Computers I

Gradebook

Mmmm...donuts.

Current Projects

Time to Code!

From a creator of Processing

Processing is an open-source coding environment built on Java (not JavaScript) that is used primarily for artistic expression. The video to the right features Casey Reas, one of the inventors of processing, and his creations. There is plenty to learn here, but once you get a feel for the basics you'll be able to make interactive video, generative art, music, and games. Lots of games.

ASSIGNMENT: Vintage Processing

Watch the videos here.

Once you have a feel for it, check out the video here, and build the sketch in Processing, which you can download here.

Helpful Processing Resources

• Example code
• Text overview of the language
• All tutorials
• Processing Glossary
• Processing Examples
• Processing Tutorials
• Processing Intro
• Intros from my doppelgänger!

ASSIGNMENT: First HTML/HTML with CSS

Begin with videos 1–7 from Don't Fear the Internet. They are amazing and worth your time. You should come out of the end with:

1. A folder naming your website
2. An .html file (not a .txt file!) that contains your first webpage
3. A .css file that contains the style for your webpage.

Once you have emailed me those, continue on below to learn how to access your page from anywhere! You will:

1. Create a GitHub account to host your work. This will be where you turn in all of your assignments for this class and Computers II, so don't lose your login information!
2. Create a GitHub Pages account to make hosting easier.
3. Upload (or "push") your project from Don't Fear the Internet to a repository on Git, and access it through the browser.

Here is how you'll do it.

• Go to github.com and create an account. You'll need to verify your email address, so make sure you can access that, too!
• Watch the video below to set up GitHub Pages in your account. Where he creates a poem in his .html file, you should copy your .html file from above. You can close the video after he moves to his desktop.

• Send me the URL! It should be [yourGitName].github.io/[yourProjectName].
• Make your website amazing. Can you fix the broken image links? If so, do it, and go to video #8 from Don't Fear the Internet! Make the changes to your new website directly in the browser. I will follow your Git page, so no need to email your progress!

Previous Projects

ASSIGNMENT: OneNote College Notes

College Search! Today you'll look at OneNote, an excellent program that makes collecting information from many sources really easy. One of the more difficult choices you will be making in the coming year(s) is what to do after high school, so today you'll be creating a notebook that will help you manage all of the information you'll need to make this decision. I'll be looking for a neat organization of the information you pull together, and a wide number of universities you are interested in.

To start, download this file and open it. Inside are a few examples from last session, but feel free to come up with your own organization. Once you've looked them over, continue with the instructions below.

Take some time today to look at the colleges you have heard about, or have an interest in. Some things to look for:

• Important dates. Some accept applications from motivated high school juniors, and others have very early scholarship application dates. Feel free to pull from our College Info Calendar
• Scholarship offerings and their requirements. What ACT scores are necessary? GPAs? If you are younger, there may be time to improve your standing. If you are a senior, it can help you narrow your choices.
• Talent grants/scholarships. We just heard from OKCU, which offers a good number of talent scholarships. Remember that these may require additional applications, auditions, or interviews. Be sure to add these to your calendar of important dates.
• Size, location, student:faculty ratio, overall cost, majors offered, and notes about your overall impression.

Following are some sources of information about them. Pull the information together in a way that makes sense to you. After the list are some suggestions for using OneNote.

• College Scorecard check size, average debt, graduation numbers, and the financial aid calculators.
• Google "[name of your college] scholarships" to get straight to their financial aid page. This is the place you should start your cost formulations.
• USNews' list of top colleges and universities
• Colleges that Change Lives
• Oklahoma City Community Foundation scholarships
• Of course, the primary source for your information should be the college's website itself!

