Computer Technology Offerings
Students can select from the following offerings
by Mrs. Gronewold
NAME OF COURSES: COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY I, II, III, and IV.
LENGTH OF CLASSES: 5.0 Credit (approximately one semester)
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY COURSES
This course is designed to be flexible in both scheduling and credit. In order to meet the scheduling needs of the students at BHS, you will be allowed to enroll in Computer Technology any period that it is offered.
Also, in an effort to meet the various needs and computer abilities of our students, this course has been designed to be a course of your choice. You, the student will choose the content as well as the extent of your learning. Various independent units have been developed for you to choose from to complete your study. Each unit is awarded credit based on the difficulty of it's content and the time needed to complete the unit. The number of units you complete will determine the number of credits awarded for this course. Thus, the credit that you earn will be the credit that you receive in this course.
A major goal of this course to allow and encourage the students of BHS to pursue the use of computers and technology in all areas of your study i.e. English, Math, History, etc. By offering Computer Technology, in this flexible manner, we hope to more efficiently meet the needs of our schedule as well as to better utilize the technology equipment available to our students.
Students who satisfactorily complete the offered Win95, MICROSOFT ACCESS 1 & 2, MICROSOFT EXCEL 1 & 2, and MICROSOFT WORD 1, 2 & 3 Units, and who receive at least 196 points on their complete Computer Competency Profile, may receive advanced placement** and credit in the computer programs at Southeast Community College- Beatrice Campus.
**Advanced Placement at SCC in the program identified above means a student is exempt from enrolling in BUE 141 - Into to Micro (2Credit Hours) at SCC if a "B" average has been earned in the parallel units at the high school level. The student will receive credit for the college course on the college transcript. No tuition or fee payment will be required. The advanced placement credit hours will be counted toward college graduation, but will not be counted in the college grade point average.
Course content will be composed from the following options:
Please note: **These units may change; as their availability is directly associated with the availability/reliability of district hardware and software.
Additional units expected to be available during the 2005-06 school year include:
o Speech recognition
o PC tablet unit.
CLAY ANIMATION UNIT ~ (After PowerPoint/Digital Camera)
In this unit students will use their imagination to develop a story line. Their storyline is then brought to life in at least three to five pictures more detailed storylines could contain many more pictures. Students complete their animation by using clay, backgrounds, lighting to take several pictures with a digital camera and then insert these pictures as backgrounds in a presentation program (PowerPoint). Students should complete both the PowerPoint and Digital Camera Units before completing this unit.
DESKTOP PUBLISHING UNITS ~ Adobe PageMaker
Desktop Publishing (DTP) is using a personal computer to produce professional-looking publications. Before DTP, a publication was prepared for printing using a process of cutting and pasting. These units will cover many aspects of DTP, including: general design concepts; basics of PageMaker~ the software; design and typography of publications; keys to manipulating text; working with graphics; basic layout techniques; appropriate use of colors; designing advertisements, brochures, newsletters; working with long publications; and developing prepress techniques
DIGITAL CAMERA
This unit combines the use of a Digital Camera, and a computer. By using a digital camera, the user gains the ability take pictures and then to transfer the pictures to computer files, without the timely processes of photo developing and scanning. After the pictures have been captured and formatted, the user has the ability to manipulate the images by enhancement (changing the lighting), cropping, resizing, or a variety of other editing tools. Final images can then be imported into other documents or files.
GEN Y
This unit is part of a nation-wide program called Generation YES (Youth and Educators Succeeding) that students and teachers at BHS are taking part in. Gen Y will link a student’s knowledge of technology with a partner-teacher, together the team will develop a project that will be used by the staff member in their classroom. A major goal of this program is to enhance student learning. As a student member of Gen Y, the user will be responsible for creating a valuable curriculum tool for their partner-teachers curricular area, as well as develop a partnership with their partner-teacher. This unit is available to a limited number of students who must have special permission from the instructor to participate.
IMAGE BLENDER ~GRAPHIC EDITING
This unit combines the use of a graphic file such as digital pictures, clip art, a scanned image, and the Image Blender software. Image Blender is an interfaced program that is designed to give you access to image editing options beyond cropping, resizing and text options. At the push of a button, the user will be able to alter backgrounds, the shape of the picture’s edge, the appearance of the edge, shadows and other picture attributes. Image Blender allows a user to quickly obtain professional looking graphics for use in many documents.
