What Happened

I passed my first year with a respectable 68 point. I passed modules like Databases and E-tail which scared me at the beginning of the first year. I handed in a lot of assessments and I learnt a lot from past mistakes, I am determined to do a better job this year and raise the bar to obtain even better results.

We had more than 3 months break and I have to quickly get back into study mode.

Good/Bad

I enjoyed getting to know my colleagues and my tutors. Out of all the assessments I enjoyed best creating the website for web design and organising the charity event for PPD2. I would like to do more work involving web design. Another very useful experience was the work placement. Being part of a real organisation was exciting, I learnt about the role of different departments, about the job and IT technician does and about the real expectations of an IT specialist in today’s job market.

What would you change?

If I could do it again, I would read the assessments requirements paying more attention to the learning outcomes. I would do more reading and referencing, spend more time on writing the assessments. I would take more notes in class, be more opened to other peoples ideas. I would have liked to read more on the side, not just books needed for our assessments, but articles and news and forums about different topics around the latest IT trends.

I had a subscription for Computing and Computer Weekly, but I always got distracted with something else and found excuses not to read them. I want to change that this year and be more focused.

I would have liked to work with other members of my group more, it’s always better when you can bounce ideas off each other and get support from someone else while doing research.

3 Good Things:

-I am very pleased with the fact that I did not get behind my modules and I kept up with the class

-I managed to get all my work done in time, it feels good to start the new semester knowing I haven’t got work left from the first semester

-I got 85% on my first database assessment. It made me feel really good and gave me a boost to do more work.

3 Things that did not go well:

-I did not read as much as I planned to do.  I want to read more books, journals.

-I need to read the assessments more carefully and make sure I dont go over the word alowance. I want to produce more quality work and get 100% or at least 95% :d this semester

-I want to prepaire my assessments more in time. I tend to get the assessments done in the week they are due. Some of them I spent more time and it was very easy to do a good piece of work.

WORK BASED LEARNING

Today we had to look at  a few IT jobs, and choose the once we found we could do . We had to look at the skills required and highlight them. It was good to go thru the jobs and select the once I would like to do one day. The are a lot of skills required. A lot of technical skills, like MS Office, Oracle, SQL, PHP, Java, but companies are not looking only at technical skills but at skills like team player, independent thinker, flexible, time management, meeting deadlines, multi-tasker, dedication to accuracy, get it done attitude, analytical skills, creativity. The thing that scares me a bit is experience in the field. Most of the employers are looking for people with experience.

I need to start some voluntary work, IT related work, and think about getting a summer intership .

It was usefull to look at the jobs today, I realized how important it is to have work experience. We can gather work experience in so many ways, participating in extra-curricular activities, and doing voluntary work.

PPD2

This semester we need to take intiative and get involved in a project. I personaly love this idea. I always wanted to organise and event. I offered to be project manager for a charity event, and hopefuly we will do a good job.

It is a bit difficult to involve everyone, cause people dont show up for ppd.  We had a good week tho. We managed to decide on the charity, decide on the event and pick a date. We decide who is going to do what and hopefuly we wil have more people on board next week to participate with ideas and help.

I had a good time at today’s module, we had a good chat and it was a smoth and easy process to decide upon the event.

We will see next week what each of us managed to do.

WRL 2

This week we talked about employability skills again . We need to find a work placement for this module, and some find this part a bit difficult. I was lucky to find my work placement in time, and I already started mine.

It is  a great experience to observe how  a big company works. My work placement has all its department on the same site soI get an inside of how everything works and inter department communication.

WRL is a great module, and I learnt a lot about organisation from this module, as well as about myself and my own employability skills. Doing all these homeworks makes me aware of all the areas of my development I need to consider.

The work scenario was a good exercise, as we can apply the skills to real life situations.

Assessments seem to get even more serious and it will take a bit more concentration to get them done. I hope I will be able to cope.

11.02.2010

PPD2

PPD2 this semester is more challenging and interesting than it was last semester. We need to chose 3 initiatives and keep and audit trail for each attempt.

