Posts

The "softer"side of employment that often gets blanketed by technical skills...

This week’s content byte focuses on the importance of soft skills particularly in the tech field. Hard skills are important but soft skills are just as important. Alexander Lyon mentions hard skills are technical skills that pertain to your specific job title while soft skills are more general and can be used in just about any job (Lyon, 2021). Some soft skills as Alison Doyle of Liveabout.com are Communication, Creativity, Determination, Flexibility, Leadership, Negotiation, and Presentation (Doyle, A.,2021). All these skills are important when in the working world in general, I never really looked at the tech field as a social field which initially drew me to the occupation. Not to say I am not a social individual as I am naturally friendly, I can do small talk and be relative. One quality that I feel people struggle with is communication, I find myself struggling at times because I know what I want to express but putting it in words tends to be the hard part. Many people believe t...
4 comments
Read more

Human-centered design requires a centered mindset on the consumer!

This week’s content byte focused on human-centered design. “Human-centered design is a creative approach to problem-solving one that starts with people and ends with innovative solutions tailored to meet their needs (IDEO.org, 2015)” I feel very connected particularly this week because for our final project we were tasked to think of ideas and my group and myself came up with a Costco parking device/app. We as consumers thought of some issues that many people have encountered and came up with a way to hopefully be beneficial to consumers and the environment. We were able to acknowledge an issue and then create a prototype which now can be sent to the community for testing phases to refine the prototype (Devex, 2016). The outcome of cutting waste mentioned in the Devex video would be exemplified in our project as it would use solar-powered panels to conserve energy and auto shut off to further benefit the users and environment (Devex, 2016). The steps expressed in both videos reminde...
2 comments
Read more

Building a digital bridge to close the digital divide requires more than access!

The digital divide as stated in the book is “The economic, educational, and social inequalities between those who have computers and online access and those who do not (Wolske, M. 2020).” I’ve heard about the digital divide before because I realized that as a kid I was divided digitally compared to others, a sentiment I’m sure many can relate with. Throughout the years we’ve been able to slowly close the gap but as stated by speaker Arjun Lingala, “...4.3 billion people around the world don’t enjoy such access (Lingala, A., 2022).” That’s still a big divide we have. This means many individuals are missing out on opportunities that are only possible by having digital literacy. Luckily there have been efforts made to close the divide and many more can reap the benefits. The lecture by Youngmoo Kim was very interesting, he mentioned how instead of closing the digital divide we need to learn to diversify and simply providing access is not nearly enough (Kim, Y. 2019). He states, “… the u...
2 comments
Read more

Internet of Things - convenience for yourself and unfortunately others...

This week’s content is centered around the Internet of Things or IoT for short. Rose Barker defined it as “devices that have network connectivity that collects user data, process and analyze that data and then return it back to the user (Barker, R. 2018).” This sparked back memories of the olden times when we would save and share data through a “…floppy disk, hard drive, USB flash drive… (Wolske, M. 2020).” Which is what is known as Sneakernet, a term I’d never heard of before the reading. Reading and watching these videos put into perspective how great technology is and how bad technology can be potentially. Rose Barker has mentioned most IoT devices “…are connected back to a central device like a smartphone or a laptop we are going to call the anchored device (Barker, R. 2018).” Speaking personally when a new device is released, I am often drawn towards its compatibility to either stream or share data between many devices. We often forget that when that capability is presented then...
2 comments
Read more

Values and Intent can lead to greatness

This week’s content was very interesting as it in my opinion focuses on honing on the why and what we value regarding learning and just everyday life. In the reading, they used the term functionings which was described as “…things individuals value being and doing… (Wolske, M.,2020).” This reminded me of my approach to many things, particularly in career choices. When I think of my future, I like to weigh the pros and cons based on what I value and how it can/would change me if I do decide to pursue that career. People do not realize that the career choices we make also can change ourselves such as self-perception and what people portray of us. Functionings also can be portrayed as reasons why we choose to create specific things. It’s what we value. The video mentioned how “Sewyn Goldsmith created the drop curb… encouraged people with limited mobility to have access to city sidewalks (What is Universal Design for Learn (UDL)?, 2021).” He had this great invention that served what he v...
Post a Comment
Read more

Proper time management and scheduling are tools for success

Stepping back into school mode is never easy, especially as an “older” adult. Struggles with balancing work, school, and personal life can be challenging. The content this week gave me good insight into ways to be better at owning my education and efficiently using my time. When the book “Owning your education” by Megan Stone was referring to students stating how we do not have time that’s why we get bad grades I saw myself in that statement from time to time. I’ve been the type to procrastinate and to think that I work best under a time constraint. Time management has always been a big factor as to why I fall into procrastination at some moments. The book states executing good time management involves “Accurate estimating the time needed to accomplish tasks, scheduling sufficient time to complete tasks, calendaring ample “buffer” time for emergencies…, scheduling time for daily activities… and monitoring the schedule to ensure task completion” (Stone, M. 2014). I’ve always struggled...
4 comments
Read more

Critical Thinking is Critical in everyday life such as choosing a new career!

For this week’s content byte, we had to read Chapter 10 of Own your education and watch a YouTube video on how to choose the best tech career for yourself. Chapter 10 was about how to think critically and own it. According to Megan Stone critical thinking is “A broad set of skills that allows you to objectively question, analyze, and evaluate information with an open mind and to draw conclusions based on logic and credible evidence (Stone, M. 2016).” She mentions that it’s a quality that is desired and valued not only in school but also in your work environment. I have had my share of having to think critically and just hope for the best after analyzing the situation and using logic to fix the problem. The skills of critical thinking are questioning, analyzing, evaluating, open-mindedness, objectivity, and purposeful thinking. These skills are also very important when you are looking for a career. Sandra from the YouTube video, “Choosing the Best Tech Career for You: How to Choose a ...
1 comment
Read more