Week 10: Databases, Clear

I was looking forward to this weeks assignments as I am not very familiar with Microsoft Access. The lectures were a little dull until I opened access and tried working with data along with them. This made them much easier to understand the processes and hopefully will help me finish my project on time.

After I took the prerequisite computer class for the Online Business Program, I found a way that Access can be used at our funeral home. For the last 30 years, every time someone passed away, we would type (on a typewriter!) The name of the deceased, date of death, file number and method of disposition on a 3 x 5 index card which would be filed alphabetically in a card catalogue. This is ridiculous, not only because of the archaic method of record keeping, but because the information is of very little value. It is only used to make it easier to look up records in our archives by name.

I proposed and designed an access database had more valuable fields such as buyer names and contact information, and contract numbers. Access allowed the user not only to look up decedents by name, but the information could be sorted by any of the information in the record. The database was available to the four funeral directors and the office manager, and since it contained more more info, sometimes we could avoid having to pull the physical record from the archives.

I am met with a lot of resistance when trying to update or change the processes at my job. When demonstrating the new database to my boss, another employee turned my computer off during the demonstration, thinking that a power failure would be a reason not to use it. To demonstrate it's superiority I pulled an shredded a random index card from the old catalog and turned my computer back on. Guess what? My database was still fine, but I still am working on updating our office.

Week Nine: Is anyone not clear on the internet at this point?

I was so wrapped up in the Presentations in Web 2.0 project before  leaving for the weekend that I forgot to post before I left. Glad I checked Blackboard before hitting the sack!

The internet...I'm not really sure what to write on this one. This the first week that I feel I was already familiar with the material.

The search engine has replaced many information resources. Email is now the main form of communication in most businesses. I stay connected with people all over the world through forums on topics that interest me.

I think you can even take classes online now...

Presentations and Web 2.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfuX78xgYCY

Well that was interesting...

I used an idea I had for an entrepreneurial venture that supports funeral homes with staffing and other services as needed. I used PowerPoint as my presentation software and uploaded to the web via YouTube. The intended audience is funeral home owners, managers and funeral directors.

To critique myself on this project I filled the same rubric form  that I filled out for my peer:

Presentation Evaluation Rubric

Name of Presenter: Courtney Charvet

Your Name: Courtney Charvet

	Missing or lacking	Meets the minimum but could be improved	Excellent
Is there a logical flow and sequence of content? How could it be improved?		Should have paused speech between some slides
Does the presenter anticipate questions and answer them in the right place? At what points did you have questions that were not answered?			I think I did. I didn’t go into pricing so as not to bore the instructor
Did the presenter grab your attention in the first 30-60 seconds?		Luke warm on the intro
Did the presenter ask questions and spark your curiosity?			I tried to make the listener think about the important  aspects of the job.
Did the presenter set the context with a concise explanation? Is it clear what the presenter is trying to share?			I think this would be very clear to a Funeral Director which is the intended audience
Did the presenter validate any claims?			I supported claims with logical explanations of benefits
Did the presenter avoid inconsistencies and errors, typos and unbelievable claims?			Yes
How well did the presenter avoid clutter?			Kept slides simple
What did the presenter do to ensure readability?			Large Print, Simple bullets
Did the presenter say it, and then show it or did he/she read the slides?		Slipped a few times

In critiquing my peer, Stephanie Howick, I realized how different each and everyone of our presentations must be. Stephanie's project was very well rehearsed, and she used the slides to support what she was saying. She did not read a single item off of a slide. I wish I could say the same for myself.

Rehearsing and listening to yourself in a presentation is very difficult without feedback from the audience. I am comfortable talking and making presentations to a crowd in person. I found myself studdering a lot, something I am not really used to. I wish I had more time to devote to this project. Powerpoint is one of my favorite programs.

This was not my best project. I hope to improve on whatever is next.

Week 7: Presentations

This weeks assignments in my honest opinion, were the best so far. I especially enjoyed the videos from Ted.com. I do my best to watch one of Ted's talks everyday and have the page set as my homepage in my browser. The avatar lectures however, I thought were weird.

One of the main tasks of my job are presenting options of services, merchandise, and personalization available to clients. There is little use of technology for now and most of the information is exchanged face-to-face, but I see this changing already. When someone is going though the difficult situation of losing a loved one, they often are not comfortable speaking with someone in person. They often turn to the Internet for answers to their questions. Historically funeral homes have been reluctant to offer too much information on the Internet about services and pricing. Online presentation of this information could be delivered to clients in a way that could conform with a companies best practices in a medium that is more comfortable to a person in a ragile state. This could provide much more than a price list, and explain further the value of the services. This could also help differentiate our company from competitors.

The material this week was great, and I had fun.

Week 6: Clear on Multimedia

This subject deals with some issues that comes up often at my work. Though most of the vocabulary from the lectures was new for me, but I was relatively familiar with the concepts from editing photos and videos at home and at work.

My wife and I have two kids and that keeps the pictures and video coming. While the videos we make do not require much editing, my wife enjoys scrapbooking and many of our photos need to be cropped or fixed in someother way.

Working at a funeral home, a particular issue at work is our customers sizing photos for obituaries, memorial program handouts, and tribute videos. In all cases, it is important to have the client provide us with the highest quality photos possible. It is especially important when the photos are used to make a photo tribute that will play on a large screen mointor during a funeral.