A Creation Story (IRLS672-Unit 6)

This week we were charged with learning some basic HTML and creating a simple web page. I had already learned some super basic HTML in SIRLS Bootcamp and then spent a lot of last fall going over the w3schools online tutorials. So, instead of reading over everything again, I just skimmed for a refresher. Most everything was covered in the main page I made for SIRLS, except for the doctype! command and page title, which I had to look up. I used mostly basic HTML, but added centering and a background color (purple!). I had to create a subdirectory so that I didn't accidentally overwrite my original page, so the new page I made is available at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~seprzy/digin/digin.index.html. Enjoy!

Learning with Style (IRLS672-Unit 5)

This week we read about different learning styles. I think this is a useful topic to touch on in all classes, since it really defines what tasks we are going to relate to best and what way we should structure our learning. I'm definitely a fan of more interactive materials (videos, podcasts, etc), but I also find written material very useful, especially as a brief overview of a topic. I'm a total fan of wikipedia entries when I am exploring new territory. I know that it is not scholarly research and that there may be some factual errors, but I've found them to be a good way to wrap my head around a subject before delving into the details. I think that this reflects my personal learning style...

Active versus Reflective:

I think that I'm more of a reflective learner than an active learner because I like to soak everything in before giving my opinion and I prefer working alone. However, I've become a bit more active since being in the SIRLS program because the online format necessitates that we interact frequently since we never see each others' faces.

Sensing versus Intuitive:

I think I am more of an intuitive learner than a sensing learner because I can easily grasp the "big ideas," and hate getting bogged down by memorizing dates and numbers and such. However, I think that I'm also sensing some of the time because I like things (like class) to have a defined structure.

Visual versus verbal:

Like noted earlier with respect to the class materials, I think I am mostly visual, but also verbal. In fact, when I am trying to remember things I read, I often try to picture the page I read it on to recall the facts.

Sequential versus Global:

This is the hardest thing for me to decide. I like the order & structure of sequential, but I like to see the big picture and understand why I'm doing things instead of just doing them. So, maybe I'm a mix of both?

So many users, so little time... (IRLS672-Unit 4)

So this week we tried out 3 different ways to add users: command line, gnome, and webmin. I actually found command line to be the quickest since you just have to type the commands and don't have to click through a bunch of menus. However, if I didn't have the instructions in front of me, it would have probably taken me longer to look up the proper commands. Gnome was the worst, I think, since it takes some exploring to find the user/group management area. However, I did accidentally add a user before I added the group and it automatically added the group for me, so that was cool. Webmin was really user-friendly, but I had to leave the command line to do it. Overall, I think I just need to focus on remembering command line terms instead of trying to GUI myself around it.

Linux is Texty (IRLS672-Unit 3)

The text element has been very interesting for me in this course so far. Since it's summer and I want to have some fun, I got a PC copy of Final Fantasy VII to play. I had previously played this game on a Playstation 2, but I didn't yet have a game controller for PC, so at the same time I'm learning all of these new linux commands, I've also been gaming using keyboard commands. While I now have a game controller (since it's a lot easier and I can sit further away from the screen), I believe this helped me pick up some of the typing skills needed to navigate. Nano isn't too bad, but Vim has lot of commands to remember and the screen navigation uses the h,j,k, and l keys instead of the regular directional keys. That was a bit hard to get used to, but not as difficult as if I had not been playing FF7 recently =;-)

In terms of configuration, I don't recall doing a lot of configuring with my laptop. A lot of stuff comes pre-packaged and is set up for automatic updates. I'm excited to get into how stuff actually works behind the scenes.