Last day of Jr grad project

Last real day of grad project.

I have been finalizing my project for this year.

The next thing I have is a final presentation, which I am also working on, for this Wednesday.

So until next year...

Last day of Proposal (again)

I needed to get my proposal reviewed by more peers, so I have chosen Shalyce and Siena.

They have edited my proposal and I edited theirs.

Good day I would say.

Last day for editing

This is the last day I will edit my proposal, hopefully.

I have no other updates.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Proposal Editing contd.

This is another day of editing my proposal.

Somewhat of a slow day as well.

However, I added my action plan into the proposal as a table, which I do not recall is a requirement (I remember it being optional, I put it in a paragraph).

Proposal Editing

This week is dedicated to finalizing the proposal.

My teacher has found a significant number of errors in my draft, which will be fixed as well.

I still need to edit two other proposals and have mine edited by a peer.

Draft Edit

I took the draft Michael Gregory edited (although not many edits) and revised my proposal accordingly.

Hopefully soon I will get a draft back from the teacher, because that is the one person who needs to like it.

Peer-editing

Today has been somewhat slow.

I gave a draft of my proposal to Michael Gregory for editing.

Other than that just the same-old: working on notes.

Draft Ready

My proposal draft is ready for peer-editing.

I must say the interview I had really helped me with this. I would recommend doing the interview soon for anyone that hasn't!

Proposal Draft

I have my proposal draft, almost ready to turn in.

Just more work on it.

Proposal Introduction

I have completed my proposals introduction. It is only a draft, but it is posted below.

To many, forensic science means finding evidence, foreseeing the answer and catching the bad guy. This is far from the case. The “real” forensic science consists of many months of upwards of 40 to 50 people working on a single case, many of which do not even leave the crime lab. Those that are intent on catching the bad guy are falling under the spell of media forensic science. It is shocking to see that it only takes a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) 50 minutes to solve a crime on television. It is my hope to pull together and sort out the truth from the fake about the career of forensic science.

Interview Confirmed

I have my interview confirmed. It is going to be at Mr. Strimlan's office at 11:00am next Tuesday.

Here is the email that was sent back and forth getting this to happen.

Tuesday around 11:00am would work for me. I must always warn you that everything in this office is pending, due to the nature of the calls,.

From: Fadi Alchoufete [mailto:Fadi.Al-Choufete@cityhigh.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:47 AM
To: Strimlan, Edward
Cc: Sam Hamilton
Subject: RE: Possible Interview

This upcoming Monday and Tuesday (November 16th and 17th), any time between 10:30am and 1:00pm.

There are also some days available the week of Thanksgiving if those days do not work for you.

Thank you once again.

------------------------------------------
Fadi Alchoufete
City Charter High School
Class of 2011
IT Technician
Independent Web Designer

From: Strimlan, Edward [mailto:Edward.Strimlan@AlleghenyCounty.US]
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 7:31 PM
To: Fadi Alchoufete
Cc: Sam Hamilton
Subject: RE: Possible Interview

I am in the office most days usually monday - thursday, 7am - 3pm. pick a day and I will see if it works

________________________________________
From: Fadi Alchoufete [mailto:Fadi.Al-Choufete@cityhigh.org]
Sent: Wed 11/11/2009 12:17 PM
To: Strimlan, Edward
Cc: Sam Hamilton
Subject: Possible Interview
Dear Mr. Strimlan,

(For security reasons, my Graduation Project class teacher, Mr. Sam Hamilton, must be Cc’d on this email)

I am hoping to setup an interview with you for my graduation project. My topic is forensic science and my essential question asks: What are the differences between “media forensic science,” or the stereotypical forensics, and the real, modern-day forensic science. I know that you would be a key asset to the project as very little information is available to the public.

If you could please reply with any possible times you would be available for this interview, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for your time,
Fadi Alchoufete

------------------------------------------
Fadi Alchoufete
City Charter High School
Class of 2011
IT Technician
Independent Web Designer

Interview Asked

I have sent an email to Mr. Ed Strimlan.

Now I wait for a reply. Hopefully he will have a good time for an interview.

Now I need another interview.

I also plan to work on the survey for upload.

All that with a proposal due next week.

Proposal

I have started my proposal today. Other than that, just a slow day. This week I hope to finish the proposal, or at least most of it, for the weekend.

Great Find!

Today, not much done.

I read forensics books that I got from the library.

I have found a very big point: Forensics is NOT collection, analysis, and "catching the bad guy."

There are many, many different specialists that handle this.

Another thing, what you see on CSI, a crime solved in an hour, actually takes an average of 6 months before a case is closed.

Very good information!

Interviewee

I have looked into an interviewee for my project.

I have found a man that has worked in forensics for many years, Mr. Edward Strimlan.

He is my mentor for my internship, which I will have next trimester.

Mr. Strimlan is also a professor at several universities.

Very interesting, he recently did a presentation on "real forensic science."

He will be a very good resource.

Work Done Today

I have gotten very far in my work today.

I have completed my essential and foundation questions, sources, and began my webliography.

Considering the time I have, I would say this is very good!

GRAD PROJECT CHANGED

My graduation project topic is changing!

It is going from school technologies to forensic science.

After meeting with the Internship Manager, Mrs. Kretschman, she informed me that it would be better to match my graduation project with my internship.

This entire blog will be changed somewhat to match the new topic.

Now my to-do list:
- New essential question
- New foundation questions
- New links
- New Webliography
- New collage
- New key terms

This should be very interesting. All this is due at the end of the week.

Key Terms

I began looking into key terms today.

They are required as part of the project.

They can be found to the right of this blog.

I find them to be subject to change, however, for they are a bit elementary.

Today

Today was a "clean-up" day.

My Webliography has been printed because yesterday's technology trouble prevented me from it.

