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.