People

The aspect i found most interesting about this lecture was the computer industries increasing lack of popularity to women. I could relate to that as i have always found that computer related subjects or tasks are one step ahead of my comfort zone or level of capability and find myself asking the boys for assistance continually. I think this may have developed from my own self efficacy in relation to computing. I already believed i was incompetent before trying to master the skills. This made me interested to find out why this is common to women in general not just myself.

A research study was initialize by the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Computer Science Education at Carnegie Mellon University, and Jane Margolis, a social scientist and expert in gender equity in education, suggested the main issues discovered in interesting and retaining women in computer science were feelings of an experience gap, confidence doubts, interest in curriculum and pedagogy, and peer culture.

I believe there needs to be more done from an early age to motivate girls in computing. As high school teachers we don’t get them until year 7 at which point they may already have developed a low self efficacy for computing, however with certain positive reinforcement interventions such as afternoon computer clubs or class activities that have a particularly appealing subject matter to girls may help to improve their low self confidence or lack of interest in the subject.

Networking Systems

In the presentation for this topic i found the video very informative and great for a stage 5 class. The video can be stopped and start to allow for discussion and sections can b skipped or saved for another lesson if the teacher did not want to show the entire video. I think this topic can be quite dry and i found it very difficult to understand when we learnt it last year. Many students like myself find it hard to picture something that cannot visually be seen like a network. For this reason i think the more visual explanations the better and thus, videos are a good start.

The text book Multimedia: Making it work by Tay Vaughan is a fantastic resource for this topic. It provides easy to understand and detailed information on everything network related including:

A communications network
·          nature and role
·          advantages and disadvantages of a communication network such as –        sharing of peripheral devices –        application programs –        data –        security of information –        access to databases
Protocols such as
·          TCP/IP
·          IPX/SPX
·          netbui
·          appletalk
Data transmission modes
·          simplex
·          half duplex
·          full duplex
Data transmission rates
·          baud rates
·          bits per second
Data transmission media
·          wire
·          wireless
Types of networks such as
·          Local Area Network (LAN)
·          Wide Area Network (WAN)
·          Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Client server and peer-peer networks
Components of networks such as
·          servers-file sharing servers ·          print servers ·          mail servers ·          workstations ·          hubs ·          switches ·          routers ·          gateways ·          repeaters ·          bridges ·          network interface card
Security of information
·          storage
·          backup
·          security
Network topologies including
·          star
·          ring
·          bus
Network operating systems
·          purpose
·          management such as establishing users and groups users and groups, security permissions and policies and profiles, use of compression technology

All of the above are direct “learn abouts” from the stage 5 syllabus for this option topic. And all are covered in the listed text book.

References

Blum, L. (2001, 1 27). Women in Computer Science: Carnegie Mellon Experience. Retrieved 2012, from women@scs: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~lblum/PAPERS/women_in_computer_science.pdf

Ali, S. (Director). (2010). Ericson-The Dawn of the NET [Motion Picture].