Five exercises to support the teaching of Operating Systems have been added to the site.
We are now using CSS Grid for exercise development.
New business model will greatly reduce the cost of subscriptions for schools.
New free download dates for The BBC Micro:bit and the Moon Dust Aliens.
Further details are available in the spring 2021 newsletter.
The site has been updated to use HTTPS.
The site exercises have been revised for iPads.
The site user guides have been revised for HTML5.
New free download dates for The BBC Micro:bit and the Moon Dust Aliens.
Further details are available in the autumn 2020 newsletter.
All Python exercises have been revised.
We are offering free copies of The BBC Micro:bit and the Moon Dust Aliens to school libraries.
Further details are available in the summer 2020 newsletter.
We have published a novel to promote reading and programming.
We are replacing all Flash based exercises with HTML5 equivalents.
Further details are available in the spring 2020 newsletter.
Two exercises for the BBC Mirco:bit have been revised.
Daisy-i is to publish a novel to promote reading and programming.
The login procedure has been revised to use reCaptcha.
Further details are available in the autumn 2019 newsletter.
Seven exercises to support the teaching of Boolean Logic have been added to the site.
The 'What is an Algorithm?' exercise from the 'Algorithms and Programs' section has been amended.
A new login procedure will be introduced from September 2019.
Further details are available in the summer 2019 newsletter.
A number of the Scratch exercises have been updated.
We are planning to release exercises to support the teaching of simple Boolean logic in the summer term.
Further details are available in the spring 2019 newsletter.
The Sound Bytes - 2 exercise has been updated.
Five exercises to support the teaching of JavaScript have been added to the site.
We are in the process of updating the exercises on Scratch.
Further details are available in the autumn 2018 newsletter.
An exercise on GDPR has been added to the site.
Six exercises in the Algorithms and Programs section have been updated.
We are planning to release exercises to support the teaching of simple JavaScript in the autumn term.
Further details are available in the summer 2018 newsletter.
Two additional exercises to support the teaching of CSS have been added to the site.
Three exercises to support the teaching of the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle have been added to the site.
We are preparing to revise the sorting and the data protection exercises over the summer term.
Further details are available in the spring 2018 newsletter.
A fourth batch of exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit has been added to the site.
Two exercises to support the teaching of CSS have been added to the site.
We are planning to release further exercises to support the teaching of CSS in The New Year.
Further details are available in the autumn 2017 newsletter.
A third batch of four exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit has been added to the site.
Two exercises have been amended as a result of student feedback.
We are planning to release further exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit in the autumn term.
Further details are available in the summer 2017 newsletter.
A further batch of four exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit has been added to the site.
Two exercises to support binary addition and overflow have been added to the site.
We are changing the way that grades and descriptors will be used on the site.
We are planning to release further exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit in the summer term.
Further details are available in the spring 2017 newsletter.
A new batch of four exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit has been added to the site.
In view of the changes on grading at KS4, we are requesting input from schools on the use of levels and grading on the site.
We are planning to release further exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit in October and in November.
Further details are available in the autumn 2016 newsletter.
We have completed the conversion of the site's exercises to HTML5.
The PDF versions of the site's exercises have been withdrawn.
The exercises on Copyright and Plagiarism have been revised.
We have begun development on exercises to support the BBC Micro:bit.
Further details are available in the summer 2016 newsletter.
Over a hundred of the site's exercises have now been converted to HTML5 format.
The PDF versions of the site's exercises are to be withdrawn.
Further details are available in the spring 2016 newsletter.
Fourteen HTML5 versions of the site's PDF exercises have been added to the site. A further five exercises are currently in development.
Learning objectives are being added to the site's exercises.
The exercises menu now shows the format of each of the site's exercises.
Chrome no longer supports Adobe's Acrobat plugin. Microsoft's new Edge browser also will not support the Acrobat plugin. Alternative workflows are available for both browsers.
Further details are available in the autumn 2015 newsletter.
A first batch of six, HTML5 versions of the site's PDF exercises has been added to the site. A road map for the conversion of the remaining exercises to HTML5 format has been published.
A request for feedback on the new HTML5 versions of the exercises has been made.
Price increases have been announced for new subscribers; prices for existing subscribers will remain unchanged.
Further details are available in the summer 2015 newsletter.
Three additional exercises have been added to the site to support Algorithms and Programs.
Help pages have been added to the site to support students in setting up their browsers to use the site exercise files.
Further details are available in the spring 2015 newsletter.
Two new sets of exercises have been added to the site. These are on Algorithms and Programs, and on Computer Files
Levels and descriptors for the site exercises have now been linked to the new Computing Curriculum.
Further details are available in the autumn 2014 newsletter.
A new batch of exercises to support programming in Python has been added to the site.
An animated student's guide has been added to the site.
