Off to Egypt

I am going to be sailing up and down the Nile next week so I will not be in Bahrain and probably out of touch for a week or so. My wife gave me a cruise for my birthday so the whole family is off to Luxor and Aswan.

Don't worry about the optional assignment, I will post that when I get back. You weren't really going to do it until the last minute anyway.

I will be back in a week. Have a pleasant National Day.

Will the robot news never cease?

The geniuses at the Pentagon are going to build robot soldiers that supposedly won't commit warcrimes.

Check out the photo at the top of the article. Now Skynet doesn't even have to create itself, we will do that oursevles.

You might want to check out this video for some good tips on how to get by.

More Good News

Apparently the criteria for the May 2009 internal assessment has been changed as well. You can take a look at the new criteria and see what has been done. The documents are called New portfolio criteria and New project criteria. Read through it and I will go over it in class.

For those of you working on the HL Extension I have also posted two presentations from another teacher about what to do in the interview and report. They are called PFXInterview and PFXReport. They have the main points and we can go over this in class as well.

We have some editing to do.

For the 12IB ITGS HL Students

I just read this at the OCC:

In terms of the Porfolio Extension pieces, are you having students provide a brief 100 word description prior to Criterion N? Do you think it's necessary? Charles Newman

Answer
Absolutely! I take up all offers that will maximise my students' marks and this is a big opportunity!

I did this last November and it was most successful. It meant that they didn't waste words in Criterion N writing introductory information that didn't gain marks. It also set the scene for the moderator who, unlike me, was not familiar with my students' topics.

To summarise for other teachers it is suggested that students:

Begin the Extension with an introduction (not part of the word count)
-Use the heading introduction
-Write no more than 100 words (otherwise they count!)
-State briefly the issue, and the stakeholders, as identified in criterion C
-State the interviewee(s), and justify their qualifications as a stakeholder Elizabeth

This is the first I have heard of it, but it seems that you are allowed to write introductions that are not part of the word count.

UBC Update

The reps from UBC and Toronto will be at our school on Tuesday at 8am. If you have applied get your documents together and get ready to present yourself.

If you want to meet either of the reps individually you must arrange it with me in advance. This will not be a full presentation, it is for interested students only.

This week in ITGS

For the seniors, you will be writing the Robotics essay question in your first class on either Sunday or Monday. The second class we will be watching the video The Intelligence Revolution from the BBC. It will be a good wrap up for this chapter.

For HL seniors, you need to have your interview subjects and questions settled before we break so that you can write the first draft over the break.

For the juniors, we will be covering software piracy this week. Both classes will include discussion and analysis. We will also be watching both parts of Steal This Film, it will give the other side of the downloading debate.

When we get back from break I am going to start a section on your internal assessment, so you will need to be thinking about choosing either HL or SL.

Tuesday we have a visit from the University College of Bahrain at 9:30. This will be during the period 2 12IB class. I also received an email from the UBC and Toronto reps. They are going o come on Tuesday as well, but just to meet with the students who are applying. If you want to be on this list let me know so I can arrange it for you.

I will see you all tomorrow.

Robots from China

This guy has a lot of free time on his hands.

Linux Rules

If you needed more proof, here it is.

The best part of the article is where the writer says

'You see, there are no Microsoft programming tools to write supercomputer compatible applications. That will come years from now with Visual Studio 2010 and when Microsoft's F# is more than a research project language. In short, Windows HPC isn't ready for prime time.'

Microsoft doesn't even have tools for developers at this point. Meanwhile, over 90% of the pros are using Linux.

I couldn't have said it better myself

Once again, more evidence from the real world on the advantages of using my favorite Linux flavor. When a tech support guy tells you it's good you can probably believe him.

My favorite part was where he runs Ubuntu from the live CD because windows won't recognize the hardware correctly. Why not just install Ubuntu and be done with it. I have been using Linux exclusively for almost two years without a hitch, or a license fee.

Happy Birthday Pirate Bay!

My favorite Website the Pirate Bay is turning five years old today.

I have been using it for about the last two years and many of the videos we have watched in class have come from here. Read the history of how the site got started and how it has grown. It just goes to show what you can do with a little creativity and effort.

Some more college counseling help

I have found a few great articles today that I think you should check out.

The first is from a local news station in the US and talks about the admission tests that many of you will take. This article is especially useful for the table at the bottom where it gives some admission formulas that are used by different schools. You are always asking me how colleges make their decisions, well this gives you some insight.

The second is an article about what sophomores and juniors can do to prepare for college when they are still a couple of years out. I know that it is very brief, but it makes the point again that organization is everything.

