CST 338 Week 2

Week 2

This week has been great. We were assigned new teams, which was the first time since this program started and I am very glad to switch it up a bit. Working with my new team was great. Everyone is familiar with git and we utilized GitHub to keep track of our code and share updates between each other. It worked out well.

The material for this week has been Java-specific lectures. I'm very familiar with Java (though I haven't used it in a while), so it hasn't been an issue for me and I feel like I'm cruising along. Working on the program was very refreshing and I found myself getting into finding all of the bugs and squashing them! Once I start, it's really hard to put it down and it made me a bit sleepy at work the following days. I am going to try to settle down and give myself same rest in future weeks.

Specific prompts

OOP is not in all languages.  Have you used one that does not?

Many people don't follow OOP with JavaScript. I use JavaScript very often and most of the time it is not in an OOP way. However, I may be known to utilize prototypes to facilitate an OOP-style language. Other than that, I don't have any experience outside of OOP (unless you count bash).

What was your experience?

OOP has been drilled into my head over time in all of my previous courses. I find it very difficult to not follow it now. I don't feel like it's intuitive and reading through the code can be very difficult. I work with several people that have functional programming backgrounds and I always have a difficult time reading through their work. However, I find it beneficial for me to have exposure to their coding style.

How extensively have you used OOP outside of the classroom?

I have used OOP more outside of the classroom than within it. I work with large applications daily that rely on this principle. It has led me to believe that it's a strong foundation and many people would benefit from understanding it. I'm actually really glad that I am able to go back through and learn it from the ground up again because it never hurts to relearn something. There may be little bits that I have missed.

Are you experience with UML diagrams and do they help?

I'm experienced with UML diagrams, but I wouldn't call myself an expert. I often draw little (simpler) UML diagram for my own reference at work when I'm learning a new application. If the database isn't too large, I'll keep a little picture of one near to understand the application better. Having said that, my work does not use UML diagrams at all. They used to create them, but found that they were never referenced by programmers and the clients didn't care what the database looked like so they were not useful and were a waste of time (money). For my work context, my company is 19 years old and we're contracted out by other companies to build web applications.

CST 338 Week 1

Week 1

Here week go again with a new course! We began this course with a pretty straight-forward string manipulation assignment that is going to be our only solo assignment for the course. Starting week 2, we will be grouped into new groups for the following assignments. We haven't had to work in groups for the past couple of classes and I have enjoyed it because I can work on my homework on my own time. I'm not super excited about having group work again, but I understand the benefits of doing so.

The solo project went fine. I read in the material that we will be deducted points if we use functionality that hasn't yet been taught. That makes me a little nervous and I found myself going back to the lecture notes often to make sure that I wasn't using something that wasn't there. I have taken several courses in Java and have worked with it professionally (and still do every so often). It makes it a bit difficult to remember where we're at in our guided instruction.

Specific prompts

Have you used Eclipse before?

I have used Eclipse in both courses for school and professionally. However, I switched to IntelliJ and found that I prefer it for Java development. I primarily switched because the dark theme that I was using at the time for Eclipse wasn't consistent with the toolbars. So, the text editing portion of the editor was dark and the navigation and side panels were white. I look at a computer a lot and prefer dark themes for things that I spend a lot of time looking at. After getting used to IntelliJ, I couldn't turn back. Everything felt so much more natural in it compared to Eclipse. For this course, I will continue to use IntelliJ, while using the same style settings that the professor prefers.

What languages are you proficient in at this point?

The language that I'm proficient with varies depending on when you talk to me. Two years ago, prior to working my current job, I would have replied with Ruby. Shortly after, I would have said C#. Now, I would likely respond with Javascript or Java because that's what I've been using the most lately. If I were to list languages on a resume right now, I'd likely only put Ruby, Java, and JavaScript.

What is your desired field of Computer Science at this point?

I'm employed full-time as a web developer. I'm very happy with it and don't see that direction changing anytime soon. However, I'm not opposed to changing my career goals and I probably will at some point.

