PowerPoint is normally used to go with a presentation when someone is talking, that is why people get confused and this that presentation means PowerPoint but this is not the case!
PowerPoint can combine a lot of multimedia elements easily, and it is also not too difficult to add in the interactivity.
The kind of files that you can add to your PowerPoint include movie files, sound, animation (animated GIFs), Flash content as well as text and images.
You can add in hyperlinks to websites or email addresses, as well as making buttons to take you to the different slides - you can even turn off pressing on the slide to get to another one, this makes it so that the user has to press a button in order to get to another slide!
Here are some help sheets which tell you how to add some of these elements into PowerPoint:
Adding in animations (animations that you have made yourself)
Adding video
Adding sound
Adding buttons and hyperlinks
Turning off pressing slides to get onto other pages (you have to press the buttons to get onto a different slide)
Friday 21 June 2013
Tuesday 18 June 2013
Using Dreamweaver
Dreamweaver is a program which is used to build websites.
You can either be a designer or a developer when you are using Dreamweaver; being a designer means that you will be designing it visually (drawing boxes and seeing the changes on your screen), being a developer means that you will use HTML code to build the website.
Useful things to note before you start using Dreamweaver...
Here are some help sheets to get you started on using Dreamweaver...
Website template ideas
Setting up your page layout
Different ways websites can be linked
Changing the background colour
Changing font styles and colours
Inserting images
Adding links
Adding in layers
You can either be a designer or a developer when you are using Dreamweaver; being a designer means that you will be designing it visually (drawing boxes and seeing the changes on your screen), being a developer means that you will use HTML code to build the website.
Useful things to note before you start using Dreamweaver...
- You shouldn't copy and paste images on to your website - you need to save them in your documents and Insert them
- You cannot move objects around the page (Like you would do in Word), you have to insert a layer tag and then move the layer
Here are some help sheets to get you started on using Dreamweaver...
Website template ideas
Setting up your page layout
Different ways websites can be linked
Changing the background colour
Changing font styles and colours
Inserting images
Adding links
Adding in layers
Monday 10 June 2013
Databases
A database is where you can save, sort and edit data. You probably use a lot of databases on a weekly basis without even recognising that you are using one.
Your mobile phone is made up of many databases - there is one for your contacts, one for your music player, to name but two!
Many websites run on a database, but as they have a website on the front of it so that you don't see it (Think about Amazon - it knows how many of the item are in stock, it knows this because it is connected to a database).
Table
This is where the data is held. You can add, edit and delete data from the table.
This help sheet shows you how to add, change and delete data in a database.
Query
This is where you search the tables for specific information (Example: You might want to find all of the females in a database).
If you want to find more than one thing at the same time (Example: You might want to find all of the females who are over 18 to offer them a promotion if they buy online - the two things are "females" and "over 18") then this is called a complex query.
This link has a video and also a written explanation as to the kind of data you might want to search for.
This help sheet shows you how to make a query.
Report
This is where you display the data for people to see. You can create many different types of report, including address labels. The report needs to be clear and easy to understand as it might be shared with a manager, or a customer.
This help sheet shows you how to make a report.
This help sheet shows you how to make a report in the style of address labels.
Form
This is the user interface of the database, this means that it looks prettier than a table and it is easier for people to understand and use. The end user (the people who end up using it) will never see the tables but instead they will do everything through the forms. Forms normally have buttons on them and allow the user to add, edit and delete data, as well as get to the different parts of the database - such as the reports.
This help sheet shows you how to make a form.
Mail Merge
This is where you link the database to another program, often a word processing program such as Microsoft Word.
Instead of typing out each persons address when you want to send a letter out, a mail merge allows you to quickly send it to all the people in your table or query.
This link shows you how to do a mail merge.
Your mobile phone is made up of many databases - there is one for your contacts, one for your music player, to name but two!
Many websites run on a database, but as they have a website on the front of it so that you don't see it (Think about Amazon - it knows how many of the item are in stock, it knows this because it is connected to a database).
Table
This is where the data is held. You can add, edit and delete data from the table.
This help sheet shows you how to add, change and delete data in a database.
Query
This is where you search the tables for specific information (Example: You might want to find all of the females in a database).
