Week 11

So after a quite long time, it has come to this, the last entry of the blog. Before actually talking about the lecture, I would like to say that blogging (even if it was for an assignment) was something I had never done till now and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Now to the actual part, this week there was no actual lecture, but once more we had to present the 2^nd part of our group assignment. More specifically we had to present the web site we created as a team and also to discuss about the experience of us working as a group.

Everyone's performance this time (presentation-wise) has improved and each time performed really well.

I would like to close this last entry of the blog by saying that I learned a lot during this semester and that I can't wait to see what the future holds for me during the next semester.

So, until we meet again...

Take care.

G.

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."

- Douglas Adams

Week 10

This time the lecture was about cover letters and Cvs usage and importance. Before, explaining in details how the Cvs and cover letters work, it is essential to understand their importance. Cvs are the means that one must use when he is applying for a job position, in order to inform his employers about his academic education and his working experience.

The categories of Cvs are these:

• The Chronological Resume: In this type of CV, the applicant writes down his academic knowledge and experience in chronological order starting from the start of his career and ending with his most recent achievements.
• The Functional Resume: If the applicant chooses this type of CV to go with, he depicts his skills as he sees fit, however when it comes to past experience in working environment he goes more in depth and explains it in a more analytical way, same goes for his skills and abilities.
• Combinational Resume: This is probably the most “flexible” type of CV one might pick, since it is a combination of the Chronological Resume and of the Functional Resume.

Besides the categories mentioned above, during the lectures we were given visual examples of Cvs with the usage of powerpoint presentations and some additional tips for writing Cvs. These tips were things like giving emphasis to any accomplishments we had in any previous work instead of just mentioning that we worked there and to be extremely careful to avoid and grammatical or syntactical errors when writing the CV.

During the next part of the lecture we were taught about what the Cover letters are and of their necessity. First of all, a cover letter is important because it allows the applicant to express why he is interested for the specific job position in detail, you can go into details about your strong points and your achievements during the past workplaces, and last but not least, it allows the employer to get a first “look” of your personality and character before the actual interview happens.

This was probably the most important and interesting lecture I had till now, since I was completely unaware of the existence of cover letters until this part (actually covers letters where discussed during the previous lecture but I missed this part due to me being sick). However now I can say for sure, that I have one more asset to add when I apply for a job position in the future.

Week 9

Week 9

Finally, the Easter vacations were over and done with, and we were able to start with the 2^nd part of the autumn semester. Before the actual lecture there was some in class talk about the grades in general with the occasional mumblings and jokes like always. After this part, the professor explained that this weeks topic will be Cvs and cover letters.

However, what is actually a CV, or to be more precise what is a Curriculum Vitae? CV provides an overview of a person's life and qualifications, it is also the written form that a job applicant must use when he is interested in a specific job position. Also, Cvs are also used when someone is interested to apply for a masters degree educational program. After this part we talked in general, about the many templates used in general for Cvs and we looked through some examples in the interned in order to get a better understanding in what are Cvs and how they work.

After this part, unfortunately I missed the rest of the lecture, since I had to leave due to me being sick and getting worse. Hopefully though I can try and make up for it during the next lecture!

G.

Week 8

This was the last week before the break for the Easter vacations, also it was the week that we had to present the first part of our group assignment, meaning that there was no actual lecture this time.

During the group assignment a large variety of topics were presented by each team, each and every of them was equally interesting. The main themes of these assignments was pc gaming, Windows OS, Printers and Hard Drives.

It was interesting and fascinating at the same time, to watch different groups presenting with their own unique way their essays. Some students were nervous, others were more calm, others had more experience but things went smoothly in general and everyone performed more than decently. About myself, I was bit concerned about my performance before I started, however due to my experience in presentations I was able to pull it off and got the unofficial title of the best presenter.

In the very end, we gave our professor the url of our site for the group assignment and after some casual talk and wishes for pleasant vacations, we left the class and got ready to enjoy our vacations.

G.

Week 7

This week's lecture focus was about the infamous “Body language” and also about Interviewing skills, both topics were quite interesting and refreshing if I may add compared to some other topics.

