Thursday 12th December

I began the day by looking at assignment two of information systems again. Today there wasn't a quiz which was quite disappointing. I went on to the third task in the first assignment and managed to get some of it done but I also went on to mark Dan’s work and see if there were any changes and one I completed that I sent it back so he can make the changes I pointed out.

I then had my ILP meeting with John which highlighted my proof reading , and continue listening to music whilst doing my work so I don’t get distracted by off task talk from Shane, Matt, Lewis and Dan. Other than that everything else was good. I managed to get everything I wanted to do which is good.

Wednesday 11 December

Another test was the starting activity for today which saw the return of last week’s computer hardware quiz. The only difference is there were added questions to take the total marks available from 37 up to 54, I was a lot more confident than last week s I knew I had the knowledge after taking the victory last week. But I was still surprised at how many questions I could remember the answers to. So in the end I managed to get a respectable score of 46 out of 54 and the winner only got one more mark than me. Personally I think having these kinds of tests help me retain knowledge I gained in last year’s units so it’s great to be reminded of this, especially as I enjoy hardware.

We then took a look at some current/future technology that needs backers on kickstarter (a site which displays multiple inventions which are looking for investors). One piece of technology we looked at involved the drawing of electronics and turning everyday objects in an input device. Both inventions were amazing, especially the drawing electronics but turning everyday objects into an input device seems somewhat pointless as you could just use a keyboard and mouse. I guess the idea is unique and interesting but not something I can see being sold.

Today John talked to us (the extended 3s) about databases.  It looks like a fairly difficult unit to do but I will get through it in the end. Overall I enjoyed today, a lot of variety in task wise and it will be good to get rid of the assignment one tasks

Tuesday 11th December

Today we started with TED Tuesday, it was Lewis’s test and people didn't seem to enjoy it all too much. Apparently he made the questions 'TOO HARD' now I'm not sure about that, because I managed to 9 out of 14. Once I had won I was presented with a trophy which was in the form of a heat sink.

After such I began work on T2 again and managed to complete it which was a relief because it seemed to drag on and on. I will send it to john over the next couple of day after I have read through it to check that i haven't made any mistakes. I was working with Dan today as he helped me with a bit of the task and in return I began proof reading his work, although I didn't finish because it was home time.

Monday 9th December

Today we started with a game on hardware. It was a quiz with 10 questions every time you got an answer right you got five bullets to try and shoot ducks and frogs. I didn't care too much for the questions so I can't remember my score, but I got something near 9 out of 10 and something like 90% or 85% accuracy but I just enjoyed the hunting side of the game.

After the game we began work, because I was ill Wednesday onward I didn't manage to finish the A1 T2 task of information systems so I continued with that and managed to complete Primary research, Secondary research, qualitative, quantitative and started the second part of the task.

I've been working with Dan and Lewis today because they are slightly ahead of me so I can see roughly how the work should look and what I should include in each part.

Tuesday 3rd December

Today we started with a TED Tuesday; I managed to come second with a score of 9 out of 13 which isn’t too bad at all. Lewis unfortunately lost which means he will have to do the ted test for next Tuesday.

I first began updating work and completed what I wanted to and after I had done that I started on A1 T2 Information systems. With a bit of luck I will be finished tomorrow. From what I hear it isnt hard but it is one of the longer tasks we have to do in this unit.

Monday 2nd December

The day started with the Level 3.5's and John looking at the scheme of learning for the new unit seeing if there was anything we didn't understand. No one seemed to find anything that seemed particularly hard, but all the tasks do look very time consuming which is not a fun time as i can get distracted when things drag out.

Today i began working on A1 T1 of Information systems and by the end of the day i had finished it. once finished it i read through it to check if everything was ok, from my eyes i couldnt find many mistakes only a few changes but when i send it to john it will hopefully only have a few changes .

I have started to updated some of the work John sent back to me and i will continue with that tomorrow so i dont get behind on work

I didn't really work with anyone today because I didn't need the help, other than John helping us at the start and Catherine proof reading my work.

