Author Archives: Ogulcan Gol

Calvin, Rosa, Ogulcan Agenda #1

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Agenda #1

Skype meeting

Date: November 17, 2014

Time: 9:15 PM to 9:50 PM

Place: Online virtual meeting via Skype

Meeting called by:  Calvin Lo

Attendees: Rosa Cedano

 

Objective: To discuss what to bring in to class on November 19, 2014

Agenda:

9:15 PM                Discuss about last week’s class and review objective

9:25 PM                Discuss what potential paperwork to bring in to next class

9:30 PM                Discuss how we plan to organize our questions and what to include

9:35 PM                Identify some of the challenges that might crop up with what questions to include

9:50 PM                Completed meeting

 

 

Calvin, Rosa, Ogulcan Progress Report #2

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Calvin, Ogulcan, Rosa

Progress Report

11/12/14 – 11/18/14

This week we had less synchronous communication due to everyone having a busier work week and school week. However, this did not hinder the progress of our project as it is becoming more refined and streamlined. We are making a good amount of progression with our survey in terms of the types of questions we currently have that relate to what we want to measure.

One obstacle that we ran into while creating questions for the survey was the platform it was being created on. Our original intent was to create it on SurveyMonkey which offers a much more complex and visually appealing survey. However, the problem was that the basic version only allowed us to create up to 10 questions. If we want to create more, we would need to sign up for a “Pro” account which would require us to pay an inordinate subscription fee. Our solution to this problem was to create the survey with Google Forms instead. Although Google Forms does not provide the same amount of customizability as SurveyMonkey, it is sufficient enough to accomplish our task.

One discussion that we currently have is the length of the survey. We know students don’t prefer to spend a lot of time on surveys so what we plan to do is to administer the first iteration of our survey to our classmates and get their feedback. When they complete the survey;  at the bottom, we will prompt them to write in a comment box how long it took to complete, questions that might have been redundant or absent, and any suggestions/feedback they have that will help improve their survey experience.

What we hope to achieve from this is a couple of things. Our current iteration of the survey is not completely finished and it already seems lengthy. We are hoping to find ways to make it more concise through the help of our classmates.

For the division of labor, it was mostly the same since last week. Rosa focused on researching/creating questions that pertain to transfer rates while Ogulcan focused on research/creating questions around graduation rates. Calvin focused on creating the format of the survey and looked at other student engagement survey questions that might be relevant.

 

Website Reviews: Rosa Cedano, Calvin Lo, Goutam Seepersaud, Ogulcan Gol

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Most of the websites nowadays are more organized than they were in the past. However, website content still varies greatly.

 
The City Tech website is well organized and great for new users visiting the site and existing users. The most important aspects of website such as the FAQ for new users is easily accessible. Additionally, the links at the top of the page is great for anyone that might be confused where to go if whether they are new students, parents or staff. One area that can be improved are the pages that the City Tech website links too. For example, the financial aid website does not fit well with the layout of the main page and other web pages.

 
The openlab website looks colorful because of the white background. Every profile stands out. The bad thing about the site some courses are private and it requires a user to log in. The website has a wide range of FAQ’s. There is no difference between the mobile and desktop versions of the website. The fonts are too hard to read and they are very small. It’s easy to access links and to get around the website itself.

 

 

 
The Writing Studies Tree website is a well organized website, but the content is quite questionable. Firstly, to point of some good features of the website; the color choice is easy for the eyes and the drop down menu is great for ease of access for the core feature of the website.Moving on towards some of the areas that need work, the content in the home page introduction is not user-friendly at all. The choice of words are quite overwhelming for an average user when trying to understand the agenda of the website. Secondly, the full network is extremely complex and disorganized. An average user would not spend the time to shuffle through all the names of the schools and the
The mobile version of the website accurately replicates the desktop version of the website. The drop down menu works and to our surprise the full network.