The third one is an article about a site that does interest assessment and career guidance, it is called Rastopia. I know that many of you have chosen majors that you are pretty sure you want, but this can help give you clarity. It may also point out some things about yourself that you may have suspected or not known, and couldn't articulate.

Late edit.

One more I just had to add. This article gives you some good warnings about what you put online. Don't leave anything on Facebook or MySpace and assume that nobody will ever find it. A good technique is to go deep on Google. Enter your name and search ten pages. Then enter your name and Bahrain, again look at search results for ten pages. Lastly enter your name and the school's name (MKS) and search. If you find nothing bad then chances are neither will admission officers. If you do, start deleting now and hope that you don't get cached.

Check them out. If you have any of your own, put them in the comments.

For all my students

We have had a few interruptions this week, but we are going to have a strong finish before the break.

For the seniors, period 2 you will have a short answer question on robots at the beginning of next class and then we will continue with robotic surgery and other special applications of robots. Period 7 your question will come one class later after we cover the material.

Also for the HL seniors I want to have your interview contacts next week and I want the survey first drafts by the end of next week.

For the juniors, you will also have a short answer question at the beginning of class on Sunday. This will relate to what we have covered in the chapter so far. After that we will start operating systems, move on to interfaces and finish with piracy and other issues before we break.

My son Yousif on his first trip to Hong Kong Restaurant in Um Al Hassam.

OSC at MKS

We had our first ever visit form Oxford Study Courses on Wednesday at it went great. Rosanna and Aisha gave a lot of great information and good advice for all who attended.
I thought the time management presentation given by Rosanna was very helpful. As an IB student you have more to do than there are hours in the day. Learning to manage your time effectively is important and will help you avoid the last minute frenzy that so man students go through.









One thing that really stood out for me was the way that so many students connected with Aisha after the presentation was over. She talked to you for almost thirty minutes and everybody was completely engaged. After you left both Rosanna and Aisha told me that they absolutely loved you. That was Aisha's first comment to me. They were very impressed.


For those of you seriously considering taking one of their courses, either a summer course or an exam prep course, you should go to the website and sign up as soon as possible. There will be a few thousand students attending this year, so get a spot while you can.

More Robot news

Here we enter the final frontier. The Mail has an article about a robot which looks human and can imitate human expressions. I wonder, when robots do become intelligent, will they really want to look like us? Or will they want their own features?

Mount Allison University Returns

We had another good visit with Charlie Hunter from Mount Allison University. Aside form being a great speaker, he always gets all of the students engaged in what he is talking about. And what he is talking about is always important. It also helps that this year we have a couple of students that are seriously considering Mount Allison as their first or second choice.











I think what his presentation did best was make clear the advantages of attending a smaller school that is focused on the student. I try to make this point with you as well. Many of our students would benefit from this close personal attention when they attend university. Going to a larger school may seem like the best choice because of its ranking or name, but is that what you want from your university years?



What you should really look for is the 'best fit'. This is a term you see a lot in counseling and it means finding a place that is best for you, not best because of a subjective ranking which is totally remote from you. Maybe a large school in the heart of a large city is best for you, in that case you should choose the best one. If it isn't, don't make the mistake of going to one because other people think it is the best for you. We will have more visits throughout the year, with two more next week.

And finally, a picture of my son Yousif, the artistic genius.

First chess, now music

For the 12s.

Now there is a robot that can play music flawlessly!

I thought that music and creative pursuits were our strong point. I guess we will have to cede this territory also. Keep in mind that it plays, it doesn't compose. What would a robot composition sound like anyway?

There are AI guys working on programs that can compose music among other things. They are usually set up according to music rules that humans find pleasant. Would a truly intelligent machine want to follow our preferences when it comes to music? I think that they would want to create their own.

It reminds me of the Matrix, more specifically the making of DVD. The conceptual planners were all talking about hot they came up with the idea of the Machine City and the large machine at the end which negotiates with Neo. They went deep into the creative well to design a look that would be something machines would make for themselves, rather than something we would make machines design. Anyway, it was way metaphysical, you can check it out for yourself.

We will be back to AI and expert systems when I get back on Sunday.

Update

Well, I just met the doctor a few minutes ago here at Bahrain Specialist Hospital and she wants me to stay home until next week. So I guess I won't see you tomorrow.

I will put up a post for the work that we are going to be doing to get everyone started.

I'm not dead

I am just sick.

I have stayed away from school because the doctor ordered it and told me I was contagious. Apparently I caught some type of Bahraini virus making the rounds that seems to resemble Scarlett Fever. I'm not saying it is the fever, just seems to resemble it.

Anyway, I am feeling better today than yesterday and I should be back on Wednesday. I sent Mr. Dewey an email with all of your grades, and I increased them (yes, yours too). If there are any problems I will be hearing supplications upon my return.

