Self Managed Learning Plan: PHP

For my SMLP I have chosen to learn the scripting language PHP. This will allow me to create dynamic web pages which could enhance some designs. With knowledge of PHP I will be able to add a search feature on my web pages, something I find really useful on large websites in finding the information I want quicker than nagivating my way around the site. I feel that this alone will make my designs more appealing to clients (and in turn their customers who visit the site).

To further justify my choice I have used various different job sites to search for jobs within the web design industry and the skills and qualifications required by various employers. I found that PHP was listed by most employers, and I therefore believe that being able to use the language is a must within the industry. It will certainly add to my employability, and as mentioned above should allow me to enhance some designs, which will help build a better client base.

PHP is also supposed to be fairly easy to learn, which is something that is important to consider for myself, as the coding side of things is not my strong point. Learning material and tutorials also seem to be plentiful on the Internet, which will aid me in my study of this language.

I will also need to learn MySQL alongside PHP as the two work in conjunction with each other. This should also add to my employability as it was also listed as a key skill by employers (which is to be expected when the two languages work together).

In summary, I feel PHP is a good choice for my SMLP because:

• It will allow me to create dynamic web pages
• This language seems to be deemed as a key skill by most employers
• It shouldn’t be too hard to learn
• There are numerous tutorials on the Internet to help me learn this language
• It works in conjunction with MySQL, another language deemed as a key skill by employers

Past Mistakes

As the end of the first year draws to a close I’m feeling mostly satisfied with my progression through the course so far, though there’s room for improvement. I’m also relieved that all the assignments are done with for now, after all the work and late nights I’ve had to put in recently.

Looking back over my other entries and remembering how I felt at the start of the year, it seems like ages ago. In my very first post I said I was hoping this would be the final stage of my education before employment and I still feel the same. 

After 4 years of FE and a year of HE (not to mention another year to come) I’m ready to get a job. While I’m motivated and will continue to do the best I can and put all my effort into assignments, I grow tired of forever doing coursework. I’m just looking forward to employment now when at least I’ll get paid for all the work!

As noted in the second post, the step from FE to HE was bigger than anticipated but I feel I’m working at the level required, though I can push myself to do better. At the time I was struggling to annotate inspirational pieces, something that came much easier as the weeks went by. Word counts were frustrating at first and while at times I felt they were ridiculously low for the level of detail I thought was needed, I’ve adjusted to them. However, sometimes it can take a while to edit a piece of work down to the word count, which still leads to frustration.

A2: A Journey of 1000 Miles... was probably the easiest assignment for me, and it’s a shame we weren’t given the chance to achieve anything higher than a Pass as I feel I could have at least got a Merit for that one. Still, it was a good assignment to ease us into the course and it was probably the least stressful one, even with the move and everything else that was happening at the time. Achieving a straight Pass was also a major confidence booster.

A3: Sounds Like a Plan could’ve been considerably less stressful if my time management had been better, as noted at the time. Having no internet connection at home didn’t help matters, but I could have done more earlier on in the assignment to avoid working over Christmas.

I was also struggling to meet my 16 hours a week throughout Semester One, which I’ve also learnt from. Had I pushed myself to do a bit more each week there’d have been no late nights.

A4: Typecast went smoothly for the most part, though there was some stress meeting some of the shorter mini-deadlines. This was mostly because the ideas generation took so long, but I feel I’ve improved on this and now take a little less time to get my ideas down.

A5: Builder was one of the more difficult assignments for me, as it took a while to get my head round some of the code. I intend to practice on XHTML and CSS over the Summer break and am confident I will soon be able to build websites with ease. I got there in the end, with a little help from John, and still achieved a Pass.

A6: The Big Picture was probably the most stressful assignment. Everything was just so time consuming and I underestimated how long everything would take. I think I’m still recovering from this one, hence why I’m looking forward to the Summer break so much. I was determined not to make the same mistakes as for A3 so I pushed myself to get as much done possible each week, but even so I still struggled towards the end.

However, the fact that I managed to do so much every week perhaps highlights how I’ve progressed over the months. At school I used to get straight on with my homework and would typically not take a break until it was finished.

When it came to the first year of college I started to slip and became lazy, leaving work until the last minute and not putting as much effort in (which cost me some higher grades on the animal course).

On the GCE I was much the same and, again, my grades suffered. It wasn’t until Semester Two of the HND that I got out of this habit and really started to get on with work again. It was with the start of A6 that I began doing the 16 hours a week or more.

I think my main problem with A6 was spending too long on some tasks (such as the presentation), and not starting the other tasks sooner. This is something I will try and be more aware of in future.

