The Road Test... Dun Dun Dun!

As 1:00PM approached, the students mingled and mashed in the hall getting their daily dose of sugar. Unfortunately, as they filed into the room, they were informed by AJ that no food or drink is allowed during this road test!

After AJ directed each student to their prospected seats, they read the instructions together and then moved right onto the test~

When the allotted time was over, the students were on break! Except.. they stuck to their computer so much, it didn't seem like a break so AJ said, "At least do something that looks like you're on break!" Nevertheless, the student's break resumed.. on either Facebook or their projects.

As the students came back to their work-mind set, AJ introduced his favorite treat to the class, chili-powered dried mangoes. It was tried by many and liked by some.

Anny even mentioned "Baby Lucus (at least I believe that's what she said)" and the similarities of it.

After the student's were giving time to finish up their projects, Jose went up to give his presentation.

Jose: PowerPoint was very interactive and quite simple and clean! Your organization skills were really put to use in this project. Good Scratch project! The class enjoyed seeing your starfish get eaten~ =X

Marleny: Although you didn't seem that enthusiastic to go after Jose, your computer was very still good! Or as Eliza would put it -- she remarked, "I like the way your computer is VERY blue! All color coordinated and whatnot~" Loved your Scratch project! Very humorous and true. Girls running from random guys! ;)

Maddie: Very thoughtful when creating your computer. Especially when you bought the headphones!

Jaylah: Very humorous PowerPoint! Liked the title page. Loved the transitions to different slides. Never seen that kind before! Liked how slick your your PowerPoint was.

KeKe: Loved the intergalactic, glow-in-the-dark PowerPoint and computer! Gamers would be intimidated to see you at their LAN parties! =) Cute Scratch project. Loved the Pac-Man like game!!

Anny: Great PowerPoint (and especially getting the internal hard drive! ;D). Great Scratch project concept: The Booboo stalking the furry little Monkey! Very, very humorous!

Last but not least, Jamarra: A different approach to your PowerPoint (making other students guess what the component is)! I like it! Getting your audience to interact with your PowerPoint and your presentation as a whole. Like your clever use of South Bridge and North Bridge schools! You're an alumni in doing and creating presentations!

Loved it when you said, "It's about what's inside the case that matters."

Your Scratch project was very ... deep. Connecting our confusion with your character's.

The rest of the time was spent on being free~

The New Ghosts

So, the day before, the students were all asked to enable SATA 0 and disable SATA 1 before they powered down their computers so that the computers can be newly imaged.

And when the time came for the new images to be discovered, the Dropbox was a topic that was discussed between Eliza and Anny. Unfortunately... that wasn't the only thing that was discovered today...

When Eliza decided to show Anny how to use the Dropbox via desktop, she linked her Dropbox to the desktop... and every single computer in that room (or.. just all over the network!)!

Distressed, the first thing that came out of Eliza's mouth to AJ, who later came into the room was All About The Dropbox -- forget the Pentium, Weird Al!~

After some researching, rebooting of the computers, and reinstalling, AJ wrote to Brad and those guys and then proceeded to ask everyone in the room to turn off all of their computers.

As the students turned off their computers, they headed out to break. During this time, AJ turned on one computer to see if the Dropbox problem was fixed. It wasn't.

As each student came into the room, they were instructed to turn on their computers and resume work on their projects. When Krystal turned on her computer, everything was ENLARGED! "I'm not blind, you know!" stated the very frustrated Krystal as Jose goes, "Whoa.. that's giving me a headache." Indeed, her icons were large... Cristina attempted to help, but the problem was unsolved. Luckily, Tenzin walked into the room. The two sought Tenzin out for help but... the problem remained unsolved. Once again, Krystal rebooted her computer and this time around, everything seemed normal... right?

Earlier in the day, AJ had mentioned something about a password... that is, the new network drive requires the user to log in with a username and a password. Well, after several failed attempts, Cristina sought help from AJ and his email. Hidden deep within was the username and password. Unfortunately for Krystal, when a password was entered (instructor's), her computer wouldn't stop loading... so once again... She had to reboot her computer.

"By the time I open my project, class would be over!" Krystal remarked as she was instructed to reboot.. one last time.

After she got onto the network drive, without the prompt of a password or username, she began working contently on her project.

BTW Work Time and OS TEST!

The students started the day with diving right into one of their two projects! Whether they wanted to finish their scratch project or begin building their own computer was up to them. Many of the students started off with the more familiar scratch project because the Build Your Own Computer was recently introduced at the end of the day yesterday~

Nevertheless, many of the students jumped right into newegg.com and began finding parts for their virtual computer as soon as they finished their scratch games.

