Week of September 28th - October 2nd, 2020

Monday:

No school

Tuesday:

Homework for today: Khan Academy: ' Scalable systems', 'The Internet protocol suite',  'Open protocol development', 'The digital divide', 'The Internet: Quiz 3', and 'The Internet: Unit test'.

Wrap up 'The Web and The Cloud'

Begin unit 3: Basic principles of computer security, malware, privacy, and cyberwar.

Essential Questions:

• How does the pervasiveness of networked computers affect our personal safety and privacy?
• How does the pervasiveness of networked computers affect our national security?

Discussion: how have you been affected by computer security issues? Students list ways to avoid getting malware on their computers.

Wednesday:
Group 3 current events:
P1: Anthony, Ryan, Jillian, Eva, Arnav
P2: Hannah, Juliana, Vismitha, Kelly S.

Homework for today is to read the following: (it looks like a lot but these are short):

• New Fast-Spreading Virus takes Internet by Storm(1999)
• Slammed! An inside view of the worm that crashed the Internet in 15 minutes (2003)  (If wired.com says that you have read all your articles for this month, try again with your browser in incognito mode, delete your wired.com cookies, or try a different browser.)
• The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe (2008)
• What is a Drive-By Download? (2013)
• Hacker Lexicon: A Guide to Ransomware, the Scary Hack That’s on the Rise (2017)
• New Jersey hospital chain pays attackers to thwart ransomware incident (2019)

Thursday:
Homework for today is to read the following:

• How Phishing Works (from HowStuffWorks)
• Creepster of the Week: Webcam Hijacker Gets Six Year Sentence (2011)
• What is a keylogger?
• Health Insurer Anthem is Hacked, Exposing Millions of Patients' Data (2015)
• Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They're Not Keeping It Secret (2018)

Google phishing quiz

Friday:

Homework for today is to read the following:

• How Zombie Networks Fuel Cybercrime (2004)
• The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History (2018 - long but worthwhile) (This one has a really bad word, repeated three times. I wish people wouldn't do that, because outside of that it tells an important story really well.) If wired.com says that you have read all your articles for this month, try again with your browser in incognito mode, or try a different browser.
• Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet (2016) . (try this link if the other isn't working. . . )

Week of September 21st - 25th, 2020

Monday:

Internet vocab assignment due today.

Begin discussing the history of communication and the Internet.  Here are the slides we'll be using. 

Tuesday:

Khan Academy: 'Introducing the Internet', 'Connecting networks', 'Addressing the Internet', 'The Internet: Quiz 1' due

Continue discussion of Internet technology, TCP/IP

Wednesday:

Group 2 current events:

P1: Margaret, Farida, Anna, Rowena, Jordan, Kelly M.

P2: Ethan, Emma, Jenna, Mike

Also read the article Secret Geek A-Team Hacks Back, Defends Worldwide Web for today.

Continue discussion of Internet technology, demonstrate TCP/IP in action via telnet, tracert, Wireshark, etc.

Thursday:

Khan Academy: 'Routing with redundancy', 'Transporting packets', 'Web protocols', 'The Internet: Quiz 2' due

Continue discussion of Internet technology

Friday:

Wrap up discussion of Internet technology

There may be some class time to work on the Computer Pioneer project or Khan Academy

There is no school on Monday, Sept 28th.  There is Khan Academy work for the following Tuesday:

' Scalable systems', 'The Internet protocol suite',  'Open protocol development', 'The digital divide', 'The Internet: Quiz 3', and 'The Internet: Unit test'. Check back here for updates, there will probably be some reading added.

Week of September 14th - 18th, 2020

Folks, for all the Khan Academy quizzes, you can continue to retake them until you are satisfied with your score, up until the due date and time of the assignment.

Monday:

Khan Academy 'Bits and Bytes', 'Binary Numbers', and 'Digital Information, Quiz 1' due.

Also, please look over the vocabulary that's posted in GC (Google Classroom) under Presentations and Notes/Unit One materials

Begin talking about digital encoding - sounds, pictures, videos.  We'll continue to use these slides

Tuesday:

'Good Questions' homework due
Khan Academy 'Limitations of storing numbers' and 'Storing text in binary' due

Continue talking about digital encoding

Wednesday:
(Shorter classes today: P1 is 8:00 to 9:00 and P2 is 9:05 to 10:05)

Current Events group #1 due today:

P1: Adelyn, Raina, Taylor, Carly, Hannah, Sophia

P2: Juhi, Arvin, Lidhu, Jennifer

Remember to enter your topic here and be sure no one else from your period is already doing it.

Khan Academy 'Converting analog data to binary', 'Digital Information: Quiz 2'

Continue discussion of digital world - compression.

Show quiz review sheet for Friday.

Thursday:

Khan Academy 'Lossless data compression', 'Lossy data compression', 'Digital copyright and licenses', 'Digital Information: Quiz 3'  due

Go over any questions from quiz review sheet.

Wrap up digital information section -- deepfakes, CAT scan

More on deepfakes:

• How hard is it to make a believeable deepfake? Very interesting article.  Includes this Deepfake Quiz
• Another Deepfake Quiz, from Microsoft
• In Event of Moon Disaster

Give out internet vocab assignment, due Monday.

Also read the article Secret Geek A-Team Hacks Back, Defends Worldwide Web for Monday.  (Please ignore the bad word. . .)

Discuss Computer Pioneers project, which isn't due for quite a while. . .

Friday:

Khan Academy 'Digital Information: Unit test' due

We will also have a short quiz on the unit 1 material in class today, via Google.

Begin discussing the history of communication and the Internet.

Week of September 9 - 11, 2020

Welcome to Principles of Computer Technology! 

“We live in a time exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.  This is a clear prescription for disaster.”  
- Carl Sagan

Wednesday:
Welcome! Discuss rules and expectations, course outline, current events assignment, "Good Questions" homework for next Tuesday.

Here is the main presentation from today (ctemc.org login required)

Thursday:
Begin unit 1: Digital Representation of Real World Information.  Here is the presentation we'll be using for the next few classes (ctemc.org login required)
Essential Questions:

• How can a computer work with so many kinds of information if all it can do is process ones and zeroes?

• How can a computer turn physical phenomena like sound and pictures into ones and zeroes?

• How can a computer turn ones and zeroes into physical phenomena like pictures and sounds?

Ones and zeroes: introduce binary/hex numbers

Friday:

(Shorter classes today: P1 is 8:00 to 9:00 and P2 is 9:05 to 10:05)

First we will complete whatever is left from Thursday's class up through the slides on binary search.  You have a number of upcoming assignments to work on in any time remaining:

• Your 'Introduce Yourself with FlipGrid' assignment is due by Friday evening so that I have a chance to look at them all over the weekend.
• Do first two units from Khan Academy CS Principles, 'Bits and Bytes' and 'Binary Numbers', and take Quiz #1 before class on Monday.
• 'Ask some good questions' is due Tuesday.
• 'Limitations of Storing Numbers' and 'Storing Text in Binary' from Khan Academy are also for Tuesday.
• Finally, remember that group 1 will do current events next Wednesday.