CW Self Evaluation Reflection Journal

                               
         This marking period some of my grades for my classes went up, some went down, and some remained the same compared to the last marking period. To maintain my grades and try to keep them up, I mostly need to study daily more for my quizzes/tests because if I get low test scores then my grade will go down. And if I do well then my grade would either stay the same or get higher. I have to continue going to my classes on time and do all of my classwork and also all of my homework when it's due. I have to continue listening and following directions so I know what to do and what's expected so I can fulfill the requirements and get a decent grade. Another way I can improve is by participating in my classes and asking questions because I don't participate much in my classes since I am a bit shy. I also need to put more effort and hard work into my projects and assignments. So by doing all of this I will be able to maintain my grades and/or make them higher for the next marking period.

Soft Skills-Synopsis Reflection Journal

        The synopsis is basically a combination of all of the soft skills. These skills are enthusiasm and attitude, communication, teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving, networking and professionalism. With enthusiasm and attitude you show how badly you want to succeed and how much you are willing to try. In web design we always try our best and we show our efforts with our labs/projects/assignments. Communication skills are used to share ideas with others in the workplace and be able to be understood. In web design we use communication skills to receive the information that's taught to us by the teacher to do our work. Teamwork benefits the members of the group and manages time more efficiently. More work will be able to get done. Employers will look at you in a high valuable way with your creativity in critical thinking and problem solving skills. Also you will be able to learn how to troubleshoot the problem easily if you come across the same problem again later with your html or flash file with use of those skills. Networking is important because the people that you know can also help you by suggesting you to visit places online for jobs that you want. This will make a broader range of communication with others. Professionalism means finding ways to be productive and communicating effectively. This soft skill is used when we manage our time wisely and come in class and try to accomplish more than what's expected. All of these skills are connected with each other and are very useful and helpful. 

Soft Skills-Networking Reflection Journal

         Networking is an important soft skill used in web design because the more connections you have with people, the more opportunities come your way, including opportunities that aren't advertised. An example of networking was when we went on a field trip to the CS fair. We met with different companies which we had some knowledge on. We introduced ourselves to the speaker of the booth and we found out a bit more about the company and the programs that they offered and also we tried to impress them with our resumes. It is important to have a good network of people so that you are able to be well prepared and find more connections that will be useful to you in the future when looking for a job or for getting help relating to your workplace. Networking skills would help us with finding an internship at a company. Also as web designers we have to do a lot of research so that also helps build our networking skills.

Soft Skills-Teamwork Reflection Journal

       One of the important soft skills used in web design is teamwork skills. In visual design when I had a group project of making a yearbook I had to use this skill. Developing teamwork skills helps get your group organized and also it helps you make different connection with people. Everyone in the group was assigned with a specific responsibility, like graphics designer, photographer, manager, leader and writer. Working with others that have different sets of skills will make finishing the work faster and ideas will be more creative. Every person takes responsibility for their task and accomplishes it to the best of their capability. This is important because it shows how you are able to work with any type of person that you team up with whether you know them or not.  Giving credit to your teammates is important because without their help the final product wouldn't have been able to be produced and also no one would want to work with a person if they don't give any credit to them at all when they worked together. The skills required to work with others is making use of time, sharing ideas that you do not have to necessarily agree with and getting different opinions for improvement and trying to accomplish/achieve the same goals. 

Soft Skills-Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Reflection Journal

             This soft skill is important in web design because we are always making big decisions and we need to be able to have a good judgement. For example one of the big decisions you have to make is what to base your interactive story and video game on and how you're going to plan it out. Also employers are looking for employees that are able to assess a problem and solve them. Like in web design when working on your html file in Dreamweaver you can come across problems with trying to upload the file into the server so you have to be able to figure out what the problem is and solve it so you can upload your work and submit it. Another example could be when you're working on your AS in your flash file and there could be a problem with the swf, like it won't go to the next scene or it keeps on blinking showing the scenes at a rapid pace. You have to be able to know how to troubleshoot it and you can use the compiler errors panel for help with that when you review the action script you put in. You might have forgotten to put in the stop(); line of code or you didn't put the correct instance name in the coding or there is a duplicate function. There is always a problem everyday and being able to handle them is an important skill. 

Soft Skills Enthusiasm and Attitude Reflection Journal

           In the enthusiasm and attitude skills video it showed two different scenarios that shows a guy going for a job interview. In the first scenario the guy came to his job interview wearing jeans, sneakers and a sweater. He put his feet on the table was talking informally to the interviewer. He didn't make an good impression and was clearly unprepared. He didn't answer the questions with the attitude of making an effort to get the job and showed that he did not care which was very clear to the interviewer. In the second scenario is shows a guy going on time for his job interview wearing a suit. He had good posture by sitting up straight and made eye contact. He answered her questions with confidence and told her how he was going to try his best and showed his effort. 
           This shows that enthusiasm and attitude is a necessary skill needed for a job. With the positive attitude and good enthusiasm it makes a good first impression. This skill is important in web design because it gives you an advantage over other applicants when you're competing to get a job and also it makes the employer actually remember you from the many people that were interviewed since you made that deep first impression. Also in web design when we are presenting our projects to the class we dress up professionally so that the viewers will take us seriously and pay attention to us. We also have to talk loudly so everyone can hear us and not show any signs of nervousness and interact with the audience and also we have to be enthusiastic. If you're not enthusiastic,the audience will notice and see that you don't really care and don't want to be doing this and they will get bored and they won't be enthusiastic either. 

