A new year, new semester.

The feeling of dread that accompanied me throughout the Christmas holidays has now been laid to rest and the realisation of my assignment results has sunk in. Admittedly, I initially thought that I had referred both of my assignments and that I would be spending the first half of this term juggling four assignments instead of the preferred two. Instead, I am juggling three – my A4 assignment needs some work doing to it, which I completed expected. Over the duration of last term, my time planning went down the pan. External factors beyond my control meant that I wasn’t able to keep up with my schedule, which meant in the end I did whatever it would take just to be able to hand my work in on time. Due to those external factors, I’ve been given an insight as to what could happen when I’m in employment while working to a deadline. Staying up all night so that a deadline can be achieved was a tense but worthwhile experience, although, I’d try to avoid it where possible in the future.

Back to college and a new semester has brought us two new assignments in the shape of:

A5 – Builder
This assignment is a continuation of A3 – Back to BASIC. It requires me to build the website that I planned using Adobe Dreamweaver and put it through rigorous testing to ensure that it works fully. Usability testing will be needed for this, so feedback will be needed in the shape of a feedback form.

This assignment is the one I’ve been looking forward to the most. Since the beginning of the course I have been wanting to dive straight into the building of a website. Until now, I didn’t realise the sheer amount of work that goes into a website before an authoring program such as Adobe Dreamweaver is even opened.

A6 – Revert to Type
A portfolio assignment consisting of a number of tasks. This assignment will be another challenging one for me. Typography is another area of creative media that I know nothing about. The final piece of Revert to Type will be a five minute presentation on my notable typographer – Stanley Morison.

I’m starting to get used to the idea of presentations now, last time I managed to nail my timing so that can hopefully be a skill I can carry forward. A few factors could be worked on, the fact that I like playing with my hand out would be a good start and sounding breathless as I speak (breathless through sheer panic!). Already the ideas for the visual aids are flowing, so I can’t wait to get cracking on with these.

From receiving my feedback, I’ve realised a lot of things about myself and my work. So over the next term I want to improve:

• Time Planning – my planning in general isn’t too bad overall, but I want to make it more rigid. I’ve decided that throughout the week, I will do at least 4 hours a night of work (once my daughter is in bed), this will ensure that a minimum 20 hours per week is done and should make sure that I keep on top of things. I will then have my weekends free to have family time or continue to do work if needed.
• Referencing – although I haven’t had a problem writing down the references that I’ve used to include in my work. I find that sometimes I’m almost forgetting to write down the date I’ve accessed the websites. From now on, I should write down all websites that I’ve been on, regardless of whether or not I have used anything from them in my work. This will show that I am capable of deciding what makes good information and will enable me to cross reference.
• Check my work more thoroughly – stupid mistakes were pointed out today that when I looked at them made me think “Well, that was stupid. What a silly mistake to make”. Therefore I need to set more time aside before submission date to proof read through my work and leave myself extra time to amend mistakes, just in case any are made. This will help me to decrease the number of mistakes I’m making.
  

So, with a lot of work to be getting on with, my time planning for the next few weeks will be definitely over 24 hours of self study per week. I feel that this will help me to get out of the ‘referral trap’ that was mentioned in class yesterday.

Thanks for reading.
Sue