Final Reflection

Wow, another semester gone. The time has really flew by in this class. I think all of us as students have taken away different things from this class. Whether its was the Excel project, or a web portfolio, we all learned a lot. For me personally, I learned a lot from digital apps. One of the most helpful things I think we learned was the creation of a web portfolio. Before Digital Apps I didn’t even know how to make a website. Now I have a very well written Web Portfolio, that I’m very proud of. This is helpful for things such as internships, and jobs. I would definitely think that this will always be in the material for Digital Apps. Another thing I liked was the movie maker; I never knew how to do it until the class showed me. I feel like its important to be able to be able to make YouTube videos in case you ever want to show them in a presentation or something. The only project I wasn’t a big fan on was the Excel Project. I felt like it was very hard, and everyone I talked to, had no clue how to do it. It was just plain confusing, and I hope it gets either revised or taken out of the future material. In order to revise it, I think an extra class should be given. It was definitely the toughest assignment. Overall I liked the class, and I feel it is definitely important for future Nichols Students.

I submitted my final reflection to moddle since it is a power point presentation.

My Final Reflection

So it is the end of the semester and the end of my freshmen year here at Nichols College. That being said, I want to share a few things I have learned in Digital Apps. The first and foremost thing that I've learned in Digital Apps was how to map a blog. My blogs, including the one you are reading right now, was all made possible by Googles blogger.com. With it, I have wrote about a variety of topics. These topics included my favorite things, my hometown, how to pump your own gas, and much more. Because of blogger, I was able to share all different kinds of information about myself. Not only that but I was also able to learn about other people in the class by reading and commenting on their blogs. In Digital Apps, I also perfected my skills with Microsoft Powerpoint. By taking part in the Decade project, I was able to put together different pictures, audio files, video clips, and animations. This made my groups presentation of the 90's more professional and also more informative. Because of my new skills with Powerpoint, I am now able to give better projects and presentations. But to me, the biggest thing I learned to do in class was how to make a video project and how to upload it to YouTube. I have had a YouTube account for about six years now, and I have never uploaded a video before, The fact that the first video I uploaded was a project that I produced, directed, and edited, full of music and pictures, made it all that more important. Without this project, I might still be living under a rock in regards to YouTube uploading. Now if I have anything I want to share with the world, I have all the necessary information to finally make my own video. Or at the very least upload someone else's. Their are plenty of other things that we have gone over in class. These include Excel worksheets, polls, and more. But overall, I gained a better understanding of how technology works. Sure, their were things that I already knew. But with these programs, I perfected and advanced what I already knew about them. As I get older, technology is only going to become more advanced. The best I can do is keep up, and by doing so help those that don't know what they are doing. Im proud of the work I did in class, and hope Ill retain what I learned.

What have you gained from this class? (and how)

In this course i have gained a lot of knowledge in important computer programs, in programs as a Blogger, Excel, Power Point, Publisher and Word. Inclusive this course challenged me to explore more areas in my computer as an iMovie to create my storytelling project. I also gained a lot of knowledge to make a project looks like formal and professional. In Microsoft office programs was the part were i consider that i learned more tools, for example in the Excel’s project i l learned a lot of functions that i can not even imagined that exist in this program functions as a pivot table, the math functions (media, mean, etc.)

 One important part where I gained a lot of knowledge was when we worked as a group, it was when I earned most of the knowledge that I have already in power point. Other project where I learned a lot was in the storytelling, at the end of the day I was able to edit videos and add special effects like songs, pictures and animations. About excel I used to take classes about this program in high school, but the never teach me important things like the things that I learned in this course. But in the project where I put in practice most of the knowledge learned in this course, was in the last project in the portfolio, in every single slide this project challenged me to put in practice what I really learned in this course, but no only that, I also learned more tools in this project, like the hyperlink and the Jing, to be honest I always was curious before to how I can record things that I am doing in my computer, but thank to last project I already know that exist a programs that give me the chance to record what I want per five minutes.

The strategies learned in this course are very important; in every single class I learned something to make my projects and presentation looks very professional in the future. What I said before is just parts of the big amount of knowledge that I acquired in your classes.
 Thank you Professor for all your help and effort dealing with my English and me, your class was really interested and helpful for the future.  

how to add a link in blogger

how to download a music from yotube

Final Reflection

Digital Applications reflection Paper

Lucas Andre Bogdanski

            In my opinion, Digital Applications was a very important and helpful class for an incoming freshman in college to take. I taught me the importance of time management and persevering through problems as they arise. Anyone who knows me knows that I am terrible when it comes to computers and working with technology. All in all, I think my digital applications gave me more exposure to various technologies and how they are used for education, and eventually in the workplace. In my digital applications class we covered a variety of different topics such as Such as Microsoft office, PowerPoint, and making brochures. I think the two things that I struggled the most with in these class however was the assignment using my movie, and the assignment in which we had to create a spread sheet through excel.