C U soon.

This is why I am not voting

As a Libertarian and an American I cannot in good conscience support either of these candidates.

This article gives a better explanation than I could of the reasons why.

The university fair as it was

This was the third year that the American Colleges Overseas group visited our school, and the second time they held a fair. Once again, they were impressed with our students and were happy with the results of the visit. None of them offered medicine as a major, which was disappointing to some of you, but they all had varied programs.

As usual, I had a lot of good help to get ready.






Each of the schools gave a presentation beforehand. This gave some important information and at least got your hard drives working with possible questions. Very often, universities can seem similar on the surface. They all offer the same types of programs and majors, they all have nice campuses, they all have services for students, they all offer some type of financial aid. Reading about schools in viewbooks and their websites, doesn't let you distinguish them much. Meeting a rep in person allows you to ask questions that are specific to your own situation and needs.









One of the important things that I try to do as a counselor is establish relationships with reps from other schools. This is Radek Coufal from Richmond. Now I haven't seen Radek in about four years. The last time he came on his own, and gave a small presentation in the library, yes our library, it wasn't my idea to put him there. This year he is back with the group and he remembered me right away. If you want a good school in the heart of London then you should think about Richmond. They give away a lot of scholarship money too.



My friend Mr. Essam. He has always been a big supporter of the university events and can always be counted on to bring his classes to the events, which brings up another point. I can't do what I do without cooperation from the teachers. If they don't bring you to the events and let you out of class then we don't have events at our school do we? They realize that these meetings are valuable for you and I am sure they appreciate a little free time as well.



I have included some other pics of students who insisted that I put them on the site. I apologize for not including you in the first draft, but here you are after all.

It is important to have fun at these things also. Thinking about college can be stressful, so if you can make it enjoyable then good for you.


Once again the teachers are taking an active role.

Thanks again to Karen Ballard for organizing the visit for a third year in a row, and thanks to all of the reps who came and gave their time to meet with you.

Upcoming Assignments

I know it has been awhile, but for Grade 11 we are going to continue chapter 3 where we left off. You should read through the next section. I will post your online assignment next week since the fair disrupted our classes yesterday.

I am going to ask about Math HL which might be possible. History is a long shot in the dark since there is no teacher available for it. I will also be asking about Bio HL extra sessions to get the lab work done.

For Grade 12 we will be beginning chapter 15. You should do the review questions 1-14 all. This will be a very helpful 14 marks to bring up your test grade. About your test grades, the easy times of grade 11 are over. The work and its assessment are going to be stricter this year. Not tougher, stricter. That means no allowances for sloppy writing. We will be going over the standards in class again, as we did last year, and this time you will need to internalize it.

Other than that I hope both groups have a good weekend.

This is what Homayoon was talking about

Do you remember Mr. Kazerooni from the Crosscurrents article in chapter 2? Well, he remembers you.

When we were in class talking about adding hardware to our bodies to improve our ability or to overcome handicaps, many of you had the the question of how this could be done. How is it possible to make hardware respond to our thoughts or impulses.



There is an article at io9 which gives a summary and links to the original story. You should check them all out. Every year the advances get more advanced and each advance allows for further development at an even faster pace.

Another Successful Event!

For a while I didn't think we would make it, but we did. Thanks especially to the Grade 11IB students that helped out.















The fair was a big success and most of the students who came got some good information and advice. The UK colleges that attended also had good things to say about us and the comments I got from them were positive.












One thing which rang out, too true to be ignored, was the university reps surprise that our students don't take math and science at the higher level. I usually advise this although not everyone listens. If you plan on attending a competitive college you need to take the harder courses at higher level. If you are not planning on attending a competitive college, why are you taking the IB diploma?





















More happy students.



Teachers working hard.



This is better than ITGS.



Thanks to all of those who helped make this event a success. Our next one is coming soon.

The Future of Music

This is mostly for the seniors but I know that the juniors are big on music as well.

TorrentFreak has a very good article about musicians and their new approaches to distributing music. In class we talked about p2p and its impacts. This article gives a better analysis.

There were many good points made. One that stands out is when the member of The Pragmatic says that he probably wouldn't be a musician today if it hadn't been for Napster (the old free Napster). I think that this more than anything exemplifies the open, democratizing and uplifting nature of the Web. Information only has value when it is shared and sharing is the basis of all culture.

As music companies continue to employ more and more punitive measures to protect their profit from album sales (a revenue dead end) the fans will vote with their feet, or their browsers. People want their music their way. The Web delivers this to them. Bands that are good and support their fans will be supported in return, the others will retool or fade away. Instead of marketing people deciding what music we should listen to, because they think they can make money on a musician, the consumers of that music will make that decision.