Julie suggested us to organise a charity event, were all the group can be involved. We had a discussion about it, and I offered to be the project manager.  I hope I did not do a mistake, by taking on so much resposability. I delagate jobs to people, tryed to motivate them, and make sure everything gets done.

For my second initiative I will speak to the internationl student advisor and se if I can help in any way their department.

I’m not sure what my third initiative will be. I’m thinking of gaining a new skill.

WRL2

For WEL2 I had to undertake a work placement. I was exepted at Dovecote park at their IT department to go in for 10 weeks , one day per week.  My job will be to assist the IT team, and learn about how the organisation works as a whole.

I am very excited, and I cannot wait to begin my placement.

19.02.2010

PPD2

I talked to Lesley Powel from the International Students team, and she suggested that I could help her department organise a trip to Whitby. Its something I’ve never done before, and a lot of risk assessment is involved in organising such an event.

It takes a lot of planning, and you need to think about all the things that could go wrong.

WE are making progreses with the charity event as well. We had a survey among college students to decide what game should we have on the console. We also decided to have a raffle and a bun sales.

We need to find prizes, ask for permission and advertise the event. Hopefully we’ll get everything sortet.

WRL2

I’ve started my work placement this week. It was a bit scary on the morning as I did not know what to expect. I met the IT manager and the IT team and they all see nice. I had my induction and I learnt a lot about the business in just one day.

The IT team seems busy all the time, people caling all day with different problems. It seems like a very challenging  job. I get to assist the team, and participate where I can.

The business is changing their website. It was good to observe that and be able to contribute, using the theory from e-tail.

I feel very positive about my work placement, and I am looking forward to next week.

05.03.2010

PPd2

We had our mini semester break, which was good to relax a bit.

We are still working on the charity event, and we had Sally Amos from Candleighter at college. She came to talk to us about their work and where would they use the money we’d raise. It was a very intens experience, because she talked about the childrens lifes and their families life. There are so many thing we take for granted and these kids have so many difficulties.

We managed to get permission to hold the event at Park Lane Campus. We still need to get prizes, and sort out the raffle tickets.

WRL2

My second week on placement was very good. I did some network cableing which was interesting and new for me.

At WRL we talked about the first assessment. We had to provide a learning agreement with the companies that we work for.

I appreciate having this work placement because I learn a lot of new thing each time, and I can use it on my CV later on.

12.03.10

PPD2

I decided to make a power point presentation for my third initiative.  I made a presentation on the brain vs computer. I enjoyed doing that as I learnt new things about the brain and processors.  I found a few interesting personaloty tests which my colleagues enjoyed. I was happy after my presentation as I felt it went good.

We managed to find a prizes for the raffle. People seemed more involved in the project now, and I get more help. Gups managed to make a very good poster to advertise the event, and Aasan is talking to Liz for the equipment we need.

WRL2

As the weeks go by I realise how many skills organisations require from an employee. The amount of technical skills and personal skills the people I’m working with have amaze me.  I just hope that one day I will be able to cope with a similar role.

All the things we learnt at PPD and WRL in last semester make more sens now, and I can see why we had all the development plans, adn CV building.

Web design and Visual programming

I enjoy both module, but maybe VB a bit more. I’ve done programming before, and I find it a bit easier to understand the concept.

We have to do a few programs for our assessment.

Web design is new for me as I did not study web design before. I enjoy designing the pages and learning about xhtml. It’s good to see what’s behind a page.

I so far enjoy this semester a lot, the modules are interesting and challenging.   I want to make sure I do my best when it comes to assessments and hand them in time. I constantly check the course handbook and the modules’ handbooks.

We have 9 weeks left and the year is gone. I cannot believe how fast.

19.03.2010

PPD2

We are very close to holding our charity event, and we still have a few things to sort out. We need to put on the posters up,  book the projector and screen from the library, talk to Liz about tables and make sure everyone will bring cakes next Friday to sell. I booked a posting board from reception to advertise and we need to set up that as well.