            One thing that I really struggled with in this course was making my My Movie clip about my high school football career. One reason that this assignment was so difficult for me was that the computer software did not download to my PC properly. Another thing that I struggled with in this project was collecting all of my materials that I wanted to include in my My Movie. First I had to get all of the pictures that I could find from my high school football days and I had to put them all in one folder. Next I had to find a friend to interview me about my high school football days and we had to keep starting over because one of us would eventually mess up. After this, I had to copy a song from my iTunes playlist and I had to put it in the same folder as the rest of my football pictures. By this time I had done everything that I could do and I had to schedule three arc appointments to give me time to make sure my video was completely finished and look like a final product. Unfortunately, many of the tutors in the arc were just as unsure as I was when it comes to putting the movie together and it took a very long time to complete. I took a lot away from this assignment because when I was finally finished it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. This really taught me the importance of time management as well, if I had waited until the last night to start this project there was no way I ever would have finished and my grade would have suffered. I am now comfortable working with My Movie, and I think if I am ever asked to create a video clip using this software, I think I will be successful and will be able to produce a high quality clip in a short amount of time.

            Another assignment that taught me allot throughout it competition was when we were asked to take a survey and record out results through a spreadsheet using Excel. I did my project on the best NBA players at their position. The easy part of this assignment was setting up sheet one. This is when you set up your data and number one through fifty going down vertically from the top of the chart. Entering the data was the easy part. Next I had to calculate Mean, Median, and mode of the columns for each question. After this I had to create a table for each question explaining the key and the results. It also showed the percentage of each answer to each question. Over all. Now this might sound easy to the person reading this, but to a person who is mentally handicapped with computers like I am, it was nearly impossible. I had to go to the arc two times for this assignment and they helped me use the excel software to calculate my results, set up my data tables, and create my graphs. This assignment also taught me the importance of time management. I have digital applications on Fridays so I planned to work on it a little each week night the week before it was due and my Wednesday night I had completed it. I also had never worked with excel before competing this spreadsheet. I am comfortable using excel after this project. I think if I am ever asked to make a spreadsheet in my future classes, or for future employers I can be confident that I know how to use that type of software and create a great product.
            As I said before, I think digital aps is a great class for incoming freshman to take. I shows us how to use many different programs that we will need to use in our classes in college as well as later in life. This coarse also teaches time management, and planning ahead. It also taught me to press through difficult tasks and just keeps working on them until they are finished. Thank you very much for helping me along through this class Professor Fleury-Lawson

Dream Vacation

My dream vacation would be to go to Amsterdam. I have wanted to go there for a long time because Amsterdam is in the Netherlands and they are the Dutch, and so am I. So it has always been somewhere I have wanted to visit. There is a lot of things you can do in Amsterdam. They have a bunch of Attractions and museums to go and see. I would want this vacation to be a week long.

The vacation would not be very cheap though. I would need the flight over to Amsterdam, which will have at least two stops on the way. Also I would need a hotel for a week because I would be going on this vacation for a week. Then I would need a car to drive myself around for the week. After searching Kayak for a little bit, I was able to find a vacation package. It has a very nice hotel , and it also allows me to rent a car and obviously fly over. I would take Air Canada for my flight over to Amsterdam. When I got there I would get my two door rental car to get me to my hotel. The hotel I would stay at is Double Tree by Hilton Hotel Amsterdam Centraal Station. In total the trip would cost around $2124.

One of the first things I would go see when I arrive in Amsterdam would be the Anne Frank House. I had to read her book in middle school and I have always had an interest for WWII history. And by going there, I would be where history happened. I would also go to the Van Gogh Museum to see all of his famous artworks. I would also go to the Amsterdam Museum to see the history of the small city. Amsterdam is also home to a few sport teams so I would take a tour of their Arenas. One of the last things I would do there would be to go and do the Olympic Experience, at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam built in 1928. The last museum I would go to would be the Hash, Marijuana and Hemp Museum. I would also like to go to their local coffee shops so I have the chance to experience their culture. It is one of the few places I would like to go in my lifetime and make sure to make time to experience their culture. 

Aruba Vacation

            

     If I could go anywhere in the world for a week’s vacation I’d probably have to pick to go to Aruba. The first and most obvious reason would be the beautiful weather down there; it’s always nice to go to the beach’s down south and get away from the New England Weather. Being a hockey player I love winter as much as anyone, but come summer time I turn into a total beach bum. The next reason would be that when I was younger, about three years old, my parents brought me on vacation there but I was so little then that I don’t really remember much about it now; I’ve always thought it would be cool to finally go back.

      A flight to Aruba would cost about $850 in airfare round trip (estimate from JetBlue). Once I go there, I’d divide my week into two halves; the first half would be for exploring and doing various excursions throughout the islands, the second half of which would contain days with nothing on the schedule other than relaxing on the beach all day. The first of the excursions I would want to do is the Sea Trek Underwater Helmet Walk ($48 for one hour). I have had a few friends go on trips like this in the past and they all agreed this was the highlight of the vacation. On this trip you are equipped with a specially designed helmet, ad then lowered 20 feet below the surface. From there you hike along the 375 foot underwater path where you can see sunken ships and a crashed plane, you can have your picture taken sitting at the Sea Trek Café, and you can even pet a variety of tropical fish. While in Aruba I’d also like to try windsurfing. For those unfamiliar with windsurfing, it basically looks just like a normal surfboard but it has a sail mounted on it. I was able to find a site that offered a 2 hour lesson for $50, and then a rental board after that would cost about $30 for a 2 hour rental. Although those excursions and activities would be fun and all, the highlight of the week for me would being able to just sit on the beach. I hate the vacations where you go away for a week and then walk around touring and doing 7 days of activity, leaving you more exhausted than you started and wanting a second vacation just to recover from the first, so I would enjoy just having a few days to hang out, relax, and enjoy the Aruba weather.

Sea Trek Underwater Helmet Walk