Tuesday 26th November

We began the day by doing what we do every Tuesday and that is a tech quiz. This weeks quiz was from Daniel Bates who found a video about graphene. This video was interesting but I wasn't sure if it was an old video or new video so this changed my opinion of how interesting it was and the armament factor of it.
The questions seemed easy and Daniel even said himself that they weren't that difficult I managed to get the majority of them right.I got 10 ½ /14 which isn't bad but still not good enough to beat Jake (who seems to be the champion of tech Tuesday quizes). Jake managed to 12 out of 14 which was pretty damn good.

After this John introduced the new unit to us (the level 3.5s) and he said that this was a dull unit and will drag on till Christmas.  John also stated that this wasn’t as hard but fairly easy. I decided not to start the unit either Thursday or next Monday.
I wanted to update and code my web banner today and tomorrow which I managed to do. Overall today was laid back and I’m glad we are moving onto something different in terms of the new unit because over the we animation unit I got quite frustrated with Adobe Flash as did Matt.

Monday 25th November

Today we started with watching a video about a CV. It was a guy who put his CV in the form of a video instead of a written CV. We learnt that a CV that stands out is sometimes better than having the grades/skills because it's different to the usual CV. We also learnt of a website called LinkedIn which is a good networking site to get to know employers.

Today Pete looked over our CV's, Pete said they mine was good but because I have one that was from school, I needed to change the layout of my CV but what was on the CV was correct.

We were working on our web animation unit today and finishing off what I wanted too which was all of A and A2 and should have the updated web banner by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. I also need to do a3 t2 which is the final reviewing.

Thursday 21st November

Today we started with a test. We had to listen to a song by weird Al, followed by questions about the song. The test was quite hard but it was created by John so this was to be expected. I got 10/13, which is pretty good considering I could hardly understand what he was saying. This meant that I came joint first with Mr Shane Barnes. The bad news was we didn't win chocolate because I think John has eaten it all.

After that I was working on my animation again. I am really close to finishing but I was having problems with some of the coding but Lewis soon sorted it out for me, all I need to do is add the information of the last for animated pages. 

Wednesday 20th November

Today we started with a technical task, we had to create a paper airplane; but we had to make it how we would create any piece of work. This turned out to be referencing, meaning we had to reference the webpages we got our ideas and help from for the plane.

I didn't do this because I created mine from my head. Anyone's who weren't referenced were thrown in the bin. Only 6 of us made the cut (including John, Me and Lewis); Shane came third, John came second and as for me, I came first. My simple yet evenly balanced, long gliding plan, WON!!! I managed to win some rolo’s.

The rest of the day I was working on my animation. Because I have lots of ActionScript and lots of layers it all got rather confusing so I needed Lewis to help me with some of the coding and where to put what. When he helped I was soon sorted out and knew what I was doing. When it came to doing different coding for different parts, I had to get him to help me again.

In the final part of the day we peer reviewed the animations of the people who finished. Lewis animation came about 5 and Dan won with flying colours, 87 points. I should have it all done by tomorrow, Friday at the latest because I have only bits and bobs to do but using flash can be rather frustrating. 

Tuesday 19th November

Today was the day of Dan’s TED Tuesday! We were lucky enough to be blessed by Dan Summersgill questionnaire; the president of the level 3 extended himself. It was quite hard though because Dan was very specific on the questions, however it wasn't as difficult as Matt's was. Lewis won the quiz today and managed to bag himself a ripple. I came close by getting two point less than him.

Today I started my web banner on Adobe Flash; I got all of the basic assets and part of the way it will work. Tomorrow and Thursday I need to add a lot of coding (ActionScript) to make it a lot more interactive like the task has asked of us to do. I will include links and buttons. The creating of the assets and the actual animation was pretty easy as I remember a fair amount of Flash from last year. To do the ActionScript I will need Lewis help as he started all of that today.

Monday 18th November

Today I came in later due to lack of sleep, if I had come in in the morning I would have fallen asleep within half an hour of being here so I thought it would be better to get some sleep and come in on the second break.

Today I spent time going through the assignment that is meant to be handed in today and I believe I will be finished by the end of the day. I went through all my designs for the animated web banner and decided on which one I wanted to use to create in Adobe Flash.

John wanted us to proof read other student's work in order to improve our feedback on peoples work. This was a repetitive task but it was obvious as to the importance of the task because John was becoming frustrated with marking peoples work and not having correct referencing, grammar and spelling etc. I received back Task one and two of assignment one and there were only about five changes all together. All I need to do is add some images in to make it more relevant. The grade I received back from people was a distinction; I was happy with this as I was aiming to get a distinction. I will finish off the rest of the assignment (task 4 and 5) for Thursday.

