Assignment

We have now been given a Assignment brief.

There are 3 tasks to the assignment.

For the first task we have been asked to research the term 'effective research methods' clearly state each methods advantages and disadvantages to myself and multimedia designers.
My research needs to include such areas as:

Qualitative methods - to discover how research subjects, or particpants, feel about their lkived experiences and include Sampling

Quantitative Research Methods - The collection and analysis of data in numerical format

Mixed Research Methods - when different data sources and research methods are combined to provide a more accurate account.

Effective Recording of Research Data (not taking methods and analysis of data)

Now this is task one, it all seems pretty simple to me, as far as I am concerned all I have to do is research which method I find best and what method is best for multimedia designers.

Task 2 state the following;

Using appropriate research methods you are requested to research and develop your own Personal Development Plan (that includes short, mid, long term goals that includes reasoned time management plan together with justifaction of you preferred learning styles (extensive learning style research required)

This is all task 2 requires us to do on my breif I have written I need to analyse my own learning style and why I prefer this learning style. This will require me to do a SWOT analysis on myself to find out my strengths and weeknesses. I can then go from there, and devlop my Personal Learning Plan properly.

For task 3 we are required to gather all the work we have done and put it within a presentation, the presentation will be presented to our peer group and is expected to be 15 minutes in durations and supported by appropriate graphical images.

For this I will screenshot my SWOT analysis, I will then Screenshot my other research and present this whilst explaining what and why my learning style is Visual and explaining what my strong and weak points are.

Research I am going to do:

What is a SWOT analysis
Personal SWOT analysis
Learning Styles
Personal Learning style
Which research Method I prefer
What Quantative research methods are and how a multimedia designer use them
What Qualtitative research methods are and how a multimedia designer use them
What Mixed research methods are and how a multimedia designer use them

This assignment is due on Feburary 10th which is the Tuesday in Feburary. We have been given this early, because we are getting all our assignments between January and Feburary.

Personal Development Plans

This week we have been asked to research into PDP's or otherwise known as Personal Development Plans.

Previously in other jobs, or insitutes of education I have had to create Personal Development Plans as part of the course, so I have had some experiance in writing them and following them.

For example;

Before I came to Swansea Metropolitan University, I had an apprenticeship with an IT Training Academy, during my apprenticeship I was required to make a PDP, from what I can remember the first question was something along the lines of 'Where do I see myself in 5 years'. Now I was only 17 at the time and didn't particular have a solid plan because I was so young however I do believe I put something along the lines of "In 5 years time I have hoped to have finished my time within the apprenticeship and gained the most out of it. I then hope to carry on to either University studying computers or a job with IT Support". Now for me this answer was what I wanted to, however a lot can happen within 5 years, what actually happened was I finished my apprenticeship with all the qualifactions I could gain from it, I then took 2 months out to find a job within IT support I then quickly realised employers didn't want to hire 18 year olds for whatever reason. So I thought I will give University a go, I was late applying to university and got accepted into Swansea Met through clearing due to this I picked the wrong course, and studied that subject for a year, needless to say I didn't do very well failed it and dropped it turns out that I didn't want to learn programming as I first though so I changed to a different degree doing Interactive Digital Media, which is more for me It allows me to learn about subjects that I actually want to learn about.

Anyway as you can see the 5 years didn't exactly work out, however by the end of the 5 years I will still have my degree and be out of university for a year, hopefully in a successful job doing something that I love and can see myself doing for the rest of my life.

The next part of the PDP I had to write was 'How am I going to achieve this', This part was simple for me I know what I needed to do to get to where I wanted and not much has changed now. When I answered this question Im 99% I would have answered 'To achieve my goals, I am going to need to pass all my exams so that I finish my apprenticeship I will then have to look for a job or apply to university, after I have done this my goals for the 5 years will be complete" If I am honest not alot has changed now, inpart from the fact I need to replan the next 5 years after I complete my degree, but I have 3 years to do that in, I know what I want to do after uni and I know how to achieve this.

There is one part of the PDP which is rather tricky to answer the question is 'How do we know when we arrive?' I guess for me I will know im there once I finish my degree and I find myself having to do a PDP for the next 5 years within the company that I am working for, once I get to that stage I will then think you know what I've done pretty well for myself.


Anyway there are a lot of different ways to write PDP's personally I keep them simple, however you can go into much more detail than I have if desired, you can even make the PDP for more than 5 years. Some people write them for 10 years ahead of themselves. Although I would like to do this I can't since its hard to predict where I will be in 10 years, hopefully I will have a nice house somewhere hot, a nice car and still with my partner. The future is so indesicive I can't tell where I will be, this blog post hasn't had much research done to it this is my point of veiw and my answers to what questions where asked of me.

Note Taking

In this blog i will be writing about note taking giving hints and tips on how to take notes.

You can take notes for a lot of different sources such as textbooks, films, TV and many other sources however the notes you take must be relevant to the piece of work that you are working on.

Notes can be taken on many different ways such as Notepad + Pen, iPad, Mobile Phone or any other device that you are able to take notes with.

Make sure you always take more notes then you need, this means you will have more notes to work with when it comes to doing

Don't write town every word of your lecture, or copy long parts of text from books, a point of note taking is that you take digestive chunks.

When taking notes from any source, keep in mind that you are attempting to make a compressed and accurate record of information, other people's opinions and possibly your own observations on the subject in  question.

Some people take so many notes that they don't know which to use when it's time to do the writing. they feel that they are drowning in a sea of information.

This problem is usually caused by two common weaknesses in note-taking technique:

Transcribing too much of the original
Being unselective in the choice of topics.

There are two possible solution to this problem:

Select only those few words of the source material which will be of use. Avoid being descriptive. Think more, and write less. Be rigorously selective.

Keep the project topic or the essay question more clearly in mind. Take notes only on those issues which are directly relevant to the subject in question.

Time Management

Okay, I've not managed to get much research done for this task, since my Internet has been cut off temporarily. I didn't manage to get anything done in-between lessons since I was working on other things. Ironically if I had managed my time better, I would have got some research done.

Anyway here is what I have managed to come up with.

Okay this is my first slide, introducing what the powerpoint is about.

 

Okay, this is what my presentation will consist off. I will the explain the way I structure my time, I will also explain how to avoid wasting too much time. I will then explain what to do to pass your year and achieve the best grade available to you

 

Okay I’m not the best at structuring my time however, I found that if you create a timetable for your study days you are able to concentrate more and procrastinate less. I have also found taking regular breaks from studying helps a lot, studies have shown that after 20 minutes of working you stop concentrating.

I’ve also found that working in-between breaks helps a lot, I have found that I work better in uni there is a lot less distractions around me, which allows me to update my blog, and do any other additional work that is needed.

Studying from home on a study day is what they are for, I know it is hard to concentrate at home – but if you set even a hour a day away for study that will allow you to keep your brain refreshed.

Create a Gnatt chart, this chart will allow you structure your time well and efficiently, a Gnatt chart will allow you to structure weeks.

 

Okay, last year I failed my year which has been the biggest waste of money ever.

Although I did learn a few things from this first thing being is;

Set aside time to do your assignments, often enough assignments just get pushed to the back of your mind until the day before they are due, however you may be able to fluke them you won’t get the best grade available to you.

Set personal targets for yourself, say if you aren't very good at a certain module set yourself a mini project, so that you can work at being better at the module you struggle at.

 

 

These are my slides and notes for my slides. Sorry they arent too detailed I tried my best with them, however due to not have any internet access at home at this current point in time.