After the first break, Maddie was the only one working on her Scratch project, but she was also the only one who dived into this project with a mindset of making a complete game.. with all the levels and everything. Before the break, Cristina had worked with Maddie as she came up with a goal of making her dog chase her cat through this maze... but once all the other students started working on their Build Your Own Computer again, Maddie decided that she wanted her dog to chase the cat throughout the house. This required a background changing variable which Cristina did not know how to do. As she explained to Chou the problem that they were dealing with, he goes, "Oh.. I haven't done that before." But after 10 minutes or so, Maddie was well on her way to finishing off her project.

Hope it turns out the way you wanted it to, Maddie! Good luck, girl~ =)

As the students were supposed to head out to their next break, Chou kept telling them that they needed a break away from computers (they've been staring into the monitor intensely for a while now)... so he wasn't going to help them with any of their projects until the allotted time was done.

When they came back, the class had a Q&A session about operating systems, more work time, and then began their long awaited operating system permit test.

Permit Test?! Hardware?!

After shortly discussing DR3 -- a type of ram and Dance Dance Revolution, AJ ask the students if they had a question (one of the three that they were supposed to have written down over the weekend) and Krystal wondered whether a virus would effect both operating systems once it's caught. Jamarra answered with.. "not really" and AJ confirmed that even if you have two operating systems, you won't spread the virus because "they don't share needles." A perfect leeway to the Weird Al video about being White and Nerdy.

After the video, the students were to write a joke that Weird Al had in his video (must be about computers) and the majority of the students wrote about Weird Al making a web page for his dog... but couldn't exactly explain why the joke was funny!

"You better do better on this next test," said AJ as he played "All About the Pentium" by Weird Al.

After break the students were sent off to researching an answer to one of the questions that they compiled before the break. As AJ left for the day, he had the students answer the question via blogs!

As he left, Chou came into the spotlight with Antivirus and Spyware. After debating whether or not worm, trojan, rootkit, and phishing were either Anti or Spy, Chou told them the answers and explained to them the reasons.

The next activity was reviewing for the hardware permit test. Cristina lead the group on a competitive 2 team Jeopardy game focused on hardware. At the end of the game, Chou asked Gates: Windows, Jobs: Mac, [blank]: Linux. The first team's score, for getting the wrong answer, depleted to 0. The second team's score, for cheating (Googling the answer), was also depleted to 0. They're ALL winners!

As the students were getting done with their permit test, they finished their blogs. As each one of them finished up and published their blogs, they rebooted their computers and got to working on their projects!

Hope you 8 did well on the permit test!!

--- Eliza ended the day with the introduction to the student's BTW.

Thrilling Windows 7 with Chou!

The day started off with a little Michael Jackson -- can you guess which song? ;)

The connection of Thriller and computers is if the computer doesn't have an operating system, then they're just like zombies!

So.. in order to de-zombify their computers, the students will be installing Windows 7 with Chou~

After discussing operating systems, the students are to restart their computers hitting F12 to enter the Boot Device Menu

But before that, Chou showed another video to the students: iPhone 4
And discussed what the iPhone 4 would be without the operating system.

Next,they all got to work on installing Windows 7~

As the students were waiting for Windows to finish installing, Maddie states that she's glad that "Jose isn't the president of the world." Jose quickly retaliates and says, "Hey, I would be a great president.." and then he trails off into a story about how he and Krystal was waiting for the bus and some lady approaches them and greets them with, "Hi! I'm the laid off mom, can I sing you a song?" It was a song about losing her job and how she cannot get it back.

Soon after that, their installation was completed and they proceeded to download Mozilla Firefox and Google chrome, Malwarebytes and the Microsoft Security Essentials, and then they went and downloaded Google desktop. What came next was finding themes that interested them.

After the students came back from their break, Chou set out to teach the students about Scratch, a simple programming application that can create games for the students to play. DIY games? How fun is that!

Computer Parts Apart!

The second day began with an addition of Jele, a student from the class of 2013.

After everyone introduced themselves to Jele, Eliza began the lesson plan with a memory game where the students had to memorize a set 20 words from cat to ice cream and zebra!
Then Eliza had the students write down names of friends and family (as many as they can remember!) then asked the students which activity was easier.

Krystal and quickly hit the nail on the head and connected the activities to RAM and hard drives (because they ARE in ITA!).

The next portion of the class included a Hardware Review that Cristina quickly went through. The students were reminded to pay attention to the images because they'll be needing it in a bit ;)

Once the review ended, Eliza handed out worksheets of components that the students had to compare. Each pair/group of student was to compare a certain component and choose which was better.

The next activity was similar to the last one, but required a component that fit a certain motherboard that Eliza had posted up on the screen.

