Monday 19th May

To start the day off John had asked what the numbers meant on the board, as many people guessed it was to do with the remaining course days. In total we have about 38 days (five weeks) remaining or 19 course days remaining. This was a bit worrying for a lot of people and I have been worried about this approaching finish date for a while now but I tend not to think about it otherwise the quality of my work goes down as I’m rushing. So I just don't think about it and get on with the work I have remaining at my own pace, so I know what I am writing is correct. I am confident I will finish on the day as long as I really crack on.
After that John introduced the new unit, which is the final unit for the extended 3's. This new unit is called Mobile Communications. This unit is a L2 unit which means it should be easier than previous units we have done and after looking at the scheme of learning I completely agree. As I have a fair amount of knowledge on mobile communication I am confident I will finish this unit by next Monday or Tuesday. So overall found today to be a bit more rushed than usual as John really wants everyone to get a move on a complete everything.

Thursday 1st May

Today we were back with john, he first greeted us with a few links he wanted to show us on of the coolest things was that someone turned their raspberry pi into a mini phone by attaching a touch screen to it.
after that I cracked on with work that needs doing. I have almost finished assignment 1 task 2 of installing and upgrading software. I have started this task but them forgot about it, after a couple of hours of doing this piece of work I got a tad bored with it so i decided to start on assignment 1 task 3. I managed to get half way through that so hopefully I can send these two pieces of work to john later on tonight when I go to do them. I asked George how far he has got with his game because a few weeks ago I knew he was having trouble creating it in unity so he decided to go to game maker instead. He has almost finished it and only needs to add a couple of power ups, despite this I played his game and it is an enjoyable game but quite hard. It took me a lot of attempt on level one but the second level it only took me three tries.
overall I enjoyed today because I was able to have free reign and get on with work that really needs to be completed.

Wednesday 30th April

Today I began on completing my website design. I managed to get a nice clean design that isn’t too complicated but may take time to code, this only due to my inability to code that well. I moved the designs from Photoshop to Illustrator because of image quality issues, once that was complete I moved on to the creation of the Phoenix website.

When we were discussing this part of the Unit, Dan stated that it should be rather easy as it isn’t very complicated coding. Well today that statement was retracted by him as he had a lot of trouble with the placement of boxes, this was when I realised that it would be very difficult and time consuming unit. I started on creating my website but didn't get that far like Dan because I too was having trouble and got confused with the coding at certain points.

I was then able to move each button individually which allowed me to move on. I am relatively happy with the progress made on the website even though I haven’t got all that far.

Tuesday 29th April

Today I finished off another unit with only twos tasks I had to complete I handed the second drafts in last night which meant I could now hand in the whole unit. I hope to complete Installing and upgrading software by Sunday or Monday, I have quite a few tasks to do but if I put the time in I will be able to complete it. To begin the day off I was finishing the logo design for the website Phoenix, this took me longer than expected because I kept having many new designs pop into my head. I chose two of the best and created them using Adobe Illustrator.

Once that was complete I moved onto the design of the website, this was something that I wasn't looking forward to because I thought it would take forever and guess what it did, I will finish that off tomorrow and hopefully start on my website creation.

Today for the extended level threes was mostly an independent working environment as Zoe was focusing on the level 3's because they need to complete three units in just over six weeks. So overall I really enjoyed today due to the graphics work I was doing because I am able to get my creative skills out.

Monday 28th April

Today is the first day back at Develop after the Easter holidays (a week off) and everyone still seemed a bit hyper from their week off. At the beginning of the day Zoe asked if we (the extended 3's) had completed the home work which had been set before the Easter holidays. Of course no one had completed it, which wasn't a big surprise, so Zoe told everyone who didn't complete it to do it now. I went through the tasks which Zoe had set and once I had completed that I went onto some tasks that would help me for when we start making the website. Once I had finished them I moved onto the first task of the third assignment, which were the initial steps to creating the website.

After a while myself and Dan got a little bit bored so we moved onto creating the logo and background for the pages of our upcoming website. Overall I enjoyed today as it was a relaxed environment, more so than before the holidays, which allowed me to slowly work my way back into work mode. I also learned more about html code and how long it takes to create one page. The example page tasks that Zoe set us this morning will come in handy when I actually start my website. My goals for this week is to complete the majority of this unit and try to get up to date with previous units, that should allow me to start the final unit in mid-May to en-may and finish in time.

Wednesday 12th March

Before I came in this morning I had an informal interview with a lady called Jo from John Lewis. I received a called last night asking me when I would like to go for an interview; this interview would be for the work experience with the computer systems support team there. I had already been offered it before I had actually done the interview. In this interview she went through everything like what I would be doing and what I need to wear whilst I am there. I start next Friday the 21^st of March 2014. Hopefully this will lead to good thing and I’m hoping I will either be offer an apprenticeship or a job later one. I am hoping either of the two will happen because John Lewis seems to pay well and seem like they look after their employees.

When I came in around lunch time I was told that I missed a task that the extended level 3’s had to do. This task involved splitting into two groups and writing down all possible problems that could occur with a system from hardware to software related issues.

After lunch I was with Lewis, Dan and Matt and watching what they were doing in the new unit, to be honest neither of them seemed too confident when installing or diagnosing what the problem was with their systems as I had to help them.  Whilst I was over there John was going through the slots in the motherboard and where the LED lights, USB, Power button etc. goes. He also went through the health and safety issues as Matt was irritating him a lot and told us that we would know about an electric shock as our ‘area’ would be tingling.

Tuesday 11th March

Once again it was time for one lucky person to obtain the two screens package and this week it was Dan’s turn to present us with a TED Test. His video was about project Christine which is a new concept design created by Razor for the future of gaming PC's. This is something I am very excited about and I hope to hear more about the development of project Christine as it comes out of concept and become a reality. Today wasn't my day but I wasn't too bothered as I don’t really want dual monitors, anyway Mitchel who turned down the opportunity to have dual screens last week, won this week instead with Aaron and Lewis coming in as runner ups. So next week its Martins turn once again to do a test. I expect his test to be absolutely ridiculous just like other times.

Before I began working today John went through what the unit would involve. I thought the first task was very lengthy but not as bad as Matthew had previously stated; the part which I thought would be challenging but not too difficult was the second assignment. In this assignment we must locate errors in a computer system and then talk John through how to fix it. We were also informed today that the vending machine will be arriving in the next month or so which is great for most people as they won’t have to walk to Morrison’s just to get things like chocolate, crisps etc. I was working on outstanding working so I was going back and forth. I also did a little bit of the last task of web animation that needs completing.