COM1-CMOD6001 07A & 08A

I asked students to asses their IT skills using the check lists I gave out. Many opf the same gaps in knoweledge appear in this class as in the last. However like the last class I was unable to fill them because I couldn't get the projector working. I suspect though that all of the pieces are in fact present. At least it means I will do exactly the same with both calsses next week, so it's not all bad I suppose.

Students mostly worked on their blogs or on the job assignment.

A number of students already have attendance rates of less than 30%. That's quite shocking so early in the year.

COM1-CMOD6001 07B & 08B

I asked students to assess their own IT skills using the check lists I provided. That gave me an idea of what kinds of things we need to go over. However having figured out what we needed to to, we could not because the cable connecting to the projector had been stolen. Persumably it had been stolen to go with the monitor that was also stolen.

So we'll do that at the next opportunity.

My head hurts

I still have a rotten headache. It's like a hangover that's lasted 2 weeks. I think I'll have to go back to the doctor. If today was a tougher day I think I'd have called in sick. So no partying for me this weekend. I've a load of DVDs to get though anyway.

COM1-CMOD6001 06

We discussed some of the ideas student came up with in the last class about what makes for good teamwork.

Students worked in groups to come up with possible rules for a group.

Handouts: 94, 97, 99

Students did a self-evaluation (94)

We went though 99

Web Publishing 07

We looked briefly at the Wikipedia article on Web Hosting.

We went through a long list of different features offered by several web hosting companies and I explained what they meant.

notes:
web hosting handout

DNC-CMOD6001

We played name tag rizzla in order to get to know each others names. The students didn't seem to be that interested in mingling and 1 or 2 even cheated.

When we were finished with that we wrapped up.

I expect that next week I will have a different number of hours with this group.

COM1-CMOD6001 05

We had to do the roll call twice because it was difficult to hear. And even then I was one name short.

We did an exercise on groups. Students got in to groups of 4 or 5 to come up with suggestions for what make for good working groups. Most students worked well on the exercise and came up with interesting and useful ideas. However when it came time to collate those ideas and share them with the entire class is was very difficult to hear the student contributions over the noise and chatter. I wasn't prepared to shout louder than everyone else put together, so I left at 20 minutes to the hour.

Web Publishing 06

(2 hour labs)
Students set up blogs and added the other students' blogs to their blog rolls.

Web Publishing 05

We looked at blogs. This is an example of a blog :-)

Finally Under Way

I feel like the college year is finally under way. Stuff is actually getting done. There was a fair bit of hassle today with student computer accounts and many couldn't log in even though they had fully registered and paid their money and everything. Admissions told them it might be a few days before the computer system reflects their status accurately. In the meantime we have some dummy accounts so students can get on with things. Having dummy accounts is a bit of a security risk but we have to strike a balance.

COM1-CMOD6001 03A & 04A

I distributed the job descriptions exercise.

In the second half of the class students set up blogs.

COM1-CMOD6001 03B & 04B

Some time was wasted at the start of class with people unable to log in. But hopefully all that will be sorted in a few days.

I distributed the job descriptions exercise.

In the second half of the class students set up blogs.

COM1-CMOD6001 02

We played name tag rizzla so that we could get to know each other's names. It was good fun.

Web Publishing 04

Very short class. went through syllabus and explained what the course was about.

I asked students to decide over the weekend whether they were in or out, so that we could get down to work.

DNC-CMOD6001 01

Our first class.

COM1-CMOD6001 01

I explained CIT's system of modules and credits, the NFQ levels and ECTS credits. I talked about transfers to computing and other courses within CIT.

I explained about the free module in the second and subsequent semesters.

We went through the CMOD6001 Syllabus and I explained what the module was trying achieve.

We had a group exercise during which students discussed whether it was better to be randomly assigned groups for the project or better to allow students to choose their own group members. The class seemed evenly divided in their choice.

There were 31 students present.

Web Publishing 02 & 03

No one turned up to class. I left at 1418.

Web Publishing Class 01

We had our first class today. I gave a quick overview of the course. Since only two students turned up I didn't really make a start and we left early. That practice only rewards the student who didn't show up. So I probably won't do that in future.

This should be an interesting little module. But it's very much a work in progress.

Grumpy

I was a bit grumpy at work today. I think I am in a bad mood because of the uncertainty about what I will be teaching this semester. I like to be some bit prepared for a class. But it's hard to invest in a subject on the off chance that I might end up teaching. It also frustrates me that I don't get to teach the things I know most about.

Mentoring

I went to a talk on mentoring on Thursday. It was very interesting and very useful. I'm not sure if I should become a mentor though. It seems fraught with risk and there are no supports structures in place. I must think about it some more.