Before I attended the talk I did prepare beforehand. It is important to carry out research so that I have an idea on what the talk will be about and what the company does. I have researched Becca and her app “TapSOS”. I had found out that “TapSOS” is an app that allows users a non-verbal way to connect with the emergency services. This is important because not everybody can connect with the emergency services if they have a disability or are under certain circumstances. This app is an alternative way to communicate with the emergency services, especially if you have a disability or hearing/speech problems. Before the talk, I had prepared some questions to ask Becca after her talk was finished. These questions included; “what would you want to do after the app has launched?” “When do you hope to launch the app?” Another question I had planned was that “Are you thinking about making any other apps that will help people who are disabled or have hearing/speech difficulties?” While Becca was giving talk she came across very confident and calm, she also had a paper based presentation to help her stay on track with what she was saying and that she wouldn’t get confused on what she was saying.

After listening to Becca’s talk, I believe that I have learnt that as long you push yourself and work hard you can achieve whatever you want. I have learnt that your career choice can change a lot throughout your life and that your career path won’t always be clear to you at the start. I also believe that no matter what anyone says to you, you can still achieve your dreams as long as you work hard for them. Overall the talk was extremely motivating and gave us hope to push to be the best we can be. Looking at Becca and how she presented throughout her talk, she presented a range of skills and qualities such as confidence; courtesy and non-verbal communication skills.

I believe that I have developed many communication skills both verbal and non-verbal skills. However I believe that my aural communications have developed the most from the talk with Becca. This is because I had to enhance on my listening skills so ensure that I understood what Becca was talking about. I also believe that I have developed my non-verbal communication such as body language and eye contact. Overall I believe that I was a good member of the audience as I was respectful and kept quiet while Becca was talking, also my body language, eye contact and expressions played a key part in me being a good member of the audience as I looked like I was interested throughout the whole talk.

I was assigned the task to conduct an Hour of Code session with children from Primary 7. The Primary 7 pupils will be coming to my school for a taster day. In their ICT session I will assist with the Hour of Code dance party task. I will be working with the students so that they can have an understanding of coding in ICT and to help them understand what the school is like and if they would want to come to the Girl’s model as their Secondary School. I will also promote coding to these girls as the IT industry needs more women in the ICT industry. While doing this task, I hope to help to persuade the Primary 7 students to come to this school as well as wanting them to enjoy the hour of code task.

In this session the Primary 7 students will be participating in the Hour of Code Dance Party – unplugged. This is when the Primary 7 students will be up on their feet and completing some of the dance moves that they will be coding such as dabbing, high clap and the body roll. We got the Primary 7 students onto their feet to give them energy and have an

Then after the dance party unplugged session, they will be seated at their computers and start the Hour of Code dance party. An ICT teacher will be at the front of the room and will go through each step and show the Primary 7 students what they need to do to pass the level. The Primary 7 students will then go off and try to complete the level themselves. If they needed any help I would’ve came round to them and helped them pass that level. I helped the Primary 7 students by talking them through what to do; pointing to certain boxes and pointing to where they needed to go as well as using my help sheet to talk them through it.

While carrying out this task I won’t just be with one student, the same way I was working with the year 8 students in the email task and the flappy bird hour of code task. I will try and capture the audience’s attention by going up to them in a very friendly way asking if they need any help. I will use a help sheet, however I will not use the help sheet as much as I did with the year 8 pupils.

This task involved me walking around the classroom helping the Primary 7 students if they needed assistance with their task of dance party. In this situation my role was different as I wasn’t working with just one student, I was working with a whole class. I walked around the room and approached any Primary 7 students that needed help.

The overall skill of the students was very limited as they have never completed an ICT task like this as they are not comfortable using the computers. While completing this task I used many forms of communication, both verbal and non-verbal. I used verbal communication skills as I told the primary 7 students where to click and move objects. I also used non-verbal communication skills as I pointed to the screen and where the objects needed to go to. I believed that I have performed quite well in this task as I handled as I was very approachable towards the students.

At the beginning of the task I was quite nervous, however I became more confident throughout the task. I believe that I have worked better with the Primary 7 students rather than the year 8 pupils as I already know what to do in the task as I have completed it with the year 8 pupils prior to the Primary 7 students.

I feel that the Primary 7 students responded quite well as they were quite shy at the beginning, however became more confident near the end of the task. Overall the Primary 7 students gained more ICT and coding skills from completing the task.

