Leaving Earth's Atmosphere

The space shuttle 'Section 3022' is about to leave Earth's atmosphere :-)

Today, Friday, 10/31/2020, 11:59 PM is the deadline for students to withdraw from a class in the Fall 2020 semester. After this, students will not be able to drop a class or change it from 'credit' to 'audit'. Whatever a students achieve -- or does not achieve -- will be used to determine the course grade which goes onto a student's official transcript.

Another boundary that the students of IS101-3022 will cross is the line between procedural-centric and analytical-centric. In tomorrow's class, students will take the second half of Bonus Quiz 4C and I will give my presentation and walkthrough on Key Excel and Analysis Concepts. Bonus Quiz 5 and A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer will allow students to flex their analytical muscles. I also look forward to further help some students with their A4 Homepage and A5 Slideshow ^_^

MOS Associate and NV Champion(s)

Today, one of the remaining two students faced the MOS Word certification exam and passed with a score of 809 :-)

At the same test session was also the top and breakout student from my IS101-3025, Spring 2020 semester challenging the MOS PowerPoint certification exam, MO-300. He dominated MO-300 with a score of 953 and earned the coveted MOS Associate distinction!

A top student from my IS101-3026, Fall 2019 semester also passed MO-300 at the end of his semester with a lower score. Earlier this year, this top student was notified that he qualified to represent the state Nevada in competing for the opportunity to represent the United States in 2021 MOS World Championship. He accepted the invitation and free trip to Orlando, Florida for August 1-4, 2021 to complete. I am so proud him ^_^

(55-second promo)

Hmm, I wonder if my top and breakout student from Spring 2020 will qualify for the the same opportunity...

Come to think of it, the leading student of IS101-3022, Fall 2020 at the time of this blog post is in the age range (16 to 22 per Microsoft Corporation) eligible to qualify for the same opportunity. Excellent Smithers, excellent...

First Homepage and Trio of Student Presentations

The second half of Fall 2020 kicked off with bang as a trio of students presented their A5 Slideshow Presentation and the first student homepage uploaded to the World Wide Web :-)

Tukta shared her biography, how she came to the U.S., her hobbies, and her career goal with the class.

Bridget brought her husband to any answer questions on whether Die Hard (1988) is a Christmas movie. Their daughter made a surprise appearance ^_^

Anthony dazzled the class with his vibrant and educational presentation on Lowriders. I did not know Japan play such a pivotal role in the lowrider scene.

The leader of the class also produced the most content filled initial draft of a homepage. I was happy to help him polish it and elated that he agreed to be the first to upload his homepage to the World Wide Web:

http://anthony-mendoza.atwebpages.com/Homepage.htm

I hope his homepage inspire design ideas for his classmates and I look forward to help him and his fellow presenters to perform the online publishing portion (creating webpages from their slideshow) of A4 Homepage, Website, Online Publishing.

Next week, I will give a double-feature presentation and walkthrough on Key Microsoft Excel and Analysis Concepts. The week after that will be the next round of student presentations.

Excel = F.E.A.R. (Not What You Think)

I received this from the Digital Literacy program director of the CIT Department earlier this week:

View in Full Screen mode for a better experience		"Many of our students are very anxious about Excel. We all know that. I'm sure all of us address this in different ways, but especially with our distance learning, the issue may be more intense. As a starting point for Excel, I always give my students a primer that is aimed at reducing F.E.A.R....false expectations appearing real. Many of the students are much more confident to jump into Excel once they get a short 'pep talk' about what Excel is. If you have a live session, you can do this in your lecture. For online, I use a video. You can also use a video even if you have a web remote course. You can create your own primer video if you would like, or feel free to use mine. The students routinely comment how the primer video reduces any fear of Excel and they start the unit with greater confidence. This can also be considered part of narrowing transactional distance. Communicating with students and constant dialogue really helps to foster persistence."
With my absence for today's class session, Saturday, 10/17/2020, I will not be able to give my short 'pep talk' but the program director does a much a better job :-) His 20-min video is an excellent primer for Microsoft Excel but not a substitute for the Cengage lessons and projects! What is your impression (e.g. Cengage, primer video, your prior experience) of Microsoft Excel so far?

More MOS; Excellent Smithers, Excellent!

Today, five more students challenged the MOS Word certification exam (MO-100) and four succeeded! The four passing scores are 890, 809, 836, and 727. A seventh is scheduled for two Sundays from now. An eighth is scheduled for two Mondays from now. When the remaining two students catch up with their coursework, they can join one of their classmate's exam session. Beyond MO-200 and MO-300, I was elated to see MO-101, MO-201, MO-400, MO-500 on the list when I proctored my students today. I passed their counterparts in the Office 2016 version of MOS certifications, I look forward to conquering the Office 2019 version :-) I wonder if any of my students have such ambitions...