If you want to find more than one thing at the same time (Example: You might want to find all of the females who are over 18 to offer them a promotion if they buy online - the two things are "females" and "over 18") then this is called a complex query.
This link has a video and also a written explanation as to the kind of data you might want to search for.
This help sheet shows you how to make a query.
Report
This is where you display the data for people to see. You can create many different types of report, including address labels. The report needs to be clear and easy to understand as it might be shared with a manager, or a customer.
This help sheet shows you how to make a report.
This help sheet shows you how to make a report in the style of address labels.
Form
This is the user interface of the database, this means that it looks prettier than a table and it is easier for people to understand and use. The end user (the people who end up using it) will never see the tables but instead they will do everything through the forms. Forms normally have buttons on them and allow the user to add, edit and delete data, as well as get to the different parts of the database - such as the reports.
This help sheet shows you how to make a form.
Mail Merge
This is where you link the database to another program, often a word processing program such as Microsoft Word.
Instead of typing out each persons address when you want to send a letter out, a mail merge allows you to quickly send it to all the people in your table or query.
This link shows you how to do a mail merge.
Spreadsheets and Modelling
A spreadsheet is a lot like a big calculator. You can use it to organise your finances and keep a track of what your incomings and outgoings are (so that you don't spend more money than you have), and you can use it to model what will happen if certain criteria are met (You can model the weather using a spreadsheet. Get data about previous years weather patterns and it can be used to predict what will happen).
You can display your findings in a table, or a chart to make it easy for other people to read and understand.
Remember! Rows go across and columns go up and down (Like the columns that hold up old Roman buildings!)
Each box in the spreadsheet is a cell.
A cell reference is the letter and number (co-ordinates) of your cell.
A formula is where you manually press all the commands one by one. When you are writing a formula you will use the following + - / *.
An example of a forumla is =A1+A2+A3
This website shows you the basics of formulas.
A function is where you use a command word and the computer can do most of the hard work for you. You highlight the cells you want to be included and the computer works out the answer.
An example of a basic function is =SUM(A1:B55)
Time saving tip! Drag the forumla down instead of typing it in each cell. The formula will automatically update for each box (although sometimes this isn't a good thing! See absolute cell reference).
Some common functions:
SUM - this adds up all of the cells in the range
MAX - the maximum value in the range is displayed
MIN - the minimum value in the range is disdplayed
AVERAGE - the average of the range is calculated
IF - if a criteria is met then the computer does one thing, if the criteria is not met then the computer does something else. This link gives you an example of an IF statement, and explains the different sections.
Goal Seek
This link explains what goal seek is, and this link shows you how to actually use it.
Conditional formatting
This is where cells are changed to a different colour depending on if a criteria is met or not. This link shows you where it is and gives you an example of how it could be used.
Absolute cell reference
This is where you always want to refer to the same cell in a formula or function. This is for when you want to drag a forumla or function down (rather than typing it in every cell) but you always want to refer back to the same cell as part of your formula.
To do this, when you first write your formula/function put a dollar sign before the letter and the number. So instead of having =A1 you will have =$A$1.
This link explains absolute cell reference with examples.
Graphs
Line graph: used to track changes over short and long periods of time. Best for when there are smaller changes (bigger changes look better with a bar graph). Line graphs can also be used to compare changes over the same period of time for more than one group.
Pie Chart: use when you are trying to compare parts of a whole, you should not use them to show changes over time.
Bar Graph: used to compare things between different groups or to track changes over time if the changes/differences are quite large.
This link shows the differences between the types and gives some examples.
You can display your findings in a table, or a chart to make it easy for other people to read and understand.
Remember! Rows go across and columns go up and down (Like the columns that hold up old Roman buildings!)
Each box in the spreadsheet is a cell.
A cell reference is the letter and number (co-ordinates) of your cell.
A formula is where you manually press all the commands one by one. When you are writing a formula you will use the following + - / *.
An example of a forumla is =A1+A2+A3
This website shows you the basics of formulas.
A function is where you use a command word and the computer can do most of the hard work for you. You highlight the cells you want to be included and the computer works out the answer.
