Flash

For the last couple of weeks we have been using adobe flash in labs and attempting to get to grips with the technology. It looks like Flash could possibly be even more “finicky” than Dreamweaver. I used Flash during my undergraduate degree and it took a solid week of concentrating only on flash for me to begin to understand how an animation is created. I eventually became familiar with the frames timelines and layers etc and once I did I was able to create quite a detailed animation. Like Dreamweaver though, one wrong move led to the complete disintegration of my animation which made the whole process quite tedious.

For my animation I created a timeline of Michael Jackson’s life. One frame involved the creation of a moving figure doing the “moonwalk” across the screen. During this process I found the following video really helpful in creating fluidity in the character’s movements. 

Essay 2

With all the buzz around the more hands on projects this semester, like the web design and flash assignments, the second essay in EL6052 module has been put on the back burner somewhat. The essay deals with the concept of deep learning, which we have dealt with in lectures. I intend to dedicate next week to it. I’m in such a practical mind set right now so I’m not sure how I will deal with reverting back to the more theoretical side of the course.  

World Cafe

I attended a World Cafe meeting yesterday as part of the Ennis Hub project. I found it to be a good opportunity to find out more details about the project and also to get to know those involved. I was made responsible for filming participants using a flip camera as they discussed the future of Ennis. Everyone was very enthusiastic and willing to promote the project for a better future for Ennis.

I also filmed locals as they gave their opinions at the local shopping centre. It was quite daunting approaching strangers, but most people were very helpful and forthcoming with suggestions and ideas. 

Both events were very well run due to the enthusiasm and willingness of the organisers to give up their own time fr a good cause.

                                                                                                                                   

Career Presentation

We received a really practical talk this week from a guest speaker from SAP. She is a former employee of a recruitment agency and she currently works in SAP as a recruitment advisor. She provided us with helpful tip and guidelines on how to approach an interview for SAP and similar companies.

For me the most advantageous part of the talk was when we were shown what she considered to be an excellent CV. There are so many different CV layouts out there so it was good to see what is expected of us as technical writers when creating an effective CV.

It is quite difficult to present yourself and give the potential employer a sense of how you might add to the company in just one page. She advised us to convey as much information as possible through the CV in a concise and enlightening manner.

The practicality of this talk was great, particularly in an extremely competitive job market and it should hopefully give us the upper hand in job interview.

Interview

I’m actively seeking an interviewee for the TW5212 module at the moment. It has proven to be quite the task so far. My strategy to begin with was to target e-learning, technical writing and graphic design companies through e-mail addresses found online. This did not provide me with much feedback so I decided to go down the old calling route, from which I received a few positive response but nothing concrete. Linkedin proved to be an invaluable tool for me in seeking out an interviewee. I have made contact with several experienced technical writers in the Limerick area, two of whom I am waiting to hear back from about possible interviews. The fact that I can see on each Linkedin profile previous work experience and employers leaves me in no doubt that this interview will be extremely beneficial in gaining “insider information” on my possible future career.

                                                                                                                                  

Dreamweaver – Some Difficulties I experienced

Having just submitted the web design and development project, I think it’s important to note that this project is possibly the most underestimated one I have encountered so far. By underestimated, I mean I think I misjudged first of all, how long it would take to get to grips with Dreamweaver, and also the technical difficulties I experienced along the way.

Dreamweaver

Having used Dreamweaver prior to this project, I knew that there was quite a lot involved in creating an informative and visually appealing website. After opening up the Dreamweaver application I realised I was again completely in at the deep end and would have to basically “relearn” all the different processes involved in creating a website. This threw me a little bit as I hadn’t planned to spend two days just playing around with it and getting to grips with it once again.

Technical Issues

Once I had finally familiarised myself with Dreamweaver (again!), I didn’t really take into account the fact that I might experience some technical difficulties along the way.  I created my template page, created my html files and my final task was to link them up. At this stage I thought I was nearing the end, but of course an issue arose with my spry menu when I attempted to link each page. I eventually worked it out and managed to submit the project on time.