1st MOS Word certificate and 1st MOS Excel certificate

This morning, one of the four leading students from IS101-3022, Fall 2020 lead the charge to engage the MOS Word certification exam (MO-100) and came out triumphant, 945 is the score to beat!

Midpoint of the day, the breakout student from IS101-3025, Spring 2020 eagerly challenged the MOS Excel certification exam (MO-200) and proved that COVID-19 will not deny what is his :-)

The two victors also confirmed that the pathway to the MOS PowerPoint certification exam (MO-300) is clear. Should a test taker conquer all three, he/she will earn the coveted MOS Associate certificate and Microsoft Corporation will actually mail a physical copy of this one to him/her.

Tomorrow, a majority of the IS101-3022, Fall 2020 student population will also take on MOS Word (MO-100). May their success lead them to pursue all four badges ^_^

The Internet and World Wide Web

This coming week, my students will challenge the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Word certification exam (MO-100). Judging from the activities I see in GMetrix, they are hard at work preparing themselves. May their diligent hard work result in success in MO-100 :-)

As we approach the semester midpoint, we will also start working on A4 Homepage, Website, Online Publishing which would not be possible without these three men's vision and leadership:

The Internet
	T C P / I P		Robert (“Bob”) Elliot Kahn 2004 Joint Winner of A.M. Turing Award	Vinton (“Vint”) Gray Cerf 2004 Joint Winner of A.M. Turing Award
			Vinton G. Cerf and Robert E. Kahn led the design and implementation of the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) that are the basis for the current internet. They formulated fundamental design principles of networking, specified TCP/IP to meet these requirements, prototyped TCP/IP, and coordinated several early TCP/IP implementations. Since then, they have continued to provide leadership in the networking research community and in the emerging industries of the internet and telecommunications.
The World Wide Web
	H T T P & H T M L		Sir Tim Berners-Lee 2016 Winner of A.M. Turing Award
			HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) specified the interactions through which Web browsers could request and receive HTML pages from Web servers. HTML was, in computer science terms, stateless – users did not log into websites and each request for a Web page or other file was treated separately. This made it a file transfer protocol, which was easy to design and implement because existing Internet standards and software, most importantly TCP/IP (for which Vinton Cerf and Robert E. Kahn won the 2004 Turing award), provided the infrastructure needed to pipe data across the network from one program to another. Berners-Lee later called this use of Internet protocols “politically incorrect” as European officials at the time were supporting a transition to the rival ISO network protocols. A few years later it was the success of the Web that put the final nail in their coffin. The success of the Web drove a massive expansion in Internet access and infrastructure – indeed most Internet users of the late-1990s experienced the Internet primarily through the Web and did not clearly separate the two. Berners-Lee has been widely honored for this work, winning a remarkable array of international prizes. Sir Tim, as he been known since the Queen knighted him in 2004, has been recognized as one of the public faces of British science and technology. In 2012 he appeared with a NeXT computer during the elaborate opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games.

Note: the photos and excerpts above are from the A.M. Turing Award website. Clicking on each man's name will take you to his profile page on the A.M. Turing Award website where you can see his full size photo, biography, and achievements.

In today's class, I gave a lecture/presentation on The Internet. The content and related materials will not only supplement the final four Technology For Success (TFS) lessons but also constitute Bonus Quiz 4A, 4B, and 4C of which half of 4A is due end of Sunday, 10/11 and the other half due the following Sunday, 10/18.

This week is also the beginning of the Microsoft Excel portion of IS101-3022. Quite a busy week ahead of us! I wish all students will earn their MOS Word certificate ^_^

Reaching the Upper Atmospher

Captain's Log: Ten Four Twenty Twenty

Passing the Week 6 of 16 mark in Fall semester of 2020.

Third semester of using Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) as the industry certification component of IS101 curriculum.

Second semester of combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

First semester of fully live-remote.

Majority of the students are keeping pace or ahead of the semester timetable :-)

The space shuttle 'Section 3022' is reaching the first milestone: MOS Word certification exam (MO-100).

Stephanie, Anthony, Matthew, and Adrian are leading the charge in using the GMetrix skill reviews and practice exams (in Test mode) to reinforce and sharpen their mastery of Microsoft Word.

Following physical distancing to thwart the spread of COVID-19, Certiport enacted live-remote certification testing Mondays through Thursdays, 6 AM PST to 2 PM PST.

The optimal date range to take the MOS Word certification exam is Thursday, 10/8 and Monday, 10/12 through Wednesday, 10/14 while Word is still fresh in the students' minds and before we engage the Excel coursework.

Stephanie and Adrian's proactive stance and confidence enabled them to contact me and choose their respective date & time to challenge MO-100 in that optimal date range. Bravo ^_^