ICT lessons to change – A computer scientist’s opinion

On January 15, 2012 in General, Off Topic.
0

“ICT is boring” seems to be among the top of the complaints pile for A-Level students studying the subject. In response to this, Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced the traditional ICT curriculum will be dropped this September to be replaced with a more ‘rigorous computer science’ course.

Interesting. Moving away from the 15 year old structure is surely a good thing – we all know how quickly technology develops – but replacing the entire curriculum with an open-source code based emphasis doesn’t seem like a great move, in my opinion.

The opinion of a computer scientist

Excel Sheet

As a ‘Computer Scientist’ (I don’t really think of myself as one, but I have the skill-set to call myself one at times like this) I understand the importance of being able to code. But as an ‘Online Marketeer’ (more inline with my job role) I respect the importance of knowing basic (and advanced) office IT skills.

Take for example Excel. It was the primary focus in ICT, with emphasis on advanced calculations and spreadsheet design. This will be removed and replaced with basic game development in some specific language (currently under industry review).

Now, I love being able to code. But I admit it’s not exactly a ‘life skill’. The number of people I encounter who can’t use a simple excel chart, Word document or Access database is incredible. I don’t think anyone can argue that being able to write a simple program is more important than basic IT office skills.

So why are these office critical skills being replaced? What’s the proportion of A-Level students who go on into a computer science orientated career? Compare this to those who go into an office based career where tools such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint are used almost daily. I think you’ll find the later is a much higher number.

The result of changing the curriculum

Code

My expectation of changing the curriculum is that a lower number of students will take the ICT A-Level. Those that do will be more likely to proceed into a computer science degree. However, I expect this to be due to creating a more niche subject, rather than the effect of the course on it’s students.

In summary, the conversion rate of students moving into a computer specific career will increase, however the number of conversions will drop as more versatile students decide against the coding based A-Level.

If I were to have a say on the progress of the ICT course, I would suggest bringing the existing curriculum up to date (whilst maintaining the tools used). Almost an ‘ICT for an office environment’ course. In addition, an ‘Advanced computing’ course could be created, for those dedicated to software engineering and alike.

Of cause, that’s just my opinion.

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“Film To Go” Application by Orange working on O2 iPhone

On August 25, 2011 in iPhone, New Technology, Tutorials.
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Some of you may have read my article on the “Orange Wednesday App Working on O2 iPhone“. Well, this is the second in the series.

I’ll start by reiterating; This isn’t a hack. It’s a simple work-around! No coding knowledge is required..

The “Film to Go” app gives users a promotional code which can be redeemed on iTunes (once per week, on a Thursday!) to download a specific film (chosen by Orange).

Orange Film To GoTo get the App, simply download it from the Apple App Store. Next, you’ll need to get an Orange phone number from a friend or family member (Preferably one without an iPhone, so they can’t take advantage of the offer anyway. In my case, my Mom!).

Enter the phone number into the app (More -> Settings -> Mobile Number). A few seconds later your friend/family memeber should receive a four character/digit code. Simply enter that into your app and you’re ready to go.

If you do this on a Thursday you’ll get a promo code right away, and you can go download/watch your film – May I suggest you invite your Orange-phone-number-mate round to watch it with you, you probably owe them one!

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IF statement for Internet Explorer and Chrome

On August 30, 2010 in #60SecondShout, Website Design.
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Iv’e been stuck the last few days with a seemingly simple problem to do with my big green banner on the homepage of www.JohnAlexanderRowley.com. The problem is that in Internet Explorer the fade animation causes .PNG’s to loose there alpha levels (transparency) and aquire ugly black borders for a few seconds while the animation completes.

To solve this, I wanted to use a set of IF statements (iv’e covered these previously in other IE-rant articles, but couldn’t figure why it wasn’t working this time. The soltion came after a fair while of googling and head scratching.

Rather than the simple <!--[if IE]>code if in Internet Explorer here<![endif]--> and then <!--[if !IE]>code if not in Internet Explorer here<![endif]-->. I had to use an extended version for the NOT IE (!IE). Here is what I used:

<!--[if !IE]><!-->code if not in Internet Explorer here<!--<![endif]-->.

It makes sence really, but took me ages to get my head around after I found it. Hope this helps someone as much as it helped me!

p.s. You’re NOT viewing in Internet Explorer!

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how to generate and use QR Codes effectively

On August 1, 2010 in Internet, New Technology.
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Just read a fantastic blog by Neil Smith about QR codes, and it inspired me to add a couple to my blog.

Barcodes have been around for a while, and technology is certainly moving on. Using QR codes (2 dimensional matrix barcodes) allows for a lot more information to be stored such as website addresses, phone numbers, digital signatures and other information compared to the simple number sequences of old.

To generate a QR code is simple. Just Google it. A good website is Kaywa which will let you enter a variety of information before generating a specific size QR code. There is lots of readers out there for tons of different smart phones, but my personal favorite is QuickMark which reads a variety of codes (Code 39 included!). It also has a generate option (under the ‘share’ tab) which allows you to select text, contact info and other data to be displayed on the device, ready to be scanned by another phone!

