CST 361s - Week 8

This was the final week of the course and was a shorter week then normal. It has been a bit of a scramble attempting to deploy our working site, but I think we are getting close. After attempting to deploy to a few different hosts we finally settled on DigitalOcean and are waiting to hear back from CalGE in order to get the go ahead with launching the site. We are turning in all of our papers we can today, the others we have to wait to hear back from CalGE before submitting and then soon will be deploying the site. I am excited at what we were able to accomplish in less than a four week period, all things considered, and the site itself works well locally.

This week my total service is at 43 hours.

CST 361s - Week 7

This week has been a little interesting. I was having some issues with the CalGE site that I worked on with the clock in and out system not functioning properly. This I believe I finally got working today, but I have been working on it for the better part of a week thus far and lost out on some progress because of it. Now that it is complete I will hopefully figure out how and where to host the site by thursday and will finish all of my submissions by Friday, it will be tight but if I can get the site to work and be hosted properly then I think that will free up some time to work on the other projects. My team and I have been working hard this past week and I believe are caught up on most paperwork with this short weeks requirements being all that’s left, but we will need to get our final hours and reviews done by our Partner very soon.

This week I have completed 36 hours to date.

CST 361s - Week 6

This week I made a working example of the site project we are working on. I have a working log-in and sign-up form along with a working profile page where each user can add the specific information expected by our site lead. I have started working on a viewing page for the timecard punches as well and hopefully that will be working soon so I can begin work on a way to fill out a  card with the current time. I have continued with the weekly assignments including the interesting documentary provided on the new learning style being attempted. We also worked on our post-service reflection and compared how we felt now with where our opinions and beliefs were prior to beginning service. I’m hoping to finish up the site soon, figure out a proper hosting site, and then work on documentation and hand over the completed project to our contact at CalGE.

This week I have completed 16 hours and 15 minutes of my Service Learning Project.

CST 361s - Week 5

This week has been a little busy personally as I am in the middle of my move right now and have been on the road the past few days. I have been keeping in contact with my teammates as we have started working on our service project together. One of us is in the area of our Service Learning Partner and will be taking pictures and walking around the community for the Community Scan and we will work together on the final submission. I have been learning Django for the project page and find it quite interesting and fun. I’m hoping to finish my tutorial series and test projects within the next week or so and begin work on the final product website.

The Black Girls Code program seems like an interesting way to introduce an underrepresented demographic to the field of Computer Science. It often seems that the barrier to computer science comes from a mythologizing of the abilities necessary to be successful or even competent in the field. By introducing kids to the field early on, and equipping them with useful and applicable skills, the myth that only “geniuses” can study computer science will be shattered and historically underrepresented groups will join in greater numbers.

I have completed 10 hours of service on my project to date.

CST 361s - Week 4

This week we began our working together on our project, we are currently in the research and design phase where we will decide upon how to best implement our application and how it ought to appear. I recently came across django and am curious as I believe that by utilizing it we can minimize the amount of work necessary for it to function properly. As such we should be able relegate our programming to only Python, CSS and HTML to accomplish the web app. I have also looked into google App Engine and started working on the google cloud sdk for hosting our website once it is complete. I am going to be busy over the next couple of days due to a personal relocation and hope to make progress on the assignment soon.

CST 361s - Week 3

This week I began contact with my partner CalGE. I will be working with two students who are a part of my cohort in this project. The project itself sounds quite interesting as we are going to build a place for summer camp attendees to put their personal information in and to keep track of their attendance and hours at the camp. I sent in the Agreement and hope to finish that. My proposal draft is under way and I will hopefully finish that and be caught up in coursework soon. I am looking forward to working alongside my teammates and building the best program we can.

CST 361s - Week 2

This week I continued my search for a service learning partner, my Professor and TA are aiding me in finding a virtual volunteer opportunity due to personal circumstances. I am hoping to find a site soon to begin the process of the project. I am hoping to take picture of whatever Partner I will be aiding, and perhaps a picture of any of the individuals helped by my contribution. I would also probably take pictures or videos of skills that I will need to either learn or practice more in order to complete the project. I enjoyed going through this weeks reading and videos as well as our reflective work on our and our family’s history with technology. It was interesting to work on the Forum, as I was a member of the moderation team for this week’s discussion. I enjoyed many of the responses and was excited that the questions we formed were fostering a rather engaging discussion.