Day 2 of "Using Databases in Education" - Summer 06

On our second day of face-to-face learning in this class, we accomplished a number of things:

Began by demonstrating this Using Databases in Education blog. Also demonstrated the audio podcast of Day 1. The students asked to learn more about podcasting and I will probably do it on Thursday.

Explained how to deposit files in the WebCT dropbox

Each of the students shared their Personal Databases. They were quite innovative. We had a variety of topic including: Organizing libraries (personal and school) of books, Planning an upcoming wedding, Coordinating football or track teams, Discovering the family tree, and a couple of others that I don't recall here.

We spent some time reviewing Chapter 3 of the Bernhardt book. This involved reviewing how you will create a "school portfolio." The class broke into pairs and they discussed the various questions included on Page 30 of the book. They tried to answer the questions based upon their own school situations:

Who are we?
How do we do Business?
Where are we now?
Why do we exist? ( I would place this #2)
Where do we want to be?
What are the Gaps
How can we get to where we want to be?
How will we implement?
How will we evaluate our efforts?
We did not bring this to resolution because I wanted the students to think about it a little more. We will revisit this on Wednesday.

I presented a review of the terms and facets of database creation with Access. I will post the accompanying PowerPoint (PPT) on WebCT. I also used a PPT to introduce the students to the relational databases that will be included in Unit E of the Access Workbook.

Unfortunately, we had some more technical difficulties with the recording. The students and I worked very hard to use the microphone to record the whole class, but at the end I found that I hadn't turned on the On switch on the microphone.
Mea Culpa - Sorry.

Websites Mentioned in Class:

Zillow - a site that posts valuations of property around the US.