Here is my activity log for Tuesday and Wednesday:
Activity Log
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Study Strategies and Habits
3 Top Strategies and Habits
- Taking Notes from the Lecture and Textbook I always try to take notes whenever possible. Even if I don't think I'll look back at them (which I should), I take notes so that it will process in my brain and sometimes to just keep me awake during lecture or from reading a textbook.
- Where to Study I like to study at my desk or in the library. If my roommates are doing something distracting, I will just close my door and attempt to study. I avoid studying on a couch or my bed because then it distracts me from concentrating at the task at hand.
- Preparing an Outline and Writing a Paper Whenever I write a paper I prepare an outline. Preparing an outline helps my paper become more focused and helps me write, so that I'm not all over the place with my ideas.
- When to Study / Study Schedule I try to study at least a few hours every day. During the weekdays, when I get home from school/work I usually don't feel like doing homework, which results in me not getting anything done. Also, I usually leave most of my work to do until Sunday, which isn't good since I can't study for a whole day. I need to put aside time and actually study, and not tell myself I have all day sunday to do homework.
- Reviewing and Revising I almost never review my notes because I don't really think about it. I think that if I review and revise them after I have a class, I will make more of a habit to look at them and use them.
- Reading a Textbook On the website it states that reading aloud doesn't help at all. I am the type of person who thinks that if I can't concentrate on a textbook, I need to read aloud.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Learning Pathway
I visited the ITCD website and looked through the pathways that were offered for the Communications Design major.
Web Design
I have decided to choose Web Design and Development. I was leaning towards Visual Design last year, because in the past I have experimented with HTML and CSS and hated the coding part, but loved the designing part. I decided before I make my initial decision, I should take the Web Design course (CST 351) to make sure that I wanted to do it. After experimenting with Dreamweaver, I realize that coding isn't that difficult and I even enjoy it as much as I do the designing part. I feel like I would want to stick with web design rather than print design, because the print design field seems to be more competitive and I feel that I have more experience and more knowledge about web design than print design.
Web Design
I have decided to choose Web Design and Development. I was leaning towards Visual Design last year, because in the past I have experimented with HTML and CSS and hated the coding part, but loved the designing part. I decided before I make my initial decision, I should take the Web Design course (CST 351) to make sure that I wanted to do it. After experimenting with Dreamweaver, I realize that coding isn't that difficult and I even enjoy it as much as I do the designing part. I feel like I would want to stick with web design rather than print design, because the print design field seems to be more competitive and I feel that I have more experience and more knowledge about web design than print design.
ILP Individual Learning Portfolio
By viewing these portfolios, I see that they are listing their classes and discuss what they learn in the class and what they do. It also states the required skills and what classes they took for that skill.
Matthew Lussier
In each of the categories, it lists what classes he took. It was interesting to look under his 'msc.' courses. I saw that he took a couple for instructional design and game design, which shows me he was getting as much knowledge of the broad career field as possible. I do like this portfolio because it's very pleasing to the eye, well designed, and very easy to navigate.
Ammon West
Reading Ammon West's portfolio was a little more different than Matthew Lussier's, but just as pleasing. He seemed to take a few Linux/LAN courses, which I'm guessing is what he concentrated in. I don't know much about his major and it confuses me a little more reading about it, but I loved the colors and the layout the website.
Matthew Lussier
In each of the categories, it lists what classes he took. It was interesting to look under his 'msc.' courses. I saw that he took a couple for instructional design and game design, which shows me he was getting as much knowledge of the broad career field as possible. I do like this portfolio because it's very pleasing to the eye, well designed, and very easy to navigate.
Ammon West
Reading Ammon West's portfolio was a little more different than Matthew Lussier's, but just as pleasing. He seemed to take a few Linux/LAN courses, which I'm guessing is what he concentrated in. I don't know much about his major and it confuses me a little more reading about it, but I loved the colors and the layout the website.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
It's almost been a full week since the last lecture for ProSem, but I am now finally deciding to write my blog entry.