Thursday 14 November

When we all came in today we got on with what we were supposed to do, which for me was to carry on with A2 of web animation and update any work that is out standing. John was not coming in till 45 minutes after the day has started because he had a Physiotherapy appointment. 

Today I done half of the specification and will continue with it at home so I can send it to John later on tonight. I managed to update Assignment 2/3 Task 1 and Assignment 3 Task 2 of digital graphics. A2/3 T1 took me longer than I thought because I had to compare my old InDesign to the one John has marked. To make things easier for John to mark my work, I have updated my InDesign document and wrote out my text in a word document so John can look at both. If there are any changes need making then John can do it on the word document instead of the InDesign document, this will make it a lot easier for both of us.

I have sent both A2/3 T1 and A3 T2 to John.

Me, Dan and Shane helped Lewis quite a lot today because he needed our opinions on whether his animation was good or not and what he could do to improve it. So far he has done a very good animation.

Wednesday 13 November

We started the day by looking at three storyboards; we had to rank them from the best to the worst. It was clear the better ones used clear annotations stating the times, colours and so on. We then went on to an animating company’s website, where it showed what animations should include. This showed us that planning is the most important process of the animation because without a good plan, its more than likely the end result won’t be as good as you first thought

I finished my designing phase for web animation today, I have drawn four designs all together and like I said yesterday I will expand on my old design to make it more complicated. All I need to do I complete the specification document and update my Gant chart and I will be done for A2 of web animation.

We are finishing at 3 today because the there is an open evening for Develop. Me and Lewis will now take apart a computer and label all of the components so the people who visit develop can see what a computer consists of.

Tuesday 12 November

John started the day off with Matts TED Tuesday video, he was sadly unable to be here to read the questions out himself. The video was slightly weird, bit like Matt, but never the less i got on with it. The video was about 10 things people thought they knew but actually didn't, it involved the presenter giving some handy hints and tips about simple shortcuts on a computer keyboard that people should know about and some tips about iPhones.

After that John sent us three links to different articles on the BBC website. The first one was about a young lad called Jamal Edwards who become a millionaire just by posting music video of Rappers and Pop starts on YouTube, he has been doing this since he was 15 years old and is now 23 and worth £8 million. That's not too bad at all. 

The second article was about a team from the University of Cambridge found that codes entered on a number-only soft keypad on a smartphone could be identified by using a programme called PIN Skimmer. The software watches your face via the camera and listens to clicks through the microphone as you type. This shows that there are threats in/on your phone where you wouldn't expect them to be.

The Third Article was about Microwave signals that are turned into electrical power. According to this article in the future you will be able to use satellite, sound or wi-fi signals to charge a phone and just be used as general power.

For most of the day is was starting the second assignment in Web Animation, I am currently on the designing phase. I have managed to create two designs today and I am expanding on my web banner from the previous unit. I have also been updating work from the last unit to make sure I am done, i also sent in A3 T2 from Digital Graphics unit.

Thursday 31 October

Today we started off with a Ted test which was unusual because it is Thursday and normally do the Ted tests on a Tuesday, I guess John was feeling very generous. The video was on vector images and combining the photos of everyone in the world to make one big image. The video was made around seven years ago so you would think this technology would be really good now; however because of copyright issues they couldn't just take peoples photos without their permission so that one million dollar idea, didn't go to well so i should imagine it was only a 10 dollar idea in the end.

After we done this i continued working on A3 T2 and managed to complete the Task which means all i need to do now is read through the whole thing and then send it to John so he can mark my work.
This is only a short blog as we had half a day.

Wednesday 30 October

We started the day with a quiz about animation, every couple of questions you had to shoot ducks for some reason? I didn’t understand why that was part of the quiz/game. I managed to get 9 out of 10 which isn’t too bad but Lewis managed to get 10 out of 10. With my accuracy of shooting the ducks I managed to get 90%

After we had done that I began working on a plan for my new web banners. That was until John said we could work on graphics because the unit has to be in by Friday. I cracked on with A3 T2 and managed to get most of it done so hopefully I will finish that tomorrow.

