Learning Reflections

Paper Plane Project May 21, 2012

My project was about making and creating paper Aeroplanes.

I came into this project about 2 weeks late which made it hard to catch up with the others. First thing I did was look up the sites that were emailed to me by Leia, (Alex’s paper planes).

Leia ran this project because she is highly into planes, explaining the fact that she is a qualified pilot. This meant making the aeroplane tests precise. The group was taught a few things about planes, like how to work out the aspect ratios for different types of planes and how they were affected by the wingspan. This was quite easy after you know how to do it; you just get the wing span and half it twice so you get the middle point of a plane wing and measure the size of the area from the back of the wing to the front.

This project was quite a fun one; I had the chance to do what kids in schools would love to do, throw paper aeroplanes across the room without worrying about the consequences. The annoying part was trying to understand the instructions on the site, which showed how to make aeroplanes such as the Dragon or Rapier.

When it came to making the planes and testing them, the other 3 in the group that made planes were Daniel, Ryan and Sarah. We all made our aeroplanes and compared their performances. The plane that stood out from the rest was Sarah’s, it glided like a stealth bomber. That’s something to be proud of. With our planes we then made videos of them flying in one of the training rooms and the corridor. After we made the video’s we made a result table on the distances they traveled. The results that we came up with got placed into categories of results which were the mean – median and range these were all easy to calculate.

It was an overall good experience, but I wouldn’t do it again.

Here are the planes I made!

Essential Skills Wales Airplane Project (Leia’s Application of Number Workshop) May 17, 2012

What is my project about?  My project is all about Paper Aeroplanes, Leia put together a workshop for us to improve our maths and communication skills.

I had to make 2 different types of planes. and practised throwing them 5 times, my paper aeroplanes kept on CRASHING into the wall about 3 times. For the last two attempts all went  perfectly and they gilded well too.

I had gathered information (aspect ratio & range) for this project and then put it into into a bar chart, I know it’s lame and boring doing bar charts but it  has to be done. Also we measured distance, Sarah was lucky and got her plane to fly further than either me, Dan and Scot.Well that was embarrassing!!This is where accurate wing span, and wing chord measurements would have made the plane fly better and faster if they were made the right way.

Working out the mean, mode, and the median averages was the REALLY boring bit of all of this project. It was all-right doing all of rest(the good bits), better than doing my EPD qualification (the bad bits).

All this information was put into a PowerPoint,  see what you think!!

As the outcome of this project WAS!!!! , I have learnt a lot,  improved my maths skills, commutations skills and can now talk 20 to the dozen instead of 12. It’s was a really good idea for Leia to put all of this together for us to improve more. It really helps me to understand what maths is really like in the real world.

I think I had also better thank my schoolmate for giving me a few tips on how to make a paper plane when I was still in primary school, I then made a few more in secondary school, not very successfully until another friend showed me what to do again, and I have now learned an even better way at Swansea ITeC (Thank You Leia).

This was a good project to do, as I have had to share ideas with others,  started to mix within a group as I didn’t do this much before and also to understand and communicate better with people of all ages and those who are trying to help me.

Project 1 May 11, 2012

For my first project, I decided to make a PowerPoint presentation about “Violence in Video Games” as I had previously done work about this in college and already had knowledge about the topic. I used PowerPoint because I have used it a lot in the past and now how to use the features. The first thing I did for this project, was create my planner, where I decided what I would include in my project. Once this was done, I started the presentation. Once I had made a simple title page, I started with the main content of the slides. I made a slide to act as a menu. Each of the bullet points on this slide acted as a hyperlink which took you to the correct slide for what you chose to click. After all the main content and features were done, I did some formatting (such as text editing) just to make the appearance a little bit better. The information I got for this presentation was from either my own knowledge or taken from:

Resolving a Hardware Fault May 3, 2012

To start with, I was told the error that was happening with the computer. It was failing to display web pages for security reasons and that the system clock was wrong. We immediately thought that this would be because the CMOS battery had died and wasn’t performing simple tasks when the computer was off.

Before I opened up the computer, I ensured that no power was being led to the system by unplugging all cables from the case. I was given permission to perform this fix by the staff. My task was to simply make the machine function properly again.

The computer was running an Intel Celeron(R) 2.40GHz CPU & 1GB of RAM.

The tools I used were:

• screwdriver (for opening the case)
• multimeter (checking battery voltage)
• new CMOS battery

After I had opened the case, I had to locate the old CMOS battery and remove it. once I had removed it, I used the multimeter to check if it was giving out the correct amount of voltage (3v), which it wasn’t (only 1.6v). I then checked with the new battery to see if it was working properly and it was, so I put the new battery into the motherboard and clipped it into place. The battery I used was taken from another PC which had broken, but the battery was still fully functional, a new battery would have cost a few pounds.

We knew the problem had been resolved because when the computer had been rebooted after the time was set again, it was working correctly (unlike before).

When I was using the multimeter, I ensured that I used all the correct settings so I didn’t damage it. This included the power input type (i needed “direct current”) and that the range was set to allow larger whole numbers and less decimals.

There was no further loss of service because the solution worked and fixed the problem. It had been causing issues which slowed down productivity of learners. these issues have since been taken away.