An example of a basic function is =SUM(A1:B55)
Time saving tip! Drag the forumla down instead of typing it in each cell. The formula will automatically update for each box (although sometimes this isn't a good thing! See absolute cell reference).
Some common functions:
SUM - this adds up all of the cells in the range
MAX - the maximum value in the range is displayed
MIN - the minimum value in the range is disdplayed
AVERAGE - the average of the range is calculated
IF - if a criteria is met then the computer does one thing, if the criteria is not met then the computer does something else. This link gives you an example of an IF statement, and explains the different sections.
Goal Seek
This link explains what goal seek is, and this link shows you how to actually use it.
Conditional formatting
This is where cells are changed to a different colour depending on if a criteria is met or not. This link shows you where it is and gives you an example of how it could be used.
Absolute cell reference
This is where you always want to refer to the same cell in a formula or function. This is for when you want to drag a forumla or function down (rather than typing it in every cell) but you always want to refer back to the same cell as part of your formula.
To do this, when you first write your formula/function put a dollar sign before the letter and the number. So instead of having =A1 you will have =$A$1.
This link explains absolute cell reference with examples.
Graphs
Line graph: used to track changes over short and long periods of time. Best for when there are smaller changes (bigger changes look better with a bar graph). Line graphs can also be used to compare changes over the same period of time for more than one group.
Pie Chart: use when you are trying to compare parts of a whole, you should not use them to show changes over time.
Bar Graph: used to compare things between different groups or to track changes over time if the changes/differences are quite large.
This link shows the differences between the types and gives some examples.
Sending E-Mails
E-mails are one of those things which you probably use every day, but you don't really use it properly.
If you are emailing your boss, a work colleague or someone you don't know then there are some rules you should follow.
Benefits of sending emails
E-mails are a good way to communicate with people as people can reply to them when it is suitable for them (rather than if you phone someone - if they are not next to their phone then they can't answer it!).
You can write as much or as little as you need to, and assuming you have an internet connection then it is free (faxs are charged per sheet of paper).
You can e-mail several people at once.
You can attach files for people to look at.
Drawbacks of sending emails
If someone is away from their computer (or there computer is broken, or internet connection is down) then they will not be able to read your email.
People can send you spam (emails about rubbish) or phishing (getting you to give people your credit card details or money) or attach viruses which might harm your computer.
Email Ettiquette
When sending an e-mail you should make sure that you start and end it properly, make sure that you spell check it before you send it and use proper English - no slang! It is generally thought of as OK to start an e-mail with "Hello", but you need to decide how formal you need to be depending on who you are e-mailing.
Subject Lines
This should be a summery of what the e-mail is about. Don't try to cram the whole e-mail into the subject line - keep it short and to the point.
Reply
Reply is when you send the original e-mail back to someone and write a responce at the top. Some people like to delete out the original e-mail but you should really keep it there - the person you are replying to might have forgotten what they asked you in the first place.
Forward
Forward is when you pass the original e-mail onto other people. You should always write at the top of the e-mail what is about to avoid confusion.
CC
CC stands for carbon copy. It is where you want other people to read the e-mail even though it might not have been intended for them originally.
Example: A pupil in a class e-mails the teacher a question about the work they are doing. The teacher replies to the pupil, but thnks that it was agood question and everyone would benefit from seeing the e-mail so the teacher CC's all the other pupils into the email. The original pupil gets the e-mail, but so does everyone else in the class.
BCC
BCC stands for blind carbon copy. This works the same as CC but the original person doesn't know the e-mail has also been sent to other people.
Example: a customer e-mails a resteraunt about poor service they recieved. The person in charge of customer service replies to the e-mail offering an apology and 25% off their next meal. The customer service person BCC's the manager into the e-mail, the manager will get a copy of the e-mail but the customer does not know that they have.
Attachments
You can attach files to e-mails although there is usually a maximum file size.
Risks of attachments
When people send emails, they can attach things which might do your computer harm, or they might send you things which are innappropriate to view whilst at work or school. You should make sure that you trust the person who has sent you the email, if you don't then don't open the attachment!
People can send you viruses, worms, trojan horses, amongst other things and all of these can harm your computer so be careful when opening attachments.