INTERNET UNITS
Students will be introduced to many aspects of the World Wide Web, including experience using the Internet for academic research. Activities will include researching a job opportunity, purchasing a car, researching a topic: (gathering information, evaluating this information, summarizing the information and correctly cite the sources); creating a document using word processing, spreadsheets databases, telecommunications, desktop publishing, presentation, and other applications software. Advanced projects on the Internet will be available. Hyperlinks will be used and information cannot be ‘cut’ and ‘pasted’ from websites. Copying, from the web is PLAGERISM and will not be tolerated!! Direct quotes from the Internet WILL NOT be allowed for your unit work and could result in a reduce grade or no credit.
INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS UNITTAKE~HOME UNIT
Intro to Computers is a unit that looks at the development of our modern day computer system. Users will study; the history of computers, the components of a computer system, what a computer is, how a computer works, the advantages of using a computer, hardware, software, inventors, dates, languages, memory, as well as many other contributing elements to today's computer system. Additional topics will include networks, the Internet, telecommunications and the social and ethical implications of computers, and IT careers.
MICROSOFT ACCESS UNITS
Microsoft Access is an electronic database program. An electronic database program lets you use the computer to collect, locate, update, and report information. There are thousands of uses for such a program, including managing payroll, personnel, sales, production, inventory, marketing, or patient information. With Access you enter information into the computer only once, and then let the program manage the work. You can locate needed entries in seconds, update entries easily, view entries in various ways and produce professional-looking reports.
MICROSOFT EXCEL UNITS
Microsoft Excel is an electronic worksheet program that let’s you use the computer to create, change, save, and print worksheets. You create the worksheet using the keyboard while the worksheet provides methods for storing words, numbers and the calculations based on those entries. Since the worksheet is electronic, it is easy to make corrections or to change your mind. For example you can add or remove entries, move entries from one place to another, and even create attractive-looking charts. Excel also gives you the ability to print and save your work.
MICROSOFT FRONTPAGE (Web Authoring) UNIT
FrontPage is a program for creating Web pages and managing Web sites without having to learn complicated computer code. It's designed with some very powerful features, but it's as easy to use as clicking a mouse. Not only will you learn the basics for FrontPage by creating a simple web page, but also you will then edit your page, adding information and special effects. Later, you will create a Web page using templates, wizards, themes, bullets, hyperlinks, hotspots, counters, marquee text, tables and more.
MICROSOFT POWERPOINT UNITS
Microsoft PowerPoint is an electronic presentation program. A presentation program lets you use the computer to create presentation material to use as visual aids, or to create an automatic presentation, which would run on the computer. You can select any of PowerPoint’s professional created slides and layouts to which you simply need to add your information. This information can include text, drawings, charts, and graphs as well as any combination of the over 1000 pictures included in this program. Special features of this program also help the user create organization charts, many types of graphs or charts, and bulleted lists.
MICROSOFT WINDOWS UNIT(S)TAKE~HOME ONLY UNIT
CURRENT WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM ARE CONTINUALLY CHANGING. WHILE OUR DISTRICT RECOGNIZES THE NEED TO MAINTAIN CURRENT TECHNOLOGY WE CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO PURCHASE AND MAINTAIN EVERY AVIALBABLE OPERATING SYSTEM. IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE THIS UNIT AVAILABLE FOR THE LAREST NUMBER OF STUDENTS, THERE ARE MULTIPLE WINDOWS UNITS FROM WHICH TO SELECT.
In this unit the user will be introduced to a Windows operating system. Microsoft Windows is one operating system that is used on many IBM and IBM compatible computers. Students will select their choice of Windows units from those available. They will be introduced to their choice of operating systems. These units will discuss the use of menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes. These units will also discuss how to work with, organize and search for files. Currently, Windows units include:
• Windows 95 ~ The user will learn the basics required to operate the mouse, windows and dialog boxes. Proper handling and formatting of a diskette, making backups of a file, and using Windows 95 tools are also introduced. *Students must have access to a machine which using Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. This is a unit that is designed for “TAKE HOME” work ONLY!!
• Windows 98 ~ The user will learn the basics required to operate the mouse, windows and dialog boxes. Proper handling and formatting of a diskette, making backups of a file, and using Windows 98 tools are also introduced. *Students must have access to a machine which using Microsoft Windows 95 operating system. This is a unit that is designed for “TAKE HOME” work ONLY!!