We meet all today after PPD and WRL and went to the library. We printed out pink letters, pictures of buns and prizes and for the first time it felt like we worked as a group. Everyone participated, I deligated people with tasks. Finally things started to take a shape. We booked the projector and scree, we put some posters up and we had our posting board done. It was a great feeling at the end of the day to know that we accomplished so much.

WRL2

I’ve done some hardware work at my work placement, which was great. I felt I learnt so much. I had to take a computer to pieces, and change the mother board. I was assited, but it felt great to actually fix a computer. I was explained in detail the mother board, and at the end of the day my boss gave me  a little questionare, I did good, and remembered most of the important things.

I need to catch up with writing the blog for work, and start working on my second assessment for WRL 2.

Web Design

I feel a bit unsure about creating my web site. There are so many exercises which I have to do again to get used to using css, and I need to read about java scripts , php and mysql.

I have to do more work for this module.

Visual Programming

I finished all the programms we had for our assessment. I need to write improvements and do the testing and my second assessment is done. I am please with that as it will give me more time to focus on web design.

26.03.2010

PPD2

This week we had our charityt event. On Thursday at tutorial we sortet out the prizes and raffle tickets, the box for the egg hunt and reminded everyone again about bringing cakes and buns.

On Friday everyone came. Frostie broth the T-shirts from Candlelighters, we put them on and started setting up. It was great to see everyone working togheter. When we finished setting up I felt like we acheived so much.

We all aprticipated, and sold cakes, sold raffle tickets, Easter eggs, and had the game set up.

It was a good effort from everyone and we managed to raise about £150.

It was my first real project.  Working as a team is not as easy as it sounds, and motivating people is harder than I imagined, but I learnt a lto from this experience.  I am more confident that things can be done if the right amount of effort is invested.

I changed my third initiative for PPD2. Instead of writing up the trip tp Whitby, I am going to write about the First Aid Course I did for work. The trip was delayed until May, and I consider that is late to hand in my assessment.

WRL2

I am almost done with my work experience, and I already feel I am going to miss it. I met some great people, I learnt a lot from them and I  hope I see them after my work experience is done.

I assissted at a meeting this week. I was there to observe and write the main points discussed. It was a very civilized meeting, everyone got the chance to talk and all the problems on the agenda were discussed. I enjoyed being there and listening, as some of the senior managers were there.

Web Design

This week I had to miss the web design tutorial, because of work. I wasn’t to happy about this, but I promissed myself that I will spend half of the easter holiday working only on web design. Hopefully I will do so.

Visual Programming.

I have written up the improvements for my programms, and I’ve started doing the testing. If I manage to finish this assessment by the end of the holidays, I will feel more relaxed and it will be easier to concetrate on web design.

Overall I feel happy about this semester as most of my assessment are handed in. The once I still need to hand in are 8, of which 2 blogs that I am working on, a third initiative for PPD2, my WRL2 work experience log . 2 presentations for VB and Web design, and my web site.

The only assessment that I feel stressed about is my web site.

9th 04.2010

We had our Easter holiday a week early. We all agreed to come in on the 9th of April to catch up with some work, and Julie offered to help us one to one.

I came in and I managed to finish two assessments that day: PPD2 task 1c and Visual Programming task 2. 

WRL2 task 1b is half done and my blogs are up tp date. I’ve also updated my blog that Friday.

I am concerned about the Web Design task, but I’ve still got a few weeks to do it. I have 4 assessments to complete until the end of the semester.

I will feel a lot better after I get my work done.

22.04.2010

Visual Programming  1 task left

WRL2  2 tasks left

Web Design 2 tasks left

PPD2 1 task left

Two of the assessment I have left to do are my PPD2 and WRL2 blogs. I am up to date with my blogs which makes me feel a lot better.

My other WRL2 assessment is half done, and it’s going to take me an afternoon to finish it.

For visual programming I have a power point presentation left to do. I am not to worried about doing that. If I concentrate I can do the presentation in one day.

My only real concern is Web Design. I have to do my web site and a power point presentation. The real problem is the web site. It takes a lot of work and time to do it. I have 5 weeks left to do it. I  want my website to be good, but I’m not sure I have enough time.

