Good Character This website has teacher strategies to teaching teen goal setting. Included is a section on how to set goals, discussion questions, activities, and writing assignments.
Goal Achiever
Personal goal setting website that includes six steps to achievable goals. Each step spells out a list of things for the goal setter to do to achieve the goal. SkillsUSA Website This is the official site of the Trade and Industrial Career and Technical student organization. This site has all the information needed for membership and leadership and skills competitive events.
ParliPro.org Website promoting the study and teaching of Robert’s Rules of Order. This website has tutorials for motions and parliamentary procedure. It also has quizzes and scenarios to solve.
Parliamentary Procedure Website from California State-Chico explaining Parliamentary Procedures and related vocabulary.
101.02
CompTIA's A+ Certification Computer Engineering I & II will help prepare you for CompTIA's A+ Certification - the leading entry-level certification for IT technicians. With a little extra study and exam preparation, you should be able to take and pass the exams, and qualify yourself for a higher-level job as you enter the workforce or work your way through college. Find out more in this CompTIA Education to Careers video (high-speed broadband needed)..
CompTIA Strata Fundamentals Exams While A+ certification is a great goal to prepare you for an IT Career, CompTIA's Strata Fundamentals Exams are a new way to enter the certification pathway and begin your journey. From this site, learn about the skills and knowledge you would need to earn this new industry certificate.
Gizmag Emerging Technologies All types of new technologies but you will have to look through them to pull out the computer technologies. This site has everything from new types of tires to VoIP innovations.
Soft Skills Quiz Measure your workplace skills with this Monster.com quiz.
Nortel LearnIT This site from the telecommunications company has a large selection of teacher materials including videos, lesson plans, and resources for IT careers, ethics, safety and more. The videos on 'soft skills' are very interesting.
101.03
Mind Tools
"Improve Your Communication Skills" page from the Mind Tools web site.
Ethics in Computing This North Carolina State University site directs you to areas such as privacy, computer abuse, and risks.
102.01
Where to Find MSDS on the Internet This site gives an excellent overview of what an MSDS is. Pay particular attention to the FAQ. Just for fun, check out the Unsafe Material Data Sheet.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration Home Page Whenever discussing safety, OSHA
OSHA is THE authority in the US. This site gives a lot of facts, procedures, and statistics. It’s not the most exciting site on the web, but is worth a visit.
Ergonomics.org Applying the Alexander Technique in the Workplace. This web site is dedicated to the exchange of information between the fields of ergonomics and the Alexander Technique.
The ESD Association The ESDA
is a professional voluntary association focusing on the effects and control of static electricity and electrostatic discharge (ESD). Literally everything you ever wanted to know about ESD and more.
R.S.I. Page A wealth of knowledge on Computer Related Repetitive Strain Injury and plenty of resources for RSI.
ArtistResource.org This website lists hazards that come from computers and peripherals.
OSHA Computer Hazards The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's listing of computer workstations hazards and solutions.
Hazards Magazine This page has a list of hazards to check for computer workstations.
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Disposal of Old Computer Equipment Article by Michael Meyers and others on the disposal of used computer equipment. This is a good read for those interested in the concerns of throwing computers away in the trash.
Computer Recycling Video
This video from "The Futures Channel" is a great look behind the scenes at a computer recycler.
ComputerHope.com Computer disposal, donation and recycling page from Computer Hope, a site that offers "free computer help for everyone." This page speaks to the proper disposal of all types of computer equipment.
NC Hazardous Waste Rules This page has links to all types of pages about every different type of waste possible and the disposal procedures for each.
The Value of High-Tech Trash Convert the computer component metal properties to cash. The following link takes the weighted metals (gold) and converts it to a US Cash currency value. This is useful to help understand the motivation behind the companies recycling computer components.
Where to Find MSDS on the Internet This site gives an excellent overview of what an MSDS is. Pay particular attention to the FAQ. Just for fun, check out the Unsafe Material Data Sheet.
The Environmental Protection Agency This site gives information on legal fines and penalties for those parties that do not follow proper disposal procedures for hazardous waste such as those found in most computer and electronic components.
103.01
Tom's Hardware Guide One of the oldest sources of reviews and hardware on the web.
AnandTech A serious source for hardware news and analysis.
Tiger Direct These guys may not always have the best prices, but they’ve got the stuff. If students are looking to see the vast array of tech products available, this is a great place to start.
