Greg Carrick – HND Interactive Media

The only way I can see how to start this week’s Online Learning Journal is by saying “Sorry Steve”. The unexpected events that happened to the class on Tuesday after lunch were brought on ourselves, as from the start of this course we have been told to use our sketchbooks to take notes on everything and not just from the lectures. I know exactly why Steve was so upset with us and even though I know the sketchbook is important, this event made me realise that we have to write down or take notes on everything we do, as it’s all been told to us because we need to know about it and we can’t remember everything we do. The other point to the sketchbook is that it gets marked and the only way we can prove that we have been taking sufficient notes and know the necessary things for the industry is through the sketchbook.

Praise has to be given to Shaun for stepping up and taking control of the unexpected event, I don’t think it would have gone well without you. “Thanks Shaun”.

The lecture on how to use Page Maker was very interesting, as I didn’t really know what the program was used for but after using the program and seeing the abilities it has, I’m amazed! There is so much more you can do on Page Maker than any publishing program I’ve used before and I’m really looking forwards to learning more about the program and what can really be done using it.

In the seminar groups Steve pointed out one thing that I and the group had forgotten and that was that the Online Learning Journal was part of the criteria. I’ve not posted many comments on colleagues Online Learning Journal’s and have to start doing so now, as receiving comments are very helpful and it’s only nice to help someone else whom is stuck, I know I like the help.

I know I’m doing this post a bit backwards but the lecture on Monday about the web glossary was very useful in finding out about some different types of terminology and their meanings. I learnt quite a lot from the lecture and especially about accessibility, which is very interesting, but confusing. I’m going to research more on accessibility and find out some more on Mr Jakob Nielsen.

Finding out about how to reference properly and all the information you need to quote to make it a valid reference has made me realise that I HAVE TO make a note about where I’ve got all my information from, even if I don’t use it. I also forgot that we have to reference from a written source as well as from the Internet, which I haven’t done, so it looks like I know what to do in self-study!

As week three has come along so fast and the college time for this week is over, I seem to be coming to a stop with my work and not getting as much done as I’d hoped to. Even though I’m not behind (or hope I’m not!) I still feel I didn’t do the amount of work I should have done at college. Especially after the amount of work I did in self-study at the week end, which I’m not saying I couldn’t have done more, but the fact is I feel my work has progressed a lot more over the week end than it has done over these two days at college. Saying that, now in self-study I can start my work moving again, as I’ve found out what to do in the areas I was stuck in and I suppose this means I didn’t waste as much time at college than I’d thought.

Now where into the third week I’m starting to get the hang of filling in the time sheets and finding them a very useful way of planning out my day’s work, but still I need to improve on the times I set myself to do the work in. The time sheets have pointed out one thing to me though, and that is that it takes a lot longer than I’d realised to research on the internet.

The first tutorial meeting I had with Steve, went very well and it helped me understand the work I was unsure about, this was because I had the chance to get some of Steve’s time to myself and ask all the questions I needed to, so I could get back on the right track and continue with the work.

With the test emails Steve sent out on Friday, I ended up wasting a nights worth of planned assignment work on trying to reply to his email. This is because I sent a test email to myself and the “From Tag” was not properly formatted. Even though I had previously changed it, it then took me most of the night to figure out why it hadn’t worked, but in the end I had to surrender and send the email as it was.

When Monday came and Steve said he was disappointed with the email reply’s he’d received, I was anxious at what he might say to me, but in the tutorial meeting we looked at the email and he said it was fine with the “From Tag” properly formatted, I was so relieved. This left me wondering how bad is AOL (America Online) really? Since I was sending it to my AOL email address.

The main problems I’m having at the moment are how to write out the delivery requirements; I know how to format it but actually writing it down bewilders me. Especially the technological side, as I’m still not sure about which scripting versions are needed. I’ve made a start on them and should hopefully have it done before next lesson, but whether it’s right or not is a different matter.

