Week One!

Content:

Well here goes, I think we were supposed to have a different entry for each class but to save space I will put both here.

The first class was great in that we were introduced directly into the many different topics that we will be covering.  With general overview, I find it much easier to see what is happening and what is going to happen and therefore no surprises.  Even better was the assignment of our semester long project.  This allows us to have in mind what we will need to work on and it allows for us to think about it all semester long.  This is great compared to other courses when projects are assigned after the fact and methods/details that may have been useful are long forgotten because there was no clear focus.  With an early project topic, it may seem "oh wow" but in a sense there is no surprise later.  Speaking of project topics, I chose topic #4 Social Networks for Clinical Collaboration  (with some urging).  This topic is one of interest since throughout my engineering undergraduate and other volunteer activities I have found that communication is very key to collaboration and getting the desired results.  Social networking seemingly over the past years have had its focused based on networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even this one but there are other professional social networking sites such as LinkIn that can be used to keep in contact with colleagues, other professionals, and even potential employers.  Turning this around to the clinical side, if clinicians were able to socially network and keep in contact with others hundreds of miles away the amount of benefits are many but at the same time there are many obstacles that also exist.  Continuing with networking, personal websites can also be used to establish a network.  I know that the ASU website provided through www.public.asu.edu/~[ASURITE] is a great tool for producing a website, but I just wanted to put it out there that ASU also provides websites through its Google Accounts.  These sites are typically easier to put together and general templates are provided by Google.

ASU Google Sites : http://sites.asu.edu

The second class was present by Dr. Dinu who provided a very informative session on the different types of databases used: conventional relationship vs. Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV).  He explained the many different uses that would require the use of one over the other.  I have had some experience with databases in the past and I found that his lecture helped to consolidate some of the knowledge from the past as well as put a name to the different database types.  His lecture actually made me realize that one of the database organization methods I've attempted to use in the past was actually EAV and it made me realize why it didn't really work work out.

Well on this note, as a former Software Trainer for ASU's Learning Support Services (LSS), I would like to point out that LSS's software training program has a 1 hour workshop on Access that they typically hold during the semester on the Tempe Campus.  Their workshops are designed so that you can be at the workshop with someone walking you through or you can do the workshop individually with the handouts. (I'm in the process of acquiring the handouts from LSS.)

LSS site:  http://www.asu.edu/lss

Posted by Eric