CST 361s Week 8

Week 8

I'm so glad that this is the last week of this course and we get to move on to more technical courses. I do see how service learning can be a beneficial course for students because they develop themselves by servicing others, gain connections in the community, and may get to work on products that solve real-life problems (not hypothetical assignments developed by instructors). However, this is not what I am looking to get out of school at this time. What bothered me most about this class is that it was more expensive than the other courses because it was assigned 5 units instead of the usual 4 units. It was difficult and time consuming, but I don't necessarily want to pay more because of that.

I've wrapped up the final material for this course, a written final report and a mini documentary, and am ready to begin the assignments for the next course that are already released.

The final report was pretty straightforward to complete, but the mini documentary took a bit more time. Last weekend I went to the Santa Monica Pier to get some background footage or filler footage for it and I've basically spent the whole week working on it in chunks. I put together some slides and transcripts over the weekend. Throughout the work week I recorded portions of the video and then spent the final two nights piecing it all After publishing it, I realized that I messed up aligning the audio on a slide and put it in the wrong place (whoops!). I didn't want to go through the whole process of republishing ... so it's just going to have to be. This may be a teaser, but I don't really want to share it publicly so I won't be listing it here this time.

CST 361s Week 7

Week 7

The material for this week was extremely brief because there are a week and a half to complete two modules. There was a quick assignment to go over and understand the fourth service learning outcome, which is multicultural community building or civic engagement and that was pretty simple and straight forward. The only other assignment (other than internal forum posts and blog entries) was to read Five Ways Social Entrepreneurs Use Technology to Increase Their Impact. This article describes how social entrepreneurs can better use or interact with technology to drive their idea. First, the author describes the importance of hands-on experience with building technology as opposed to only learning it. By giving women the experience of working with technology and solving problems, we can come closer to closing the gender gap. The article also says that it's beneficial to have stakeholders in a project, alter the perceptions of society and people marginalized, and share data with the community.

My service learning hours are actually complete, but I have been doing a few things to wrap up my work with my service learner outside of this course. It's been exhausting and I'm really glad that I can wind down a bit for a week before my next two courses begin again.

CST 361s Week 6

Week 6

This week was much lighter work-wise and I really appreciated it! I was able to get a lot more done on the website for my service-learning partner. I'm really happy with the work I've been able to do and I hope that they like my improvements. I attempted to make their website more admin-friendly while I completed tasks by adding useful content to their dashboard, cleaning up the navigation links to only the ones used, and also renaming some of the links to be clearer. I put a ton of hours into working with my partner the past couple of weeks and completed 30 hours worth of work. I've sent off all of the forms to wrap up that portion of the course and will get it turned in soon.

As for the coursework, we basically just created a storyboard for our mini-documentary and did some reflection assignments (video and analysis of vide). They're pretty straightforward, but I definitely struggled with the documentary portion and will likely struggle more with creating the documentary itself! Working remotely has extreme disadvantages here, but I'll use what I have access to in order to make something that is hopefully at least presentable.

CST 361s Week 5

Week 5

The reading this week covered the difference between equity and equality in regards to social justice. It's interesting to consider the difference and what it is that we're striving for exactly when advocating for social justice. Overall, we just want everyone to have the same opportunities. The videos this week were about Black Girls Code and their mission and how gaming can change the world. Both of the videos highlighted how technology can make an impact. Black Girls Code gives young black women a potentially new opportunity through learning to code. Additionally, they are helping to add diversity to the tech industry. The second video suggests utilizing games to change the world. It's an interesting idea and I think it could take us somewhere when more creative minds get involved.

We continued learning about project management through Coursera's Project Management Basics course. The course itself is fine and relatively interesting. It may be nice to follow it up with the Agile development ideology since it's so prominent in the tech industry right now (even if it isn't ideal for projects).