As these QR Codes start to become more and more popular we will start seeing them everywhere! I saw one just last night on ‘Big Brother’s Little Brother’, and another on an advert for some sort of beer! It’s almost like the transition from vinyl to CD (digitalization) all over again! Anyone will say they are shutting down analogue radio stations next. Oh wait…

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Simple Email Form with validation code: Part 2

On February 1, 2010 in Tutorials, Website Design.
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Part 2 of this tutorial gives code to validate the form designed in part one, stopping spam and fake users submitting data.

Here is the code (it uses javascript);

<script>
function validate(form){
var name = form.name.value;
var company = form.company.value;
var description = form.description.value;
var telephone = form.telephone.value;
var contact = form.contact.value;
var AtPos = contact.indexOf(“@”);
var StopPos = contact.lastIndexOf(“.”);
if (description.length < 1) {
alert(“You must enter a description.”);
return false;
}
if (company.length < 1) {
alert(“You must enter a company.”);
return false;
}
if (name.length < 1) {
alert(“You must enter a name.”);
return false;
}
if (telephone.length < 11 || telephone.length > 20) {
alert(“You must enter a telephone number between 11 and 20 characters.”);
return false;
}
if (contact.length < 1) {
alert(“You must enter an email address.”);
return false;
}
if (AtPos == -1 || StopPos == -1) {
alert (“Invalid Email Address.”)
return false;
}
if (StopPos < AtPos) {
alert (“Invalid Email Address.”)
return false;
}
if (StopPos – AtPos == 1) {
alert (“Invalid Email Address.”)
return false;
}
return true;
}
</script>

The first thing that happens is that the function is named and given a single variable, which is called ‘form’. In the form design we used an onsubmit to use ‘this’ (i.e. the form itself) as the variable content.

Function specific variables are defined, calling in the input values of the form.

Now it’s relatively simple; a bunch of IF statements to return false unless the criteria (for example more than one character) is met. If none of the IF’s are called then the function returns true and consequently the form can send! It’s litterally that simple! Have a play with the code, and you will get the hang of it soon enough.

I hope this tutorial helped at least one person, as I looked for ages online to find an all-in-one solution for designing and validating a form with little success!

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Simple Email Form with validation code: Part 1

On February 1, 2010 in Tutorials, Website Design.
1

This is my first real tutorial (more commented code than a real tutorial), and is as much for myself as everyone else (I’m using the blog as a sort of resource store for myself, with the added bonus that everyone else can see it too!).

Anyway, the idea here is some explained code to produce a simple online form which will email a person/s the data from the form. It also includes validation to ensure that the form can not be sent unless the data is precise and relevant.

On to part one – The Form and the mail functionality.

The first thing we need to do is create the form itself for the user to put there data in.

<form method="post" onsubmit="return validate(this);" action="formPage.php"> <input id="name" size="50"/> <input id="company" size="50" /> <input id="contact" size="50" /> <input id="telephone" size="50" /> <textarea cols="38" rows="5" id="description"></textarea> <input id="quantity" size="4" /> <input value="Submit"/> <input value="Reset" /> </form>

The opening form tag contains method=”post” used to actually post the data, onsubmit which is used to call the validation function and action which links back to itself. The .php file in the action will have to be renamed the same as the page the form is being displayed on. There are two buttons at the bottom (‘input values’) one of which will submit the form (method, onsubmit and action) and the other will clear all data from the form. Simple!

Next, the code to email the data to the admin:

<?php

if(isset($_POST['contact'])){ $admin = "recipient@sendToEmailAddress.com"; $name = $_POST['name']; $company = $_POST['company']; $contact = $_POST['contact']; $telephone = $_POST['telephone']; $description = $_POST['description']; $quantity = $_POST['quantity']; mail($admin, 'Subject Title', "This email was generated using the Product Resource Form at www.johnalexanderrowley.com.\n Name: $name Company: $company Email: $contact Telephone: $telephone Description: $description Quantity: $quantity", 'from: fromAddress@fromaddressEmail.com'); ?> <script> alert("Thank you for using the formPage.\n Your request has been sent to the Relevant person."); </script> <?php } ?> The IF statement checks if the input field (in this case 'contact') has been filled in. If it has then the following mail code is ran. This stops the form submitting when the page is loaded.

The various variables are set, including the ‘$admin’ variable which contains the email address that the data is to be sent to. The other variables pull in the previously posted form values. The form ‘input id’ is the text contained within the square brackets in each case.

Now the variables have been set the mail can actually take place; The ‘mail’ php function is called which requires a recipient, subject title, content and header information separated by commas. These are defined in the normal brackets using the various variables. Note that the content is comprised of various variables and no commas are used.

Finally, a javascript script is used to display a thank you message, and the IF statement is closed!

Hay presto, the form is created and will email the admin.

To add validation to the form, please view Part 2!

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