Overall I believe that I have gained many new qualities while completing this task, I have developed a lot more confidence as I would’ve been quite nervous before completing this task. I have also enhanced many other qualities that I have already previously had, such as patience, friendly and approachable. I have used the Dance Party: unplugged with the primary 7 students so that they could have an idea of what they will be coding later on, but letting them relax before sitting down and starting the hour of code.

dance party help sheet

I have been asked to complete a task which is to teach Year 8 pupils the hour of code. I am teaching them this so that they can develop their coding skills as well as their ICT skills. Theses Year 8 pupils will not have done anything like this before so, this hour of code will be completely new to them. Hour of code is a global initiative where pupils can learn new skills through coding in little games and puzzles. Hour of Code is a worldwide week-long event that is happening in schools all across the world. These games can be created and completed based on a wide range of opinions and many different subjects that can boost knowledge for the pupil using that code game. These subjects can range from math, English, science and ICT. It is important to improve their skills as they will be able to use this throughout their time at school and after school. These skills can entail their programming and software skills as well as their ICT skills.

When working with the Year 8 students I want to help them achieve their skills in ICT and coding. This is because I want them to see what coding is like and if they enjoy it they can continue it on in school. As well as being able to use their skills throughout their school life. However I have to take into consideration that these Year 8s don’t have the most technical ICT skills and they wouldn’t have completed an hour of code activity before so their coding skills will be quite basic, this is why I have to take consideration their skills when making the help sheet as if I make it too technical they won’t be able to understand and follow the steps; however I can’t make it too easy to understand as they will find it too easy and they won’t learn anything from that class.

I have carried out research when thinking about what code game to use for the Year 8 students. I understand that the Year 8 students won’t have much knowledge so I know that I have to keep it simple but partly challenging. To ensure they will learn something from this.

I completed the Hour of code task myself as I needed to see if it would be too challenging or too easy for the pupils. I learnt that this game was challenging enough for the Year 8 pupils to complete as they will also learn from this as it teaches coding which can improve their skills. When completing the hour of code task myself I found it quite easy, however there was a couple of levels that were a bit difficult.

I have made a help sheet for the Year 8 pupils to guide them through the hour of code challenge. In my help sheet I took into account the gender, age and ICT ability into account as it will be more personalised to them, so that they will be attracted to the help sheet more. I hope that my help sheet will help the students as they will look at the help sheet for guidance onto each level. In each level you learnt a new skill to code the flappy bird game. The screen always stayed the same, however you changed it each level as you were coding. The language used in the levels was easy to understand and was brief and to the point.

I believe that girls should learn how to code as this can expand their mind and get involved with ICT as the ICT sector needs more women. When you learn how to code you are developing new skills such as problem solving skills as you are coding to solve a problem, hence you are developing problem solving skills. While completing this task I hope to develop my communication skills. I can develop these skills by talking and interacting with the year 8 students.

hour of code flappy bird help sheet

After finishing my hour of code task with the Year 8 pupils, in my opinion I believe that the hour of session generally went well, as my student who I was helping completed this task with no problems and understood that was being asked of her. I worked with the same student that I did when I completed the email task. I felt that my Year 8 pupil was friendlier with me this time as I was a face she recognised and could talk to. We worked in a pair as it was only me and the one other Year 8. While completing this task my Year 8 pupil didn’t have any difficulties finishing the task of flappy bird. This task was completed quicker than expected, the help sheet wasn’t used as much as I had anticipated, as the Year 8 students didn’t need the help sheet as she thought the task was easy enough. However my Year 8 pupil didn’t need the help as she moved on at her own speed, this shows that my Year 8 pupil has strong ICT skills and that moving at her own speed can develop good confidence for herself. We then moved onto a different Hour of Code activity which was themed as MineCraft. When completing this task my Year 8 had some difficulties finishing some of the levels. Since this task was unexpected as I didn’t think my Year 8 pupil would finish the flappy bird activity as quickly as she did; so I didn’t prepare another help sheet to give guidance to the pupil. We didn’t get to finish the second hour of code task as we ran out of time while completing that second task.

One factor that I can say was different was that I hoped that I used my help sheet more for the flappy bird task, this is because my Year 8 pupil didn’t need the help as she found all of the tasks quite easy and manageable. As this was something that who had never done before so it was quite new to her so she needed more help while completing each level. When going through the hour of code I generally acted the same while helping my Year 8 pupil, I was friendly and approachable, I feel that the Year 8 pupil was more comfortable around me as we have worked together before in the email task. Overall I believe that I have learnt that these Year 8’s are a lot more capable than I would have anticipated. I talked to my Year 8 pupil on what each step entails and what she has to do to complete the level.