Tuesday 29 October

We began the day with Aaron's technology quiz about how data has an actual physical mass; the video was very technical by a YouTube channel called VSauce and it guides you through their research and how they come to an approximation of the actual weight of the internet. The video ended by summing up that all the information on the internet actually only weighs 0.2 millions of an ounce. The quiz consisted of 12 questions and out of 12 I managed to get 8 which isn’t too bad at all because the winner got 10 out of 12.

After we had completed the quiz I continued working on the first task of the first assignment in the second unit. This consisted of researching where and how animation is used, such as banner ads, animated interface elements, linear and interactive animations, promotion, instruction, information, entertainment; education. John has told the extended level 3's that he wants this task complete before the end of the week and the previous unit in before the end of term next week including all final drafts and front cover sheet filled out, I presume it is because he wants to send it off to get marked.

Monday 28 October

Today we started with a test on the history of data. In the end I managed to get 16 out of 19, which was one mark off the winner which was Lewis. John knew Jake and Shumi were sharing answers so they had to lose a mark each.

Today we started a new unit, this unit was Animation for web. To me the unit looks like a lot of work but I will always try my best to complete the work with highest of my abilities. Although John does say that assignment one task one should only come to about 1000 words.

Once I had read through and made sure my A2/A3 T1 was complete I sent this into john so he can mark it. I also did a bit of work on A3 T1 so hopefully I shall finish this by Wednesday or Thursday.

Thursday 24 October

Today is half day which mean this blog wont be that long.
When we came in this morning John Opened up three BBB Bitesize page in our web browsers. The pages were tests in specific parts of IT, two of the tests were about programming, which really tested me because I had to try and remember from last year what things were. On the first test I manages to get 5 out of 8 and the second one I got 4 out of 6. The final test was all about the hardware side of computer and I managed to get 7 out of 8.

After that John done a test on how quick we could get a connection from where we are (Norfolk) to California, Mountain View. This took 14 milliseconds which means 7 milliseconds there and 7 milliseconds back.

Once we had done all of that, I made sure I had completed all of Assignment 2/3 Task 1. All I needed to do was add my final picture in of the completed graphics. After that I moved on to Assignment 3 Task 2, I managed to complete most of the Logo sections and will continue with it at home over the weekend and continue it next Monday.

Wednesday 23 October

The day began with John showing us a video of the new Apple Mac Desktop that they are releasing later this year. It is has many new technological features, it allows the user to have dual 4K monitors but the most unique feature about the computer is that it wasn’t a tower like traditional computers are (cuboid) but instead it was a cylindrical shape that was very quiet and compact as well as pack with the latest technology and very high spec'd. I had already looked at this when Apple first announced it earlier on in the year.

After this John played a few videos relating to virtual reality devices including the Oculus Rift and the Omni; I already had knowledge of these devices because I had looked at these when they first came about on Kickstarter. The Oculus Rift is a headset display device that the user wears on their head, the device tracks the players head movements so if they turn their head in real life their game character does the same, it allows for 360 degree rotation. The device has two displays inbuilt that allow the user to see in stereoscopic 3D.

The Omni is a device designed to be used alongside the Oculus Rift and the Kinect to make the gaming experience more immiscible and realistic to the player. The Omni is similar to a treadmill as it uses sensors to detect when the user is moving (walking and running) and can also detect the speed the player is moving. The Kinect is for detecting when the player jumps; so if there is an obstacle in the way when playing the game and the only way to get around it is by going over it, the user will jump and the Kinect will detect the user is jumping and the character in the game will jump over the obstacle.

When we had finished watching the videos and had a discussion about them I continued with assignment 2/3 A1 and got some done but before I had a chance to get a lot done some people came from an organisation called MAP to talk to us about all about sex. I could go into a lot of detail but it would be a very long blog as they were there for nearly an hour and a half.

After they had gone we went to Morrison’s for lunch and when we came back we were just in time for the Rap Battle, which was between Martin and Harry. Harry was good but he was tripping a couple of times which of course meant martin would win as he didn’t make any mistake. I was a rather funny lunch.
After all of that I carried on with A3 T1 and I can safely say I am now finished. 45 minutes before home time I had my ILP with John. It went a lot better than I expected and we are both happy with the progress and when I am at. I have a few targets that I can work on to help me throughout the extended level 3 course.

