be missing on the day of your exam please advise Colin in advance.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 14 & 15

In the first hour students coded their college timetables in HTML.





In the second part of the lab I explained how CSS works and I styled a table.

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 16

Students worked on the credit card code.

I got students to share a dropbox with me.

SOFT6008 Dropbox

SOFT6008 students (of Colin) should make a dropbox folder with a name in the following format SOFT6008-DanMurphy and invite me to share the folder at colin.manning@cit.ie

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 15 & 16

Students worked on the credit card code. That needs to be completed this week.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 15 & 16

For the first hour students coded their class timetables in HTML.





In the second hour we looked at CSS and I styled a table. I asked student to style their tables.

SOFT6007 DWEB1/ITM1 Class 13 Lecture

We had a very quick look at the RGB system. We will return to this again and consider it at a more leisurely pace.






We looked at how to code a table in HTML and considered collapsing cell walls using colspan and rowspan. I asked students to code their timetables in HTML.

Monday, October 7, 2013

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 14

I asked students to start coding the credit card check sum algorithm. This exercise required student to pay particular attention to types so that 1 + 1 is never 11.

SOFT6007 Preview



This week we will look at coding tables in HTML


SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 14 Lab

Students continued to work on the image map exercises. Students who didn't complete those today should finish them in their own time. In the next lab we will look at tables.

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 13 & 14

I asked students to start coding the credit card check sum algorithm

SOFT6008 Class 13



We discussed coding strategies for credit card and EAN check sums. We looked at check sums for ISBN, and Euro banknotes. I asked students to check some cash they had on them.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

SOFT6007 Image Maps

I expect all students to be finished with both Image Map exercises by Monday evening. So you may need to work on those between now and then.

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 12

Students continued working on the image map exercises. Students should work on those over the weekend to finish both.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

SOFT6007 ITM1 Class 10 & 11

Students worked on the Iberia and USA image map exercises

SOFT6008 COM2A Class 12

Students continued extending the slot machine example.

SOFT6008 DWEB2 Class 11 & 12

Students worked on extending the slot machine example.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

SOFT6007 DWEB1 Class 11 & 12

Students worked on the two image map exercises

SOFT6008 COM2-B Class 10

Students worked on extending the slot machine example

SOFT6007 DWEB/ITM Class 09



I spoke a bit about Erasmus and the Free Choice module.

We looked at coding Image Maps in HTML.

I gave students print outs and they made a start on the first of two image map exercises.