To evaluate my communication skills, I believe that my communication skills have improved from the last task which was the sending an email task, as I was more confident completing this task as I have experienced it before. My verbal communication skills have progressed the most as I can confidently ask both open and closed questions to the Year 8, this is so that I can easily communicate to the Year 8 pupil. I have also improved on my non-verbal communication skills as body language and eye contact, this is important as I have to be constantly communicating with my Year 8 pupil to improve both of out communication skills as the Year 8 pupil will also have to respond to me. I believe that I have improved these communications skills as I have practised these skills with the same Year 8 student so I was more comfortable using all of my communication skills that I have learnt. These skills include written skills, even though I didn’t use my help sheet it was still a part of written communication. I have also used aural communication skills as I had to listen and speak to the Year 8 pupil.

I used a paper based help sheet as well as a digital help sheet. This is so that the year 8 can have the paper based help sheet to help the student go through it at their own speed and can look through it whenever they want. I have also used the digital help sheet because I can move to each step at the same time as the student and can look for the solution if the student needs more help. Also because the digital help sheet as it was bright, attractive and colourful it was more effective to use.

certificate for flappy bird

I was given a task to help year 8 pupils with ICT skills and teaching them all about emails, I created a help sheet, I believe that a help sheet would be helpful as they year 8 pupil will be able to read off the help sheet whenever they get stuck or confused on what to do. The help sheet shows the year 8 pupils a step by step guide on the following tasks; how to send an email; how to reply to an email; how to forward an email and how to send an attachment to an email. I was given this task as the year eight pupils are new to the school and won’t have experience using computers for tasks such as email. Email is an extremely important communication tool that pupils need to learn how to use as they use email throughout their school life. I made this help sheet to give guidance to the year 8 pupils as they will try and complete these tasks as this will allow the students to complete the tasks with independence.

When creating the help sheet I took into consideration that they don’t have experienced advanced ICT skills using computers so I have made the help sheet as simple as I can, however I still made it to a level where the audience can follow it without being overly simple. I have designed this help sheet to a female audience as the year eight pupils are all females, since the help sheet is more girly the year 8 pupils will be more attracted to the help sheet; you can see this as my help sheet has bright and bold shapes with arrows pointing to circles; also I have added screenshots to the help sheet as well. The main colour I have used in my help sheet is pink as I think it will appeal to the year 8 pupils.

I will be with the year 8 pupils to help them if they are struggling to complete any of the tasks of if they didn’t understand a certain step. When helping the year eight pupils I won’t do it for them I will only be guiding them by saying where to click or talking to them through each step as they follow my instructions as well as follow the instructions from the help sheet.

The overall ICT skills of the year 8 pupils was very basic as they are not as experienced as I am. The pupils have never used email before so this experience will be completely new to them. This means that this task could be quite difficult for them as this will be quite unfamiliar to them. However the pupil that I was teaching has already tried to send an email prior to the task, this helped my pupil as she didn’t have as much trouble than some of the other pupils did. This then made my help sheet less effective as it wasn’t needed as much as would’ve liked. Throughout this task I have used many different types of communication skills such as, verbal, non-verbal, digital and written. The communication style that I have used the most and was the most was my verbal communication. This is because whenever my year 8 pupil was stuck she would ask for help and I described what she needed to do to complete the step. Verbal communication was used the most throughout this task as I believe it was the most effective method to help the year 8 pupil.

I believe that my communication skills were quite good, I tried to include as many forms of communication as I could, not all forms of communication worked. My written communication skills were the least effective since the help sheet wasn’t being used; there were no other forms of written communication used throughout the task.

I enjoyed working with my year 8 pupil, I was a little nervous at the start, however as we talked more it became less nerve-wracking for the both of us. I believe that my pupil has gained more ICT skills from this task. At the start of the task my year 8 pupil couldn’t attach an attachment to an email but now after finishing the email task, my pupil can now successfully send an email with an attachment.

I have developed both my verbal and non-verbal communication skills. I have developed my verbal skills when I was talking to my year 8 pupil, when I was just having a conversation or describing what to do throughout the steps. I have also developed my non-verbal skills by pointing and demonstrating to the year 8 pupil where to place each block to code each level. It was important for me that I had used these skills, this is to ensure that the student was able to successfully complete the task without nay hesitations. Also this is important to me as I am continuing to develop all of my communication skills with each task I complete.