A7: Rasterised I’ve mostly enjoyed, and it’s been good to have some time to myself for the duration of this one. Towards the end I had to put a lot of hours in though, especially as A1: SketchBlog was also due in the same day. This meant ensuring my sketchbook was complete. The holding page also took a lot of time to code and I still need to practice this. The last two weeks were stressful and I’m relieved to have handed it in, and confident that I’ll at least achieve a Pass.

So, I will take from this year the knowledge that I’m on the right tracks, as I’ve passed every assignment. However, I know I can achieve better grades and next year I’m going to really try harder to pull these up to Merits and possibly Distinctions.

I’ll also try to manage my time better and set some time aside for myself as well as work. I’m thinking of taking some leave off work which will leave me free to concentrate on my studies and thus allow me to get a more challenging job in my chosen industry.

I also think my level of creativity could still improve so I’ll spend some time over the Summer working on this. I intend to look for more inspiration and become more creative in my own designs.

Next year I want to learn more code, despite a few difficulties this year. I’m thinking I would like to learn JavaScript at this point in time, as it would be useful to allow me to build better sites.

Action Plan:

• Better time management

• Higher grades: 4 Passes, 3 Merits and at least one Distinction

• Be more creative

• Better developer

Time's Mooving On

We are well underway with A7 and I have to say that for me it's gone a lot smoother than the last two assignments. I'm nearly there with this one and I'm confident I can get everything finished well before the deadline to allow plenty of time for any last minute changes and avoid more late nights!

In fact I think the hardest task was listening to the music! Otherwise I've quite enjoyed A7, and I'm just glad things haven't taken nearly as much time as they were doing for A6. It's been considerably less stressful and I've had time for me as well as work.

However, there was some stress involved last week when Steve told us he wanted to see all the CD artwork in Seminar the next day. At first I thought I would never have it done in time, but as it turned out I finished well ahead of the deadline - much to my relief.

I have to say I was also somewhat disappointed at the client's feedback after pitching my logo ideas, and was left with two designs to develop over the Easter holidays. Typically I came up with a better idea almost straight after the meeting, and was disappointed when Steve said to stick to the two the client had requested; though I can see his point. However I'm happy with the finished result.

I'm also pleased with my CD artwork. It's being sent to Moo for print as I write, and I'm hoping it will look good on the postcards when it comes back.

And so as the end of the first year draws near I'm pleased with my progress and looking forward to the second year; although I'm ready for the Summer break first!

All Work and No Play

It's been a while since my last post and a lot's happened. With the completion of A5 and A6 there comes relief, but also some disappointment.

I thought I’d enjoy A6, which I did in a sense but due to the sheer workload there was stress too. I feel as if I’ve been doing nothing but work and coursework throughout the duration of the last two assignments. I even had to miss things I’d usually watch on TV because there wasn't enough time in the week for anything but coursework, and it still wasn't enough time in the end!

As the deadline drew closer panic set in when I realised just how much still needed doing, and everything was taking forever. The most frustrating thing about this was that I hadn't left everything until the last minute like last time, and I had to work all through the night on the Sunday just before deadline as it needed to be mostly done before making the trek to Wakefield on Monday. Yet still I struggled to complete it; I even forked out for a taxi to Pontefract just to give myself two extra hours. And I was still forced to finish at college!

With all the work and effort I put in I was hoping for higher marks, so I’m slightly disappointed, but I'm relieved at the same time that I passed. My creativity still isn't up to scratch so I need to work on this.

As for A5, I had some trouble with CSS so I need to work on this too, but I'm glad I passed first time.

And now work’s begun on A7 I'm going to try and give more thought to things such as the PARC principles in my designs and hopefully get up to a merit.

A7: Promotional Review

Signal’s Robotron is quite unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. I think it could be classed as Intelligent Dance Music (IDM), as well as psychedelic and experimental electronic.

Robotron puts me in mind of, as the name suggests, robots and machines. Each song has a beat to it with other noises in the background at different levels, underlying the beat. Some of these make me think of a machine or robot carrying out its commands, while others make me think of a signal being sent out – much like the band ‘Signal’.

There are few pauses in this album from start to finish, which I think fits really well with the robotic theme because, like a machine, it never pauses until it’s shut down. The brief pauses that do occur at the end of certain songs indicate to me either the end of the signal or the machine/robot carrying out its last command and awaiting a new one. Some are also quite sudden as if someone pulled the plug, or shut the robot/machine down before it could finish its task.

The introduction sets the theme, sounding almost like static in parts and almost like a helicopter in others. This quickly runs into Ermafa which at first made me think of a machine starting up, or perhaps this has already occurred in the introduction and now the machine/robot is carrying out its function.

