Half Term!!!!!!!

Today we started off with a starter activity that required us to create a program that asked for five names and the scores those five names achieved. The extension was to add arrays to the code of the program meaning more names could be added without having to count them in manually. I felt the task went well because I successfully created a program that matched the activity's requirements however I did not have enough time to move on to the extension.

We then moved on to working on more of assignment two in which we have to develop a Power Point that covers the software development cycle and some of the weaknesses and strengths of certain aspects of it. I feel this task is going very well now and I should hopefully have the assignment completed by the deadline after half term.

We then moved on to a quiz and the subject of this quiz was about flow charts and pseudo code. I found this quiz to be relatively easy because I achieved a score of ten out of fourteen this was because I know a fair bit about flow charts and some basic information about pseudo code.

Finally we looked at pseudo code in more depth and talked about how much of it we have to do when we start assignment three in just over a weeks time. I felt that I now know some more information on pseudo code but not enough information to say that I fully grasp the whole thing about pseudo code.

Overall today was a good day because I am starting to get to grips with coding even though we started it like two or three weeks ago. The positives from this week were that I was able to hand in assignment one on time after working on it from home to make sure I finished it. The other positive was that I was able to learn more things about coding in Small Basic. The negatives are that I still have to do assignment three which looks daunting and the sheer enjoyment of looking over assignment three multiple times just to make it seem even more scary.        

Specifications and Broken Programs

Today we started off with probably the hardest quiz on the planet. The questions required someone with eagle eye vision at the very least. I achieved a score of three and one third which fortunately means I don't have to do the quiz next week because I'm just that good.

We then moved on to working in groups to try and come up with flow charts, pseudo code and specification for a greenhouse that must be kept at twenty eight degrees throughout the day. I felt this task went very well because our team successfully came up with a good specification a flow chart that was wrong but none the less a flow chart and some pseudo code that was wrong as well. Personally I felt we should have won because of the amazing team name called "One wheel short of a unicycle" I came up with this name so credit goes to me.

We then moved on to looking at the scenario for assignment three which is to come up with a program that adds up the cost of painting a room. I felt that the scenario made sense but the coding part will make my head explode when we begin to code it after half term.

Finally we came up with our own specifications from this scenario and we categorised them into output, input, assumptions and process. I felt this task was easy because it was essentially matching up information with the categories mentioned above.

Overall today was a good day because the work wasn't overly complicated and I got to work in a group which does not happen very often. I enjoyed the team work aspect of the day the most because it means I can get help from fellow team mates when stuck with a task. I least enjoyed looking at the scenario because it just made me panic about the assignment and how much coding has to be done.      

Software Development Cycle

Today we started off with a starter activity in which we had to make a program that asked the user for a name and then after that ask them for their address. In the extension we had to make the file name change to the name of the user and the current time and date. I felt I did decently at this task because I manged the main section of the activity which was to ask for a name and address but I found the extension to be incredibly difficult.

We then moved on to looking at assignment two and mainly the software development cycle which is the cycle that software goes through like maintenance, requirement gathering and maintenance, design, implementation, testing and deployment. I found this to be relatively easy to understand but I am struggling to find a way of getting this down in the assignment two.

We then moved on to working on assignment two which was to develop a power point that talks about the software development cycle and it's different stages. I am finding this to be incredibly complicated because although I know how the software development cycle works I am struggling to talk about each section of it.

I most enjoyed the starter activity because it meant that I didn't have to carry on with my assignment which at the moment is boring me to death. I least enjoyed the assignment because I am struggling with the information and I am finding it difficult to do.

Overall today was a moderate day because there were some positives like the starter activity and the lunchtime football game but there were negatives like the assignment because I am having to do two assignments that are difficult    

Mind Blowing Maths!

Today we started off by trying to get a Small Basic programme to multiply whatever number the user enters it will multiply. I found this exercise to be very difficult because I had not looked at multiplying numbers in Small Basic before.

We then continued on with assignment one task one which is to make a slide show about diff rent aspects of programming. I manged to complete task one and I am currently working on task two of assignment one. I found task one to be easy but relatively long because of the amount of information we had to put on the slide show.

