Week 1

Class 1
During this class we learned the way we are going to be evaluated throughout the semester and the
different types of project we are going to execute, some of them will be personal while some other will
required us to work in teams, we will also take part in a continuous assignment that is going to be
mostly a journal in which we will highlight what resulted as the most interesting part of the class as well
as important points aboard during this classes, I feel this approach we’ll help us to start thinking in a way
that could get us closer to understanding the problems that surround us every day.

Class 2

As a first activity we had to mull over the reasons why we are here in college, what brought us here, in
the exercise we are supposed to just give one reason, but I think that is not enough, at least not in my
case, therefore I’ll be sharing some of the reasons why I am in this college.

First of all, I will attribute my stay at this college as an opportunity to get into a field that has always
catch my attention, since I was a child I was always amused by the technology specifically software, the
situation that I’m living in my home country was the most direct factor that determinate why Dublin and
not Mexico, and as a final advantage I finally found how to develop myself in an English environment
and hopefully in the future excel in this.

Procrastination is modern people’s biggest enemy I think that if we procrastinate our productivity
slouches and one loses limited time of one’s life to growth and be a better person for oneself, if we fall
into procrastination, we never get the opportunity to train our brain and hence be more intelligent, the
repetition of meaningless actions will not yield any development whereas the repetition of difficult taks
will do.

I agreed with the statement that there are multiple intelligences, despite the attempts of many people
to measure intelligence is savvy to think that one intelligent is not better than the others and the
inclusion of some to make them work together is a better approach to solve problems.

Week 2
Class 1

Something remarkable from this first part of the class is the way in which the human brain selects
between two ways of thinking depending on the difficulty of the task and the quantity of time we have
performed this task, when we encounter a new task a more abstract thinking is apply on the matter
whereas when encountering a daily action our brain just unwind and let its automated part act, I have
notice this kind of interaction in myself, whenever I try to learn something new, my brain just takes it
and even sometimes it overthinks it, some other times I find myself dealing with a chore that has a slight
difference, without noticing the difference my brain continues to process the action ending up with an
undesired output.

For instance, the other I was trying to pour some water in a cup, I took it from I always do, my cups are
always upside down so instinctively flipped it to procced with my objective, the thing is that this time the
cup was not as I supposed and end up pouring my water over the table.

Class 2

Today’s topic was extremely interesting, first we learned some of the techniques that computational
thinking utilizes to solve and process different situations/problems, which are the following ones:

 Decomposition: this technique helps us to identify and isolated differences variables that
influence in the matter, having separated every aspect of the problem make them easier to be
analyzed.
 Pattern recognition: finding similarities between the components of the problem gives us a
connection on which we can base our analysis.
 Abstraction: this works as a filter that one can use to rule out things, it does not give that much
information and annoy one in the full picture this in order to focus and the aspects that really
matter within certain situation.
 algorithm: The algorithm part was the most revealing for me, I have heard the word copious
times before, but never completely understanding the meaning of it, at some point I assumed
that it was just a bunch of math that in some way produced a desire output, or a sort of rules
that were left for a few mathematicians, now I am glad to know that it something more worldly
which I can attain to, knowing that the ubiquitous word “algorithm” is a process and not a law or
convoluted mathematic operation.

Week 3
Pick a group

-resources need: 2 more people

*Analyze the parameters to follow to accomplish the project.

- check the rubric available in Moodle for the project.

*Choose a topic for the podcast:

-the list of options supplied by the professor.

*Brainstorm to determine what we are going to talk about in our podcast:

- a relative calm place to hear each other

*Sort the topics created in a coherent order.

*Create a script :
-Personal computers and a shared word file.

*Find a place to record it:

- A place with good equalization for ensuring good audio quality, as well as a mic and a computer.

*Record it several times and pick the most suitable ones.

*Merge them together and edit the final podcast:

-Editing software.

*Present the podcast.

*Wait for a grade:

- Patience.

Exercise 5

What are other ways to work smart?

Another method I usually use is to Stack one activity after another in that way I utilize my rush of energy
to accomplish everything at once, or sometimes I just try to make the task more pleasurable, one can
make this just by stacking the most pleasurable thing in your list at the end.

Exercise 6

What? The manager of my job didn't give me the position he promised

So what? It stresses me out cause it was good money a need

Now what? Now I'll go there to ask him what happened and hear what he has to say if he doesn't
provide a good answer, I'll look for another job
Week 4

This was an interesting week where we learn a lot of stuff related to the development and creation of
teams, it was amusing to analyze the formation of teams in different faces such as:

1. forming
2. storming
3. norming
4. performing
5. adjourning

The perfect implementation of this process should resolve and a good and stable teamwork which will
be divide into different roles for every single member of the team, some of the member acting in a team
are:

 chairman
 plant
 monitor/ evaluator
 resource investigator
 company worker
 team worker
 finisher

The election of the member for each position should be based on attributes and abilities such as this
abilities and attributes will fit accordingly with the profile of the positions to fill. It is highly
recommended not to favor a person because of the relationships or other sort of connection.

After the creation of a team there are some aspects to determinate, for instance what is the purpose of
the group or the ethical path that the group should follow, and for those reasons the following terms
must be defined:

 Mission and purpose

 Vision
 Values
 Objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound, etc.)
Week 5

During this lecture we learn what a cloud software is and we were shown the big way in which we utilize
it during our daily basis, we also took a look at the services that we as students have available for free,
this resulted extremely interesting to me, mainly because the office services are included as well and
they are super useful when studying a bachelor's degree or any other grade. After that we when to
check the different applications and functions available throughout the office environment.

