Tutorial 3 (Systems Analyst)

While watching our lectures, I thought that the lesson on System Analysts was interesting. Especially when they performed the interview with a professional System Analyst/Project Manager. When I think of a System Analyst I had always thought more of a social recluse typing away in a dark room...well maybe not that extreme, but I was really surprised to learn that the job contained more social aspects than even technical ones. So I thought a good topic for our 3^rd tutorial would be a little more in depth explanation of what exactly a System Analyst does.

According to O*Net.com a Systems Analyst make on average $77,080 annually, and their interest code is ICR (Investigative, Conventional, Realistic). Some important skills for a Systems Analyst according to O*Net.com are...

• Critical Thinking

• Active Listening

• Reading Comprehension

• Speaking

• Systems Analysis

• Complex Problem Solving

• Judgment and Decision Making

• Programming

• Systems Evaluation
  

• Writing

To read the full summary report of a System Analyst go to http://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1051.00.

And if you think like I did that the only places that hire System Analysts are Universities and Financial Institutions, think again! Here are some cool places that hire System Analysts...

• Disney World (Orlando, FL.)

• Paramount Pictures (Hollywood, CA.)

• ESPN (Bristol, CT)

• San Diego Zoo Global (San Diego, CA.)

• ConAgra Foods (Omaha, NE.)

As I was browsing the web, looking for more of a scoop into the life of a System Analyst, I found this great interview on a website called Mycooljob.org. The interview was with Bettina Bair, and during the interview when asked what she liked most about her job she responded, “I love being the person that everyone goes to when they have a problem with their computer, knowing that I can fix it.” That response said a lot about the type of person she was, and I thought it was a great view into the type of person who would choose to become a System Analyst. System Analysts are tech-savvy, dedicated, social people who want to help other people solve their problems. You can read the rest of Ms. Bair's interview here at http://mycooljob.org/wise/systems_analyst.php.

Overall, a Systems Analyst has an interesting, important job that allows them to interact with a lot of different people and to work in some of the most exciting industries in the world.

(The Top photo was taken from Stock.Xchng.com @ http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1116902)

(The Bottom Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Database Project

I learned A LOT during this project…Since I had never worked with Microsoft Access before I felt like everything I needed to do for the project was something completely new that I had to learn. One thing in particular that surprised me about Access were the Reports and Forms. I didn’t realize that Access could create professional looking documents with just a few simple clicks.

Above is a Screen shot of a Form in Access that I took using Jing.

While I was working on this project my mind kept racing in a billion different directions on all the ways this program could be used. Obviously, as we learned during the lectures and while doing the project, Access is great for keeping records of products, people and dates. But I was thinking, since it automatically assigns numbers to lists, it could also be used to organize buildings (for instance City Planners could use it to organize their work), patients (Doctors could assign a random number to each patient to ensure confidentiality), subjects (Researchers could use the random numbers to assign to test subjects to keep those that are placebo's a secret). I'm sure that these reasons are already being used, and that there are also about a million others that I haven't even thought of!

All in all, I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn more about Microsoft Access and its MANY features. I'm sure that I will be using this program in the future...in a lot of different ways!

Web 2.0 Project

Below is my Presentation for the Web 2.0 Project. I chose to do a presentation on a nonprofit company called “Man In The Mirror” which is an organization designed to help men become better husbands and fathers.

Self-Critique:

Its always difficult to critique your own work, but I think for the most part that my project flowed logically. I tried to think of any possible questions before hand and attempted to answer them before the viewer would think to ask. The opening of my presentation was attention grabbing, I used soft music and interesting statistics to pull the audience in.

I asked several direct questions to spark interest (which I immediately answered). But one of the things I could have worked on a little more was validating my claims, I probably could have added more statistics, or shown some more examples of how MIM has helped solve the problem I set up in the beginning of the presentation.

I really wanted to avoid clutter in my presentation so I made it as simple as I possibly could. I think this also helped with the presentation's readability, since there are very few words on the screen, the viewer is able to read them quickly, and still follow what I am saying in my presentation.

Overall (at the risk of sounding a little biased), I think it is a very good presentation. It's short, direct and interesting to watch and I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Peer-Critique:

Its a little difficult to critique someone's work too, because you want to be honest and give good feedback, but at the same time you don't want to hurt their feelings. In my case it was really easy though, since I thought the one I critiqued was great! Critiquing someone's work does open your eyes to holes in your own work though. For instance, while I was critiquing my peer's project, I was thinking about how my presentation stacked up against the rubric.

What I learned:

I learned a lot from this project...mostly from making mistakes while I was learning how to use the different video capture programs.

I loved using Prezi, its really easy and fun to use. Also, Camtasia is phenomenal! Once I created my Prezi and recorded the voice over, all that was left was to capture the Prezi and add the audio to the video capture.

I will definitely be using both Prezi and Camtasia in my future, they are great programs to have in a business environment. I think Prezi is a great alternative to PowerPoint since it is so interesting visually and is really easy to create. Camtasia is also a great tool for any business since you can make a professional looking product with a few simple clicks.

This was such a fun project to work on, I loved learning how to use new tools and having to think creatively...I hope you enjoy the presentation and I hope that I get a chance to work with these wonderful tools (and maybe some new ones too) in the near future.