Excel Lessons

I really like hands-on, in-class lessons. I especially like working in Excel. I have done some Excel work already in Statistics and Accounting, so some of the material learned was review for me, whereas everything we learned in Access was brand new. However, the Goal Seeking and Scenario Manager functions in Excel were new, which was pretty exciting for an Excel nerd such as myself.

The Excel work done on 5/4 was all new to me. Again, I appreciate the way you make everything we learn apply to a real life scenario. I never find myself wondering when I would use these skills in the real world.

The way you teach your lessons, especially the hands on work such as Excel and Access allows little for room for getting lost or falling behind. You do things in a very nice, logical way, though sometimes I find myself getting a bit ahead of you and then letting my mind wander off.

I found the homework pretty simple and straightforward, though I haven't turned it in yet. It took me about 30 minutes to do and I didn't get hung up on any part of it.

I liked your plaid shirt today.

Spring Break Reflections

I didn't post a blog for the week before spring break, but I did have a lot to say. Starting with the Access homework. I had a problem with a backwards relationship, which meant that I wasn't able to input my data into the tables "without a matching entry" in another of the tables, and of course there was no matching entry in the other table. I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to edit my relationships or delete them to fix this problem, but I was ultimately unsuccessful. So faced with the option to either wait until the next day to go into your office hours or simply start over, I chose the option with immediate satisfaction. Starting from the beginning was relatively easy, though I had a nerve racking choice between the "red wire or the blue wire" when I was trying to figure out which table to connect to the other first. Luckily, I got it right and the rest of the project was a relative breeze. Though I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I had duplicates on one of my queries, but when you sent me an email telling me what I did wrong, I immediately remembered you warning us of that problem.

I'm a little bit nervous for Access #2 less because of the difficulty of it, and more because the class demonstration was so long ago that I might forget the simple steps.

Thank you for the compliment in your last comment. I appreciate it.

3/23/10

I was incredibly pleased by my grade on the test. No one can deny that little hint of pride in hearing that you got the highest grade in the class. Putting that aside, I realized that I was afflicted with a bit of the apathetic sense you mentioned that I was learning things for a test rather than learning things for later use in the business world. I guess it has been easier for me to see the translation from classroom to business world in classes such as Accounting or Business Statistics. This class seems to be taking a bit more imagination. I think that the case studies assist in this transformation, and the Access seems directly geared towards it also, but I may need to put a bit more thought into the general information that I am learning. Your commentary throughout the slides also provides some assistance in this area.

I liked that we had a whole lot of tech news reports today. Though at the beginning of the year I was a bit wary of them, I have to admit I have grown a little bit fond of them. I still have some trouble getting up and volunteering, though I'm not sure what the hold-up is. Laziness? My natural inclination to sit back and just observe? Fear of the gigantic class? Whatever it is, its not too gripping, I'm sure I can get over it.

When you opened the class with, "Today and Thursday, it's going to get a bit technical," it gave me goosebumps, but it turned out not to be too bad.

The Access homework is going well. I have come up with a few roadblocks, but the whole program is pretty user friendly and I have gotten myself out of some sticky situations. Though I still have one problem with some backward relationships that is eluding all of my attempts to overcome it. You may just be seeing me in your office sometime these during these next couple days.

3/17/10

I thought that the Access work was pretty cool. I haven't had any experience with Access before so it kept me interested. You made things really clear and concise. I caught on really quickly and actually found myself jumping ahead and trying out new things. I felt like I could have kept up if you had run through the material a bit faster. It may seem a bit nerdy, but I'm strangely intrigued by the "more complicated queries" we will learning.

The second test was pretty fair I thought. It was a lot of material to cover and I found myself furiously making note cards and cramming before at 10:30 on Tuesday morning, but overall, I was very pleased by the test. It covered the material that I thought were the most vital. It wasn't incredibly difficult, but it wasn't easy by any means. It was not a test that required memorization of that discreet footnote at the end of the chapter smashed between a graph and a picture, but neither was it a test that only called for a brief skimming of bold faced words. I felt like I studied very hard for the test and in the process got a very firm grasp on the material. I don't think that I got a truly exceptional grade on the test, but I still was happy with the test. Also, just in general, I really like the set-up of the test.

3/9/10

It's been a few weeks since I have written a new blog, maybe because I haven't had much to say, but more likely because I keep forgetting. Yesterday in class we went over (yet again) a lot of new material. I tend to like how the classes are like this usually. This is one of my few classes where all of the information I am learning is all new information. Most of my other classes are overlapping classes that cover relatively the same material, so it is refreshing to have a class where I am constantly learning something new.

I am really looking forward to the lesson tomorrow. I can't wait to do some hands on work. I think it will be a nice break from the PowerPoints and will keep me on my toes.

2/9/10

It was a relatively short class as far as time spent lecturing, and this made me see the value of the tech news portion of the class. There were so many short presentations on new technology that I experienced a nice technology high throughout the rest of the day, imagining a world of 3-D cell phones and the latest social networking "Buzz". It does get a bit difficult to devote uninterrupted attention to the slides, but by easing into the class with the tech news, the task is not quite so daunting.

Also, in class today we went over several different case studies. While reading the textbook I have found these case studies to be very helpful in getting certain points across. Other classes I have been in frequently skip over learning tools like these ones, and I am extremely pleased that we are devoting class time to going over these. The professor does a great job pulling out the most important aspects of each case study and relating it to the class material.

2/4/10

I found this first real class a bit nerve racking, primarily because it was the first time we were all expected to bring in a piece on new technology. I was unsure of what to expect and also what was expected of me. Were the several new technologies I picked out adequate? Were they appropriate? I was partially reassured seeing the wide variety of technologies that were presented by my classmates, but I was curious whether the teacher was as pleased as I was. Was he hoping for something different? He did not comment on whether the students had given good examples or not.

Other than me not being confident with the new technologies presentations, I was very pleased with the rest of the class. I loved the slides the teacher used. I'm not a big fan of lots of busy complicated slides. These were very straightforward and basic, much like the subject matter of today's class. I thought it was a very good introduction to IS. I went into the class not even knowing what it would be about, but after just two days I feel like I can get a good sense of what is to come, and I am actually intrigued. Granted there are some parts that I would not be disappointed to skim over (development processes seem a bit out of my reach), but there are others (information technology, business applications, etc) that I am extremely curious about.