David Oakes Learning Journal

 Here we are at the end of week 4. The Ethics essay topic has been submitted and approved. Its framework and sources have been assembled, ready for the full write next week. My main goal for the next academic week is to get said essay written by Saturday. Speaking of goals, the prompt for this weeks focuses on setting long-term goals for both my education and career path. I'll admit, setting long-term goals isn't the easiest thing in the world for me. I always try to keep myself within the realms of possibility and end up either over doing so, or otherwise panicking myself over potential risks. To the result of either having a goal that is simply too vague or underwhelming. Nevertheless, I will at least try to do so here.  For the educational goal, I would just say something along the lines of 'Get through to the end of the program and get my Bachelor's degree', but that is too boring. To tell the truth, I would be more interested in learning the many and varying tr...

First time using a title on this thing, feels like I missed something. On the matter of missing things, when the assignment prompt for this mentioned "Inserting this into the learning Journal", I wasn't completely sure as to whether this is meant to be a part of this weeks weekly post, or its own separate thing. I've already made a note to myself to mention this post in that post when I write it.  As for the Interview itself, the prompt in question was to get in touch with someone in an industry of or relating to computer science. Having had some difficulty figuring out networking in general, I didn't have a particularly great time getting in touch with an expert, outside of my father. Turning to family isn't ideal, given the networking aspect intended, but I didn't have much other options that I could reasonably count on.  Mark, an engineering manager at Atlona Inc., began our conversation on his career path with his start as an equipment designer. Specif...

So week three is now coming to a close. My first essay of the program is finished and turned in, and  most of the rest of the non-essay busy-work of the week was spent studying ethics in preparation for an Ethics Argument essay. I've submitted a topic for evaluation, and am waiting to hear back and hoping for approval. All truths told, I wasn't expecting to be so enthralled by the topic of how ethics arguments were set up. I was expect things to be fairly nebulous going in, with most matters being context dependent. I was correct in the latter, but the former was unexpected.  Short answer: Context matters. The longer one looks more like "questions and debates regarding the ethics involved in a given field are to remain bound to that field and the frameworks within." Just because the logic of an argument is correct in one place, doesn't necessarily mean its correct everywhere. If that is an obvious fact of debating ethics, then it just goes to show how seldomly I a...

Here we are on the second week of classes. I wasn't honestly expecting to have any specific prompts for these entries, but a part of me is grateful to have something. Knowing me at this point in time, I'd probably just run out of things to say and leave this thing largely to rot. The prompt, at very least, gives me something to start off with. And starting off this week is a reflection of a list of effective study skills provided by a Dr. Bob Kizlik. Dr. Kizlik emphasized several techniques like mind mapping, the importance of scheduling, and a method called the SQ3R method. SQ3R stands for 'Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review'. At simplest, the stages break down as follows:  'Survey' means get the big picture or general idea of what's being studied, like going over a road map before a trip.  'Question' means exactly what one would expect. Ask the important questions about the material. The What, Why, How, When, Where, and Whom, as it were. An...

 Well, I never thought I'd see the day I would be starting a blog. But, here we are. There's life for you in a nutshell. You never know what it'll task you with. In any case, here I am. At the very first week of this 100-give-or-take week program to attain my Bachelor's degree. Being the first week, this went down quite smoothly. I've had a couple of nicknames for week one. Bootstrap Week, Framework Week, Install Week. Imaginative with names, I am not. Of course, being the first week, this was the easy one. I fully expect to see the work intensify quickly. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat intimidated by the fact. Still, I'm here, and I'm going to see this through. If only to see the end of it.