This week we learned how to give technical presentations. I already knew a lot of this stuff, but not all. In fact, I learned something today that helped me give a better presentation the following week in the lab for this class. That piece of information was that people only remember about 30% of what you tell them, so the best way to give a presentation is to tell them what you're going to tell them (intro; what you'll cover), tell it to them (body), and then tell them what you told them (summary). The teacher for the lab class said she really likes it when people do this.
So, general presentation tips: don't have too much text, don't use just one color, have a background that is more interesting than a single color without clashing with the text, no more than seven things per slide (studies have shown that more than seven things, including pictures and the title, is less effective), and dress appropriately (your audience remembers your presentation, not your attire).
Now for some specific tips. First, for the opening: Establish relevancy to your audience. Give an overview of your presentation - tell them what you're going to tell them. Relate it to the big picture; how will it affect the future, how will it affect their lives, etc. Lastly, thank the people that helped you - they'll appreciate it.
For the body of the presentation: When using a chart to show data, choose the right type of chart. Make sure it doesn't give the wrong impression or convey the data incorrectly. Make sure it's easily readable and appropriate to your data. When designing slides, don't put more than one concept on a single slide. Low-content slides are okay, but two concepts on the same slide is a bad idea. If possible, start the slide title with a verb, because it sounds more active than a noun or other type of word. When going through your presentation, you should take about 90 seconds on each slide. A bit less is okay, but not too much, because with each new slide the audience doesn't listen to you for ~30 seconds while they read/understand it. A bit more is okay, but if you go for too long with a single slide the audience will get bored. Subtle animations are best, so you don't distract your audience from your content.
For the ending: When answering questions, approach the person as you call on them, so they know you're talking to them. Repeat the question to the audience, both so everybody can hear it and to give yourself a few seconds to think. Finally, talk to the audience as you answer it, so they continue to feel involved. There are a few ways of dealing with hostile questions, but the best way is to dodge them.
The most import thing to do, in my opinion, is to not read your own slides. They should be a guide to what you're presenting, but you need to give the meat of the presentation. Otherwise, why not just give the audience the presentation to read themselves?
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Reflection on my 7 habits
Ah, assignments. This one is about the 7 habits from the book Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. The instructions are as follows:
Include a reflection of the 7 habits; do you think they are important for you as a students? Why? Which of the 7 habits that you already have? Which you don't?
Again, those seven habits are:
I think those habits are useful for everybody, student and professional alike. The first three are important for personal success. For example, there are many helpful programs in college, but they don't seek out students. Students need to be proactive and seek them out. For college students, beginning with the end in mind is the best way to take classes. I know several friends who take the classes they feel like taking, without any regard for what their overall college education will look like. That's the end, the goal of college - to be educated. How educated do 50 easy classes make a person? Not very educated at all.
The second three habits (#4-7) are important for group projects. In group projects, students need to work together to make sure everybody gets a good grade, and more importantly to make sure everybody learns from doing the project. If one person does it all, the entire group might get a good grade, but they wouldn't learn. That's the purpose of group projects. That's what "winning" means in the context of a group project.
Understanding others is also very important to group projects; both when listening to other people's presentations, and when presenting your own; you need to know the material before you can tell others about it. The last of these habits, synergizing is a very important part of being in a group.
The last habit, sharpening the saw, is perhaps the most important one for students. We're here to learn about our field of choice, but extraneous knowledge matters a lot in life. If we don't know basic things about geography, history, health, etc, we won't get far in life.
Include a reflection of the 7 habits; do you think they are important for you as a students? Why? Which of the 7 habits that you already have? Which you don't?
Again, those seven habits are:
- Be proactive
- Begin with the end in mind
- Put first things first
- Think win-win
- Seek first to understand, then to be understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the saw (upgrade your physical, mental, social, and spiritual health)
I think those habits are useful for everybody, student and professional alike. The first three are important for personal success. For example, there are many helpful programs in college, but they don't seek out students. Students need to be proactive and seek them out. For college students, beginning with the end in mind is the best way to take classes. I know several friends who take the classes they feel like taking, without any regard for what their overall college education will look like. That's the end, the goal of college - to be educated. How educated do 50 easy classes make a person? Not very educated at all.
The second three habits (#4-7) are important for group projects. In group projects, students need to work together to make sure everybody gets a good grade, and more importantly to make sure everybody learns from doing the project. If one person does it all, the entire group might get a good grade, but they wouldn't learn. That's the purpose of group projects. That's what "winning" means in the context of a group project.
Understanding others is also very important to group projects; both when listening to other people's presentations, and when presenting your own; you need to know the material before you can tell others about it. The last of these habits, synergizing is a very important part of being in a group.
The last habit, sharpening the saw, is perhaps the most important one for students. We're here to learn about our field of choice, but extraneous knowledge matters a lot in life. If we don't know basic things about geography, history, health, etc, we won't get far in life.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Class Summary, Nov 15
Today we didn't have any speakers. Rather, we learned all about Capstones. I've been hearing about them since I came here, but they were never clearly defined. Until now. A Capstone presentation is basically the final presentation before you graduate. It's more about the preparation than the final presentation, so as long as you did the work you should do alright, grade-wise. Capstones are cool because everybody does a different one, so there are all these big projects you can look at. It demonstrates to me that CSUMB students can really produce something.
Well, that's what it demonstrates in general, but it means more than that to me because I like looking at other people's projects, and since everybody does a Capstone there are tons of projects that are all different, all student-chosen. Fun stuff to look through if I ever have a lot of spare time.
The presentations are usually done in the classroom for this class, building 18, room 118. They're also broadcast to a monitor outside, and furthermore they're recorded and stored for 5 years. We can request a copy of 'em too. These things are official.
They're usually PowerPoint presentations, and usually about 10 slides long. Some people do other formats, but that's the norm. The standard Capstone presentation engages the audience, describes a problem, describes some potential solutions, states the chosen solution and why it was chosen, and shows how well it has worked. As usual for presentations, the audience can ask questions at the end. This means that the Capstone projects have to solve a problem. They also need to use sophisticated technology and/or design, and involve a community partner or a client. The intent here is to use our technology to solve problems in the community.
Heh. Salinas/Marina/Monterey must love CSUMB. There are all these helpful projects, done by CSUMB students, for free.
Anyway, Capstones have three classes dedicated to them: CST 400 (choosing a Capstone), CST 401 (doing that Capstone), and CST 496 (working with your Capstone advisor). CST 400 and 496 are taken one semester, then 401 and 496 the next semester. Yes, that means taking CST 496 twice; it ensures your advisor is involved in the entire process.
There are lots of potential Capstones, but there are some requirements. As stated before, a Capstone needs to:
A Capstone itself requires:
Another important thing is that since a community partner is involved, the Capstone needs to be able to be finished if that partner bails from the project. Thus Capstones are usually things developing everything required to set up a database of <something>, rather than actually setting it up. Setting it up would be very easy from the finished Capstone, but it would require buying the computers and software necessary. That part is up to the community partner, and if they choose not to do it the student can still complete his/her Capstone.
Well, that's what it demonstrates in general, but it means more than that to me because I like looking at other people's projects, and since everybody does a Capstone there are tons of projects that are all different, all student-chosen. Fun stuff to look through if I ever have a lot of spare time.
