CISCO Assignments Fall 2011
Assignment #4 - Hardware Mega Project
Take your QUIZ here
In order to familiarize ourselves with the many aspects of computer hardware we will be completing our first team project during the next week.
Starting on Tuesday you will be working with a partner to complete a 7-10 minute Power Point presentation on one aspect of computer technology.
You will have the full 5 days (Tues-Monday) to research and complete your work.
Presentations will begin on Wednesday, Sept 25 and the order will be drawn randomly so all team's need to be prepared to present on Tuesday.
You should be familiar with Microsoft Power Point from previous computer classes but if you are not, here is a tutorial outlining the basic features of the program.
* For more advance users here is a very in-depth tutorial
Your team will be creating a 7-10 minute (yes, you will be timed) slide show that should feature interesting graphics taken from the internet, impressive layouts, clean design, attractive fonts, and organized presentation.
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You will be graded on:
your research - thoughtful, well documented
your organization - careful spelling, clean layout, ease of comprehension
the information provided - did you cover all the key areas?
creativity - use of appropriate images, graphics, etc.
the length of your presentation. You do not want to go longer than 7 minutes, or less than 5.
You are expected to provided references and links to your information sources at the end of the presentation.
____________________________________________________________________________
Your topics and key areas that need to be covered are:
Team 1 - Computer Maintenance
Team Members: Henrietta, Vinson
what are types of maintenance that the average computer owner should be doing?
how to clean out fans, get rid of dust, and dirt
how to run a Virus Scan, get rid of SpyWare
how do you keep your computer running smoothly? ex. defrag, registry cleaning, deleting cache files, etc.
Team 2 - Operating Systems
Team Members: Kevin Ho, Daniel
what are operating systems?
what is their purpose?
describe their history
list various operating systems and their pro's and con's
research the rumoured new operating system from Google, what is the huge shift that Google is proposing? (hint - it's all in the clouds
Teams 3 & 4 - Networking
Team Members: Carl, Kevin Li, Ken, Jack
what is a network?
different between internet, intranet
what is its purpose?
how does it work?
what is an ip address?
what is a LAN? Ethernet? Server? Router? Modem?
how do fibre optics work?
how does the internet get to your home / school / work?
differences between wireless and wired networks?
how can network speeds be reduced?
how can you speed up a network?
discuss the first types of computer networks and their uses
how does wi-fi work, what are the different types of encryptions
Team 5 - Motherboards and CPU's
Team Members: Cornell, Josh K
what are they and what do they do?
what different types are there?
who make better chips, AMD or Intel?
what were CPU's like 10 years ago?
explain what a 'core' is and what it does. why are more better?
Team 6 - Storage Devices
Team Members: Emily, Willie
Describe the following devices and how they work.
DVD's / CD's / Blu Ray
Hard Drives / Mechanical Drives vs. Solid State (SSD)
Flash Memory (memory cards, sticks, chips)
Team 7 - Memory (ram) / Video Cards / Audio Cards
Team Members: Ben, Yizhen
what are they and what do they do?
what different types are there?
describe why cooling is important and various types of cooling options available?
why would you need to upgrade these things?
show pictures of different examples
Team 9 - Input Devices
Team Members: Josh, Brian
what are they and what do they do?
what different types are there?
describe different types of ram?
why do some people need to upgrade these things?
Team 8 - Power Supplies / Cases / Cooling
Team Members: Alex, Jeff
* 1 point bonus if you can figure out how to embed a YouTube clip (max 1 minute long)
Team Members: Nick, Ryan
what are they and what does they do?
how do you access a BIOS?
why is it important?
define: AGP, ISA, EISA, FireWire, USB, PCI, Hyper Transport, VLB
Team 14 - Mobile Computing
Team Members: Kevin Lee, Sepehr
discuss its origins, history and development.
show a appropriate pictures and mention key people that were involved.
which countries are the most connected? which are the least?
what kind of projections are there about the Internets use in the years to come?
Team 13 - BIOS & PCI Buses
Team Members: Tahoora, Jacky
discuss and describe: data encryption, SSL, ICP, secure servers, e-commerce, and more.
show appropriate pictures.
define: worms, trojans, virus, and other types of computer attacks. Describe 2 recent hacker exploits that have made the news (think of social networking hacks like Facebook and Twitter)
Team 12 - Internet
Team Members: Jorden, Eric
warez / torrents / the pirate bay (describe the legal battle that is occurring with this site, why can't they be shut down?)
music downloads
creative commons licensing
Peer 2 Peer
Usenet
impacts of downloading on the music / movie / newspaper industry.
Team 11 - Internet Security
- describe the following terms and provide examples
Team Members: Max, Keyan
describe and define the following: mice, keyboards, game controllers, tablets, midi keyboards and more.
show a pictures of different types of each, describe features and benefits.
discuss special input devices for people with physical challenges and disabilities.
describe multi-touch input and the new motion controllers being developed by Sony and Microsoft (project natale)
Team 10 - Piracy / Copyright / Legal Issues
Brainstorm the following concepts and write the answers, point-form, in your homework section.