Which is as it should be.

Don't be a slave

I often wonder why people get so excited about the latest gadget. I know it is nice to look cool and trendy for the few days or weeks that you have something nobody else does, but what are you really getting?

I made the point about this with grade 11 when we were discussing the reasons that we change our hardware so often. Why is it that we get rid of perfectly good gadgets to buy a new one? Because some marketing people want us to? @*#!# them. I will keep what I've got and change when I feel like it. I guess that is one of the many reasons I love Open Source so much. The software is free and it always will be. Here is another reason.

Anyway, if you are one of those worship Steve jobs, sleep in the cold all night to buy one, don't know there are non-DRM music services fruit worshiping early adopters, this is for you.

Viva Ubuntu!

Wikipedia, one of my favorite websites, has made the switch to Ubuntu. You can read some very good articles here and here that explain the reasons why.

There is also an excellent article at O'Reilly which talks about the benefits of open source during tough economic times like those we are experiencing (and it will get worse). It mentions cloud computing as well.

It looks like I picked a winner a couple of years ago when I installed Fiesty Fawn. It seems like a lifetime.

It's not that I don't care about you

It's just that there always seems to be something else to do. I haven't been blogging much and for that I apologize. I will try to do better in the future.

I want to say to the juniors, good job on your online assignment. You guys really got into it over the weekend and put up some good responses. I am glad to see that you are taking the work seriously and getting it done early. This is a collaborative assignment. The sooner everyone posts individually, the better it is for the group.

I feel like I have been running around crazily since the beginning of the year and it has to stop. SO I have decided to re-prioritize the work. I will do in class what I want to and out of class I will work on the things that I think are most urgent. I cannot be a slave to teaching, there is too much to do. Classtime will be used for university and other IB work and the teaching will have to take care of itself. I think this will also break up some of the routine that we so easily fall into.

The CAS handbook is a good example of this. Our non-existent coordinator was supposed to be involved in this. Instead of me writing it I am going to post it to Google docs and let all of you have a hand in writing it. Why should I have all the control over the content? Open source and mass collaboration work and this will be a test case. I hope you will join me.

Watch this space for further updates.

Back to school, back to work

Our break is over and it is time to get back to work. Real work since your teacher will not be so tired from here on out.

In case you haven't noticed, we have been moved to a new smaller classroom. The new location is Room 48, at the end of the hall next to the canteen. At some undisclosed date in the future the room will be equipped with the remaining computers. I don't know when because it is a secret and they won't tell me.

My office is also supposed to be downsized as well. This will probably be done sometime soon, since they seem to want to move me out very quickly. I don't know why this is, but it is all going along very fast.

Grade 11, your homework for chapter 3 is due on Tuesday. We will be covering the Green Computing and Crosscurrents sections in class. Be sure to familiarize yourself with these sections as you will have online assignments based upon them. I will also be giving you some university and CAS information. So don't miss it.

Grade 12, you guys are probably too cool for any instructions. So let me say this: file sharing next class, test next week.

There are several events this month and next. Keep watching this space.

We Have A Group

As I continue my descent to the dark side, I am setting up a group at Google Groups.

The new group is entitled MKSBahrain. I will be adding members as they come along. This site will be used to retire wikispaces which, as you know, I tried to retire last year. Due to popular request I created another space, but it has not seen much use.

This year, especially for those of you in grade 11, I will be making use of online materials and assignments. The group will be a big part of that.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Back in Business

Well, almost.

This is the new PC for our work. You can thank Mr. Bawanah for getting it up here. Of course it has evil windows xp installed on it. And, of course, it won't install the printer either so I have to get that done. But aside from that it is working. Hopefully by tomorrow everything will be running.

For those returning students and teachers, you know what you can do. For the noobz, you can use my office for (reasonably sized) print jobs and internet access. It also looks like I will be staying in Room 103 for the time being, so let's all work on making it a comfortable place to be.

I'm Starting a Contest

Didn't they do a great job of hanging it up. Why you can barely tell that there was anything there before it.


Can you figure out what the extra 'C' is for?

Use your imagination and come up with a creative answer. Post your submissions in the comments section for this blog entry. The person with the best response will receive kudos from Mr. Bailey and public applause from his/her classmates.

*As a side contest see if you can find any other new signs that are misspelled or misleading. So far I have noticed one other, but there may be more!

What's all the fuss about?

There seems to be a great deal of confusion about the first online assignment. So let me break it down into parts.

Joining the site. If you have ever signed up for an email account, you can do this. All you need to do is supply a name and an email address and you are done. Once you have been confirmed as a member then you will be able to add and make changes to the site. I know that you have to wait to be confirmed, but you have had a week to do this. Waiting until the last minute to get the work done never allows you the time required for sorting out any problems which arise.

