Topic/QoD
 Activities
 Reading Assignment
 Homework/notes
Week 1, Monday
 What are your pet peeves about technology?
  • Discuss QoD
 Technology Has a Message, Schuurman.  Here is the reading guide.
Week 1, Wednesday
 What is Information Technology?  How does it affect us?
  • Discuss Schuurman, in groups of 4, 15-20 minutes.
  • Discuss QoD.
 Blown to Bits reading???
Week 1, Friday
  • Discuss Blown to Bits reading.
  • Intro to first homework: best uses of technology in daily life.
 Read How Stuff Works article, pages 1, 2, 3.  Here is the reading guide.
 Write a paper on best uses of technology in daily life.  Due in one week.  Be prepared to discuss.
Week 2,
Monday
 How does computer hardware work?
  • In groups of 4, draw a diagram of a computer and how the components relate to each other. (10 minutes)
  • Identify the primary purpose of each component.
  • Refer to the HowStuffWorks article and revise your drawing.
  • Compare diagrams from groups and fix things up.
  • Sum up results for everyone to study.
 Watch PBS video on miniturization, from 9:27 to 18:41 (most of "Chapter 3").  Here is the watching guide.
Week 2, Wednesday
 Is a cell phone a computer?
  • Discuss PBS video.
  • Figure out what an ad for a computer really means. (25 minutes).
 Read about Bits, Bytes, and Binary, pages 1, 2, and 4  (you may skip page 3).  Here is the reading guide.
Week 2,
Friday
Something about thinking about how to make a better computer?
  • Discuss best use of technology papers.  Groups make presentations. (?)
  • CS Unplugged activity on binary numbers.
 Programming for Dummies this isn't great...
I should make my own video for this, I think.
Week 3,
Monday
 How does software work?
  • Discuss video/reading on how software works.
  • Work through algorithm on how to erase the whiteboard.
I may have to make my own video.
Week 3,
Wednesday
  • Scratch programming lab (Brownian Motion Lab?)
  • Scratch programming lab 2 ?  Dance video?  Or perhaps optional to do one or the other?
Algorithm homework
Week 3,
Friday
 What is "the cloud"?
  • Quiz 1
  • Create a google form.
 How Does the Internet Work.  Reading guide is here.

How Web Servers Work, pages 2, 3, and 5 (although 4 is pretty good, too).
Reading guide is here.

Packet switching / Routing / Routers. Watching guide is here.
Week 4,
Monday
 How does the Internet work?
  • Discuss the video assignments from Friday.
  • Do the packet forwarding "game".
  • Start writing some HTML code by hand, in Notepad++.
  • Quiz 1 review (or later this week)
 HTML Tutorial 1
HTML Tutorial 2
HTML Tutorial 3 -- don't worry about DTD stuff.
HTML Tutorial 4
Add Pat's ppt here too, as a summary of everything.
 Asking Keith, Pat for pre-made assignment.
Week 4,
Wednesday
 How does HTML work?
  • Continue with writing HTML code by hand: Could have students design web page on paper first: how do you make a bullet list inside a numbered list?  Put mulitple paragraphs in a numbered list item.  Draw what you want it to look like, and then write html on paper to make it so.  then test it.
  • Then, start with KompoZer.  Make 2 web pages that link to each other. (?)
 Watch video about Internet Filter Bubble.  Watching guide.
Week 4,
Friday
  • Finish web pages with KompoZer and upload to web server.
Tutorial videos on Excel
Excel absolute vs relative cell references
Week 5,
Monday
 Excel
  • Discuss important points of Excel.
  • Excel exercises: Another example, which might be a great thing for students to reproduce themselves
Make my own video lecture.
Week 5,
Wednesday
  • Take home pay spreadsheet exercise.  Serita.
 Do students know how to write anymore?  Clive Thompson on the New Literacy
Week 5,
Friday
 What are the implications of technology?
  • Quiz 2.
  • What does a spreadsheet do poorly?  What do we lose by using Microsoft Word?  What do we gain?
  • Discuss Clive Thompson article.
  • (Did we talk about this stuff earlier?)
 200 Countries, 200 years, 4 Minutes
Week 6,
Monday
 Data visualization & Data Representation
  • Answer questions about good charts, bad charts.
  • Given some data, create some bad charts.
  • Given some bad charts, make them good.
  • (these are just ideas.)
  • Introduction to gapminder.org
  • Quiz 2 review. (or later this week)

 gapminder.org Assignment (if we are flipping the classroom, this should be done in class...)
Week 6
Wednesday
 How is text stored on a computer?
  • Have student groups come up with a way to encode messages with numbers, then encode a short message and send it to others.  Do they encode digits?  Spaces?  Caps?  How many bytes does it take?
  • What about japanese characters?  How to encode those now?
  • How about a black and white picture?  Students can come up with schemes to do this.
 Good reading on image formats/sizes and compression.
Good reading on video formats/sizes and compression

Here is the reading guide for both readings above.
Week 6,
Friday
  • Store pictures in different formats and compare sizes of files.  How about movies?  Can we get some movies and compare sizes?
 Technology addiction
Week 7,
Monday
 Cyber addictions, security, privacy, etc.
  • Serita/Keith: Can you suggest readings from Blown to Bits?
 Pornography use in US (Catholic source)
Evangelical perspective on porn
Is porn really addictive?
Women and pornography
 Need *positive* articles/perspectives on technology.  All of this is so negative.
Week 7,
Wednesday



Week 7,
Friday
  • Quiz 3