CALS 085
Syllabus, Fall 2011Foundations: Information Technology
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Fall Semester
2011
|
Dr. Jonathan Leonard |
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CALS
085 (3 Credits) :
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208H Morrill Hall, UVM |
|
Lecture
Section A CRN 93366, Room L403 Lafayette
Tuesdays 2:30-3:45pm |
jleonard@zoo.uvm.edu |
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Lecture
Section
B CRN 10951, Room 105 Marsh Life Science
Thursdays 2:30-3:45pm |
656-2979 (w) 434-3787 (h) |
| Labs |
Important
message for all students:
I will communicate with you often via email. Be
sure to check your UVM email daily. Please purge your deleted
messages regularly to avoid a full mailbox.
General Course Goals: To prepare students with
a solid foundation of Information Technology (IT) skills and knowledge
to enable them to use current and future software and hardware.
Specific Course Objectives: Upon passing CALS 085 students will:
1. Become familiar with information technology hardware including the basic internal anatomy of a personal computer.
2. Understand the role of Operating Systems and demonstrate knowledge of command-line UNIX, MacOS, and Windows 7.
3. Demonstrate file and folder management on PC, disk, flash memory stick, and zoo home directory server and backup directory server.
4. Detect and elimination of Computer Viruses & Spyware and protect your PC with Zone Alarm fire-wall software.
5. Demonstrate proficiency with electronic communication: e-mail, etiquette, attachments, and signature files.
6. Be familiar with the Blackboard® environment and post journal entries.
7. Demonstrate proficiency in presentation graphics applications by giving a PowerPoint presentation.
8. Demonstrate proficiency in word processing applications including tabs, hanging indent, and citing references for images and ideas.
9. Demonstrate proficiency in converting between decimal and binary numbers and an understand of using binary to code for text, images, and sound.
10. Demonstrate proficiency in spreadsheet and graphing applications including choosing the correct graph type, given a data set.
11. Understand and demonstrate how to present and interpret data in graphic form including basic descriptive statistics (central tendency and variation).
12. Understand what a peer-reviewed publication is, and the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary data.
13. Demonstrate finding reliable, credible sources of information on the web, and printed paper sources in the University library stacks.
14. Find useful data on the Internet, be critical of those data, and interpret those data.
15. Demonstrate knowledge of data classification (Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, etc.).
16. Understand, create, and interpret X Y scatter plots, box plots, histograms, population pyramids, and choropleth maps.
17. Create World Wide Web Pages using HTML code and publish on the web using the zoo web server.
18. Understand the history and legacy of computing.
19. Appreciate the utility, benefit, and limitations of computers and information technology.
20. Improve writing skills.
Required Texts and Readings
Textbook: Graphing Statistics & Data by Anders Wallgren, Britt Wallgren, Rolf Persson, Ulf Jorner, Jan-Aage Haaland. 1996. Sage Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-7619-0599-5 (Paperback)Office Hours Dr. Leonard's regular office hours are Tuesday mornings, 8:00 - 10:00 although there are many other possible windows of time to meet during the week. It's best to make an appointment, although if you drop in I will make time for you if I possibly can. Save your TA's phone number and e-mail address at your first lab meeting. Phone numbers are listed in the LABS. Send your TAs an e-mail message or give us a call. If you can't reach Dr. Leonard or a TA and you need to speak with one of us after hours, don't hesitate to call us at home (before 9:00 pm please).
Attendance You are expected to come to all lecture and lab classes and be in your seat a few minutes early, and stay the entire class time. Unexcused lateness or absences of either lecture or lab will lead to a 1% reduction in your final grade for each absence or lateness. Athletes are excused only for Varsity Games (and work is expected to be made up within one week). If you are late, you will be marked absent. Absences are excused only in cases of extreme sickness, death in your immediate family, or other extreme documented circumstances. In such circumstances, notify your instructors (TAs and Dr. Leonard) before missing class. Also, contact the CALS Deans office (Rose Laba, rlaba@uvm.edu, 656-0289 who will contact Prof. Leonard with an official excuse). Inorder for an abscense to be excused, Dr. L must hear from the Deans Office.
Religious Holidays Students have the right to practice the religion of their choice. Each semester students should submit in writing to their TAs and Dr. Leonard by the end of the second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester. Faculty will permit students who miss work for the purpose of religious observance to make up this work.
Class Behavior
Students are expected to have a positive attitude and to arrive to
class a few minutes early and be in their seat when class time begins
and stay for the entire class time. Talking or texting on
your cell phone during lecture or lab is not permitted. Only
one person should be speaking during class at any time. You
will be asked to leave the class and you will loose at least one
percent of your course grade each time you: 1. continue to talk while
the recognized speaker is talking, 2. fall asleep during class, 3. read
the newspaper or do other assignments not related to our
class, 4. leave the class early without prior permission of
the instructor, 5. text or talk on your cell phone during
class, 6. are late for class. Being late to class,
leaving early without notifying the instructor, hurtful or strong
negative criticism of others, is not appropriate or welcome.