 

 
One interesting website that we encountered was leoneck.ch/eh/,  which is a hotel in Switzerland. This website goes to extremes with its over the top pop outs, graphic textures and animations.  One of the most outstanding aspects of the website is the cursor where the regular cursor is replaced with a cow head. In terms of user accessibility such as clarity and navigation, it does a terrible job with all of it’s distractions with the choice of aesthetics. The The website also lack essential features that are prevalent amongst most websites such as a basic in site search bar and about page. When we attempted to load the website on our mobile devices, the background image is not made to fit with the resolution of your phone. Aside from the interest choice of aesthetics, the website does provide some neat features such as a virtual 360 tour of its hotel rooms and its lobby.

 

 

Another website we chose was h&m’s website. The website catches the users eye with its promotions and sales. It’s easy to get around the site. The merchandise they are selling are separated by gender and age which narrow down what the user is trying to find. The links all have drop down menus. When a user tries to view a clothing, they have pictures with detailed version of the merchandise. The website also provides a FAQ. The mobile version of the website is different than the desktop. Their mobile version is smaller and is easier to read.

 

 

The last website we chose is reddit.com. This website for a new user is very confusing and hard to understand anything. The website looks like it was made by a 5 year old. The website doesn’t come with drop downs but it has categories to organize different topics. The layout of the site is all over the place and hard to read. The fonts are too small. The site comes with a FAQ. The mobile version is the same. Overall the site itself is hard to get around for the first time users.

 

 

After reviewing all these sites, they all have their good and bad features. All these websites serve different purposes and as a result appeal to different audiences. Some users might agree with some of the design choices while other users might not.

 

 

Citations:

http://www.reddit.com/

http://www.hm.com

http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/index.aspx

http://www.writingstudiestree.org/

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/

http://www.leoneck.ch/en/

Summary of “The Flight from Conversation”

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“The Flight from Conversation” is an article by Sherry Turkle and it is about how this generation of people are losing their ability to communicate via face to face and how we are always communicating on social media websites. The author backs up her argument of how we sacrificed our face to face conversation to only only communication. She continues on about how we’ve became accustomed to being “alone together” and how we are always connected to people without being with one another (paragraph 4). Sherry talks about how conversation is more intimate and better. She backs it up when she explains ” FACE-TO-FACE conversation unfolds slowly. It teaches patience. When we communicate on our digital devices, we learn different habits. As we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers” (Paragraph 14). We are losing our ability to function as normal human beings and technology is taking over. The biggest statement she provided which solidifies her argument is “One of the most haunting experiences during my research came when I brought one of these robots, designed in the shape of a baby seal, to an elder-care facility, and an older woman began to talk to it about the loss of her child” (Paragraph 18). Sherry Turkle explains it to us how these are consequences and they are only leading it to worse things. That doesn’t mean it is over. Sherry Turkle also tells us how we can resolve this. She says people have to lessen their online communications and further more their face to face conversations. Otherwise technology will take over and there will no more face to face conversations.

Source:

“The Flight From Conversation” by Sherry Turkle

Owner’s Manual Evaluation

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I decided to look into Nintendo’s Wiiu’s instruction manual. I have always been a fan of gaming so I thought looking into a console would be ideal for it. Nintendo is one of the world’s biggest gaming franchise who delivered us the classic Mario games and many more. They released their latest console, the Nintendo Wiiu which was a big hit and provided different varieties of fun games.

The manual start’s off with the types of manuals they have. Either a printed version, or an electronic one which is the one I used. After that it talks about health and safety hazards that we should know such as keeping it away from infants way because they can chew on the cords and cables. The next part in the manual is all about the set up. It shows us how to plug in the cables, of where they each should do, piece by piece. After that it explains us how to charge the controllers for the WiiU and the WiiU itself.

Other instructions are mainly how to turn on and off the system and how to use the controller. The manual is really designed well because it shows the steps by picture and words. Some manuals only show instructions by words and they end up using hard to understand words but in this instructions manual, they explain what each part is and where they should go via photo. It makes it that much easier to understand. The rest of the manual is pretty much explains how to add users to the system and how to connect to the internet and also how to transfer data, or replace the battery.

Overall the clarity of the manual was spot on. It’s easy to understand and read. It isn’t confusing and they write in a way that’s understandable for anyone. The accessibility and usability are perfect. It’s an easy to use console and they show that. Easy to set up and to access anything on it. This instruction manual was done perfectly in my opinion.