Body language is a skill that is a skill that allows the user to be able to “manipulate” the feelings of other persons without actually speaking and at the same time to be able to understand another persons feelings and intentions without them talking about it, that's why Body Language can be considered also as a form of “mind reading technique”. This was also proven via some recent statistics that show that Body Language can influence communication by a way larger margin than the actual voice communication. To be more precise, according to the statistics, Body Language influences around 55% of the communication while voice around 38%.

Body language is divided in seven elements:

• Facial expressions: that can easily show the emotional status of another person, like happiness, anger or sorrow.
• Gaze: The movement of the eyes can show many hints about another persons thoughts, for example if his gaze isn't steady it might mean that the person doesn't feels certain about what he is talking about.
• Posture: how someone sits somewhere and the general stance of the body.
• Gestures: give additional information when used properly, a primary example of this is the way we wave our hands when we say goodbye to another person.
• Proximity: this refer to the distance we take when talking to someone. If we are in close proximity to another person that means that we feel safe and/or comfortable.
• Touch: this is used more often when we are familiar with another person, however it can be used on other occasions too like when meeting a person for the first time and we use a handshake.
• Appearance: is one of the most important parts since the way we look can greatly change a lot of factors in communication. Someone who is dressed properly depending on the occasion will get better communicative results than someone who is not.
  

There was also a talk during this lecture about Interviewing skills, interviews in general and how we should act during an interview (something that I was familiar with but many students were not). However, the discussion led to some useful knowledge and conclusions. Like the fact that during an interview, no matter how well prepared one might be, by far the most important thing is to be able to keep your calm in order to avoid being nervous.



In general this lecture was interesting since it allowed me to familiarise myself with the use of Body Language, a skill of extreme importance, and it was also a useful revision of things to look after during an interview.

G.

Week 5

The main focus of this week's lecture was Presentation as a skill and how it can be used properly. There was also some talk about the formation of the teams for the group assignment. I must add that I found this lecture extremely interesting since it worked in conjecture with the previous week's lecture ("Critical Thinking Presentation and Public Speaking Skills").

Presentation, as a skill, is composed of these seven elements.

• Tone: Defines how do we sound when we talk and also it varies depending on our emotional state.
• Emphasis: Just like the name implies, its all about emphasizing certain words in a sentence.
• Content: Is about the actual words and their meaning. It is also about the correct usage of words in order to avoid misunderstandings.
• Humour: Can be used to draw even more attention, but at the same time if it isn't used properly it can lead to credibility loss.
• Speed: It can be used to build momentum, add anticipation and/or highlight a specific point.
• Pronunciation and Pitch: The practice of using certain “difficult” words and the proper spelling of them. Pitch can be summarized as a combination of tone and amount of loudness.
• Visuals: Is the usage of different means (besides speech and the skills mentioned above) in order to gain the attention of the crowd, like eye contact with them, using simple but effective visual effects etc.

In addition, the Presentation itself is divided in three sections.

• Introduction: Just like the name implies, Introduction is all about welcoming the crowd, identifying yourself to them so that they become familiar with the person making the presentation, explaining the to pic of discussion in order for everyone in the crowd to grasp atleast the basics of the presentation and to state the objectives of the presentation, as well as giving a faint outline of what subjects will be covered.
• Developing your argument: This is all about proper management of your time mainly, due to the time limits of a presentation. It specifies that one must use properly and effectively the time he is given to present his points and to give additional info/rationale.
• Conclusion: Is the last part of the presentation after all points are made. It is a summary of everything being said/shown until this part. This is the time also when the speaker can answer any questions the crowd might have about the presentation. Finally, when all this is said and done, the speaker thanks properly the crowd for their attendance before leaving.

Lastly, there was some in-class talk about the group assignment, and my group decided for the topic of our assignment to be Hard Drives. I must say that I found this as a topic to be pretty interesting and at the same time a chance to improve my IT knowledge.

G.

Week 4

This week's lecture was about becoming familiar with some of the best skills one can get, these are Critical Thinking, Presentation and Public Speaking skills. In addition, there was the usual tutorial conversation after the main lecture part. This weeks tutorial was called “Psyching you out” but more on that later.