We were then shown some mind blowing maths skills. we had to draw a grid and count the number of crossovers or something. The whole method didn't really stick in my brain because of how complex and ridiculous it was. We were then shown a video that had two Japanese school children that were capable of long multiplication in their heads.

I enjoyed the unexpected fire alarm at the end of the day the most because I had to stand out in the freezing cold while it was raining just to practise fire drill. I least enjoyed the maths activity because I just hate maths and the method still won't help me with long multiplication

I feel I do not need any help with my work because I just finished task one and I am now working on task two which means I am more than likely to need help tomorrow.

Overall today has been a very busy day because of the amount of assignment work I have had to do combined with some annoying maths thing that I will never grasp the concept of because it's so over the top and complicated.

Alphabet Turtle

Today we started off by writing a programming that that adds then prints adjacent odd and even numbers starting at zero and going up to twenty. I felt this exercise helped me improve my mathematical skills on Small Basic but I did not fully complete the exercise so I felt rather disappointed because of that.

We then moved on to doing our assignment ones. I am doing task one which is to create a Power Point that talks about the different aspects of coding like paradigms and what a computer programme is. I have managed to do about five slides so far but hopefully over the weekend I can add more to it and make sure I meet the deadline of the 21st of October.

Finally we moved on to making a programme in Small Basic that makes a turtle draw a certain letter in the alphabet. I was assigned the letter F and it took me a while to work out the angle of movements and turns but after about twenty minutes of coding I manged to make the turtle draw the letter successfully. Five minutes later I was told my letter did not fit the screen and I had to change certain aspects. This made me sad because I thought I had done good work.

Overall today was a very typical boring but busy day that involved a lot of work in assignment one and a lot of Small Basic work that will improve my skills but not my knowledge because I am not very good at remembering things. The positive of this week was that I have just about gripped the basics of programming and coding. The negative of this week was the millions of annoying pieces of work that frustrated me and almost made me punch myself.    

Validation And Verification

Today we started off with a quiz with questions based off of a video about the use of algorithms in society. I achieved a score of eight out of seventeen which is not too bad and it means I still don't have to write the quiz yet. We then moved on to talking about how to do flow charts and pseudo code. I found pseudo code to be easier because I struggled with the different shapes and arrows of flow charts.

We then moved on to making the coding for the guess the number game to tell users when they have either gone over one hundred or when they have gone below one. We did this by making the text window say something like "Do you not understand Instructions?" so the user would hopefully realise their mistake and avoid doing it again. I felt this task helped because it improved my skills and understanding of Small Basic.

Finally we moved on to talking about assignment one and the contents we should have on each slide. We then had the choice of learning even more about Small Basic or moving on to planning our assignment ones. I moved on to the plan and I have now finished it but I am not looking forward to when I actually start my assignment.

Overall today was a relatively boring day because although we began with a fun quiz we then moved on to work that I kind of understand but feel like I am learning a brand new language. Tomorrow we move on to working on assignment one, talking about data types and  making a turtle draw letters because we did not get to do it yesterday.    

Paradigms

Today we started off with some more Small Basic and how to make a text window say "Billy Bob smells" this was then extended to getting it to say whatever name that you type in would smell. I found this useful because it is helping improve my programming skills even if it is on Small Basic which is considered to be a basic but well understood programming tool.

We then moved on to looking at paradigms which are event driven, procedural and object orientated. Event driven is when you make the user interact by typing or clicking the mouse. Procedural is when you make the code into a sort of list and pretty much do it step by step. Object orientated coding is when you for example have a book but you then list it's key features such as the author or the number of pages it has.

I most enjoyed the starter activity because I found it to be entertaining and it helped me improve my Small Basic skills. I least enjoyed going through each of the Power Points because I found them to be incredibly boring and tedious and I felt it could of done with some animations or something to make it less boring.

I feel that I need more help with some of the coding aspect of small basic since I still do not how to code the computer to read the time and make it so it asks you if you have had breakfast or lunch depending on what time it is.

Overall I felt that I progressed more today because I am starting to understand a bit more about this unit and hopefully on Thursday I can pretty much understand all of it. I am also looking forward to making the turtle draw some letters of the alphabet on Thursday.

New Unit

Today as you can tell by the title we started a new unit which is programming. Programming is when you write code for an object or event. We learnt about the different types of language from high range which is pretty much standard English to low range which is machine code. I felt that I understood this information quite well.