Priorities
E-mails can be sent with different priorities so the person who is recieving the email knows how important it is. Most emails are sent with a normal priorty, although the priority can be changed to High (important) or Low (not important).
Address books
An address book is where you save contacts who you email regularly. It is a quick way to access peoples email addresses and it means that you don't have to remember people's actual email addresses because it is saved in the address book.
E-Mail Signatures
An email signature is something which appears automatically at the bottom of every email you send. If you are the manager of a company instead of writing your name and the fact you are the manager at the end of every email you simply write it once in the email signature box and it will appear at the bottom of all of your emails.
If you are emailing your boss, a work colleague or someone you don't know then there are some rules you should follow.
Benefits of sending emails
E-mails are a good way to communicate with people as people can reply to them when it is suitable for them (rather than if you phone someone - if they are not next to their phone then they can't answer it!).
You can write as much or as little as you need to, and assuming you have an internet connection then it is free (faxs are charged per sheet of paper).
You can e-mail several people at once.
You can attach files for people to look at.
Drawbacks of sending emails
If someone is away from their computer (or there computer is broken, or internet connection is down) then they will not be able to read your email.
People can send you spam (emails about rubbish) or phishing (getting you to give people your credit card details or money) or attach viruses which might harm your computer.
Email Ettiquette
When sending an e-mail you should make sure that you start and end it properly, make sure that you spell check it before you send it and use proper English - no slang! It is generally thought of as OK to start an e-mail with "Hello", but you need to decide how formal you need to be depending on who you are e-mailing.
Subject Lines
This should be a summery of what the e-mail is about. Don't try to cram the whole e-mail into the subject line - keep it short and to the point.
Reply
Reply is when you send the original e-mail back to someone and write a responce at the top. Some people like to delete out the original e-mail but you should really keep it there - the person you are replying to might have forgotten what they asked you in the first place.
Forward
Forward is when you pass the original e-mail onto other people. You should always write at the top of the e-mail what is about to avoid confusion.
CC
CC stands for carbon copy. It is where you want other people to read the e-mail even though it might not have been intended for them originally.
Example: A pupil in a class e-mails the teacher a question about the work they are doing. The teacher replies to the pupil, but thnks that it was agood question and everyone would benefit from seeing the e-mail so the teacher CC's all the other pupils into the email. The original pupil gets the e-mail, but so does everyone else in the class.
BCC
BCC stands for blind carbon copy. This works the same as CC but the original person doesn't know the e-mail has also been sent to other people.
Example: a customer e-mails a resteraunt about poor service they recieved. The person in charge of customer service replies to the e-mail offering an apology and 25% off their next meal. The customer service person BCC's the manager into the e-mail, the manager will get a copy of the e-mail but the customer does not know that they have.
Attachments
You can attach files to e-mails although there is usually a maximum file size.
Risks of attachments
When people send emails, they can attach things which might do your computer harm, or they might send you things which are innappropriate to view whilst at work or school. You should make sure that you trust the person who has sent you the email, if you don't then don't open the attachment!
People can send you viruses, worms, trojan horses, amongst other things and all of these can harm your computer so be careful when opening attachments.
Priorities
E-mails can be sent with different priorities so the person who is recieving the email knows how important it is. Most emails are sent with a normal priorty, although the priority can be changed to High (important) or Low (not important).
Address books
An address book is where you save contacts who you email regularly. It is a quick way to access peoples email addresses and it means that you don't have to remember people's actual email addresses because it is saved in the address book.
E-Mail Signatures
An email signature is something which appears automatically at the bottom of every email you send. If you are the manager of a company instead of writing your name and the fact you are the manager at the end of every email you simply write it once in the email signature box and it will appear at the bottom of all of your emails.
Searching the Internet
The internet is a very big place - there are millions of websites containing information on pretty much anything you can think of.
Different types of websites:
Blog: like an online diary, although blogs can be set up to look more like a website (like this one!). Websites where you can set up your own blog include Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr. A lot of celebrities like to keep blogs, as well as "normal" people.
Commercial: a website set up by a company to advertise it's products.
Community / Forum: where people with a similar interest can get together online and talk to each other through a message board.