Critical Thinking (also known as Reflective Thinking) is a process where a person uses his Thinking Skills and takes a step “backward” and then judges the issue at hand in an objective and rational manner. The use of this skill can be extremely useful in many situations (not only academic-based ones mind you).

So in order to understand Critical Thinking, first one must become familiar with the Thinking Skills that are used. There are six such skills:

• Gaining Relevant Information: Its the basis of Critical Thinking since it is about recall certain facts, ideas or phenomena. To simplify it even more is all about answering questions like “Who ?, What ?, Where ?”
• Understanding: Is a term/skill without a specific definition, however it can be summarized as the ability to describe, compare, contrast and explain.
• Applying Knowledge and Understanding: This thinking skill is about the reconstruction of certain facts that are now understood, so that they can be used to reach meaningful conclusions.
• Analyzing: is about taking a specific fact or situation and breaking it down to its constituent parts.
• Synthesizing: Involves putting together individual components after the analyzing part and recreating it whole. Original thoughts can be developed during this stage.
• Evaluating: The last of the six skills, is about reaching a conclusion after synthesizing stage. Results in the ability to judge, appraise and decide.

Also, in the critical thinking area there is the quality of data which has to do with words that may not fit in the academic environment and also words that may be perceived differently from person to person.

There was also asked from us to write down the meaning of four words, respect, fear, arrogance and confidence. I found it quite interesting since I personally consider these words to be some of the reasons that shape a human mind.

The second part of the lecture was about Presentation and Public Speaking Skills. Public Speaking has to do with standing in front of an audience and trying to present your message to them in a way that you'll try to make them understand of what you want to say and also to be in the time limit that you most probably have.

I haven't ever considered public speaking and presentation as skills that can be learned, since when I was doing presentations back in the day when I was working in a Financial company, these two seemed more like a natural ability than a skill to be developed.

Finally about the article named “Psyching you out” as mentioned above. This article had to do with some tests that may a candidate have to complete in order to have the chance to take the job. The first is the aptitude tests: These kind of tests are more related to something like a test that we had to fill in school and is in relation to numeracy, and some other simple questions. The second is the personality questionnaires: These questionnaires have different questions that will have to do with how well you may be able to handle some situations, work with other people and basically it has to do with showing what you really are.

G.

Week 3

Information gathering was the main topic of discussion in this week's lecture, also there was an open conversation about Green IT and its importance in our modern day society.

For starters, information is a certain amount of data that can range from hard facts to abstract ideas. It can be obtained/expressed in many different ways, like speech or the internet. Also it comes in many different types, like anecdotal, formal, personal etc. I must also specify here that no matter how wide meaning the term information might have it can be easily divided in two categories.

-Primary information: This kind of information could also be called “personal information” since its the information gathered by ourselves. There are many ways to obtain primary information, the most known and/or effective ways are via experimentation, questionnaire, observation and last but not least via experience.

-Secondary information: Information of such type comes from other people. More specifically, one can obtain secondary information by using resources such as journals, internet, books, watching TV, listening to radio etc.

The gathering of information is a procedure that can be considered a necessity in almost every section of our life, it is useful when applying for a new job, during negotiations, it can be used in order to be more effective against any competitors, or to be used in general as a mean to allow someone to give better consults. I can keep on giving examples all day long, however I believe that it is apparent to everyone how important is information gathering.

This process is divided in six steps: 1) Initial analysis of data and the way of obtaining it. 2) The actual collection of the information/data. 3) Analysis of the collected data that will lead to conclusions and plan generation. 4) Taking action based on the generated plan. 5) Collection of data from the previous steps. 6) Evaluation of success by using the data gathered in the previous step.

About the discussion of Green IT, I have to say I found it to be extremely interesting since I learned about how to conserve energy while using computer or other electrical devices, and I can wonder what would happen if each and every of us was able to use such techniques how much it would help to improve the ecological status of our planet.

Lastly, I believe the lecture about information gathering gave us some essential knowledge about our academic/professional future, however since I have been doing research myself for quite some time I found myself being familiar with most of the subjects discussed.