The presentations are usually done in the classroom for this class, building 18, room 118. They're also broadcast to a monitor outside, and furthermore they're recorded and stored for 5 years. We can request a copy of 'em too. These things are official.
They're usually PowerPoint presentations, and usually about 10 slides long. Some people do other formats, but that's the norm. The standard Capstone presentation engages the audience, describes a problem, describes some potential solutions, states the chosen solution and why it was chosen, and shows how well it has worked. As usual for presentations, the audience can ask questions at the end. This means that the Capstone projects have to solve a problem. They also need to use sophisticated technology and/or design, and involve a community partner or a client. The intent here is to use our technology to solve problems in the community.
Heh. Salinas/Marina/Monterey must love CSUMB. There are all these helpful projects, done by CSUMB students, for free.
Anyway, Capstones have three classes dedicated to them: CST 400 (choosing a Capstone), CST 401 (doing that Capstone), and CST 496 (working with your Capstone advisor). CST 400 and 496 are taken one semester, then 401 and 496 the next semester. Yes, that means taking CST 496 twice; it ensures your advisor is involved in the entire process.
There are lots of potential Capstones, but there are some requirements. As stated before, a Capstone needs to:
- Solve a problem
- Use sophisticated technology and/or design
- Involve a community partner or a client
A Capstone itself requires:
- Complexity (it can't be too easy)
- Integration of technology and design
- Technology/design excellence (this is a professional project)
- Client/community involvement
- Project management
Another important thing is that since a community partner is involved, the Capstone needs to be able to be finished if that partner bails from the project. Thus Capstones are usually things developing everything required to set up a database of <something>, rather than actually setting it up. Setting it up would be very easy from the finished Capstone, but it would require buying the computers and software necessary. That part is up to the community partner, and if they choose not to do it the student can still complete his/her Capstone.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Class Summary, Nov 8
This week we only had one speaker: Reagan Pollack of WorldMusicLink. He was more of a businessman than most other people we've had, and he had some good advice for people planning to start a business. He recommends we use our class mates for feedback, since it's free and they're always going to be there to help. He also recommends we know a little bit about everything, so we can follow along wherever we are. Apparently a lot of the things he's used haven't been the main things taught in CST classes - his extraneous knowledge has come in handy. A phrase he likes is "think digitally, act analogically". This means we should think through all the possibilities, but only take small steps. I guess it's similar to the phrase "tread lightly".
Reagan and our instructor both mentioned the Marina Technology Center, which is a group in Marina that gives startup funds and space to new companies. If I was starting a company, that would be very useful.
We spent a fair amount of time talking about the book Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Those seven habits are:
1-3 help you succeed by yourself; 4-6 help you succeed when working with other people, and #7 helps balance them all out and keep them going.
The assignment for this week includes a few more things (besides the weekly reflection). The first is to establish our big goals in life. I'd say my biggest goal is to get a secure job in the computer industry. I don't really care what part of the industry I'm in - I do have a specific area in mind, but if my career happened to veer off in another computer-oriented direction, that would be fine. There are other "big goals" in my life, of course, but I'd say a good career is the most important one to me right now.
The second other thing is to plan toward our futures. Ha! That's what the ILPs are for; that's what this class is all about. As Berj of the EOP office says, I've got my plans pretty well laid out. All I have to do is follow them. I haven't secured a position for after I graduate, but I think it would be silly to do so now, since I've got about two years of college left. The industry will change by that time. How much more planning could I possibly do?
The third thing to do is to sharpen our saws - to find a way to improve our physical, mental, social, and/or spiritual health. I think I'm improving on several of those fronts. My social health is definitely improving, mostly thanks to living on-campus for the first time. All this semester I've been meeting people and meeting opportunities. I plan to continue to do that in the upcoming semesters. The more I sharpen this saw, the better I'll get at sharpening it. I am sharpening other teeth of the metaphorical saw, but those are more personal things, and this is enough writing for one blog post.
Reagan and our instructor both mentioned the Marina Technology Center, which is a group in Marina that gives startup funds and space to new companies. If I was starting a company, that would be very useful.
We spent a fair amount of time talking about the book Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. Those seven habits are:
- Be proactive
- Begin with the end in mind
- Put first things first
- Think win-win
- Seek first to understand, then to be understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the saw (upgrade your physical, mental, social, and spiritual health)
1-3 help you succeed by yourself; 4-6 help you succeed when working with other people, and #7 helps balance them all out and keep them going.
The assignment for this week includes a few more things (besides the weekly reflection). The first is to establish our big goals in life. I'd say my biggest goal is to get a secure job in the computer industry. I don't really care what part of the industry I'm in - I do have a specific area in mind, but if my career happened to veer off in another computer-oriented direction, that would be fine. There are other "big goals" in my life, of course, but I'd say a good career is the most important one to me right now.
The second other thing is to plan toward our futures. Ha! That's what the ILPs are for; that's what this class is all about. As Berj of the EOP office says, I've got my plans pretty well laid out. All I have to do is follow them. I haven't secured a position for after I graduate, but I think it would be silly to do so now, since I've got about two years of college left. The industry will change by that time. How much more planning could I possibly do?
The third thing to do is to sharpen our saws - to find a way to improve our physical, mental, social, and/or spiritual health. I think I'm improving on several of those fronts. My social health is definitely improving, mostly thanks to living on-campus for the first time. All this semester I've been meeting people and meeting opportunities. I plan to continue to do that in the upcoming semesters. The more I sharpen this saw, the better I'll get at sharpening it. I am sharpening other teeth of the metaphorical saw, but those are more personal things, and this is enough writing for one blog post.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Class Summary, Nov 1
This week we had two guests: Virgil Swamp, from the IT department of the City of Monterey, and Ed Cho, from the design firm Hanna Group. Virgil was a laid back guy who always looked at the big picture. Lately technology has gotten a lot cheaper, and skilled workers have gotten a lot more expensive. Thus the best way to save money is to use a lot of technology and very few workers. If something can be automated, automate it. It may cost something for a programmer to write the code to do it, but once it's done you won't need people to do that task, and technology is always cheaper than workers (these days). Virgil learned this when he was in the arctic working for oil companies. It's especially true there; anything a worker needs has to be flown in. Computers can be put on a task and left to complete it.
Virgil talked a bit about data centers. They seem to be the way large companies are going. A company can put together several data centers, and it'll still be able to function if one of them goes down. A data center needs cheap power, good cooling systems, and accessibility. Without cheap power all the computers will be a lot more expensive to run. Without good cooling, they won't last nearly as long. They also need both physical accessibility to replace parts, and digital accessibility to keep the software working.
Virgil also talked briefly about the internet boom. He described it as "incredible". In 1995, there were 75 websites. Total! There are over 150 million now, and that number is growing every day. The internet doesn't take weekends off.
The other speaker for today was Ed Cho. He was born in Korea, and he's traveled around a fair amount, both physically and in terms of his major. He graduated from Monterey High, then went to Cal Poly and majored in programming. He got burnt out after 3.5 years. He took some business classes to relax a bit, and found he liked business better. He transferred to San Jose State for a business degree, but ended up getting a publication/design degree instead. He worked for a few years, then opened his own printing house. After awhile, he expanded into design as well. He figured he only had one more step to go to be a full service business - marketing - so he expanded into that too.