From my experience I found that Dreamweaver was quite tempermental and at times restrictive in the creation of the website layout, particularly when using templates.

Guest Presentations

The guest lectures that have been given so far this semester have been beneficial in terms of the practicalities of job seeking. We received a talk from a member of staff from the Information Development department of SAP, which was informative and helpful in coming to terms with what jobs we as a class may have in the future. The presentation made us aware of the intricacies involved in a career in information development and technical writing. I felt as though the presentation invaluable as we were lucky enough to see how what we are learning every day is actually put into practice. Information gained during the presentation will also be helpful in an interview situation as we were made aware of exactly what the job description is and what it entails.

Similarly, guest lecturer Marie Flannery’s presentation was extremely beneficial in that it highlighted the importance of being passionate about and enjoying your chosen career path.   

Group Proposal

We submitted our group proposal for the EHP today. Between us we came up with some really innovative ideas for the site. The only issue now is actually making our ideas a reality. Myself and Sherona are content developers, Avril is graphic designer, Michael is the technical expert and Shane is the editor.

Michael introduced us to a website creation tool called Joomla which I think will be a great asset in terms of the site creation. Having run into quite a few problems with Dreamweaver during our previous web design project I wasn’t relishing the thought of having to deal with it again. Given that I’m a content developer though, I will be concentrating on information development as opposed to the ins and outs of Joomla this time around. 

Podcast

I think podcasting is a really interesting and innovative way of communicating information and am looking forward to recording mine for the assignment. The only issue I have at the moment is what subject to focus on for the duration of the podcast. I intend to choose a subject that I’m interested in and have a depth of knowledge about but am unsure what topic would be most appropriate. I’m thinking of doing it on this course and describing exactly what it entails for the benefit of prospective students. I’m not sure if this is a good idea and am still mulling it over. Alternatively I will probably focus on a hobby of mine.

Cyber Distractions

I have found online distractions to be the single most prevalent factor in deterring me from completing coursework this semester. Assignments that could have been completed weeks in advance are put on the back-burner as I have frequently given into the temptation of Facebook, Twitter, Sky News, online newspapers etc, basically anything that will prevent me from being in any way productive. I can now honestly say that I believe in the concept of web addiction. I don’t believe I am a fully fledged member of the club yet as I do tend to simply shut myself of from such distractions if there is a deadline looming, or if needs be. However I do retain a considerable amount of regret at the amount of time I have wasted on online pursuits.

My intentions going forward with regard to time spent frivolously online, are that I hope to regulate my online habits and create a balance between educational and social forums. At times I think it might be best to completely cut myself off from these online distractions (much like a drug or alcohol addict might go “cold turkey”). I’m not sure I’m ready to take that step yet though....

The following is a link to an article which deals with the effect online distractions have on student productivity. Given that we complete the majority of our assignments while connected to the internet it is important to make a conscious decision to avoid these distractions.

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1409814

Working individually vs collaborative efforts

During the process of completing my individual proposal critiquing and making recommendations for the UL Practicum website, I found it quite difficult to assess what the weaker components of the site were and how they could be improved. For such a project I think collaboration is key given that creativity is such an important factor in web design. For this reason I am glad that the rest of the project is collaborative. The importance of having the opportunity to bounce ideas off a team mate cannot be underestimated as an idea or concept evolves. I definitely missed this when I completed the individual proposal and look forward to the opportunity to create a usable and interactive website for the EHP. 

Conclusion to Virtual Team Assignment

Presentations of our collaborative reports went quite well I think. Our American team member Tyler presented on behalf of the group. The video conferencing suite worked very well as we could hear and see all presentations perfectly.

Editing the report before submission proved to be quite a painstaking process. We worked well together as a group however and all tasks were completed well in the end. Discussion forums proved invaluable once again as ideas for the introduction and conclusion were posted here. Email provided us with the opportunity to exchange reports. This report took up quite a lot of our time for the past few weeks so I think we are all glad it's finished and we have more time now to spend on other projects.

