Senior Project 5

Scavenger Hunting with MOUSE Squad

Date of Service: April 19, 2011
Time Spent: 2 hours
Total Time: 4 hours 45 minutes out of 15 hours [Community Service]

Action:

Under construction

Next Action:

Under construction

How am I Doing?
Under construction

Senior Project 4

My job as a SMASHCast Primary Web Developer

Date of Service: April 16, 2011
Time Spent: 4 hours
Total Time: 4 hours out of 15 hours [Physical Project]

Action:
- Discussed project goals

- Researched possible improvements on the site.

- Set an itinerary of intended renovations on the site.

- Performed the following renovations:

* Installed Google Analytics to track site traffic

* Created a mobile-friendly version of the website

* Consolidated blog categories + Re-sorted blog posts (work-in-progress)

* Redirected the landing page of the mobile website to /blog/

Next Action:
- Send Simon a 100-word paragraph detailing my goals and what I want to get out of the project

- RSS Feed Improvement

* Feedburner Investigate

* How should we format blogs to suite RSS?

* Create "Smashcast" Google Account to use on Feedburner

- Interface Fix (Next / Prev Page Links on Front page and /blog/)

* Investigate PageNavi Plugin Options

- Interface Fix (TopNav About Button Broken URL

* Redirect to /about/ page

- Continue blog post re-organization

- Figure out the thumbnail situation on the mobile website

- Layout tweaking!!! (First I have to touch up on my CSS, though)

How am I Doing?
Although I've known Simon for a long time because of SMASHCast and because he was my Tech teacher at SMASH, today was my first day working with him as my mentor. At first I was apprehensive that there weren't going to be a lot of improvements left to do for SMASHCast's website (seeing as the website already has an awesome layout), I found that the website had a lot of kinks left to work out -- and I'm looking forward to figuring some of them out.

My first task was installing Google Analytics coding on the SMASHCast website. Google Analytics is a Google feature that gives the webmaster VERY DETAILED info on the traffic that a website receives. I never even knew that Google Analytics existed until that day! I'm planning on using Google Analytics on any future websites I have from now on. In fact, I'm putting it on THIS BLOG right after this post! :)

One of the highlights of my day was constructing a mobile version of the SMASHCast website. Now, when you visit SMASHCast.org on your mobile device, it has a mobile-friendly layout, and if you bookmark SMASHCast on your iPhone, it becomes an app! The articles are loaded from WordPress through the use of AJAX coding. I also designed the mobile website's appearance, and created the logo for the mobile site. Now what do I do with those pesky thumbnails...

Senior Project 3

MOUSESquad: Facilitating Lessons 3-5

Date of Service: April 12, 2011
Time Spent: 1 hour 45 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes out of 15 hours [Community Service]

Action:
Updating later

Next Action:
Updating later

How am I Doing?

Updating later

Senior Project 2

From Evernote:

MOUSE Squad Ideas

How am I Doing?

Random memory: when I was young, Computer Class was my favorite subject because that was the only class whose room had air conditioners (to keep the computers cool). In such a hot country as the Philippines, having an air-conditioned room was pure bliss! Nevertheless, I was also very fond of technology and it seemed to come to me naturally compared to kids my age. But this is just part of my romance story with computers.

But I digress. In this blog post, I want to talk about logistics.

The program coordinator says I can contribute ideas to engage the kids if I see something useful at Vallemar. I'm thinking of perhaps introducing these kids to games that not only are fun, but also educational (that's what they seem to be most interested in doing). Perhaps maybe let them play some typing games to enhance their typing skills (many of them expressed interest in touch typing) or didactic ones such as Orisinal or Neopets. Maybe I can also create diagrams and figures to teach them like my teachers used to teach me in the good old days!! One thing I have to make sure, though: try not to rush through things and make sure that the kids actually learn and take something from the lessons, and not just stare at it and completely forget!

Date of Service: April 5, 2011

Time Spent: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour out of 15 hours [Community Service]

Action:

1. Site introduction
2. Getting to know the kids
3. Getting to know the coordinators

Next Action:

1. I plan to review and familiarize myself with the MOUSE Squad website.
2. I plan to review the content the students posted online.
3. I plan to look for more fun and educational stuff the students can do.

Senior Project 1

From Evernote:

Volunteering at MOUSE Squad

Date of Service: April 5, 2011

Time Spent: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour out of 15 hours [Community Service]

Action:

1. Site introduction
2. Getting to know the kids
3. Getting to know the coordinators

Next Action:

1. I plan to review and familiarize myself with the MOUSE Squad website.
2. I plan to review the content the students posted online.
3. I plan to look for more fun and educational stuff the students can do.

How am I Doing?

Today was my first time volunteering at MOUSE Squad in Booker T. Washington at San Francisco. At first, I felt a little apprehensive. What if the kids don't like me? What if I don't do a good job? Gladly, Ms. Iris, the coordinator, and Terrell, showed me the ropes. I got to meet such wonderful kids--Julian (who likes to watch me type fast without looking), Andy (who has a facebook), Nathan, Sayla, Anisha (she has seven siblings and seems to be the oldest of the group), and Byeon! I hope I haven't forgotten everyone. They're such a diverse bunch!

During my first session, I felt like everything just went by so fast! I think that's what they say when you feel like you're having fun, before you know it it's time to go. I really do wish that it's always like this when I come over to volunteer. It feels really good to help.

Today comprised of helping teach these kids the basics of using a computer. Their first activity was learning how to clean a mechanical mouse (which I thought was a bit antiquated since everyone uses optical mice nowadays), how to turn on a computer--that kind of stuff. I helped them create their profiles and post comments and whatnot. What I noticed is that most of them do not know much how to read or spell--I don't know if that's alright for kids their age and I'm kind of thinking of incorporating more things into their learning activities.