I’m going to start writing up my blogs in word docs and finish those, than finish my WRL2 tasb 1b assessment, and get the power point done for visual programming. Once I finish those assessment I can concentrate on the web site. I plan to get my other assessments done for next Tuesday and than I still have 5 weeks for my web site.

I am exited about finishing the year and not having to think about assessments

29.04.2010

We received feedback for a few assessments, WRL and Web Design. I got a very good procentage 90%  f0r two assessments and a 57% . I felt very happy, and thiking back t all the action plans we did in the past, I felt like I achieved a part of my goals.

I had finally started work on my website and that conforts me a bit, as I have only 4 weeks until the semester is over.

Visual Programming isgoing very well as I finished all my assessments.

I’ve done all my initiatives for PPD2 and I’m so happy I managed to do that in time.

WRL2 I still need to finish my second assessment and I’m done there too.

It feels great to approach the finish line and have everything almost done. I cannot wait to finish my website and hand in my WRL2 assessment and than I’ll feel like even better.

06.05.2010

It’s 3 weeks left, andI’ve finished my WRL2 assessment, finally. All I have to do is finish my website and my work is done.

I cannnot wait to have a break and not have to think about assessments and deadlines.

Not long t go now.

I feel good about all the modules as most of my assessments are handed in.

Thing are much more clear now. I now what I am supposed to write in my blog, it’s less confusing. We got pointed out clearly at PPD in a Powerpoint presentation what we need to write in our blogs.  It makes things much easier and I know what I need to focus on. I really find helpful that we work and discuss things in smaller team and then reflect on everything and change opinions in the big group. It helps me to express my ideas easier and pass my confidence issues that I think I have. I wish we spent some more time on discussing how to write a report. We need to write reports for our assessments and I feel it is something I’m not good at. I’ve never written a report before, so I feel a bit not confident in starting writing one. I felt really helpful the power point about the presentation skills. It is good to know what we are expected to do in our presentations, and what are the key points we should focus on. Homework is great, it helps me a lot preparing for the next week, and I feel like I’m keeping up with the informations we are presented at subjects. Also is a great help with the actual assessments we are going to be evaluated for.  I need to do more reading and spend more time on research. But as a conclusion, the class today help me in many ways. I know what I need to write in the blog, I know how my presentation should look like and I have an idea  about how to write an article. I feel it was a good week, as I am more confident about getting on with my assessments. Thank you.

16.10.2009

As we get closer to handing our assesments I feel a bit under presure, even if I have mostg of my work done. I am a bit conserned that my work does not meet the college standards and I might have missed some important information or I might have not asked the right questions. I want not only to pass but I want high marks. I have to admit I am a bit ambitious. Yeterday at tutorial we had the chance to ask Jullie’s opinion about our work and it was really useful to geta feedback  and get some sort of approval.  Today we talked about how to present and what should we include in our presentation.  I redone some of my work , I changed my bibliography to harvard stile and included some more pictures to make my presentation more interesting. It’s always good to get some new ideas.  I think my presentation is finished now, all I need to do is to rehearsal . I still need to do my e-tail presentation, which I hope I’ll do tomorrow, and I’m pleased we had the chance to talk about what to include in our report in yesterdays class.

I enjoy college so far, I hope the later work will not get me stressed.

23.10.2009

I had my first presentation yesterday..it did not go as I was expecting it ..in my mind I was much more confident..:)…but it was not to bad…I cannot wait to receive feedback and improve next time….all in all I enjoyed it….The others have done a good job too..and it was good to see that I was not  the only one who was a bit nervous …I don’t know why..one all eyes are on me, I get my heart racing and sentences are much more difficult to form in my head..but it’s a good exercise ..it makes you prepaired for working with people..presenting things to your bosses maybe….I already have ideas for my next presentation, and I know what I am going to avoid next time…

This week we had to hand in two assesments, which i managed to do on time, andI feel good about it. I want to ake sure I’m doing well on this course because I chose it, I am paying for it.  I have this sense of responsibility for myself  and for this course, and it feels really good.

I’m looking forward to program and do web design and I finally started enjoying e-tail..

It was a good week.