More sources work, adding some of those extra sources into the Webliography. The rest of my day was pretty tedious.

Come Friday my Webliography should be up-to-date.

Webliography

I have my Webliography, but unable to export it. I do not know the problem but until it is resolved it stays on EasyBib.

I have my first 10 sources complete. There are 3 or 4 more that need to be done, but not required for the assignment due.

Next, working on my sources.

Today's Work

As Mr. Hamilton asked in the previous comment, I finished my Photoshop collage and it is now posted in the gadget to the right.

That took up the majority of the class. Between that and posting this blog entry, the day is about over.

Photoshop Image

Today, I worked solely on my Photoshop image.

My idea is this:
- Get a binary background for, well, the background
- Get a school building
- Mask it with a motherboard image
- Get wires coming out of the walls
- Get something hacker-related to be on the other side

Interview

I set up an interview this past week.

The man's name is Peter Djalaliev. He has a B.S in Computer Science and is currently working on his PhD.

I want to get information from him on web security and web attacks. Any information can help me. He specializes in software attacks and this is a big help.

Did you know...

Did you know…3 out of 4 school leaders say they DON’T have enough IT staff?
Did you know…55% of leaders say they cannot adequately manage their networks?
Did you know… 63% of leaders say they can’t plan for new technologies?
Did you know…they are numerous grants for schools that wish to advance their technologies?
Did you know…much of new technology in schools is going into Limited-English-Proficient students?
Did you know…Photosynth, a panoramic website by Microsoft, brings the world into 3D and even tags pictures?
Did you know…Some gradebooks are given out free…some are upwards of $3000 dollars?
Did you know…Most security put on a school website is set by the district?
Did you know…Someone used a computer virus to steal $325,000?
Did you know… a school district with 1,000 PCs would need a staff of 20 and an annual tech-support budget of $1.4 million?

New source

I found an article on extending school times. President Barack Obama wants to extend school time and remove summer vacation. He also wants Saturday to be a school day.

The link is http://news.aol.com/article/obama-supports-curtailing-students/689157

This would somewhat help me because this brings up ideas of new technologies for summer or weekends.

Update

Essential Question:
How can school technologies be advanced and supported to simplify the use of technological learning tools?

Foundation Question:
1. What technologies are in schools?
2. What advancements have happened to technology in the past 5 years?
3. What schools use technology like the kind I am looking for?
4. What technical support is given to schools already?
5. How can technical support be simplified and sped up?
6. What is a learning tool?
7. What technology is used as a learning tool?
8. What technological tools are not readily available to students?
9. What mistakes are being made by schools or administrators that restrict students from using some tools?
10. Software-wise, how can programs speed up?
11. What school technologies are missing?

I also have part of a webliography. This will be uploaded when it is completed.

Links

All my links:

http://www.mygradebook.com/
http://www.gradekeeper.com/download.htm
http://www.teacherease.com/home.aspx
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/ted-conferences/14700-incredible-photosynth-video.htm
http://www.schoolhousetech.com/Purchase/PriceList.aspx
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/te0cont.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Charter_High_School
http://www.technologygrantnews.com/grant-index-by-type/school-grants.html
http://www.edline.com/
http://www.schooltr.com/

Foundation Questions

Today I looked at some more research and looked at foundation questions. I have come up with some very open ones; ones I can use to get notes.

I can't wait!

Some more sources

I have come up with some more sources. One interesting one I found gave me some ideas on what products to merge together.

Although I don't have an action plan idea, or a definite topic idea, this is still very good for my project. I feel like I'm closer to defining my topic.

New Research!

I found something very interesting that relates to my project.

It is called PhotoSynth. I am looking into it for the speed. This can load very large images in a split-second.

I saw an example of a book. It was an entire book loaded in a split-second, as an image. It was very amazing.

A whole new oulook

I was looking through the essential question starters and realized...

...I have no essential question for my idea on forensic science!

So I have decided that I am going to use my backup topic on making a gradebook with a very interesting question...

"How can school technologies be advanced and renovated?"

I have been looking at some sub-sections of this, such as:

• Some tools for teachers
• Easy reporting features
• Advanced security methods
• Installation Simplicity
• Speed

This is the most important one so far: support. I find that many schools do not get the technological support they need. Hopefully, with my project, I can find a way to support schools technologically on a vast level.

My Topic Decided

I write this with the idea that the topic I have chosen is subject to change.

But so far, I have decided that forensic education will be my topic, specifically crime scene education.

I don't know if this will be my final topic, but now I can research this and see if it is actually something I want to do.

Any comments help!

First Assignment

a. I have heard that the City High graduation project is much more difficult to pass than other schools' graduation projects. My sister was in the class of 2008 here and did a grad project. She did a fashion show on cancer awareness and ultimately raised $2000 for cancer research.

b. I have two subjects that I enjoy. They are technology and forensic science. To narrow down a project in two very large and vast fields is very difficult. Any ideas are appreciated. See my previous blog entry for my topic ideas.

c. I want my graduation project to involve many people and keep a lasting affect on a group or society. I do not want my project to be small and over then forgotten.

d.
http://workforce/
http://tech/
http://tech2/

These sites only work within the school's network. However, they are databases used by the school, so making a gradebook for a school is within my abilities.

Topic Ideas

So I came up with two main ideas for my graduation project.

The first one is building a school network, including a grade book designed from scratch. I would go to a school and setup a school network, much like City High, and set them up with a grade book that I created. The problem with this, I was told, is that the research that I am supposed to show in the class is not very easy because most of my work on this is the process.

My other idea involves setting up a crime scene to teach youth how to properly process it. I would give out technical information and it also gives them hands on training. The idea of teaching, however, is not something I enjoy doing.

Any help?