 

Source:

https://www.nintendo.com/consumer/downloads/wiiu_operations_manual_en.pdf

Class notes for 10/1

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Vocabulary to know:

  • Cursory – not paying much attention/to be fast.
  • Superficial – occurring on the surface.
  • Perfunctory – in a fast paced/rush.
  • Haphazard – lack of order or planning.
  • Attribution – to give credit.
  • Contextualized – to put an action in a context, one that is appropriate, for purposes of study.
  • Thesis – the main point/ main argument.
  • Annotate – provide more information, to take notes.

The internet:

  • archive
  • searchable
  • linked/network
  • aggregated

What are we struggling about? / Questions for Assignment

  • How to cc others
  • structure / formatting/ organization (differ)
  • Content / formality / tone

Our strong points in Assignment #2:

  • Transitions / flow
  • Connect experience to bigger issues
  • Intro to paragraph hook/praise
  • addressed assignment expectations
  • incorporating pre-draft (blog)
  • main points
  • clear sentences
  • professional tone
  • incorporate research
  • prove substantial
  • connect experience

Our weak points in Assignment #2:

  • Audience
  • Bad structure
  • Style/sentence- level
  • repetition
  • tense/voice(active) – formatting
  • grammar
  • make clear statements
  • structure – transitions – repetitive
  • forgetting smaller details
  • personal (?)

Memo Format:

  • To ……
  • Purpose
  • Summary
  • Discussion
  • Recommendation

Things our school needs:

  • More money/tuition
  • More students/ enrollment
  • Retention rate
  • Graduation rate
  • Certification
  • Employment

IMPORTANT:

  1. Be sure to categorize everything we post on open lab.
  2. Read Strategies for Summarizing.

City Tech Education & Career Preparedness

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When I arrived at City Tech, I had big ambitions about the school. I was expecting it was going to be one of the best schools to come to for computer systems. I was wrong and highly disappointed when I walked in to class and wasn’t enjoying the class. I had a hard time understanding the professors so I would go to their offices but no one helped me either. It was hard to actually learn and understand when the professors didn’t really care much. Another concern was the elevators. It’s a school for technology yet elevators don’t work. It sounds a bit ironic. The curriculum here in City Tech was supposed to be the best one for computer systems but it is not. It isn’t even close to being amazing. They do prepare you sort of for the future but not really. We don’t have lab and internship classes. There was one to take as an elective but getting into that is difficult. It needs to be updated so much more. Jobs out there require us to have good verbal communication skills and to be able to perform task. How can we if aren’t getting the right education? A lot of changes need to arrive to this curriculum. I looked into other Colleges curriculum and found good and bad ones compared to ours and I will explain a few of them.

Of all the classes I took here, there were ones I loved and ones I hated. Some felt like I don’t need to know at all. We all start of off with intro to computers in City Tech which basically gives you a outline of what a computer is and how it works. Later on we take classes that relates to programming, networking, database etc. These are all fundamental classes that is only an intro class and won’t really help us in the future. We have to take precalculus and calculus who is only going to help the programming students but of course every student has to take it even if we aren’t doing programming. Would a networker need to know precalculus to solve a problem? It’s highly not needed. They teach us classes that aren’t gonna help us in the long run.

When we graduate and look for jobs, employers are going to make us perform a task. City Tech does not prepare ourselves for this. That is a major flaw they have. My closest friend who just transferred to City College this semester is loving it there. I looked up City College’s Curriculum and they actually have laboratory classes! This is a huge thing because that will actually help them when they graduate. Of course they also take a lot of math and they’re courses are more related to computers than ours. Our college isn’t even close to having that. Of course our school is better than some colleges as well. Brooklyn College’s Curriculum for example is a really disappointing. They have a curriculum where its hard to understand anything and they also don’t offer much there.

I even looked at the more expensive and higher up colleges. NYU Poly’s curriculum has everything we need. Labs and a wide arrange of classes. You can basically go in any route you want in that college. They are really organized and explain in detail what you need and when you need it. Our college isn’t even close to that. Our curriculum looks a little organized but sometimes it’s hard to understand what classes we need next. When we go get advised, we don’t know what class to take next because our advisors don’t really help us! They just say “ok” and don’t really give a proper guide on what to take.

