One of my main goals in attending BYU-Idaho is to learn how to become a mobile app developer. I have been eagerly waiting for this class. Like anyone who has traversed the internet, I still constantly run into websites that are not designed well for the web or phone applications that could be designed better.
Reflect on your learning activities and experience.
This was a typical first week. Read the syllabus, introduce yourself, and discover topics that will be learned throughout the semester. I had heard this class involved a group project. Once I saw we had to setup a Github account, if we don’t already have one, there was definitely some nervousness adding to my thoughts about the week. I have done group projects before and Github, and it is really easy for other students to accidentally overwrite another person’s work, just creating more work in general. While I did learn a lot that semester about how to use Github as a group, I was still very excited when I found out during office hours that we are only using it for our own projects and not a group project. Whew!
The office hour lesson with Brother Thayne are absolutely excellent. I plan on attending every, if possible. This is definitely one semester that if students skip the office hours, they will regret it.
After reviewing the syllabus, it is a good thing I’ve already taken WDD 331 Advanced CSS. There are a number of topics we are covered in that class that we will also be using in this class as well. I am super excited to play with transforms and animations again!
Consider your openness to new ideas.
I love learning new things. (Or else I wouldn’t be taking university classes again just for the fun of it, right?) There is always some new technique or strategy to learn. For instance, while watching the office hours video I learned about the Responsive mode for the inspect tool. Yeah, I’d just ignored that for a whole year. Imagine the gasp of excitement when I realized it slides to change the viewport size instead of having to actually change my browser window and adjust the inspect tool. Silly me!
Consider your ability to rationally evaluate options and explain why options are selected.
Taking the time before you start a project to decide what you want done and then looking at a variety of tools to achieve that, does save time in the long run. Rather than fly by the seat of your pants and hope a project turns out good, understanding which tools will help you get it done more concisely is great. When you know what you want to do and know which technique or tool will do it and why, then you can easily explain why you made the choice you did.
Reflect on teamwork.
While I did have one team project that was a teamwork disaster with an unwilling teammate, I still feel that a lot was learned from the experience. Had things gone perfectly smooth, I wouldn’t have had to find work arounds, get a lesson in group politics, and learn how to collaborate.
Realistically, though, team project can be great. There is so much that can be created when you have multiple minds throwing out ideas rather than relying on just yourself. Each person has unique experiences that others may not have had. This opens up your pool of talent and lets each person focus on their strengths, making a project better overall.
Reflect on your communication abilities. Document your growth as it relates to the course outcome.
Learning how to communicate with other students and professionals is definitely a skill that has grown while attending school. I’ve learned how to use Zoom, various chat platforms, Jing, and YouTube. Long gone are the days of phone calls to get ahold of others. You can learn a lot about people’s thoughts and ideas from being able to see them and not just hear a voice.
This is one skill that will really be put to work as we collaborate on team learning this semester. I am hoping it will be a fun and educational class!