10. Second Major Review

My first target which I gave to myself was to improve my familiarity with Microsoft Visual Basic Studios 2010. I have improved my familiarity with visual basic as we have now done an assignment based on work we have done using visual basic. At first submission I achieved a pass and feel as if I have improved from when we first started using it as I have managed to gain a pass. I will improve my assignment for second submission and hope to gain the merit and improve my work for this unit.

The second target I gave myself was to widen my vocabulary. From the last major review I believe that I have managed to widen my vocabulary significantly. I have managed to achieve this my proof reading my work before uploading so I have not only checked for spelling mistakes but also any grammar errors and seen where I could improve and change words to make the sentence more understandable. Also I have been also reading on a regular basis and this has helped improve my vocabulary where I find out a range of new words and ways I can use them in a sentence.

The third target in my PLP was to gain more experience when working with Photoshop. From my last major review I believe I have gained much more experience when working with Photoshop and my ability to use all the tools in the editing software have increased greatly. I can now use Photoshop independently without any help from the teacher and is confident when doing so. For example I can now remove the background and change the colour of an image, this is a screenshot of an image I edited for my assignment in unit 30 graphics where I used Photoshop.

The fourth target for myself was to improve my time management skills. From the last review I did, I have continued to improve my time management skills as I have been able to keep up with all my work from different assignments that have been given at the same time.  I have continued to do different assignments in college and at home and keep myself up to date with all the work that I have been given from my teachers.

The fifth target that I gave to myself was to improve my ability to meet deadlines. I have stayed consistent with myself from the last major review as I have continued to meet all of the deadlines from my assignments, I have not yet missed a deadline for any of my units and have uploaded all of the assignments on time.

From the new target I set myself last time I think I have improved on this. My last target was to focus more on my work during class and not get distracted by others. In class I have managed to bring in a music player and now listen to music in class so I can focus more on my work and overall get more work done in lesson without having to complete it at home.

One new target that I am going to set myself is to improve my punctuality. To try and meet this new target of mine I am going to try and wake up earlier or get an earlier bus to college as on a few occasions it has made me late to college and have missed out on work.

9. Time Management

This week in lesson I gained more experience when working with editing software. I learnt how to use Adobe Illustrator and learnt how to create an image and then use extrude and bevel tool to change the shape of the image and make it look 3D and can be moved and the 3D image changes as you move it. This is a screenshot of the 3D character that I made in Illustrator and made it into a 3D character.

Also this week in lesson we did an assessment during class where we had to take pictures of taking part a computer and also installing anti-virus software and operating systems onto the computer. This helped improve my time management skills where I did multiple tasks at once, e.g. get photos of me installing things on the computer and we had to do it within a certain time limit. 

8. First Major Review

My first target on my PLP was to develop my familiarity with Microsoft Visual Basic Studios 2010. I feel like I am on my way to meet my target and have improved vastly my familiarity with the program Visual Basic. This is due to in unit 6 we focus on programming and event driven programming, and in this we are constantly using the program Microsoft Visual Basic to create our own program. We have also had to use Visual Basic when completing our assignment for that and another unit and this has contributed towards me being able to learn how to use Visual basic confidently without any help from teachers or peers.

The second target that I have put on my PLP was to widen my vocabulary. When trying to complete this target I feel as if I have improved greatly. This being where as I have started to read a lot more books and focus more on the words that I am writing in my class work and assignments. When writing my assignments I know take more time in proof reading my work to make sure there are no spelling mistakes and I go through the assignment to see if I could improve my grammar anywhere to get me the higher grade.

The third target that I gave myself when on this was to gain more experience with Photoshop. I feel as if I have gained a lot more experience when working with Photoshop since starting the course. In one unit Digital Graphics we are completing our assignment with the help of screen shots from Photoshop showing work we have done in class. Now I feel more comfortable when working with Photoshop and can now easily work with Photoshop when creating graphics as the class lessons have taught me how to use it and using Photoshop in my own time has helped me remember how to use it. This is a screenshot of one the images that I have learnt how to edit using the red-eye tool. 

The fourth target of mine that I gave myself at the start of the year was to improve my time management skills. I feel as if I have learnt how to manage my time better as we have been given multiple assignments at the same time which require lots of different tasks to do. This required me to learn how to start assignments when I was given them and do different tasks at once. I have improved where I have been able to complete all of the assignment tasks given to me and improved where I manage my time better so I can finish tasks.

