Posts

Maintaining Motivation [Module 7]

Students,

I have learned a lot throughout this course that I have shared with you, but this module I found to be the most beneficial to me. It was a great module to end things off on and really addressed some final things I needed advice on. I found slides 22-24 to be very helpful to me. In slide 23, there is a link to apps that can help with anxiety and sleep issues. I found this to help so much and the assignment that we did really made an impact on my life. I would reference this link, especially when taking finals if you need an escape from the stress that is thrown on us during this time of year. This can be used for other things other than school though. The app Calm can be used every night if you wanted to in order to help you fall asleep. This worked for me and I think it is worth trying for anyone who needs to reduce anxiety and stress.

Slide 22 also provides some excellent for trying to manage your emotional health and try to preserve happiness. I found this tips to be just as useful in their own way. At the end of the day, everyone works differently and one thing that works for you might not work for someone else. Regardless, I think this week’s module provides a lot of great information and strategies to at least try out. It may be the first one you try, or the 5th, but I am sure everyone can find something that resonates with them in this module. I really liked how this module was placed right at the end of the course/semester so that it could feel more personal to us students. Like slide 22 says, each semester will get better and you will be more comfortable and I have found that to be true for myself.

 

This is Ben Signing off!

 

Happy Holidays!

Searching and Researching [Module 6]

Dear Students,

This week we learned how to tell if a source is credible. This is very important considering your paper/research is only as good as your sources are. If the information is incorrect, the entire integrity of your paper can fall. This is why finding good sources off of the bat is key. In addition, good sources can provide much more useful information. In turn, these articles can help you meet your page requirement, especially if the information is interesting for you to write about and interesting to readers. Slide 14-16 in our module have great tips on how to determine the reliability, quality, and usefulness of an article. The tip on Slide 17 in module 6 about wikipedia is useful as well. Some people do not realize that just about anyone can edit the information on the site. Though it can normally be accurate, it is not safe to put your trust in only this source. There is one personal tip I think you should know as well. When searching for specific things or looking for articles, there is a tip to help you find what you are looking for a bit faster. When searching you can put quotations around specific phrases or words in order to find only exact matches of what you include. For instance I could put “AI Pros vs. Cons” in my search bar and it would show exact matches. This can be dangerous because it can leave out some good sites if its not an exact match, but it has its benefits in removing clutter from searches. This can be used in more clever ways where only part of the search revolves around exact matches. Here is an article that explains this further!

 

I hope this helps make researching a bit more efficient!

Ben

Web-Enhanced Listening and Viewing Strategies [Module 5]

Dear Students,

Something big that I wanted to highlight this week was regarding organization of notes. It can be very hard sometimes to keep all of your information in one place or in groups. I have this problem all of the time, especially when professors talk to fast and I try to keep up. I find it best to download notes before class (in available) and to be prepared before they start talking. In addition, using the iPads the school provided us is also very beneficial. You can type and draw at the same time and if you do this efficiently it can be very seamless. On slide 16 of this week’s modules, it discusses using notability or Evernote to organize notes. I personally use Notability and find it to be incredibly effective. I can organize everything into folders regarding classes and my notes sync between my phone, iPad, and laptop. This is really great for keeping everything as accessible as possible to me. I never lose my notes and they are always a finger touch away, even on my phone if I need to review some information on the fly. Also, slide 16 also mentions that you can record audio clips and insert pictures. This is also great because you can record information you need or take a picture of a complex graph/illustration. This is super helpful because you can draw on the picture in order to label things you need. Overall, electronic note taking is the most efficient way for me to keep my notes in check and I hope it works for you too if you give it a go. Check out some of the note utilities here!

 

Notability Link

Evernote Link

 

Have a great day,

Ben

 

Web-Enhanced Reading and Study Strategies [Module 4]

Students,

I believe this week’s modules may not be as crucial as the ones we have done in the past, but it is still very important. The ability to create timelines and infographics can be incredibly useful for projects that need a visual aid. This can be very important for that extra boost when dealing with large amounts of data or using information that seems dry. The website: TimeToast was an incredible resource for doing this with date-based information. Also, the video module included on how to use the site was very useful. Since the video’s creation, they have updated the site to be more convenient and have a much more modern look to it. I got to lay out the history of apple device releases in a way that I had not seen before. It truly showed the rapid growth of products in the 2000’s that made the company as large as it is today.  Slide 24 on the Module 4 lesson provides some very useful links to websites that are worth giving a shot. Included in this slide is the TimeToast site that I discussed earlier but there are some other websites that provide interesting ways to organize information into enticing infographics that can draw the eye of a viewer. Sometimes this can be the difference between a presentation being effective or not.

 

Hope to give you some more Tips soon!,

Ben

Efficiency in the Digital Age [Module 3] to Students

Dear Students,

I found the module we did this week to be very helpful for organization for college students. In addition, it would be very helpful to know this information for the future and planning out one’s life. To start off, the combination of an organized calendar and a To-Do list can be extremely helpful. Setting notifications for these alerts can help you keep on top of things. There is something satisfying about being able to check something off after you complete it so that is always a plus. I think the notifications can be very helpful too because of how much we as students have to do on a daily basis. It gives me notifications for my class times and also organizes my assignments for me because my google calendar is linked to my Carmen calendar. This is a great thing to do because it always stays up to date with your class schedule and the changing assignments that your professors will upload to Canvas. This is a huge time saver. My advice would be to take the small amount of time to set up all of these processes. This will pay off in the long run with the large amounts of time being saved. With the automation of notifications and assignment syncing, your life can be a lot more simple and organized!

 

Hope this helps!

Ben

Communicating and Collaborating (Module 2) [Student Audience]

Dear Students,

This week we learned all about communicating and working with others. The slides, specifically slide 12, talked about how important it was to be good at discussion posts because they will apply to the rest of our lives when we get into the real world. I think this is a very valid point, especially for group projects when collaboration is absolutely necessary. After learning this, I found that I took my discussion posts even for my writing to class a bit more serious. One of the most valuable things when trying to get a job is being able to communicate information in an effective and efficient way. This makes a worker even more valuable than just having a specific set of skills. For instance, a computer engineer that can communicate with someone on the business end while being able to do the technical work would be very successful. The advice I would give to students would be to try to get as much practice in as possible when a mistake will not hurt you. Right now, as students, we can make mistakes and they can be overlooked. It is a better time than ever in our lives to put ourselves out there and to try to get experience working with others and sharing our opinions. Doing this will hopefully make it more natural and less awkward in professional situations down the line.

 

Until next time,

Ben