Further details are available in the summer 2014 newsletter.
The ICT Homework site has been renamed to Computing Homework.
A new diagnostic report has been added to the site. This is designed to support students who may be experiencing problems in using the site from home.
An animated teacher's guide has been added to the site.
A new batch of exercises to support programming in Python has been added to the site.
Further details are available in the spring 2014 newsletter.
Twelve of the site's exercises have been revised.
Filters for Curriculum Managers have been reversed so that CMs will now see their own classes in the first instance on management screens.
Further details are available in the autumn 2013 newsletter.
Seven new exercises have been added to the site. These are included in a new section entitled Programming: Python.
The Exercises Menu has been reorganised and there are two minor changes to reports which export homework data.
Further details are available in the summer 2013 newsletter.
Three new reports have been added to the site: The first enables teachers to give students additional attempts at exercises by year group. A second enables teachers to view summary data by year group. Finally, a diagnostic report has been added to enable teachers to access our browser and PDF log file data.
A number of diagnostic alerts are now being displayed to help students who may be experiencing problems in completing the site exercises from home.
The FAQs page has been updated.
Further details are available in the spring 2013 newsletter.
Three new exercises have been added to the site. These are included in a new section entitled Computer Networks.
New functionality has been added to support school teachers. Teachers now have a greater degree of control over student marks and exercise attempts.
New functionality has been added to support school DBAs. DBAs can now upload school data via the icthomework site.
Further details are available in the autumn 2012 newsletter.
The form that is used to set homework tasks has been revised to allow teachers to set a homework task for one or more teaching groups.
New functionality has been added to support school DBAs. DBAs can now manage all aspects of their school data.
Further details are available in the summer 2012 newsletter.
Three new exercises have been added to the site. These are included in a new section entitled Health and Safety.
Teacher and student reports have been revised to show a greater level of detail.
Two user guides have been added to the site to support teachers.
Further details are available in the spring 2012 newsletter.
Eleven new exercises have been added to the site. These are all part of a new section to support programming. Scratch programs are used to support many of these exercises.
A table has been added to the site, which shows how the site exercise are related to the NC level descriptors for ICT.
Student reports now show level descriptors that students accrue as a result of doing the site exercises. Student reports now also include grade information.
Further details are available in the autumn 2011 newsletter.
Two new animations have been added to the site. Some modifications have been made to existing animations.
Modifications have been made to two of the exercises on the site.
A new exercise on Bullying has been added to the site.
Further details are available in the summer 2011 newsletter.
The logging in procedure has been made easier by the use of an alias for the school postcode.
Some additional searching and management functionality has been added to the site. Further details are available in the spring 2011 newsletter.
A new report has been added to enable teachers to export all completed homework data by class. This is supported by a complementary report, which exports all uncompleted homework data.
In response to student feedback, we have added new animations to a small number of exercises. The animations are interactive and are designed to provide additional support for students to complete the exercises.
Four animations have been added. These are for:
Further batches of interactive exercises are in development. We would welcome feedback from schools on the exercises listed above, prior to releasing new material.
Student reports have been modified to provide additional feedback to students. This makes it easier for students to see their marks. At the same time, they can also see which homework exercises they still need to complete. Further details are available in the autumn 2010 newsletter.
A comments form has been added to enable students to provide anonymous feedback on each exercise that they attempt.
As a result of student feedback, a number of exercises are being revised to include short animations.
Additional exercises on spreadsheet functions have been added to the modelling section of the exercises menu. These look in detail at the SUM and IF functions. A number of common spreadsheet functions, such as AVERAGE, MEDIAN and MODE are also covered. These exercises are supported by interactive models.
An exercise on sorting data has been added to the database searching section. This exercise covers the idea of nested sorting.
An exercise which explores the idea of gestural interfaces and people as input devices has been added to the hardware section. This supplements the other input/output exercise in this section.
Further details are available in the summer 2010 newsletter.
ICT students have a great deal of exposure to software tools. As a consequence, they are fairly adept at manipulating virtual environments. They are perhaps less aware of the physical tools that are available to support virtual activities.
To help students to develop a greater appreciation of the hardware that supports their curriculum, we have added a new hardware section to the exercises menu. This contains exercises on keyboard shortcuts, input/output devices, storage and ports.
Students are now given greater feedback when they complete exercises:
They are given a mark and a grade. This is accompanied by a comment.
If students achieve less than 100% for an exercise, they are given some guidance on how to improve their learning and hence their marks.
Students are now also told which questions they have answered correctly.
Students have always been able to tackle an exercise as many times as they wished. They can still do this. However, since they are now being told which questions they have answered correctly, the reporting system only records the marks for their first three attempts. Subsequent attempts are still reported to students but their marks are not recorded.
To help students migrate to the new marking system, they are shown the following message panel when they now log on to the student page.