PDP

Name: Amrit Sapkota

ID: 11069731

Group: L1C3           

                                     Personal Development plan

With the end of my 1^st and 2^nd semester, as whole a year of my study, I think I’ve grown a big pool of knowledge of computer. This semester I had different class tests, exams and assignments for every module. But all of them were not done well as predicted. My first semester was also simply ok. According to the marks allotted to me by the module leader for the module “Study Skills for Computing” I am very poor at it I was just only allotted 52% . Keeping aside this module I’ve aced other modules but still the “C” on one module keeps me from scholarship awarded from the college. So I have decided to dedicate more time on academic activates. Result for the first semester has been published but the result disappointed not only me, but also my parents.

On the basis of my 1^st semester’s result, I have to work hard on module like “Personal Development for Computing” for the scholarship award. Therefore, regarding to my future plan I am going to improve my study status in all subject mainly in “personal development for computing”. This doesn’t mean that I will not pay attention towards other modules. I will be more couscous towards every details of the work .I am going to improve my writing skills by posting as many blogs as I can that will help me reduce my flaws and help me start with strong base for the future sessions. The blog writing is very effective tool for student which helps student in their whole study career. I will comply to this thing by paying more attention to the lecture in class room and doing more research in internet then using “Facebook”. For the other modules also I need to pay equal attention to achieve my goal to be enrolled in scholarship program, according to my tutors and lectures I have done excellent in other modules but still there are some places where I can improve on. I need more attention towards my course works. As a student of the Computing my future depends on how much I do from my side, so I’m planning to take extra classes on programming language like jQuery, PHP and Maya. I will be fully utilizing this four months’ vacation by joining classes for PHP, HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, etc.. which will ultimately help me to design a good web page in upcoming semesters.  Since we have study “introduction to the internet” in upcoming semesters in advance form. Classes for all these web building tools will help me to achieve good grades which make my GPA strong. As a future plan I am going to attain industry visit held by our college in these holidays which might help me in different module for the development of effective programs. I will consult with my brother in USA for further programming action and activities. Over all talking this semester was full of up’s and down’s, but I feel great to be a part of it, and I’d like to thank my friends, and my lectures for believing in me and helping me to achieve my best. 

Fear VS Respect

     There’s been a thought residing in my mind recently, one that I’d like to share. I’m pondering upon the idea of respect, and how one rightfully earns it. Fear and respect , surprisingly ,are words often used in places of one another even though they represent different states of body or mind.

Fear is a feeling coming from a position of weakness. It comes either out of guilt or sheer helplessness. Fear is used as the tool to obtain respect in numerous places. The relativity is thah fear equals control, and nothing else. People who liv under fear may seem really polite and respectful, but the reality is that they are often not motivates by a genuine desire to be polite. It is often externally induced and manipulated . fear is just an obstacle to the free state of mind it terrifies yu of consequences and stops from an action. Most often fear is demanded by week from the week. Fear is the product  of ignorance. Fear only works when the threat behind it is still real. Once the threat is gone, so is the fear; which opens the floodgates of reprisal.

Respect, in my opinion, is the result of endearing yourself upon others through selflessness, dedication, and leading by example. The act of being there for others with no intent of reward earns respect.  Treating others in a manner that provides them nothing less than the highest level of dignity earns respect. True respect, once earned, is ability to get others to follow you, your request, and be there for you. Not because they fear you, but because they wish to do so on their own will. With respect, one can get others to move mountains simply by asking, one can love others without having to control and people will genuinely love you in return.

There are many people who believe they have respect, and there are many that would like to be respected. But the true question is, what will you do to earn it in true manner?

Green IT

With the advent of the technology the carbon footprint is also on the verge of increasing order.But new ideas and IT equipments are being developed. That can actually help reducing the carbon footprint that is being left behind by the use of every electrical devices in our day today life,and help preserve the Earth's environment from the rapid global warming. Now days scientists and environmentalist are trying their best to reduce the carbon footprint. Green IT is nothing but an idea that is being developed among the IT experts and people to reduce the carbon footprint. It can also be interpreted as replacing the old high energy consuming electrical devices with new and more energy efficient equipments. Almost all of us have developed a habit of not switching off an electrical device after the work being complete. So do the larger organizations where hundreds of computer's and other electrical equipments are used. With this extensive use of the energy, scientists have figured that in near future there will be a energy crisis and the threat of ozone depletion due to increase in global warming. Studies and surveys have shown that 60% of the energy consumed in an organizations is when it is vacant during the nights. Research have shown that even a switched off computer monitors draw about 20 watt of electricity. And the solution to this problem is to develop the habit of unplugging the electrical devices after it's use. By this we can not only reduce the carbon footprint but also the large sum of energy consumption bill.