Despite the convenience of the apps presented, it was not as good as the last part when the version
control was introduced, it appear like a pretty handy way to manage the software that one creates, it
allow to go back in time and check the stuff that you did right in that past version and reestablish it in
the case that it had been deleted, or just to keep track of how your software has evolve, and this makes
a pretty good complement with the git repository system, either for yourself or working with multiple
colleagues

Week 6

Visual communication is a very important part of the introduction of new topics, there are several ways
in which we can represent information, films, expositions, whiteboard, slides, etc. It is also important to
keep in mind that when delivering a presentation, one will come across with different cultures and
different ways of thinking, that we will have to consider preventing possible confrontations.

Recommendations:

 If it is complex break it down

 Try to keep it simple

Delivery.

Timing and rehearse the presentation.

Week 8

During this week we learned about technical writing, and some scenarios where this type of writing
would be useful and in other cases completely required, one pivotal factor at the moment of
transmitting this information is the credibility of the source , it is a very straightforward idea, imagine a
guy who has told you a ton of gossips that had turn out to be false, on the other hand you has the
newspaper reporting facts, one would naturally take more serious the information coming from the
newspaper, this applies to an individual as well, therefore try to keep yourself as most reliable as
possible.
 As a next step it is recommended to analyze the purpose of the text you are going to write, likewise the
reaction expected from your readers, do not let anything to destiny or any other external belief or force,
measuring and analyzing as much as possible will make the difference between and outstanding writing
and an average one.

Collecting information has a huge repercussion in your writing, as you may know this is from where one
will base the writings, we know there exits to main categories of information; the one that you collect
(primary) and the data picked by other people(secondary), checking and rectifying this information will
be your responsibility no matter what category your treating with.

Some other recommendations for keeping your text readable and coherent are:

 do not make it unnecessary complex

 the overuse of pronouns could result confusing for the reader
 practice the readability of your text by reading it aloud
 the use of unnecessary jargon is pointless, show off is not the purpose of technical writing

week 9

during this week we were introduced to a definition and development of critical thinking, I would like to
remark that despite the fact of liking the topic it was introduce very late, I think it would have been
more sensitive to do it for us right of the bat, cause it would have been a very helpful topic for the
implementation of our reflective, in light of the following slices in which reflective writing is treated in
deep.

Apart from this fact It is paramount that one analyzes the Gibbs reflective cycle presented during the
class, this cycle is composed from the following parts:

- Describe: in this stage one must only describe the subject of study.
- Feelings: we proceed to determinate what kind of feelings this evoke.
- Evaluation: judgements and evaluations are being made in this part.
- Analysis: we compare this new experience with previous ones, trying to decompose the
different parts of the subject of study.
- Conclusion: determinate whether we can extrapolate some knowledge from these other
experiences or if more information is needed.
- Action plan: what are the next steps when encountering the next situation like these? This must
be decided during this stage.
Week 10

Academic writing a pivotal not say essential skills for students during college, not online will it be
required in the late faces of our student path, but it will also open the next door for research papers and
more academic/professional projects, regardless of your goals it will always differentiate you from the
other if you can produce good academic writings.

Some aspects to consider when doing an academic writing are: time management, research, structure,
cohesion, grammar, punctuation and spelling. The overall implementation of these aspects in a
academic writing will result critical.

It is worth to mention the importance of the structure, it is usually divided into seven parts:

- Abstract.
- Introduction.
- Literature review: this will provide an overview of the current knowledge on the field.
- Methodology.
- Findings/results.
- Discussion.
- Conclusion.

Week 11

During this week we review what is referencing, how to reference , why we would do it, throughout my
learning time I have noticed how important this practice is, it could carry legal consequences and you
reputation can result damage after being caught, for instance I still can recall how the ex-Mexican
president was accused of plagiarism and after being found guilty, his reputation plummeted, so even if
you make it to the top, a plagiarism will always follow you.

Therefore, I recommend including this practice in all of your academic paper if need, and might always
be needed, there are several ways to reference, some are modern such as; Zotero, Mendeley (the
favorite of yours truly), citethemrightonline, etc., or you could follow the instruction of big institutions,
for instance; Harvard, APA, etc., you get the point there are many ways in which one could reference so
make sure not to miss this part.`
Week 12
This week effective questioning was checked in class, and it extremely remind me of the technique
utilized by Socrates to provoke the reasoning in other people and himself, it is super entertaining and
revealing how little by little he managed to question the ideas given for granted, so I assume this
effective questioning is close if not the same that Socratic questioning.

There are many reasons why effective questioning should be apply, it stimulates recall and allows you
analyze the matter in a different perspective and as said before it involves your partner in the
conversation, this questioning is divided in different types of questions, one of each would count with its
own specific purposed.

 Research question: stablish the topic to be studied.

 Closed question: this just have a right answer and helps remind facts or recall something.
 Open question: this question has different answers, and it promotes thinking.
 Funnel question: this one works like a filter going from general matter until more specific ones.
 Probing question: it looks for more details in statements and helps visualizing what has been
said.
 Rhetorical question: it does not expect any answer from your partner, it just stablishes an
assumption.