Important notes

Okay, we are half way through week 3. Let me mention some important things.

You should be checking and reading two blogs for the ICT course. One is the B.Ed Home Page blog. The other is the section blog which has information for your section and where I will post work that we do together in class. Both of those pages should be on your personal Delicious page as links.

You should also be checking your email every day. You can follow and subscribe to the blogs so that new posts are sent to you directly.

Here is a checklist to show you where you should be up to.
On your delicious page you should have at least four links now.
1. Link to the class delicious page http://delicious.com/ecaeict
2. link to your course home blog page http://www.ecaeicthome.blogspot.com/
3. link to your section blog page
*section 7 = http://y1sem2-09sec7.blogspot.com/
4. link to your own blogpage ecae07xxx.blogspot.com
another useful link to have is the one to the blogger dashboard https://www.blogger.com/start?hl=en which makes it easy to get straight into editing your blog.

On your blog you should now have at least 3 posts!
1. A post about plagiarism which you have typed in.
2. A post about late assignments which you have copy and pasted, together with a link to the source where you got it. (http://www.ecaeicthome.blogspot.com/)
3. A post with your mindmap about using photos in a classroom.
Some of you might have also managed to do the welcome message.

You should know your google account and password (Your google account sign on is your email address 2007xxx@ecae.ac.ae, your password is 8 characters long – if you have trouble remembering it the put it in the memory of your cellphone!)
You should know your delicious account and password (Your delicious account sign in is ecae07xxx and your password should be 8 characters long and include at least one letter and one number. It should be the same as your google account one – that is what you were told to do to make it easier! If it is different then you have to remember two passwords.) Computers don’t forget passwords, only people do… If you have lost/forgotten your password you will need to click on the forgot password link and get it sent to your email address. You must have access to your blog or you will fail this course! Your assessment is based on the blog.

Other important things we have done. We have removed ecae* from the LAN settings on Internet Explorer. (Tools tab; Internet Options; Connections; LAN Settings; Advanced; then clear the entry in the proxy exceptions box) You should do this on the desktop that your use in the lab and on your laptop.

We have installed Inspiration on your laptop. If you don’t have it on your laptop yet you should go to the delicious page and get it. ftp://129.0.4.142/Programmes/Inspiration/ the link only works while you are at college and signed in to the network. Right click on the install.exe and save it to your desktop. When it is on your desktop, right click on it and select Run As… then select Administrator, and put in your administrator password. Follow the instructions to install.

You should also have installed Xtreme Photo Designer which we need for our next class. You can get that from the delicious page too. Again the link will only work while you are at college. ftp://129.0.4.142/Programmes/free_xtremephotodesigner6_us.exe You need to Run As… Administrator.

Some students have found it difficult to keep up or to follow some of the instructions in class. That is something you can write about in your self-reflection blog entry – that is where you will discuss how you are learning and what you can do about it. You will have noticed that we have a lot of things to cover in this course. You must listen carefully, and it is your responsibility to take notes if you need them. I will usually explain each step at least 3 times, first as a quick overview, then twice more as a demonstration. You need to be listening and not talking to your friends. They may be able to help you but if you are asking them instead of listening then they will miss the instructions too.

Using photos

Week Three - camera reminder

In week three we will be working with pictures. We want to make sure you can take some photos so this is the first of many sessions in which we will ask you to bring along a camera. Don't forget the cable so you can transfer the pictures onto your laptop or to the desktop computer.

You can also put a welcome posting on your blog, to say hello.  We will look at some other features that you can use to make you blog more interesting.

Late Assignments

"Unless special circumstances are agreed with the lecturer and a late submission request form is completed, any assignments submitted up to three working days late will receive no more than a C grade. Work submitted more than 3 working days late will receive an F grade." ECAE Lecturer Guidelines (2009) pg.6 http://www.ecaeicthome.blogspot.com/

Week Two

Week two is our beginning of working with blogs. Make sure you have a link on your delicious account to the class blogpage AND one to your own blogpage. Your homework is to read the article on page 22~25. You will talk about it in the practical (2hour session). Also, between the two classes you will get an invitation to join your blogpage. We will look at how to accept that during the practical lab session.
Next week you will need a camera so think about what you are going to use. If you can borrow a digital camera that is good. If you have a cable for your cellphone camera then maybe you can use that (but you must be able to transfer pictures to your laptop).

Week One

Welcome to the ICT Edu1003 course. I hope you will have fun and learn lots of things in this course. This is the home page for our class and it will have useful information for you. There are links on the side to take you to your own blog page. But each student blog page is private, so only the author and lecturer can see it. To start using your blog page you will have to accept an invitation from google.  First we will get you to create a college google account, then we will get you to accept the invitation to use the blog. Then finally we will give you administrator control over your blog. You will be able to change it around and make it personal. But remember it is for your college work and is part of Assessment 1. We will look at it and give you a grade, so don't delete it!!!