Transportation Systems

One of the most complicated problems people face today is transportation. With our increasing population, and with more and more people moving from the rural areas into urban centers, cities are having a difficult time keeping up. Over the next few days, your job will be to come up with a Google Presentation (or Prezi or Keynote) showing us the transportation in one of the following cities (only one person may do each city, so let me know which ones you want):

- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Hamburg, Germany (George)
- Hong Kong, (China) (Darian)
- New York, USA (Gabe)
- Paris, France
- Seoul, Korea (Nahyeon)
- London, England (Farah)
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Moscow, Russia
- Tokyo, Japan (Yohan)
- Singapore (Nadia) (Johnathan)
- Other suggestions?

Try to find some information about these systems and what makes them so successful. Include information like cost per ride, how the schedule is organized, number of passengers, payment options (cards, etc), cost to maintain, length of routes, and any other information that you find relevant. Remember that each one of these cities is using an information system to keep all of their transportation organized. Try to find out how they make everything run so smoothly.

Compare your chosen city's system with Jakarta and make some suggestions on how the transportation system here could be improved. Then, answer the following question: What is preventing Jakarta from having a system that is as organized as those above?

As usual, try to make your presentation easy to look at. Find pictures and video clips to help keep things interesting. These will be presented on Thursday and Friday this week.

Spreadsheets!

Alright, Spreadsheets might not seem all that exciting to you, but they are very useful tool for putting together a lot of data in a very fast way. Instead of having to spend hours and hours doing calculations, Spreadsheets will do the work for you (this leaves you time to do things that you enjoy!). Luckily, Google Docs has a Spreadsheet function to make it easier for us.

Take a look at the example I've created here. Your job is to create something similar, but you'll be keeping track of how much time you spend using electronics. Examples include: TV, computer for school, computer for fun, telephone, listening to music, watching movies, chatting, etc. Here's what you'll need to include in your spreadsheet:

- Between 3 and 6 categories of what you spend time on over the next week
- include formulae so that the calculations are done for you
- compile the data into two different types of graphs (on a separate page within the same file)
- make it interesting and easy to look at (NOT just black & white!)

Share the document with me, so I can see how you're progressing.

Here's some resources to help you out if you're having difficulty with formulae:

https://docs.google.com/a/jwaonline.com/file/d/0BwCdsItMsAgoTU8tZjZuRFNjNEk/edit
http://home.earthlink.net/~cassidyny/spreadsheet.htm 

Animation Storyboard Template

If you'd like to do your storyboard on your computer, please use this template (or make your own).

https://docs.google.com/a/jwaonline.com/document/d/1KRfVrtei_k6Oy60seD0rtu_DmdeD-F1h6fllbpM27FI/edit

Renaissance Man?

Leonardo Da Vinci is often called a Renaissance Man (or Polymath). This means he's someone who has interests and skills in many very different areas of knowledge. Nowadays, there is so much information available on the internet that we could literally read for our entire lives and not read the same thing twice. Do you think people should be 'pretty good' at a wide variety of things, or should we specialize and become an 'expert' in one thing? Read this quote from Robert Heinlein and see if you agree (post a response on your blog):

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Also, check out this Youtube clip and watch a modern-day Renaissance Man in action (warning: he's pretty strange!):



What are the benefits to trying to learn as much as you can about as many topics as you can? What, if any, are the drawbacks?

Hardware Pop Quiz!

Make sure you're logged into your @jwaonline account to see the quiz!

Why go to school?

Increasingly, people are turning to online learning (Virtual Learning Environments) to teach many people over vast distances. Many universities are offering complete degrees over the internet, with 24-hour help available and all of the content delivered digitally.

Do you have any experience with online learning? What do you think the pros/cons of it are?

Why do we bother coming to school if all of the content is available online?

Info about VLEs is on pages 308-322 in your book.

Finally, find an article about VLEs and analyze it with the triangle.

 

(Did you forget about the TRIANGLE?!)



 

Image File Formats Comparison

Take a look at the following link to see the similarities and differences between the most popular image file formats. Knowing this will be important for your exam!

http://anyutilities.blogspot.com/2009/03/comparing-image-file-format-jpg-bmp.html

Do Videogames = Violence?

