Monday, October 8, 2012

SOFT6007 Class 13 DWEB






We looked at classes. I asked student to colour code their timetables

SOFT6008 Class 15 COM

Students continued coding. Some struggled. It's important to build up programs slowly and text as you go. Writing loads of code and then trying to figure out where the problems are takes much longer in the long run.

SOFT6008 Class 14 COM

I gave out a handout on Checksums and asked students to work though them to see how they work. I asked students to start coding some of the. The Euro banknote check digit is probably the easiest one to start with.

SOFT6008 Class 13 WEB COM





We looked at using the DOM to take input from a form, and then modify the contents of the page based on the input


Example: http://mcom.cit.ie/staff/computing/cmanning/soft6008-2012/code/phonenumbers.html




Thursday, October 4, 2012

Well made video


SOFT6008 Class 12 WEB COM







We looked at the use of check digits for user input validation.

There's a handout can has a few more from other countries and tips for coding. There's a typo in the handout. myS.indexOf ("o",5) evaluates to 15, not 10 as stated.


More Euro banknote trivia from Wikipedia


SOFT6007 Class 11 ITM





I rushed things a bit because we had fallen behind the other group what with one thing and another.

we looked at how CSS works and I asked students to style the timetable page they built in previous classes.


Examples: Page 7  and CSS

COMP6023 Copyright



Next week we will discuss Copyright in class

Students should sign-up for and take this (free) course
http://www.newsu.org/courses/online-media-law-basics-bloggers-and-other-publish
and report on their exams scores and any interesting ideas they encountered.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

SOFT6007 Class 10 ITM




We looked at colspan and rowspan and I asked students modify their timetables to account for double classes.



A number of students left after the first of today's two classes. This is fine. CIT is not a prison.  But if you miss a class it is your responsibility to figure out what went on, and to make up any ground that may have been lost. Mon-Fri 9-6 was what you signed up for.

SOFT6007 Class 09 ITM







I asked students to add me to a circle in Google+

We looked at tables. I asked students to make a html table of their college timetable.

SOFT6007 Class 12 WEB ITM




We looked at digital colour systems. HSB. RGB. Hex.






Many student were unfamiliar with the Hexadecimal system. This rather cool video, that I wish I had made, does a great job of explaining it.










These videos cover much of the same material as today's class and but one was made with actual coffee!



COMP6023 Class 11

I talked about blogs.

We discussed privacy and anonymity. These might be interesting topics for students to consider in their blog posts for Week 03.

slides: comp6023-blogs.pdf

After class as few students asked about plagiarism and TurnItIn. I don't propose to have any further conversations about what is or is not plagiarism. I believe that was covered sufficiently in other modules that students have already taken.

SOFT6008 Class 11 DWEB

Students continued with the phone code.

Some students got themselves intro trouble with their Boolean algebra

x !=3 || x!=5 || x!=6 is not the same as x !=3 && x!=5 && x!=6

What about  !(x==3 || x==5 || x==6)  ? Is that the same as !=3 && x!=5 && x!=6 ?

SOFT6008 Class 10 DWEB

I asked student to code the phone number testing program we looked at in class.

SOFT6008 Input Validation



Over the next few classes we will be looking a user input validation and check digits.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

COMP6023 Class 10

Students modified their blogs a bit and took a look at each other's blogs. Students got to work right away on modifying the blog settings.

A good day's work. Well done guys. We finished up at 1745.

This room can't double as a lecture room because there's no projector.

COMP6023 Class 09

I gave out the assessment schedule for the module and talked the students through it.

SOFT6007 Class 11 WEB

I asked students to style their timetable pages.

Most students got things working right away, but there are a few stragglers.

SOFT6007 Class 10 WEB





I explained about CSS and how to style a page using an external linked CSS file.

video: SOFT6007-10-WEB-20121002-1400.m4v

Monday, October 1, 2012

SOFT6008 Lab Groups

The COM2 lab group is pretty full.

If you are an Erasmus student or a repeat student it might be better if you attended the DWEB2 labs on Wed 0900-1100 IT1.2

SOFT6007 Class 09 DWEB

We looked at colspan and rowspan. I asked student to modify their timetable tables so that they account for double classes.

video: SOFT6007-09-WEB-20121001.m4v

SOFT6008 Class 11 COM

Students continued working on the mobile phone exercise. It took longer than I expected and a few students got into difficulty. When coding in javascript it's very important to code piece by piece and test as you go.

SOFT6008 Class 10 COM

I asked students to code the code example we looked at in class. Code should account for 089 numbers also

SOFT6008 Class 09 COM-WEB





We looked and prompt boxes for user input, the structure of loops in js, and using js for user input validation.

The trickiest thing we saw was the slice method.

video: SOFT6008-09-ALL-20121001.m4v

Friday, September 28, 2012

SOFT6008 Room change

Mondays at 0900 are now in D239.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

SOFT6008 Class 08 DWEB-COM

We looked at modifying the source property of an image using the DOM.

video: SOFT6008-08-ALL-20120927.m4v

SOFT6007 Class 07 ITM

I got distracted and completely forgot to go to class. When I eventually turned up at 1240, I was surprised to find most students still there, although not all were working on their HTML.

I'm sorry. We'll have plenty if time to make up, so there's no need to be concerned

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

SOFT6007 Class 06 ITM




We looked at lists again and saw how to do definition lists.

We reviewed the IMG tag and I talked about resizing images.

We looked at HTML Entities for non-English characters.