Week 6

The main focus of this week's lecture of “Personal Development for Computing” was a quite interesting one, it was called “Role Playing and Video Production”, in addition there was an class discussion about the last semester grades and about the incoming presentation team essay.

Role playing as the name implies is all about interacting with other persons while “pretending” to be a different character in order to be more effective than being my normal self. One might say that role playing is a way of acting in a much simpler form that is pretty much usable in our everyday lives. It was also discussed if role playing is actually useful when people are not familiar with it or if they don't feel comfortable with pretending. In my personal opinion I think role playing is an extremely important part of human psyche, since all of us wear “masks” and pretend we are another person sometimes. Some might say that role play and actual deception is one and the same, but I ll disagree. Role playing is just a tool that if used properly allows us to overcome many social obstacles and perhaps even improve on some of our weaknesses. For example, if I got nervous during a job interview that could be the reason I would be declined, however if I adopted a role of a more confident person then I might succeed where my “normal self” would fail. To make a long story short, I firmly believe that role playing is a tool that enables us to overcome any social difficulties we might encounter, if used properly, and if we manage to adopt some assertive parts of the character that we role play (confidence, better use of body language etc) we eventually manage to take one step closer to academic and professional perfection.

I would like to present a personal experience of role playing. As I said in my previous blog listings, once upon a time, I was working in a company that was promoting certain products like insurances etc. When I started working back then it became obvious to me after a while that in order to be able to convince my clients that the company's products were actually the best option for them I had to become another person. I had to be the confident and caring person instead of my usual restrained and a bit quiet self. When I actually managed to walk in the shoes of this imaginary person I became able to achieve a great number of deals and after sometime to become a more talkative and open person in general.

The other part of the lecture, was about rehearsing our presentation in order to make it as good as possible for the actual presentation. Practice makes one perfect, and that was the main focus of this part of the class talk. We discussed that by rehearsing, one can test his body language, their way of talking to the audience and of course being able to stay within the proper time limits. By understanding the above one can easily understand that rehearsal is extremely important if someone wants to make atleast a decent presentation. In conclusion rehearsal's importance is based to the fact that the more someone practices and/or tries to perfect something he will get better results overall.

Lastly, the was some talk in class about the grades of previous semester and some tips and tricks from our professor in order to help us with the upcoming group assignments. That part did not really affect me since I started straight from the 2^nd year so I had no grades from the previous semester and as for the group assignment part I just have to just do my best and practice hard to make an excellent essay, just like a rehearsal for a presentation one might say.

G.

Week 2

The second week's lesson was about understanding the dynamics of a group and and expanding our knowledge a bit more about the PDP. For starters I have to admit that I enjoyed thoroughly learning and thinking about what a group really is and how it works since teamwork is a vital part of our life. I would also like to add once more that unfortunately I will not be able to discuss about the in class lectures since I was absent at that time.

One might say that groups are the main element that composes our society (not only modern society I must add), if we reflect about this statement it becomes obvious that each and every of us is a part of one or more groups in his life no matter how social or antisocial he is. The prime example that proves the above statement is family since it works with almost the same rules as every other group, rules like good relationship with each other and having someone to assume the role of the leader. Also, besides family, one must think about the groups that work together, lets say for instance, in a company and compare them to how a family “group” works, both need strong leadership and good relations with each other in order to work effectively, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Through this lesson, I can say with certainty that I became more familiar with the way groups work and

that I find this kind of knowledge extremely important in the long run. In order for someone to become an accomplished professional and/or to improve his relations with other people, he must learn to use the basics of group dynamics. More specifically, I believe that learning to work effectively in a group will help me be able to adapt way better in any future endeavors I might take and at the same time not only improve myself but improve and help every other member of the groups I belong to. Via this team work one may achieve things that could be impossible to do by his own, since a good group will be able to cover each members weaknesses and promote their strong points.

Personally I have worked in groups many times in the past and I am familiar with their dynamics. I have been for many years part of a basketball team that had many exceptional players but was unable to play to its full potential and for this reason we suffered many defeats. I can say for sure that only when we developed good relationships with each other, we learned about each and every of us strong and weak points and of course when we decided who will lead us, then and only then we were able to be effectively unleash our full potential. Another example I would like to present is when I worked to as a financial consultant in a company. When I worked there it became obvious to me that there could not be proper teamwork because the mentality of almost everyone working there was “every man for himself” and that had in the long run disastrous effects.

