PT Assignments 2001-2002

Bob Henderson (head of school) writes:

"Many of you have inquired in regard to computer assistance and the personal training program. Your employement contract with Nobles specifies several specific duties expected of all faculty members and continues to say, "Nobles expects that all teachers will plan to advance their knowledge and the use of technology in the classroom on a consistent basis; progress should occur each year. Several faculty will be asked to participate in the computer personal trainer program, requiring a weekly meeting through the first semester to develop and enhance computer and technology skills." All faculty new to Nobles are required to participate in the personal trainer program. Steve Bergen will shortly be in touch with you to set this up. You will be assigned to a member of the faculty with whom you will meet weekly to work on your technology skills through the first semester of this school year. It is my hope that you will use this medium as productively as possible in the practice of your craft and the fulfillment of your responsibilities. I need to remind everyone that it is our expectation that these same contractual obligations apply to all owners of the white IBooks. Steve has provided Ben and me with this framework for this faculty IBook program as we move from 50% of the faculty towards 100% of the faculty. As Steve has explained it, each IBook user works 1 or 2 semesters towards completion of the assignment as personal trainee and then works as personal trainer for another member of the faculty. After fulfilling both commitments, the IBook is yours for the rest of your Nobles career!"

Ben Snyder (head of upper school) writes 2/25/2002:

"Please remember that there are several contractual obligations for all of us with the IBooks a) posting homework on the web b) weekly meetings with a personal trainer c) completing your assignments d) sending a weekly note to Diaries (Ml) Thanks for all your help and cooperation in making this work and spreading the word."

Steve Bergen (computer coordinator) writes:

We indeed have a white ibook for you that is on order and will arrive soon. As you know from reading the Diaries (ML) notes, the overview involves meeting once a week with another person whom will be your computer resource for a semester or a year. In this capacity, he/she is your personal trainer and will help you with the assignments and with the ongoing posting and enhancing of your homework on the web. The assignments represent a "core curriculum" in computer usage for teaching faculty, somewhat like a survey course in graduate school. Some people take a semester to complete, others will will take a year. That is fine, as long as you stay committed to the ultimate goal of building your skills, experimenting with technology applications in your curriculum, posting your homework on the web and finishing the assignments. Once you are ready and desirous to be a personal trainer (and find another member of the faculty to help mentor), this will lead to you keeping the ibook as your professional tool for the duration of your Nobles career. Here is an step-by-step overview. Since steps 1,2,3 have a different connotation for us at Nobles and since we have been struggling with baseball in Boston since 1918, here are the four steps!

1. first base: sign on and commit (via e-mail) to the idea of being a personal trainee for a semester or year which will involve once a week meetings completing assignments, sending notes to Diaries (ML) and posting your homework on the web
2. second base: based on availability, you get the ibook and become the personal trainee of another faculty member who might in the computer dept or a faculty colleague; you must now complete the assignments and meet once a week
3. third base: spend a semester or more as the personal trainer of another faculty member and help him/her to succeed in getting to second base; ideally this is one semester, but you do have to see your personal trainee through to success!
4. home plate: the ibook is yours for the duration of your Nobles career as a member of the teaching faculty

Steve Bergen (computer coordinator) writes 3/3/2002:

"Most of the the 10 new white ibooks have been distributed, bringing the number of faculty with white ibooks to approximately 45. We in the computer department hope that you have read the notes from Ben and Bob reminding you of your contractual obligations regarding the white IBooks. We at Nobles have been incredibly successful using this model ever since we started our Pioneer program in 1995. There are quite a few people (although of course not everyone) who truly value and enjoy reading about the successes and adventures with technology by various colleagues. Our professional worlds and lives at Nobles are so fast paced that we simply do not sit around in the memorial room chatting with each other about our teaching moments the way Ellie and I used to when we started here at Nobles in the 1960s. Consequently this e-communication via Diaries (ML) becomes one way to stay connected. Like participation in any listserv, some of us read each others notes more thoroughly than others. But all of your notes get compiled into a portfolio and there are many people besides me who value reading your notes. Furthermore, your Diaries (ML) notes are also valuable because they serve you in a journal fashion the opportunity to reflect on what is working and what is not. We have been using this approach to faculty computer training since 1995 and it is one of the reasons that Nobles is light years ahead of other schools. Please cooperate! Thanks! Steve"

ASSIGNMENT 1: Computer Vocabulary

• category 1/file size: byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte
• category 2/types of software: commercial, shareware, public domain
• category 3/computer components: modem, monitor, usb port, ethernet port, modem port

previous version:
* 1 BIT, 8 BIT, 16 BIT * K or KILOBYTE * 24 BIT COLOR * LASER DISC * ANALOG * LASER PRINTER * ASCII * BASE TWO * MEGABYTE * MIDI * BAUD RATE * MODEM * BINARY CODE * MONITOR * BIT * BYTE * MOTHERBOARD * NETWORK * CD ROM * CODEC * NYBBLE * OCR * COMMERCIAL * PARALLEL * CPU * CRT * PHOTO CD * PIXEL * DAISY CHAIN * PRINTERS * DIGITAL * PUBLIC DOMAIN * RAM * DOS * SCANNERS * DOT MATRIX * SCSI INTERFACE * DVD * FLOPPY DISK * SECTORS,TRACKS * SERIAL * GIGABYTE * SHAREWARE * HARD DISK * TCP * HEXADECIMAL * TERABYTE * HTML * VIDEO BOARD * INKJET PRINTER * VIRUSES * INTERFACE * VOICE DIGITIZER * ZIP DRIVES

• samples to be posted
• resource info

ASSIGNMENT 2: NoblesNet Skills (e-mail, bulletin board, posting web page)

previous version:
Skills: Update your resume, make mailing lists for classes, advisees, internet friends, learn the features associated with history, chatting, folders, attachments, spell-checking, auto-forwarding mail, receipt requested, personal documents, preference re chatting invitation and so on. Learn how NoblesNet is used for cut slips, work orders and HELP. Learn how to access NoblesNet from the web via bbs.nobles.edu and post your own web page with weekly homework assignments.

• samples to be posted
• Distance Learning conference on NoblesNet

ASSIGNMENT 3: Honesty, Netiquette, Citing Sources, Plagiarism on the Web

• resources

ASSIGNMENT 4: Compatibility (UNDER REVIEW)

• samples to be posted
• link to be posted

ASSIGNMENT 5: Disks, Folders, File Server Usage, Backups

• sample

ASSIGNMENT 6: Webquests and Web Searching

• sample one
• sample two
• resources

ASSIGNMENT 7: Printer, Scanners and Digital Cameras

• samples to be posted
• link to be posted

ASSIGNMENT 8: Inspiration

• sample one
• sample two
• tips on inspiration (a tutorial)

ASSIGNMENT 9: Powerpoint

• samples

ASSIGNMENT 10: Projector within the classroom

• sample

ASSIGNMENT 11: Use of the labs in hands-on mode

• sample