Class notes- 12/3

REMINDER: Every week, the 3 things (meeting minutes, meeting Agenda, Progress report) have to be posted to blog an dropbox

Final Write-up/Report will have to have your minutes in your appendix

W 12/10: Complete first draft of Write-up/Report(submit to dropbox as a pdf. file by 12/9 11:59pm), Peer Review, BRING 6 PRINTED COPIES OF YOUR DRAFT

W 12/17: Final Write-up/Report due( 12-15 pg. collaborative report with appendix, double-spaced, bring in portfolio with marked first drafts, Post on dropbox), Final Presentation, Final Personal Reflection

MEETINGS WITH PROFESSOR BELLI TIMES:
Success- W 12/10 2:00pm
Board Game- W 12/10 2:30pm
Success- W 12/10 5:30pm
Computer Club- TH 12/11 11:30am
Video Game- TH 12/11 12:00pm

Main Deliverable- Final Write-up/Report: 12-15 pg. (of WRITTEN work) Report

Appendix:
a) Agendas/Minutes/Progress-> by Week
b) Revised Proposal/ Annotated Bibliography (minimum of 6 sources for groups of 3 and 8 sources for groups of 4)
c) Full Survey
d) Results from Data
e) Deliverables
*Appendix not part of page minimum/maximum*

You’re Final Write-up/Report should have:
a) Cover Page
b) Table of Contents
c) Report Appendices
d) Work Cited

You can add images
Assume readers know nothing about your project

Intro: Clarifying focus of project, Clarify key terms, Clarify argument
Background Information section *Research heavy section
Discussion of the data( Usability testing/Survey Results)
Conclusion( Set of recommendations for the future/Moving Forward)

Professor Belli is open to meet to discuss sentence level knowledge, transitions,grammar, etc…

Total: 50%
Write-up= 30%
Presentation= 10% ( slides clear, work cited, introduction, 15 minutes long, Dress professionally?*, Everyone must speak, practice giving presentation, time yourself)
Relection= 10% (Private, print our before class, Don’t post to dropbox/blog)

Reminder- This day was a meeting so add it to your meeting/agenda/progress report

POWERPOINT READINGS WILL BE DISCUSSED NEXT CLASS

Survey Rationale- Derrick,Lian,Deniel,Chris

Survey questions Rationale:
1. What is your major?

By knowing the participants area of study, we get an idea of what their focus is and how likely the computer club may appeal to them

2. Are you already a part of another club here at City Tech?

Since the designated times for club hours is the same, if a student is already in a club the chances of them joining the computer club would be adversely affected

3. Rate in order from 1-4 (4 being the highest and 1 being the lowest) which factor would influence you the most when considering joining a club?

We want to know what influences students most to join a club and what the computer club can do to attract more students

4. Do you think the curriculum provided by City Tech fully prepares you for your career?

To find out if students feel like they need more help which the computer club can in turn provide

5. Are you interested in becoming certified in your field after you graduate?

Certification assistance was one of the things suggested that the computer club could provide, so the question is aimed to see the students interest

6. If you were to join the computer club, what would your expectations of the club be? (Check all that apply)
Development of computer skills Workshops Speeches

This question seeks to find out what is expected when joining the computer club so that students may feel compelled to join and actually take part

7a. Did you know that City Tech has a computer club prior to reading the memo?
b. If yes, how did you hear about it? Select all that apply.
Friend Website Bulletin Board Teacher

From the question above, we will find out exactly how prominent the computer club was before we informed the students about it. From the answers to part b, we can then recommend to the computer club areas to better advertise themselves.

8. Having read the memo, would you consider joining the computer club?

The last question gauges the overall interest of students towards the computer club after learning more about it through our memo

Progress Report- Derrick, Lian, Deniel, Chris

Progress Report
Derrick Richards, Lian William, Christopher Roberts, Deniel Boodoo
English 3773
Professor Belli
December 2, 2014

The semester is coming to a close so but we don’t have much work cut out for us. It was thanksgiving so we decided to not meet in person on Friday but we still convened on skype on Saturday. Since we’ve been working on so much throughout the semester and because we’re used to the format of our meetings, the meeting was smooth and to the point.

