Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Education

"Early Years Teacher"

Access: yvettefasham@gmail.com
Experience: 5 years teaching and background in childcare

SUMMARY and EVALUATION
Teachers are a valuable resource to share knowledge and experience. This person is is a good resource to help develop technology units for students in the early years, as there are not many resources I have found that relate to technology in the early years.

RATING
* * * * * Excellent

Tradespeople

"Civil Engineer"
(Name held due to privacy)

Access: yvettefasham@gmail.com
Experience: 11 years experience

SUMMARY
Civil engineers plan, design, construct, operate and maintain roads, bridges, dams, water supply schemes, sewerage systems, transportation, harbours, canals, dockyards, airports, railways, factories and large buildings. They genrally cover a wide range of infrastructure within the wider community.

EVALUATION
Excellent resource to use as civil engineers have a wealth of knowledge in all stages of investigation, ideation, production and evaluation.

RATING
* * * * * Excellent

Tradespeople

"Cabinetmaker"
(Name held due to privacy)

Access: yvettefasham@gmail.com
Experience: 36 years experience and business owner

SUMMARY
This business owner has run a successful company for 25 years in cabinetmaking. Cabinetmakers make or repair furniture using solid timber, flat-panel or timber-based products. They prepare drawings, select, cut, trim and assemble materials for use and install and repair products.

EVALUATION
Useful for design challenges due to their specialised skills. They work with both large and more importantly small projects in relation to a primary setting.

RATING
* * * * * Excellent

Tradespeople

"Electrician"
(Name held due to privacy)

Access: yvettefasham@gmail.com
Experience: 8 years

SUMMARY
Electricians install, maintain, repair, test and commission electrical and electronic equipment and systems for industrial, commercial and domestic purposes. Electricians may also work on electrical transmission and distribution equipment.

EVALUATION
Useful resource to use to assist with planning and implementing design challenges for electrical purposes.

RATING
* * * * * Excellent

Tradespeople

"Carpenter"
(Name held due to privacy)

Access: yvettefasham@gmail.com
Experience: 12 years experience in carpentry and the building industry

SUMMARY
Carpenter's are useful for cutting and shaping materials using tools, installation of fixtures, reading plans and building framework. Generally work with wooden materials, however, may work on bigger structures such as bridges, dams and other civil engineering projects.

EVALUATION
A carpenters expert knowledge can assist in all stages of designing a challenge for students with a particular focus on construction.

RATING
* * * * * Excellent

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Lesson Ideas

"Lesson Planet"

Year Level: All, teacher resource
Access: Internet
URL: http://lessonplanet.com/search/Science/Technology

SUMMARY
This site contains lesson plans for teachers across all KLA's. Teachers have developed and contributed their lesson plans to this website. The site lets you view the title of the lesson and a brief overview of that lesson, to go any further, you need to subscribe to the site.

EVALUATION
Without paying the subscription, Lesson Planet is still a valuable resource. The title of the lesson and the overview gives a starting point for teachers in developing a unit of work or series of lessons.

RATING
* * * Good

EDNA

"Education Network Australia"

Year Level: All, Teacher resource
Access: Internet
URL: http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/schools_kla/cache/offonce/cache/bypass?catpath=0,3830,759,635

SUMMARY
The education Netwotk Australia website covers quite a range of teaching aspects and designed to assist educators with online resources. Under the Key Learning Area tab the Technology page offers; technology resources, technology units, technology learning quests as well as pages linking to materials, design, photography, systems and sound and visual.

EVALUATION
The pages on the EDNA site take some time to load, although are worth the wait. The content is very comprehensive and useful. As it is divided by KLA's it is easy to find specific aspects of Technology as it is all linked to the one page. Great online resource for all KLA's, in particular Technology Education.

RATING
* * * * Very Good