I'm putting a lot more time into my contributions with my service-learning partner. After posting the basic information they wanted to their website, I'm now able to focus on the larger portions. In particular, I'm focusing on adding an event calendar. This has been a bit difficult because I don't have direct access to their server and I'm trying to manipulate the website through their drupal system. Hopefully, I'll get that figured out soon.

CST 361s Week 4

Week 4

The reading this week was interesting, as usual. I really enjoy that it is the kind of material that makes us consider the world around us. An article we read was about an African American man that brought himself to the tech industry and is continuing to bring more diversity into tech through his company, Walker & co, and Code2040. A video we were assigned this week brings to light where our electronic waste is illegally going (and it isn't pretty). That's posted at the end of this post. We also had to watch videos on project management through a course on Coursera. The material is good and fine, but I don't really think that it is appropriate for this particular class.

This week we also had check-ins with Dr. Tao and our TA, Cassandra. The check-in was fine, but I'm still feeling very behind and it definitely helped keep the pressure on me. It's a good reminder that I can't be lazy so I can get through this class!

CST 361s Week 3

Week 3

The content to read and watch was shorter this week probably because we had to do a project called the "community scan". This project requires us to go into communities that we aren't necessarily comfortable with and interview residents, take photographs, and analyze the community in general. It's pretty uncomfortable and I really hope we don't have to do another project like that again. The reading this week was nice because it encouraged us to take into consideration what other people feel and not impose how we feel about things on them (specifically speaking of the "Golden Rule"). The video we watched showed how different learning centers are using technology to teach kids to play, learn and explore. The video is at the end of this post.

I am behind on hours with my service learning partner and I am hoping to make that up this week. This was the last week of my other course that has been very reading and writing heavy. I expect to have a lot more time to dedicate to my service learning partner now. Trying to balance everything has been very difficult and I feel really bad for not being able to put that much energy into working with my partner.

CST 361s Week 2

Week 2

This week has been very busy for me. I have one week left on my history course that I'm doing at the same time as this one and I can't wait for it to be over so that I can put more effort into this service learning course. Additionally, I've had a late start with my service learning partner and am just barely getting the paperwork turned in so I haven't had the opportunity to get working hours in. I'm hoping that this next week I can swap that all around.

The course work for this week has been really interesting. We read some case studies on schools that are local to Los Angeles and how they have and haven't been working with technology. I believe that our academic system is embarrassing and I really enjoyed hearing more about how other schools are handling their lack of funds and lack of quality instructors. In LA, I also believe that there's an issue with the housing marking. Teachers don't get paid enough to live in LA and it really impacts the schools in the area. There are a lot of issues from my perspective and I'm glad to see that people are writing about them and making them known.

At the end of this course, we are supposed to create a video documentary. I'm pretty nervous about it because I'm doing it completely remote and won't necessarily have the footage. As I go along, I'm hoping to get some footage of their website and some of the major improvements that I make to it. I also think I'll start recording some audio samples in week 4(ish) that I can put into the final presentation. Getting some general videos of the beach or something would probably be good. I can use that as a backdrop. It'll probably be Santa Monica, but one can use their imagination to believe it's Monterey Bay instead.

CST 361s Week 1

Week 1

We're already in the first week and I've been extremely stressed out because I don't have a finalized service-learning partner and we're basically out of time. Additionally, I'm in the middle of a reading heavy history course through another college (which ends in ~2 weeks) that has made it very difficult to send out more emails and line up service partners. Honestly, I didn't think it would be so difficult but I'm finding that my work hours make a lot of the in-person volunteer work unavailable to me.

As far as the reading for this course has gone this week, I've really enjoyed the topics. They're relevant to what's going on in society right now and since the founding of this country. We've read a couple of items on what makes up someone's identity, social privileges, and social marginalization. It's really important to try and be empathetic with all different types/groups of people and I think we can always use reminders of this.

I'll hopefully have finalized a service-learning partner next week and will have more to say! I've a couple of leads, but we will see what happens.