E-Commerce: a website where people are selling something, eBay and Amazon are both examples of e-commerce websites.
Personal: a website set up by someone who is not a company. Usually about something that person is interested in, or to tell other people about themselves.
Phishing site: a website which tries to con people into entering their details so they can use them
Social network: where you can add people and interact with them, Facebook and Twitter are both social networking sites
Search engine: where you can type in what you are looking for and it looks up all the websites which contain those words. If all of the websites in the whole word were taken down, and just Google Search was left up then if you typed something into it it would not be able to find anything.
Wiki: a collection of information about a subject, these websites can be changed by anyone and so the information on them cannot always be trusted. Wikipedia is the most famous wiki website.
How does a search engine work?
A search engine works by you typing into the search bar what you are looking for. The search engine then takes the words you typed in and trawls through all the websites online looking for the words.
If you typed in "blue cheese" then it would look for those words on every website. If you typed in "blue chesse" (a typo!) then it would look for websites which have those words on them - although modern search engines have got quite good at spotting typos and spelling mistakes and suggesting corrections for you.
If you type in 'I want to know how to make a cake' then the search engine will find websites with all of those words on it.
All a search engine is doing is looking for websites which have the words on them. A search engine is not made up of websites, there are no websites saved in a search engine - it is just telling you where they are.
It works a lot like when you search the address book on your phone or on Facebook - you type in someones name and it shows you all the people who have this name.
What search engines are there?
There are many different search engines, and they are all quite similar but not quite the same.
Google
Bing
Ask Jeeves
DuckDuckGo
Yahoo!
How to search the internet properly
As there are millions of websites on the internet you can sometimes not find exactly what you are looking for. Knowing how to use a search engine properly can save you time in the long run, as it will help you to know exactly what to type in to make sure you find the websites with the most useful information on them.
Key words: Only type in the words which are relevant, there is no point in typing in "I' - just think how many websites have the word 'I' on them! If you typed in 'I want to know how to make a cake' then the search engine will look for those words on a website in any order. There might be a blog where someone talks about eating a cake one day, and then talks about wanting to know how to make a go kart the next. That website would have all of the words you typed in on it, but it has nothing to do with what you were looking for.
Instead of typing in 'I want to know how to make a cake'- just type in the words which are the most useful - in this case 'make' and 'cake', however 'make' isn't really the right word to use, so 'cake' and 'reciepe' are better key words to use.
Quotes: As mentioned above search engines search for words in any order, quotes make the search engine look for your words in the order you typed them in. Quotes have to be the double speech marks "blue cheese" will find different results to 'blue cheese'.
OR AND NOT: They are words (the technical term for them in computer speak is "boolean expressions") that search engines recognise and can use to help you narrow down your search results.
To try and explain this the example search terms will be looking for websites with information about cats (and/or/not) dogs.
OR: Or will look for websites that have one word of the words as well as websites which have both words on them. "cats or dogs" will bring you websites which have just the word 'cats' on them, just the word 'dogs' on them, and websites whch have both words on them.
AND: And will look for websites which have both of the words on them, searching for 'cats and dogs' will only find you websites which have the words 'cats' and 'dogs' on them. Both words have to be on the website in order for it to be brought up in your search.
NOT: Not will look for one word but not the other, searching for 'cats not dogs' will find you websites which mention cats but do not mention dogs in any way. Another example would be if you were looking for activities to do whilst on holiday but you already knew about one place so didn't want to get a lot of websites about it - "activites in Florida NOT Disney Land".
Advanced search: This will help you to narrow your searches down even further, this website explains some of the different features of Google's Advanced Search, but of course there are more search engines than just Google!
Different types of websites:
Blog: like an online diary, although blogs can be set up to look more like a website (like this one!). Websites where you can set up your own blog include Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr. A lot of celebrities like to keep blogs, as well as "normal" people.
Commercial: a website set up by a company to advertise it's products.
Community / Forum: where people with a similar interest can get together online and talk to each other through a message board.
E-Commerce: a website where people are selling something, eBay and Amazon are both examples of e-commerce websites.
Personal: a website set up by someone who is not a company. Usually about something that person is interested in, or to tell other people about themselves.
