BDPA Los Angeles Member Reviews Online Tutorial for BDPA Students

Temitope Sonuyi is a member of our BDPA Los Angeles chapter. He joined BDPA because he saw it as an organization devoted to the service of educating young people. This fit with his personal desire to assist in the spread of knowledge to those who don't have the resources and opportunities and those that WANT to learn.

LA Chapter Computer Camp

Therefore, it is not a surprise that Temitope was interested in bringing 'best practices' from other BDPA chapters to support the efforts of training young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) initiatives within BDPA Los Angeles chapter.

One of those 'best practices' is the online tutorials available through an application known as "BDPAStudents.com". This online application is available to any BDPA chapter engaged in the Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program.

We asked Temitope to share his review of BDPAStudents.com for our blog. Here is what he had to say:

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It's hard to figure out exactly where to begin in reviewing the BDPAStudents.com application. To begin it was created by Zachary Garbow, an instructor for the award winning Southern Minnesota team, and he released it to other chapters who were looking to find better ways to instruct their students.

BDPA So. Minnesota - 2010 Nat'l HSCC Champions

The application is great because it is a sort of self-contained site where students can do all the work and research that an instructor makes for them, without having to install software or keep files on their own. This makes it easier for students to get up and running on assignments. They simply login, read the instructors lesson plan and begin writing code in files that can be stored on a server. This allows students to continue work on assignments from anywhere as well. Furthermore it has a built in grading system that automatically ranks students and tracks scores for each assignment an instructor assigns.

Going from not using BDPAStudents.com last year, to using it as the main center for instruction has made a night and day difference in the ability for me to instruct and for students to learn.

There are future plans to further develop the application into a resource hub for all chapters. This application can potentially be a huge catalyst to deliver more instruction to more students since assignments can largely be self-contained and rely less on an instructor being present. If it becomes a resource hub it will greatly help out instructors as they will have a baseline of material to teach kids from, and can also contribute their changes or new assignments as well. You have to use it to believe it to truly grasp the power of it. Don't sleep on this one folks!

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BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) is very appreciative of Temitope for taking time to share his review of this collaborative software tool.   We hope that more chapters will take advantage of this opportunity to support the training of their students in the future.

BDPA Students: CSS 1, Learn the Basics (Zack Garbow)

Zack Sharing 411 about Computers!

We told you earlier about the success of Zack Garbow as the High School Computer Competition (HSCC) coordinator for BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter.  The HSCC students trained by Zack have won the national championship in 5 of the past 6 years.  Whatever Zack is doing in Rochester, Minnesota is working ... and perhaps it's time for the other 44 chapters to look to him for some 'best practice' advice.

Zack has begun to document the lessons that he provides to his BDPA students via YouTube.  Prior lessons were provided on the basics of HTML and  uploading files to CPanel.

Today, the lesson for BDPA Students focuses on the basics of cascading style sheets.





I'm curious to hear from BDPA students and volunteer instructors. Is it helpful to see these video clips from Zack here on this blog?

BDPA Students: Upload Files to CPanel (Zack Garbow)

Zack Sharing 411 about Computers!

We told you earlier about the success of Zack Garbow as the High School Computer Competition (HSCC) coordinator for BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter. Students on his teams in the past few years have earned over $50,000 from the Jesse Bemley Scholarship Fund administered by the BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF). Whatever Zack is doing in Rochester, Minnesota is working ... and perhaps it's time for the other 44 chapters to look to him for some 'best practice' advice.

Zack recently wrote a comment on this blog about his goal for the upcoming year:

"I love your concept of 'One BDPA'. This year I'm releasing our custom teaching software to any other chapters who are interested, hosted and supported free of charge. The idea is that we can then have a single resource library where all chapters can share assignments, teaching documents, and videos and really raise the level of resources collectively."

Zack has created two videos for HSCC students so far:

1. HTML 1: Learning the Basics
2. HTML 1: Upload Files to CPanel

Is any other chapter willing to get on board with this 'One BDPA' effort?

BDPA Students: HTML 1, Learn the Basics (Zack Garbow)

Zack Garbow would be in the BDPA Hall of Fame if we had such a thing. He is the long-time coordinator of the high school computer competition (HSCC) program hosted by our BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter. BDPA Southern Minnesota has won more national HSCC championships than any other chapter in the nation.  BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter has won 5 of the past 6 national championships (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

Zack feels that building a strong HSCC program begins with the basics. Here is lesson that he uses to teach HTML basics to his students in Rochester, MN.







I look forward to seeing other HSCC tutorials being placed online! One BDPA!