[Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007

Thu Oct 12 20:31:56 EST 2006

Potter, Stuart J wrote:
> No HTML not a "programming" language, although it is often called that. 
> 
> e.g. http://www.programmingtutorials.com/
> 
> HTML is coding, rather than programming. I shouldn't have used 'programming' instead of 'coding'. 
> 
> If I were to use Javascript, I would ask my students, who have never attempted any programming/scripting before to do some HTML 'coding' before they attempted Javascript 'scripting' at year 11. I just threw both in together loosely under the term 'programming'.
> 
> Clearly I need to be much more pedantic.  

hehehehe.  That's what we're REALLY good at here  :-)

But seriously folks, no-one here would want to discourage a colleague 
for trivial matters.

When I re-read most of my posts I am glad that no-one has noticed MY 
usual glaring typo, bad edit or misspeaking - or bombastic 
declaration... I'm really GOOD at doing that.

It is the nature of the beast that we usually post in haste so we can 
get on with more pressing matters at work.  We know our fellow posters 
post during 5 minutes free at recess and don't have the luxury of 
crafting their responses to win a Pulitzer prize.

It's often the rapid-fire recess reply that is misunderstood as being 
critical.  It's usually not meant to be critical.

I would be NOT happy if people ever felt bullied or embarrassed to 
contribute to this list.

HappyJolly.com everyone!

Mark the Moderator

> Stuart Potter
> IT co-ordinator
> Donald High School
> 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Robert Hind
> Sent: Thu 10/12/2006 5:34 PM
> To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'MailingList
> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
>  
> HTML programming!
> 
> Please. HTML is surely not a programming language.
> 
> Comments please.
> 
> Robert Hind (Semi-retired)
> Ex Traralgon and Ashwood
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Potter, Stuart J" <potter.stuart.j at edumail.vic.gov.au>
> To: "Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management 
> Teachers'Mailing List" <ipm at edulists.com.au>
> Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 5:14 PM
> Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
> 
> 
>>
>> Donald High School will be using Filemaker Pro, for two of the reasons 
>> listed.
>>
>> - It's easy to learn and easy to use. (good for the students and me too)
>> - The school has a fully licenced copy of Filemaker Pro 8.0 (which is a 
>> recent version). We used to do our reports on it.
>>
>> Incidentally we're also a Macintosh school (45 desktops and a couple of 
>> laptops) shared by 165-170 students....although we do have one lab of Macs 
>> (20) with Intel chips meaning we can use Windows as well.
>>
>> Incidentally what programming / scripting  languages are being planned by 
>> teachers? Having done very little programming, I'm vacillating between 
>> Visual Basic (seems to be a few support materials around) and Javascript 
>> or HTML programming (obviously ties in well with web design and doesn't 
>> need any extra software apart from the source code.)
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Stuart Potter
>> IT co-ordinator
>> Donald High School
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Mark Kelly
>> Sent: Thu 10/12/2006 12:39 PM
>> To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management 
>> Teachers'Mailing List
>> Subject: [Year 12 IPM] Database software for 2007
>>
>> [7th attempt - our whole school has been blacklisted by SpamCop - and we
>> hope we are now off the blacklist!]
>>
>> Hi all.  Here's a frisky cat to throw among the pigeons.
>>
>> I'm curious what database management software will people be using for
>> ITA Unit 3 Outcome 1 next year?
>>
>> At the VITTA presentation I did on ITA in August, I recommended that if
>> we got organised and agreed on a standard tool we could be much more
>> efficient when sharing tutorials, sample tasks, tips and hints, sample
>> outcomes etc - all of which will be a big in 2007 as we adjust to the
>> new course.
>>
>> The main DBMS contenders I see are:
>>
>>
>> --- MS Access
>> - Access is not a standard part of the average MS Office suite (AFAIK),
>> so many kids are unlikely to have it at home, so it would be hard to
>> assign homework or practice tasks using it.
>> - It costs big money if kids have to buy it for home.
>> - It costs big money for non-government schools.
>> - For most people, it's not as easy to learn as Filemaker is.
>>
>>
>> --- Filemaker
>> - Even fewer kids are likely to have Filemaker at home, so assigning
>> home practice would be nearly impossible.
>> - It's easy to learn (especially creating programming scripts) and easy
>> to use.
>> - It costs big money if kids had to buy it for home.
>> - It costs big money for schools to buy.
>>
>> (Having said that, it's the database I use for McKinnon's reporting
>> package, and the database I'm most skilled with.)
>>
>>
>> --- OpenOffice.org Base
>> - It's FREE for students and schools.
>> - It's compatible with MS Access (and can read Access database files)
>> - It's pretty much as easy to use as Access.
>> - There's some online support for it, but more is coming and we can work
>> as a team to develop all we need!
>> - Did I mention it's FREE?
>> - It comes with other open source replacements for Word, Excel,
>> Powerpoint, drawing software etc.
>> - It even has its own equivalent of VBA for programming macros.
>> - Oh yeah - and it's FREE!
>>
>>
>> --- MySQL
>> I only include this because I've heard of one school planning to use it.
>>  I would not recommend it because it's far too complex for kids to
>> learn from scratch in VCE: too much programming required to get the job
>> done.  Way overkill, IMHO.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you get some time as the year winds down, how about getting a copy of
>> (http://openoffice.org) - it's about 50M to download, and is available
>> via WWW and Bittorrent.
>>
>> Have a play, see what you think.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Mark K
>>
>> -- 
>> Mark Kelly
>> Manager - Information Systems
>> McKinnon Secondary College
>> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
>> Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
>> School Phone +613 8520 9000  <<< NEW NUMBER
>> School Fax +613 95789253
>>
>> IPM Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
>> Moderator: IPM Mailing List
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
-- 
Mark Kelly
Manager - Information Systems
McKinnon Secondary College
McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
School Phone +613 8520 9000 << new number!
School Fax   +613 9578 9253

Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
IPM Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IPM Mailing List

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