Whale Pillow

I made a plushy whale for Jane for her Birthday.
I got the pattern from a Finnish blog: http://valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com.br/2011/05/tee-se-itse-valas.html
Even after translating the page to English the instructions were not much help, I mainly had to go by the pictures.
It's made from an old pair of jeans and I sew by hand (Jane is teaching me to use the machine) so it came out kind of rough, but it was well received.

Final Presentation

The semester is coming to an end so my Internship Course is nearing conclusion. Fortunately my internship is not near ending, in fact I am going to work FULL TIME this Summer for CED3! Next semester I expect to have a schedule which will allow me to work a lot more than 24 hours. I want to keep on at CED3 even after graduation, for I've found a place where I really enjoy the work and feel I can make a significant contribution.
The internship class has a requirement that I gather documents and media for a final presentation. This has allowed me to reflect on these last three months and go over what I've done.
Fortunately our task management spreadsheets have a record of my completed and penfding work so I can just make a print out of that. I have much to report on about my internship as I've learned so much, discovered so many things about websites, corporate group work and NPS itself. I feel myself having changed as an employee.

Some things I've learned:

Team work. I thought that what it meant to work on a team was that you have people helping you to check and make sure that no mistakes get out. I learned a much more important aspect of teamwork is that you make sure to do perfect work so your team mates can trust the product you hand them and not have to go over it.

Design/code view. I started out working in Dreamweaver in the design view. Oh boy I can format text and paragraphs and cut and paste, align, tab, do normal word document editing. I found out this was very wrong as my websites got returned to me full of errors and broken links and the underlying code was a disaster. It turns out the code/text translation is not perfect, and for what is going out to be read on multiple browsers it is most important that the HTML code view be formatted correctly.

Adults can relax and also work hard. All the jobs I've had in the past I felt like I had to work very hard and fast to impress my boss and keep my job. I only found out that it's OK to be careful and methodical here at NPS. Not that it's OK to lag, but this work requires a lot of careful consideration and should not be rushed. This has been a tremendous relief to me and made my work experience a highly rewarding one.

I'm good at what I do. Although I have a lot to learn, I have studied desktop publishing extensively and practiced it personally, professionally and at school. I find I have just the mindset to carefully code and format websites and other media. I like it and my results prove I am getting the job done right.

I can perform well at work while also maintaining 4.0 at the University, with almost twice a full load! I am there, I've turned a corner and find all my work easy and enjoyable. I hope to carry on my work at NPS and at School with even increased success!

Thank you for reading.

What I do

This week has been typical, although I didn't have several fun side jobs I got a lot of work done on my course migrations. I finished a migration from the previous week, I completed an entire new migration, and I got a significant way into a new migration.
Each course migration offers design and programming challenges. As each course has a unique structure, words for sections, categories containing different items, types of media, location of media and format of media. For instance, the majority of courses have the heart or the meat of the course in an index of modules which contain the instructions, assignments and reading for each week. Different instructors call these different things. Work of the week, module index, course work, assignments are some examples of how this section is titled. Assignments is also a different category where you go to view and submit assignments. The work of the week may be under a button labled work of the week or it may be under a link titles course work or modules or something similar. My job is to form the new site into a coherent and logical site while maintaining as much of the original structure and naming as possible.
Sakai looks much different from Blackboard so each finished product has a clean white modern look to it. I find this very satisfying. Conversely Blackboard pages look old fashioned and gray to me. I get to "clean up" and modernize every site and I feel like I'm improving them, for look and clarity and functionality. The requirement for our department to perform any course work is if we will be adding value, and I honestly feel I add a lot of value to my courses.

Regular Schedule

So each blog entry I'm supposed to conform to a format where I report on how much I've worked this week and what I worked on.
Let me just tell you, each and every week I work 24 hours, (3) eight hour days.
This is because I go to school 2 days and so i work on the three remaining days. This summer i will work Full Time, 40 hours per week. All the time I have free from school i want to work. I really like my job and i need to make money.

What I work on varies from week to week, but my main task is migrating courses from Blackboard to Sakai.
This means actually making new websites for each course on Sakai, and linking in all the documents, presentations, graphics and outside links.

That's my main job, and in between I perform a variety of tasks for the Instructional Designers.

I edit audio tracks, record transcriptions from videos, edit title clips and content of videos, edit power points, add animations, check transcriptions for accuracy, help with film productions and many other things.

Every week brings new challenges and surprises.

Work Load

What work have I been doing in my internship?
Well, we have spreadsheets of all tasks completed.
On there I see that I have completed about 20 Course Migrations, this means making new websites for courses that need to be migrated from the old learning platform to a new one.
Those are my main big tasks. In between them I help develop media in various ways.
Many of the courses feature presentations, or web movies.
These are usually of the instructors lectures with slide shows or instructional animations. The instructors often want to offer the web movie along with the slideshows.
I am called on to translate the video narration and insert the transcription into powerpoint notes, edit raw audio into slides, clean up audio, render power point animations, convert powerpoint into web movies, edit the web movies, post them online and link to them through the websites.
I edit content, copy, audio, video, layout, styles, information structure, slides, notes, titles, animations, menus. I engage in work flow meetings daily, I keep logs of tasks and work completed, I help develop new methods and procedures, I work with my team to accomplish goals in the best ways possible.
All this, every day.
Each day may bring a new unique task, as I support the instructional designers in a variety of ways.
Whatever they are working on and need help with I will come in and support them. So there is always new types of tasks and technology to learn. I have been working with so many new types of media applications. I am truly learning what it means to be a media developer, or an interactive multimedia assistant! My skills are growing daily as I need to work farther and farther into new applications.
The scope of my job is not even realized yet, as each day brings new things. I discover new possibilities and responsibilities every time I go to work. The full range of work is growing as my skills develop and trust is built between my supervisors, my team and I.