Tuesday 22 October

Today we started with a TED test provided by Charlie. It was a quiz on motor powered skate boards, and how they are more environmentally friendly and a lot cheaper than cars not only to buy but to run as well due to the battery that is charged by the sun. Unfortunately I only go 9 out of 15 which was no way near the lowest score so I was safe and the winner got 12 out of 15.

I was carrying on with A2/A3 T1 today as they are very similar, I had managed to get half way through it and should definitely be finished by tomorrow. I am including my notes that didn’t have for A2 when presenting so I need to remember to the best I can, what I said during the presentation to explain in the document why I have created certain things and chose each graphic.

The extended level 3's took a break around 12:15 PM to watch Lewis present his work as John and Pete felt that his was the best presentation from last week and we could learn from watching it.

When we came back from lunch John made us do an exercise in Photoshop and we had to recreate the simple image he had made on the board and then say the image in different formats, compressed and uncompressed, different colour modes and at different qualities. The purpose of this activity was so we could see first hand how changing each of these things impacts the file size.

Monday 21 October

When we came in today and all settled down John began going through resolution with level threes and three extended, he was showing us a table which showed the resolution you should have for different size paper. John opened an article from the BBC website on our web browsers. This was about cyber bullying statistics, he wanted to show us the figures to see such things as when they give statistics they do not always give numbers of people that took part and not enough people were asked to make it very fair. Yes they asked about 2000 people nearly but think of the millions, perhaps billions of people that are on the internet now days so the statistics could be way off.

As I was ill last Thursday I was unable to do my presentation to Pete. The first half of the morning I was refining A2 in the unit so I was ready to do the Prezi presentation to Pete at half 11.

After I had successfully presented the presentation, I sent out a survey to fellow colleges to get feedback on my logos and animated web banners I had done for A2. Once people finally filled out the survey I was able to analyse the results and see what people thought of them and the improvements I could implement on the logos and web banners.

I have made a start to A3 T1 in this unit so I shall hopefully finish that by Wednesday, which would mean I can make a start on A3 T2, from the looks of it, it is a very long task.

Thursday 10th October

Today will be a short blog as it’s only a half day. Today john done a surprise test for the level threes, and he said we could join in if we wanted to but he said we have done it before and when he said what it was we realised that we have done it about four times before. After that we went straight into working on our graphics tasks. I asked Lewis to see his web banner as he completed it but when he went to open it, he discovered that the web banner was deleted! Luckily he had an earlier version of it so he only had to make a few changes to get it back to its old state.

The rest of the day I was working on A2 for graphics. I was finishing off both banners which are now complete and I realised that I missed a couple of things out on my rollovers so I made sure I completed that as well. The banners take surprisingly long but I am glad I have finished them so they are out of the way. All I need to do is the Copy Right and Ethnical document.

Wednesday 9 October

Today we started with the wiki game, we went onto Wikipedia page raster graphics, we then had to get to get to the word banana only using links on Wikipedia. I did it in four links; the winner was Jake Nichols who did it in 3. We then had to do a few questionnaires for Catherine and Develop which would let them know about our learning styles and which way we should be taught. The Develop survey was about whether we are happy with the course and we are learning etc.

After the admin tasks we went onto making our navigation bar, rollover button and finishing off our web banner(s). I completed three navigation bars and two rollovers. So I just need to finish off my second webs banner and add the last bit to first web banner and also scan in my design documents and then I've finished A2 for graphics. 

Tuesday 8th October

Today we began with a TED Tuesday, although the video wasn't from TED it was from YouTube so I guess we could call it YouTube test Tuesday, which doesn't have such a ring to it. It was an extract from gadget man about upcoming technologies. It was pretty easy in my opinion, it was rather easy as I got 9 out of 10 but Lewis and Matt got full marks so they had to rock paper scissors lizard spock for the chocolate bar. Lewis won by throwing his rock into it.

After such I began making my web banner on Flash I managed to create almost one and I was refining my logos in Illustrator and creating some more ideas so I can have a wide variety to choose form.

Today was an accomplishing day by getting all logos done and creating most of my banner in flash.

Monday 7 October

Today when we all came in the extended level threes (including) received their grade and certificate for last year. I was handed in my level 3 certificate. I achieved a Distinction Merit overall. This was pretty good as i aimed for a Merit, Merit so i was pleased that i got this and also I've been waiting for this certificate for ages!!