Ed told us that local people may cost more than overseas workers, but they're worth it because they can respond quickly. It might take a few days to get an overseas designer to change an element of a product, but a local guy can do it and email it back in a few hours, or a day at most.
Ed also advised us to check out fashion magazines to see what colors work lately. Our own color choices shouldn't be the deciding factor - go with what's popular.
Ed shared a story about one student he hired. The student's work screamed "Hire me!" - literally - so he did. We shouldn't be afraid to tell employers that they should give us a chance, that we can prove ourselves worth hiring. We just need to be prepared to live up to this. If an employer hires you and you suck at your job, you're going to get fired. Relatively easy in, relatively easy out.
Virgil talked a bit about data centers. They seem to be the way large companies are going. A company can put together several data centers, and it'll still be able to function if one of them goes down. A data center needs cheap power, good cooling systems, and accessibility. Without cheap power all the computers will be a lot more expensive to run. Without good cooling, they won't last nearly as long. They also need both physical accessibility to replace parts, and digital accessibility to keep the software working.
Virgil also talked briefly about the internet boom. He described it as "incredible". In 1995, there were 75 websites. Total! There are over 150 million now, and that number is growing every day. The internet doesn't take weekends off.
The other speaker for today was Ed Cho. He was born in Korea, and he's traveled around a fair amount, both physically and in terms of his major. He graduated from Monterey High, then went to Cal Poly and majored in programming. He got burnt out after 3.5 years. He took some business classes to relax a bit, and found he liked business better. He transferred to San Jose State for a business degree, but ended up getting a publication/design degree instead. He worked for a few years, then opened his own printing house. After awhile, he expanded into design as well. He figured he only had one more step to go to be a full service business - marketing - so he expanded into that too.
Ed told us that local people may cost more than overseas workers, but they're worth it because they can respond quickly. It might take a few days to get an overseas designer to change an element of a product, but a local guy can do it and email it back in a few hours, or a day at most.
Ed also advised us to check out fashion magazines to see what colors work lately. Our own color choices shouldn't be the deciding factor - go with what's popular.
Ed shared a story about one student he hired. The student's work screamed "Hire me!" - literally - so he did. We shouldn't be afraid to tell employers that they should give us a chance, that we can prove ourselves worth hiring. We just need to be prepared to live up to this. If an employer hires you and you suck at your job, you're going to get fired. Relatively easy in, relatively easy out.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Class Summary, Oct 25
There was no class today, and thus there is nothing to summarize. Dr. Tao also said we don't have homework this week.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Class Summary, Oct 18
Today we started with a short Moodle vs Blackboard discussion. Seems most people like Moodle better, for a variety of reasons. For some it gives more detailed information, for others the interface is easier to use.
All the speakers this week were fresh graduates who'd been in the business for a few years at most. Eric Tao says it was planned like this; last week was graduates that had been working in the industry for awhile, this week was fresh ones, and next week will be graduates that have been working for a long time and are in upper-level positions.
The first speaker was Christina Frannie, who did web design. She'd been in the business for awhile before CSUMB, and came here for color/design theory. Her capstone was the site for the Pacific Grove Police Department. She's currently a webmaster/system analyst, but I didn't catch what company she works for. She says that what you know today will not be good enough for tomorrow. She also says that she learns something new every day (I've heard this from a lot of graduates). She recommends we keep up with the industry trends so we continue to be valuable employees. One of the most important things when doing projects is to back up your ideas with examples. She did this quite well for her capstone. She researched a lot of other police department's websites before starting, and had examples for every aspect of the design she proposed.
The next speaker was Francine, a graphic designer. She works on campus in the Alumni & Visitor's Center. We probably won't see her much because she does in-house design for CSUMB. There's quite a difference between in-house design and out-of-house design, and she recommends the latter. She's assured of always having projects to do, but they're always things like "design this flier by 5pm" or "we need this redesigned for 2007 within 2 hours", never long projects. This means she's always doing different projects, and she can't put a lot of effort into any particular one to make it great. Because she's in-house, the school pays for her to work, and she's free to her clients. This makes them feel that her opinions aren't important; she'll say "[based on my years of design education,] I think it'd look better like this", and her clients will insist that she do it their way, even if it's uglier, or wouldn't appeal to the audience. One person's hatred of a particular color could mean that color isn't used, when that color may be the best color for that brochure. Francine can ignore her color preferences thanks to her years of design education, but she's still at the mercy of her clients because she does in-house design.
Margo was the third speaker, and I don't have very much information about her. She majored in art, with only a minor in CST (Computer Science & Technology, I think - the degree is named Telecommunications, multimedia, and applied computing now). She also works in a design firm. Since she's more of an artist than a computer person, she draws out her designs and then transfers them to a computer.
The conversation got around to learning new skills, and Eric pointed out that one great way to keep learning new skills and improve yourself is to keep taking college classes in various things, and most companies have ways set up for you to do this.
Each speaker was asked to give us some general advice. Christina said to talk to students about classes, and specifically don't take Discrete Mathematics and Computer Architecture at the same time - it's too much work. I don't know if that would be true for me; I'm taking Discrete Mathematics, and I find it pretty easy, but then I have a very mathematical mind. Margo said to take extra classes, that way you have more skills to put on a résumé, and you're more valuable to an employer. Francine said to participate in contests and investigate potential jobs before you have to.
Final piece of info from the class: A good mark of success is being able to present your idea to a stranger who doesn't know anything about the field.
All the speakers this week were fresh graduates who'd been in the business for a few years at most. Eric Tao says it was planned like this; last week was graduates that had been working in the industry for awhile, this week was fresh ones, and next week will be graduates that have been working for a long time and are in upper-level positions.
The first speaker was Christina Frannie, who did web design. She'd been in the business for awhile before CSUMB, and came here for color/design theory. Her capstone was the site for the Pacific Grove Police Department. She's currently a webmaster/system analyst, but I didn't catch what company she works for. She says that what you know today will not be good enough for tomorrow. She also says that she learns something new every day (I've heard this from a lot of graduates). She recommends we keep up with the industry trends so we continue to be valuable employees. One of the most important things when doing projects is to back up your ideas with examples. She did this quite well for her capstone. She researched a lot of other police department's websites before starting, and had examples for every aspect of the design she proposed.
The next speaker was Francine, a graphic designer. She works on campus in the Alumni & Visitor's Center. We probably won't see her much because she does in-house design for CSUMB. There's quite a difference between in-house design and out-of-house design, and she recommends the latter. She's assured of always having projects to do, but they're always things like "design this flier by 5pm" or "we need this redesigned for 2007 within 2 hours", never long projects. This means she's always doing different projects, and she can't put a lot of effort into any particular one to make it great. Because she's in-house, the school pays for her to work, and she's free to her clients. This makes them feel that her opinions aren't important; she'll say "[based on my years of design education,] I think it'd look better like this", and her clients will insist that she do it their way, even if it's uglier, or wouldn't appeal to the audience. One person's hatred of a particular color could mean that color isn't used, when that color may be the best color for that brochure. Francine can ignore her color preferences thanks to her years of design education, but she's still at the mercy of her clients because she does in-house design.