We then installed a programme called Small Basic which is a computer programme developed by Microsoft that allows people to write any sort of computer code they want. We had to look at some examples of code people had come up with. There was one example where everyone had to guess a number between 1 and 100 and see if the text window would say if the number was correct or incorrect. I found this task to be fun because I had never seen anything like this until today.

We then moved on to an activity which required us to input the correct code in order for the angry bird to reach the pig. We did this by dragging simple directions in order and ran the test to see if the angry bird got to the pig. I felt this activity further improved my understanding of graphic coding which is used on programmes such as Scratch.

Finally we looked at the different paradigm you can get in coding. Paradigm is a simple example or pattern of something. There are different types of paradigm like the procedural paradigm, the object orientated paradigm and the event driven paradigm. I find this to be quite hard to understand but hopefully I can go away and study it more in order to understand these different paradigm.

Overall today felt like a fresh day as we started a unit that I know barely anything about meaning that I was more eager to learn about this unit so I can achieve a good grade. I enjoyed the making the angry bird get to the pig because it was both informative and fun. I least enjoyed the paradigm section of the day because I am yet to understand the different types of paradigm.  

Digital Graphics Final Day!!!

Today we started off with a very well designed quiz. The subject was about hardware and software in digital graphics. I found some of the questions to be very difficult but I managed to achieve a score of six out of ten. We then moved on to a work sheet exercise about where capital letter's should go in a sentence. I found this to be incredibly dull but at least it should refrain people from making that mistake again. We then had to do another worksheet and this time it was about where commas should go in a sentence. By this point I had enough with worksheets and did not want to be set another one to complete. Thankfully no more worksheets were set and this time we could concentrate on handing in all of our work from the digital graphics unit. I found this to be a little bit confusing at first but I eventually grasped how to hand my work in. The personal highlight was watching people rename folders into funny names. We then moved on to completing any outstanding work which for me was handing in my assignment four and working on my re submission for assignment two. I manged to complete assignment four and I still have until October the 15th to complete assignment two.

I enjoyed the quiz today because it was different from what we usually do in the classroom and it actually challenged my brain quite a bit. I least enjoyed going over two different worksheets about things probably an eight year old learns about at primary school.

I feel that I need a bit more help with assignment two because I do not understand some of the comments that were written. I also do not understand what is wrong with my heading for assignment two because I feel that it is suitable for the assignment.

Overall today was a positive day as I got some work done, completed a quiz and I didn't come last in and finally reached the end of what has a been a decent unit. Some of the work was good for me but then some of the work was bad but that is what re submissions are for. Tomorrow I have a uni open day to look forward to and I don't have to write another blog entry until Monday when we start a new unit.        

Feedback and more

Today we started off by doing our pitches of our game assets and why we feel we should be invested in. I felt this task for me was a bit nervy because I have never done anything like it before but it will also be helpful for the future when it comes to more pitches and presentations. We then moved on to publishing our surveys about a chosen asset of our game. We did this mainly to find out what we needed to improve to the chosen asset or what people liked about it. I felt this was helpful because it allowed me to find out what I needed to improve on my character. We then had a talk about student finance and how much money we would need to pay for each aspect of university and what kind of loans and grants we may get. I felt this was helpful because it helped me to understand more about the kind of costs and fees we might expect from university. Finally we moved on to analyzing our survey results. I found this helpful because it shed some light on what kind things I may need to change or what people liked about my assets.

I enjoyed completing other peoples surveys because it was interesting to see both their designs and what kind of questions each person asked about their assets. I did not enjoy my presentation purely because I was nervous but I did enjoy listening to other peoples pitches and what game concepts they had actually come up with.

I feel I do not need any help at his time although we have just started to a new section of assignment four I feel that I pretty much understand it so far.

I felt that I could have presented my pitch a little bit better but I would have to blame it on my nervousness because I have not stood up in front of a class since I left school which is a very long time to go without pubic speaking.

Overall today was quite an indifferent day. I enjoyed some aspects of it like answering surveys and listening to other peoples pitches but then I did not enjoy other aspects like my own pitch or beginning the new section of assignment four.    