We began the day with a 5 year plan, of where we see ourselves in 5 years. By 2018 I planned on earning over a million a year… You can Dream. We then cracked on by working on our logos I was making revisions to existing to designs. I created 6 or 7 designs all together in Illustrator.

I then began making story boards for my web animations, it was pretty simple but I did have to think of ideas which weren't all that easy but I managed to come up with four designs altogether. I worked with Matt and Lewis today. We reviewed each other’s work and found ways to improve each other’s. overall it was a good day.

Thursday 3rd October

Today John began with another logo quick except this one gave you the answer a well as a wrong answers. I managed to get 97 percent out of 100 which was on of the highest in the class. Getting 97% meant that I only got on wrong which wasn't to bad at all.

Today I continue with the first assignment in the graphics unit. I went through it all and and updated some parts which may have been wrong and I have now completed it which means I will send it in to john later on once I have proof read it at home.

Throughout the day Lewis kept asking for our opinion on his logo designs and he has come up with some good ideas. I will look forward to his finished designs. When I come back next Monday I will crack on with my designs and hopefully the outcome will be pleasing.

Wednesday 2nd October

Today we started with a logo game, there were 36 logos in total on the screen and you had to name as many as we could in a set amount of time. I believe it was 6 minutes we had to name all off them.  The problem was they were American companies most people didn't know what they all were.

After such we began assignment 2 of graphics/web animations because it was the next task in the graphics unit and it happened to be similar to the web design unit. Most of the unit was planning for what graphics we are going to make for a company called Develop. I did however get to do some preliminary designs on paper which was useful. I managed to get about 20 odd designs but will only make four of them and then pick the best two. Because we are doing an IT course we all instantly thought that it had to do with technology but it has to be a general design that can be used for anything.

The level 3.5's also had to look at our A1s for graphics because some of us had been misunderstanding the task. Not even Dan got it right and he's the president of level 3 extended. I haven’t handed mine in yet and when john went through the other two he said we could have till tomorrow to refine the first draft and to make sure we haven’t made any mistakes like Lewis and Dan had done.

Tuesday 1st October

John started the day off with a TED test from Martin whom is a level 3; it was particularly hard compared to other test, this was because the questions he picked were very specific. I got 7 ½  out of 24, which may sound pretty bad but most people got  a lot worse than me so. Out of the 3.5’s I think Lewis won by getting 8 out of 24.

Once that was done John gave us the task of creating a golden ticket for the Vauxhall holiday parks 50th anniversary. He briefed us on where to find all of the files and images that needed/could use when creating it. 

I drew a few designs on paper and then implemented them into Photoshop. Once I had completed them I didn't really like them. I played around with Photoshop for a while to see if I could make them any better but nothing…

After lunch my design suddenly came to me, I cracked on with it and it took me the rest of the day to complete the front and back to tweak everything to make it as best as possible. I put a good effect on the 50th anniversary coin; the effect I put on was flair to make the coin look like it is shining.

Monday 30th September

Today we started with a tutorial from Catherine. She was informing us about different university options and opportunities and the different routes we could take to work. We have been assigned homework of looking up potential universities and writing our personal statement for 5 weeks’ time. I have invited Lewis to come with me to Lincoln University to see what the whole place is like and what courses they offer.

After that we continued with A1 for graphics again, I managed to get the majority of what I wanted to get done and should hopefully be done by tonight if not by tomorrow.

The rest of the day the level 3.5s taught the level 3s how to use Photoshop and Illustrator. I was tasked with Photoshop but yet to do mine as we ran out of time so I will be doing mine tomorrow morning.
Matt and Lewis presented theirs rather well and went rather smooth but Shane and Dan on the other hand were having some preparation issues with theirs and couldn't get their messages across to the class and seemed to confuse them….a lot

Thursday 26 September

Today we started with a task that john requested us to do. Johns other half, works at a holiday resort in Great Yarmouth and has decided to have a little competition in our class by letting us create the golden ticket for the 50th anniversary for her company. Today we were working on questions we would have to ask her for when we have to create it. I managed to come up with 7 questions but by the time it was my turn to say, everyone had said what I had. We are hoping to start the actual making of it on Monday.