On Monday we were given our first assignment, I couldn’t wait to get started and was looking forwards to it over the weekend. But when we were handed our assignment and started talking through it, I was in doubt whether I would be able to do it, as I was unsure about what we were meant to do. After taking notes on nearly everything Steve and John said it started to sink in and I realised that I was just worrying about nothing and knew more or less what we were meant to do. But now I had something else to worry about, which was the amount of work we had to do for the assignment and never thought I would be able to write between one and a half thousand and two and a half thousand words.

For the assignment I choose J R R Tolkien (the author of The Lord of the Rings and my favourite The Hobbit). His name was one of the first I saw on the list and I choose him because I think he is a brilliant author and can remember when I was younger, my dad used to read The Hobbit to me, it was my favourite book as a kid! After researching on J R R Tolkien I found plenty of information on him from reliable sites, all of which had near enough the same info on him, making me sure it was correct.

When I started researching into the target audience I realised how little the set word rage was, this removed some of my worries and gave me a bit more confidence about the assignment. But I am still worried that I will not be able to get my work to the standards needed.

On Tuesday we were given the SketchBlog assignment and this made me worry slightly once I was told my handwriting had to be readable throughout the sketchbook, as I have very poor writing (sometimes even I can just read it) and now I need to try and improve it, which might take a while.

When we got on with researching for the assignment I was pleased with the amount of information I wrote about target audience and just needed to think of another project goal, which I am finding hard to do.

When Steve told us we had to fill in our production schedule and weekly time sheets, I was really annoyed with myself because at the start of the day I printed out both the sheets and put them in my sketchbook to fill in, but when we started the research I completely forgot to fill it in!

I’m happy with the seminar group I’ve been put in, even though I didn’t mind who I was placed with. I found the seminar meeting very useful, getting more of a one-on-one with Steve and seeing the second year’s sketchbooks, which were very impressive. I think it’s also great having only a few students in the seminar group because you can hear their thoughts and ideas as well.

The hardest part of today was writing this online learning journal (Blog!) entry as I’ve never been any good at expressing my thoughts and feeling about events, and it took me a while to think of what to write. I hope I’ll get better at expressing myself, after I’ve wrote a few more entries.

I started my education at St. John’s primary school back in 1993, where they didn’t have any computers in the school until nearing the end of my time there. At that school I used my first computer which happened to be an Apple Mac!

I then attended Outwood Grange high school (which turned into Outwood Grange Technology College in my final two years). For my options there I took GNVQ Leisure and Tourism, short course IT and history, it was whilst studying the short course IT that if found out how much I enjoyed using and working with computers. That is why I went onto study a GCE in applied ICT at Wakefield College to further my knowledge in the subject.

As of now I am not fully sure of the perfect career I would like to be in. All I know is that I would like it to be in the creative industry and I really enjoy designing and making websites, so that is the career I’m considering going into at the moment.

After this course I do not have to go straight into employment, as I have an alternative option, which is to do a top up year and get more experience and knowledge in the industry before I go into employment. This would also give me more time to find out my preferred area of the creative industry.

At this point in time my aim is to find the perfect career for me, using the HND course to gain experience in the different sections of the industry enabling help me find which I prefer most.

I believe that the HND interactive media course is an important course for me to undertake and complete, so I can gain more knowledge about using software, meeting with and finding out about client needs and what it takes to design and create a successful website. The course will also give me experience working in the industry, gain effective team working skills and build up a portfolio that will help me get a job afterwards.

To complete the HND course and get a good job after, I have to always work hardest and to my highest standard, and never settle for work that I don’t think is at the standard it should be. I can never let the work get on top of me and need to ask for help as soon as I feel it is, otherwise I will fall behind and that could jeopardise my chances of completing the course.

The most important is to never leave work till the last minute, since it will be rushed to get it completed on time and therefore not to high standards, this will also risk the work not been completed by the deadline, which is not acceptable in this industry.

Every thing I do now has an effect on where I could be in the future, so I have to take every opportunity I can get and always try my hardest to give myself the best possible outcome on life.