Last week during ProSem, there were a few professors that presented different majors and emphasis. The first speaker to speak was Sathya Narayan. He mostly talked about the Computer Science and Information Technology major (CSIT for short). First he defined Information Technology as "The study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." I was glad he had defined this because before this class I had no idea what 'Information Technology' actually meant. I learned that computer science was the study of structure, mechanism, and expression of algorithms (which is computational thinking). The Study of Computers, aka computer science, doesn't mean you have to study all of those things. People usually focus on one or two, but studying all of them is still a possibility. People who study computer science mostly go into career fields such as Software Programming, Software Engineering, and Computer Research. For all of these career fields, mathematics are the foundation, and that is why CSIT demands advanced math classes. Another speaker who spoke was Young-Joon Byun. Byun spoke more about programming and certain things like that. From both of these presentations, I learned that there is less competition in the Computer Science careers. They also tend to make more money, especially in their starting pay. Eric Tao had mentioned the top 3 places to go if you want a computer science career, and he said they were Washington D.C., Boston, and SAN JOSE. When he had mentioned San Jose my heart had skipped a beat because that is where I want to live for the rest of my life. I don't care what people think about it, it's my home and I love it there. Although I'm not a CSIT major, I still think I'll be able to find work in San Jose. It still made me happy though.
The other speaker that spoke was Bobbi Long. I've had her before for my Visual Art and Design class. She teaches most of the print design classes here on campus, so I wasn't surprised she was presenting on the Communications Design major with an emphasis in visual design. First she had told us about her career as a visual designer, which it seemed contained many accomplishments. I had no idea she had designed for so many things and in plenty of different countries. It also surprised me that she even did environmental design, especially with the gas stations. She of course probably collaborated with other designers who specialized in environmental design, but it just surprised me that as a visual designer you are open to different types of work. She then went on about the different classes you would need to take for a visual design emphasis. I had known most of the classes to take because I was thinking about emphasizing in visual design, but something that stood out to me was that she recommended digital photography. I had never thought about taking digital photography, and I think it would be both fun and useful to take it.
I will be honest, I enjoyed Bobbi Long's presentation more than the CSIT Professors, but maybe it's because I'm biased since my major is Communications Design.
Last week during ProSem, there were a few professors that presented different majors and emphasis. The first speaker to speak was Sathya Narayan. He mostly talked about the Computer Science and Information Technology major (CSIT for short). First he defined Information Technology as "The study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." I was glad he had defined this because before this class I had no idea what 'Information Technology' actually meant. I learned that computer science was the study of structure, mechanism, and expression of algorithms (which is computational thinking). The Study of Computers, aka computer science, doesn't mean you have to study all of those things. People usually focus on one or two, but studying all of them is still a possibility. People who study computer science mostly go into career fields such as Software Programming, Software Engineering, and Computer Research. For all of these career fields, mathematics are the foundation, and that is why CSIT demands advanced math classes. Another speaker who spoke was Young-Joon Byun. Byun spoke more about programming and certain things like that. From both of these presentations, I learned that there is less competition in the Computer Science careers. They also tend to make more money, especially in their starting pay. Eric Tao had mentioned the top 3 places to go if you want a computer science career, and he said they were Washington D.C., Boston, and SAN JOSE. When he had mentioned San Jose my heart had skipped a beat because that is where I want to live for the rest of my life. I don't care what people think about it, it's my home and I love it there. Although I'm not a CSIT major, I still think I'll be able to find work in San Jose. It still made me happy though.
The other speaker that spoke was Bobbi Long. I've had her before for my Visual Art and Design class. She teaches most of the print design classes here on campus, so I wasn't surprised she was presenting on the Communications Design major with an emphasis in visual design. First she had told us about her career as a visual designer, which it seemed contained many accomplishments. I had no idea she had designed for so many things and in plenty of different countries. It also surprised me that she even did environmental design, especially with the gas stations. She of course probably collaborated with other designers who specialized in environmental design, but it just surprised me that as a visual designer you are open to different types of work. She then went on about the different classes you would need to take for a visual design emphasis. I had known most of the classes to take because I was thinking about emphasizing in visual design, but something that stood out to me was that she recommended digital photography. I had never thought about taking digital photography, and I think it would be both fun and useful to take it.
I will be honest, I enjoyed Bobbi Long's presentation more than the CSIT Professors, but maybe it's because I'm biased since my major is Communications Design.
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