  I have checked my energy consumption using the energy consumption calculator for my PC. and I was socked by the findings.You can also calculate your energy consumption using the tool from the link http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_008b.shtml . In this link you can find a tool called ENERGY CALCULATE, this tool can be used to calculate your total energy consumption yearly.You can find different options where you can select type of an electrical device that you use to calculate the energy consumption. And when I used it the findings were as shown in the picture.

For referencing an article without author’s name and date, we can refer it by writing author’s name Anonymous and date n.d. Also we have to include the website name and accessed date along with it’s URL. As an example we can refer the article Green IT. It’s reference is as follow:-
Anon., n.d. The Chartered Institute for IT. [Online] Available at:http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.22412 [Accessed 12 March 2012]    

Reflecting up on Week one

Like “The morning shows the day”, the 1st week of our spring semester has clearly shown us that this time it’s not so easy, even just to pass the module. Time has come to be more focused and serious towards studies, there is some tension in the air and might be due to pending of the results of 1st semester. Besides that, 1st week passed smoothly with little study and lots of quality of time spent with friends. Narrowing the point straight to the topic, today’s main aim of writing this blog is all about what we had spoken or might have spoken during the small conference in our lab session for the module, Personal Development for Computing.
In the lab we were provided a sheet of paper in which there were few points regarding the abilities that a computer graduate must acquire. It was a very simple task to choose a point from the given paper and explain briefly what it means to the rest of the group. Some of my class mates explained few points from it. But due to insufficient time I couldn’t get the turn to express my idea before the class. One of my friends talked about "planning and solving specific problem using appropriate criteria professionally and ethically". During his speech, taking in consideration the given point as a base, he talked about how cyber crimes can be minimized.
That day if I had chance to express my views I would have talked about point number 5 from the list. It says "a graduate in computing typically will have the ability to ensure a computer system meets the standards defined for current use and future development". During the course of computing, we have to do lots of coursework individually and in a group as well. During those group works all of us have to keep in mind that the program meets the all requirements of the client. Keeping in mind all of those things a programmer must have ability to develop the program that can be used for the further references. The statement states that a graduate in computing must have the ability to ensure the system developed must be as per the standers that are necessary for the current use. If any programmer fails to gain that ability there will be major possibility for the breakdown of the project or the system. There are several examples of failure of the projects due to the lack of proper attention towards the standards, set for the success of the system. So a programmer must always be aware about current trend and updates, and must develop the system that can be updated and referenced for the future programming. Unless such ability is being developed within a programmer, he might just be called a programmer rather than a professional programmer.
               We might have personally faced various problems during the coursework. Further, there are several similar kinds of coursework to be done. To simplify the problems like we faced during our autumn semester’s coursework, we are going to keep in mind the above points. Gaining such abilities as a computing graduate aids us to be more practical and object oriented system developers, we can be a successful IT expert, doing work individually and also as a good team worker

Individual report

It is always better to do tasks in group because in group you will have more effort and more innovative ideas. Working in group has never been a problem to me. Though we were only two members in the group we had plenty of time to consummate the presentation.

Before the selection of the topic, we two had a brief talk. Firstly both of us concluded to work on a presentation to share files from one computer to another just with the aid of simple network cable. But I don’t know whether it was our bad or the good luck that the topic had already been registered by the other group. So we had to think of a different idea. We had only left a pinch of time, so we two had a small talk and then suddenly I came up with a superb idea: “why not choose a topic that is much more simple and essential as well”. Finally we registered our topic on creating a temporary Wi-Fi station or on other word a Wi-Fi hotspot through a laptop.

