Introduction of Windows 95 in a Law Office

When I was home for Thanksgiving, I spoke to my Aunt Janie about the most important information technology that was introduced during her time working as a lawyer. She told me that when she was working, computers were installed throughout the entire office, using the Windows 95 operating system. Through this system, all of the lawyers in the firm were able to send an email out to the whole office stating the briefs they had, and sometimes they would get replies with information that lawyers had used in previous cases that applied to the new brief. This system also included word processing, which was extremely helpful. Before they had word processing on computers, my aunt said that all of the lawyers in her office would write out everything and then type it on a typewriter. She said that this system “totally changed their lives” and was revolutionary.

            Although Aunt Janie said that Windows 95 made her office 30 times more efficient, she said that it also had a downside. When the lawyers were able to use word processing systems and look things up online, it changed their ability to find really good quotes in text. She said that the difference is that when you have a hard copy of something in your hands, you can pour over it and think about the wording. However, when you just do a word search you don’t get those interesting types of thoughts. This system made them less creative, because they began to just look for key phrases without interpreting the inner meanings of words. I think that this idea is relevant and applies to some of the struggles students and researchers deal with today. Although I always have an abundance of sources when researching, I find it hard to find the most meaningful quotes to include in a paper.

Blog Reflection

           I was able to feel the growing trend of hybrid courses when I searched online. It responded with not only universities but also community colleges through out the US introducing their own hybrid courses. For example, in Northern Virginia Communities College, they are required to meet once a week in a physical class and once as an online assignment in place of the second meeting. The students are expected to spend at least the same amount of time as they would in a traditional course. The courses differed from ours by having to meet only once a week but considering our course to be a 4-credited, the workload was very similar to that of ours, which required traditional class lecture, online work, and homework assignments. I was able to agree with a student’s advice from the community college that although you don’t have to come to class as often, hybrid classes have bigger workload and lots of responsibility since there are less time to learn from the lecture.

            From my experience with this course, I felt that I was more effective in the virtual world but without the physical world, I would not have learned as much as I did. Again, I was able to learn about my fellow students online but would not have learned as much without the participation in discussion section. Thus, in order for an effective learning experience in hybrid class, there needs to be a good balance between offline and online interactions. I think if the UW instructors find a reasonable balance, increasing the use of online components should position students to learn more efficiently. Other than class work, I learned a lot about the Internet in this class and feel a lot more comfortable in using blogs, as I did not have much experience with it before.

            From learning the substantive materials in this class, I was able to have a broader perspective on the information society. Since I became more knowledgeable, my abilities of researching, working with PowerPoint, and using blogs have improved. Moreover, the materials we learned in class gave me a chance to trace back the historical roots of virtual world and be more attentive to how today’s online system works. I think online courses would eventually follow the same format of this class regardless of having “information” materials. However, the students will need to fulfill a requirement of having a general knowledge of working with online materials before the beginning of each course.

How my Mom uses technology

When I look at my mom using information technologies like her phone or a computer, I see a very awkward interaction between the two entities. I know she did not really have much technology, or even money to say the least, growing up, so I understand why she looks so uncomfortable using technology.
I only ever see her on the laptop when she needs to order something online, whether it be clothes or more clothes. And still, she sometimes needs me, my dad, or my brother to find the website she is looking for because she isn't really great at typing and such. Yet she still rarely uses the computer because she likes to go to a physical store and pick up the clothing she is considering purchasing. I have noticed that, for the most part, I rely on the Internet and online shopping to get the clothes I want because it saves so much time and effort.
When she texts me, the text is really robotic and strange sounding when I read it aloud. I do not know if it's because she doesn't really understand how to word her thoughts or because she feels out of her skin sending it. Sometimes I am worried at the text, sometimes, because she can be a little blunt, and the fact that she never uses any punctuation, makes me wonder the true meaning behind the text. She mainly uses her phone to call and talk to family and people she really needs to contact. So she really keeps her phone usage limited, and I believe that has passed on to me in a way. I am glad it's been slightly passed on because I like to enjoy the world around me, especially when I walk to class and stuff. I do not like being on my phone for longer than 5 minutes because I am afraid I may miss something, and that is how my mom views life.

Extra Credit (Excel Workshop)

I attended an excel workshop at Grainger to receive extra credit. We started off with basics such as highlighting and moving from cell to cell. Then we learned how to sum, multiply, and divide different quantities in rows. Eventually we moved onto some really cool and useful things that I know will be helpful as I progress in the business school. For example, I wasn't aware of this before but you can do "if" functions where if you were to update say, your savings for the year you can set it up to tell you how much more money you need to save for something, or just if you can or cannot afford something. Then he (Trevor) used an example of class schedules and taught us different ways of sorting.

My Blog Reflection

Looking back on my blog posts, I think it is really obvious to tell which topics I am interest in, and which I am not. You can see my personality come out in some of them, and I go more in depth in topics. I think because of this, and because of the more informal nature of my blog posts they are an accurate depiction of how I present myself in class. However I think when it comes to papers I am more formal, and take a more serious approach. So, I think my blog posts and presentation in class are more representative or "true" to who I am as a student. My strengths lie in contribution to discussion and taking what I have learned/read and applying them to other topics.

Blog Reflection

When looking back at all of my blog posts for this class, I realized that the way I present myself on this website and the way I present myself in class is very similar. When I approach these blog posts, I get straight to the point I am trying to make. I write pretty informally, which is similar to the way I speak in class. I do not do this in any other discussion I have in my other classes, which I think says a lot about LIS 201. I like how open the topics are, and I think these blog posts encourage a certain degree of open communication between Professor Downey, the TAs, and students.

I think that my blog post about the social media challenge shows my voice the most, because I was writing about myself. Although my voice and tone are in all of my other posts, it is much more apparent in this post rather than the post about the memex, for example. I think that all of these articles showcase my “talent” the best, because when reading them, I realized I have a pretty consistent voice throughout all of them. This is good for me to see because I love to write, and maybe this is something that would be useful for me in the future.

Extra Credit Opportunity (Software Training)

For extra credit, I decided to attend a two hour HTML and CSS training course.  I'd always wanted to learn how to code and that this would be the perfect opportunity.  During the course they had us design our website from scratch.  I learned the basic of HTML like putting paragraphs and headers on your website as well as pictures, videos, music, links, and etc.  This is definitely a skill I hope to use in the future.  I really enjoyed it and would be interested in taking a follow-up course.

Here is the website they had us create