CST 300 Module 2
Part 1: Review and Reflect Learning Strategy
After reading Effective Study Skills by Dr. Bob Kizlik, the top 3 skills that I think I am the best at is Taking Notes, knowing where to Keep notes and knowing where to Study. When it comes to taking and keeping notes I try to keep everything organized in filing cabinets and labeling my notes per subject. This allows me to easily access the material I need without fumbling through my notes to find the information I need. In regards to taking notes I tend to try and write everything down which can be seen as a double edged sword since it is really time consuming but it helps me retain the information. What's most important as stated in the article is to concentrate on the Main Points. Also having the right study environment is extremely important. If there is many distractions it is easy to lose track of time to the point where now you are out of luck.
The top 3 areas I know I am weak in is, not having a proper schedule, procrastination, and knowing how to properly use my time. I can never maintain a schedule whether it is in regards to studying or my lifestyle in general. Some days my sleep schedule is all over the place where now it just completely throws everything off. I am also a master procrastinator. I always think I have enough time to finish assignments. It comes to a point where I finally decide to work on the assignment once enough stress has built up where I am now forced to finish the work in a rush. And even when I finally start studying or doing an assignment I never know how to manage my time. This is because I am either in a rush or as previously stated I don't have a proper schedule. One think I really found useful in the article is to study when I am rested and alert. And also studying once the material is fresh in your head so after a lecture because once enough time passes you end up forgetting.
Part 2: Preview Time Management Skills
I was not able to find the activity log to fill out but I found an article on mind tools about Activity Logs. An activity log is a written record on how someone spends there time. It helps manage time and makes it where you are using your time effectively. I agree that there are times at work where I am doing task that don't mean much to my success. Time is extremely easy to lose track of and is something we never get back. But by keeping an activity log you can actually visualize on how you are spending your time through a day. Trying to keep track of everything using your own memory is extremely difficult and can lead you to be stressed and disorganized. An activity log helps you understand when you are most active during a day. For example some people are more active in the morning and others at night. This helps someone decide when the best times are for getting important work done. It also helps you identify where you are spending most of your time. Whether it be on the internet, going to a gym, at work, etc... The activity log can effectively reduce time wasted if it is something that is not benefiting a person in any way. The template for creating an activity log is typically as follows:
- Date/Time.
- Activity description.
- How I feel.
- Duration.
- Value (high, medium, low, none).
Here you will note down everything that goes on in a day. Every time you do an activity it is important to write everything down in the activity log especially when you change from one activity to the another. You will always write down how long each activity takes and evaluate if the activity contributed to achieving goals you set throughout the day whether its a personal goal, work related or school related. Once you have all the information written down now it is important to analyze the activity log and see how much you learn from it. This is where you can determine what to eliminate from your activity log or what you need to put more emphasis on. This is why activity logs are useful tools for analyzing how your time is spent. And it organizes your life by keeping track of all the activities you are doing.
https://www.mindtools.com/a52felv/activity-logs
Part 3: Project Management Basics
The Introduction to Project Management video talks about the aspects that go into projects. The video states that a project is a temporary endeavor that is carefully planned through several phases to give a unique output. A project is divided into phases such as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, control process, and closing. This is the life cycle of a project. The statistics behind projects are quite interesting. Only 1/4 project ever enter a market and 31% of projects are canceled before even being implemented. The biggest reasons projects fail is due to time management, scope management and quality management. This is where a project manager comes to the rescue. A project manager should have variety of skills such as leadership, communications, Information Technology, accounting, purchasing and problem solving. That is why project managers are an important asset for any company.
The Project Management: What is a Work Breakdown Structure gives a summary of project managers who need to stretch tasks correctly by creating a work breakdown structure. The video gives a graphical hierarchical structure of how the project should be divided into many phases and subprojects. Then you need to evaluate each phase or sub project and see if that can be broken down into more deliverables, sub projects, phases, etc.. until eventually it can be something that can be worked on by a team to accomplish a project. This shows the value of being able to visualize something so it is much easier to work on any given task.
Project Management: What is a Gantt Chart talks about the importance of a Gantt Chart. It is a bar chart that was developed my Henry Gantt that illustrates a projects schedule specifically the terminal and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements are compromised of work breakdown structure of a given project. What is most interesting about the Gantt Chart is the time estimates. It is broken down my Activity, Predecessor, Optimistic time estimate, normal time estimate, pessimistic time estimate, and expected time. What is most interesting is some activities can be done simultaneously while others cant be done at all until the previous activity has been completed. This shows the value of time management and scheduling. It can cost companies heavily if there isn't someone managing projects.
Part 4: CSUMB Fall 2020 Capstone Projects
The first project that interested me in the video was a game called Mirrored Fantasy. It is a competitive Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game where teams work together in many aspects to win. It is a dungeon type game where you can solve puzzles to win the game. Players have a choice of magical abilities that are countered in some way. For example fire beats plant. The game has multiplayer and it runs on a NodeJS backend. I really liked this project as I love video games myself. I really liked the way the project was presented as he went in depth and showed all the processes involved in making the game. He saved time creating his project by mirroring the maps and looking for resources online. Overall great presentation.
The second project that was interesting a web app called PetRecs. This web application allows pet owners an easy and secure way to track and manage their pets health. Basically it goes away from physical documents and makes them electronic. It is also an app that allows the user to share profiles so there is also a social aspect to the app. Once the user creates a profile on PetRecs they can choose from a variety of different breeds and it gives general information in regards to allergies, foods, and care notes. This is very useful information especially when you decide to a new pet and don't know the proper steps needed to care for the pet. They used MySQL, React,Node.js to implement the website. Overall I really liked the presentation. It was professionally done and gave a step by step process and how to use the application.
The third project that interested me was a web application called FantaSheets. It is an app that creates custom fantasy football cheat sheets. This one really interested me because I am someone who loves playing fantasy football and it is a product that is very popular. Basically FantaSheets allows users to create custom draft sheets by taking a collection expert player projections. You can create leagues that replicate ESPN or Yahoo. You can also create your own league and customize the league with unique individual settings. Overall the presentation was good I liked how he showed player projections. I do think he should have gone more in depth of the actual statistics players accrue throughout the year and being able to actually visualize the numbers. But I do really like his idea and I thought it was well presented.
Part 5: Summarize your week on what you Learned
This week was a bit confusing for me in regards to the assignments. Initially in the peer review I though we just had to submit the Industry Analysis outline but it seems we had to submit a draft. On top of that I assumed since it was being posted in canvas we could review anyone's paper but we only have to review papers from our group. Also on the learning Journal for part 2 I am not sure where to locate the activity log. And even in the activity log that I found I am not sure what to fill in for it since nothing is really specified. Also in Part 4 of the Learning Journal the link does not work for me so I had to skip it. Overall I am still trying to get back into the school mindset. I have written in a long time so the writing assignments are definitely taking up most of my time. Also doing peer reviews is definitely a challenge on its own since you have to carefully read someone's paper and be as constructive as you can which can hopefully is never interpreted the wrong way. I definitely need to get ahead of my assignments and start asking more questions so that I can get more clarification on the assignments.
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