Asset Pitching

Today we started off by proofreading over some more blog extracts and picking out the positives and negatives of them. I felt this was helpful because it carries on improving my blog posts from day to day. We then moved on to talking about surveys and the different kinds of questions people can ask like an open question which has more than one answer or a closed answer which is just the simple yes or no. I felt this was helpful because it gave me inspiration for when it came to creating my own survey about the game assets I had previously made. We then had to make an assignment folder on the student write area. I felt this was needed but then students started spamming folders in the student write area. We then moved on to creating a PowerPoint for our pitches that we have to do tomorrow. I felt this task went well because I have all the images ready and I just need to add bullet points and notes for when it comes to the pitch. We also spoke about feedback and what it meant and the different ways you can communicate your feedback. This was helpful because it helped understand feedback and how helpful it can actually be.

I enjoyed watching the video about how to make a good power point because it was both funny and helpful as it gave many tips on what not to do. I least enjoyed creating the surveys because I had to keep rearranging questions and ended up having to remove some as well just because I did not have a premium account.

I do not need any help at this stage as we are nearing the end of the graphics unit meaning we only have one more assignment to do and that means less stress for me.

Overall today was a good day because I successfully saved a survey and I have nearly completed my pitch power point as well as having talked about feedback and the different types of questions that surveys can ask and use.              

Copyright Law

Today we started off by proofreading some blog extracts from the previous day. I found this activity to be useful because it helped show the techniques required for proofreading. We then moved on to watching probably one of the cheesiest videos I have seen in a long time and it did not exactly sell the place well. The video was cheesy but it was still fun to watch as it was different to what we usually do. We then had to put a list of words on the board into a positive and a negative section. I felt this exercise was to me very pointless because I already knew about which words were positive and negative. We then went outside and threw a scrunched up piece of paper at each other while stating what our biggest achievement was so far. I felt this task was fun and enjoyable and it was different from just staying indoors and talking about it. We then moved on to talking about assignment four which was to talk about copyright law, who it might affect and how to protect against copyright. I felt the assignment has gone well so far but I still need to add pictures and more detail. Finally we looked at the common mistakes made in assignment two. The main mistake was that people kept putting capital letters in the wrong places. I thought this exercise was helpful because I now know what kind of mistakes to look out for when proofreading my work.

I enjoyed the activity outside the most because it was fun and we got to know what the class liked and did not like. We also got to throw paper at each other which is always fun. I did not enjoy listing the positive and negative words as I felt that most of the class already knew which are which.

I feel I do not need any help at this stage although this may change in the near future now that I have two assignments to be working on one of which is the assignment two re submission and the other being assignment four talking about copyright law.

Overall today was a good day as we did some fun activities like watching some weird videos and going outside although there were some negatives like my assignment two and some of the other activities.        

Hand In Date

Today we started off with an activity all about creating an image about consistency, design and formatting. I found this activity to be useful in some aspects particularity seeing what other people had come up with for different words. I also found this activity to be slightly repetitive as we had already done word association in previous activities. We then moved on to a rather simple quiz that seemed as if it was created within about ten minutes. I achieved a score of  nine out of ten which is not bad but the quiz was just too easy. We then continued with our assignment three and we had to create a power point showcasing our game assets. At first I found this to be frustrating because my Jpeg images were too blurry so in the end I had to take print screens of my work. We then had to proofread each others design logs. I found this to be a very useful task as I got to see how fellow students had set out their design logs. Finally we had to hand in our assignment threes into a folder on the student write area. I had a huge problem with this task as it turns out my account did not have permission to create a folder on the student write area and therefore I had to seek help. Once I had sent out my SOS email the problem was quickly fixed and I was able to hand work in.

I enjoyed the quiz because although it was ridiculously easy it was enjoyable and something different from what we usually have to do on a regular day. I did not enjoy the beginning activity as I found it difficult to come up with an image to describe the word consistency. In the end I had to replicate an image five or six times just so I had something to show the class at the end.

I think I do not need any help with anything at this current time although I do have a re submission deadline for tomorrow and another re submission deadline within the next week so I will be very busy for the next few weeks.

Overall today was an average day because the starter activity was boring I had to resubmit work about six different times and my account did not even have the proper access. There were positives such as the quiz which was too funny and finally handing in assignment three