Each student was to report their findings...
Krystal's attempt to find a RAM that fit the motherboard didn't quite match the specs, so Maddie quickly offered her findings... After she explained why her RAM fit the motherboard, Jose stated, "for two dollars less, you can get mine!"

Next.. The class went through the steps of what to do before you open your computer and then proceeded to opening their computers. After Cristina showed the class how to open their cases and carefully take out a couple of pieces, the students cleared their desks and lined up to grab their computers from the pile of computers.

After their break, AJ entered the class to present his "Famous Motherboard PowerPoint" that landed him his job at ITA! The students attentively listened and gave good feedback to fully understand what AJ was teaching about the motherboard.

Next, the students blogged to AJ everything that they know about computers~!

Systems and Service: The First Day

The first day of camp started out with Kiki and Maddie coming in early -- which lead to AJ and Cristina kicking them out to create what the students call, "a setup," where the students must figure out their first test: turn the computer power on.

"Are these computers working?" were the first words that filled the room when the students sat down. After a few chatters about the computer's inability to turn on, a loud "EVERYTHING is unplugged!" flew from Jamarra's mouth.

After discovering this, the students all helped each other whether it was physically helping Maddie with her problem (the powerstrip was turned off so she had more work than anyone else!) or verbally advising Krystal.

As Cristina lead the first discussion on, the students realized that even though plugging everything in wasn't AT ALL difficult, finding the problem was harder than they thought (they all just sat there wondering what was wrong with the computer).

AJ's next question about systems and services "opened their minds" about technology and the service that can come from their computers. They verbally brainstormed the different services that a computer can do for them and their community. AJ went down the rows asking each student. Then shared two comic strips about today's technology.

AJ's next joke (shown below) striked up crickets in the audience... until the short Matrix clip was showed -- I think they got it then! He IS the one ;)

Silence swept the room as AJ played his "Radiolab: Making Radio Lab" and continued as the "Fish Love" video played on for a couple of minutes. The discussions which followed applied the two video/audio to computers.

Each of the student pairs went up to the front of the class and introduced themselves and explained the relation between the video/audio and computers.

AJ wanted the students to all be like Neo, but someone stated, "I want to be like Miguel (who was the farmer who had a self purifying ecosystem)."

To overview the systems, AJ had everyone come up with some sort of system. His examples included pushing the shutter button on the remote and having the projector's shutter on and off and water which enters the body and leaves as urine. Somewhere along the line, AJ mentioned getting energy by drinking and a few moments later, Jose says, "Water has no calories... (therefore you can't get energy!)"

Some of the examples that the students came up with included cars, doors, facebook, the passing of a bill, bodily functions, jumping into water, and basically EVERYTHING!

-- During break, Maddie and Jamarra called the help desk to find out what their passwords were. Jamarra had called and was transferred about three or four times. When she finally talked to someone who knew about ITA, she said, "You know what you're doing because other people were just transferring me around." It turns out... she was talking to Marquis Stern, a 2009 ITA graduate! When AJ heard the name, he darted to the front of the room (from the door) and asked to talk to Marquis. The problem was solved and the two had their passwords reseted. --

After break, AJ jumped right into clarifying systems and lead to a preview of the workings of the computer... the motherboard, RAM, etc.

Next, AJ discusses binary, or takes "A Trip Down Binary Ln." which is "just like math class!" says a voice in the audience. After a short explanation and example, the students succeeded in converting their first binary number, 1001, to a decimal number, 9!

The class takes a new turns towards hardware and software. After running through the hardware, AJ informs the students that when they bring in their hard drive, they can update to Windows 7! He then quickly recalls a story about Maddie getting mad when he took out her hard drive during Freshmen Orientation. Though Maddie denies ever getting mad, AJ stands firm on his recollection!

The software discussion leads to viruses... and takes a jump to the history of viruses (which will be covered in exactly 7 days...)!

After introducing operating systems, AJ concludes his portion of the day with "Tough Concluding Questions" and informs the students on their PLC dates and expectations.

Eliza starts her portion of the day immediately with... hardware! She introduces what is "Inside Your Computer!" with an illustration of exactly that (what is inside our computers [from the motherboard to the power supply]).

Next, Eliza briefly runs through each of the hardware parts and what they do. One question which stumped everyone was, "What does PCI stand for?" After AJ quickly Googled it, he announced that it stood for, "Peripheral Component Interconnect!"

Soon after the Googling, the students took a 10 minute break.

When they came back, the students began their task of deciphering a Newegg page and comparing different computer parts based on their specs. They are to identify each component and decide where they go. Then to compare and evaluate which component is better and explain why. The students jumped into their assignment and started sorting which component is better than the other! They then filled the red lines on the image above.

Eliza lead the class comparison and answered questions which the students had. 4:00PM, the time to leave came quite fast... and the students all tidied their space and flooded the hall.