Margo was the third speaker, and I don't have very much information about her. She majored in art, with only a minor in CST (Computer Science & Technology, I think - the degree is named Telecommunications, multimedia, and applied computing now). She also works in a design firm. Since she's more of an artist than a computer person, she draws out her designs and then transfers them to a computer.
The conversation got around to learning new skills, and Eric pointed out that one great way to keep learning new skills and improve yourself is to keep taking college classes in various things, and most companies have ways set up for you to do this.
Each speaker was asked to give us some general advice. Christina said to talk to students about classes, and specifically don't take Discrete Mathematics and Computer Architecture at the same time - it's too much work. I don't know if that would be true for me; I'm taking Discrete Mathematics, and I find it pretty easy, but then I have a very mathematical mind. Margo said to take extra classes, that way you have more skills to put on a résumé, and you're more valuable to an employer. Francine said to participate in contests and investigate potential jobs before you have to.
Final piece of info from the class: A good mark of success is being able to present your idea to a stranger who doesn't know anything about the field.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Class Summary, Oct 11
Today we had graduates come in and talk. The first two were Pauline Sung and Erin Salano. They're married, I think. Pauline is from Hong Kong. She started here as an international student, and she did a custom track that focused on both tech and design. She's currently working for Trofholz Technology, Inc., which does government contracts. Her capstone was a database-driven website for her sister's bridal gown business, back in Hong Kong. It sounds like an unusual capstone to me, but it's got all the elements of a professional website, so it worked. Her advice to us is to study hard and talk to our teachers, especially here, because teachers are so open. I think that's true everywhere. It was certainly true at my old college, College of the Redwoods.
Erin is a military guy, and he's got a military job. He's working at DLI, the Defense Language Institute. He's running a college inside a military base. It sounds like the students are getting a good education - they all get a 30gig iPod and headphones, and a Tablet PC. A lot of the material is in audio and/or video form, so the school gets a lot of use out of their investment in their students. They're also rolling out wireless this year, which is tricky inside a military base because the military doesn't like anything that's potentially insecure. He says the Computer Science textbooks are the same everywhere, and we need to push ourselves through the material. That's not true for me; Computer Science is what I love doing, so working hard at it comes naturally to me.
The third speaker was Caroline, and I never heard her last name. She majored in Instructional Design, Multimedia, and Web Design. Lots of majors. She got a job at the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, and I can tell she loves it. She's their webmaster - a title they didn't even have when she was first hired. She got hired part-time, and the more she worked, the more they wanted her to do other projects. Everything involved web design, but there are many different things you can do within that field, even for a single organization. She runs six websites now, including a portal for doctors, a portal for patients, and the general website for the organization. She says she learns something new every day in Photoshop or Dreamweaver, and she's worked with those programs just about constantly since she graduated.
Jennifer was the last graduate to talk today. She majored in Instructional Design. She liked CSUMB because there were a lot of real-world projects. Her capstone is a good example of this: she made a flash-based interactive map of a local park's trails. This is the kind of thing that elementary school students could use to explore the park before they take a field trip there. She says the key to capstones is having a group of people. I'm not sure if that means a group to work on the project, or a group of test subjects to help you refine your project. Either way, I can see the benefits.
We had a question-and-answer round, and the first question Dr. Tao asked everybody was what they were looking for when hiring people. Caroline said she was looking for people that overachieved instead of just doing the minimum. Erin said that troubleshooting is very important, as is showing your work to employers. (I could tell that he was good at troubleshooting, and that he knew computers well.) Pauline said people skills were the most important thing. Jennifer said that paying attention and following directions were vital, attitude is everything, and that you should let your talent shine on the job, as well as backing away sometimes and letting other people's talents shine too. Everybody is good at something different.
We also had one staff member talk. His name was John Ittelson. He seemed like a boring old guy at first, but he turned out to be pretty entertaining. He said he was dyslexic - he stays up at night and wonders if there's a dog. He got depressed awhile ago and threw himself behind a bus.
He studied at Chico, which is an infamous party school. He didn't party there though. Ten years after he graduated he went back and taught there. Chico was named a top party school again by Playboy Magazine. He brought a copy into class, held it up, and asked "Where are the parties?"
Somebody in the back row shouted, "Think about it John, you're not invited."
Thanks to that warm welcome, he came to CSUMB and started teaching here.
Erin is a military guy, and he's got a military job. He's working at DLI, the Defense Language Institute. He's running a college inside a military base. It sounds like the students are getting a good education - they all get a 30gig iPod and headphones, and a Tablet PC. A lot of the material is in audio and/or video form, so the school gets a lot of use out of their investment in their students. They're also rolling out wireless this year, which is tricky inside a military base because the military doesn't like anything that's potentially insecure. He says the Computer Science textbooks are the same everywhere, and we need to push ourselves through the material. That's not true for me; Computer Science is what I love doing, so working hard at it comes naturally to me.
The third speaker was Caroline, and I never heard her last name. She majored in Instructional Design, Multimedia, and Web Design. Lots of majors. She got a job at the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System, and I can tell she loves it. She's their webmaster - a title they didn't even have when she was first hired. She got hired part-time, and the more she worked, the more they wanted her to do other projects. Everything involved web design, but there are many different things you can do within that field, even for a single organization. She runs six websites now, including a portal for doctors, a portal for patients, and the general website for the organization. She says she learns something new every day in Photoshop or Dreamweaver, and she's worked with those programs just about constantly since she graduated.
Jennifer was the last graduate to talk today. She majored in Instructional Design. She liked CSUMB because there were a lot of real-world projects. Her capstone is a good example of this: she made a flash-based interactive map of a local park's trails. This is the kind of thing that elementary school students could use to explore the park before they take a field trip there. She says the key to capstones is having a group of people. I'm not sure if that means a group to work on the project, or a group of test subjects to help you refine your project. Either way, I can see the benefits.
We had a question-and-answer round, and the first question Dr. Tao asked everybody was what they were looking for when hiring people. Caroline said she was looking for people that overachieved instead of just doing the minimum. Erin said that troubleshooting is very important, as is showing your work to employers. (I could tell that he was good at troubleshooting, and that he knew computers well.) Pauline said people skills were the most important thing. Jennifer said that paying attention and following directions were vital, attitude is everything, and that you should let your talent shine on the job, as well as backing away sometimes and letting other people's talents shine too. Everybody is good at something different.
We also had one staff member talk. His name was John Ittelson. He seemed like a boring old guy at first, but he turned out to be pretty entertaining. He said he was dyslexic - he stays up at night and wonders if there's a dog. He got depressed awhile ago and threw himself behind a bus.
He studied at Chico, which is an infamous party school. He didn't party there though. Ten years after he graduated he went back and taught there. Chico was named a top party school again by Playboy Magazine. He brought a copy into class, held it up, and asked "Where are the parties?"
Somebody in the back row shouted, "Think about it John, you're not invited."
Thanks to that warm welcome, he came to CSUMB and started teaching here.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Class Summary, Oct 4
There was no class today, and thus there is nothing to summarize. Dr. Tao also said we don't have homework this week.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Class Summary, Sept 27
This assignment is about what I learned in class on September 27, 2007 (last Thursday). This is the only thing I'm posting this week because we don't have many assignments that involve writing.
