Video Reviews

Smart Homes Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kdd41G0q7Nw&feature=youtu.be

 

I found this a very engaging video mainly for the visual design aspect of the approach.  Firstly the video does a good job simply ticking off the required boxes of the assignment, making sure everyone contributes to the presentation and overall conveying information about smart homes in a succinct and easily understood way.  More than that though what I really liked about it was the approach of having the various group members sketch out pertinent images on a white board while the narration played over it.  There’s something about that particular action that really engenders a blended sense between classical education tactics like white board sessions and the digital new frontier of education through media learning.  It reminded me most of the Khan Academy videos that also utilize a more hands-on visual aesthetic to their complimentary imagery.  If I was to raise a critique however it would be that some of the narration felt a little shakey at times and could’ve been a bit more polished but that's a small gripe all things considered. 

Amazon Web Services Video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muotZg0wCuI&feature=youtu.be

The Amazon Web Service video definitely came off as seriously ambitious and to a certain degree managed to achieve the lofty goals it set for itself.  I very much enjoyed the amount of audio work that went into this video, a good degree of sound mixing and music work helped make this video infinitely more memorable.  Alternatively the visual portion of the video was more mixed especially given the narration that wet with it.  While some of the video sections were very well done and informative as the presentation went on the information became a little more cluttered and unclear, especially when the narrator entered into an analogy about tools and birdhouses that was ultimately more confusing than helpful.  It also felt very much like there was going to be more after the initial spurt of narration and I would’ve liked to have heard from all the group members not just the one, still I understand Amazon Web Service infinitely better now than I did before watching this video.   

Presentation Reviews

Virtual Reality Team

I thought the virtual reality team had a lot of very intriguing images and presentation format but kind of fell flat in their actual presentation.  You get the sense the presenters are somewhat uncomfortable up on stage in front of everyone and the presenters often came off very quite and shy or stuttering.  I realize that everyone has some amount of anxiety when it comes to public speaking but it left the group feeling decidedly unprepared in my opinion.  It definitely felt like it was more rewarding to just read the information on the slides and examine the images rather than actually strain myself to make out the mumbled and quiet speech of the presenters.  They did seem well informed during the question and answer portion of their presentation so that was refreshing. 

Interactive Cartoons

This team came off very clear and well spoken, all the presenters felt thoroughly prepared and were easy to hear and understand with proper enunciation and a full command of the topic at hand.  However their information felt a little shaky, while the presentation was adequate I can’t help but feel let down as I’m still unsure what exactly defines an interactive cartoon.  Additionally I don’t quite comprehend how exactly an interactive cartoon is separate from say a flash game or various other examples of interactive animations.  I feel like a more stringent definition of terms would’ve really bolstered my understanding of the material here.  I also felt like we didn’t get much grounding in terms of cons just all the pros. 

Off Day: Group Work

            Once again I’m unsure if any learning journal is actually assigned for this date but I intend to post one regardless.  With class canceled to allow us more prep time on our projects our group met up for the first time outside of class to discuss the upcoming presentation along with the matter of the 3-minute video.  This is the first physical group meeting we’ve ever had not counting brief conversations in class between talking points and so forth and the results were less than encouraging.  Luis seems very quiet and timid though willing to put in the work necessary to help make these projects a major success but Anthony seemed reticent to most of the suggestions.  My biggest issue with Anthony is his irksome habit of only providing problems and no solutions, most of his time during the meeting was spent fretting over a lack of official guidelines for what the power point and video should entail.  While I certainly appreciate Anthony’s concerns towards structure he came off more distracted than anything else, like he was simply treading water and marking off time till one of has to leave and he could escape our company.  Discussing audio recording for the video was even worse as he constantly shot down my suggestions and brought no personal initiative to the table, it may be necessary to nursemaid him through the process entirely or alternatively simply cut him out of the video all together.  Our current plan is simply to do voice over with still images as that’s the easiest option for our various busy schedules with me acting as central coordinator.  I have no doubt that Luis will provide his audio as despite his shy exterior he’s demonstrated consummate professionalism and follow through but as I mentioned I have some definite concerns about Anthony’s ability to work as a team player or provide me with what I need in a timely manner. 

