Tuesday, February 10, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM 03 - Lab B

Only one student turned up to this lab. So far this module has only 8 students. It does not look like it will run on both Tuesday and Saturday with that many students.

We looked at lists in HTML and did some nested list exercises. Nested lists can be quite tricky.

SOFT6008 08

We very briefly looked at the basic anatomy of a web page.

Students started work on a large navigation bar with separate slices stiched together with a table. Sucessful completion of this exercise will require knowledge of tables and a some basic Photoshop skills.

Notes:
Audio: to follow

Monday, February 9, 2009

COM1-CMOD6001 Repeat

A repeat of the CIT module is being offered this semester. INterested students should contact emmett.coffey@cit.ie

Good Luck

Colin M

SOFT6008 06 & 07

I spent much of the class talking to the Head of Department about trying to sort things out. Student spend much of the time watching SOFT6007 (yes 7!) online classes.

Copy of e-mail sent to relevant lecturers.

----------------------

Hi Guys

I only realised this week that COM2 students were struggling with Interactive Web Development SOFT6008 because all but 2 of them did not ever do Web Development Fundamentals SOFT6007. We changed the semester in which this is delivered and did not head off the problem by requiring them to do it as an elective.

I discussed possible solutions with Jim. The most obvious solution, that they do SOFT6007 now and SOFT6008 later, doesn't work so well because SOFT6008 needs to be done in time for SOFT7008. We might only be postponing the problem until this time next year.

Jim has proposed that I run a slightly slimmed down SOFT6008 and cover the essentials of SOFT6007 at the same time. Students would still be given the credit for SOFT6008, although not all of the learning outcomes would be met. I think that would work. It would, of course, be a once off.

Any thoughts?

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 06 & 07

I gave out a long list for student to code. It was complex and few students got it correct on the first attempt. The nesting of lists is difficult to get right, especially when browsers are often so willing to correctly display incorrect code.

handout: exercise

SOFT6008 05

We looked at how to do a rollover. Most students succeeded in getting a rollover working during the class.

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 05

We looked at lists again and discussed nested lists. We did an exericse in class.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM Web Dev 02 - Lecture

Rather than have a lecture we carried on with the lab.

SOFT6007-EVCOM Web Dev 01 - Lab A

Introductions and contact details.

I showed students how to use iTunes to view the online classes.

Students made a web page with links and an image.

Handout: lesson01.ppt

Thursday, February 5, 2009

SOFT6007-DCOM 04

We started to look at lists. ordered and unordered

By the next class everyone should have watched all of the online classes up to and including Online Class04 (lists).

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

SOFT6007-EVCOM Web Dev 01 - Lab B

Introductions and contact details.

I showed students how to use iTunes to view the online classes.

Students made a web page with links and an image.

Handout: lesson01.ppt

SOFT6008 04

We found a lab to work in instead of B219.

Students showed me the exercises they'd completed. Some students have tried new and interesesting things with the code we'd learned. That's the kind of thing I like to see.

Well done.

Monday, February 2, 2009

SOFT6008 02 & 03

02
I was late for class. Sorry about that.

I showed students where to find the online classes using iTunes. This course will cover more than in in the podcast at the moment.

Students watched Online Class 01.

03
We looked at the code to generate a random image. It's tricker than it looks because the the need to quote quotes. I asked students to write down possible output of the script.

Bonus round: It turns out the images do not appear with equal probabilities. Can you see why?

Students ran the random image code.

Then they made a start on the time dependant image exercise.

SOFT6007-DCOM 02 & 03

02
We looked at how to subscribe to the podcast and download online classes using iTunes.

The feel URL is http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6007.xml

Students looked at Online Class 01

We discussed some of the main points in the online lesson.
Notes:www1g.ppt

Students made a webpage with some bold, italics, and a link to CIT.

03
Students looked at Online Class 02
Students made a second page and made links between both pages.

Students looked at Online Class 03
Students added images to their pages

That was a lot of work for the first day of class. But it's best to hit the ground running. If you need any the points we covered to be explained a bit better be sure to ask. We have plenty of time to get things right in this module.

Students are welcome to look at the next few online classes. It's best, though, but put the theory in to practice as you go.

I advised students that they were expected to continue with the blogs they started last semester. Students will be expected to make at least one entry per week.

SOFT6008 01

We started to take a look at JavaScript.

We made a page that used a different greeting depending on the time of day.

Notes
JS01.pps

The URL for the podcast lessons is
http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6008.xml

SOFT6007-DCOM Web Dev 01

Introductions.

We had a lightening fast introduction to HTML. The important point was that most tags occur in begin-end pairs and all tags must be closed.

Handouts
Syllabus
Examples


Students should read examples again before class at 1400

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Intellectual Property Book

Some students found our brief discussions on intellectual property interesting. These students might enjoy this free book by James Boyle

http://thepublicdomain.org/thepublicdomain1.pdf

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Good Luck with your exams

Remember to just take them one at a time. And when one is over - forget about it and move on.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Well, all's well that ends

I spent most of the day correcting. I'm pretty pissed off actually, more than other times. The modules I was teaching this semester were really easy to pass. The subjects were not difficult and not complex. All people had to do was a bit of work. But a lot of students did not do that.

I'm actually looking forward to next semester because the subjects I have are more meaty and there's no waffle in them. It'll be good to be teaching real stuff.

Friday, December 5, 2008

COM1-CMOD6001 40

This morning I mostly just waited for students to arrive with pieces of projects.

While I was waiting I talked about recognition for prior learning (RPL) and the Erasmus programme.

The CIT contact for RPL is Phil O'Leary. You can e-mail her at phil.oleary@cit.ie

For information on Erasmus contact Margaret Mudderig. You can make an appointment to see her by call to her office. If the first on the right as you enter the admin building.