Wednesday, February 24, 2010

SOFT6007 EV Week 04

We looked at digital color systems and how color is specified in HTML.

Students worked on exercises: Image maps mostly.

I neglected to mention that for image maps to be fully compliant with the standard they must include the alt attribute in the img tag (as usual) and alt attributes in each of the areas.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Erasmus Opportunities

The Erasmus program allows students to study abroad and have it count as time at CIT. Students study in another EU country for one or two semesters. Funding is provided to help cover the cost. Many college offer courses in English.

Computing students can find more from Cliona McGuane. She has some useful Erasmus information online.

SOFT6007 Class 13

We looked at image maps.

I gave out an exercise for students to do between now and the next class.

There will be no more online classes available until CIT pays the $70 I need for the software to capture the lectures.

SOFT6008 Class 16

Students continued working on the various exercise.

I met with each student to evaluate their progress do date. I am a bit concerned that students are not completing the exercises. Some students have no finished exercise to show for their four week's work. This is worrying. Other students are doing well.

Monday, February 22, 2010

SOFT6008 Class 15 - Helsinki talk

Outi Grotenfelt gave a talk on Erasmus study opportunities in Finland in B217. Some students preferred to stay in the lab and work on the exercises.

SOFT6008 Class 14

Students worked anyway on the various exercises. The mobile phone cost calculator is causing a lot of confusion.

We were joined for this class by Outi Grotenfelt of Metropolia, Helsinki.

SOFT6008 Class 13

Students are still working on the mobile phone bill exercise, so I changed mt plan for the day.

I showed students code to visualize money values, but I recommend that they write iterative code.

I showed students the rolling assignment 1 specification.

Friday, February 19, 2010

SOFT6007 Class 12

I couldn't get the projector working in C170. I should have checked in advance, but I was feeling rotten today and so I stayed in bed as long as I could,

I couldn't really talk either because I have a sore throat.

I gave a preview from my laptop of what we would be doing next and gave out an exercise sheet that it meaningless at the moment.

I will have to ome up with some sort of plan for C170. If I can't improve the room or move the class, perhaps we will make it a tutorial.


We finished up before half-past.  Apologies to those students who hawled their asses out of bed to get to class.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

SOFT6007 Class 11 A

Many students left before this class started.

Those that stayed continued working, on tables mostly.

SOFT6007 Class 10 A

Few students seemed to be interested in working. Must be the excitement of Rag Week.

I asked them to make sure they were up to speed with tables.

SOFT6007 Class 11 B

Students worked on HTML exercises. Mostly on tables.

SOFT6007 Class 10 B

Studenst worked away on their HTML exercises. This class was change for people to catch up.

Students who were on top of things worked on the table exercise from last class.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

SOFT6007 EV Week 03

I gave out a table exercise for students to do, to be told that they had already done it. However, when I went around few students had it actually finished. For the first hour or so of class students worked on this and other exercises. Students are at very different levels, with some only starting for the first time tonight. I wanted to give people a chance to catch up, but also keep other student busy.



Since most students had completed the table exercise within the first hou I asked them to take a look at imagemaps. This was bad planning on my part, however, since they could have done that at home in advance. I gave them an exercise.

Image used for the exercise
usacities.jpg


We looked at how image maps could be coded more simply with a bit of thought. The usacities image can be done with just one polygon. We looked at an actual map (iberia.jpg) and talked about ow that could be coded.


For next week students should take a look at online Classes 08, 09, 10, & 11.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

SOFT6007 Class 09

I gave students a table exercise to do. I wanted to see if students are keeping on top of things. Most students are doing fine.

I think I have been going a bit fast. we have plenty of time. So I might chill for a bit this week and let students catch up in the labs.

SOFT6008 Class 12

I asked students to continue working on the bar chart exercise, but to make it work for any set of values. This means that the maximum value will most likely be 600 pixels and the other values will be scaled accordingly. This will invlove some maths.

I asked students when that was done to write a mobile phone call cost calulator beased on the number of minutes and texts a peron uses per month. The calculator should visialize the different phone company plans in a bar chart. Students might want to make use of the company colors or logos.

Some hazzards to be avoided:

Math.max is a useful function.

When is 1200 < 300? When they are strings! To force a string to be an integer use the parseInt function.

The fun never stops!

Monday, February 15, 2010

SOFT6008 Class 11

Students continued working on today's and previous day's exercises. Some students are a bit behind.

SOFT6008 Class 10

We looked at alerts and prompts. We saw how to prompt the user for data and use the input in the webpage.
Prompt example

We looked at how JavaScript might be used to visualize numeric data using variable cell sizes in tables. I gave a handout of the scores example. This only works as long as the scores are less that the width of the table. I asked students to modify the code so that the scores are assigned space in the correct ratios irrespective of the actual values.
Scores example

Video of the class

Some day soon I will write up a specification for the first assignment. However I already know it will be a compilation of the various exercises we are doing in class.

SOFT6007 by RPL

Hi

I will be holding a short exam on Wed 17 Feb for any students that are interested in doing SOFT6007 by RPL. We will start in IT2.3 at 1800.

It will be a written closed-book exam.

SOFT6008 Class 09

Discussed nothing new. Students carried on with their rollovers.

I explained that it was important for students to help each other out, but that it was not appropriate for code to change hands.

Friday, February 12, 2010

SOFT6007 Class 08

Colin out sick today