Short Course ICT – 1a write up guide

							               Short Course ICT – 1a write up guide
                             Key Skills Section

Introduction

   1. What was the purpose of the task? (i.e. what have you been told to
      do?)
   2. What does the Headteacher require from you in this project? (i.e. what
      image does she want of the school, what style, etc?)
   3. What design decisions you have taken to meet the needs of the
      Headteacher? (i.e. how did your font choice, colour choice, layout
      choice, etc?)

Planning

   1. Show your initial planning sketches of possible layout designs.
      Annotate these explaining which are best.

Information Gathering

You must show a variety of ICT and non-ICT sources. For the higher grades,
you must show 2 ICT sources. Mention all of these sources. ICT sources
could include the Internet, clip art, scanned images, digital photographs.
There must also be non-ICT sources used (i.e. School prospectus,
Newsletter, Magazine, etc).

   1. Describe the sources of NON-ICT information you collected and
      where they came from. Explain why they were suitable for your
      purpose.
   2. Describe the ICT information you have collected and how you found
      it. Show screen prints of your google searches highlighting what key
      words you used. Show how you refined these keyword searches to get
      to better information. For the higher marks you need to show you have
      used complex searches (look at Google Advanced Search)

Presentation Evolution

   1. You must show at least 3 screen prints which show the evolution of
      your Powerpoint presentation. You must provide reasons for the
      developments you have made.
   2. You must show need to include more than one printout showing how
      the work has been developed, e.g. before and after alterations.
   3. You should write down why they have developed the work in the way
      they have and why it matches their purpose.
Types of Information

You must show that you have incorporated text, graphics and number.
   1. Show a printout of your text explaining why you chose that particular
      text and what it adds to your presentation.
   2. Show a graphic that is appropriately located in your presentation.
   3. Show your slide with your graph on it and a screen print of your
      spreadsheet.
   4. Show a printout of your spreadsheet with just the formula showing.

Editing and Consistency of design

   1. Show where you have used the formatting and editing functions of
      Powerpoint (For example, cropping an image you have downloaded or
      reformatting an imported piece of text). To evidence this, screen the
      original text or image (perhaps from a website) and show the final
      formatted word or image in your Powerpoint presentation. Editing is
      considered to be a change to the content of the information, whilst
      formatting is considered to be a change made to the appearance of the
      information. Make sure you evidence an example of editing and an
      example of formatting.
   2. Show that you have used a consistent font and layout across your
      slides. Show various screen prints and annotate highlighting the
      common factors.

Accuracy

   1. Explain how your work was checked, by being proof-read by someone
      else and/or using a spell-checker.
   2. You must have evidence that the work was checked:
         a. the proof-reader (an adult) writes a note confirming they have
             read through and checked the accuracy of your final draft;
         b. You have screen-shots showing your use of the spell-checker
             and show error messages.
   3. You must have evidence of changes you made as a result of the
      checks:
         a. a printout of your draft work before it was checked and another
             afterwards.
         b. both printouts annotated to show any changes you made.
   4. Explain how you identified any errors and their causes.

File Management

1. Show that you have managed your folder and file names appropriately.
Screen print your folder with your short course material in.

Document Evidence

   1. You must include evidence of your Powerpoint presentation. Print of
      all of your slides in Notes form (3 slides per page). Annotate this with
      any details that are not clear from the print out. (i.e. animations, sound,
      etc)
   2. You must include a printout of your spreadsheet data (normal and
      formula view) and your graph.

                             Additional Skills Section
Advantages

   1. Describe the advantages of using ICT to create:
         a. your logo
         b. your business card
         c. your headed notepaper
         d. your leaflet
   2. Describe any disadvantages to using ICT
   3. Compare how you created the above products with how you might
      have tried to create them with NO use of ICT.

Hint: The advantages of using ICT should be obvious, disadvantages are
harder to find but you might want to consider lack of individuality (imagine how
similar some leaflets might look if everyone had to create the products for the
same company due to the use of similar clip-art or photographs).

Comparing ICT use with non-ICT use is easier, imagine if you had to type in
all the text, draw all the art-work, take all the photographs using film, alter the
photographs, create the graphs etc, and then send it off the final versions to a
printing company.
Discuss:
             How easy would it be to alter or update text and images as the
                products were being created?
             How easy would it be to create several versions for a customer
                to compare?
             How easy would it be to find suitable information such as text,
                images and numbers without the Internet?
For each of the above points, try and explain how it could be done (if at all)
without the use of ICT.

Health and Safety
      1. Describe how you took care of any equipment you used such as
         scanners or digital cameras, as well as the computers themselves.
      2. List two methods you used to ensure that you worked healthily and
         safely.

Copyright
        1. Explain what is meant by confidential or copyrighted information
        2. Describe the steps you took to respect confidentiality
        3. Describe the steps you took to observe copyright.
Hint: it is unlikely any of your material was confidential unless it contained
someone’s personal details.
Hint: information (images, text and numbers) on websites is usually
copyrighted unless it clearly states otherwise. You should email the owner of
the website and ask permission to use the information (you will need to print
out the email you sent and any replies you get).

Virus protection
       1. Describe ways of minimising the risks from viruses and then
          describe any steps you took personally.
       2. Copy some of your files onto a floppy disk and then use the school
          anti-virus software to scan the disks. Take screen-shots of the scan
          in progress and/or the results of the scan and annotate them.

Hint: If all your work was done on the school network then you can refer to
the fact that:
                 the school network has a virus checker which scans all
                   floppy disks and files saved on the server
                 the school virus database is updated weekly, automatically
                   via the Internet

If you did work at home then refer to any precautions you took transferring
files to and from home and what virus protection is installed on the home
computer.