OneNote has many more features than I can cover here, but here are a few tips:

• Make a calendar by typing a date, pressing Tab, then typing the next date in the week. Once you hit the end of the week, press Enter to create a row of blank cells for the events on those dates.
• Make any text a hyperlink by using the first thing we learned in class: ctrl+k. Highlight the text you want to make into a link, press ctrl+k, then ctrl+v the link into the box.
• Take a picture of part of the screen with Windows Key+s. The screen will go grey and the cursor will turn into a plus sign; use this to draw a rectangle around the part of the screen you want to copy. (If you just want to move a picture, just click and drag it into OneNote!)
• Add a "?" tag to those questions you have about a college. Use the Tags button up top to pull them all together. I'll answer all I can, and find answers to those I can't!
• Use the To-Do tag to create a list of things to complete within this year. It may be emails to send, events to attend, or essays to complete. Again, the Tags button will pull these all together for you.
• The exclamation tag could be used to mark things you're excited about, or important information about a college.
• The little plus sign next to each paragraph can be used to easily drag them around and reorganize.
• I hesitate to add, because it is easy to lose time with it, but you can also use templates under the "Insert" tab up top!

ASSIGNMENT: Index/Match GPA Calculation

Thursday and Friday 3/23-24

Challenge: Your GPA calculator works with numbers; can you make it work with letter grades? One way to do it is through INDEX and MATCH. Google around and see what you can come up with.

ASSIGNMENT: Excel GPA Calculator

Wednesday 3/22: Create an Excel worksheet that will calculate your GPA for you!

Download the graduation requirements and open in Excel.

Add format and formulas that will let you put a number next to each class and retrieve an overall average at the end.

If you are still having trouble after Googling, click here.

ASSIGNMENT: Excel Initial Tutorials

Tuesday 3/21:

• Head to this series from yesterday.
• Following the directions below, work through tutorial 8.
  • After completing tutorial 8, download the practice sheet.
  • Change the first employee name in worksheet "2009" from "Allenson, Carol" to your name: "Last, First"
  • Once you have changed the name, print (click the link to learn how to add a printer) the entire worksheet "2009" on a single page to the printer called "Lab 1."
  • To make it fit, you'll need to adjust the scaling settings on the print screen.
• Save your practice worksheets to the "[Last] Excel Basic Practice" folder in your H: (shared) drive.

Monday 3/20: This series is an excellent introduction to Excel 2010.

• Open your H: (shared) drive, and create a folder called "[Last] Excel Basic Practice." (Replace "[Last]" with your last name.) To create a folder, press "New Folder" in the top bar or press ctrl+shift+n.
• Click the link above, and go over the first 6 tutorials.
• Some tutorials have a spreadsheet at the end to download and modify. Download them as you go, and complete the instructions to practice what you have learned.
• As you finish each, save the spreadsheet to the folder you created. Name the files "Practice [#]" replacing "[#]" with the number of the tutorial.

ASSIGNMENT: MLA 2016 Tutorial

Today you will create a tutorial for the new MLA format released this summer. There are a few changes to keep in mind as we learn the new format, and OWL at Purdue has an excellent overview.

1. Open a new Word document and create a 2 x 9 table.
2. Insert each core element into its own row in the first column, then provide an explanation for that element in the right column adjacent. Don't forget to include the punctuation necessary.
3. Include an example (or two) for each element.
4. Below the table, write a proper citation of Millie Bobby Brown's performance in episode 2 of Stranger Things. This will place her in the first element: author (as she is the creator of her performance). Include the director and writer in the fourth element slot.
5. Email the document to me.

ASSIGNMENT: Résumé Final Draft

Share your completed résumé with the changes I suggested.

ASSIGNMENT: MLA Format

• Type/Font: Highlight everything, make 12pt Times New Roman.
• Line Spacing: Highlight everything, make double spaced. Remove spaces before and after paragraphs, if needed.
• Margins: 1" all around.
• Header: Align your last name and page number to the right. Make sure the font is also 12pt Times New Roman.
• Heading: Your full name, teacher's name, class name, and date—all on separate lines.
• Title: 12pt Times New Roman—don't bold or italicize it. Center on page.
• Paragraphs: Indent each 1/2".

ASSIGNMENT: Ugly Syllabus, Google Drive

Learn about Google Drive login, navigation, document creation, and sharing.

1. Copy this file to your own Google Drive by doing the following:
   1. Press File
   2. Press Make a Copy. This creates your own version, independent of mine and your peers'.
2. Play with font size, typefaces, color, highlighting, drawing, etc. DO NOT ADD OR REMOVE TEXT!
3. Share the file with me:
   1. Click Share in upper right
   2. Enter my email, then press send!

