Alexander's Blog

Tasks

- I continued to expand on the bullet points for my individual reflection.
- Updated errors I found on my own individual pages while viewing them at a different resolution

Thoughts

I learned a couple of new things today:

1. Always create your designs in FrontPage at the lowest possible resolution (800x600 recommended). Pages should display satisfactorily at higher resolutions but not vice-versa.
2. Don’t set a percentage for your images in FrontPage. E.g. I had set 3 lined images to 33% each however when a reduction in resolution occurs it takes it from 33% of your higher resolution resulting in the images being on separate rows.

On reflection this module has been one massive journey. I could have not wished for a better set of team members. All were highly motivated, efficient and supportive. Indeed I have never experienced working in a team of this calibre previously. I hope I will work with Sara, Wendy and Monica again. The module lecturer was fully supportive and very responsive to any queries we had. Individually I felt that I was able to use my existing skills to help members who were less IT proficient than me in order to use a number of tools and applications such as blogs, wikis, FTP apps and FrontPage. I also feel that although I had good IT skills initially I have built on these skills with the exposure to new technologies such as the blogs and wikis. Additionally I feel there has being a tremendous improvement in my writing skills throughout the duration of this module, with the support from other members and of course the module leader. Finally I would just like to thank you all for your support and I hope you have a fantastic (well deserved) holiday!

Tasks

- I spent several hours updating my individual journal.
- I carried out a revision to my personal reflection report.
- I downloaded and installed gif animator and created 2 animated gifs for the skills audit page.
- I completed my skills audit page.
- I created several web pages for my personal reflections reports.
- I tested the links for the new and edited pages to ensure they worked correctly.
- I uploaded the updated pages to the web server.
- I downloaded my comments from the discussion board and added them to a word document.
- I downloaded all the meeting records from the discussion board and added them to a word document.

Thoughts

I wish I hadn’t bullet pointed all my reflections, although it seemed easier at the time its going to take a large amount of time to expand on them. In relation to my comments on the discussion board I am amazed at how many posts I had added and the overall word count for these posts. It’s a scary thought that I have generated this amount of posts in an 8 week period. In relation to the web pages I feel that’s them completed now. Overall I am quite pleased with the final outcome. I wouldn’t mind going through the whole site and standardising all font types, line spacing’s, etc. However I feel this may take away from the individuality of the member’s pages. On reflection I feel that the constant revision of the web pages for the group was a far more time consuming task than I had ever imagined. However I do feel I played an important role in the support I provided in term of the web pages, blogs and the wiki.

Tasks

- I added the requested image to group paper.
- I uploaded updated pages to site and posted message on discussion board for members to provide feedback.
- I altered references in group paper and modified Monica’s left navigation bar length to standardise it with rest of site.
- I uploaded the changes to the site.
- I worked on updating my skills audit page to reflect skills gained throughout the duration of this module.
- I carried out amendments to Individual report and emailed the draft to Rhys.

Thoughts

I carried out the requested changes as per the discussion board. I now feel that the other group member’s webpage’s are complete. I can now concentrate on my own individual tasks. In terms of the report overall I am pretty pleased with it. Although there are one or two additional elements I would have liked to include such as Kolb’s learning styles/theories. I had spent a lot of time researching various elements of his work however due to the actual size of the report I decided that this may be pushing the word count a bit too far. Additionally I could have also included additional references in the individual communications tools. However I feel I had already done this in the group reflections.

Tasks

- I spent several hours to complete rough draft of personal reflections.
- I added the updated group paper to site and carried out formatting.
- I added the group reflections paper to the site and carried out formatting.
- I sorted the front image on Sara’s homepage and edited all her links on the left navigation bar.
- I re-edited the front page of group site to reflect the most recent individual pages
- I edited all links to ensure they all worked as well as adding code into each page to open the wiki and blog pages I a new window.
- I carried out comprehensive testing of site to ensure all links worked.
- I backed up current site, deleted it from server and uploaded new site (1 hour process).
- I managed to located Monica’s and Wendi’s webpage files just prior to meeting.
- I moved Monica’s pages to correct position within site and edited links on left navigation bar. I added images to Monica’s home page.
- I moved Wendi’s pages to correct position within site and edited the links on left navigation bar. I also added 3 additional buttons to each page to reflect skills audit 1, skills audit 2 and the skills summary pages. I added images to Wendi’s home page.
- I sent my personal reflection report to Sara and gratefully received feedback on it.