Phishing site: a website which tries to con people into entering their details so they can use them
Social network: where you can add people and interact with them, Facebook and Twitter are both social networking sites
Search engine: where you can type in what you are looking for and it looks up all the websites which contain those words. If all of the websites in the whole word were taken down, and just Google Search was left up then if you typed something into it it would not be able to find anything.
Wiki: a collection of information about a subject, these websites can be changed by anyone and so the information on them cannot always be trusted. Wikipedia is the most famous wiki website.
How does a search engine work?
A search engine works by you typing into the search bar what you are looking for. The search engine then takes the words you typed in and trawls through all the websites online looking for the words.
If you typed in "blue cheese" then it would look for those words on every website. If you typed in "blue chesse" (a typo!) then it would look for websites which have those words on them - although modern search engines have got quite good at spotting typos and spelling mistakes and suggesting corrections for you.
If you type in 'I want to know how to make a cake' then the search engine will find websites with all of those words on it.
All a search engine is doing is looking for websites which have the words on them. A search engine is not made up of websites, there are no websites saved in a search engine - it is just telling you where they are.
It works a lot like when you search the address book on your phone or on Facebook - you type in someones name and it shows you all the people who have this name.
What search engines are there?
There are many different search engines, and they are all quite similar but not quite the same.
Bing
Ask Jeeves
DuckDuckGo
Yahoo!
How to search the internet properly
As there are millions of websites on the internet you can sometimes not find exactly what you are looking for. Knowing how to use a search engine properly can save you time in the long run, as it will help you to know exactly what to type in to make sure you find the websites with the most useful information on them.
Key words: Only type in the words which are relevant, there is no point in typing in "I' - just think how many websites have the word 'I' on them! If you typed in 'I want to know how to make a cake' then the search engine will look for those words on a website in any order. There might be a blog where someone talks about eating a cake one day, and then talks about wanting to know how to make a go kart the next. That website would have all of the words you typed in on it, but it has nothing to do with what you were looking for.
Instead of typing in 'I want to know how to make a cake'- just type in the words which are the most useful - in this case 'make' and 'cake', however 'make' isn't really the right word to use, so 'cake' and 'reciepe' are better key words to use.
Quotes: As mentioned above search engines search for words in any order, quotes make the search engine look for your words in the order you typed them in. Quotes have to be the double speech marks "blue cheese" will find different results to 'blue cheese'.
OR AND NOT: They are words (the technical term for them in computer speak is "boolean expressions") that search engines recognise and can use to help you narrow down your search results.
To try and explain this the example search terms will be looking for websites with information about cats (and/or/not) dogs.
OR: Or will look for websites that have one word of the words as well as websites which have both words on them. "cats or dogs" will bring you websites which have just the word 'cats' on them, just the word 'dogs' on them, and websites whch have both words on them.
AND: And will look for websites which have both of the words on them, searching for 'cats and dogs' will only find you websites which have the words 'cats' and 'dogs' on them. Both words have to be on the website in order for it to be brought up in your search.
NOT: Not will look for one word but not the other, searching for 'cats not dogs' will find you websites which mention cats but do not mention dogs in any way. Another example would be if you were looking for activities to do whilst on holiday but you already knew about one place so didn't want to get a lot of websites about it - "activites in Florida NOT Disney Land".
Advanced search: This will help you to narrow your searches down even further, this website explains some of the different features of Google's Advanced Search, but of course there are more search engines than just Google!
Safety on Computers
Using a computer can come with certain risks - afterall we humans were not made to sit down all day and stair at a screen - so there things which have been made to make sure that we stay safe when using a computer.
In the world of business some of these things can be potentially very dangerous - what if someone manages to access a database with the credit card details of a companies customers in it. The person who accessed this database without permission could go on a massive shopping spree with someone elses money.
There are several categories that we need to make sure we keep both ourselves and our work safe when using a computer...
Basic example:
The Hazard: Wires to trip over
The consequences: Someone might trip over the wire and fall and hurt themself
What can be done to prevent this: Make sure all wires are tucked behind a desk and tidied away neatly using a cable tidy.