• Windows 2000 ~ The user will learn the basics required to operate the mouse, windows and dialog boxes. Proper handling and formatting of a diskette, makingbackups of a file, and using Windows 2000 tools are also introduced. Our current machines use Windows 2000 as an operating system, but our local network force some options to be unavailable. Any student, who is interested in completing this unit, should have outside (away from school) access to a machine with the Windows 2000 operating system.
• Windows XP ~ The user will learn the basics required to operate Windows XP applications, menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes. Students will also be expected to organize and search for files.
MICROSOFT WORD UNITS
Microsoft Word is an electronic word processing program, which lets you use the computer to create, edit, revise, print and save word processing documents. Throughout word you will begin to learn basic word processing features like moving, copying, annotations, find and replace, and sorting. More advanced features include using templates, multiple column documents, outlines, tables, and inserting charts and graphs. Intermediate and advanced projects will be available.
MOVIE MAKER UNITS
Movie Maker is digital editing software that allows the user to create a homemade movie. This digital creation will include; pictures, digital video, sound and animation. Students should have access to the above materials from the personal library and will be required to bring these materials from home. Students will also need to have a story line or ‘plan’ before they begin this unit. The Movie Maker unit will take about twice as long as other units plan to spend about three weeks for this unit.
PAINT UNIT
Paint is an accessory program that typically is included in most windows operating systems when you purchase them. This program lets you create edit, save and print computer drawings. Your drawings can range from very simple stick figures, to a very complex drawing with many elements. Paint also allows you to use your drawings in other software packages or even as screen savers on your computer system.
PERSONAL DATA ASSISTANT (PDA) UNIT
This unit on Personal Data Assistants (PDA’s) was developed to give students an opportunity to utilize a tool common in today’s workforce. Throughout this unit you will work with a personal data assistant learning graffiti, create an appointment calendar, maintain a date book, to-do lists, and establish an address book and learn to ‘hot sync’ your PDA and computer desktop. Students will be asked to create and edit entries in each of these features. Students will have the ability to enter data through a stylus, portable keyboard and the basic computer. Output will be generated through the use of a printer.
PRINTSHOP UNIT
Print Shop Premier is a versatile program that enables you to crate professional-looking printed materials for every occasion. The Print Shop Deluxe projects include Greeting Cards, Signs, Letterhead, Banners, Calendars, Envelopes and address and mailing labels. That's just the beginning, the program's wide range of features and wide variety of design elements allow you to create your own, or edit pre-designed projects to ‘fit’ your need. Everything from cards and announcements to menus, posters, coloring books, magnets, bookmarks, notepads, stationery, even bumper stickers and fax cover sheets.
ROBOTICS ~ LEGOS
This unit is available for students to test their creativity and programming logic. Students will experience “Lego robotics” during this unit. The user will use a set of instructions to create an object from Lego’s and then ‘program’ the object to complete a variety of tasks such as: move, stop, and play music. An advanced activity will require the student to create their own object and program the object using a set of instructions.
SCANNER - UNIT
Using a scanner adds a whole new dimension to computer editing. This tool enables the user to create, view, edit, save and print scanned images. Our scanner can capture any flat object that fits on the flatbed-scanning surface of the equipment. High-resolution scanning allows you to produce high-quality images with the click of a single button on our machines. Users can dramatically enhance the impact of their communication by including images in any document: newsletters, reports, presentations, and brochures, personal letters, you name it, it can contain a graphic.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS (The Future of Computers) UNITTAKE~HOME UNIT
In this unit the user will look at the future of computing, including the effects on computers of various technological developments, the career possibilities created by computers, and the social and ethical consequences of living in a computerized society. Elements of the future that will be studied include: modems, electronic bulletin boards, E-mail, microprocessors, artificial intelligence, expert computer systems, robotics, and careers in the computer area.
TOUCH-TYPING (KEYBOARDING) SKILLS
In this unit students will review touch-typing techniques. This unit may prove valuable if you are not a proficient typist. Do you look at the keyboard when you type? Do you use only one hand or only one or two fingers from each hand to type? Can you write faster with a pen or pencil than you can type? (If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are NOT a proficient typist.)