I then began work on A1 for graphics again, I managed to get a fair bit done and I am confident that I will finish tomorrow when we are off. I have enjoyed this week because I was able to learn how to use a new program that I had never heard of before this week (InDesign).

Wednesday 25 September

Today we started with graphic formats and seeing who could name the most, once again I came fourth, I managed to name 10. Anyway we then began writing about a specific file format, mine was .BMP. I thought I did pretty well, but then the level 3 who also did .BMP done well but I managed to get more useful information. It would have been easier if I had internet access but I didn't because my knowledge is meant to be superior to that of a level 3.

We then began working on A1 for graphics. It was pretty good I only have a little bit left to do about a quarter of the work so hopefully I will be finished by Friday. I probably would have finished today but I was familiarising myself with Photoshop for the level 3s on Monday for the tutorials, I done this in the afternoon.  Lewis seems to be the Photoshop King now Ben and Scott has left.

Tuesday 24 September

Today we started with a Ted Tuesday which was a lot harder than usual. I managed to get 10 mark altogether which was third or fourth in the class.

After we had completed the TED test we began working on the first task again. I got a lot more work done today because I now know how to use InDesign because of spending nearly half a day watching tutorials and getting uses to it. This means I should complete the task on Thursday or Friday, depending on how well I do the rest of my research.  I was working with Matt and Lewis today, we were proof reading each other’s work and commenting on each other’s designs so we could improve our work for the better.

Monday 23 September

Today we started with a test, which is probably to prepare for tomorrows TED Tuesday. As usual the loser of tomorrows TED test has to make next week’s test. I should do alright for the next couple of weeks because the level 3's won't think of doing hard tests for a while but in actual fact john will make them pretty hard. Plus I will have more experience on how to go about doing them.

After that we then carried on with our first piece of work, it was pretty easy but since we are making it in InDesign it is a little bit harder as we have to learn how to use it. This isn't all bad though because in the future we will already know how to use it and then we can have our work looking more professional. For today I just done half of the research for the work and I will write it up in word and learn InDesign tomorrow. The work itself I haven't had any problems with.

Day 3 of Extended Level 3

Today was the third day back at develop and the third and final introduction day. we began by recapping what we had done yesterday and familiarising our selves of what is inside a computer.
After that john gave us eight question to ask a partner we didn't know that well. my partner was Mr Daniel Bates. I learnt a very interesting fact about him, this fact was that he was born with three broken toes..... never knew that cold happen.

Before and after break we had to create our own computer on PC Specialist. each computer had to be cheap as possible but for relevant jobs. for example we had to create one for a hardcore gamer, one for video editing and a few others. Those two would have to be the most expensive because the hardware needed for the jobs would have to be rather high specification. The price range for them would be from £900 all the way up to £4000, which to be honest is exactly cheap.

I enjoyed today as we were able to get to know each other and find out interesting things about one an other.

Day 2 of Extended Level 3

Today we had another introduction day where we began with proof reading. I didn't enjoy it too much because we did this a few times last year, however I do have to admit I wasn't very good at it when it came to doing it last year but this year I shall improve on this. We had to read through 6 different pieces of work that had been done last year by level twos and threes. we had to make improvements on it as it was needed.

In the afternoon we were learning about the Harvard reference system, we all done this so that we can make sure our work wasn't classed as plagiarism. This is very useful if we want to go university after completing this course simply because it makes our lives easier as we will already know how to do them.

after that we were put in to groups of three or four, we were then given one computer between us. the extended level threes were not allowed to help them take it apart and put it back together but only assist them if they needed any help.

First Day of Extended Level 3

Today is our first day back of a new college year! This time I am starting extended level three, it will entail new adventures that will test my abilities in IT.

There has been many changes since I have been away on my holidays, they have changed down stairs in to a full PC suit and moved all of the Macs up stairs so there can be a separate suit specifically for Macs. They have added an extra room for the level two's and added a lot more tables and chairs in the kitchen. The sitting area may be smaller but the whole of the develop center looks a lot more professional and up to date.

I have looked over the units we will be doing whilst at develop from 2013 to 2014. I like the look of what we will be doing and what each unit includes. As always I will be looking forward to the hardware units most of all.

Today we have covered all of the basics like we done at the beginning of last year, which means I am already familiar with the protocols.