Mentioning the co-operation my mate was fully supportive and trust worthy. Since we were only two in the group we had to be more serious and laborious, indeed we were. That’s why we completed the task on time. As it was my idea it was my responsibility to teach the group member how work on it and he learned it well too.

Though I was pretty sure about the processes but we though it won’t be a crime to seek for updates on the topic, so we searched on online pages but it was all in vain. As there were no updates and new techniques, we decided to stick to our own idea and confirmed to do as  we had planned before.

Concluding the group work I found it to be lot more effective, effective in a sense that  you get a chance to learn about nature of different people you can enhance your communication skills with people who doesn’t think like you do, you more over get a chance to know that not every people have same level understanding. I’d say that this group work assigned to us was our preparation  for the future when we work in mass to achieve the common goal.

My Personal Statment

There might be surplus reasons, why I people choose to further his/her studies as a mature student, but for me it was not purely down to how much I could prospectively be earning in my later life, rather I was concerned about having the opportunity to build up the standard and quality of my life and not to forget I’d also have a far greater understanding of the people around me and computing in general.

I don’t actually remember the date or age when I first saw or used the computer but I do remember that I was studying in standard three. I was on vacation so I had been to Kathmandu to my uncle’s. Where I saw the first ever Laptop of my life, they still have it but it is all wracked. It had Microsoft Windows 98 as operating system. I vividly remember that it also had inbuilt printer which I think was only one of its kind. It had a zip-drive to share and copy files to other computers. On that vacation I had lots of fun because my uncle bought some interesting games for me to play. Since then I was fond of computers and technologies. Later same year we had computer as a major module in school. And computer were also installed in, what grabbed my immediate attention about those computer was the fact that it had a Compact disk player attached.   I found myself fascinated with the sheer size of the disc. 

Whenever I hear of new technology I always have to find out about it and go deep down into it before any one else.

A good example of this is wireless internet, in this technology you don’t need to connect your computer to the modem or the cable to access the internet. This technology has revolutionised the way of computing. By this technology computer and mobile phones can access internet from any where they like and even share files wirelessly.
My very interest is in the actual workings of the computer. I always upgrade my  laptop and search for new and interesting software’s. Actually I’ve done most of the upgrades on my home computer. So far I have put in a new hard drive, added more ram, added in modems and TV cards and I have also added DVD rewritable. I do the entire computer servicing by my self at home. I’ve learned this all form the failures and mistakes from the past while trying to fix the faults in my computer. I don’t feel bad to mention that once I had short circuited my computer that I had to change the whole system to new.

Before coming to study at Islington, I was preparing for SAT for the further studies in USA on computer as major. But my parents were against my decision, it was quiet a hard time for me because I always wanted to have an international degree and my parents wanted me to stay with them  and there was only one solution to it and that was to join Islington. Before joining the Islington I had already wasted my two years of time on nothing so without wasting any more time I got enrolled in BSCCSIT (computing) programme.

Looking back at my first semester at Islington, I do believe that my development so far has been fairly successfully, but with room for improvement.

The module in which I achieved the highest result was Logic.  For the first part of coursework and test I managed to get 80%.  The aim of the task was to solve the mathematical problems for the different topics. And currently I’m waiting for the result for the second test held at the end of the semester.

Problem Solving for IT was very interesting, as the module enhanced your way of thinking, providing more of a logical approach to problem solving. For the first part of the test I got only 65%. Thought the questions were very simple and easy. But due to lack of vocabulary I couldn’t do it right. I am currently awaiting the results of the coursework part two that holds the 75% marks of the module.

Study Skills for Computing has been a module that has helped students enhancing the all round quality of their work.  I am totally aware of the concept behind the use of learning aids,  which not only provide the user with a visual perceptive of methods to complete a task, but also lets the user interact with on-screen objects.  Assessment for the module was to present a learning object using power point in a group. We were only two in the group and our topic was “How to create Wi-Fi hotspot with aid of laptop”. And I think we nailed it pretty well.

Though I’ve not in position to talk about my future right now  but I think my future career will most probably  be one associated with my degree, hopefully a profession in programming.

I am thoroughly looking forward to pursuing my interests both academically and socially and I am eager to experience the challenge that University brings.

I believe I am full of the necessary enthusiasm and skill to be a successful and effective student at Islington.