(S12) What's the best smart phone OS for the money? Droid? iphone?

1. List your phone

2. Costs, operating and phone cost

3. Why this phone is the best for the money

4. Significant features are...

(S10) Transformice!

Yes it's true.  You, have before you, a homework assignment based on the game...Transformice!  Your teacher has gone over the edge!  Play the game.  Play it some more!  And more... and then...

1. Describe the key elements that make someone want to play this game.   Just what is "it" that makes it so fun?


2. Is there a mild addictive quality to it?  What drives to to open this game vs a movie or another game?


3. Suppose you were commissioned to develop a game by a competitor and your task was to create a game that was better than Transformice.  What would your game look like? How would you improve on it?


4. How would you build an audience to play it?

(S9) Educational Gaming

1. What qualifies a video or computer game as educational? 

2. What do some experts say about gaming in education?   Cite some specific commentary from one of these links.  Don't duplicate any answers before you.

Summit on Educational Gaming

the education arcade

MIT-Singapore GAMBIT Lab

3. What makes a game fun?  What compels you to keep playing?

(S8) Read it on Reddit

Go to reddit and click "register" in the upper right hand corner.  Explore the site.  Answer the questions below.  As always, number your responses.  



1. What is reddit? How does it compare to a blog?
2. Find an article that you think is interesting and appropriate.  Upvote it.  Read a few comments of that article.  Upvote the ones that you feel made good points.  List the article you chose.
3. Comment on the article. When you have submitted, click on the 'permalink' below your comment. Copy the url of the page it brings you to and save that link.  Paste the link to the comment you made.
4. How does the concept of "social news" appeal to you?  What are it's strengths and weaknesses?

NOTE: Everyone needs to submit valid answers before the "Monday Deal" goes into effect.

(S7) Paper vs Paperless teaching

1. How many of your classes are basically paperless, that is your classwork is delivered and completed online?

2. How many of your classes use paper handouts, packets, worksheets or paper tests all or most of the time?

3. Which do you prefer?    Paper or Paperless?  Why?

4. pvLearners / Google docs are good online environments, but there were some in class that disapproved. Do you think it's an efficient means to collaborate, communicate, teach/learn between teachers and students?  Why?  If not, what is a better idea?

(S6) GenYES

Based on what you've read from the GenYES site and the work you've done at SMHS, describe, in your opinion what you feel is the most important function of GenYES.  

This is a shortened version of the student written blog topic.  But since we are having several discussions on GenYES this week, I thought you should catch a break here!  One or two sentences will suffice for this week's task. 

(S5) AMPLITUDE

The AMP Zones 

• AMP 1 - PC cove  (wired for X-Box often used for Madden)
• AMP 2 - wii interactive wall
• AMP 3 - mac mini on the back (wired for wii)
• AMP 4 - mac mini on the back (wired for wii)
• AMP 5 - mac mini on the back (wired for X-box is often used for Rock Band)
• AMP 6 - Situation room / Telepresence

1. What part has GenYES played in developing these zones? 

    (You might need to interview some GenYes students if you're new this year)

2. How can we expand use of these zones by teachers? Be specific to a few zones.

3. How can we expand use of these zones by students? Be specific to a few zones.

4. Research an innovative technology that we might explore to integrate into an AMP zone in the future

(S4) Programming Languages

We use technology all the time, computers, phones, ipods.  What makes it work?

Program languages are the underlying methods that allow computer and application functions to happen.

Research one programming language.

1.  Describe it, what it is used for and the applications that use it.
2.  What advantages does it have over other programming languages?
3.  What is the relative difficulty of it to learn?
4.  What professions might you use this language in?

(S3) Do it yourself

This weeks student blog challenges you to discuss how you would go about building your own computer.  (Buying a stock package or going to Best Buy is not an option here!)

1. How do you decide what system you want and where do you start?  List websites you'd use.

2. What 10 parts will you buy? The parts should personally meet your needs (ie gaming, portability, cost)  Justify some of your choices.

3. How long do you think it will take you to build your custom machine?

4. What are the benefits or disadvantages to building your own system?

(S2) Tech -> Fail

Over the past few months of the blog assignment, we've examined the biggest presence on the internet and in the world of operation systems. Your job this week is to find the biggest blunders of the tech world.

1. Find one failed tech idea that really stands out to you. Give a short summary about this product, including when it was made, who made it, and what it aspired to do.

2. What went wrong with the product?

3. What could have been done to make it more successful?