Our presentation was the starting point for our discussion and focused on a couple of key points. The main points we focused on were the feedback from the class, what we liked about others presentations and revising the structure of our own presentation. We then went on to discuss our survey and prime places to distribute it. Lastly, we discussed what we needed to move forward and end the semester strong.

Our main goals over the next couple of weeks are to get our deliverables in check and prepare our final presentation and papers. To do this we must convene with you to approve our work and then distribute and acquire our results from our surveys. Things become very systematic from there as we compile the data and use it to create our second memo and slides for the final presentation.

Meeting Agenda # 3- Lian,Deniel,Derrick,Chris

Group 5: Chris, Deniel, Derrick, Lian
Location 1: Online; Skype
November 29, 2014; 2:00pm-3:00pm

Objective:
To discuss the format of our final presentation format, our survey locations and what we have to do coming into the final weeks of class

Discussion:
i. Final presentation
• Pros and Cons about our presentation
• How our presentation stacked up against the other groups
• What we liked about other groups presentations that could be used in ours
• Slide order/ Powerpoint structure
• What new info will be used in our revised presentation
• Made notes to include Class/Professor feedback into revised presentation

ii. Survey
• Agreement that survey is at its final stage
• Prime locations for distribution discussed
• How it will be presented to students

iii. Final thoughts
• What we need for next week
• The semester’s winding down so what we discussed what we need for the endgame
• Making sure we place new sources that were important to the project into the bibliography

Group 5: Lian, Chris,Deniel, Derrick- Next Steps

Group 5: Lian, Chris, Deniel, Derrick

We immediately broke into discussion about Lian’s communications with the person whose email was prominent on the computer club website.
We expected more assistance from this particular individual but they have hindered our progress and affected group morale. Considering it has been a hassle trying to communicate with this particular individual, we are brainstorming possible alternatives. We have a very urgent need for information and we have to find a new source as soon as as possible.

We then discussed some of our more work load heavy deliverables. In particular, our memo’s and survey’s. We will be meeting on Friday to start making the memo and survey more tangible. Preferably, we expect to be done by next week Friday. We also started to discuss possible points to administer the survey’s and the possible amount of surveys to administer.

Questions for Professor Belli:
1: In your opinion, what would be the best place to administer the surveys?
2: What do you think of our deliverables?

Lian,Deniel,Derrick,Chris-Progress Report # 1

Group 5: Chris, Deniel, Derrick, Lian
Progress Report:
During the past week our group had to gather information for the group project from multiple sources. To work in collaboration we had to first divide the work into simpler tasks to
get the job done starting with two annotated bibliographies per person. Chris researched other university’s computer clubs and compared them to City Tech’s current computer club to learn
how other computer clubs operate and to gain information on ways that can possibly benefit City Tech’s computer club. Deniel’s research was based off other CUNY colleges to learn more
about the hardware and software that are provided for the students, this is useful to determine if there are common problems between the CUNY colleges and the ways they address issues.
Derrick researched on the CUNY bylaws, this benefits our project because it teaches us what is acceptable to do as a student in CUNY and how can it either help work for the students or
against them. As for Lian he gathered information about City Tech’s own computer club by getting in contact, via email, with people associated with the club. This is beneficial to the
project because it allows us to learn more about the computer club’s current status in various ways. The group meetings took place at 4:30pm to 6:30pm at the college library on Fridays and
a skype session on Saturday around 2pm to 3pm, during this time as a group we brainstormed for ideas and shared suggestions on how to forward our project. Other than the meeting days, information was shared via email and text message to keep everyone up to date on the project’s current status.

Lian,Deniel,Derrick,Chris- Revised Proposal

Our project is a promotion and support of the City Tech computer club. The focus is spreading knowledge of the computer club and increasing technology focused student interest in the club itself. Essentially we are trying to educate the technology focused students on what the computer club is and what it can offer them.

As a group, we feel very enthusiastic about the idea of helping our fellow students. It is important because the only computer club within a computer centric school doesn’t seem to be as well-known as it should be. It is relevant to this course because it will take a very precise tone and word base to communicate with various groups and individuals so as to persuade them to take interest in our cause and in the computer club itself.

