Dec 8, 2009

Course Wrap-Up

Well, just like everyone else, I am wrapping up my work for this semester. For IS449W, I found this to be my most enjoyable class this semester and one of my favorite classes taken in the past five and half years at Eastern. It sure would be nice if the department could apply a few more courses like this to the curriculum. The amount of hands on work programming, using different languages, incorporating different services etc. was really rewarding and challenging. I envision a network class where you actually have to configure a network with your classmates, a database class that actually functions on a server and has a web front-end, and a security class where we develop networks/programs and learn different techniques to expose their weaknesses. It would just be really nice to have some of our other courses modeled off of this one. I think we all learned a lot based on the methodologies used.

Another nice thing about this class were the other students involved. We all apparently learned a thing or two on our way to this class and it shows in everyones work. I was really impressed with both the group projects and individual projects. Some were entertaining (Justin), others were really helpful (Matt), some made me thirsty (James) and some looked really sweet and made me jealous (Mountain Biking Group). Nice work everyone, it's been a pleasure taking classes with you over the past few years. If you want to stay connected, find me on LinkedIn.

Thanks to Matt, I also noticed some people are running kinda low on blog posts. Here's some ideas if you are lacking in creativity today:
That should help you get the wheels turning. And yes, I like looking at Reuters for my news sources. Thats it for my 14th post, I'm done!!!!!!!
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7 comments:

  1. Ahmed AledreessiDecember 8, 2009 at 3:41 PM

    Haha, Congratulations on your 14 post. Apparently I'm behind. Thanks for the resources; I'm actually taking a look at the Craigslist vs Ebay one and I think I will blog about it. I also agree with how creative everyone had gotten during the course. Good Luck!!!

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  2. ColinDecember 8, 2009 at 4:09 PM

    Thanks Ahmed! Glad you could make use of my post. Good luck with everything in the future.

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  3. James AltmannDecember 11, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    Colin,

    Thanks for the shout-out! I definately agree with you Eastern would do favorable to model more courses like this. The next closest i personally had here was IS421 (Oracle DB Class). Oddly enough i was with the same people for that group project and we did make a nice database with a nice frontend.

    But i did most of my programming work elsewhere, one of the best instructors i had was an EMU MCIS grad, he didn't spoon feed us code, just showed us tools and said to make a program using them.

    Maybe the CIS dept. will see some of this and change some of the ways it is doing things. Hard to know what works best without trying new things.

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  4. Michelle KahlerDecember 12, 2009 at 12:33 PM

    Colin,
    I definitely agree with you on having more hands on classes. I think it creates a much better learning environment when you can actually do the work instead of just learning about it. We did do some hands on in the security classes we had but most of that was just steps by step instruction instead of figuring out what you are supposed to do.

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  5. PattyDecember 12, 2009 at 9:14 PM

    Colin, thanks for the ideas for future blog postings. I sometimes have an idea for a blog and check the class postings and someone has already done it.....I will be posting several within the next few days.....:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. jassin_issaDecember 15, 2009 at 10:55 PM

    Yes, this class was one of the best that I have experienced here, at Eastern.
    The reasons were:
    1.) Prof. Drake and the way he organizes the class -> not so much lecture, more "try-to-do-it-yourself"
    2.) The topic -> JavaScript / Ajax / JSON / JQuery does interest me and I am glad that I gained some useful and worthy experience
    3.) All of you! All of you created an atmosphere that I really enjoyed. Thank you!
    Looking forward to see you tomorrow.

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  7. Kevin BlamerDecember 16, 2009 at 1:53 PM

    I also enjoyed the class, although I was behind for most of it. I feel if I put more into this class like the 3 others I took, I could have learned a lot. I think another class that would be cool to take is a iPhone app design class. I read that some universities have started teaching these class, I just think it would be cool.

    ReplyDelete

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