06.11.2009

It is good to be back after the short holiday and have the teachers help and advice. I ve done some work while we had this short holiday and I thought I’ve done good, but when I acctually got my feedback, I learnt I had some things I missed, ignored or just not considered.  I need to improve my listening and seeing the bigger picture part. When I do an assesment I need to think of why we got that certain assesment and how will this work help us in our future development, how will it help us improving certain skills and which skills.  My problem is that I want to do the assesment and I concentrate to much on the scenatio given, I don’t try do a general understanding and apply the things that I just learnt to a different situations.

I will have to improve at learning what my tutors want from me and why do they want it. How is that going to help me in my future career.

I think I’ve done good with the research bits and reading.  I try to do my assesments and I think ahead. I would say my time managment is good and I pay attention at all the details.

I enjoyed the e-tail class a lot, I like discovering new things about dreamweaver and I like doing a bit more than I need to. 

I still need to complete a few assesment this weekend, it feels really good to have my work done in time, and I like having enough time to be able to prepare a good quality work.

The good thing is I realised that I am here to learn and I cannot know everything without consulting my teachers.  I would say I need to improve my ability to take critisism and use it in a constructive way. I need to learn from mistakes and try to avoide them in the future.

13.11.2009

We talked a lot about assessments this week, which was really good. It helps in writing the right information, and doing the right research for a task. I could do with a bit more reading about what we learn.  I need to buy a few more books and check more websites, online journals. I do get a copy of Computer Weekly, and it is very useful. But I dont spend as much time reading as I should. I’ve done my skills audit this week and I realized how many things I want to improve or learn for my future career. It was very very good to do the skills audit, because while I was writing, more ideas came, and I saw the importance of all those skills that I put in the table.  The SWOT analysis helped me identify my real possibilities and opportunities, but only  if I make the right amount of effort. It was also good to see the threats, it gives you an overview of the big picture, and makes you realize that if you don’t have certain skills, than you will not make it 

13.11.2009

We talked a lot about assessments this week, which was really good. It helps in writing the right information, and doing the right research for a task. I could do with a bit more reading about what we learn.  I need to buy a few more books and check more websites, online journals. I do get a copy of Computer Weekly, and it is very useful. But I dont spend as much time reading as I should. I’ve done my skills audit this week and I realized how many things I want to improve or learn for my future career. It was very very good to do the skills audit, because while I was writing, more ideas came, and I saw the importance of all those skills that I put in the table.  The SWOT analysis helped me identify my real possibilities and opportunities, but only  if I make the right amount of effort. It was also good to see the threats, it gives you an overview of the big picture, and makes you realize that if you don’t have certain skills, than you will not make it.

I really like the idea of having a personal development plan. I always had an idea of where I want to be in the next 10 years, but I know now that I need to do more then that.

I’m doing well in class when it comes to concentrate, and do what the teacher asks us to do, I think.:)

 20.11.2009

We talked about our assessment and what we need to do in order to achieveour goals. I think it would be really helpful to see an example of a complete assessment and how should we link the thinks that are required. I want to finish my assessment by next week and send it to Gill to have enough time to change it if I need to. We have other two assessments which are due in the next couple of weeks and I dont want to get frustrated. I have worked on each assessment, but I really need to focus more and get them done. I spend to much time researching. I need to set myself shorter periods of time to acomplish things and I also need to monitor my tasks.

Christmas is comming and I need to get things done before Christmas, cause I need to work full time during holidays, for some extra money.

I hope after this lesson I will be able to organize myself much better and get things done much quicker.

 27.11.09

We missed our Database design lesson this week, which felt a bit not right because we have important assessments coming up and I am unsecury about them.

I had an assessment for E-tail, which I forgot about and I had to write it during my module, which it went well, I managed to finish it and hand it in.

I also sorted out my e-tail website, but I need to work on design. I am doing well with my assessments, but I wish I do more research which is not related to assessments. I would like to spend more time doing database.

05.12.2009

This week we talked about assessments a lot. I finished my PPD assessment, and I’ve done some work on the e-tail website. I decide what design I will use. I am quite happy with that. I got back my PPD1 first assessment feedback and it was ok, but I could have done much better. I am a bit unhappy with my achievement, but I hope I will do better in the future.

