Skip to main content

CST 361S - Final Week

When I first started this class, truthfully I did not know what to expect or how I was going to use my skills in some meaningful way. I was already well aware of how great of a tool technology is in our lives, and I felt as if my experiences providing tech support both personally (I'm the family's IT person) and professionally were helpful, but I found it difficult to think about how it would help out my local community.

Working with Computers 2 SD Kids changed my perspectives on how I view technology, and it has inspired me to be more mindful about recycling technology responsibly and how important it is that everyone has access to technology and knows how to use it. Growing up in a family full of technologically inclined people and learning how to use computers from an early age, I had somewhat forgotten that technology is both a luxury and a privilege - not everyone knows how useful computers are, and most unfortunately not all students grow up learning to use computers or even have convenient access to them for their studies. Seeing that these problems exist and affect people in my local communities has inspired me to further contribute my skills and time to increase access to technology for all, and to lessen the gap created by the Digital Divide.

The discussions we had each week on difficult subjects really opened my mind on how culture and society both benefit and detract from using technology, especially in how it affects privilege and power. As much as I believe in the power of technology and its capability to change societies, I also think that we should be cautious in relying too much on it. There are already a multitude of problems arising from overuse of technology, and finding solutions to these problems is an entire field in itself.

Overall, this class was an eventful, yet meaningful experience. It was my first time doing a significant amount of volunteer work, and based on my good experience I have inspired to keep volunteering towards causes I am passionate about.


Over and out,

Cody 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Final Journal

It's the end of a long, four year journey, and what a journey it has been. I never thought I could pull off finishing my second bachelor's degree four years ago when I first went to that introduction to programming class at my community college. I would like to thank all the friends I've made along the way and the people who have helped me through the last two years. Although it was difficult at times taking class while working 40+ hours a week, I'm proud of myself for making it through. I don't think I'll be a student enrolled in classes anytime soon, but I'll always be a lifelong student. See you all around.

CST 300 - Week 4

Educational Goals My current educational goals are to finish my bachelor's degree in computer science while also gaining a deep understanding of the fundamentals along the way. I have always believed that a solid understanding of the fundamentals goes a long way in any skill since you always refer back to them. When I have gotten stuck on a problem or some skill in the past, I have always taken a step back, broken down things into smaller pieces and remembered my fundamentals, and doing so has helped me through a lot of academic and professional work so far. Although I already know basic programming and data structures, I want to learn more about them and discover new ways of thinking in order to solve complex problems.  Career Goals I started a career as a full-time software test analyst about two months ago. Even though my job doesn't involve a lot of programming, getting a degree in computer science would be really helpful in all aspects of my career, such as identif...

CST 499 - Week 4

This week, our team finished most of the major features of our application, CONVEE - aside from front end style components and changes to the user settings page, our application is almost feature complete. I am proud of our group for our accomplishments and making it this far in the program. Additionally, we also finished updating our ILP pages and put together our video outline for the project video. As I have a good amount of experience now in video production (I have edited almost every single required video in each class I've taken so far, both solo and group), I am looking forward to producing this one. This week's topic covered job interviews. I don't have much experience as an interviewer myself, but one of the tips I received from my manager about interviews was to answer each question confidently, even if you feel like you don't know the answer. I feel as if that approach can backfire at times, however it's always good to approach a new or unknown situa...