Week 10: Clear with a hint of mud.

     This week we learned about databases with Microsoft Access. At first I was skeptical because I had never learned it before, but after watching the lectures, I got a good hold of what it is. I felt that the lecture was relatively clear in what we had to do. The basic concept was that databases are like an evolved form of what Excel is. It works very similarly but with much more power. It has to same uses such as functions and calculations, but with more things such as using external links and forms as well as reports.
     Being familiar with a database is very useful for the business world. Databases are used more often than not in companies today and being experienced in them can only help. We also deal with databases daily, going to websites to buy things and entering our addresses on different mailing lists. Here is a link to a website that has a PDF that talks about the necessity of Databases. Obviously the course administrators share some of these views or we wouldn't be learning about databases. (http://whitepapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=236014)
     On the other hand, I thought that there was some "mud" in this topic. Not so much in the way it was taught, but in the scavenger hunt. I felt that the questions were very ambiguous and weren't being answered very clearly. On top of that I saw that a lot of times the questions were jumbled with the presentation and didn't flow as the lecture did. Also, I had times where I couldn't even find the correct answer and had to watch it a few times and almost guess what the answer was. Other than that, it was a fine week.

PS: The scavenger hunt I did was the corrected version too.

Week 9: Clear

A link to my presentation -  http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/227011/Stephen-Difato's-Resume

    This weeks we learned and did presentations. The first thing to note is what I have learned in critiquing someone else's project. I learned that flowing is key, because the person's that I viewed did not flow very well. When this happens, you lose interest and your mind starts to drift. Having a constant flow of information is vital, with no large gaps. Also I noticed how the quality of photos and audio could be a huge factor. When people don't have to focus on listening or viewing, they can spend more time focusing on the main point at hand (hopefully the one you are trying to get across). Here is a critique by me of my presentation.

	Missing or lacking	Meets the minimum but could be improved	Excellent
Is there a logical flow and sequence of content? How could it be improved?			There was seamless audio, as well as the author gave an outline of the presentation.
Does the presenter anticipate questions and answer them in the right place? At what points did you have questions that were not answered?		There weren’t many questions to be asked, but he did explain everything that he brought up thoroughly.
Did the presenter grab your attention in the first 30-60 seconds?		Did an okay job.
Did the presenter ask questions and spark your curiosity?			Yes, initially he made me want to know what was so special that was being offered.
Did the presenter set the context with a concise explanation? Is it clear what the presenter is trying to share?			Yes
Did the presenter validate any claims?			Yes, he showed the website of his employers with contact information.
Did the presenter avoid inconsistencies and errors, typos and unbelievable claims?			Yes
How well did the presenter avoid clutter?		There wasn’t much clutter, maybe some more typing and less pictures.
What did the presenter do to ensure readability?			The reader spoke for a majority of the time, and allowed pictures to grab attention.
Did the presenter say it, and then show it or did he/she read the slides?			He spoke most of the time, with little written text.

  

    What I learned from this project was awesome. I first learned how to effectively use power point. I have done a few presentations in the past, but none as extensive as this. I can see how power point can be a super useful tool and how it is often under utilized. Also I learned the many different functions of power point. I learned that I could use it almost to make a movie. Lastly, I learned how hard it is to find photos that I could use freely on the internet. I can't believe how much time it took to find a few simple pictures.
     Lastly, this week was clear. Although there were a lot of directions and a fair amount of work, it wasn't difficult. I also enjoyed it and had some questions that were answered fairly quickly on the website. All and all, it was a good week.

VOIP extra credit

     Being a regular computer user, I have used voice over IP many times. On this occasion, I was pleased to learn of Jing. Jing is a pretty cool tool I have never sued before and is very easy to use. Here's a link to my conversation with my friend, who's voice is very weak in the recording.

http://www.screencast.com/users/silverace/folders/Jing/media/2209d586-71b6-4731-b3a6-c1d13beeb320

My avatar

     For my avatar, I chose the use the "your wild self" site. I kind of just chose randomly, but I got into it after. I initially set it up to look like myself then realized that I was then supposed to incorporate other animals into myself. From there I chose. For the arms I chose gorilla arms because lets face it, gorillas are awesome and super strong, so why wouldn't you want gorilla arms over the other lame ones. Next I initially chose spider legs for my feet so I could run super fast and climb walls but then remembered I would most likely be swinging from vines above ground. So I weighed my options and went with the shark body so I could swim super fast, hopefully I get the gills too. Next I chose a dog/wolf nose rather than the others because I would love to have that keen sense of smell. Lastly, for the body I chose the wings, I think that is self explanatory. I guess that kind of contradicts the gorilla arms as well.

Week 7: Clear

     This weeks class had to do with power point and presentations. I know those two aren't synonymous but it seems like they are. The basic concepts were easy, but I feel like for the most part people usually don't pay attention to the ideas presented even though they know them. Some of the topics I particularly enjoyed, especially about presentations. I have sat through millions of presentations that lost my attention so the idea of grasping your audience in a "sticky" thought is really interesting. I guess that presentation was sticky by itself, haha.

     One of these concepts I learned, and is probably one of the most important is signal to noise ratio. Having a strong signal (main idea) is very important, and rather than going off on tangents, drive that point home with examples and ideas making the audience want more of it. Another idea I really liked was when talking about how to gain the audiences attention. The best way, I thought, was by providing visual examples the audience could related to. By doing this the audience can see the ideas and grasp how they could effect their life!

     Lastly, I think the section where I explain how this is important in the business environment is completely obvious. Being a great dynamic speaker will not only make you a great business asset, but it could also by itself get you a job. Speaking is one of those tools that is highly underdeveloped. Also, being able to make impressive power points is another tool which is highly used. For example, my brother has excelled highly in his job solely because of his ability to use power point and impress investors with it.

     A good website that shows how to use power point and make awesome presentations is http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpoint101/PowerPoint_101_How_to_Use_PowerPoint.htm. This website shows how easy it is to use, yet is such a powerful tool. This website shows a clear concept of how to use power point to make a presentation pop and be very sticky to an audience.

Excel Project

     For this weeks assignment, we had to do an excel project. Excel is super tricky but very useful. In the project we were required to complete multiple tasks. First, we had to make some new rows. In these rows we had to use basic formulas, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to get data such as percentage hart rate increase, change in heart rate and others.Next, and the part that got me, was calculating the percent heart rate increase. This was difficult for me because I could not get the division to work. After about fifteen minutes of trying I realize the column is in a percentage format and that's why it wouldn't give me an appropriate answer.
     After that we were required to make some pivot tables. I was fairly familiar with excel functions, but pivot tables are something completely foreign to me. I had to re watch about half of the first lecture on the tables to finally understand how they worked. After that the first table required you to show how many men and women reached their target heart rate. The second table showed the demographics and how well the reacted to the course.
     The skills I learned during this project were mostly attributed to the pivot tables. I'm not really sure how long these have been around, but they are very useful. They can give very important data, summarizing many rows and columns in one cell block. Also, it was nice to get a refresher on the functions. All in all, I thought the project was perfect, just enough to teach you what to know, but nothing overboard and super difficult.