Sulis

I find Sulis to be very beneficial in the day to day learning process. It makes things quite easy in terms of keeping all information relating to our modules in one place as opposed to having to retrieve information from various different sources. Prior to this year I rarely, if ever, used discussion forums. The discussion forum facility on Sulis is extremely helpful in creating links between class mates and using your own initiative to learn as opposed to going straight to the tutor for information.

The discussion forum posts that we were required to participate in over the past week or so were quite interesting. It afforded us all the opportunity to propose our views on certain topics, learn more about our classmates’ views and take all points of view into consideration. A certain amount of diplomacy is always involved in these situations and I think we all interacted quite well, given that some topics were quite controversial and provoked strong opinions in some cases.

Editing Process

We are currently going through the process of editing our report to ensure we have a unified document with consistent language and grammar. We have chosen to complete the report in American English to ensure uniformity. The process has gone smoothly so far. We plan to have a skype meeting tonight to make suggestions on how we can improve our individual reports. Despite the technical issues we have experienced with skype, it has proven to be very useful during the course of the project.

Just in terms of the collaborative tool I assessed (e-mail) I found the following white paper very helpful in assessing e-mail in a business environment. Here is the link for anyone who wants to have a look or would like to use it in another project or something.

http://www.hyperoffice.com/files/pdf/email_bankruptcy.pdf

Nearing the finish line in the Virtual Team Assignment

We have pretty much completed our individual assessments of our collaborative tools. Now all that’s left to do is compile the report as a group....easier said than done! We are in the midst of delegating tasks as we try to complete our own individual reports. We are hoping to finish our individual parts in plenty of time to read and edit each other’s reports to ensure a cohesive piece of writing. 

Over the next week I expect I will be communicating a lot with my team members. We are hoping to conduct another meeting over Skype but I expect most of our dealings will be through Sulis.  I think mutual encouragement and assurance are important factors in this assignment to ensure that we are all on the same page throughout the writing process.  Hopefully the whole thing will go smoothly enough!

What's gone on so far..

Hi everyone...

For my first blog entry I think I should document what has occurred up until this point in the EL6082 module and how our team has collaborated in the virtual team assignment. This blog will document my thoughts and observations on the virtual team assignment and the collaborative technological tools we are in the process of assessing. 

As an introduction to the virtual team assignment our class held a video conference with our peers in Florida. We were introduced to our team members and informed of exactly what the assignment would entail. I found that the video conference was an effective way of communicating with the students in Florida. Sound and video quality was good and it was in effect, a showcase of how a successful collaborative meeting should be held. Given that the meeting was hosted by our respective course leaders the meeting was organised well and gave everyone was a chance to have an image of who we would be collaborating with. 

I am part of a team of two other Irish students (Shane and Sherona) and two American students (Tyler and Rebecca). We have regular meetings with each other on the chat forum in Sulis and also on the discussion forum on sulis. We have also conducted a conference via Skype.

Chat Forum

So far I have found the chat forum on sulis quite ineffective as a means of communicating with my team mates. The chat forum is helpful in organising (for example) times for meetings, however we also attempted to conduct meetings over chat but inevitably it tends to descend into chaos as everyone tries to communicate different opinions without taking into account what the previous user has contributed.

Discussion Forum

The discussion forum is, in my opinion, more effective as a means of conducting a meeting between five people that usually lasts up to an hour. It gives each team member the opportunity to consider previous posts and address other team members' opinions. The discussion forums are helpful in solving long term issues as team members can post outside of meeting times and other team members can reply in their own time.

Skype Conference

We conducted a skype conference yesterday evening which I thought would have run much smoother. We encountered various technical issues beforehand. However the end result was positive as we managed to discuss everything we wanted to with our American counterparts.

E-mail

I am in the process of assessing e-mail as a collaborative tool. As a means of doing this I circulated an e-mail through g-mail with a journal article relating to technological collaborative tools attached. Each team member has replied with their opinion on the journal article and my plan now is to address the points each team member has made in their e-mails and compile a conclusion e-mail. So far we have not encountered many problems with e-mail as a collaborative tool.  

Thanks for reading my reflective learning blog. I plan to post again in a few days to let you know how our research is going!

Susan