Writing the assignment. If I had asked you to write the answers on paper you would have done it without any complaint. Two questions, both of which require answers that you make up yourself, is not a tough assignment. Not for IB anyway. Having to put this text online does not make the assignment itself any more difficult. Your answers will be the same regardless of how they are submitted. Perhaps the idea of commenting on your classmates made you nervous. This should be less difficult than the original writing, all you need to do is agree or disagree. You do this automatically when discussing your assignments outside of class. Critical analysis of written pieces is an essential skill for IB and this course.

Posting the assignment. As I demonstrated in class, your answers need to be posted as a reply to the original thread. If you post it in a separate thread you will not receive marks for the assignment. It is like turning in your homework to the wrong teacher. Scroll down to the bottom of the page write your answer and click 'Post'. Any problems experienced are on your end. I have been using this site for assignments like this for two years now without difficulty.

Why are you given an assignment like this in the first place?

Why submit it online and include responses?

At this point in your life you should possess the problem solving skills to work out the details of a new situation. Ignoring the problem doesn't work. Making excuses doesn't work either. Waiting until the last minute and hoping that someone does it for you will not make you successful in this class, in IB or in life.

This is the easy part of our course, the introduction. The real work begins this week and continues until May 2010. I hope you will be there for it.

Grade 11 has a lot to do

We have finished Ch 1 in pretty good time and next week we will begin Ch 2. Both Ch 2 and Ch 3 deal with hardware and relate to section 2.1.1 Systems Fundamentals in your syllabus. You can begin the review questions 2 - 10 for Ch 2 this weekend and they will be due on the 21st of September. We will cover both chapters together and take a combined exam over both of them.

You also have the online assignment that I discussed in class today. Remember to start this as soon as possible so that others can comment on your work. Remember to include reasons for your positions with supporting evidence. It is not enough just to have an opinion, you have to be able to defend that opinion. You have a week to get it all done, your answers and your responses, it will be due next Wednesday the 17th. I will be looking in to see how it is going.

Big Brother is watching you

I don't know if you will read 1984 for English A1, if you don't it is your loss.

In the first part of class we talked about MySpace, Facebook, Google et al and how they collect your data and what they do with it. Well there is a very good article at ABC News that covers just that thing. It even implies that the new Chrome browser might just be a tool for data collection.

Remember that in the digital world your data is immortal, and ownership of it is power, real power. These online companies are not giving their services away for free because they like you, they are doing it to get something of value from you, with or without your consent.

Read the article and think about all of the things you have searched for in the past, do you really want people at Google knowing about all of them and sharing this with others?

For all of you Facebook users

In today's class we read the New Atlantis article The Myth of Multitasking and looked at the negative impacts that can result from overloading ourselves with too much information. Beyond short term impacts like lost productivity and increased stress there were long term health effects including an involuntary rewiring of our brains.

Well, the New York times has followed up with another related article about the Facebook newsfeed feature and how it was initially unpopular but then became one of the most popular parts of the site. It all has to do with something called 'ambient awareness' which is similar to the 'acquired inattention' that our article in class mentioned. It is a way of getting constant updates about the people around you, digitally or otherwise. In other words it creates a constant flow of information. It also draws a very clear distinction between younger people like yourselves and those of my gnenration.

It brings us back to the point about our brains being wired differently because of what we are exposed to. Have you been made into a biologically and psychologically different kind of human because of too much input? I don't know but from my own experience it would seem so. More and more there are outside studies which confirm it.

Happy Birthday GNU!

The GNU opersting system is 25 years old today. For those of you who don't know, GNU is the kernel that forms the basis of Linux. If it wasn't for the efforts of Richard Stallman and a few others 25 years ago, we may not have Linux today.

You can watch the video at GNU.org which tells the story. You might also check out a video called Revolution OS. It gives an in depth look at the open source story from its origins to today.

Hello to the Juniors

Well, it was a good first class even with all of the moving around. Make sure that you get your schedules sorted by the end of this week.

You should go and buy the textbook as soon as possible as we will begin using it next week. In the meantime read this article at the New Atlantis. It is only a few pages so it shouldn't take too long. When you are reading it try and make notes for yourself highlighting what is important in the article as well as its main themes.

We will be going through this next class. C U then.

Welcome Back Seniors

Well, all of the schedule confusion aside it was nice to see everyone again. Remember that you have to go to all of your classes at least once over the two days. Those of you who did not attend ITGS today will need to be there on Tuesday as we will be getting to work. Hopefully it will all get sorted out this week.