Personal Safety
This is making sure that you stay safe when in a computer room. There are many hazards, such as:
This is making sure that you are not damaging your health over time when using a computer. If you use a computer frequently you might suffer from:
Things can go wrong when you are using a computer:
In the world of business some of these things can be potentially very dangerous - what if someone manages to access a database with the credit card details of a companies customers in it. The person who accessed this database without permission could go on a massive shopping spree with someone elses money.
There are several categories that we need to make sure we keep both ourselves and our work safe when using a computer...
- Personal Safety
- Health
- Protecting files from modification and loss
Basic example:
The Hazard: Wires to trip over
The consequences: Someone might trip over the wire and fall and hurt themself
What can be done to prevent this: Make sure all wires are tucked behind a desk and tidied away neatly using a cable tidy.
Personal Safety
This is making sure that you stay safe when in a computer room. There are many hazards, such as:
- Wires to trip over
- Hardware which might fall off it's stand
This is making sure that you are not damaging your health over time when using a computer. If you use a computer frequently you might suffer from:
- Eyestrain
- Bad back
- Headaches
- RSI
Things can go wrong when you are using a computer:
- Files can get lost or corrupted, or you might not be able to remember where you saved files
- People can hack into your account or computer and leak the information or modify files
- People can use your computer whilst you are not at it
- Computers (or memory sticks) can break, get lost, or become completely unusable (for example if it ends up fallinng down the toilet or there is a fire - it's probably not going to work after!)
- Ergonomics
- Strong passwords
- Data Protection Act
- Computer Misuse Act
Thursday 23 May 2013
Letters
Letters are anoth thing which you will need to write in other subject areas. There is a standard letter layout in the UK, and this is shown below.
When writing a letter it is very important that you keep all of the text the same size and in the same font - otherwise it will look unprofessional.
Here is a useful website which gives lots of pointers on writing and laying out a letter - Link!
As much as this is a standard letter layout in the UK, there are some parts of the letter which you are allowed to alter.
Try to experiment a little bit with the layout, think about adding a border or a strip of colour along one of the edges.
The key thing to remember is that there is a standard layout for a reason, and your letter needs to look professional.
When writing a letter it is very important that you keep all of the text the same size and in the same font - otherwise it will look unprofessional.
Here is a useful website which gives lots of pointers on writing and laying out a letter - Link!
Image from http://www.goodletterwriting.co.uk/
As much as this is a standard letter layout in the UK, there are some parts of the letter which you are allowed to alter.
- The companies address - as long as it is not in the space of any of the other important parts, you can move it. You could, for example, put it right at the top or bottom
- The companies logo - again needs to not be in the space of the other important parts but can go anywhere else.
Try to experiment a little bit with the layout, think about adding a border or a strip of colour along one of the edges.
The key thing to remember is that there is a standard layout for a reason, and your letter needs to look professional.
Testing, Feedback and Improvements
Testing
Testing is the process of checking a program for errors. It can also mean that you are going out of your way to try break the program, or do unusual things to it in order to see how it reacts.
If problems are identified in testing, then they should be fixed before the program is released.
If you have ever played on a game and ended up finding something a bit unusual, or pressed a sequence of buttons only for something weird to happen? That's because it wasn't tested properly (Sometimes, though, when programmers make things they like to put cool suprise things in. They are called Easter Eggs.)
Here are some bugs examples Link!
There are loads out there but lots of them are from games which are rated 18!
Examples for testing a website
A normal test would be to check that all of the buttons work - do they take you to where they say they will, if they are supposed to change do they.
An abnormal test might be to check what happens if you click on the button 10 times really quickly - what happens in this unusual situation?
Examples for testing a game
A normal test would be to check that the character runs when you press the run key.
An abnormal test might be to go to the edge of the world in the game, press a sequence of buttons and see what happens.
Examples for tesing a database
A normal test would be to check that you can write text into a cell which wants you to write text.
An abormal test might be to check if you can write text in a cell which wants you to write numbers.
Before you test anything you should always come up with a test plan. It is normally done in a table and it is where you state what you are going to test and how you are going to test it. You should leave space to also write down when you tested it, how you tested it and what happened when you tested it.
Feedback
Feedback is what is used to make something better, and feedback should always be gathered from as many people as possible - ensuring that you get a good range of people because different people will suggest different things.
