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In today’s class we discussed again about audience and how our projects were lacking the specific audiences that we were trying to reach with our project. As a class we read some questions like what are the need and wants of our specific audience.  We forget sometimes that the project plan that we have is not meant for everyone in campus and we broad the likes and tastes, so at the end that project will have a regular tone and structure and as a failure many people will not be interested in the project.

Blog # 11

Last class the theme of usability testing was introduced. The majority of the class hadn’t heard of it before even though we should have because in our field, Computer Science, is very common to implement it. As for me at first I was very confused because I tried to understand the word by itself but I couldn’t. Then we watched the first video which explained what usability testing was, the tone that the people doing that video was very catchy and also the way that they explained it was easy, As for the other video I find it boring because I can’t handle a monotonous tone.

This is the last blog post, or is it? I found this video on YouTube and I couldn’t get the “awwws” coming out of my mouth. It is just adorable! Aside from all the cuteness it can also be related towards the project that we are doing. It shows audience for all the cat lovers, or maybe just for cats. Getting people to love their cats and maybe find a cat that will later replace their previous cat, which can also be a little sad. Teaching the audience what real cat food is and how it can change the cat’s life by promoting Friskies as the product. Adding a set of instructions that is teaching the little kitten to be familiar with his new surroundings.

I liked this video in many ways and how it’s a good example we can use to communicate our proposals for the project. Videos are always fun to watch, so why not. I loved the way the cat was always referring to the little kitten as “Dear kitten.” How the older cat was teaching the little kitten what to do around the house when he is gone. What to expect and how he should be aware with “vacuum.” How he shouldn’t eat the hard food but the wet food, Friskies. How Friskies are made and kept save especially for them. What got a little irritating was the voice, but maybe it was because I replayed the video.

This week we’ve been mainly working on preparation for the final project. As alway, we’ve had to make a team for that, great! /s. We’ve been doing pretty decently, but according to the feedback we received we need to narrow our audience and maybe we need to rethink our topic. We ended up rewriting the preliminary proposal to accommodate a new problem we’ll be tackling mainly because the past one was going to require way too much work and we’ve got our hands full at the moment.

This leads me to my next point, we’re freaking getting overwhelmed. Just this Wednesday we were put in another team… That’s not the bad part, the bad part is the fact I’m already in a team for technical writing, and in a team for game development. All I’m waiting for right now is to get an email from my fourth class saying, “You will find a team of x people and…” since it seems it’s the only class that’s left I haven’t made teams in. On top of that, we barely avoided a team meeting collision this past Tuesday, by rescheduling a meeting on the fly since we accidentally had a collision -we being a guy I’ve got for both game dev. and tech. writing teams.

Moreover, we need to start meeting up with the new team and begin planing the presentation for that team if we’re to get something good done in time, since we’ll be presenting a topic in artificial intelligence and it requires research.

Fortunately, I can manage being with three teams. All I need is to have competent teammates which will take it upon themselves to try to get some work done. I think all the teams I’m currently in have members that care enough to get the work done, so all I can really say for now is:

Last class we went over the pitch envy website. We saw two different kinds of pitch decks where one was done correctly and where the other one was not so good. The first one that we saw was a little bit confusing for me because I wasn’t familiar with all the images and some wording that it had. It didn’t catch my attention. The second pitch desk was easier for me to read because I was able to relate with it. I love pets, dogs and cats, especially when we’re dealing with their safety, you can sign me up for that. What was quite funny was the way they changed the topic. They went from tracking your pet to their health, which was irrelevant to the first slides.

It lurks in the syllabus, creeps through the lecture notes, making its presence very obvious but still…it takes students by surprise. BOO! The haunted group project has made its way back into our lives.

It’s not even Halloween and I’m spooked. I know I should have seen it coming but I still wasn’t exactly prepared. I’m not exactly afraid of group projects, I’m afraid of the teammates. I can carry the group, but I definitely don’t enjoy it. The last time I had a group project with an unreliable teammate was when I took Engineering Ethics and our third group member liked to sleep in for every class. That wasn’t the most motivating project.

If I had anything to say about my own experience with group projects, it is that I worry too much about the competency of the group. Which is horrible, I know. I just tend to put my expectations low so that I force myself to get a lot of the work done. Due to my busy schedule though, I might end up being the one who looks lazy and incompetent. Yay.

Working in groups is very helpful, yet difficult. As a group we can get things done quicker because we can divide the work. If the group is larger, things can get done faster compared to a small group. The bad thing about a group is that some group members may leave one or two persons doing all the work. I am saying this because I have already dealt with these kinds of people. The thing is that I am fine with it as long as I get an A letter grade. I will have to learn to let others take part on the project and just wish for the best, but I don’t think this will be a problem this semester because my team seems like they know the stuff. And seem enthusiasm for an A letter grade.

During the weekend my group and I focused on coming up with behavior norms. As a matter of fact, I didn’t know that the group’s behavior expectations was called behavior norms. I know what kind of teachers/professors did I have? I think that setting behavior norms is important because we can see what is expected from each team member. It helps us become aware of the issues that our team members don’t want to deal with. It’s like setting goals that as a team we must follow for the sake of our group project.

Today we discussed what had happend to our midterm papers. Some of us went a little off topic and just wrote about what we learned in class rather than to argue about our grade. Im not going to lie, but I can see how that happen. I feel like on some parts of my paper I did that.

The group work we discussed today for our final project was interesting. We are really breaking down how everything is going to work for everyone. Where we meet, and what responsibilities we have in the group. I have never done group work this way. It was always the lets get into groups pick a peace you want to work on and see you whenever it is due. To be honest, I hate doing group work. So with this going on, it is going to be interesting to see how everything works out when we plan it all out. Theres so much to do in a group work other than doing the assigment. Theres alot of work and time put into it so it can come out perfect.

Blog post 7

Today in class we got the chance to peer review our midterm drafts. I think that peer reviewing is important because we can make our writing better and we can successfully claim for a grade letter A. I found this time in class very useful and helpful.

The peer review questions that we had to answer, I believe, will help us write appropriate. When I was revising my peer’s draft, I was revising my own as well (in my mind) because the mistakes were now obvious to me. Like why did I even write that, type of questions came to me. Once questions are available, we can notice how we really performed in our writing and what changes we should make. The answer to the questions are important, especially, if the person that revised the paper thought that it was boring. Then we should automatically act and make the draft more entertaining. Perhaps by adding images and by providing interesting examples that students can relate to. Also, not only do we learn from our mistakes, but we also learn from the mistakes of others. Which is beneficial both ways.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t know, but it can help us write a paper well. Such as, if we are using the right words for a specific audience. Who is the audience and how can we create an argument that the audience can accept. These type of questions can be answered in a peer review and are helpful to become better writers.

In today’s class we were able to revise two classmate’s Midterm Learning Records. I find it very helpful for others other than me to check how I was doing in this assignment. I also could compare how different it was my work from my classmate’s, by doing this I got better ideas on how I needed to add more evidence and my classmates provided very helpful comments to improve my argument. The guideline that the teacher gave it was very specific, this was very useful for the authors to look in what part their work is boring, what others will change and add, also if they are doing well, and to point out what part others like the most in the author’s argument. For me my classmates told me to provide more evidence and to change some part because it was still unfinished.