The repetitive nature of most of the songs fits perfectly with this theme of a machine, as they carry out the same tasks repeatedly until they either finish or get switched off. Ermafa is no exception to this.

Naplafa has more than one robotic noise going on which repeat throughout, like a machine performing different tasks simultaneously.

Robotron, Malimo and Wismut all put me in mind of a signal being sent out through my speakers, almost like morse code. There is a lot of static present here which fits with the signal theme. The static fades out at the end of Wismut and the machine (or signal) continues into Rawema.

The sudden end to Rawema could indicate either the end of the signal, or the machine being shut down before it could finish, as mentioned previously. For me Rawema is more like a machine, but it could be argued it’s a new variation on the signal being sent during Robotron, Malimo and Wismut.

Datasette again sounds like a signal akin to morse code, while Sporett and Epriex Motor put me in mind of machines again. The latter two also have sudden ends.

And finally the album finishes with Wismut (Version) which is similar to Wismut in some ways, though there is less static and it has a slightly different sound. This too ends suddenly as if the plug has been pulled on the machine.

Robotron is an interesting album and fans of the genre should definitely check it out. Though it may not be particularly melodic, it has a beat you can dance to and its experimental nature makes it stand out from so many other dance tracks. This is definitely an album best appreciated from start to finish, so be sure to set some time aside when you get your copy, and prepare to experience the Robotron!

Life is Good!

The next two assignments are here and I have to say I'm quite looking forward to these.

A5 involves building the website we designed in A3, meaning we get to do some XHTML and CSS - one of the reasons I wanted to do the course in the first place.

A6 is all about image manipulation and involves a presentation on Photoshop techniques (one thing I'm dreading), a mini-assignment designing advertisment banners, and the creation of a website in Photoshop. There's also links to A1 in that we have to collect digital artwork each week and annotate it as we have been doing with other inspiration.

I think I'm going to enjoy designing the website for A6. We have a choice between doing a site on Sandal Castle, The Magic Circle, or the definitive site for Earth (aimed at ET's). I've already got a few ideas for the Earth one and think this will be a great opportunity to get my creative juices flowing.



The first piece of digital artwork was fun too. We had to create a mangatar, and I thought mine looked pretty cool when I'd finished.



Annotating was frustrating though, as we were only given 200-250 words per piece and I needed far more to go into the level of detail I wanted. Still, I edited it down to the 250 and it should be detailed enough for what Steve was wanting.

So, as long as I keep on top of the work this time and don't let myself fall behind I think this next semester is going to be a lot better than the last one!

One semester down...

One semester down, three to go and I'm feeling pretty good about things at the moment. There's been a fair bit of stress to get to this point though.

I found A1 a bit hard at first with regards to the inspiration. Some weeks I was struggling to find inspirational pieces and when it came to annotating them I didn't really know what to write. I feel I've made significant progress with this area of the sketchbook work though, since I went from writing maybe a sentence on each piece to a whole page.

The first assignment, A2, went well, but the ones we've just done (A3 and A4) I found a lot tougher. The main problem with A3 was my time management. I allowed myself to get behind (which was partly due to not having the internet) and as a result ended up having to do hours of catch up work late into the night, which left me stressed and tired and lacking motivation to go back to college after the Christmas holidays. My screen design was particularly stressful and seemed to take forever. It took far longer than I expected it to, and as a result I was up late trying to get it done.

I found some of the shorter deadlines for the mini-assignments particularly stressful, and struggled to meet them. The thing that seems to take up most of my time is the ideas generation process in my sketchbook. I can get the thumbnails down in about 10 minutes but when it comes to the next stage and the final design it takes me forever, and as a result some of the mini-assignments were rushed. This led to typing errors, and in some cases I wasn't entirely satisfied with the end result though luckily we were given an hour before hand in to make some minor adjustments if we deemed it necessary.

Due to the pressure of trying to meet deadlines the sketchbook work was also a bit rushed, and perhaps not as accurate as it could have been. It could possibly have benefitted from more detailed annotations too.

In terms of written content I'm confident that's an area I've done well with, though in some cases I've struggled to edit out enough to meet the word count. My competitive analysis for A3 could have been a bit more in depth if I'd had more words to play around with, but I think it covers everything and I feel it was a damn good effort considering I had to use a competitive site written in another language!

I feel my ideas generation is an area that definitely needs improving on in this next semester, as well as my time management.

Overall though I think the first semester has gone well and I have progressed sufficiently. I've passed A2, and A3 and A4 are out of the way -- at least for now. Hopefully I've passed them too. As long as I keep on top of the next set of assignments I'm confident I'll continue to do well and move closer towards employment.