Tuesday 21 October 2008

D Day

The first deadline has been and gone, in what has been a fairly relaxed beginning to the web design course. Time management was less of an issue than I possibly would have liked. I found myself being able to get on with this assignment in a comfortable, casual manor. This made for a good start to the course with minimal pressure, allowing the group plenty of time to gel. I am now comfortable with the people around me making it a more enjoyable experience. If I were to do this again I would have managed my time to complete the assignment earlier, leaving me even more time to check and correct.

I noticed around the room there were a few anxious faces when the deadline was looming, and it sparked others to question there own work. I managed to pull myself away from this and stayed relaxed up to the deadline. It definitely made me feel much more comfortable with the work I had done and ensured no unnecessary stress.

I am feeling a lot more comfortable with the course and look forward to future assignments because I have more of a feel for the way things are done. The steady start was a great way to integrate us into the course; however, I do feel that I am slightly unaware of the pressure that will be placed upon me through these next few assignments, making me slightly anxious.

Overall I now have a positive outlook on the course, and I am more satisfied that I am heading down the right route.

Wednesday 8 October 2008

Le Debut

It was a pleasing start to the course for me. To my surprise I started to feel a part of the team very quickly despite missing the induction week.

I quickly realised there were other students that had a much greater understanding of web design than I did. This made me feel a little behind other students from the off, however, it gave me a larger incentive to get my head down and learn more about the web design. I found it difficult hearing different words and phrases being used, that I had never heard before. Through asking I found that everyone was happy to expand and I have already learnt a lot of new things within these first few weeks.

In the past I have often been poor at asking questions but the college forum has allowed all my questions to be answered, and allowed me to progress on the assignment much quicker.

I have always found myself guilty of doing things last minute. Within the first week I realised if I was to carry on like this then the course would become very difficult and I would find myself missing deadlines. I now have a much greater understanding of time management and am allowing more time for work during my week.

All in all I have a positive impression of the first few weeks and still look forward to learning new skills and developing my abilities, although I know there are many more challenging assignments to come.

Friday 3 October 2008

Where I’ve come from; where I am now; where I’m going.

In starting the HND Interactive Media course in Web Design at Wakefield College, I know I have a lot to prove to myself. Going back to the very beginning of my education I was considered to be at a higher level than student of my age. Subsequently I was moved up a year and continued to be in the top group excelling in maths and science and art. Personal problems during the later end of my education made learning difficult and these reflected in my work and my results. I still managed to achieve three A-levels with a C in maths, however, I still feel I can now achieve closer to my full potential through this course.

After finishing my A-levels I took a year out to decide upon what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I first landed a job as a transmission engineer; quickly realising this wasn’t right for me, I began looking at new options. I had always been interested in computing but my previous college had a poor I.T facility and I thought the lack of qualifications would make a career like this impossible. I began to look for I.T apprenticeships and as I was doing so, a friend actually pointed the Web Design course out to me. After inquiring I found out I had sufficient qualifications and I realised it was something I really wanted to do.

I have already dabbled in design work and coding, including the design and editing of my band's web page, but not to a high enough standard. My aim for the course is to be able to make a career out of web design. Therefore, I want to be able to master each section of the course so I can be employable to a wide range of businesses. A hope for the future is also to become skilled enough to set up my own business.