I have used a help sheet rather than a list of instructions because a help sheet has more pictures and diagrams and limited simple text, rather than a list of instructions which would be very text heavy with few to none pictures or diagrams. A help sheet is easier to understand as it shows and guides you how to complete the step. Alternatively I could’ve used a digital form of communication with my help sheet, as I could’ve had the help sheet on the computer instead of a paper based help sheet.

email certificate

first year tasks finished

 

This blog is a CV on a ICT job I have chosen that was included in my presentation on jobs in the ICT sector.

business anaylst cv

This is a blog about the effective forms of communication and how I have used these communication skills throughout my unit 1. The document below will show all the effective forms of communication and advantages, disadvantages and overcoming drawbacks; also there is an extra paragraph at the end of each form of communication to determine how I have used those forms of communication in my unit 1.

effective-forms-of-communication-2

This is a blog about the 7 C’s of communication. I completed this document at the start of the year and have updated it throughout the year. I have developed these communications skills as you will see in the document marked in red.

what-are-the-seven-cs-autosaved

This is a personal development plan, this was created for me to identify any targets and goals that I would like to complete. These objectives range from short term, medium term and long term objectives all to be completed by a certain date. Also below is the original version of the PDP, this is to show what achievements I had made so far throughout this year.

Personal Development Plan (updated PDP)

personal development plan  (old version PDP)

I was given a task to complete an interview on a job I have chosen to research and then answer questions asked by my partner on the topic of health and safety. I will then interview my partner on health and safety based on the job that she has chosen. I was asked to take part in an interview as I would be able to ask follow up questions to get more detail from the interviewee. I will ask follow up questions after the interviewee has answered to show that I am using my listening skills. I feel obtained an interview as it will allow me to find out helpful information. Also I will use an interview rather than a questionnaire because I will got more information carrying out an interview because in a questionnaire you only have a limited space to answer; which most people will answer as briefly as possible.

I prepared a set of questions to ask one of my classmates for the job that they had picked, I had to prepare research depending on the job that my partner had chosen, which was a care assistant. This took a lot of preparation as I had to research both my job and my partners’ job. I also had to research interview questions that I could ask my partner. When completing this health and safety interview I hoped to improve my communication skills and eye contact. To be a good interviewer you need to be clear, approachable as well as making sure every question is understood, giving the interviewee time to answer each question fully. To become a good interviewee you should answer all questions fully and be considerate when listening to the interviewer, answering each question fully. I wanted to improve these skills because I wanted to develop my non-verbal communication skills as I would like to use these skills outside of school.

Interviewing my partner

My partner interviewing me

I have learnt a lot from interviewing my partner, I found out that my partner had chosen the job role of a care assistant and she stated all of the health and safety policies that care assistants must follow. One of the policies was that if an elderly has fallen the care assistant must go over to the injured person and try to help them up, if they cannot help them up they must ring an ambulance to come and collect them to check for injuries. To reduce those risks they can put up banisters and other aids around their home to prevent them from falling again and harming themselves.

When asking my partner her interview questions I used many skills that included both open and closed ended questions, I maintained eye contact and I let my partner explain her answers fully, giving her time to answer her questions. While asking questions and listening for the answers I used verbal, aural and non-verbal communication skills. this is to show my partner that I am interested in what she has to say, repeating what my partner has said shows that I was listening and care for what she has said. Also I asked my partner to expand her answers if they weren’t detailed enough, if there wasn’t enough content in the answer I would have to ask her to add more, by giving more examples or adding to the answer.

I have used an iPhone to record my interview instead of a video camera as the iPhone is more convenient to record as it doesn’t need much to set it up all you have to do is go onto the camera app and place the phone at the preferred angle. Whereas a video camera needs to be placed on a stand and turned on at the correct settings and then record. An iPhone is more easy to use as well when editing as you only need hit onto the edit button and save what you want; however when using a video camera you would need to convert the video onto a computer and edit the video on a software editor on the computer. Sometimes the iPhone camera quality can be better, also the microphone will be a lot better on the iPhone rather than the video camera.  

interview questions

evidence of research

extended research

health and safety profile

mia smith – job profile

Sendvid is a mobile app or webpage that lets you compress a video into a web link. I have created a Sendvid account to add in a link for my video of my presentation to my blog. SendVid Makes It Easy To Upload And Send Video. This time they’re trying to make it easy to share video. Called SendVid, the new service is as simple as can be. You upload a video and then share it.

Here you see in the screenshot below this is the screen you see when you login, on this page it also gives you an option to upload any videos onto Sendvid. SendVid Makes It Easy To Upload And Send Video. … This time they’re trying to make it easy to share video. Called SendVid, the new service is as simple as can be. You upload a video and then share it.

When you click onto the uploads button on Sendvid your saved documents appear on the screen this happen so that you can chose your video to upload. When you do click onto the upload button, this screen will appear.

I have chosen to use Sendvid account because it is private; I haven’t used any other platforms such as YouTube because YouTube is a public platform and that everyone can see what you upload. While creating my Sendvid account I had to make a username and a password, this ensured me that Sendvid was a private platform.