In the meantime, we are starting with Chapter 9. In preparation for this you should go ahead and get started on the review questions 2 - 12. These will be due on Monday the 8th. Many things in this chapter will seem familiar to you because of your general experience with the Internet. Some of the technologies will also be repeated from Ch 8. The Internet is a big topic that always appears on the exams. We will go through the technical aspects, but we will be spending more time on the issues and analysis.

In addition to the homework questions I also want you to check out this article at either Digg or the New York Times. Digg could be helpful for the comments. You can print a copy for class if you like because we will be going through it first to set up many of the topics that come in the chapter. Give it the usual analysis identifying tools and technologies as well as issues and their impacts.

If you missed class come and see me if you have any questions.

The grades are in

I have to admit, after marking 190 paper 1 scripts I wasn't in the mood to mark anymore tests. However, everything is done. You will be getting your report cards next week.

I will be here all next week until the 26th. I don't really have anything to do. SO right now my plans include rearranging my office according to Feng Shui principles and playing a lot of tetris.

You can contact me by email over the summer if you need anything. I will be posting occasional photos from my vacation.

Have a good break.

Remember Chapter 5

Do you remember our discussions about paper vs. electronic reading and media? It all tied into web publishing and electronic vs paper files and documents. Well, there is an excellent article at Slate that discusses this and makes clear some of the defining characteristics of today's publishing.

The way we find, collect and use information is changing. For myself and people my age I can see the difference. It is probably harder for you to realize since most of you have not experienced anything different. There has also been significant research about how our brains are actually being wired differently because of all the exposure to electronic media.

A good topic for an EE.

BTW you should watch the 11th Hour, Leo's film about the environment. Excellent piece of work and it has a lot for your courses.

Support Open Source

You can be part of history.

Mozilla has an excellent viral marketing campaign going with the download day. I have been reading about this for a while now and it seems to be taking off. Promotions like this are the new method of advertising in the Internet Age. If they used traditional ads how many people would really care? But get people involved, make it seem like they will be part of a movement and they will step on their grandmothers to get to the front of the line.

This psychology is part of the reason that social networking sites are so popular. You see a large crowd and assume that there must be something of value there. You set up your page and declare 'I am somebody too!'. No longer an individual you take your place as part of the undifferentiated masses.

So go ahead and be one of the masses for a good cause. Open source promotes an open society free from corporate control. It is also a chance to promote Bahrain. Currently we have only 356 pledges as of this posting. Can't we get it over 400 or even 500?

Everyone who signs the pledge and actually downloads will get another two points extra credit. If you do it post a comment to this post and I will look for your name on the site.

Go ahead and join the movement and get lost in the massive crowd. Be somebody by being nobody.

Linux Wins Again!!!

Aside from all of its other many benefits, Linux is also better for the environment. NetworkWorld produces the results of their test and shows the differences. This is also a good issue for those of you in Ecosystems.

IM Rules

This article was very interesting, especially the parts that discuss how people adapted a technology they already knew to make themselves more efficient. I have often wondered if our school's zero tolerance policy for communication devices is misguided.

It just seems to me that a technology used by several hundred million people every day must have some applications to communication within school. If it can make workers more productive by allowing them to have fewer interruptions, could it be used for arranging school events or locating people?

Let me know what you think. Tell me how you could use IM to improve your work and/or efficiency here at school.

For your edification

You can check out this book. It is available as a free download.

We will be covering the Internet when we return from the summer and I am assigning this to you as required summer reading.

Live from Dolphin Park

There are so many people using the net here that I can barely get anything from BitTorrent.

I was thinking about you guys and I decided now would be a good time to talk about the final exam. The exam itself is all IB questions with no editing. There will be four short answer questions and one essay. This should take about 80 to 90 minutes if you are writing at a good pace and not putting too much on paper. You will have the full two hours of course.

I noticed that they are grading the short answer questions a bit differently this year and I will be putting up a grade descriptor for it tomorrow when I get to the office. You should refer to this as well as the other one that I put for the discussion section of the essay when planning your answers.

Anything that we covered this year, and chapters 1 through 8 in your textbooks can appear. It is a good test and I think you will do fine.

As you may have seen I have been finishing my examiner work this week. I can honestly say that the marks are all over the place. Some high scores and some low ones. The highest yet is a 39 out of 40. I have not seen anything different from the tests I grade in class. SO you guys are right on target.

I guess that's about it for now. Tomorrow is furniture moving day so there will be CAS opportunities for anyone who comes to school.

Remember this from the test?

We had a question about detecting fake images. The picture of the guy holding that giant cat.

Well, here is a good article about how it is done. You can use this for its principles and the examples given can provide the social context for your examples and explanations.

First Time in History

I usually don't do this but...