New Egg Computers New Egg is another site to look up computer parts. They typically have very competitive prices.
Pricewatch Pricewatch
has competitive prices for computer hardware.
How Motherboards are Made This ExtremeTech web article and slide show that suggests the manufacture of motherboards is not as automated as you might think.
103.02
AllBusiness.com When Should I Upgrade My Computer Hardware is an article on the pros and cons of upgrading.
Upgrading Memory Memory Upgrade information from Crucial, an online source for memory. This site has a tool that will allow you to scan your system to find out which type of memory your machine needs.
How Bluetooth Works Bluetooth technology allows electronic devices to communicate wirelessly. Learn about Bluetooth, Bluetooth headsets and how to link devices.
Preventive Maintenance for Laptops Article from Que Publishing on preventive maintenance for laptops which includes a list of do’s and don’t for long laptop life.
Wise Computing Article that has sections on laptop cleaning and maintenance.
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Printer Types Wow! I only thought there were like 3 types of printers. Here is a list of maybe 30 types of printers.
Printers: from Encarta Information from Encarta on printers telling the difference between impact and non-impact printers along with serial and parallel transmission.
PC Handbooks by Dumbreck Publishing This website is a guide to finding and fixing problems with PC's. It is designed for general computer users as a quick guide to tracking down faults.
Resources for Troubleshooting Printing Problems in Windows XP This article describes how to use the Printing Troubleshooter that is included in Microsoft Windows XP Help and Support Center. This article also provides a list of online support services that may help you solve your printing problem.
Common Printer Error Codes This website lists error codes for HP, Lexmark, and Okidata laser printers, HP DeskJet and Okidata inkjet LCD codes are also listed here.
106.01
Networking Basics A must-see tutorial offering good graphics and animations illustrating networking concepts covered in this course. The explanations are aimed at a businesspeople audience but are very readable and understandable.
Networking 101: Served Right This is a nice brief guide to the basics of networking provided with a touch of humor. It is certainly not meant to be comprehensive, but it will serve as an introduction to many of the topics covered in the networking portion of this course.
Network+ Guide (CompTIA’s Network+ 2005 Version) Good site for delivering the “Cliff Notes” version of many basic networking topics. While a little technical in places, it could serve as a nice reference resource.
Networking Essentials Notes This is a truly comprehensive site which delivers the essential information in outline form for nearly all topics of importance in networking fundamentals. A wonderful reference resource.
106.02
Home Computer Networks 101 An absolutely amazing site. The material provided (replete with extensive diagrams and an amazing array of links to other informative materials and websites) is comprehensive and readable. Wired and wireless network information is extensively provided.
Practically Networked Another must-see site. Has links to many, many good articles on nearly any networking topic imaginable. This is practical networking at its best!
How WiFi Works Good introductory overview article on wireless network theory and setup from the “How Stuff Works” folks. Good graphics and simple explanations make this a good beginning point for wireless explorations.
Microsoft Technet: Windows XP Professional Product Documentation. This is an excellent site for information on how to manipulate XP directly from Microsoft. For this topic the Performance and Maintenance section is very appropriate.
The Command Line in Windows: This is a superb site for finding out information about the command line and the “Run” line. It is a very good place to send students for information on the commands that can be run using the command line.
The Elder Geek: This is a longstanding web site with a wealth of very solid information. This particular page is for the disk management section which is very appropriate for this section.
NTFS.com: Site gives a tabular comparison of the different windows file systems.
The Latest List Up-to-date list of the latest viruses and other threats from Symantec.
Malware Info from TrendMicro Information page from Trend Micro that has links for a virus encyclopedia, scams and hoaxes, spyware and phishing.
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Each of the individual handouts for this Objective includes links to related web resources, or to help files that are built into the Windows XP Help Files. For each of the topics covered in the four handouts, students could explore the web to find additional resources beyond these initial suggestions.
107.04
Basic web links are provided at the bottom of each student handout. Beyond these initial suggestions, students could do more exhaustive web research on any of the four topics covered in this objective.
Generally, web articles will favor the use of Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup. They will tend to look unfavorably upon Windows Updates and System Restore. There have been noted occasions when Windows Updates caused unexpected damage or resulted in security breaches because they had not been sufficiently tested before release. And, the biggest complaint against System Restore is the amount of memory that it can require. In all four of these cases, it would be beneficial to have students discover information on these topics through web research, rather than accepting the opinions of Microsoft Corporation alone.