Symptoms of a broken CMOS include:

• time / date errors
• error messages such as: “CMOS Settings Wrong” or “CMOS Read Error”
• computer might randomly shut itself off, or it could refuse to start
• have to reinstall programs again and again upon start up

The correct way to dispose of the old battery would be to either recycle it (many computer stores will accept old equipment for recycling) or by having it taken to an electrical waste disposal area.

My Paper Plane Project May 1, 2012

My First Day April 27, 2012

My Name is Juber Islam, i have just landed myself  a foundation apprenticeship with Evolvement Networks Ltd through Swansea ITEC,  which i am really looking forward to starting. Evolvement are a company which offer Managed IT services and support as well as Network solutions such as network installations and cloud services. While working for Evolvement and doing my apprenticeship i hope to gain much more in depth technical knowledge of computers and networking as at present my knowledge is very limited. After successfully completing this course I am hoping that I will be able to stay on with Evolvement and grow within the business and help them to succeed in what they hope to achieve as a company.

My first day at Itec … April 27, 2012

This is my first day at ITec at the start of my IT Practitioners Course, OMG what have I done!! Really looking forward to the course, though a little bit apprehensive :O)

This is a new chapter in my career working for the Wales Probation Trust, I have just transferred from the Estates and Facilities Unit to the ICT Unit.  It feels like starting again, new people, new things to learn, new team and manager to get used to.  I already know some of my new colleagues, but I still feel like the ‘new kid on the block’.

I’ve worked for the Wales Probation Trust for the last 6 years and South Wales Police prior to that.  I’ve mostly worked in administration, with some time based in operational roles, call handling for the Police is quite an experience!

I’m hoping that this course will provide me with the skills and confidence to move forward in my new role and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to gain a qualification to further a career in IT, it helps that my manager is very supportive of staff training.

Icon Computers..Develop own effectiveness unit. April 27, 2012

Icon Computers:

The aim at Icon Computers is to provide great customer care, good quality products and gain the trust of customers who we are dealing with, we believe the key to success is to build up a trustworthy relationship between us the employer and customers/providers we are dealing with.

Icon stickers are placed on every build of a machine we sell, this will help in promoting icon as a company.

Ieuan Rees = To ensure the company is progressing, making sure we have stock ready for builds, making sure IT engineers are working to standard, Keeping Customers Happy.

Lee Rogers = Making sure all work given is completed, feedback to ieuan on how his work is going, keeping customers happy also has keep desk/workshop/van tidy.

Luke Dalling = My role is to ensure all builds of pc’s are built and ready on time when they are expected to be sent out, Also this is vital as the customers we are dealing with are expecting there order, I also have to keep my desk and workshop tidy.

Improvements to organisational effectiveness:

• Product/service quality and value – Making sure products are of high standard
• Customer satisfaction – Keeping customers happy
• Effective information sharing and communication – Making sure nothing is kept from customers and providers, and updating them with any changes to work being carried out.
• Effective group and individual work – Helping each other if needed, making sure our own work we do is at its best
• Developing partnerships – Ensuring partnership agreements are met and both parties are happy with the work that is being carried out or done.

Conflicts of Interest April 20, 2012

As a technician, I have full control over the network. This means I have access to :

• Users work
• What is being displayed on the users screen using RM TUTOR (NET SUPPORT)
• Confident information about Students
• Accounts information
• Reading users emails

This could result in a conflict of interests such as being tempted to:

• Take school equipment home
• Using the internet for personal use
• Dealing with tickets in order of how you like the person

To avoid this I will follow a code of conduct 

As far as I am concerned this means:

• Only do work that is in my ability
• Keep furthering my skills
• Comply will legal legislations
• Accept criticism and other points of views
• Respect colleagues and clients

My Paper Plane Project April 17, 2012

Recently, I have been completing a PowerPoint project on how far a plane could glide for if it were to cut off its engines. Sounds boring? It turned out to be quite the opposite! I had a fun way of gathering information; by making paper planes.

I started out by building a simple paper plane of my own design. I threw that plane 5 times down the corridor and measured the distance it glided each time. I had a few problems with this first plane; it kept shooting downwards. To solve this problem I curled up the wings slightly at the back so it would glide evenly and steadily. Other problems were:

• People standing nearby
• The walls

These problems effected the distance my plane travelled.

Next, I visited a website specialising in paper plane designs. I chose the Dragon Plane as my design.

Like with my first plane I flew it 5 times, but this time in an empty room downstairs of ITeC. This plane flew a lot better and a lot faster and even hit the wall at the end! I had one problem with one of the throws, which was the first one as I wasn’t quite sure how hard or soft I should have thrown the plane.

After all the plane flying I entered the numbers I had collected into a table on Excel and worked out the Mean, Median and Range and compared figures.

After that I measured the Wing Span and Wing Chord of both planes. I needed these measurements to work out the Aspect Ratio. (Which you work out by dividing the Wing Span by the Wing Chord).

I figured out that the bigger the Wing Span and Wing Chord the higher the Aspect Ratio and the better the plane glides. The smaller the Wing Span and Wing Chord, the lower the Aspect Ratio, also the less suitable the plane is for gliding.

As a kind of separate experiment I worked out the speed of the Dragon Plane. I timed how long it flew for and also measured the distance it had flown. To work out the speed, you must divide the Distance by the Time.