 

This link says no:

http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn.com/technology/ingame/link-between-video-games-aggression-untrue-study-689393

But these links says yes:

http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn.com/technology/ingame/video-games-should-be-labeled-cigarettes-proposed-bill-512297
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723

What's your opinion? Post your thoughts as a comment (you have to click on the post title to comment).

Open Source Software

Read page 68-71 in your textbook.

We'll discuss two major varieties of software: commercial and open-source.

Make a post on your blog informing your readers of the differences between these two types. Then, address the following questions:

- what are some examples of open-source software? (include links)
- why do people make open-source software?
- why do people pirate (steal) software?
- do you think it is 'more wrong' to steal a DVD from a store than it is to download it? Why or why not?

Logo Games!

(taken from: http://www.truekolor.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/olympic.png)

Test your knowledge of the world's most famous logos by clicking on these two links:

Link 1

Link 2

 

A lot of these logos are definitely 'American', so don't be too discouraged if there are some you don't get. I think you'll actually be surprised how many you DO get!

5, 6, 7, 8: Now it's Time to Animate!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sQgY_UCiH58ywm42yJGDdq7PP28zDU8FvwBGbJGR3FE/edit

We all loved (or STILL love) cartoons and other forms of animation. Check out the following movies for some great examples of what's possible with a bit of clay, a camera, and a LOT of patience.

 





 

Find two more examples of stop motion animation and embed them on your blog.

 

You can choose to work alone or with one partner for this assignment.

The work will go as follows:
Week 1 and 2: Investigation

- Design brief

- Specifications

- Some research on how animations are made

- an interview of a friend or a LS student asking them what sort of things they look for in animation

- Work Cited
Week 3-4: Design and Plan
Week 5-6: Create
Week 7: Evaluate

You must come up with two separate storyboards and then justify your choice during the Design stage. Make sure to take plenty of pictures and screenshots during the Create stage to show your evidence of creation.

We'll try to show the completed products to some LS kids in the last week of school.

For the interview process, try to find a LS student and ask them what sorts of things they'd like to see in an animated film.

Logos!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XfFPiF_oq28UcN2WIDKqZ8DG7u-UVoIx7VHzCxwNbmE/edit

 





 

How important are the logos of a company?

Of course we all recognize these logos. Take a look at this webpage to see some of the more famous logos of all time.

Your second project for IT is to design a new set of logos for 2 out of the following 3 separate topics:

 

- the Design Cycle (5 logos)

- the Areas of Interaction (5 logos)

- The IB Learner Profile (10 logos) You MUST do this one.

 

For example, you could design logos for the IB Learner Profile and the Areas of Interaction or the IB Learner Profile and the Design Cycle. Then, during the Design stage, you will justify which one you have decided to choose to Create.

Week 1: Investigation

Week 2 and 3: Design and Plan

Week  4 and 5: Create

Week 6: Evaluate

 

At the end, we will try to find the best logos and they will become the official Logos for SWA and will be posted all around the school!

Games!!

(taken from: http://gamespics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/super-mario-bros.jpg)

 

The next project we'll be working on in is 'Making a Game'. Check out the Brief here.

 

Before we get to the actual project, I'd like to hear from you about what makes a game enjoyable? We all like to play different kinds of games, like RPGs, FPS, Puzzle-games, RTS, Sports. What's your favorite kind of game? Post it on your blog (and give me some pictures, too).

 

Secondly, I want you to do some research about the good and the bad things about games and gaming. We know that there are some people who say games are completely evil and should never be used. There are also some people who say games can actually be a useful tool for education and even science (remember FoldIt?!). Find me two articles related to gaming: one that says gaming is good, one that says gaming is bad. Tell me which one you agree with and why (post the links on your blog).

 

Finally, before I see you on Thursday, make sure you have gone to this website and downloaded Scratch 1.4 for Mac. (It's about 35MB, so do it from home.) Feel free to play around with it if you have time. We'll be learning how to use it in class on Thursday.

 

For your INVESTIGATION STAGE, you'll need the following:

- Design brief

- Specifications

- Some research on how games are made

- an interview of a friend or a LS student asking them what sort of things they look for in a game

- Work Cited

Please embed it just the Investigation on your blog now.