Social Networking as key to exploring Information Systems and Databases

As a teacher of the HSC Information Processes and Technology (IPT) course I find myself annually contemplating the content that needs to be taught and trying to find new and interesting ways to fulfil the syllabus requirements.  The hardest part I find here is getting the balance right between what the students will be stimulated [...]

Social Networking Data Model – Schema

I have been continuing to search for more examples of Social Media database design.  My reason for this is because I am using / intending to use this structure as the back bone to teaching database design to some of my students (More on that in my next post).  Here is another example Schema to [...]

Creating Art from Data: Aaron Koblin: Artfully visualizing our humanity

This morning as I was preparing lunches for the day I watched this TED talk by Aaron Koblin and was both amazed and inspired. For me this short talk was particularly interesting from the fact that it is based on making use of data, the meaningless stuff, that can be collected or is created by [...]

All the Great Operas in 10 Minutes

Here is an interesting clip that showcases some famous operas in under 10 minutes. This may be useful for educators wishing to introduce elements of this historic and important form of music to students that may be resistant to this particular genre. Have a look and see what you think. From Youtube: ” What is [...]

1.5 million Facebook ID’s sold by Hacker

I also came across this interesting article in my travels. Via Thoughts of a Technocrat and  ComputerWorld.com – Russian Hacker Selling 1.5 Million Facebook IDs A hacker named Kirllos has a rare deal for anyone who wants to spam, steal or scam on Facebook: an unprecedented number of user accounts offered at rock-bottom prices. Researchers at [...]

Facebook Database Schema (Class Diagram)

I found this when looking for information about the Facebook database. Will make interesting discussion with my students.

2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition

  As I looked around this morning I found the latest Horizon Report, 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition. For those who have not read or know about the Horizon reports here are two short extracts from the Executive Summary to help explain. ‘This volume, the 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition, examines emerging technologies for their [...]

9 Steps to explain the HSC, BOS information

The New South Wales Board of Studies, the body that oversees the NSW Higher School Certificate has just added a great section to their website titled; “Take nine steps to see how your HSC works”.  The pages are designed to inform Year 11 students about their pending HSC course of study.  The BOS describe the [...]