When you ask someone for feedback you should give them some starting points - come up with some questions for them to answer, but also give them an opportunity to give their own feedback.
Remember that the person you are asking for feedback might not be an expert in ICT/computing, so try to keep your language nice and simple.
You also need to remember that feedback is subjective, if one person thinks a colour scheme works someone else might not agree.
Example questions for getting feedback on a website
How do easy did you think the navigation bar was to use?
Did you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes?
Example questions for getting feedback on a game
Do you jump if you press the space bar? Is the jump high enough for you to jump over/onto objects?
What do you think of the choice of the outfits for the character?
Example questions for getting feedback on a database
Do you think the colour choices on the form are appropriate?
Do you think the form is clearly laid out and easy to use?
Improvements
Getting people to suggest improvements is also a bit subjective - getting the opinions of others is very useful though as they might think of things that you never thought up yourself!
Like feedback you should try and get improvements from as many people as possible, making sure that you try to ask as wide of a range of people as you can.
When asking people to suggest improvements you can ask them specific questions (might be useful if you are asking people who are very young/old/are unfamiliar with what you are showing them) or you can leave it open ended.
Testing is the process of checking a program for errors. It can also mean that you are going out of your way to try break the program, or do unusual things to it in order to see how it reacts.
If problems are identified in testing, then they should be fixed before the program is released.
If you have ever played on a game and ended up finding something a bit unusual, or pressed a sequence of buttons only for something weird to happen? That's because it wasn't tested properly (Sometimes, though, when programmers make things they like to put cool suprise things in. They are called Easter Eggs.)
Here are some bugs examples Link!
There are loads out there but lots of them are from games which are rated 18!
Examples for testing a website
A normal test would be to check that all of the buttons work - do they take you to where they say they will, if they are supposed to change do they.
An abnormal test might be to check what happens if you click on the button 10 times really quickly - what happens in this unusual situation?
Examples for testing a game
A normal test would be to check that the character runs when you press the run key.
An abnormal test might be to go to the edge of the world in the game, press a sequence of buttons and see what happens.
Examples for tesing a database
A normal test would be to check that you can write text into a cell which wants you to write text.
An abormal test might be to check if you can write text in a cell which wants you to write numbers.
Before you test anything you should always come up with a test plan. It is normally done in a table and it is where you state what you are going to test and how you are going to test it. You should leave space to also write down when you tested it, how you tested it and what happened when you tested it.
Feedback
Feedback is what is used to make something better, and feedback should always be gathered from as many people as possible - ensuring that you get a good range of people because different people will suggest different things.
When you ask someone for feedback you should give them some starting points - come up with some questions for them to answer, but also give them an opportunity to give their own feedback.
Remember that the person you are asking for feedback might not be an expert in ICT/computing, so try to keep your language nice and simple.
You also need to remember that feedback is subjective, if one person thinks a colour scheme works someone else might not agree.
Example questions for getting feedback on a website
How do easy did you think the navigation bar was to use?
Did you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes?
Example questions for getting feedback on a game
Do you jump if you press the space bar? Is the jump high enough for you to jump over/onto objects?
What do you think of the choice of the outfits for the character?
Example questions for getting feedback on a database
Do you think the colour choices on the form are appropriate?
Do you think the form is clearly laid out and easy to use?
Improvements
Getting people to suggest improvements is also a bit subjective - getting the opinions of others is very useful though as they might think of things that you never thought up yourself!
Like feedback you should try and get improvements from as many people as possible, making sure that you try to ask as wide of a range of people as you can.
When asking people to suggest improvements you can ask them specific questions (might be useful if you are asking people who are very young/old/are unfamiliar with what you are showing them) or you can leave it open ended.
Programs to build (Python Turtle)
- Change the colour of the pen
- Draw a star with 12 points
- Draw a square using a for loop
- Draw a star using a for loop, fill in star in with colour
- Ask a user how big they want their square to be, then draw it
- Ask a user how big they want their star to be, then draw it - add this into program number 6
- Ask the user what shape they want, how big they want it to beand what colour they want it to be, then draw it
- Allow the user to define their own shapes
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