http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/type.htm
Learn the basics of typography from this one-page resource…
Chat Jabberwacky
Jabberwacky is an artificial intelligence – a chat robot, often known as a ‘chatbot’ or ‘chatterbot’. It aims to simulate natural human chat in an interesting, entertaining and humorous manner.
Jabberwacky is different. It learns. In some ways it models the way humans learn language, facts, context and rules.
Computers Only Do What They Are Told
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Computer_Science/EDT0020.html
Overview: Most students have difficulty following directions and few students have ever had the opportunity to give directions. They do not realize the importance of being precise.
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to help students realize the need to be precise when programming a computer.
Objectives: As a result of this activity, students will:
1. Appreciate the importance of following directions.
2. Appreciate the difficulty of giving precise directions.
3. Confirm objectives 1 and 2 by writing and debugging a short computer program.
Deconstruct a Computer
http://www.computerclubhouse.org/programs/bbb/deconstruct.html
Ideas on how to do a lesson where the students take apart computer parts.
BrainPOP’s Lesson on Binary Numbers
http://www.brainpop.com/technology/computers/binary/
An animated lesson on binary numbers from BrainPOP. As I write this, it is free.
BrainPOP’s Computer Virus Lesson
http://www.brainpop.com/technology/computers/computerviruses/
At the moment, this is free. It is an animation showing how computer viruses work.
Click-N-Learn What is Inside a Computer
http://www.kids-online.net/learn/clickjr/clickjr.html
This is somewhat out of date but it might still be good for showing the parts of a computer, online and interactively.
Robot Constructor
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/R/robots/constructor.html
An online activity.Your mission is to construct robots which can successfully collect the precious golden cubes scattered about a variety of hostile zones. Robots must be able to navigate their way around each zone to collect the gold cubes while at the same time avoiding hazards and making sure they’ve enough energy by periodically recharging or refuelling.
How the brain and the computer are similar and different
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bvc.html
A list of roughly 10 areas where the brain and a computer are compared to see in what way they are similar and how they differ.
Computer Think article
http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF0504/Reid/Reid.html
Explains at a very basic level some of the technology and math that enables computers to exist.
It’s very old ( 1982 ) and there are definitely some points made that are just plain wrong but the style of explaining computer concepts to young people is good.