I asked students to code some non-English text and to complete the example nested list in HTML. Most students finished on time, but some didn't. Those students will need to get that  sorted.

video: SOFT6007-06-ITM-20120926-1600.m4v

SOFT6007 Class 05 ITM





I held class an hour earlier at the request of the students.

We did a recap and I tried to make sure that everyone has the basics sorted.

video: SOFT6007-05-ITM-20120926-1500.m4v

SOFT6007 Class 08 WEB-ITM





I talked about separating content from style and introduced the topic of style sheets (CSS)

video: SOFT6007-04-WEB-ITM-20120919-1100.m4v

SOFT6008 Class 06 WEB

Students continued work on their games of chance.

I'm well impressed with the skill level and attitude of the class. I anticipate we will get lots of good work done over the course of the semester.

IT problems

An electrical contractor accidentally cut the power to the comms room yesterday evening. Some services start back up right away, while others need a helping hand. Others are just towards the back of the queue. There server where my notes are is way downs the queue.

SOFT6008 Class 05 WEB

Some students used this class to catch up. I asked students to experiment with random images to develop some kind of game of chance. Many had a slot machine done already so I suggested they try something with cards.

We will move onto something new in the lecture.

audio:  SOFT6008-05-ALL-20120924-0900.m4a

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Servers down

My Ethernet and wifi connections are down. I can't access my remote drive from outside CIT so it'll probably be Thursday before I update the blog with the latest batch of notes. Sorry

COMP6023 Class 06

Students continued with the FTP exercise, but added css and image files. Don't forget that non-text files must be uploaded in binary mode or they can get messed up. (But usually they don't)

I asked students to dust off their old blogs or to start new ones if needed. Students should post an entry about what we did in class today and include a link to their site on praxis. Please e-mail the URL for the blog to colin.manning@cit.ie by noon on Friday to ensure that you get any marks that may be due to you.

That was a good day's work. Well done guys.


COMP6023 Class 05

Each student made a simple website and FTP'd it up to the praxis webserver. That server will be available for a few more weeks if you want to experiment. Just make sure to stay inside your own sub-directory.

If you missed the class get the username and password from someone who was there or ask me. But for security reasons I can't post them here.

SOFT6007 Class 06 DWEB





We reviewed the basics.

We looked at OLs and ULs again and saw DLs for the first time. I talked yet again about the structure of the list and how to nest things.

By the end of this class students should have
  • several pages linked to each other containing
  • links to other local pages and external pages
  • images
  • the big nested list exercise

Monday, September 24, 2012

SOFT6007 Class 05 WEB

I couldn't get the projector in IT2.2 working so I had to do a quick change of plan

I did a quick recap of last week and then I explained about HTML entities for non-English characters. I gave out a handout on entities, but that was just a sample of them. You can find a full list online.

From next week this class will be in IT2.1 instead of IT2.2

audio: SOFT6007-05-WEB-20120924.m4a

SOFT6008 Class 07 COM

Students continued working on the random image game code.

Many students took on big challenges, which is great. The trick is to code step by step and to not get discouraged if it doesn't work right away.

I was well impressed with the work students did today. Not to put pressure on the WEB2 group, but this class was smokin'
 

SOFT6008 Class 06 COM

I asked students who missed last week to make sure they caught up with what we did.

I asked students to experiment with the random image code we saw in class and to try new things with it. Building a slot machine seems like the obvious choice, but students are free to experiment.

The MCOM server was down so I put the sample code an images into students' dropbox folders.

SOFT6008 Class 05

We were in PF53 again so didn't do anything very technical.

I talked a bit about the module, the online resources, and my plans for the assessments.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

SOFT6007 Class 03 ITM





We looked at how to add images to webpages using the IMG tag

video: SOFT6007-03-ITM-20120920-1600.m4v

Thursday, September 20, 2012

SOFT6008 DWEB-COM Class 04





We extended the random image program to make various games of chance. I asked students to think about how they might extend the code further to make, say, a slot machine.

Links to code available on the notes and slides page --->

video: SOFT6008-04-ALL-20120920-1600.m4v

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

SOFT6007 Class 02 ITM

Students continued work on the pages we started in the earlier class.

We finished up a little bit early.

Good days work. Well done

SOFT6007 Class 01 ITM





We looked at a simple HTML to see the minimum requirements for a valid page. Then we made more complex pages with links to each other and links to other sites.

Everyone was already familiar with the IT systems so made rapid progress

video: SOFT6007-01-ITM-20120919-1600.m4v

SOFT6007 Class 4 DWEB-ITM

We looked at nested lists. Students did an exercise in class. I asked them to complete it and bring it to the next class

video: SOFT6007-04-WEB-ITM-20120919-1100.m4v

SOFT6008 Class 03 DWEB





We looked at how to generate random numbers in a chosen range and how to build up an image tag using document.write


I asked students to upload the work to dropbox once completed.

code:
javascript2-random-image.html

slides:
soft6008-01b.pdf

video: SOFT6008-03-WEB-20120919-1000.m4v

SOFT6008 Class 02 DWEB





I introduced JavaScript and we looked at an example program.

I asked students to type it so they could get used to the text editor and the debugging tools. Students should investigate the text editor and debugger options available for their home machines.

code:
Time Based Greeting javascript1-time-based-greeting.html

slides:
soft6008-01b.pdf

video: SOFT6008-02-WEB-20120919-0900.m4v

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

COMP6023 Class 03

We went home. We did well to get as much done as we did given the constraints.

COMP6023 Class 02

We uploaded a file to a web server using the web interface but couldn't get the FTP to work. [You can't FTP across CIT's wifi for security reasons]

I talked a bit about content management systems (CMSs)