Research Report
due Monday, February 7, 2017
This report has several purposes:
- to give experience using HTML
- to research a topic using the internet and other resources
- to learn some of the curriculum of the course independently
There are 8 topics that you can choose from. It is important that you make your
choice of topic as soon as possible. Once enough students have
chosen a given topic you won't be able to choose that topic. You will list your top
four choices at the following location. If your first choice is
already booked up then we'll look at your second choice; if that is also taken then
we'll go to the third choice and so on.
Topics
- describe a variety of adaptive technologies
that help to improve computer accessibility
(e.g., text-to-speech, speech-to-text, adapted mouse,
font control, ergonomic keyboard, virtual keyboard,
sticky keys, colour contrast, image magnifier)
- explain the impact on privacy of techniques
for collecting and processing data (e.g., camera
phones, reward programs, targeted advertising,
digital rights management, monitoring software)
- describe how portable computing devices
(e.g., PDA, cell phone, GPS, laptop) affect our
everyday lives
- describe how electronic access to information
(e.g., instant messaging, webcasts, social networking
sites, wikis, blogs, video sharing sites)
influences our everyday lives, as well as the
lives of people in various countries around the
world, in both positive and negative ways
- describe issues associated with access to
online services (e.g., reliability of passwords,
network security, identity theft, the permanence
of information released onto the Internet)
- describe safeguards (e.g., effective passwords,
secure websites, firewalls, biometric data) for preventing
the unethical use of computers
- research and describe trends in careers
that require computer skills, using local and
national sources (e.g., local newspaper, national
newspaper, career websites)
- describe legal and ethical issues related to
the use of computers (e.g., music and video file
downloading, spyware, identity theft, phishing,
keystroke logging, packet sniffing, cyberbullying)(1)
Requirements
The report should be 500 to 1000 words in length. That is about the equivalent of one to two single spaced pages.
To give you something to compare to, this page is about 830 words long.
You must also come up with 3 questions based on your report. You must
also provide a link to a separate web page with the answers to those
questions. After all the reports are finished they will be posted on
the school website and you will read all the ones from our class. There
will be a quiz on this information, based on the questions students
have posed with their reports.
You must give credit for any ideas that are not your own. It doesn't
matter whether it is an exact quote or something you've paraphrased.
If you don't footnote it then it is plagiarism. You can either use the
approach I'm using here or a more formalized style as taught by your
English teacher.
Those numbers in brackets correspond to entries in the bibliography. If
the entry is from a book then also include a page reference in the
brackets.
Here is an example of how to do a quote: "In using arrays, it is
important to distinguish between the elements of the array and the
indices." (2, p. 308)
Notice this time there is no link (since its not from a web page).
You must use the Turing editor to create your HTML pages. Although
there are fancier and easier ways of creating web pages I want to ensure
that you get an understanding of how HTML works. Using the Turing
editor will force you to enter all the HTML tags yourself.
Suggestions
Although you must use the Turing editor for typing your HTML document
you can use a word processor to help you. Load your file into a web
browser. Select all the text and copy it. Paste it into your word
processor. Use your word processor to check the number of words. You
can also use it to check your spelling. Make sure you don't leave this
report to the last minute. Donut Count own thy spool-chucker two fund
owl your arrears. My word processor did not flag anything in the
preceding sentence. (3) You need to get other people to proof-read your report to find grammatical problems.
Marking Scheme
| Spelling Mistakes (0, 1-2, 3-4, 5-7, more than 7) | 4 marks |
| Proper Grammar | 4 marks |
| Style - Flow - Logical Organization | 4 marks |
| Content - Quality of Research | 5 marks |
| Good Use of HTML | 3 marks |
| 3 Good Quality Questions and Answers | 5 marks |
It is important that you make effective use of class time when working
on this assignment. If I do not see you doing work it will be difficult
to give you any marks under the content category.
Bibliography
- Ontario Ministry of Education, ICS 2O Curriculum Document, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/computer10to12_2008.txt, 2008.
- John Carter, An Introduction to Computer Science Using Java, 2003, pp. 307-326.
- Gerry Heffernan, Ics 4M Independent Study, http://ntci.on.ca/compsci/dcc/indep2004.wpd, 2004.