Assignment 3

As you already know Information Technology is my major so for this blog assignment I have looked at some of other University's IT department's brochure to see have they handle recruiting people into their program. My first stop is Ole Miss's Information Technology department's brochure.

http://www.cs.olemiss.edu/

This is a very well planed brochure. This website has links to course outlines and degree plans. It also gives an explanation of the whole department's purpose complete with a welcome letter and teacher description. It is not much to look at, but it gives a very good description of Ole Miss' IT program.

Now every nerd dreams of going to MIT, so I thought it would be cool to look up their IT program there. Apparently they don't have a specific IT department online brochure. The closest I could find is the whole School of Computer science website:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-00Fall-2008/CourseHome/index.htm
It is a cool site that offers the option to view online lectures. However it is disappointing that I could not find a IT department website that was not an from the actual IT department that deals with MIT's on site network. And of course USM's IT department's website is just like Ole Miss', not much to look at but gets the job done. http://www.itc.usm.edu/online/

The worst site I came across was the UTEP IT department's IT page.
http://www.cs.utep.edu/grad/mit/
This is just sad, it is a welcome statement and a print of of two documents and the link to the old web site that use to be run by another department. This website has all the information that a future student needs. It is just sad that the new department doesn't update the site to fit their needs.

The remaining part of this blog entry will focus on the answering of the Defining Your Communication’s Objectives document.

If I had to write a brochure for USM's IT department I would write a brief description of our department and provide certification that one would be able to obtain once complete with our program. What prompts me to write is the face that I would like more students to bring their attention to the IT field and the opportunity it offers. The desired outcome is that potential students would call and inquire information about our program here a Southern Miss. The outcome the our reader would most likey desire is that he/she is provide enough information about our program to make a decision. Our primary readers are potential college students. The relationship would be one of a teacher student one. We must assume that our readers are not very familiar with our program and we must provide as much information to that reader without overwhelming them.

I have learned a lot from this assignment. I learned that one must provide just the right amount of information. You must provide enough so the reader can make a decision based on the information, but not too much that the reader is overwhelmed by it, or just doesn't read it at all.

Been Sick

Being sick sucks. Not only do I feel awful and am coughing a lot, but thanks to the medicine I am on, I am sleeping 18 hours a day. May cause drowsiness sucks.

Assignment 2

In my major of Information Technology I took a class called small system maintenance. We were assigned readings from our book, Managing and Maintaining Your PC 5th edition. I choose this book because in my major I am not assign much reading material, and this class was the closest thing that matched the requirements of this assignment that came from my major. I really enjoyed the readings from this class because it was very technical and the information I took from these readings are irreplaceable.
The writer of this text is Jean Andrews. Jean Andrews has written several tech manuals and text books for Thomson Course Technology. The book was published by Thomson Course Technology. In this text he discusses the basic workings of a computer, common computer problems, and their solutions. The context this book was written in a way so that computer students can learn computer basics and problem solving skills while repairing them to get A+ certified. A+ certification is a certification offered by the CompTIA to prove the skill potential of technicians.
This text is very detailed in it's explanations and offers a table of footnotes so that readers can quicker look over chapters and go to the chapter that will benefit them the most. On top of that, this text also offers a “A+ core hardware Exam” table so that readers can so what the readers can see what they are expected to know for the exam and where they can find this information in the text.
The style this text is written in is in a technical style. The information is presented in a cut and dry style format, but easy to understand. At first it is really hard to sit down and actually read the contents of this text, but once one realizes that the information that this book can provide is worth the time it is extremely easy to read. As one progresses into the text, it starts to use more technical words and assumes that the reader is progressing in his/her computer knowledge along with the information that it provided.
Overall, how Jean Andrews presented the information in this text was outstanding. The text is very easy to navigate throw, with several tables to assist in navigation and with side notes on every page pointing out key information critical for the A+ exam. The only improvement this text really needs is to some how present the information in a none bland manner. However, I honestly do not see how that is possible with the kind of information this text presents. If it wasn't for this book I probably wouldn't know as much about computers as I do today. There is so much one must know about computers to be a computer guru, and this book sums up the basics pretty well. If you could make the time to read this book you would not regret it. I would also recommend this to someone who has never touch a computer in his/her life.

For more information on CompTIA and the A+ certification program you can visit: http://www.comptia.org/certifications/listed/a.aspx