Presentation Skills

            Presentations and public speaking have always been a strong suit of mine so I found this particular lecture to be something of a repetition.  It did however go very well with Karen’s class concerning presentations in the 300 lecture lab.  What I’ve found to be the most challenging thing for me concerning presentations is two fold; firstly there’s the issue of the presentation itself and then there’s my speed.  While I don’t feel all that nervous when presenting I have been told on numerous occasions that I have a bad tendency towards rushing my words.  I believe this to be a trait I carry with me from my Eastern days and formative years in Massachusetts.  I’ve found the west coast to be far more relaxed and sedate than the east where there is a major emphasis on conveying as much information as you have as quickly as you can convey it and I tend to keep that mindset when presenting but perhaps its more counterproductive than I might realize.  The other major issue for me is, as I mentioned, the presentation itself.  While I'm generally fine at assembling the necessary information to craft and informative presentation where I can sometimes bog down is in arranging it.  Specifically in trying to electrify the presentation with more personality and verve through lay out and visual design.  I find there’s nothing more disheartening in a presentation than a plain white background with flat black text, that kind of presentation exudes a sense of minimalistic effort on the part of the speaker, as if it were copied directly from an essay.  Additionally I find that visual aids can be far more informative and creating more impactful memories and lessons than simple words.  A picture or even a stylized word can convey so much more than letters on a page as well as sticks in the mind more permanently.  I also find that simple bullet points tend to offer more of an enticement to read directly from the slides, which is one of the worst mistakes a presenter can make.  My problem though is that I sometimes try TOO hard to excite with my power points and the information can become lost in the razzle dazzle of backdrops, animations, and images. 

Defining Success

            This was a very refreshing lecture and I am incredibly pleased to hear Doctor Tao speaking on how success is defined both personally and as a society.  It’s long been my personal feeling that the very existence of a societal definition of success is a negative, acting only to smother the aspirations and goals of those who choose to pursue a different life avenue than the most financially secure one.  After all the notion that money should be the most important goal of a person walks hand in hand with the idea the idea that a person’s job is the soul thing that defines them and gives them merit.  This philosophy is and always will be toxic, serving to reinforce harmful ideals about employment and self esteem that force people into wasting their lives working at jobs they hate and are not valued all in the name of monetary security and an inflated sense of self-worth due to their occupation.  I’ve seen this personally with close individuals who’ve been left devastated and directionless in the wake of losing a position or suffering some form of money issues.  They use their job as a crutch for self-definition and once its gone they emotionally and mentally collapse, unmoored without the tools to pursue a version of success that doesn’t come with an big occupation title and a big salary. 

            The points about habits and what constitutes a habit were interesting as well as were the personality types discussion.  I’ve taken a personality test before but I’ve never found them to be all that reliable.  Simply put I often find that my alignment with introversion or extroversion can waver in the extreme between both sides.  The legitimate definition of the terms is that an introvert draws energy from solitude while an extrovert draws energy from people but I often find that where I draw energy from can radically shift between those two extremes with little to no consistency as to why.  I will say that the test is a very useful tool for understanding brain chemistry and especially how our brains will react to certain chemicals.  For instance being an extrovert predominately I find that caffeine makes me far more productive during the morning hours.   

Group Work Day

            I was unclear as to whether or not this week still warranted a learning journal but as there was an assignment to work on the final presentation I felt I should still complete some kind of entry.  As my group and I have rather conflicting schedules we’ve chosen to engage with each other predominately through online channels, which I find a tad ironic.  Our subject is Cloud Computing and to discuss that subject and construct a power point around we have elected to utilize cloud-computing services like Google Docs and Gmail.  That alone serves to highlight the invaluable nature of cloud computing in our day and age and the way it’s come to permeate every strata of our daily lives.  With that in mind I feel this presentation should be relatively easy to construct, especially thanks to Luis.  Luis is the only one of the three of us who is a CSIT major, specifically in the role of network security, a very touchy subject for cloud computing given the very high profile leaks from Apple’s photo cloud system earlier this year.  Luis’s previous knowledge concerning the cloud and networks in valuable has proved invaluable on the research side.  I’ve elected to collate our information into a presentable power point that hopefully will engage our classmates.  I do however worry about the physical presentation itself, as I seem to be the only member of our group with any confidence in public speaking.  Luis tends to keep his voice low and reserved with a decided slowness to his speech and I feel he’ll ultimately end up reading off the slide.  The microphone should be a fine work around for his volume control I just hope he can inject his performance with some amount of energy.  Anthony seems thoroughly unprepared for the presentation while also seeming more than a little distracted by other projects and inflexible when it comes to my requests but hopefully that won’t be an issue long term. 

Resume Building

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS0nPwAzA3g&feature=youtu.be