Whining or excessive complaining about this or any other UVM course is
not appropriate in class.
You are expected to come to class with a
pen, pencil and notebook and to take notes by hand.
It is appropriate and acceptable to raise your hand and ask questions
during class. You may eat food and drink water during
class.
Laptop or Notebook Computers, cell phones, or any other electronic devices are not to be used during lecture.
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Lab
Assignments
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60%
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|
3
Exams
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30%
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| Blackboard IT discussion postings | 5% |
| Participation, and attitude | 5% |
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In
addition, you must be present for all lectures and labs. -1%
per absence
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Download grading template here.
Lab Assignments vary in point value; the Final Lab Project is worth 150 points, the other assignments vary from 10 to 50 points each. Exceptionally creative work may earn a grade above the point value of the assignment. Paper Lab assignments should be stapled together and handed in at the beginning of scheduled lab time. YOUR NAME AND LAB SECTION SHOULD APPEAR ON ALL ASSIGNMENTS. You may re-submit assignments for re-grading WITHIN TWO WEEKS OF THE DUE DATE (not accepted later); please include your old, already graded assignment, along with the re-done work. The sooner you re-submit, the more generous your lab instructor will be in re-grading. Save your graded homework assignments for one year after the course. Assignments emailed as attachments are not accepted unless specified in the lab assignment. It is your responsibility to find a printer that works and print the assignments BEFORE lab. Do not rely on public printers in the library or the computer labs. Save your lab assignments for one year after the class.
Lab Late Penalty and Resubmission: Lab assignments are due at the beginning of lab. If they are late, -10% the first week, -20% the second week, No Credit thereafter. Lab assignments may be redone and resubmitted for re-grading within TWO WEEKS of the due date (not accepted later).
Lab Attendance: Students are expected to go to the labs they are enrolled in, arrive early, and stay the whole time until the lab instructors are finished. Only in extreme cases of accident, sickness, or special circumstances approved in advance, may student go to another lab. Students who miss lab should try to go to another lab during the week so they don't miss lab altogether that week, but stick to their regular lab time whenever possible.
LAB USE POLICY:
Students may use the labs whenever there are no scheduled
classes or
workshops. Schedules are posted on lab doors.
LAB ROOM HOURS (Unless posted otherwise):
Morrill Lab Schedule: http://www.uvm.edu/~hmenzies/labsched.html
Waterman Lab Schedule: http://scripts.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/lab.pl Waterman Lab Hours
Exams: Exams will cover material from lecture, lab, video/DVDs, and reading/online assignments. Questions will require students not only to be familiar with the material, but also to apply concepts, information, and skills they have learned to new problem situations. Students must be on time for the exams, or they will lose points. Any requests to take the exam at other than the scheduled time must be discussed with Dr. Leonard no later than one week prior to the exam. Only in cases of extreme emergency such as death in the family, extreme illness, or near fatal accident, are exams excused and re-taken. In these cases students must contact their instructors within 24 hours of the exam. Keep your old graded exams for one year after the course.
Participation, and attitude: Five percent of your grade is determined by class participation (how you contributed to the class) and your attitude. In order to earn full credit you must attend all the lectures and labs and contribute to the class in a positive way by helping other students and participating in class discussions. You are expected to have a positive attitude in class and lab. Being late to class, leaving early without notifying the instructor, hurtful or strong negative criticism of others, is not appropriate or welcome. Whining or excessive complaining about this or any other UVM course is not appropriate in class. You are expected to come to class with a pen and notebook and to take notes. It is appropriate and acceptable to raise your hand and ask questions during class. You may eat food and drink water during class.
What to post on Blackboard Discussions: Post links to interesting sites you find on the web about information technology and news. Post thoughts or questions about our class or other classes or experiences you have had such as: readings, lab or lecture material, and life experiences that were interesting. Postings about class-related material that is confusing (to get clarification), or makes you think of connections to other courses or experiences in your life, are welcome. Contact lab mates, or reply to their postings giving your own opinion or suggestions to questions/comments they posted. Organize study sessions or review of our class or other class material. Constructive criticism or suggestions for future lectures or labs are welcome. To earn full credit, you should post at least once every week during the semester (14 postings minimum). Replies to other postings count as postings. Emails to the TAs or Dr. Leonard do not count as a posting.
What not to post on Blackboard Discussions: Hurtful, thoughts or strong negative criticism of others in our class, are not welcome. Whining or excessive complaining about this or any other UVM course is not appropriate. Do not post about drinking, drugs, or sex.
PLAGIARISM: It is expected that you will help your fellow students with techniques of computer use, but always hand in original work. For example, if the assignment for the week was to create a population pyramid, you are expected to help students who are not as familiar as you with the use of the spreadsheet graphing software. This does not mean that you can copy work or take it off the Internet without crediting it to the original source. ALL STUDENTS ARE EXPECTED TO HAND IN THEIR OWN ORIGINAL WORK. Students have been severely penalized in the past for not following these instructions. You must cite any information that is not common knowledge in any homework assignment. See examples of what is plagiarism and what is not here.