The next part of this week's lesson was about the PDP. Unlike the previous week, this week's main focus was about the self reflection one should make in order to understand better what he is looking for in his life (academic, professional and much more). For me the PDP is a knowledge that allows you to know what you really want and by understanding what are your exact needs and by specifying them only then you can start working towards obtaining them. Also this whole drill can make you way more aware about every single part of your life. In general, I think that PDP being part of a module in my studies will help me extremely improve my awareness and that with the self-criticism it promotes it will make me a better person and a better professional in my future endeavors.

Lastly. I would like to comment about an article about people with disabilities. I personally believe that each and every persons opportunities in life should not be affected by any disabilities he might have but only by their professional abilities and knowledge. Also in our time and age with the current technology it is possible to overcome some of the known disabilities and allow to persons who have are in a state like that to be able to work in the same ground with the rest of us. However, what must change, in my own humble opinion, is that most employers should give more thought about the subject and design their workplaces in such a manner that people with disabilities will be able to work properly and be effective. If such a thing is possible then I can say with certainty that people with disabilities will not only be able to work as much effectively as their “normal” counterparts but also to be even more effective sometimes. Lastly, I would like to conclude this blog's post by saying a quote from a friend of mine “There is nothing as unequal as the equal treatment of unequals”

G.

Week 1

This is the start of my blogging experience and some might say the opening “ceremony” of my studies at BCA university. The reason I am writing this blog is that it is one of the main focuses of the module "Personal Development for Computing" that I am taking this semester. More specifically, me and the whole class were assigned to express our thoughts and opinion for each week's lecture. However I should add that due to personal reasons I missed the first four weekly lectures, thus meaning that I will try to complete my task by expressing my thoughts via the information available through the intranet. So I will ask you to bear with me for the first four entries of my blog.

I would like to start by saying that I am quite thrilled about this specific module, mainly because it is about something I have never experienced or studied until now. This module is about achieving personal development, learning how to to plan ahead and act accordingly, and I can say that these things can only count as assets for everyone in his personal and academic course. The first part of the module is about understanding what will exactly happen during this semester with this module. In summary Personal Development for Computing module is about the in class lectures, PDP (Personal Development Planning), 2 main assignments that will be completed in different deadlines, readings of tutorials or articles that will help expanding our academic knowledge and make us more open minded in how to react in business environment (and not only there if I may add) and last but not least in doing our homework, aka the weekly blog assignments.

About the 2 main assignments, the first one is about developing a web site whose main theme will be about the history of Computing and we have to do academic research in order to present the information required and to include original writing. The other task is composed by three parts, the first one is about the weekly blog listings, a personal development plan essay and a personal development statement essay.

The next part of this weeks notes is about the fundamental understanding of what PDP and Computing is, as well as how these two can be combined. Computing is discipline that allows a professional to not only obtain besides hardware and software knowledge but also the ethos of a scholar, deeper understanding of technology, how to be able to support organization goals and to help us improve our everyday lifestyle and mentality.

The following part is about the skills needed by most employees in our day and age. These skills are 1) Body language 2) Confidence 3) Practice – refinement of abilities 4) Skills development via self criticism and 5)experience gained through placement.

This concludes what had occurred during this first lecture in a summary.

In general, I can say definitely that through this lecture I grasped way better what is required to be a successful professional in our time. By analyzing what Computing means now I see that one must think out of the box and try to constantly improve himself in every part of his thinking. For example I would like to use as a reference an experience of my own. I was working in a company some time ago that was promoting insurance packages, and despite my knowledge of the packages that was far ahead of other employees there were some who could still sign more deals than I did. By checking what I learned through this week's lecture I can say with certainty that this occurred because of I lacked body language usage and I was unable to take any self-criticism. Hopefully through the Personal Development and Computing module I will be able to overcome my weaknesses and improve even more my other advantages from my past workplaces.

G.