Link Resources for Students

June 16, 2004

Course Resources

Mrs. Malchiodi

Keyboarding

Web Design

Computer Literacy

Keyboarding

This is a touch-typing course. For the average student, a semester is required to master the art of touch-typing (typing without needing to look at one's fingers). Systematic drill and practice, daily focus on techniques taught in class, will bring the diligent student to the goal of mastery. Regular attendance is critical to give the student sufficient practice time to master the skill. Irregular attendance is a great stumbling block. This course is not recommended for students who are frequently absent or lacking self-discipline.

Students are tested for over a two-week period, through observation, at the mid-term (quarter) and then prior to the end of the semester. The mid-term exam and final exam are entirely skill-based.

Since the course is currently a school year in duration, those students who have achieved 40 wpm or better, move on in the second semester. They learn how to work with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Power Point.

Web Design

Students begin the course with a basic introduction to html. After discovering what it means to create a page using html coding, students are introduced to our classroom html editing program, Adobe Pagemill 3.0. In this way, if necessary, students can edit directly in the source code.

Students are expected to leave the course demonstrating a understanding of the relationship between web design and search engines & directories, spiders, spam and demonstration skillful application of professional design principals (e.g. contrast, alignment, repetition, etc.), java scripts, cgi-scripts, FTP.

"Content is King" is the mantra for this class. Purposeful web sites that provide meaningful content is the key to any sucessful web page or web site. Though brevity is typical of text content in web pages, web page content must meet California State High School Level Standards for English Language Arts in terms of language usage and writing proficiency.

Students are asked to help with the school website. They will work on various sub-sites of the school web site, all sharing the common goal of making the school website an invaluble resource for students, parents, administrators and faculty.

Our school does not have a site license for the most current html editors (Macromedia MX Studio, Frontpage or Adobe GoLive). The instructor has purchased enough licenses for Adobe Pagemill 3.0 for each classroom computer station. Adobe no longer markets Pagemill. This very popular software program was discontinued in favor of the more expensive and sophisticated Adobe GoLive. However, new, unregistered copies are frequently available through eBay, ranging in price from $8 to $30 depending on bidding activity. Students may wish to purchase Adobe Pagemill 3.0 for home use.

We use as a textbook for the class, Daniel Grey's Adobe Pagemill 3 FX.

No online testing - Final is Project Oriented

Computer Literacy

Computer Literacy is a district required course for 9th graders. The course aims to teach students responsible and profitable use of both software application programs and the internet for meeting academic goals.

Students begin the course learning about hardware and software. The also learn about the history of technology and are given an appreciation of the body of laws that protect intellectual property rights in the form of copyright law, patents, trademarks and plagiarism. They learn how to use email: (webmail) creating address books, mailing lists, and sending and receiving file attachments. Advanced search techniques using Boolean terms teaches them how to be effective when seeing information on the internet.

Students will also learn how to "work smart" with computers, learning when to have multiple programs and windows open simultaneously and how to use various keyboard short cuts.

Finally, they learn how to use software application programs like Microsoft's Word, Excel and Power Point for academic work.

Online Exam Preparation: click on the links below to take all the quizzes which will help you prepare for final exams.

The final exam will be 95% from the preparatory quizzes above. These online quizzes do not represent all that is taught in the course. In time, we hope to provide more online quizzes to cover all the course material from the class.

Please be sure to know the difference between software and hardware, too. There are a total of 80 multiple choice questions.

Please bring a book to read quietly should you finish the exam before the rest of the class. It may be a book you wish to read to prepare for another final exam.