I know that I need to work on bibliography and referencing more.

We still need to talk about the database design assessments, which I am a bit unsure. I need to do more work on normalization and get used to work with oracle. Hopefully we will do some tables in oracle this week and that should help me with my assessments. Also we will get feedback on the previous assessment and that should help with normalization again.

I really like PPD, but I need to improve my language skills, and I need to have a look at the report writing power point again.

Other than my database assessments, I am good with everything else. It is really helpful when we get feedback and it helps getting the right requirements in assessments.

 11.12.2009

This week I had to work on my e-tail web site and finish it. I spent 4 hours on it, but it’s all done. I also finished my PPD assessment. I emailed the career service at our college, and they were really helpul.I made a few changes, and I’m really happy with my CV now. The web site was really strait forward, I did not have difficulties with that. My PPD assessment was something new, and I had to analyse myself. I enjoy that, and it was really useful, I have a good and updated CV. I need to finish my WRL assessment for next week. I find it a bit difficult to do it, because e have a lot of things to write about and only 1200 words. I’m not sure how will I manage to shrink everything in, and make a quality work. I’m thinking about writing everything in a doc and than try to take out bits to meet the word limit criteria. i’m looking forward Christmas, but I know I will have to work on my database assessments. I need to start normalizing the data, and make sure I have the right tables with the right connections.

I’m a bit worried about normalization, I understand the concept, but when it comes to applying it it’s a bit more difficutl. I hope if I read a bit more, I will have a better clue.

I am planning on doing more exercises before getting on with my database assessment.

 07.01.2010

Because of bad weather I missed the first week after the holidays. While I was home, I checked my handbooks and looked at the remaining assessments.  I felt like I was a bit behind, unfortunately during the holidays, I did not do to much work. I emailed Julie, to see what the class has done that week. She sent me back an email with all the work we had to do for the next week. I had to finish my WRL 1 assessment about the company structure. I had to finish my Reflective log for PPD 1 and I had to create the tables in Oracle for Database Design.

I managed to do the work for WRL 1 and PPD1, but I did not create the tables. I was concerned that I did not normalized the data properly and my connections whould not be correct.

14.01.2010

After a long break, I finally got to college. I had to hand in my work for WRL 1 and PPD1. I was happy because I managed to get th assessments done in time. But like Julie said in Tutorial, it is not very good to leave the assessment till the last minute and than rush the work. I want to change my work stile next semester. I want to go to the library in time, read and research for an assessment. Prepaire my work long before it needs to be handed in.

We had a very useful workshop session at WRL, PPD and database desing. We got the chance to ask Julie for help, and I finally normalized my data. I was very happy and pleased with that.

I got on with creating my tables and adding data into them. As I introduced the IDs for patients and staff I realised I did not use a great createria for generating the IDs . It takes a lot of time to go back to each table and check the IDs to make sure I likn the right patient to the right dentist.

It’s good I had this problem, because I can put it down in my Evaluation of the database and I learnt my lesson.

I am looking forward to finish this semester and start the new one. It looks like a very interesting semester and I am particularly happy to do web design.

22.01.2010

It’s the last week before the end of the semester. We need to finish all our assessments by next week.

I am happy I finished my E-tail presentation for this week, and I all I have to do is create my screen shots and my user guide. I am pleased with this semester. I know I could have done better at some modules, but I learnt a lot and I hope I can improve the next semester.

We are working a lot on our databases, which is really good. I enjoy learning about the queries.

I cannot wait to finish all my work, and relax for a bit.

I need to get on doing my assesments, and managing my time a bit better. I find myself writting on a homework for hours and than not be happy with what I’ve done, and than the next day in half hour do a much better work.

I love the subjects that we do, I think they are all interesting, and I’m really happy with the evaluation, the assesments. I love the research part, but I just need to work on my compressing the information and use where I need it.

I need to ask more questions about assesments, I dont really know what I am asked to do at the E-tail project, the same goes for the database design.