Semester Reflections

Over the semester there has been an enormous amount of work that needed to, and has been, completed. Looking back upon those events I can say, in all honesty, that I am truly proud of what I have accomplished. This semester I have found a new confidence in my ability to present, network with others and work in project teams. During the semester I have also been able to acquire a new job which will allow me to attend grad school after the upcoming spring semester. In essence I am happy to have been able to reach out this semester through my blog and hope anyone who read it enjoyed it thoroughly, thanks.

Twitter and My Personal Feelings

In all honesty when I first created a Twitter account for school I was extremely apprehensive. My apprehension did not come from a lack of comfort in regard to being on Twitter but rather a lack of respect for it. When Twitter first went live a few years ago I immediately dismissed it as a foolish toy to entertain bored students in class. However as time went on and I began to explore Twitter I realized it has some extremely beneficial functions. The one that I would like to bring to everyone's attention is obviously information/news. When I say "information/news" I am referring to the ability to follow companies/individuals that you are interested in. Once you chose to follow something you get automatically update, if you chose, on things that they post. In my opinion this fact alone makes it a valuable tool and has definitely changed my opinion of the site as a whole.

Tips on Presenting

I have been doing a ton of presentations lately and given that fact I thought it would be nice to list a few tips I find helpful when presenting.

1: Stay calm

2: Finish your project ahead of time

3: Practice your presentation

4: Play off other group members

5: Look at key points and then fill in the gaps with your own thoughts

6: Don't put your hands in your pockets

7: Walk around the room

PortableApps "What is it?"

This is going to be a very short blog about a project which I completed this semester on PortableApps. To give a brief description PortableApps is a software which can be installed onto a flash drive which allows you to install and run applications directly from your flash drive. If you are interested in PortableApps I will include the link to their site bellow.
Link: PortableApps

Moodle vs. Blackboard

This semester I have been working extensively with Moodle on the construction of a 10 hour course module. During this time there has been a lot of debate over which is a more effective LMS. Consequently I have decided to outline several advantages and disadvantages for each system in an attempt to quell some of these issues.

Moodle Advantages:

1.       Free

2.       Small learning curve

3.       Open source

Moodle Disadvantages:

1.       Security vulnerabilities

2.       Limited scalability

3.       Interface needs work

Blackboard advantages:

1.       Easy to navigate

2.       Secure

3.       Very scalable

Blackboard disadvantages:

1.       Expensive

2.       Difficult to learn

3.       Hard to customize (not open source)

Key Points of End User Development

·         Key Points:

o   Framework Includes:

§  Conceptual Model “That specifies the elements that define the domain of organizational collaborative systems” (Antonaya, Bravo , and Gallardo pg. 1). This includes:

·         The “Structure metamodel”

·         The “Activity metamodel”

·         The “Instrumentation metamodel”

§  Generic Component Model which allows the satisfaction of three main issues that arise in OCS. This includes:

·          “Provide a connection between the modeling process of collaborative environments with the subsequent implementation process” (Antonaya, Bravo , and Gallardo pg. 1).

·         “Provide a mechanism for specifying the requirements of interactivity and collaboration characteristic of groupware” (Antonaya, Bravo , and Gallardo pg. 1).

·         “Encourage the incorporation of features of adaptability and reusability to end systems” (Antonaya, Bravo , and Gallardo pg. 1).

o   Technology Architecture:

§  The “Service model”

§  The “Execution model”

§  The “Communication model”

Antonaya, Sergio, Crescencio Bravo , and Jesús Gallardo.

"EDUCATIONAL PROG (TIN2011-29542-C02-

02)." EDUCATIONAL PROG (TIN2011-29542-

C02-02). n. page. Print.

End User Development Article Review

The article I have chosen to review is “A Framework for the Development of Organizational Collaborative Systems”. This article is mainly focused on the basic outlining of a framework which includes a conceptual and generic model focusing on end user development for organizational collaborative systems (OCS). This article further delves into a technological architecture section which outlines three additional models. The conceptual model includes three sub models, the first of which is structure. The structure sub model briefly outlines how to set up the static portion of the end user environment. The second sub model is Activity which discusses the construction of the dynamic portion of the user environment. The final sub model of the conceptual model is instrumentation which reviews several tools used in OCS. The generic model was the second to be discussed in the article which addresses three main issues associated with the end user development of OCS. The final section in the article was the technological architecture section which outlines three additional sub models. These models include the service, execution and communication models all with the intended purpose of implementing the architecture described in the earlier sections of the document. Antonaya, Sergio, Crescencio Bravo , and Jesús Gallardo. "EDUCATIONAL PROG (TIN2011-29542-C02- 02)." EDUCATIONAL PROG (TIN2011-29542- C02-02). n. page. Print.