The fifth target of mine was to improve was ability to meet deadlines. I feel that I have improved on this as I have been able to meet all of my deadlines for my assignments, I have not missed any deadlines for my assignments and have uploaded them all on time.

One new target I set myself to was to focus on my work during class. One strategy that can help me to achieve my new target is to bring in a music player or my phone during class. This way I can listen to my music when doing my work, this will keep me focused on my work and not get distracted and I will be able to complete more in class and work harder. 

7. Continuing to use Visual basic

This week I have completely finished reading a book which I started reading early this month mentioned in a previous blog post. Through this book I have learnt more new words that can help with my target of improving my vocabulary. When at home I have started using the free version of Visual basic I downloaded last week. I have started to do tasks that we did in class at home by myself so I can improve how good I am at using Visual basic independently. Both of these events have helped me improve my way to achieving my targets.

6. Visual basic and Photoshop

This week to help improve my familiarity with Visual Basic I downloaded a free version of this software onto my laptop at home through the Microsoft website. With this version of Visual basic I have downloaded it is easier for me to complete class tasks at home when I haven’t finished them in class. Also I am using this version to help with my familiarity of the software by trying to create things such as text boxes and messages boxes without any guidance from a teacher so I can improve my knowledge of this program. Also during breaks at college I am starting to use Photoshop at my own accord, with this I am working towards another one of my targets by gaining experience with Photoshop and learning how to use all of its tools effectively by myself. 

5. How I have continued to keep myself focused

This week when carrying out tasks during class I have been determined to keep up with my strategy to keep myself focused during class. I have done this by during class when we are working individually I brought in a music player and listened to my music during the class so I can keep myself focused, this helps with my motivation as well as I am able to fully focus on my work and not be distracted by other things. This meant that my work ethic during class was strong as I kept my self-motivated to get my work complete. Also when completing class work at home for an assignment when I am working on it I have quiet music on so that I do not get bored and the music keeps me on track and focused on work so that I can get the task finished for when I need it during class or for the assignment. 

4. How to keep myself focused

Today we did a short set of questions about how well we think we are doing in our class, for example how well can we concentrate, how well can we meet set tasks and how good we are at meeting deadlines. We also wrote about what we think we can improve on to how we can motivate ourselves.

We also distinguished what strategies we need to go to be able to motivate ourselves when doing our class work and keep focused. One strategy that I will do to keep my self-focused when doing normal tasks would be to listen to music or a podcast, this can help me stay focused when doing these tasks as I will not be distracted by anything in the classroom or anyone else in the classroom. Another strategy that I will use would be to get rid of irrelevant things that will keep me distracted from my task. With this I will not have anything that is irrelevant to the task at hand out and that keep me distracted like having the internet open when it is not needed. 

3. Visual Basic and Reading

This week I have learned the basics of visual studios, during this time we learnt how to add text/message boxes, put numbers and words into boxes and also how to add background images into our piece.  

This week I also finished reading a book which I recently started reading by my favourite author R.D Wingfield. The book I finished was called a Winter Frost. This has helped me with improving one of my soft skills improvements where I wished to improve my vocabulary, this helped by giving me a range of new words with a new perspective from a more specialized point of view.

I have also started reading another book called the Pacific by Hugh Ambrose and I wish to finish this within the next month or two and from this to help further improve my vocabulary. 

2. What I Learned About My self Today

What I Have Learned About My Self

Today In class we filled out an online questionnaire which tells us what kind of learner that I am. We also did a test to find out which way of receiving which we like the most. Today I found out that I am activist leaner. I am a very enthusiastic learner and am very motivated when learning. I am always looking for new experiences as I enjoy them and I am very optimistic about new change. Through this it means I am very open-minded and flexible and am very unlikely to resist change which a happy to “have a go” attitude to life. However as an activist learner I have also learned about some of my weaknesses, even though I like new situations I may tend to take unnecessary risks and may go into work without sufficient preparation.

Also today I have learned that I am a visual leaner. I enjoy learning using visual images, such as pictures, diagrams and maps. I often take notes during class and keep a hold of hand outs given out in class. I often use computers and also use the computers to study in a quiet place and visualise information as pictures.