The stakeholders are the entire city tech student body. All of our accomplishments in this project will benefit the students. It will give them greater access to the things that they are entitled to being in a school focused on technology. The audience will essentially include the entire student body but it will also include higher ups within the school (faculty, workers, etc…). Our project’s focus is to bring the computer club to a point where it is essentially interwoven into the fabric of the students at city tech. Our goal is to assist the club in becoming what it should be.

As a group, we have a variety of project deliverables. We will create surveys and distribute them to the student body. Along with the surveys, however, will be an attached informative/persuasive memo. The memo will include key information about the computer club and the wording will be biased toward our cause of recruiting new members to the computer club. We will also be working on a club improvement showcase showing how the computer club can better improve its image. The showcase will based off the results of the surveys and our own personal research. The showcase will also point out key limitations of the computer club. We will also be showing our Gantt chart, which will show what, when, and how certain portions of this project are to be finished.

Our work plan shall be divvied up based on strengths and availability. Derrick is focusing on the coordination of the group. Lian will be handling the contact and communication of the key individuals of the computer club through email. Chris will be focusing on providing information and key topics for our meetings and also the recording of major data and points made. Deniel will be focusing on the consolidation and the uploading of our work to pre-identified avenues (Openlab, Dropbox, class, etc…). In addition to the main jobs that we are assigned, we also have group assignments after every meeting.

Now onto the deliverables due. The survey ideas and actual format will discussed upon in our next meeting this Friday. However, we will have the surveys and memo first draft completed by next week. All major job functions in this work plan are subject for change and flexibility. We also won’t hesitate to notify and lean on each other for help or assistance.

We plan to complete this project by collaborating closely and effectively with each other. We will also be collaborating closely with the computer club, students and faculty alike. Our group already have established times that are comfortable for us to meet up and discuss this project. Fridays in the afternoon are this groups “in person” meeting time. We also have a Google group forum to communicate with each other at any time. We’ve also exchanged phone numbers and Skype addresses so that all avenues of communication are covered. We have designated weekend afternoon’s for Skype meetings.

We will learn how to improve an already established system through this project. We will learn how to accomplish that through to collaboration and planning power of a group effort. By utilizing ideas from every person in our group, as well as using our research and hard efforts to supplement that, we will pave the way for our success in this project. Although it will not be an easy task, we will strive to make it a reality

Computer Club Support- Chris, Derrick, Deniel, Lian

Our project will be an active support of the only computer club within city tech. Specifically, our group is seeking ways to improve the computer club in regards to the student body. With this idea in mind, we can run through a gambit of ideas that can play off of the techniques we’ve learned in this course. When we say improve, we mean the acquisition of hardware and software, quality work spaces, creation of a forum, technology and field specialty trips and more.

As a group, we feel very enthusiastic about the idea of helping our fellow students. It is important because the only computer club within a computer centric school doesn’t seem to have to amount of support it should have. It is relevant to this course because it will take a very precise tone and word base to communicate with various groups and individuals so as to persuade them to our cause.
The stakeholders are the entire city tech student body. As all of our work, if successful, will solely benefit the students. It will give them greater access to the things that they are entitled to being in a school focused on technology. The audience will essentially include the entire student body but it will also include higher ups within the school(faculty,workers,etc…). Our project’s is to bring the computer club to a point where it is essentially interwoven into the fabric of the students at city tech. Our goal is to assist the club in becoming what it should be.

We will need to take many steps to ensure we stay on task for this project this semester. A carefully thought out Gantt chart is a possibility after we have thought out the finer details of our project. We can have milestones setup to mark our progress. We can even establish personal and group checklists.

We will need to conduct various types of research. We will need to research into how clubs get funding and budgets. We will have to research how other schools treat their computer clubs and what resources are available to them. We will also need to conduct surveys of the city tech student body to see what they want from their computer club. We would also need to research how to go about the process of getting all of these changes implemented.

We plan to complete this project by collaborating closely and effectively with each other. We will also be collaborating closely with the computer club, students and faculty alike. Our group already have established times that are comfortable for us to meet up and discuss this project. So far Fridays in the afternoon seem to be our best time to meet. We also have a google group forum of sorts to communicate with each other at any time. We’ve also exchanged phone numbers and skype addresses so that all avenues of communication are covered.

Each group member will assigned work based on their strengths. However, we will assist each other at every step of the way so that we may all have ideas and topics fully fleshed out and executed. Peer review and collaboration is key in this project. We won’t be able to move forward without having the input from every individual.