Inkscape Intro

If you have a 100% in the class, take a look at Inkscape, a program that will help you create vector images, which are made up of nodes and rendered mathematically. In contrast, programs like Photoshop, GIMP, and MS Paint create raster images, which are made up of pixels. Here's an illustration of the difference:

File:Bitmap VS SVG.svg

Most of the images we see on the web are raster images (like .png, .bmp, .jpg, etc.) because they were easy to render on early monitors, and easily represent lots of detail and gradient colors, like photographs and some artwork. Vector images, however, are becoming more widely used when scaling is important and detail is essential. They are used in many video games and for professional publishing and screen printing. It is also possible to control them through simple coding, so we will be using them later when you code your own video games in Computers II.

Inkscape Tutorial

Here is a tutorial for creating an adorable doughnut. Open Inkscape on your computer, (File:Inkscape Logo.svg) then follow along with the tutorial below. If you do not have headphones, use the closed captioning. This is partly a test of your resilience and problem-solving skills, so if you get stuck, ask a neighbor or Google for an answer.

ASSIGNMENT: Professional Syllabus

Make the syllabus look professional, in both Drive and Word.

Paper Formatting in Drive

1. In Drive, open your "ugly" syllabus.
2. Make a copy as above. Name it "[Your last name] Professional Syllabus"
3. Press ctrl + a to select everything, then use to erase the format of your twisted creation!
4. That won't clear up the text arrangement, though, so you'll need to do those by hand
5. ...
6. Or, you can use the Revision History feature to turn back your edits to the beginning.
   1. Click File, then See revision history.
   2. Choose Show more detailed revisions in the bottom right, then choose the earliest revision and click Restore this revision.
7. Once the file is restored to its less-ugly state, download the file to Word. (File -> Download as... -> Microsoft Word)

Apply Style Format in Word

1. Open the file in Word.
2. Read over the document, cleaning up any errors in grammar and punctuation.
3. Click Change Style in the Home ribbon. Select Style Set, then Default (Black and White).
4. Select the title, then click Title in the style window.
5. Select each main heading and select Heading 1 in the style window after each.
6. Select each subheading in the document, then select Heading 2 in the style window after each.
7. Select the bullet lists, then select the bullet icon in the Home ribbon.
8. Select the numbered lists, then select the numbered list icon in the Home ribbon.
9. Select the regular paragraphs, then select Normal in the style window.

Change Style Format

1. Select the title, then apply a new font (and size if you'd like). Remember, your heading and title font should be heavier than your body font, readable, and is often (but not always) serif. Here is a list of respectable system fonts.
2. Highlight the title, right-click Title in the style window, then select Update Title to Match Selection. By doing this, you are changing the style entry for Titles. Any new title you put in the document will have the same style.
3. Select one heading and change the font to match the title. Again, right-click Heading 1 in the style window, then Update Heading 1 to Match Selection. Watch as all of your headings change to match!
4. Repeat the process with Heading 2.
5. Select a Normal paragraph, then select a font that works well with your header font. It should be lighter, and, above all, readable. Finding guides to match common Windows fonts is difficult, but eere is a great tool to help!
6. Change the Normal style in the style window as above, and you're done!
7. Save to your H: drive, then email to me.

ASSIGNMENT: Copy/Paste Email URL

Learn to copy (ctrl+c), cut (ctrl+x), paste (ctrl+v), and paste without formatting (ctrl+shift+v). Find an awesome thing online and email it to me in a proper hyperlink:

1. Navigate to the website, copy the URL
2. Open Gmail in another tab, put my email address in the To: box
3. Type a subject alerting me to the amazing thing
4. Type "Link" in the body
5. Highlight "Link," then press ctrl+k
6. Paste the URL into the box, then press enter
7. Send the email

Better Gmail Names

If your email name is not your name:

1. On your computer, open Gmail. You can't change your username from the Gmail app.
2. In the top right, click Settings.
3. Click the Accounts and Import tab.
4. In the "Send mail as" section, click edit info.
5. Add the name you want to show when you send messages.
6. At the bottom, click Save Changes.