There's one other one, but that's just finding a job we might go into after graduation, and I already did that for the Critical Response #1 for my CST300L class. I like this job. I don't think that exact job will still be open when I graduate, but that's the type of job I'm looking for.
Anyway, today in class we talked about project management. In order for it to be successful it needs to
There are a lot of things that can make a project fail: poor communication, disagreements, a chang in the environment or the constraints of the project, people leaving[1], personality conflicts, poor management, poorly defined project goals[2], and a failure to comply with standards and regulations.
[1] In big projects, people always leave. Managers can't stop it, they can only lessen the impact of it happening. Employees should keep good notes, so future employees can read those notes and pick up where the first employee left off. The notes aren't just about what was done, they're also about what was tried that failed. That way those things don't get tried again.
[2] I hate not having poorly defined project goals. I just hate it. I do something, and the person I'm doing it for changes what they want. Now, for every project-like thing I do, I clarify the goals first. That way I can go back and say "no, you said to do it like this".
We were shown several ways to break down our time. I didn't copy them down - stuff like that is intuitive to me. I end up getting it done somehow.
Next we talked a bit about goals. Goals need to be:
Dr. Bude Su talked to us about capstones. She's got a degree in instructional design, which should really be called instructional technology these days. It involves using different strategies to make education effective. There are jobs all over in this subject; every organization could use effective education. Bobbi teaches CST 400 and 401, which involve designing a capstone and then developing it.
Sathya Narayanan does networking. I first met him in my Math 170 (Discrete Mathematics) class. He gave a presentation to the class about how useful it is for programming. Knowing something about the material, and knowing something about programming, I quite agree. He talked to us today about having a job verses a career (a job is just a source of money, a career is a lifelong place to work and grow), and about how more training means more money in the workplace.
Valerie Landau is a web designer. She used to write the game design documents that graphic artists, programmers, etc use to make games. She's been in the computer industry for quite awhile. She was there for the vaccuum tube -> semiconductor switchover. She's used punch cards. She's working on more modern stuff now though. She's teaching instructional design, and she has a side project developing a keyboard in a glove. It should be ready by January, and she's looking for interns to help with the project. She sounds like a fun person to work with.
The last speaker was Bobbi Long. She does communication design and typography. That stuff is useful for more than just newspaper editors - knowledge of typography inspires good logos and attractive documents. Bobbi knows 5 languages, and she's worked on all kinds of visual things - logos, newspapers, brochures, fliers, etc.
There's one other one, but that's just finding a job we might go into after graduation, and I already did that for the Critical Response #1 for my CST300L class. I like this job. I don't think that exact job will still be open when I graduate, but that's the type of job I'm looking for.
Anyway, today in class we talked about project management. In order for it to be successful it needs to
- produce the correct product,
- produce it in a timely manner, and
- do it within the budget
There are a lot of things that can make a project fail: poor communication, disagreements, a chang in the environment or the constraints of the project, people leaving[1], personality conflicts, poor management, poorly defined project goals[2], and a failure to comply with standards and regulations.
[1] In big projects, people always leave. Managers can't stop it, they can only lessen the impact of it happening. Employees should keep good notes, so future employees can read those notes and pick up where the first employee left off. The notes aren't just about what was done, they're also about what was tried that failed. That way those things don't get tried again.
[2] I hate not having poorly defined project goals. I just hate it. I do something, and the person I'm doing it for changes what they want. Now, for every project-like thing I do, I clarify the goals first. That way I can go back and say "no, you said to do it like this".
We were shown several ways to break down our time. I didn't copy them down - stuff like that is intuitive to me. I end up getting it done somehow.
Next we talked a bit about goals. Goals need to be:
- Specific
- Measurable - when are we done?
- Agreed upon
- Realistic - must be based on the available resources, knowledge, and time
- Time-framed - Set a clear deadline and stick to it. Specific days like "October 24" are better than general times like "a month from now," because when people learn that something is due "a month from now" that's what they'll remember. In two weeks, it'll still be due "a month from now," and when the deadline comes they'll be suprised because they thought they had almost a month to do it.
Dr. Bude Su talked to us about capstones. She's got a degree in instructional design, which should really be called instructional technology these days. It involves using different strategies to make education effective. There are jobs all over in this subject; every organization could use effective education. Bobbi teaches CST 400 and 401, which involve designing a capstone and then developing it.
Sathya Narayanan does networking. I first met him in my Math 170 (Discrete Mathematics) class. He gave a presentation to the class about how useful it is for programming. Knowing something about the material, and knowing something about programming, I quite agree. He talked to us today about having a job verses a career (a job is just a source of money, a career is a lifelong place to work and grow), and about how more training means more money in the workplace.
Valerie Landau is a web designer. She used to write the game design documents that graphic artists, programmers, etc use to make games. She's been in the computer industry for quite awhile. She was there for the vaccuum tube -> semiconductor switchover. She's used punch cards. She's working on more modern stuff now though. She's teaching instructional design, and she has a side project developing a keyboard in a glove. It should be ready by January, and she's looking for interns to help with the project. She sounds like a fun person to work with.
The last speaker was Bobbi Long. She does communication design and typography. That stuff is useful for more than just newspaper editors - knowledge of typography inspires good logos and attractive documents. Bobbi knows 5 languages, and she's worked on all kinds of visual things - logos, newspapers, brochures, fliers, etc.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Time Management Articles
For those not in CST300, this assignment involves going to this site, reading at least the first 5 articles, and talking about 3 things we learned.
In reading those articles, I learned that a little effort goes a long way, if structured right. With good planning, good preparation, and the right mindset, it takes very little time to get things done. I also learned that procrastination is much more dangerous than I previously thought. I've been learning that for myself lately, because I tend to procrastinate. This website lists it very clearly though. The third thing I learned is that a to-do list helps. I've had some experience with this in my own life, but I still don't use to-do lists as much as I probably should. Hmm, I should make a note of that. "Todo: use to do lists more." Hope I remember to check this to do list.
In reading those articles, I learned that a little effort goes a long way, if structured right. With good planning, good preparation, and the right mindset, it takes very little time to get things done. I also learned that procrastination is much more dangerous than I previously thought. I've been learning that for myself lately, because I tend to procrastinate. This website lists it very clearly though. The third thing I learned is that a to-do list helps. I've had some experience with this in my own life, but I still don't use to-do lists as much as I probably should. Hmm, I should make a note of that. "Todo: use to do lists more." Hope I remember to check this to do list.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Class Summary, Sept 20
This assignment is about what I learned in class on September 20, 2007 (last Thursday).
In this class period we started out by talking about online classes. Next year, some web design courses at CSUMB will be available online. The plan is to make the courses available every semester, but to trade off so that they're available in a classroom one semester, and available online the next semester. This would also probably make the materials easier to update for the next semester, since the materials for each course don't have to be updated for the Fall->Spring date shift, just the 2007->2008 date shift. This is a small thing, but it'd be a whole lot less work for somebody.
There are about 70 web design courses being offered right now, and they plan to do this with 10 of them initially, and see how it works out. CSUMB's goal is to have 12k students, and have 4k of those take classes online only.
We moved into time and stress management. The general conclusion was that we should prioritize school over work, because the average salary almost doubles for people with degrees.
Convey's Time/Task Management Matrix was mentioned. It doesn't sound too useful to me, but here it is.