We will learn how to improve a already establish system through this project. We will learn how to accomplish that through to collaboration and planning power of a group effort. By utilizing ideas from every person in our group, as well as using our research and hard efforts to supplement that, we will pave the way for our success in this project. Although it will not be an easy task, we will strive to make it a reality.

Website Review- Derrick, Lian,Enrique

Through our website reviews, we recognized that 5 out of the 6 sites had visual pictures that made the site more intriguing. The recommended readings served as guidelines for our personal critiques of the websites. One website in particular, usability.gov, had a consensus on what to look for when viewing websites. Every idea mentioned in the website pertained to all the websites we reviewed.

We chose to use youtube as one of our websites for review. Youtube is a website where users can upload, view, share, like or dislike and comment on user uploaded videos. Finding and accessing Youtube is as simple as inputting the web address. It loaded in a matter of seconds so there was not any trouble there. The layout follows a red, white and black color scheme which stays constant throughout navigation of the website. Various videos of a variety of categories are placed evenly and logically on the main page. The help, as well as many other important items (language settings, about, privacy, etc…) are located at the bottom of the website. After reading the blog article,5 Key Principles of Good Website Usability, , Derrick felt that the layout serves to promote their objective of having users view videos as much as possible without being burdened by other links and information. Youtube also works similarly on mobile devices. There seems to be no alternative way for persons with disabilities to enjoy Youtube .

Navigating the space of the city tech open lab felt very familiar. It follows a many web design staples popularized by Facebook (a social media site). According to the user experience section on usability.gov, image and identity should be easily identifiable. The logo on the main page and the tagline “A place to learn, work, and share” serves this purpose. As we discussed this website, we realized that we all initially had problems with open lab. However, there are 3 help links located on the main page to assist with any issues with the site. Open lab also seems to work fairly well on mobile devices. Unfortunately, In terms of accessibility, it doesn’t seem like there are any alternative ways of using the site for people with disabilities.

When I browse websites, depending on what I am looking for, I may perform active research or just skim through a website. The two websites that I viewed was the Green Spa and NYCCT. In browsing the website Green Spa, I was welcomed to the website’s home page that displayed visual pictures, their specials, green spa parties, green spa products and events, which to me, showed that the website some organization which was user friendly. At the top of the home page, they gave their location, just below that, they had a number of tabs that directed you to specific areas from the home tab all the way to the contact tab them and to the left, they showed their hours of operation which made a clear view of what I might be looking for. The navigation through this site is excellent with no lag time in opening of each its pages as well as their site is well detailed if you were looking to join the spa, ex. The frequently asked questions, that had questions related to people with health concerns.

Now, when I browsed NYCCT, the main page is also visually friendly but to me, as a first timer to the website, it can be a little difficult in knowing where you are to begin. I would have to assume that the student frequently asked questions that pop up in the left hand corner of the page can assist with this. I believe that the page needs to reach out and grab my attention in terms of someone new coming to the school like making the tabs more visual and once in that tab, have it more detailed and descriptive so that the prospective student have an easier time navigating the website.

The Gap website was a great choice for the website review. We feel like this website tackled all aspects of the User Experience Honeycomb. First loading the website was quick and fast no time was wasted on this.  The home page is extremely easy for the user to explore the website, from a Fall Promotion at the bottom of the home page to New Arrivals on the top of the home page. The search on this website does indeed fulfill a need, because you can search “men winter coats” to “men bathing suit” and you will have results for both and it doesn’t matter what season it is. The Gap is desirable because we see commercials for Gap on t.v and ads on the train on our way to school or work. It is also desirable because there is so many different styles of clothes to develop your own identity and image. Not only is the website usable and desirable but it is also accessible to customers with disabilities. Gap’s overview of this is Customers with physical or mental disabilities deserve the same high level of service given to any other customer. You can also find out more about the customer service policy here.

 

Writing Study Tree takes a while to load in comparison to other websites. Although the website takes a while to load it is “easy on the eyes.” The site is easy to use, and it goes very much in depth with the FAQ page when having difficulties registering for the site. And if there is a problem that you are having you can go on the forum page and write your experiences. The website is organized well and it is easy to navigate through. The links for this website all mostly work and loaded properly however, in the About page there is a link when clicked that says page not found. But other than the one link that wasn’t working and the slow loading time it is a good website and a website that does fulfill the need of a user.

