Weekly calendar screenshot

5.1 Didn't really learn anything that's not common sense and I didn't already know.
Personally, I find that identifying priorities and getting those done first is key!
I could use work on long-term planning since I tend to focus more on a day and weekly basis than anything else.

What I learned from Mike Machado is that there might be an iphone programming class next semester. I also learned that Windows 7 is now available to ITCD students and about the myspace webserver.

5.2


Weekly calendar screenshot

5.3 Prepare at least two questions for our graduates (e.g. how did you get your job? what capstone did you do? )
What was the hardest class you took at CSUMB.
Did you ever think of quitting and if so what kept you going?

Learning Journal entry 3

During lecture we had the visual design and web design teachers come it. You could tell they are really passionate about their jobs since they talked and talked. I learned that there are collectors for everything including chairs!
Google wave was also mentioned but still not sure what it is. Sounds like Microsoft officelive equivalent?

The only internships, ILP, or the graduation processes talked about in class were the various instructors personal experiences going through college. For example, professor Lockwood talked about here internship experiences and not graduating until she was 30 or so.

Eric Klinger visited again and showed everyone how to make appointments using Google calendar.
We were all told that we needed advisors. He also left some copies of the CSIT ILP forms that can be found on the web and gave out free pens!
He didn't really mention anything I didn't already know since I've already looked at most of those forms before transfering here. I guess I'll find out what the differences between major,concentration,final MLO, etc are when I meet again with him.

Looking at the excel list there are advisors for specific concentrations it seems. I don't know if you can change your mind once you pick so I'm going to hold off on choosing on for now but it'll probably be Network related concentration. So it might be Dr. Narayanan but I'm not sure yet.

Learning Journal entry 2

Study Strategies And Habits:
This website definitely has some good tips if you need some advise for bettering your study habits but I think they missed some important and major things. One of the 3 area's they talked about that I'm strong at is taking tests. One of the techniques I use that they didn't mention and has helped me in the past is to quickly look over all the questions and see if any of the questions give you informations or answers to the other questions. I can't believe how many tests I have taken in the past where the answer to say question 1 was in question 7 later and I can't believe the instructor did that on purpose! Also, on multiple choice or T/F question if you have alot that are the same you probably got alot of them wrong since test normally don't have alot of true and false in a row in my experience. My second strong skill is studying only in a quiet place free from distract and only when I'm not tired and able to concentrate. My third strong skill is making a list of priorities so I complete all my assignments on time. My weak areas are my writing. My cursive is terrible so I have to print everything out so it's readable and it's cost me valuable time on long essay type questions in the past! Second weak point is that I take terrible lecture notes but luckily for me it seems that most classes have now moved to providing the lectures in either powerpoint or some other electronic format so it's not that big of a deal now. My last weak point would be picking out the main points since I get so interested in every small detail that I lose sight of the big picture.

Preview Time management:
Also this website http://www.gmu.edu/departments/csdc/time.htm. Very helpful for those who may be having time management issues or just need some advise. Here is my survey.
___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
___2____ Total travel time weekends
___3____ 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.
___20___ Number of hours of work per week
___16___ Number of hours in class per week
___7____ Number of average hours per week socializing, dates, etc. Be honest!
___130__ Now add up the totals
Subtract the above number from 168 - ___130__ = ___38___

What You Learned Last Class:
So in this last class we had more school faculty come to class and make presentations. First Sue Bude talked about capstone projects and she spoke clearly and did a good presentation. I learned that you should start early thing about what you are going to do since it takes a year to complete and it's usually done your senior year and if you don't complete it you don't graduate.
The other presenter was Dr. Byun. He's my C++ instructor. He spent most of his time explaining a brainteaser about people crossing a bridge, that's supposedly used as an interview question for jobs at Microsoft so maybe that's where he got it at.
Anyways, it seems to be popular on the internet after I googled it and yes, 17 minutes is possible but I'd say it'd take a while for most people to see the solution unless they have already seen it before.
It's like one of those thinking outside the box problems where you try to connect all the dots on a piece of paper without lifting your finger or something similar. I don't like them since I've never been good at puzzles.
The final thing I learned was that VB and C/C++ is still used alot in programming. I kinda already knew that since Iphone uses a variation of C and every programmer wants to program for the iphone these days! I didn't know about C# going down in popluarity though. I thought everyone was learning C# or Java nowadays but it actually looks like C# has gone down in popularity for some reason? Maybe it's the popularity of the iphone like I mentioned?

CST300 Learning Journal Entry 1

I have to write about the pathways class, the student portfolios, the video, and the last class session all in a single post from what I understand?

After looking over the ITCD Pathways or the CSIT Pathways several times already it looks like the one I wanted, Game Development, won't start for another year if at all. I was really looking forward to graphics programming class since I've already worked with several graphics API's like DirectX and OpenGL in my spare time. So that leaves me with either Software engineering or the Networking and Security option. I'd probably have more fun in ITCD doing web programming or digital animation but in the past I've been able to teach myself those things pretty easy. The reason I'm here is to take classes like Data Structures, Algorithms, Discrete Math, etc that I know are hard to build the foundation for a career, as Dr. Sathya Narayanan explained in his excellent slides during class. Those are the sort of classes that take alot of mental effort and time and that most don't have the patience or discipline to learn on their own.
Then again I'm really good at troubleshooting networks since I did alot of that in the military and can be pretty fun but minimal to no programming there really. I'd really like to get hands on experience with Cisco routers since they wouldn't even let you touch those in the military because one wrong move i.e. command and the whole network could be down for days!
Ah, so many choices so little time.

The video talks mainly about communications skills and it's importance in getting hired. Pretty much the same thing Dr. Sathya Narayanan also talked about during his presentation. Like Dr. Sathya Narayanan said if you have the skills but can't convice others all is for naught.

During the last class various professors came in and introduced the different pathways available. Most made use of powerpoint to convey information on what options were available. Dr. Sathya Narayanan made on of the best powerpoint presentations I've seen in a while. Michael Machado provided us with alot of useful information on the webservers available on campus and the free software available from Microsoft.

Finally, alot of the student portfolio's had broken links so I had less to choose from than I first thought but one I did choose was Zachariah Babayco's. I chose it because it was on networking which I might choose as my concentration. It was very well written and made excellent use of graphics and charts for the computers in the network layout's which I liked alot.
Another one I picked was Janette Lopez because it involved giving back to the community which I feel is important.