We went into more detail about time management, but I'd rather talk about the speakers. Bobbi Long, Mike Machado, and Ken Wanderman talked to us today. Well, I'm not sure if Bobbi talked to us. I think she had a class she had to be in. She does graphic design though, mostly posters and logos.
Mike works in the ITCD lab, teaches the Intro to UNIX class, and is part of an ad-hoc network research group. He's also the guy to talk to if we're in the Tmac program and want some software. CSUMB has a deal with Microsoft to let us use most of their products for free. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office isn't part of this deal. Ahh well. Mike also to us about MySpace, a personal storage server each of us can get access to if we email him about getting an account. I don't think this is useful for storage - it's only 600MB, flash drives are cheap these days, and most things can be uploaded to Gmail. It will be useful for my programming projects later on. It has PHP and MySQP set up, so once I learn about those things I can put up demonstration pages on my MySpace.
Ken deals with the M in Tmac - the multimedia. It's called "interactive media" these days, but the concept is the same. It involves video, text, moving images, and, most importantly, interactivity. There are a lot of uses for multimedia - instruction, gaming, recreation, advertising, social interaction, etc. All you need are web design skills, some programming, and graphic design ability. Writing skills help too; I've seen tons of advertisements on the web that I wouldn't admit to making, had I made them. People who can work in this area are highly sought after, especially for flash animation.
In this class period we started out by talking about online classes. Next year, some web design courses at CSUMB will be available online. The plan is to make the courses available every semester, but to trade off so that they're available in a classroom one semester, and available online the next semester. This would also probably make the materials easier to update for the next semester, since the materials for each course don't have to be updated for the Fall->Spring date shift, just the 2007->2008 date shift. This is a small thing, but it'd be a whole lot less work for somebody.
There are about 70 web design courses being offered right now, and they plan to do this with 10 of them initially, and see how it works out. CSUMB's goal is to have 12k students, and have 4k of those take classes online only.
We moved into time and stress management. The general conclusion was that we should prioritize school over work, because the average salary almost doubles for people with degrees.
Convey's Time/Task Management Matrix was mentioned. It doesn't sound too useful to me, but here it is.
| Urgent | Not Urgent | |
| Important | Crises Pressing Problems Deadline-Driven Projects | Prevention Planning Relationship Building Research |
| Not Important | Interruptions Phone Calls Meetings | Trivia Busy Work Time Wasters Pleasant Activities |
We went into more detail about time management, but I'd rather talk about the speakers. Bobbi Long, Mike Machado, and Ken Wanderman talked to us today. Well, I'm not sure if Bobbi talked to us. I think she had a class she had to be in. She does graphic design though, mostly posters and logos.
Mike works in the ITCD lab, teaches the Intro to UNIX class, and is part of an ad-hoc network research group. He's also the guy to talk to if we're in the Tmac program and want some software. CSUMB has a deal with Microsoft to let us use most of their products for free. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office isn't part of this deal. Ahh well. Mike also to us about MySpace, a personal storage server each of us can get access to if we email him about getting an account. I don't think this is useful for storage - it's only 600MB, flash drives are cheap these days, and most things can be uploaded to Gmail. It will be useful for my programming projects later on. It has PHP and MySQP set up, so once I learn about those things I can put up demonstration pages on my MySpace.
Ken deals with the M in Tmac - the multimedia. It's called "interactive media" these days, but the concept is the same. It involves video, text, moving images, and, most importantly, interactivity. There are a lot of uses for multimedia - instruction, gaming, recreation, advertising, social interaction, etc. All you need are web design skills, some programming, and graphic design ability. Writing skills help too; I've seen tons of advertisements on the web that I wouldn't admit to making, had I made them. People who can work in this area are highly sought after, especially for flash animation.
Personal Time Survey
For those not in CST300, this assignment involved completing the personal time survey and posting it here.
Study, and do homework. An estimation I've heard is that you have 2 hours of work outside of class for every hour in class, including study time and homework. I'm in class for 16 hours a week, 16*2=32, and I've got 30 hours "for studying." With all my homework, I don't have much free time. I don't know how people can go to school and work too!
- 8 X 7 = 56 Number of hours of sleep each night
- 1 X 7 = 7 Number of grooming hours per day
- 2 X 7 = 14 Number of hours for meals/snacks per day - include preparation time
- 2 X 5 = 10 Total travel time weekdays
- 1 X 2 = 2 Total travel time weekends
- 2 Number of hours per week for regularly scheduled functions (clubs, church, get-togethers, etc.)
- 2 X 7 = 14 Number of hours per day for chores, errands, extra grooming, etc.
- 3 Number of hours of work per week
- 16 Number of hours in class per week
- 14 Number of average hours per week socializing, dates, etc. Be honest!
- 138 Now add up the totals
- Subtract the above number from 168 - 138 = 30
Study, and do homework. An estimation I've heard is that you have 2 hours of work outside of class for every hour in class, including study time and homework. I'm in class for 16 hours a week, 16*2=32, and I've got 30 hours "for studying." With all my homework, I don't have much free time. I don't know how people can go to school and work too!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Class Summary, Sept 13
This assignment is about what I learned in class on September 13, 2007 (last Thursday).
We had two speakers today: Andrew Coyle and Pat Watson. Andrew's specialty is designing dynamic websites. He says that most websites these days are database-driven, and I think that's true for "big" websites. John Doe's fan page for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie isn't backed by PHP and MySQL, but all of those web 2.0 sites we talked about in the 300L class surely are. Andrew suggested we read magazines, blogs, and newsletters to keep up with what's happening in the tech world. I think that's a great idea; a lot of the conversation starters I know are from Gmail's Web Clips. He specifically recommended the e-newsletter Good Morning, Silicon Valley, and I've added it to my Gmail's Web Clips. It should provide some interesting information.
Pat Watson is on the digital art side of computers. He showed us some examples of digital media from others' classwork. He says forensic visualization is a good field to get into. I've heard that before, and it makes sense. A visualization of a crime scene is a powerful thing, because a lawyer can use it to explain to the jury how a crime happened. It is common knowledge that visual aids help with that kind of thing, but 3d visualizations are much more helpful because they can be manipulated and pictures can be taken from other angles. Justice isn't the only field improved by 3d visualization, there are many others. Medical procedures benefit greatly from 3d models, both for the doctors as they work, and for medical students to better understand the situations they'll be facing.
Pat also told us visualizations are useful for 3d tours. He showed us a 3d tour of the future library, and it looked very impressive. Some realtors put up 3d tours of houses instead of inviting buyers to come see them. I don't think I'd like such a tour, because I'd rather see the house myself and look for problems. Still, a 3d tour would give me a good idea of what a house is like, and it would probably make me more interested than I would be otherwise.
Eric Clinger also spent a few minutes talking about our Individualized Learning Plans. He's going to go over those with us in 1-on-1 meetings. We all signed up for such a meeting. We can also drop in if we have any problems/questions/updates concerning our ILPs, but if we're going to take more than 10 minutes of his time we should schedule a meeting.
Interesting (and unplanned) fact: excluding this sentence, this class summary has the same word count as the last one.
