Week 7 - SWOT analysis

Strengths: My strengths are definitely in the areas of computers. I signed up for the course to improve my skills in this area as they are not perfect. These are my hobbies and what I enjoy doing.

Weakness: My presentation skills are definitely my weakness but there will improve over time and with practice. I very rarely have to do presentations but HE development will help me in this area.

Opportunities: The opportunities provided, as stated in the weaknesses, is a chance to improve my presentation skills in HE development. I will make a conscious effort to get involved within more presentations at work, as opposed to letting my team do them.

Threats: Threats to my University life are all work and time based: will work let me have enough time off; and is there enough time to do all of the work?

Week 6 – Mentor

I had my mentoring today with Miss Lucy Mawson – she’s a teacher you see. I had great fun explaining what I hope to achieve and why and where I hope to go with the course. I can’t wait until next year to get onto the Web Development side of the course and really show what I can do. On reflection I don’t believe I need a mentor but we did both decided that I am required to use and plan my time better.

Week 5 – Tutor

This week I met my tutor and got on fabulously – he really fills you with confidence and helped me with my plans for my future at University. You know what, I’m not going to tell you who he is though…let you all guess. Definitely enjoyed the process and feel much more confident that next year will be more relevant to my course. Oh ok… it’s Tom Smith.

Week 4 – My literature review

There are many different media forms relating to video game violence including: books; journals; television programs; and video games themselves. Whilst there is copious research in this field my literature analysis and base for my essay actually began in the parallel field of violence within television studies. Casey, et al., (2002, pp.252) believed that there is a concern between ‘new’ media controlled violence and its effect on its audience. I then returned to video game based literature to find that Kendall (2009) in his article Modern Warfare 2 - the 'shocking' video game poised to smash records provided an interesting and opinionated look at a particular video game. I was also required to pay particular attention to the video games themselves as this would create a reference point for my audience, in order for me to question them and collect quantitative data to be analyzed. I had to find two video games that showed extreme levels of violence, one within an easy to relate to, realistic scenario and the other not so. After trying various different games I decided that Super Mario Bros (1987) was a difficult scenario to relate to, was also unrealistic, but contained extreme levels of violence, in one example Mario jumps on top of an enemy to kill him, leaving his carcass on the floor. Mario then picks up the dead body and hurls it into more of his enemies, thus killing them – all depicted through what many reviews state, Squidoo (2009) being one of them, as fun graphics. The second game I chose was Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) with features described by ABC News (2008) as ‘…killing cop after cop to mowing down a crowd of people in a stolen police car.’ Considered by most, if not all, to be socially unacceptable. Whilst carrying out my literature review I have noticed that there appears to be a trend towards the media focusing on realistic violent video games as their target, I believe that with the media’s influence over the masses that this may be apparent in the findings from my questionnaire. I believe that the violence within the ‘cute’ and ‘pretty’ game, Super Mario Bros (1987), will be considered by the masses to be acceptable.

Week 2 – The Vark Questionnaire

This week I tried my hand at a Vark Questionnaire. According to the results I learn through reading and writing better than anything else… I guess it works!!!! Looks like I don’t need to go to lectures then this week after all (just kidding Jo!). Here are my results:

number of Vs (good visual learning) = 3

number of As (good aural learning) = 0

number of Rs (good read/write learning) = 6

number of Ks (good kinesthetic learning) = 4

Week 1.5 – My learning log

My first task was to produce a learning log of my life – showing where I have been, what I have learnt and what experiences I have gained. I approached this task in an abstract way and wondered if I could produce something fun and humorous that still fell within the task guidelines.

On reflection of the task I felt, possibly incorrectly, that this task was designed for first year students with no university experience. As a mature student that has already experienced a university education I felt that my time would have been better served working on a task more relevant to the course I had selected (web development). It was this feeling that led me to approach the task in the abstract way that I have, hopefully entertaining the reader along the way. Personally I do not feel that this task worked for me but I understand the necessity for it within the class and feel that a huge percentage of the class would have gained whilst only a small amount would have found it unbeneficial.

Learning and Skills Development for higher education and work: Week 1

The time has come where, as a mature student working close to 50 hours a week in my non-university life, I embark on the ego-driven journey of achieving a first class degree in Web Development. I remember signing up to the course and thinking to myself that this would be the most profitable route in terms of my career and would also serve my part-time work as a web-developer well; little did I realise that the first semester would contain very little towards web-development and would instead focus on improving my skills for work, something I’m sure my employer would not begrudge but something I found a little degrading. How wrong I was.

The first workshop began with a look into blogs, a form of online diary. This introduction into an unknown amazing world led me on a startling journey through the “blogospehere” taking me towards followers of subjects as diverse as monkey farming and self-mutilation, whilst other “bloggers” commented and shared a mutual love for literary heroes such as Oscar Wilde and artists such as Roy Lichtenstein. The deeper I delved the more shocked and joyous, in equal measure, I became.

What started as a perceived pointless and futile meander through improving my work skills actually became a fabulous and exciting adventure through some of our greatest heroes’ works. I have traveled the globe, I have walked in another’s shoes, I have known what it is like to survive the greatest tragedies and live for a thousand years, and all whilst sitting at my computer. Bring on the next workshop.