E-Business Theme

It's already over now, but it had been a busy week. :-/

Teaching - DT500

Topic for this week’s Data Organisation class was decimal and binary floating point and test revision which included base conversions, addition and subtraction in binary, octal and hexadecimal, 2's complement, designing codes, and rules for accuracy of bar codes via check digit.

Teaching - IN500/IN600

Topic for this week’s Internet & Web Development class was online ethical and legal issues including privacy, copyright and intellectual property, the internet applications quiz #4 and a series of activities for creating a set of html web pages.

Informal Study Sessions

Met with two BCS students at our informal Tuesday session dedicated to E-Business Strategies and Special Topic papers, which both students have opted to study remotely. I've taken a generic position facilitating brain storm sessions with the students, helping them to work through and discuss the blended content provided on EITonline by the Taradale lecturers.

E-Business Strategies

Although, I feel stretched quite thin doing two papers this semester and working, I'm still managing to absorb some new concepts and broaden my scope within the topic of e-business.  It was a late night Wednesday and early morning Thursday to finish the assignment one case study on Tesco (UK) and Countdown (NZ) online shopping systems. Time management needs some work, maybe a good task/question estimation formula for study. All in all ... I'm pleased I've put that one to bed ... yae :-o

Campus Networks to Industry

Met with Jan Mogford (Campus Director) and Peni Niwa (EA) to discuss options to source local business contacts e.g. Chamber of Commerce as potential participants for this IT industry research initiative. Jan provided me with a 100+ list of Gisborne and Wairoa business contacts to get started on.

Meet the Graduate

EIT, Tairawhiti have previously hosted a 'Meet the Graduate' event, which involves a businesses from the Chamber.  Jan noted that the attendee's at a previous event were asked what was their means for sourcing event information, interesting to learn that more than half had used social media to check up event details prior to coming along.  Which poses the question, will social media be a means to source local business information and/or capture the attention of Gisborne companies or interest groups?

BCS Internship Proposals

Tairawhiti Bachelor of Computing Systems has three students in their final semester. Internship/project proposals scheduled for presentation on Thursday.  Tom Hartley, the (co-ordinator) for the paper joined me (internship supervisor) in attendance.

Student A
An internship with MindLab: involves teaching school groups, creating computer based learning resources. Mini-project involves creating a Feedback Booth that will assist MindLab and Funders gauge student (includes children, parents) progress.  Attention was made to check over ethical issues associated with capturing childrens photos and data. The student has since reported that "an information consent is required from the parents regarding data recovered while using the feedback booth" (Poninghouse, 2017).

Student B
A project for Gisborne District Council (GDC): involved app development for reporting environmental impacts of forestry and pastoral farming causing land and waterway damage.  A web app for reporting such events, so personnel can rapidly respond and assess what needs to be done.
It became evident throughout the presentation that student B was aware of the enormity in the scope of this project.  It was advised that the scope be reduced to an analysis pre-implementation style of report.

Student C
A project for CK & CO hair and beauty services: involves analysis and development of a push notification subsystem that will connect with an upgraded appointment cancellation system operating currently at a manual capacity. 
Unfortunately, a short way into this presentation the co-ordinator made a hasty recommendation as an alternative internship, which did not accommodate any part of students desired project or presentation.  The recommendations were later discussed by Tairawhiti staff who would be impacted at short notice. 
As the internship supervisor here in Gisborne, it was necessary that I meet with the student to clarify her feelings about the project.  We revisited the original proposal concept, developed a clear understanding of the project and refined its technical depth and scope to align with academic requirements.  

Computing Students get to Work

EIT ⇨ Computing Students ⇨ Work 

The School of Computing have a group of students at the moment, working as contractors in Napier, Hastings and Gisborne.  They are mostly rostered one or two days a week providing client support for a set of online systems. I've been working with David (Assistant Head of School of Computing) in Hawke's Bay to help facilitate, schedule and support students involved in this contract, particularly up here in Gisborne. 

We have quite a large group of students between us and already weathered a few casual 'on the fly', staff change moments.  Today, I'm facilitating one of those 'on the fly' moments. 

Besides having no HR background to draw from, I do know most of the computing students here in Gisborne. It's good to hear of their experiences, the confidence gained, networks and skills developing while on their journey with us @ EIT.

PGIT WIL Proposal

Proposal Hand-In ⇨ Presentation @ 10 

I'm a remote student living in Gisborne, studying towards Post Grad Diploma in IT which is offered from the Hawke's Bay campus. This semester I'd really like to finish this qualification, so I'm taking on two papers while working full-time. 

Today, a presentation has been scheduled over VC for the WIL (work integrated learning) proposal. It's rare to find me in the lecture theatre on the driving end of a VC, rather I'm usually there as the receiver.  This meant working some magic with the array of remotes available, and that didnt come together in time.  Kim (WIL Course Co-ordinator) and Tom (WIL Supervisor) suggested I present in front of the camera without the use of a visual aid. 
Note to self: schedule a test run prior to doing that task again. 😣

The discussion that followed, helped to put everything into perspective. Kim confirmed my feelings about the amount of work contained in the scope.  Essentially, the outlined research component in it's entirety is actually not feasible within the WIL time constraint. It was agreed that Tom and I would meet to discuss the proposal re-write later in the week when he visits Gisborne.