The Web Club Goes on an EPIC Trip

Some of the Web Developer Club members at MPTC before leaving to visit EPIC Creative

A local company graciously opened their doors for us during our spring break so we could learn from them about the “real world.” We are very thankful they didn’t mind taking all 15 of us on a tour through their facilities and answering the many questions we had for them.

EPIC Creative is an ad agency that specializes in a little bit of everything from web design, to video, to social media and much, much more. For the Web Club members, both consisting of web design and interactive media program students, it was an opportunity to find out the tools, both physical and intellectual, needed to succeed in this kind of business.

Our guide gave us some great advice about working with clients. You should never forget that they are the boss, and the reason you get to do what you love to do is because they are paying for it. He also stressed the importance of planning, lots of planning, before doing anything.

An EPIC Creative postcard

Since most of us in the club are in the IT-Web Designer/Developer program, he spoke to us about web trends. It’s nice to know that the things we learn and discuss in class and at club meetings, like PHP, responsive design, JavaScript, and Facebook, are the kinds of tools we need to be focusing on.

After the tour, the club members stopped for a bite to eat and to discuss what we enjoyed most from our visit to EPIC Creative. We got into a discussion about technology, all the things we should know, and how it’s always changing. It’s a bit daunting, but our club advisor used an analogy to explain this situation. Web design is like designing a car. There’s always going to be something new and the cars will look different, but it’s still going to have the same basic parts. At its foundation it will still be a car. If you have a good foundation and keep learning, you’ll be able to build it.

On behalf of the Web Developer Club of MPTC, I’d like to thank EPIC Creative again for taking time out of their busy schedule. Thank you!

The Last Week Before Spring Break

Week in Review: A Reflection of March 11 – 17

Despite the snow and cold temperatures, last week really was the final week before spring break. I’m jealous that a handful of MPTC students probably spent their week packing for spring break in London, but I’m also happy for them since it’s an awesome opportunity to travel and learn.

I had to stay focused on my classes, because we are in the middle of lots of important material. In our current learning plan for Computer Essentials, we’re learning the real nuts and bolts of computer technology. I know a lot about computers, but I didn’t really know how they worked. I have a better sense of what a processor does, how RAM works, and what it takes for the parts of the computer to communicate with each other. I’m in awe of what humans were able to create. I’m hoping that since I know more about how a computer works that I’ll be able to better troubleshoot and fix my own problems.

Speaking of problems, in my Team Building and Problem Solving class, I was chosen to be team leader. I’m responsible for setting the agenda and distributing it before meetings and facilitating meetings. I’m pretty excited about our real world problem in which we will try to solve the issue of emergency drill participation.

During spring break, I’ll be meeting up with the Web Developer Club for a trip to a local business for a tour. After the tour, we’re going out to dinner and having an informal meeting.

Even though I won’t be leaving town for spring break, I am looking forward to going to Minnesota in April for the NACA conference. In some way, it feels like it’ll be my spring break. Maybe it’ll feel like spring by then?

Learning Technology and Problem Solving Through Hands-On Learning

I’ve been so focused on the routine of going to class and doing homework that the weeks are just flying by. I realized how fast time is going when I looked at my calendar and saw that it will be spring break soon. That means we’re near the halfway point of the spring semester.

During last week’s Document Management class, we got some hands-on time with a pretty cool scanner located in our classroom. It’s very user friendly and has a lot of nice features, like scanning multiple documents at once and automatically saving them as individual documents. We each took a turn experimenting with the settings.

Since my Document Management class is small, as an activity, we created an online file structure that is password protected that only we can access. We had to draw up the file structure before we created the folders, and we had to come up with file naming rules. We put class-related PDFs into those folders. It was a pretty good simulation of what it would be like to work in an office where you use a shared network.

Our class file structure on a shared network

In my Team Building and Problem Solving class, we are starting to incorporate what we’ve learned about teams and what we’ve learned about problem solving. In our groups, we’re creating agendas, meeting minutes, and ground rules. We’re also researching, writing problem statements, and doing root cause analyses. It’s a systematic way to problem solving I’ve never learned before. I can see how it’s helpful, especially for businesses that need to deal with complex issues.

How is your semester going? What do you have planned for spring break?

Finished With February

Week in Review: A Reflection of February 25 – March 3

February is such a short month. When I looked at my calendar I first thought I was missing a few days. Nope. We’re finished with February and moving into, hopefully, the spring months.

Snow got in the way of plans again this past week. One of my classes was canceled. However, since so many things can be done using e-mail and eCollege, we were still able to move along with some of the material.

Our instructor sent us an e-mail notifying us that class was canceled. She gave us a list of activities we could find on eCollege to complete. Some of the things we were to talk about in class she had us post to the discussion boards on eCollege. A discussion board is kind of like a forum. The instructor posts a question or task and the students respond to the question. Students can respond to other students’ postings. I’ve used the discussion board in nearly most, if not all, of my classes, especially the online classes.

I hope that the weather conditions are better this month so I don’t have any more cancelations. What do you think the weather will be like this March?