Label this section "E-Waste Unit"
Assignment #3 - E-Waste
describe the shift towards mobile computing in recent years
how are computer users moving away from the traditional desk work environment
describe 3 mobile devices that have been at the forefront of this movement
find stats and figures to show how many people are accessing the internet on the go from mobile devices
implications for the future? What will become of the desktop computer?
• What kind of electronic devices do you own?
• What electronic devices do you find essential in your life?
• How long do you usually keep electronic devices?
• How do people dispose of obsolete electronic devices?
• What happens to the discarded electronic devices?
• What are some government policies regarding disposal of
electronic devices? (do web research to find this answer)
View Photo Gallery from E-Waste dump in Guiyu, China
When you finish, share your information in our collaborative E-Waste document.
See how your answers compare with everyone else.
Movie - Produced by UBC students, nominated for a 2009 Emmy Award
On the outskirts of Ghana’s biggest city sits a smoldering wasteland,
a slum carved into the banks of the Korle Lagoon, one of the most
polluted bodies of water on Earth. The locals call it Sodom and
Gomorrah.
Correspondent Peter Klein and a group of graduate journalism students
from the University of British Columbia have come here as part of a
global investigation to track a shadowy industry that’s causing big
problems here and around the world.
Their guide is a 13-year-old boy named Alex. He shows them his home,
a small room in a mass of shanty dwellings, and offers to take them
across a dead river to a notorious area called Agbogbloshie.
Agbogbloshie has become one of the world’s digital dumping grounds,
where the West’s electronic waste, or e-waste, piles up—hundreds of
millions of tons of it each year.
Answer these questions in your homework section
• How is the slum outside Ghana’s biggest city described?
• Why did the news correspondent and graduate students go to Ghana?
• What is the “shadowy industry” that is causing global problems?
• What does the introduction reveal about Alex and his life in the slum?
• What happens to the tons of e-waste produced by the West?
• What is the human and environmental impact of e-waste?
Final section of Assignment #3
Through web research find out where in the Tri-Cities area you would recycle the following items. List the locations including address and phone number on your site in the homework section. Perhaps you might need to make a few phone calls to complete this assignment. There is a phone in the classroom that can be used if necessary.
Using Google Maps and having our school as a starting point - calculate how far you need to travel to properly dispose of all of the preceding items. Include the total distance travelled, to and from the school, at the bottom of your write-up.
The student who can recycle all 10 items and also travel the least amount of distance will be the winner!
Last step: After viewing the "Designed for the Dump" video - reflect on your list of electronic items and identity two items you feel are "Designed for the Dump" and two items that are "Designed to Last". Identify these at the bottom of your assignment on your website.
Assignment #2 - Video: History of the Personal Computer
Take some notes - you can also click into Google Docs and take notes on there.
Quiz - 10 Key Questions about the Film (large concepts, not small details) Wednesday 12pm
Assignment #1 - Create your first web page
1. Using Google Sites, create a basic website about yourself. You may include video clips, songs, pictures, or any other forms of media that you feel best represent who you are.
Your website should include the following:
- Your name and the period that you are in
- A brief write-up about yourself (your name, where you are from, your interests, favourite things, favourite subjects, etc) - * Do not feel the need to post anything personal, these sites will be public *
- A Homework section where you will be posting links to your completed assignments.
** Also add two other pages in your sidebar.
Cisco Academy 11 or 12 (depending on your grade)
Computer History Assignment
You should use at least 2 columns in your page.
In 1 column you are to make a list of links to other students pages in your class. You will need to spell their name correctly, have the list in alphabetical order, and have the links all working properly. You can find the Class List here, feel free to copy and paste the names into your column. At the end of class, you will need find the students websites from their profiles in the members list and add links to their names.
Google Sites is an easy website to use. There are tutorials and help available within the site.
** Once you have a URL for your site, please update our Class Roster and add your URL to your profile so we can find your site. *** ALSO - Please include your Twitter name in your profile ex. @BillyBob if you have one.
Example Website: http://sites.google.com/site/aboutmeJosh
Post in the homework section of your site:
1. A new thing you have learned about making websites.
2. Something you have not learnt yet but would like to learn.
3. Who has made the best site in your opinion.
4. 2 things you could do to improve your site.
Due date: end of class, Friday, Sept 9
Problems logging into Google sites? Try logging out of Google groups then typing http://sites.google.com into your web browser and logging in again. Also, best results will likely be had using Mozilla Firefox rather than Internet Explorer
Website Rubric
10 points - Layout
Is your site easy to navigate?
Does it make logical sense how to get around?
Do you have to search to find content or is it easy to locate?
10 points - Creativity
Does the site reflect your diverse interests?
Have you gone beyond the basic template to customize it?
Have you chosen a colour scheme that is easy to view?
Have you added more than the bare minimum to make it special?
10 points - Functionality
Do all the links work?
Does all content load effectively?
Can you easily jump between menus and links?
Total 30