Blog # 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1. What I plan to do for my second Independent component is to be sitting in, once again on a class my mentor teaches at CalPoly if possible. I still need to finish this first class and then he will be letting me sit in on another in the spring quarter at the beginning of March I believe. So it includes the sitting in on the class, as well as the labs or any homework he assigns along with the class.

2. I can take pictures of the assignments, any notes I happen to take, the labs, and even turn in the labs I complete as evidence as well.

3. Since he teaches mostly business related classes, that include the technology necessary to running businesses and how to go about using the information systems and producing databases, etc, it should apply directly to my topic.

4. will be completed by the time you read this.

Blog # 13: Lesson 2 Reflection

1. Positive Statement: The Lesson 2 has showed me how prepared I actually am for the end of the year, and helped solidify exactly what I will be researching and needing information on by the time the last presentations come around. I am most proud of being able to make time in this presentation because I was unable to in the first lesson. The powerpoint I made this time helped me accomplish this by giving me a set of information to go along with and make sure I didn't skip or forget too much.

2. I would give myself a P on this presentation, mostly for making time, talking about mentorship, having cited sources to talk about, and basically hitting all the necessary requirements for the presentation. I even printed a poster which is now useless since my EQ will probably be changed, but it happens.

3. Having 30 minutes to talk helped me, I was able to expand as much as necessary on certain topics and ideas, and I liked the activity idea but it wasn't my favorite thing to have done. Having a powerpoint worked a lot more than I thought it would have, keeping me knowing how much time I have left to speak and what else I needed to talk about as well.

4. What didn't work for me, at least not my favorite part, was the activity. I felt like it should have been more of the focus of the presentation because a lot of them could have been better or even more feedback centered around the activities so people know if they should build upon it for their next presentation or simply try something else. For my case studies, they were very simple and took up the time, but if I could use them again with a lot more ideas and information they could be used later again but improved.

5. Talking to my house teacher I believe it will be : Programmers should work alongside business associates in order to solve information system problems or issues or when creating and establishing new ones.

Independent Component 1

Literal:

1. I, Brandon Beghtol, affirm that I completed my Independent Component which represents 30 hours of work.
2. My best source throughout the Independent Component has been Dr. Gregory Carlton, my mentor, whose class I have been allowed to sit in on and accumulate hours. The book for the class: "Business Driven Information Systems" by Baltzan, Paige has also been a very helpful source of information.
3. Done.
4. I have completed 30 hours of work that have helped me understand how integrated technology and business have become through listening to the lectures each class, as well as doing the labs which were very helpful and interesting. 

Interpretive: The most important parts of the Independent component have been taking the CIS 310 class, which Dr. Carlton allowed me to sit in on, which being two hours twice a week have added up to most of my hours. The rest of the hours were taking notes for a couple of the next classes, which will be added to my cornell notes, and doing the lab 2, which was about 4 spreadsheets using data and connecting each of them to provide different information for different purposes and other things that a business might use to increase performance.

Applied: With my EQ being about business and technology, and my mentor having the experience in both of those and the class also having to do with the integration of technology into businesses, it has helped me tremendously with learning about how businesses are structured and really how important the technology they use is to the success of them, at least in this day and age.

Blog # 12: Third Interview questions

1. What is most important to providing computer support to a small business?

2. What are some common issues with technology businesses tend to have?

3. How much do businesses tend to spend on their technology?

4. What determines a business using a certain type of technology? i.e tablets, laptops, desktops, etc.

5. How do businesses keep their technology up to date since it is constantly changing and advancing?

6. What tends to happen if a business doesn't keep up to date with current technology?

7. How do companies and businesses train all of their staff to use all the different types of technology they are using within their business?

8. Do most companies tend to hire and keep on staff their own IT experts for issues with business management or technological issues, or hire them when they are necessary only?

9.

10.

(i need ideas QQ)

Blog #11: Mentorship 10 Hours

1. I am doing my mentorship with a professor on the campus of Calpoly Pomona.

2. Gregory H. Carlton

3. I have only done 3 hours total with my mentor as of now. And this is shown in the link on the right hand side of my blog.

4. I have not completed 10 hours with my mentor yet but will in time. (this post will be updated then :) )

5. We have already given our contacts information to our house teacher in south, Ms. Melogno, but I will send her the information again now.

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.

First Semester of Project

Throughout this semester, I began with the thought of doing my project on Information Technology, specifically helping people and clients who had computer issues. It seemed to be specific enough and has worked the first half of the semester, but recently with the finalizing of the essential questions and finally finding a mentor with years of experience in the field of information technology, it has completely changed my narrow perspective on the world of IT. My mentor, Gregory Carlton, who is a professor at CalPoly Pomona, has explained to me how specific I am being and how IT is so much larger and encompasses so much more than what I am focusing on, that it really won't help me in the future to simply learn about one of the smallest sections of the field. It would be much better for my senior project to be a focus on the many different fields and career paths possible in order for me to not go into college thinking IT is just the people who go to help people at home with computers, which will probably result in choosing the wrong major and classes since it is broken up into many sections within colleges. He has said how many students have had this issue due to their high schools always encompassing everything under "computer sciences" when colleges split each section up into its components.

However, because of the structure of the senior project, I have been unable to focus on a more broad scale than what I would have liked, and have instead had to narrow my essential question (which was more done by the teachers than myself, which was a major dislike of mine) down to simply how to provide computer support to a small business. Adding the small business portion at the end was my victory and only choice in how the essential question was finalized, and will definitely help broaden my project a bit as well in the final product. Unfortunately, I won't be able to focus on all the different parts of IT such as programming, engineering, etc. but I can definitely see how the senior project has to be so narrow and structured to prevent a great many issues from arising. 

What I have learned is that the senior project itself really isn't going to be as difficult as I thought, and definitely not as important after realizing how structured it is, but really, the best part of the project is going to be the mentorship aspect, which really does seem to be the most major freedom next to actually choosing a topic in the beginning of the year. Without it I would've gone blindly through the year without knowing the important things to watch out for when choosing a possible major in this field, and probably waste money and time going into the smallest aspect of the IT world when the business side seems to be much more interesting than the at home calls and support aspect.