Welcome to the December 9th Update of Digital Literacy 101.

Grades close for progress reports on Friday December 14th. I will be including Unit 3: Intro to Scratch in this reporting cycle.

So, If your student has not completed their Final Scratch Project for Unit 3 by Friday, it will be marked as an F (until they complete it).  I am available to stay after Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week.

Scratch Final Project Highlights:

Here are some great examples of Scratch Projects that have been coming in so far. Students are coding each moving element or sprite using block-based programming to teach others about one of the concepts we’ve been learning about, cyber-bullying, cyber-security, or digital privacy. 

You may need to allow Flash to run on your browser to view these Scratch apps.

Unit 4: Digital Tools

About 25 students have already moved on to the next unit which is exploring different file types, why they exist, and looking at comparing the advantages and disadvantages of using different digital tools to solve particular problems. For example, a problem might be that I was hired to create a 2d image that has a transparent background so that it could be used in a game. I would need to compare different tools that allow me to do this, choose the best one, make the image, and then understand the correct file format (.PNG) that I would need to export the image to the game developers.

Hopes for the end of the year

I hope to have time for two more short units by the end of the semester in January, we’ll see if we get there:

Unit 5: Computing Systems

 Students will learn about the basic physical components of a computer by taking an old PC apart and then putting it back together again, and then install an operating system. They would also be introduced to how computers are networked together.

Unit 6: Human and Computer Partnerships

This unit would have students exploring the relationship between computers and society. Having them play through a scavenger hunt-mystery-role-playing game that explores the present and future role of computers in society.