Meeting

All group members were present (WD, AP, MH and SW). The emphasis of this meeting was to iron out any problems with individual webpage’s and lasted over 3 hours in duration. AP specified that he had carried out an update to the site prior to the meeting, however there were problems with MH and WD index pages an links. AP also stated that it would be a good idea to include images on each individual homepage. Throughout the duration of the meeting there was continuous stream of communication between members in order for members to carry out final updates on their individual pages. This was our last meeting!

Thoughts

This was the most demanding day throughout the whole duration of the ICT module for me. Initially I spent several hours completing a draft of my individual reflections paper. I later got feedback from Sara who proof read my document, which was gratefully received. Overall there were only minor grammatical errors to correct. I was really glad to complete this element, since I looked at it as the last big hurdle to clear in relation to completing the module. In relation to the web site updates, It was the first time I had been able to view Wendi’s and Monica’s. I didn’t fully expect there to be so many fixes and updates required to individual pages and group pages. I had envisaged that the last meeting to be a fairly relaxed, sort of pat on the back kind of meeting. It was anything but, I found it very stressful since I knew that several members were going on holiday the following day so their pages required to be completed that night.

Thoughts

I have had problems over the last couple of days with breathing and chest pains. The doctor has advised me to have total rest for several days and if I have to work on the paper I should do it in short bursts.

Tasks

- I spent several hours writing the element relating to learning styles on my individual reflection paper.

Thoughts

I had hoped to cover at least two learning theories in this element however I have already gone over the approx word count of 1500 words.

Tasks

- I looked through examples of individual reflections located in the VLE.
- I looked over research pieces I had gathered the previous day and highlighted any parts I thought may be useful.
- I determined a rough structure for the report.
- I also wrote the element relating to using ICT.

Thoughts

I found this paper to be the most difficult to get focused on. Initially I found it difficult to make a start on. I also find this element of the module a bit daunting, since I have to construct it individually. At least with the group papers other team members contributed to various elements. For me this is defiantly the most difficult element of the module.

Task

- I carried out extensive research for individual reflections paper. I managed to gather a number of resources relating to teaching theories.

Thoughts

There seems to be a lot of resources available in terms of learning theories. Kolb seems be the main theorist within this area.

Meeting

All attended the meeting (AP, WD, MH, SW)

AP.WD and MH had all created their blogs and looked or commented on each others blogs. SW created the blog just before coming to the meeting. The names are all:

Alexanderpeck.blog.co.uk
wendydouglas.blog.co.uk
monicahunter.blog.co.uk
saramapd.blog.co.uk (who misunderstood the title of the box to be completed and is paranoid about privacy!!).

It was agreed that we would all put our reflections based on our journals written to-date but not necessarily in chronological order and would comment to each other.
There was discussion on creating the link to the blog from the website but not the other way round otherwise the public will have easy access to the mapd site.

There was discussion on the group reflection and it was agreed that 1.000 words needs to be deducted to comply with the limit. It was agreed to keep the abstract and Monica volunteered to cull as appropriate having now finished her
individual reflection piece of work. This was appreciated by all.

It was agreed to continue to work off our sites on our own PCs and to load by Monday. Alexander will then carry out checks of the website.

Alexander agreed to check with Rhys that he would assess from the website itself and the intention would be to release it for assessment after Monday night.

Sara thanked Alexander for the assistance on the split table and she will continue to look at how that was achieved and learn its function.

It was agreed that the individual reflections had to be 1,500 words and could be in varying individual styles. However, Monica would circulate her completed work as an example. This was appreciated.

The next meeting to wrap up was agreed for Monday 29th at 9pm.

Thoughts

Oops slightly overdid it with the reflections resulting in 1000 words having to be reduced. I will have to learn to concise. However I must again stress that the 500 word limit would have made my contribution more of an overview rather than detailed report. In relation to the individual report I feel this is the last big hurdle to complete in terms of this module.

Tasks

- I carried out further research for my element of the group reflection paper. I also spent several hours writing up the final topics for my contribution. I posted it up onto the discussion board to gain feedback from other members and also added it to the wiki.

Thoughts

Overall I am pleased to get another part of the module complete (draft stage). I am a bit concerned about the overall size of the piece (1300 words), although again I do feel that the word limit is too restrictive and does not allow members to cover topics in much detail. Hopefully after a bit of editing this piece will be reduced to the appropriate size. I am now feeling that we are nearing the completion of the module. We will need to ensure we do one big final push this week. Again reflecting on the team process, I couldn’t have wished for a more supportive, motivated and efficient group of team members.