If you want to get some extra points you can complete the assignment I gave in class today. It is due on Thursday the 5th of June.

Extra Credit - 10 marks

• Choose any two points from the Social and ethical issues sections of two different technologies that we have covered this year.
• Explain how these issues are related even though the technologies involved are different.
• Discuss the impacts of these issues within a specific social context.
• Evaluate your answers.

Print your answers, do not submit them in the comments section.
No late submissions will be accepted.

Yet one more

This is Connexions. It is a site that is maintained by students and teachers. I think that I will stop making posts about this and create a link list for resources on the wiki.

Keep your eyes open.

Another great set of links

Yet another page with free educational vids and lectures to download. I especially liked the General Chemistry page from UC Berkeley. Free videos that teach chem? It can't be.

What kind of geek are you?

Take a look at all of the possibilities that await you in the land of geekdom.

What should I do over the summer?

How about completing some online courses?

This is from Open Culture (my new favorite site) and has dozens of courses that apply to your IB Diploma or can be used for personal enrichment.

I have added some of these podcasts to my browser and I vow, with all of you as witnesses, that I will listen to at least one broadcast a day. That is one recording from any source. As long as it is teaching me something new, it qualifies. Who will make this commitment with me?

Go out and gain the knowledge, don't sit and complain that the knowledge won't come to you.

Is this really true?

Read this and look at the countries involved.

What has happened to equality of access? Where are the have nots?

If half of us really do have phones, what does this say about the need for access?

'No phones in school' is a common refrain, but is it applicable any longer?

Meeting for Grade 10

Welcome to those of you in Grade 10 who have signed up for the IB Diploma Program.

There will be a meeting for all future IB students on Sunday the 25th of May. The meeting is second period in Room 46. Your attendance is mandatory if you plan on entering IB next year.

See you there.

Where is the love?

There doesn't seem to be much going on at the wiki. Wikipedia defines a wiki as

a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

I think this means that you are supposed to be involved somehow. So far there is not one discussion, not a single students generated page or resource and no student input. The wiki is a good place for HL students to share research on the case study over the summer. It would also be a good place to create a link list of pages that can help IB students.

Why did I restart the site? Why don't you make use of it? The wiki is not only for ITGS, it can be used for all of your subjects. So get to it.

Nothing but Good News Today

Some days you get a reminder that things might not be so bad.

First the BBC tells you to make the switch and breakaway from the darkside.

Then you are given all of the justifications you need to make the right choice.

Lastly, you are given a view of the divine land that waits for you in all of its beauty.

Even the Pirate Bay has something to be proud of.

It's a beautiful morning.

For the IB Exam

Well seniors, your exams are close.

At this point you should be well into your review. I suggest going through the guide and looking up every item listed in the Knowledge of Technology sections. Use Howstuffworks.com or Wikipedia and read through every topic. Most of those articles list benefits and problems so use that for the issues and areas of impact.

Outside of that there is not much else to do. For the HLs continue to review your research about La Vianda Supermarket and look up any associated technologies on the Web. You might want to read a little bit about Peru, just in case they really focus in on the social context stuff.

What does it mean to do IB?

For those of you who have come in to complain about this science or that science here is another site you can use. It is called Free Science Videos and Lectures. They have a good selection and you should take a look.

This site got me thinking about something that has been bubbling in my head for a few days. The effort and work of my IB students. Now I am not going to go on a rant and say that you are lazy, you aren't. But I don't know, or I should say I haven't seen one of you that makes good use of your time for studying and preparation. As you are coming to understand, it is all about time. There is only so much time in a day, in a week in a year. Then the exams arrive.

It is also about your expectations. What do you think you should be accomplishing in class? Does this correspond to the expectations of your teachers? or your coordinator? How much work can you get done in class?

The truth is that we do not have enough time to teach you everything for your IB subjects.

Let me say that again. Even with almost two years we do not have enough time to go over everything that you might be tested on. We couldn't begin to cover all aspects of each topic that is listed for your courses. We wouldn't even get to the halfway point.

If we are lucky we can cover the main points of the topics that are listed in the syllabus. Everything else is up to you. That's right it is up to you, not your teachers.

'That's not right' you say. 'Our teachers are supposed to tell us what to memorize so we can get sevens on the exam'. Wrong. That is your wish but it is not reality. The truth is that your teachers can cover only the basics, you must go out and get the rest. It is called studying and it is what IB students do. The usual term is 'extra work' and it is completely up to the student.

You should be spending several hours a day on these activities: watching lectures, listening to podcasts, participating in online discussions and anything else. If you think studying means rereading the same pages of your textbook that you went over in class you are wrong. That is memorization and it is not knowledge.