Soft Skills-Communication Reflection Journal

            One of the important skills needed when you work is communication. The video on communication skills was about an employee speaking in text language with the customers. They were not able to understand her and made complains about her to the manager. The manager talked to her about it so she would correct it. She realized that she used text language all the time and tried to stop after her conversation with her manager. This shows the importance of being able to communicate with others well. If you don't communicate well with others they won't be able to understand you and it will make work difficult. You have to interact with others on a daily basis. 
            This skill is important in web design because you have to be able to communicate with the people you're working with (classmates) and also the person you are working for (the teacher). If you can't communicate then ideas of how to plan out the project and the tasks each person has won't be shared so it would be confusing since you won't know what you're doing or what you have to do. We need communication skills to receive information to others and to give information to others. It would be frustrating for the person you are working with (teammates/peers) if you can't communicate with them which would highly lead to being kicked out of the group or failing to meet the deadlines so communication skills are very important. 

Soft Skills-Professionalism Reflection Journal

        A skill we need to learn and/or improve on is professionalism. In the video it showed an employee talking to his manager. He came in late and his manager discussed with him about his plans to get earlier next time for work. Then the manager tells the employee to do more than what he is told and putting in more effort is professionalism. This shows us that professionalism is always being prepared and on time for work. It also shows how motivated, passionate and determined you are about your work.Your abilities are proven through your hard work. 
        Professionalism means conducting yourself with responsibility, integrity, accountability and excellence. It means finding ways to be productive and communicating effectively. This soft skill is important in web design because professionalism is expected of you in your job and when you get an internship, paid or non-paid, you need this skill so you can highly impress your employer and maybe get an actual permanent job in the workplace. Another reason why professionalism is important in web design is because your client will want to work with you again due to how you were well behaved and how you worked diligently and may introduce/recommend you to other clients. Also using this skill in web design will help you get accustomed to it so you are well prepared in the future when going on a job interview or any job fairs.  

Project 5 Interactive Story Reflection Journal

        For this project, I made an interactive story using Flash CS6. The interactive story I made was about a girl who enters her house and behind her is a mouse that sneakily came in and when she sees the mouse she screams for her cat to come. When her cat comes then she tells her cat to go catch the mouse and her cat goes to find the mouse and chases it, eventually catching it. Then the cat goes to it's owner with the mouse caught and she praises the cat. For this project I used graphic, button and movie clip symbols. First I drew all the graphics that I would need and then I selected it all and converted it into a graphic symbol. Then to animate it I right clicked on it and converted it into a movie clip and I converted some of the graphics into a button so it could be as interactive as possible. I used AS that told the movie clip to stop looping, to go play the next frame and to go play the next scene or go to a scene and play.
       I put animation and AS on my movie clip and buttons and the scenes so that I could just put drag it onto the scene so my scenes only have one key frame for my layers: actions and content and when you double click on the movie clips you can see the key frames for the animation and also for the AS. On my buttons I changed the color in the hit and down area so that it would be noticeable that it's a button and to click on it. I also put some instructions that would allow the user to go through the story easily so they wouldn't be confused about what to click to continue the story. Then when I finally finished then I inserted sound in my buttons. I made the sounds in GarageBand. And then I inserted the swf file into my HTML document and uploaded it onto the server. I tried to improve on my project so I made a few changes to the flash file under another name and then I made a table on my html document that shows the before and after of my project. i improved my project by putting in more narrative.

The Armory Track Reflection Journal

                       
           In this trip, I went to the armory track where I met and saw a lot of different people in the CS Fair. There were many different booths of colleges and also big and small companies such as Facebook, Google, Hunter, NYU, and C/I. This was a good experience because I was able to learn skills like how to introduce myself, since I am a bit shy it helped a bit with my communication skills since I was asking a few questions and interacting with others. And it also helped me get a good idea of what I am interested in and also I learned new things. I learned a bit more about java-script at one of the booths and it got me more interested in learning it. I got a bit more exposure to different careers and I found the trip to be a good opportunity to find out where my interests lie.

The New York Historical Society Field Trip Reflection Journal

                     

             For this trip I went to The New York Historical Society to learn about the history of computers in New York. Before we went there we were in Central Park learning about storytelling so it could help assist us in our interactive story project. We found out the story of the monuments. Then when we went in The New York Historical Society we saw a movie about the history of New York. Then we went on with our tour about learning the history of computers. I learned about Silicon City. I learned about inventions that have been invented to solve problems. One of them is The Punched Card System which was designed to count the nation's population fast because the census took too long. This object solved this problem by recording data on cards punched with holes which could be read by tabulating machines. Another technological innovation that solved a problem was IBM's System/360 that could tackle virtually any task simply by changing software. The problem it solved was that early computers were built only for a specific task so there wasn't computers that had multiple tasks but with this object you could perform multiple tasks by changing the software. Beginning in the 1960's, New Yorkers in a number of different fields started using computers for work outside the fields of science and business. IBM made computers seem exciting and user friendly for the public with their designed logo and also with the small computers. As computer technology has changed, the computers became smaller and were able to perform more tasks. I saw how computer technology changed music and gaming.