We had two speakers today: Andrew Coyle and Pat Watson. Andrew's specialty is designing dynamic websites. He says that most websites these days are database-driven, and I think that's true for "big" websites. John Doe's fan page for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie isn't backed by PHP and MySQL, but all of those web 2.0 sites we talked about in the 300L class surely are. Andrew suggested we read magazines, blogs, and newsletters to keep up with what's happening in the tech world. I think that's a great idea; a lot of the conversation starters I know are from Gmail's Web Clips. He specifically recommended the e-newsletter Good Morning, Silicon Valley, and I've added it to my Gmail's Web Clips. It should provide some interesting information.
Pat Watson is on the digital art side of computers. He showed us some examples of digital media from others' classwork. He says forensic visualization is a good field to get into. I've heard that before, and it makes sense. A visualization of a crime scene is a powerful thing, because a lawyer can use it to explain to the jury how a crime happened. It is common knowledge that visual aids help with that kind of thing, but 3d visualizations are much more helpful because they can be manipulated and pictures can be taken from other angles. Justice isn't the only field improved by 3d visualization, there are many others. Medical procedures benefit greatly from 3d models, both for the doctors as they work, and for medical students to better understand the situations they'll be facing.
Pat also told us visualizations are useful for 3d tours. He showed us a 3d tour of the future library, and it looked very impressive. Some realtors put up 3d tours of houses instead of inviting buyers to come see them. I don't think I'd like such a tour, because I'd rather see the house myself and look for problems. Still, a 3d tour would give me a good idea of what a house is like, and it would probably make me more interested than I would be otherwise.
Eric Clinger also spent a few minutes talking about our Individualized Learning Plans. He's going to go over those with us in 1-on-1 meetings. We all signed up for such a meeting. We can also drop in if we have any problems/questions/updates concerning our ILPs, but if we're going to take more than 10 minutes of his time we should schedule a meeting.
Interesting (and unplanned) fact: excluding this sentence, this class summary has the same word count as the last one.
My Weekly Schedule
Yep, it's here. I've got lots of free time on Saturdays and Sundays. Unfortunately, I've also usually got homework for Math, Spanish, and CST 300L due Sunday night/Monday morning.
You'll need a Google account to view it, as it's a Google Document. I got the idea to do it like this from Phillip Wessels.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pW4UTAoRL6v_zVK3fHG4dWA
Edit Sept 26: I've updated this to include Anime Club, and tagged it as week4 because it's mentioned as an assignment for that week too.
You'll need a Google account to view it, as it's a Google Document. I got the idea to do it like this from Phillip Wessels.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pW4UTAoRL6v_zVK3fHG4dWA
Edit Sept 26: I've updated this to include Anime Club, and tagged it as week4 because it's mentioned as an assignment for that week too.
Study Strategies and Habits
For this assignment, we are to go to read adprima.com/studyout.htm and reflect on the strategies/tips described.
This site has some good info, and a few tips that I don't think would work so well. Overall through, it's got a lot more good info than bad. Like it says, it's ranked high on Google, and it's used by many schools, so it has proven itself useful to many people already.
One of the things it describes that I am weak with is making every hour count. I'm great at finding a distraction, whether it's Youtube, Facebook, or just an interesting Wikipedia article. So far in my academic career I've managed to get along alright; it's interesting living by the skin of my teeth. I find that I work best under pressure. I hardly ever turn things in late because I'm just slacking off, I know my limits and when the deadline is approaching I get to work. Still, working hard earlier and having fun later would be a safer way to do things.
Another thing I'm weak with is outlining textbooks. I've never depended heavily on books in my academic career, and I don't expect to. If a teacher teaches differently from the book, I don't need to learn from the book because that teacher's assignments and tests are going to be different from the book's instructions. If a teacher teaches straight out of the book, I don't need to learn from the book because the teachers already taught me that material. I'll certainly review it as I complete my assignments, but by that point it's stuff I already know and thus I'm not learning anything completely foreign to me.
My one great weakness is examinations. I just plain suck at them. It's because I work slowly and carefully, which is great for homework, but bad for timed things like tests.
My grammar and punctuation is strong. I guess I got it from my mother. She used to be an English teacher. She reviewed all my papers when I was younger, and now I always try to have perfect grammar. I often play around with sentences and rewrite them until they sound splendid, especially for important papers.
My lecture notes are great too. Well, they're great for me. I'm good at getting the main idea from both books and lessons, and then distilling that onto paper as a few lines of notes, when everybody around me is writing down exactly what the teacher said / wrote on the board. That never helps me! Say it takes a teacher 30 minutes and 3 pages of notes to make the entire class understand an idea. That teacher certainly doesn't need 3 pages of notes to remind himself/herself how it works, and once a student learns the idea the student won't either. I learn during class, and take a few notes to remind myself of the concepts. To somebody else, my notes will mean nothing, but if they ask me I'll be able to explain it in great detail from those notes.
There were also a few weird tips in that list. The first is just a grammar issue, but I thought it was funny enough to mention. "Never study within 30 minutes of going to sleep." Due to the ambiguousness of the word "within," this could mean "Don't study for 30 minutes before going to sleep," or "Don't story for 30 minutes after going to sleep." Personally, I try my best not to have studying dreams.
Another weird tip was, when taking an exam, start by writing all the material you know on the subject. This really wouldn't work for me, because I'm always pressed for time on exams anyway, but it seems like a weird tip in general because usually the only time you forget things is if they're in short-term memory, like when you've been cramming, and this site argues against cramming before tests.
To summarize:
Areas in which I'm strong
Areas in which I'm weak
Ideas that are strange
This site has some good info, and a few tips that I don't think would work so well. Overall through, it's got a lot more good info than bad. Like it says, it's ranked high on Google, and it's used by many schools, so it has proven itself useful to many people already.
One of the things it describes that I am weak with is making every hour count. I'm great at finding a distraction, whether it's Youtube, Facebook, or just an interesting Wikipedia article. So far in my academic career I've managed to get along alright; it's interesting living by the skin of my teeth. I find that I work best under pressure. I hardly ever turn things in late because I'm just slacking off, I know my limits and when the deadline is approaching I get to work. Still, working hard earlier and having fun later would be a safer way to do things.
Another thing I'm weak with is outlining textbooks. I've never depended heavily on books in my academic career, and I don't expect to. If a teacher teaches differently from the book, I don't need to learn from the book because that teacher's assignments and tests are going to be different from the book's instructions. If a teacher teaches straight out of the book, I don't need to learn from the book because the teachers already taught me that material. I'll certainly review it as I complete my assignments, but by that point it's stuff I already know and thus I'm not learning anything completely foreign to me.
My one great weakness is examinations. I just plain suck at them. It's because I work slowly and carefully, which is great for homework, but bad for timed things like tests.
My grammar and punctuation is strong. I guess I got it from my mother. She used to be an English teacher. She reviewed all my papers when I was younger, and now I always try to have perfect grammar. I often play around with sentences and rewrite them until they sound splendid, especially for important papers.
My lecture notes are great too. Well, they're great for me. I'm good at getting the main idea from both books and lessons, and then distilling that onto paper as a few lines of notes, when everybody around me is writing down exactly what the teacher said / wrote on the board. That never helps me! Say it takes a teacher 30 minutes and 3 pages of notes to make the entire class understand an idea. That teacher certainly doesn't need 3 pages of notes to remind himself/herself how it works, and once a student learns the idea the student won't either. I learn during class, and take a few notes to remind myself of the concepts. To somebody else, my notes will mean nothing, but if they ask me I'll be able to explain it in great detail from those notes.