My suggestion to my department is give us more lab classes and internships. This will really help us for the long run when we go apply for a job. We need to able to experience what it is going to be like when we are in the real world. With lab we can have more hands on experience will help us in the performance part of the interview. Another suggestion is to give us more computer related classes and less non computer related classes. We are here to learn about computers, not science, not math or anything else. And a MAJOR suggestion to the actual school is fix your wifi and elevators and think about installing escalators! It is not fun running up to the 11th floor.

Links:

Brooklyn College

City College

NYU Poly

Baruch College

Stony Brook University

MIT 

City Tech

Yale 

Harvard

York College

Hunter College

 

Online Identity in a Networked World

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I actually never knew that employers use social media to check up on our accounts. This is a new thing for me. Luckily I don’t use much social media to actually affect me. I do use Facebook and Instagram but I hardly post stuff on it. I mainly use it to send messages to my relatives outside of the country. We are all represented online. Everything we do is kept somewhere on the internet where anyone can view it. It could be a totally random stranger or even the government. So we have to be very careful   about what we wanna put online and how we want to express and represent ourselves. There are many threats, such as hackers and cyber bullying which affect everyone.

When I read the article “Employers scour Web for details on applicants”, I was shocked that they actually look you up on Facebook to see what type of person you really are. What I don’t agree with is that they automatically assume that they are immature by just the way they speak or the photos they put up. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a bad person just because they have a photo of themselves drinking. Maybe they were too stressed and needed a stress reliever? Overall it’s bad they judge so easily.

When I looked myself up, I only found my Facebook. I didn’t find my instagram or openlab. My Facebook is in private anyway so there is no way anyone can see what I say or my photos. I’m represented online as a private person which is great. I don’t want employers to judge me without even getting to know me through a proper interview. It’s because of these articles that I learned that our online identity can affect our job prospects. From an article I read, “One in five employers uses social networks in hiring process”. Most employers tossed the candidates applications because they didn’t like what they saw from their online accounts. This is unethical in my opinion because they don’t know anything. They just assume by looks and false information. They don’t know what type of day we were having that day that caused us to post that photo or news feed.

In conclusion, from what I learned in class and online, this is absolutely outrageous. Even to this day, we are getting judged and recognized by what we say or do on social media. I don’t like that employers have to decline people by what we say. The proper way is by interviews and in person, not online. Social media is the reason there is cyber bullying and other threats. Bottom line is we have to think smarter and be more clever of what we do online because we just don’t know who is stalking or watching our every move.

 

Links:

1. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2532900/web-apps/one-in-five-employers-uses-social-networks-in-hiring-process.html

2. http://www.newsday.com/classifieds/jobs/employers-scour-web-for-details-on-applicants-1.2133284

3. http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2012/12/17/colleges-pay-to-protect-students-from-toxic-google-results/

Job Ad’s Search

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This assignment really showed me what I needed to learn before I can go look for jobs in my field. I only searched for areas in my NYC since it makes more sense. Some of course were in Jersey which I wouldn’t find commuting to. What most of these companies want is for someone who can work with others. Most IT jobs will require you to work with your colleagues. That is one of the major things a person in my field needs to be comfortable with.  Of course they want you to be familiar with the basics as well such as getting to know Windows, Linux, etc. They also require a person to have good verbal and communication skills. Communication is key in my field otherwise everyone will fall apart. They of course want you to know basic math and to know some type of coding, Java, C++, HTML, etc. They also want a person to know SQL, and about routers, switches, etc. Some jobs also require that you have at least three years of experience.  Most companies want a bachelor’s degree but some even want a master’s. I am pursuing a job in networking, security, and database at city tech.