If you are not making regular use of resources like the one above than what are you doing? And what makes you think that you have anything to complain about?

If you wait for other people to tell you what to do or what to learn, you will accomplish neither.

A good tool for IB students

All of you have several large research assignments coming up next year. World lit papers, projects, portfolios, extended essays and anything else a you might get (say from an IT teacher who knows you are done with your IA). Keeping track of and properly citing your sources is always difficult. Many students don't seem to even understand the concept. Well Zotero is here for you.

You can check out this browser attachment (for Firefox) that allows you to automatically save sources you collect from the web. These can then be pasted into your papers wherever they appear. No more keeping track of everything manually or trying to go back at the end and find everything you used (what was that Website again?).

Give it a test run with your next assignment.

Testing a new program

I am using the Scribefire add-on for Firefox. It lets you blog on the go as you surf the Web. I thought I would try it out to let you know about a site I found called openculture that offers free language podcasts among other things.

Podcasting was the topic of last year's Case Study for you HLs. Take a look, maybe learn Chinese.

Returning to chapter 8

Networking is all about communication.

In order to communicate using IT you have to understand how things work. You should read this article on email, and this one on instant messaging for the next class. We are also going to look at social networking briefly since it will be covered in more detail next chapter. You should also look up any technologies we discuss in class or that are in your book. If you don't find them at howstuffworks.com then go to Wikipedia.

Next class we are going to pick up where we left off.

Back to the Wiki

Since so many of you have asked for the Wikispaces site, here it is.

But, this time it will be up to you to maintain it, just like a true wiki. You will also be sharing it with the new IB students who are in grade 10 right now and will be juniors next year.

I will host the files that you need most and keep the admin privileges for myself. Everything else is up to you.

You will still need to check this blog for updates, the wiki is going to be a file dump and forum.

See you there.

This is why I love Linux too

I found this picture on another blog and it makes the case perfectly. You should read through some of the comments or start your own here.

Testing the new program

I downloaded (for free) a program which lets me update my blog without using a Web browser or login into Blogger. So far so good.

Chapter 8, Project 3

Why does Mr. Bailey give us these assignments? Just to bother us? I can't work on this now it isn't due until next week.

I can hear it now. The sound of nothing getting done. If you want to do well and understand networking you will give your latest assignment some thought. If you just copy something you find on the www then you probably won't gain any knowledge.

In order to come up with a network proposal you have to take into account what is needed by all concerned. This includes hardware, software, data, people and procedures. The same things we began talking about all the way back in Chapter 1. There are four of you sharing the network and the Internet connection, how will you avoid bottlenecks and downtime? Is it really possible for four students to all be downloading movies at the same time and still have enough bandwidth left over for surfing football sites? How are you going to keep those viruses out? If you go with wireless how can you stop people from squatting on your connection?

This assignment involves a little more than listing some devices. If you want to get full marks that is. It might be helpful for you to consider something from one of your exam markschemes about how writing is evaluated:

Level 0 0 marks
Inappropriate answer.

Level 1 1-2 marks
A brief and general answer.
Very limited knowledge of IT theory.
Very little or no reference to social implications.
Significant omissions of important information.

Level 2 3-5 marks
A limited, descriptive answer.
Some knowledge of basic IT theory.
Some reference to social issues.
Some relevant terms explained.
Some understanding of the ways facts or ideas may be related at the top of the band.

Level 3 6-7 marks
An understanding of the specific demands of the question.

A coherent and logically structured answer.
A sound knowledge of IT theory.
Appropriate reference to social issues.
An attempt to show underlying assumptions and important relationships at the top of the band.

Level 4 8-10 marks
Clear understanding of the specific demands of the question.
A detailed, coherent and logically structured answer.
Good knowledge of IT theory.
Appropriate reference to social issues.
Where appropriate, examples have been used.
Evidence of appropriate evaluation, although it may be unbalanced at the lower end of the band.
An appraisal is made at the top end of the band.
No major errors.

Your assignment is worth ten marks isn't it? So I guess if you want the full mark you have to do those things that are listed for Level 4. Think about what this might mean and I will give you some more advice in a couple of days.

Minutes spent on planning can avoid hours spent on fixing.

Flying High

The Hardy Heron has landed on my laptop. It is running great and it is always nice to get a new upgrade for free. This version will receive updates until June of 2011! Can Windows XP or Vista users say that? No, I don't think so.

Are you still paying for software?

I am following my own advice

I am moving away from the hacker user name I have always used and switching to something more professional.

This will be the new location. I will also be phasing out my old accounts for email and domains. So the new email is

mr.david.j.bailey@gmail.com

and the new address for our school stuff is

davidjbailey.blogspot.com

See you here.