 

In conclusion, the website’s appeal to an individual depends on how well the website is designed . Each site had its strengths and weaknesses in terms of web design. The objectives of each site were clearly expressed in their layout and way of navigation.

Wading the Waters

Link

This little endeavor into the job for a CST major has been an enlightening one indeed. Considering that I haven’t decided on which specialty I will be pursuing in my coming years at City Tech, I left my range for this job search very open. I did this to see if I found any commonalities betwixt the unique careers. What I had found was a surprisingly diverse job market with very similar wants and needs in terms of who they want to hire.

Personally, I do not know where my upcoming years at City Tech will take me. I am hoping that over the next couple of months I will be able to decide on the denomination that will decide the rest of my coursework. That way, I can properly prepare myself for my future job searches. This particular job search didn’t help much in regards to me deciding on what I want to do. It did, however, give me an opportunity to see what employers in the world of CST are looking for.

I happened upon many ideas shared between all of these different jobs. An idea that I saw often was that of experience. Even as I looked into entry-level positions, i saw one to three years of experience needed. Another idea that was mentioned heavily was the ability to work in a team in an effective and coherent manner. As working in any company would require this, it was of no surprise to me. Something else that made itself apparent was that potential employees be well versed in many different systems. It was also something to be expected as being a diverse and flexible employee is a must nowadays.

One thing that did surprise me though was something that I did not see. What I did not see was the fact there was no mention of training individuals while on the job. Now I know that is a lot to be expected of people in the workforce since time is money it didn’t make much sense to me. I mean this is a field where a multitude of different types of program, network, database, and security systems are going to be utilized. Maybe I’m just being naive. Seeing as how I’ve only learned certain things on the job, perhaps it goes without saying that they will teach employees how to use their systems. Those are what workshops are for.

Looking at all these jobs proved to show to me that I am utterly unequipped for what lies out there. These jobs had very desires that prospects know specific knowledge of particular systems. Viewing the requirements of some ads made my head spin. It just tells me that I need to focus on building up my resume’ and that constructing a high end portfolio is a must.

In conclusion, this was quite interesting. I’ve looked into the job market for CST majors before but never this extensively. In hindsight, I should’ve done something like this a long time ago. I feel as though I came out with something here.

Links:

http://jobview.monster.com/DESKTOP-SUPPORT-SPECIALIST-Job-New-York-City-NY-138525608.aspx

http://jobview.monster.com/Junior-Database-Systems-Administrator-Job-New-York-City-NY-135418568.aspx

http://jobview.monster.com/Network-Security-Engineers-Entry-Level-Job-Roslyn-NY-137981560.aspx

http://jobview.monster.com/Junior-Application-Developer-Job-New-York-City-NY-138171903.aspx

http://jobview.monster.com/Helpdesk-Desktop-Junior-Infrastructure-Support-Specialist-Job-New-York-City-NY-137399375.aspx

http://jobview.monster.com/IBM-Junior-User-Researcher-New-York-NY-Job-New-York-NY-138670825.aspx

https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sof/4660605298.html

https://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/tch/4659685125.html

https://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/eng/4659894068.html

https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tch/4659693242.html

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.31.0.0.0&job_did=JHN2RX6CMP6JVC1Y6CM&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=ILKTV0A

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?APath=2.31.0.0.0&job_did=J3G65F61TQ2JNTQN5GC&sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&IPath=ILKTV0G

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.31.0.0.0&job_did=J3J7PR6JMJ0PTGZC26J&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=ILKTV0H

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.31.0.0.0&job_did=J3G7W76DCQ7FNNV0CFJ&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=ILKTV0N

http://www.dice.com/job/result/10496420/853670?c=1&src=21&CMPID=AG_SH_UP_JS_AV_OG_RC_%20&utm_source=SimplyHired&utm_medium=Aggregator&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Advocacy_Ongoing&rx_source=SimplyHired&rx_campaign=SimplyHired15&rx_group=85&CMPID=AG_SH_PD_JS_AV_OG_RC_&rx_medium=cpc&src=34

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/job/Software-Developer-Entry-Level/f73459da/?source=cpc-simplyhired-nf-test40