There were also a few weird tips in that list. The first is just a grammar issue, but I thought it was funny enough to mention. "Never study within 30 minutes of going to sleep." Due to the ambiguousness of the word "within," this could mean "Don't study for 30 minutes before going to sleep," or "Don't story for 30 minutes after going to sleep." Personally, I try my best not to have studying dreams.
Another weird tip was, when taking an exam, start by writing all the material you know on the subject. This really wouldn't work for me, because I'm always pressed for time on exams anyway, but it seems like a weird tip in general because usually the only time you forget things is if they're in short-term memory, like when you've been cramming, and this site argues against cramming before tests.
To summarize:
Areas in which I'm strong
- Getting the main idea
- Using correct punctuation and grammar
- Taking lecture notes
Areas in which I'm weak
- Making every hour count
- Outlining textbooks
- Taking examinations
Ideas that are strange
- Never study within 30 minutes of going to sleep
- Test taking - the memory dump
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Class Summary, Sept 6
This assignment is about what I learned in class on September 6, 2007 (last Thursday).
We had three speakers today: Rosalie Strong, Kevin Cahill, and Young JoonByun. Rosalie's specialty is Instructional Design, which means designing the training modules that are used to teach people things. She has designed training modules for all kinds of things, from school topics to working with nuclear reactors. She's the person we should go to if our Capstone is about solving educational/training problems, developing new skills, or changing behaviors.
Kevin Cahill is a website designer and a nature lover. I think his hobby works well with his profession; both involve art. He's the guy to go to for anything about websites. I personally might visit him if I have website-design-related questions outside of class, since it looks like he knows how websites work from the inside as well as the outside. He talked about making websites look the same across different browsers, and I know that's a huge problem in the world of web design. I know the field well enough to know that he really knows his stuff.
The third presenter was Young JoonByun, and I think it odd that his last name is two names concatenated. He talked about programming. His presentation was definitely the least flashy, but I don't think that made it boring. I want to work in the field of programming, so his experience is probably most relevant to me.
Both Kevin and Young talked about something besides their work here, which I thought was interesting. Kevin said we should all take a nutrition class. That's weird, but it makes sense in a way. I took a health class in my previous college, and it had some very good info. Young talked about the new Computer Science major opening up, and I'm quite happy he did. For one thing, I'd heard about it before, but Young clarified its purpose. For another, this tells me that Young is a great guy to talk to if you're interested in programming - he'll tell you useful things that you probably didn't know.
Lastly, I learned how to start a blog on Blogger. That was a small part of the class, but I think it was important. I knew I didn't know how to do it before I went up there, and I knew I'd fumble with it and probably be pointed in the right direction by my classmates. Eric told us that anybody could start a blog with 5-15 minutes trial and error. I was trying to be the example of that.
We had three speakers today: Rosalie Strong, Kevin Cahill, and Young JoonByun. Rosalie's specialty is Instructional Design, which means designing the training modules that are used to teach people things. She has designed training modules for all kinds of things, from school topics to working with nuclear reactors. She's the person we should go to if our Capstone is about solving educational/training problems, developing new skills, or changing behaviors.
Kevin Cahill is a website designer and a nature lover. I think his hobby works well with his profession; both involve art. He's the guy to go to for anything about websites. I personally might visit him if I have website-design-related questions outside of class, since it looks like he knows how websites work from the inside as well as the outside. He talked about making websites look the same across different browsers, and I know that's a huge problem in the world of web design. I know the field well enough to know that he really knows his stuff.
The third presenter was Young JoonByun, and I think it odd that his last name is two names concatenated. He talked about programming. His presentation was definitely the least flashy, but I don't think that made it boring. I want to work in the field of programming, so his experience is probably most relevant to me.
Both Kevin and Young talked about something besides their work here, which I thought was interesting. Kevin said we should all take a nutrition class. That's weird, but it makes sense in a way. I took a health class in my previous college, and it had some very good info. Young talked about the new Computer Science major opening up, and I'm quite happy he did. For one thing, I'd heard about it before, but Young clarified its purpose. For another, this tells me that Young is a great guy to talk to if you're interested in programming - he'll tell you useful things that you probably didn't know.
Lastly, I learned how to start a blog on Blogger. That was a small part of the class, but I think it was important. I knew I didn't know how to do it before I went up there, and I knew I'd fumble with it and probably be pointed in the right direction by my classmates. Eric told us that anybody could start a blog with 5-15 minutes trial and error. I was trying to be the example of that.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
ILP Review
For this assignment, we are to go to portfolio.csumb.edu and choose two portfolios to read carefully. By random selection I chose the year 2006, and I looked at all the profiles there. Of those, I think Jennifer and Imelda have the best looking profiles. I choose them.
I like both of these. I think they both work well to deliver their content, and they are both fine products. That said, I like Jennifer's more than Imelda's. Imelda concentrated more on having a nice, neat, compact portfolio, whereas Jennifer used as much room as necessary to describe the courses, its requirements, and her results. Jennifer's is very spread out, and a somewhat more compact design might have been better, but I think Imelda went too far with compacting it.
Still, both are fine portfolios, and any information that you need is easy to find. I specifically chose these two because they initially looked good. I'd rather not look through bad work, and I bet teachers don't like to either. Some of the other portfolios looked too flashy, too disorganized, or too plain. There's nothing wrong with a plain portfolio, but people like me are more likely to choose the ones that look good without being garish.
Employers are going to look for that kind of thing too. I think either of these people would be proud to show employers their portfolios; they are both fine works.
I like both of these. I think they both work well to deliver their content, and they are both fine products. That said, I like Jennifer's more than Imelda's. Imelda concentrated more on having a nice, neat, compact portfolio, whereas Jennifer used as much room as necessary to describe the courses, its requirements, and her results. Jennifer's is very spread out, and a somewhat more compact design might have been better, but I think Imelda went too far with compacting it.
Still, both are fine portfolios, and any information that you need is easy to find. I specifically chose these two because they initially looked good. I'd rather not look through bad work, and I bet teachers don't like to either. Some of the other portfolios looked too flashy, too disorganized, or too plain. There's nothing wrong with a plain portfolio, but people like me are more likely to choose the ones that look good without being garish.
Employers are going to look for that kind of thing too. I think either of these people would be proud to show employers their portfolios; they are both fine works.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Learning Pathways
For those not in CST 300, this is an assignment where we look at the pathways to graduation and choose which one we feel best fits our career goals.
I think the 2.5-year one is best for me. I'm taking my last few General Ed classes this semester, so if I focus on my major for the next 2 years I should get it done.
In terms of focuses, I still plan to do the programming focus, or "Software Design" as it's called.
I'm not certain I'll do the Tmac degree at all though. I'm hoping to go into the new CSIT degree YoungJoon talked about.
I think the 2.5-year one is best for me. I'm taking my last few General Ed classes this semester, so if I focus on my major for the next 2 years I should get it done.
In terms of focuses, I still plan to do the programming focus, or "Software Design" as it's called.
I'm not certain I'll do the Tmac degree at all though. I'm hoping to go into the new CSIT degree YoungJoon talked about.
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