My personal experience is not close to what they are wanting unfortunately. I have always liked to mess around with computers, such as breaking it apart and then rebuilding it. Here in City Tech, I learned how to program with Java, and I learned about the interiors of computers. I learned basic SQL. Those include me to create directories and how to modify them such as adding information in them or deleting it. I also learned about routers and switches and how to set them up. I have not gotten an internship yet but I am planning on it this summer. Hopefully with the internship, I can feel more comfortable with going for a job search in my field after graduation. While I took my classes here in City Tech, I did a lot of group work projects which helped build my experience in working with others.  These have prepared me only partially but after a few more classes and a good internship will definitely prepare me for the long run. Still trying to finish my bachelor which is something all those companies require. Right now if I was to go out and get something, the most I will get is an internship. I am not mentally and physically prepared but in time I will be.

In conclusion, working in IT requires that you know what you’re doing because you have to help your other peers. If you can’t accomplish this then you obviously would be in trouble. We have to have good verbal and communication skills and to have basic knowledge about computers. They require us to have experience in working in the field so when we are hired, we know some knowledge of what’s going on.  I hope to land a job once I get an internship and finish college so when I leave, I leave prepared.

Job links:

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.21.0.0.0&job_did=JHN4MH6FXB94S1R3H4X&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=QHKV0A

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.21.0.0.0&job_did=JB73X173GKDKBTR81WT&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=QHKV0B

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.21.0.0.0&job_did=JHN5WV70TNNGPMQCH68&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=QHKV0D

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?sc_cmp1=js_jrp_jobclick&APath=2.21.0.0.0&job_did=J3F5MX6CGR8CQF4WVKX&showNewJDP=yes&IPath=QHKV0C

https://www.theladders.com/job/jobboard?cr=8775298&pl=ind-204

http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobseeker/jobs/jobdetails.aspx?Job_DID=JHN6416G2Q2CPL5XPWK&siteid=sep_cb001_41_1012_00&showNewJDP=yes&ipath=EXGOO

https://jobs-freewheel.icims.com/jobs/1107/corporate-it-manager/job?mobile=false&width=627&height=500&bga=true&needsRedirect=false

https://career4.successfactors.com/career?company=Montefiore&career_ns=job_listing&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH&_s.crb=ABNI137YqW1ut80JV%2bbiBE9lcq8%3d&career_job_req_id=15124

http://cotatrack.theresumator.com/apply/job_20140913021741_TVZLGZCQUBCUTIJ5/SecurityIT-Director.html?source=INDE

http://www.bullhornreach.com/sites/DaVinciTek/job/1594452_manager-of-it-operations-new-york-ny?originalsource=Indeed.com

http://tbe.taleo.net/CH09/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=PLANSYS&cws=1&rid=2111&source=Indeed

https://jpmchase.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=1436616&src=JB-13027

https://career4.successfactors.com/career?company=Montefiore&career_ns=job_listing&navBarLevel=JOB_SEARCH&_s.crb=ABNI137YqW1ut80JV%2bbiBE9lcq8%3d&career_job_req_id=14983

http://www.dice.com/job/result/10513290/743527?c=1&src=27&rx_medium=cpc&CMPID=AG_IN_PD_JS_AV_OG_RC_&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=Aggregator&utm_content=&utm_campaign=Advocacy_Ongoing&rx_source=Indeed&rx_campaign=Indeed16&rx_group=85

https://www.atriumstaff.com/job-seekers/job-details/?positionId=15586&utm_source=Indeed&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Indeed

Last but not least! My introduction.

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Let’s see here. Name is Ogulcan but its pronounced OlJohn. Or just call me John to make life easier. I was born in Istanbul, Turkey and that is where my originates from. Our alphabet is different than here so that’s why my name looks more scary. I’m currently majoring in Computer Systems like most of the others. This is my junior year and I’m hoping to graduate in the next year to come! I’m trying to pursue a career in IT networking, security, and database field. I always loved computers and it’s the future of life so why not have a job in it?

My hobbies include traveling the world, soccer, videos games once in a while when I have my free time, swimming, walking. Basically what any other human being loves. I also love cooking! Maybe in the future, I would love to pursue a second career in culinary and maybe be the next Gordon Ramsay!

Hmmmm I think that is it for now! I’m sure more secrets will be revealed throughout the semester! Hope to learn a lot in this course and I’m sure that without a doubt I will!

Thank you,

Ogulcan