Job Title

What do i do for work?
Common question that I've never had a simple answer to.
Some people have quick and easy little job titles that do not warrant any further questions.
Me it's always led to a discussion or at least a couple paragraphs of description.

Even now my job description is not simple, or it is so vague that it calls for elaboration.

My official title is Interactive Multimedia Assistant.
I fall within the Media Developer group, within my dept that works fine.
To people out in the world, I usually say:

I work at NPS
If they want more I say
I work for the dept that makes the websites for the school courses
I work in the library
I'm in web development
I make websites at NPS
I work in a dept called CED3 which makes the online coursework for the school
I work in distance learning
I work in instructional design
I support instructional designers in designing coursework
I'm an "interactive multimedia assistant so i do all kinds of things, I edit audio and video, help with and appear in video shoots, make websites, prepare presentations, support and assist the instructional designers in any way i can.
I'm in web development at NPS
I make websites for the Navy.

etc. etc.

So no simple answer but at least i have a cool job and description that usually gets nods of approval.

I heard the NPS is the largest employer in Monterey, it gets a lot of recognition, has prestige and is exclusive.

Internship Details

Our department creates the distance learning material for the Navy and graduate students from around the world. Many students are on deployment and erratic duty schedules must be accommodated.
My title is Interactive Multimedia Assistant. I help create online course work and learning tools, work with instructors to develop lesson formats, and support the distributed learning students. My role is support to the Instructional Designers, Media Developers and Graphic Designers. In this capacity I generate websites, edit content and presentations and generally assist in production however I can.

Our website describes the organization:

The Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Educational Design, Development, and Distribution (CED3) aspires to become the nation's leading center for educational design, development, and distribution of graduate level educational products and is committed to ongoing excellence in its services.

CED3 will use its expertise in instructional design, media development/production, marketing/communications, student services and administrative services to support resident and non-resident instructional programs. Through collaboration with NPS schools, departments, and faculty, CED3 will help NPS use new and existing technologies to extend our graduate level education to the total force.

A. Learning Outcomes: In this internship I intend to obtain professional experience in web development with Dreamweaver, Premiere, WebDAV, Articulate, Camtasia, After Effects and other current software. My progress in this will be measurable by the course work that I publish that is actually being used by NPS students.
I intend to grow my design skills through rigorous production of online course material and printed media such as brochures, pamphlets and posters. I will develop my video production skills by taking part in the filming of educational and promotional content. I will gain experience in communication design by taking the learning objectives of faculty and instructors and creating original, interactive content. All of this will be measurable by the deliverables that I produce in these capacities at CED3.
My teamwork and professional collaboration abilities will grow as I continuously interact with co-workers and clients. By collaborating with my team to constantly improve project management and work flow systems we will bring high quality learning products to market. Working in this close, professional design environment will give me those skills so valued in the creative and corporate field. My contributions may hopefully ensure a place on the team after the conclusion of my internship. My progress in this area can be measured by my performance evaluations and my team’s continued success.

B. Internship Agreement: This internship is offered for the duration of my remaining course of study, which is 1 and a half years, with expected graduation date of June 2011. It grants me a special status Student Intern GS 4 (General Selection) position. It’s a part time position, 24 hours per week. I work three full days and attend school on the remaining 2 days. As a part time position the GS status does not include the usual benefits but as a student intern I can raise several steps at a time within the GS4 rank. As a GS4 level I earn an hourly rate. I get quarterly performance reviews where my steps may increase with favorable evaluations. My immediate supervisor is Phil, Tom is my Department Director and Mary Anne is my Administrative Officer. Together they are my supervisors, but Phil oversees my day to day responsibilities.

C. Description of Organization: the center for Educational Design, Development & Distribution works to develop course work for distributed learning. Unique learning systems and web based courses are created with web development tools and video recording equipment. We are a branch of the Naval Postgraduate School and rely on Government and private funding.
CED3’s goal is to develop and provide support for graduate level educational products. Our customers are the students and faculty of NPS. Major decisions are made by committee, a panel exists to guide the department’s achievements and set directives. On a day to day basis decisions are made by group meetings between department members, visiting educators, faculty and staff. Even I take part in lower level decision making processes.

This job provides an appropriate direction of experience for students studying Information Technology and Communication Design. It is a “perfect fit” for those such as myself who are interested in working in the interactive design field. An internship in interactive multimedia development is a natural extension to my Bachelor of Science program. It is an opportunity to gain invaluable hands-on experience that directly complements my course of study.