1. Skills I Need To Develop For My Chosen Job

This post desrcibes all of the technical skills at which I need to be able to do my chosen job, it also includes skills I already have and skills at which I need to develop.

Computer Games Development

Job: Flash Games Developer

Technical Skills I have:

·         OCR GCSE IT – Merit.

·         Able to fully operate a computer.

·         Experience with Photoshop and Corel editing studios.

Technical Skills I need to develop:

Must be expert level in Actionscript 3.0, including knowledge of the following: advanced bitmap data manipulation, remote asset loading and pre-loading, Javascript communication, realistic 2d physics, efficient collision detection and processor efficient practices (understanding what does and doesn’t consume memory and CPU)
• Extensive experience working with Adobe Flash
• Must have the ability to efficiently manage a huge amount of flash objects at once
• Track record for developing innovative approaches to solve challenges associated with designing robust memory-efficient systems
• Must have an absolute disdain for sloppy / inefficient code
• Must understand how to develop quality user interface

Soft Skills I already have:

·         I have a very strong work ethic, I am dedicated and motivated to get my work done.

·         I am good at problem solving, I can identify a problem then work to try and fix it.

·         I am an optimistic person, I have a positive attitude towards my work.

Soft Skills I need to develop:

·         I already work well under pressure and in the case of meeting deadlines I have already improved on meeting my deadlines, but there is still some room for improvement when involving deadlines.

·         I need to be able to prioritize my tasks and be able to work on different tasks at the same time.

·           Try to improve vocabulary so I can increase my creativity and how to express it

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS\SOFT SKILLS
					True	False
1	If someone annoys me, I can tell them about it without causing offence				X
2	If someone is talking, I often interrupt them to give my opinion					X
3	I get really stressed if I am under pressure					X
4	I can sometimes become very emotional and upset on other people’s behalf					X
5	I sometimes worry that I can’t cope and may make a mess of something				X
6	I am usually keen, enthusiastic and motivated to do well				X
7	I enjoy planning and organising my work				X
8	I find it easy to work and co-operate with other people and take account of their opinions				X
9	I am easily influenced by other people					X
10	I often jump to conclusions and judge people and situations on first impressions					X
11	I prefer to rely on facts and experience rather than following instincts				X
Score yourself out of 5 for each area below where 0 is awful and 5 is excellent. Ask a friend or relative to score you as well. See if you can explain any differences.
		Scoring yourself	Other person’s score for you	Comments\Explanation for differences
Being punctual		4	4
Organisational ability		4	4
Tidiness		4	3	The expectation of tidiness and idea of tidiness are higher in my parent’s opinion when compared to my own.
Working accurately		4	4
Finding and correcting your own mistakes		4	4
Solving problems		4	4
Accepting responsibility		4	4
Working with details		4	4
Planning how to do a job		4	4
Using own initiative		5	4	Mostly used own initiate in class parents didn’t see much of this at home.
Thinking up new ideas		4	3	Thought up new ideas in class e.g. media and my parents did not get a clear perception of this.
Meeting deadlines		3	4	I have missed some deadlines but have improved in meeting deadlines and is now more on time with my deadlines.

Personal Development Plan

What skills\knowledge do I need to develop?	Priority (high, medium, low)	What activities do I need to undertake to develop my skills\knowledge?	What support/resources do I need?	Target date for achieving my objectives
Develop my familiarity with visual basic	Medium	Learn how to use visual basic	Visual basic and a tutorial on how to use it	2013
Widen my vocabulary	High	Try to widen my vocabulary so I can improve my writing skills. To improve this I must try and use a thesaurus to improve my vocabulary and also to continue reading more books so I give myself a wider variety of words.	Books	2013
Develop my familiarity with Adobe Illustrator	Medium	Learn how to use Illustrator	Illustrator software and perhaps a tutorial or guide on how to use it.	2013
Gain years of experience with Illustrator	High	Work with Illustrator for a few years	Illustrator	2015
Gain more experience with Photoshop	Low	Use Photoshop more to gain experience. To do this I must learn the basics of Photoshop from someone who has experience and continue to learn more complicated features.	Photoshop	2013
Time management	Medium	Learn how to manage my time better and work on multiple tasks at once		2014
Meeting Deadlines	Medium	Manage my time so I can meet my deadlines. Try to finish work when I get it so I don’t get overwhelmed with work and then rush it.		2013