Blog #18: Third Answer

1. EQ: What is the best way for a small business to tackle system wide IT issues in order to run as efficiently as possible?

2. The business should have a carefully set up SDLC, systems development life cycle, when creating or bringing in a new system, in order to ensure that it meets standards such as feasibility, requirements, and if the business is able to or needs to take on the project in the first place.

3. The systems development life cycle applies to the building, implementing, and acquisition of a new Information System for a business. It applies to the entire life cycle of the said system, and includes every detail of it's life cycle, including the retirement of the system. There are many different approaches that can be taken based on the type of business when actually transitioning from an old system to the new one, each of which have their own benefits and issues.

4. Independent Component 1, "Business Driven Information Systems" by Baltzan Paige, Mentorship: Gregory H. Carlton.

5. When creating a new system in any business, it is quite imperative to follow a set of guidelines created for the new system, including the cost, and numerous amounts of details that will help ensure no major problems arise during the process of creating it, the implementation, and even the retiring of that system as well, and this is known as the SDLC, or System's Development Life Cycle.

Blog # 10: Senior Project, The Holiday

1. What I did over the winter vacation was simply research things such as small businesses and how they might need assistance with certain computer technologies and some of the most major issues they might call someone in for help on to kind of get an idea of what I can talk about in future presentations. I also pondered quite a lot over what I can do about my independent components since I haven't come to a complete idea that sounds great as of yet which I need to do. Also, I thought about the 2nd presentation we will be doing sometime later and what I could do with a hook activity to get an idea of exactly where I want my senior project to go.

2. I have learned nothing specific with what I have done as of yet. I mostly was trying to clarify and specify in my mind where I am going with the senior project and what I will want the end results to look like, which can not be expressed in mere words without a paper long explanation.

3. I would probably talk to my mentor, because he has had years and years of experience in the field I am focusing on and even more with businesses, and he has tons of valuable information he could probably provide for me if necessary.

Blog #9: EQ

1. I reviewed the rule of three for writing an EQ.

2.    a. It is not a good eq, because it doesn't sound right and is missing something. Better if it said "what is most important for helping someone lose weight healthily?" or something along those lines.
b. It's good because it provides a clear point of view and is very specific, not broad.
c. It is very specific and not broad, and is very clear in what it is asking. And is not a yes or no question.
d. It is a good start, but not specific enough of where the pain may be or what caused the chronic pain. It needs more specificity.

3. What are the most important things to know when providing computer support to a business?

Research And Working EQ

• What is your working EQ?

My Working Essential Question, currently, is: What are the most important things to know when providing computer support to a client?

• What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write the answer in thesis format. 

Assume that your client knows nothing about computers. This will ensure that you start from the simplest possibilities for solving the problem and asking questions, which will make your job easier in a lot of cases since the problem is usually more simple than it may sound. But be careful not to infuriate the client with these simple questions or else you may bring the wrath of hell upon yourself for the remainder of your day, and possibly lose a long-term customer. 

• What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ?

The most important source, and also the most informative with information regarding all that is needed to know to get into the IT profession, as of now is my college level textbook written by Mike Meyers. I was allowed to borrow it for the entirety of the year by my first interviewee, Christian Hernandez. 

• Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your working EQ?

My mentor is Gregory H. Carlton, a professor at Cal-Poly Pomona, who knows a ton of information about information technology and has actually changed my thought process on how to answer my essential question due to the different sides to my topic, and this is only by talking with him about it really. 

Blog #5: Project Reflection and Working EQ

1) What positive thing has happened based on what you have completed so far in Senior Project? 
I have been able to learn a lot more than I normally would about technology and computers due to the mandatory research checks each week, making me push myself to learn more and more which I have always been interested in but never really focused upon doing.

2) Pick a piece of research or your interview. How has it helped you improve your understanding of your topic?
I've currently been tinkering and messing around with different things to do with an old laptop of mine, so certain pieces of research have reflected what I have been trying to do with it since some of it I have to look up in order to figure out. One piece of research I had was about the history of Linux, which helped me understand a lot about what Linux is all about and how they're logo became a penguin (pretty funny story).

3) What has worked for you so far in Senior Project?
Well, I can't really say what has worked for me in Senior Project so far because I don't have anything that hasn't really worked yet in order to create a proper comparison between the two in order to find out if something worked or didn't. The only thing that hasn't exactly worked out for me yet has got to be finding mentorship. It's much harder than I previously thought and I need to step up my searching in order to find someone.

4) What hasn't worked so far?
I kind of answered this in the last question because I didn't see that this question was next (should've guessed). The only thing that hasn't really worked has been searching for mentorship, and I really just need to look harder in order to find someone.

5)

• Potential working Essential Question? 

What are(is) the best pathway(s) to becoming a professional IT?

• Mentorship Ideas?

I have not found a mentor as of yet, but I have been trying to find someone by looking at different shops nearby, as well as emailing professors at both Mt. Sac and Cal-Poly, neither of which have gotten back to me unfortunately. And so the search continues!