IT Goes Global

The Year 11 IT Apps class had an exciting online international interactive meeting on the 6th of August. The class logged on to a virtual meeting space to connect with Grant Merriel. Grant is a young Australian entrepreneur, residing in the Philippines, running a company that creates large websites for a variety of clients. The meeting space allowed all students to log in and participate in the online conversation. There were up to 6 webcams operating at any one time. Students took turns in activating their microphones and asking questions. The online meeting space also gave the students the opportunity to type any questions they had for Grant allowing for even the most camera shy to be answered. Most of the conversation was about working with or for a client and the associated paper work, which is the focus of their next VCE Outcome, and there was time to ask about Grant’s education and work history which the students found insightful. This was a very exciting and successful adventure that the students found engaging and enlightening.

NCSS Programming Challenge

16 students are currently representing McKinnon in the National Computer Science Schools Programming Challenge. This competition operates over 5 weeks and offers students a fantastic opportunity to actually learn programming as they go. Each week students are introduced to a new area of the Python language before being presented with various programming tasks to be solved. We wish all our students clear thinking and persistence as they devote their spare time to the challenges presented.