'15-'16 Bytes and File Sizes

Use this as a space to record your feedback and questions about this lesson.

The lessons are a continuation of how to encode messages, in this case not only text messages but also images, and as the files growth bigger, the need to use compression techniques in order to decrease the file size. I will follow the lessons outline, use the resources provided, and the rubric provided for assessment.

Well designed and thought out explanation of file size constraints, compression, black/white and color images. I think students will find this interesting as many of them do not understand how this works.

they are all related to text, picture compression, encoding, decoding.
I will use most of the provided lesson materials. I will make a few changes
to fit with my students’level of interest.
I will use ECS Unpluged materials as additional resources
I will develiever the lesson similar to what is given here.
I will give my students a TPA task (groupwork, presentation) at the end of the lesson.
Content questions: How might you encode colors? How do you compress text? Can you invent simpler ways to compress text?

I can see this lesson being a bit intimidating for students who have math phobia, especially the worksheet. I would encourage students to make their best guess and that it’s ok if they are wrong.

This chunk of lessons deals with bits and compression. I can see the students getting very involved in the lesson involving the graphic compression. The worksheet in lesson 16 is applicable to the students in their daily student lives. They will understand and differentiate between the different compression styles and understand their application. Although the worksheet involving hexadecimal and binary conversions may seem intimidating, I am sure the students will learn to discover a pattern for conversion.

This might be a 2 day lesson because of the math factor. Once they get it, it will be beneficial for them in CSP and other computer related applications.

For the warm up in this lesson, I will have cards for the students with the digital media listed and a few blank cards for students to add their own. Students will have to arrange them in order of file size, least to greatest.

1 Like

That’s a good idea, I might have to add it to my “toolbox”

I like the Stanford utility - think I will use it - I like the aforementioned idea of having the media on index cards, etc.

I really like the simulation with drawing a diagram using pixels. This was engaging for me and I think the students will be engaged. I think more time might be needed so that all students can complete their picture. Students who complete can work on sending the picture over the internet.

What is the best way to do the word processor part of the lesson on a chromebook. Google Docs doesn’t give you the size of a docs file, it says they are “free”.

This might be a fun one to assess with a Kahoot as we are looking to build an order of magnitude feel rather than exact calculations.

I liked the sort the cards activity mentioned above too.

I think my students will enjoy seeing files sizes and the relationships between the sizes will be good for them to know.

I agree with the lesson taking longer than 1 class period. E math component will be the reason, but I believe the student will find the lesson interesting

I am looking forward to the presentation of this lesson. we have been building up to this for quite some time and now a real application to demonstrate. I will also have them look at other compression utilities and rate them for compactness and efficiencies. a good question might be… If compression is so good, why don’t we compress all of our files on our systems? then guide them towards, speed, lossey data, etc.

A great chance for the students (and me) to see the impact of different file-sizes. As a former yearbook advisor, I am well aware of clogged mailboxes due to overly-large files.

I really like the progression in this chunk of lessons. However, out of all the lessons in this section, I see lesson 12 as being the one that might take the least amount of time for the students to accomplish. I guess I do not see the math involved in the worksheet, don’t the students just look for the file sizes of different types of files?
When it comes to image compression, I like to have my students compress a bitmap image - that has a large file size - into a jpg using fireworks or photoshop and see how the compressed photo contains larger squares of colors.

I was happy to see the various links to resources that provided additional explanation about BIts & Bytes, these will be helpful for the students.

I like that this lesson is inquiry-based and has students working with files and making observations, as it could have easily been just a straightforward lecture on different file sizes. I think it’s also helpful that there relatable examples of file sizes, which I might add a few more of my own (common sizes of flash drives, video files, etc.)

I note the activity has a blank page. It might be useful to ask the students to write down the assumptions they use in making their guesses, ie how many words per page in the 5 page Word doc or how many pixels in single frame of a mov movie.