Purpose
During this project you will investigate potential career paths for you and the role of technology in those career paths. You will need to interview professionals in your field of study as well as research the profession using the library and online resources. Your project should show that you have thoroughly researched your profession from a technological viewpoint that can help you better prepare for that profession. In addition, you should have formed some well-supported opinions on the best practices for technology in your profession today and how they may evolve by the time you start your professional career.
Requirements Satisfied
Create a Web site summary of your research, and present your results (Include your reflections as described below).You will also be required to present your results to the class in a 2-3 minute presentation, during which you will show your Web page. Completing this assignment is partial fulfillment for the CIS100 course and is considered 5% of your final grade.
Objectives
Tasks
This assignment is composed of several tasks. These tasks should be carried out in the order shown here. Some of these steps are reflective. The reflective steps are extremely important in the process and should be done at the appropriate time.
1. Research
Contact at least 5 business enterprises and/or graduate schools and perform research on each of those entities. These should be organizations where you would really consider working.
You may utilize the phone, face-to-face, or e-mail to perform the interviews. Your interview should be done in such a way that you obtain information that will be useful to your project. Here is a sample list of questions to ask the professional:
a. What is your job description and title?
b. How do you use what your learned in ___your_major____ in performing your job?
c. Do you use technology such as computers, PDAs, cell phones, etc. in your day to day work? If so, what applications/programs do you use? How do computers make your job easier? If not, do you see a way that technology could be useful? Are there any tasks that you perform that you would be interested in automating or giving to a computer to do?
d. What do you think the ___________ industry would be like for me in four years when I graduate? Will technology play a larger role than it does today? In what way?
Use other sources such as newspapers (want-ads), websites, and books to provide information on technology in various professions.
Collect statistical data (that you could be used in a chart/table) to compare these organizations. Some data to consider is the size of the organization, the number of years in existence, the ranking (Fortune 500 list, top graduate/professional schools, etc), location of the offices, salary for your position, number of computers and types, and demographical information of employees (industry) or students (graduate school). These are just some ideas; we strongly encourage you to create/find others. You will use this information to create a table and/or charts on your page.
2. Reflect on the research step
During the reflective step, you should answer the following questions about the research exercise you have just completed.
1. Was there any information that was unexpected?
2. Was there any information that you expected?
3. What was it like talking with these organizations?
3. Select your three organizations
Identify what criteria you are using to make your selections. It may be useful to rank your criteria. Your criteria may be quantitative i.e. size of the organization or qualitative i.e. you like the city where the offices are located because it’s laidback.
Select your top three organizations. These will be the 3 that you will use to complete your project.
4. Reflect on the selection step
During the reflective step, you should answer the following questions about the selection exercise you have just completed.
1. Why did you select the three you chose? What was/were the most important factors for each of the three?
2. Has your career direction changed after considering all of the criteria?
3. Looking at your top 3 criteria, why are they so important to you?
5. Design your Web page
Designing your Web page is where you determine what contents will be on your page and its layout. This is not where you complete the content for the page.
The
audience for your Web page must be designated first. Your audience choice is “
You should create an outline of your design which will include the use of story boards to show the layout of the website. In this layout you will determine where you want images and what type of images, where you want audio/video components and what will they convey in relationship to your text. You may also identify where your table(s) and chart(s) will be placed.
Consider the overall usability of your website. This includes how the user will navigate your site and how accessible the components are to the user.
6. Reflect on the design step
During the reflective step, you should answer the following questions about the design exercise you have just completed.
1. Does your text provide an appropriate level of information?
2. What did you want to convey with your images? (include audio/video if appropriate) Do they support the text and help convey your message?
3. How does your audience selection influence the presentation?
4. How does your color selection enhance your theme or presentation?
7. Implement your design
a. Using FrontPage (HTML authoring application). Use Create a Website to begin your implementation.
b. Using Photoshop or other image manipulation application. There must be a picture of yourself on the site.
c. Intellectual Property Issues (You have not plagiarized or copied illegally or pirated text/data/images.)
d. Folder structure
- All of your HTML and image files are in your myweb folder.
- The file name of your website homepage is index.htm
d. To get extra points (5 points each/ MAX 10 points) implement any of the following:
- Fully functioning web site burned onto a CD.
- Implement Frames.
- Tutorials: Javascript for beginners , JavaScript Tutorial
- Free Code: Cut/Paste Javascripts, Javascript Source
- Background music on open or mouse over.
- Video clip play.
8. Reflect on this implementation step
During the reflective step, you should answer the following questions about the implementation exercise you have just completed.
1. Did you have prior experience with using an authoring tool such as FrontPage?
2. Did you find FrontPage easy or difficult? Why?
3. What would you do different with your Web page if you had another chance?
4. Did you have anyone test or critique your web page? If so, who and why did you choose that person(s)?
9. Final Reflection
During the reflective step, you should review your previous answers and summarize your responses here. The purpose of this step is to examine the entire process as a whole, and how and what you learned through the whole process.
10. Turn In
Your Website . Upload and submit a compressed file of your Web site folder into the appropriate WebCT assignment for this project.