UVM Academic Integrity Standards:
1. All ideas, arguments, and phrases, submitted without attribution to other sources, must be the creative product of the student. Thus, all text passages taken from the works of other authors must be properly cited. The same applies to paraphrased text, opinions, data, examples, illustrations, and all other creative work. Violations of this standard constitute plagiarism.
2. All experimental data, observations, interviews, statistical surveys, and other information collected and reported as part of academic work must be authentic. Any alteration, e.g., the removal of statistical outliers, must be clearly documented. Data must not be falsified in any way. Violations of this standard constitute fabrication.
3. Students may only collaborate within the limits prescribed by their instructors. Students may not complete any portion of an assignment, report, project, experiment or exam for another student. Students may not claim as their own work any portion of an assignment, report, project, experiment or exam that was completed by another student, even with that other student’s knowledge and consent. Students may not provide information about an exam (or portions of an exam) to another student without the authorization of the instructor. Students may not seek or accept information provided about an exam (or portions of an exam) from another student without the authorization of the instructor. Violations of this standard constitute collusion.
4. Students must adhere to the guidelines provided by their instructors for completing coursework. For example, students must only use materials approved by their instructor when completing an assignment or exam. Students may not present the same (or substantially the same) work for more than one course without obtaining approval from the instructor of each course. Students must adhere to all course reserves regulations, including library course reserves, which are designed to allow students access to all course materials. Students will not intentionally deny others free and open access to any materials reserved for a course. Violations of this standard constitute cheating.
The principle objective of The University of Vermont policy on academic honesty is to promote an intellectual climate and support the academic integrity of The University of Vermont. Academic dishonesty or an offense against academic honesty includes acts which may subvert or compromise the integrity of the educational process at The University of Vermont. Offenses against the Code of Academic Integrity are deemed serious and insult the integrity of the entire academic community. Any suspected deliberate violations of this code are taken very seriously and will be forwarded to the Center for Student Ethics & Standards for further investigation.
Students are expected to be familiar with the full text of the Code of Academic Integrity at UVM.
Fall 2011
LECTURE Readings and
Assignments
Week beginning:
Material
Covered
Aug 29
Welcome!, Lab Preview
Power Point Presentation, IT Knowledge Quiz.
None
Information Technology
in Perspective:
Time Line 1, Anatomy of PC, Operating systems, OS History
Video,
Lab Preview WinSCP folder & file management.
Google
article from Newsweek ,
How Search
Engines work from Sci
Am. Use your UVM net-ID (zoo login and password) to
read online with Adobe
Acrobat.
Sept 12
Types
of computers. Anatomy of PC. Units
of Memory and Storage. OS History Video. Lab Preview Pine on
zoo.
How
Internet e-mail works. Text Sections 1-3 (pages
0-23)
Digital
cameras from How Things Work ,
How
digital cameras work from Sci Am .
Sept 19
Lab
Preview Resume construction. Difference between memory
& storage.
Types of Data, Graphing Exercise 1, Exam
Preparation.
CD
Players,
Sound coded as bits.
Laser
Printers,
Scanners,
Optical
character readers. Text Sections 4-6 (pages 24-45)
Sept 26
Finish OS History video
Digital
thermometers and scales,
Analog to
digital converters,
Digital to
analog converters Text Section 7-8 (pages 46-53)
First Exam! You must be on time
for class or
lose points!
Oct 10
Exam Return, Graph
Exercise 1 Review, Binary Numbers: Converting Decimal to
Binary numbers. Lab
Preview Excel spreadsheet
construction. Graph Practice Two (Homework?).
Voyager
II article, Sci. Am. Nov.
1986, Optical
fibers,
Com. Text Sections 9-10 (pages 54-63)
Collect Graph
Practice Two. Lab
Preview
spreadsheets. Backup disk
array. Descriptive Statistics. ASCII code,
Class Histogram.
How
Hackers Break In Sci.
Am. October 1998,
The
Zombie Hunters (New Yorker, Oct 10, 2005)
Oct 24
Graph
Practice 2 review. Lab Preview web
pages. Graphing Practice Three.
History of the Internet Video. Protocol and
packets. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary data.
Text Sections 11-13
(pages 64-87)
Lab Preview web
pages. Graph Practice Three Review. Binary used in
Images. History of the Internet Video. Index vs no
Index.html. Packet error checking algorithms: Sum check details, parity check.
Modems.
Keyboards,
How
roller mice work, How
roller
and optical mice work,
How
touch pads work, How
active-matrix screens work.
Lab Preview Final Lab Project.
Second Exam!
You must be on time for class or lose points
RFID
Tags,
RFID
in Passports?,and
Verichips,Text Sections 14-15
(pages 88-91)
Exam Return. Lab Preview Final Lab Project. Physical
Media. TCP/IP stack. History of the Internet Video, Exporting Harm
video. Class Evaluations &
Surveys,
Study all previous
readings, lecture, and lab notes
Nov 21-25 Thanksgiving Break, no lectures, no labs
Last
Quiz