Ales 204 Semester in Review

I heard quie abit about Ales204 before walking through the door on the first day of the new semester.  People who took it last year before the revamp told me it was mostly a public speaking course which wasn't fun but it was useful.  Last semester after the re-vamp I heard alot of complaining about using twitter and blogs alot, displaying alot of personal inomation in the projects.  It made me not really enhuasistic for a class where how I have to display alot about myself I am a social person bu there is a part of a person's life I don't want random people to know espicially on blogs and assignments.  I also got told there was a participation mark, I do all my assignments but I'm not one of the people who asks questions who ask questions or contibute to class disscussions every class.  When the class first started I really ddn't undestand what the course's main goal was it seemed all over the map and the course really was.

Looking back at the class I was pleased about taking Ales 204 though it did have its up and downs (which is an understatement).  The three ups were Twitter, how publishing work in scientific journals works, and showing communication is changing rapidly. Actually twitter and the uses of it was  surprisisingly useful and the science posts were interesting and neat tool. The process of how scientific articles get published in journals was a great class very informative.  The theory behind the course is true about the future communication changes as time goes on and being able to use the new tools can put yourself at an advantage from looking for a job to talking about a scientific conference. The three biggest lows in the class were the font class, flickered, and the Pecha Kucha lecture.  Seriously why did we have a class on fonts  then in the survey  what's yor faourite font and Dr. Laccetti saying in class "I was surprised that he majority of you said you favourite font was Times New Roman".  Flickr or what ever its spelled I was pissed because they did wanted some photos from your pesonal life which is a violation of my privacy, why did they even put that in the course.  Finally we get to the Pecha Kucha which is a quick powerpoint at 20 seconds, sure boring presentations are brutal but some of the pecha kucha's were pretty boring to.  Time doesn't really pay a factor its the presenter if the presenter has a good persona and is excited about the topic it will probably be good.  Herès I think is a good presenting checklist http://paulgraham.com/investors.html.

http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&gbv=2&biw=1280&bih=836&tbm=isch&tbnid=vb-bf3zLB1VcXM:&imgrefurl=http://www.theflyper.com/index.php%3Fgigs%3Dpopular&docid=oNdopkDXcif7gM&imgurl=http://www.theflyper.com/gigsimg/11041711161.-twitter_bird
 Retrieved (April 12,2012)


Overall I would say this course needs alot of improvement and focus on one area and not ask for as much personal information.  In my own opinion the profesional Facebook page was a joke and a waste of time because first off facebook is a social site not to many job employers say to themselves "i'm going facebook search random people till I find the perfect future employee".  I know lots o employes check a persons facebook page they don't look at some random link leading to your profesional profile they will go to your personal look at your pictures to look at the dirt "a picture speaks a thousand words".  By the way saying something is profesional on Facebook is an oxymoron its a social casual newtwork even companies at informal on it. When the course spent a lecture or two about resumes it was useful bu it didn't have anythin about cover letters which is just as important and shows why you are applying for that particular job.

A fellow student's blogpost  worth checking out is http://buildingmye-portfolio.blogspot.ca/ because of a different positive perspective about this course.