91猎奇

Student Spotlight

Students of Professor Esperanza Huerta Espinosa created podcasts as an alternative to writing essays in their business class. Here are two of the student podcasts produced using Adobe Audition.

Listen to or download the podcast, "Programming for Beginners"

Download the transcript to the podcast, "Programming for Beginners".

Read the transcript to the podcast, "Programming for Beginners":

Welcome back to talks with CHC, where we may end

up talking until the sun sets.

Hi, everyone, it's CHC. Today we'll be talking

about what you should do to be successful in a

programming course for beginners. When I first

started programming, I struggled a lot.

And because of that, I can tell you it's not

something that came easy to me. Now that I'm a more

seasoned programmer, let me tell you about what

you should do to succeed. To start, read the

textbook. Yeah, I know it might not be fun, but

you have to read that textbook more than once.

Read it two times once before your class and once

more after. Before you go to class, not only should

you read the textbook, but you need to take notes

on the important concepts that stick out to you,

whether that be an actual concept, a function or

command or a definition of a term. It helps to

actually type or write things out because it tends

to stick with you more than if you were to just

read the textbook. After you write those notes,

take it to class and add what is being taught in

class to your notes. After class, review your notes

and open the textbook to read again. When you do this, things start

to come together now that you've heard and seen

everything at least three times. Once you start

getting more interactive with the content, you

begin to learn more. In addition to reading a

textbook and taking notes, find practice problems. If

your textbook doesn't offer anything, go on to

Reddit.com and find practice problems on a subreddit

called r/programming help. There are no spaces.

Here they don't offer you complete practice

problems, but there are people who post about

needing help with their code. You can get practice

by attempting to solve their code, by doing it

yourself and then checking if you've done it right,

by reading the solutions that are offered in the

comments. Similarly, you can go on to stack overflow

and do the same thing. Just browse

through the post and click on a problem that

interests you and relate to the programming that

you are learning. Practice is everything. Using

these websites will give you the opportunity to

read and practice solving other people's codes, as

well as learn from their mistakes and avoid doing

what they did yourself. Finally, the last advice

that I have to give you is to use YouTube. It's an

amazing source for students. You get people all

around the world teaching you how to program. If

one person's teaching style doesn't match yours,

then you can easily find another. On YouTube, you

can pause and replay things at any time. This can

give you a chance to catch up on your notetaking

and have some time to completely understand the

concepts being taught. Just search up the concepts

you're having trouble with and then browse through

the videos to find the one that will help you the

most. The video that will work for each person is

different because everyone has different problems

and a different way of understanding things.

Because of that, I won't go into too much detail

about who to watch and what to watch. And it looks

like time is up so and my advice giving here.

Don't be discouraged if you don't succeed in

coding right off the bat, programming is difficult.

You might run into a lot of problems as you go

through your programming course. But keep in mind

that there are a lot of ways you can mitigate

those hardships. Remember, read your textbook and

take notes. Use online resources like Reddit,

StackOverflow and YouTube and most importantly,

practice, practice, practice. Following these

tests will help you succeed in your programming

course, just as it did for me. I wish you the best

of luck and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Disclaimer, all of the sound effects and

background music are not mine. All sound effects

are from freesound.org and the background music is

from pixabay.com, who's part of these websites for

the Rights and Licencing. Thank you.

Listen to or download the podcast, "Things to Know at the Start of the Semester"

Download the transcript to the podcast, "Things to Know at the Start of the Semester".

Read the transcript to the podcast, "Things to Know at the Start of the Semester":

Welcome to my podcast in which I'm going to talk

about what I wish I had known at the beginning of

this semester.

The beginning of a semester can be an uneasy time

There are students trying to crash and add courses

in order to fill out their schedule and graduate

on time. Students trying to figure out if the classes they are in,

are the right fit for them and much more

anxiety than necessary for college age kids. I

remember the beginning of this semester. It was no

different for me. I was not worried about having to

crash or add any courses, but I was nervous that

certain courses I enrolled in would prove to be

too difficult for me. With this being my last

semester, that possibility frightened me to my

core because it would mean I didn't graduate on

time. One of the courses I was especially nervous

about was Business-one-120G. I had ended up enrolling

in this course because I needed another accounting

elective. Due to the pandemic, the options are

limited. Because of the limited options, I seemingly

chose at random and decided on Bus-one-120G. I was

not even sure what the class was at the time. All

I was concerned with was that it would satisfy the

elective requirement I needed. The first day of

class, I finally learned with the class I had

enrolled in really was programming and systems

development and AIS. I quickly learned that this was

essentially an introductory course to programming which I

knew nothing about and never thought I would

know anything about. I found myself filled with

nerves that the course would be too difficult for

me since it was such a foreign concept. Having now

almost completed the semester, there are a few

things I wish I could have told to my past self in

order to help prepare me for what's to come. First

off, I would have tried to explain what the class was as

opposed to going into it, not knowing anything.

I would have also tried to express how important it is

to, "eat your vegetables". Lastly, I would

have liked to tell myself about the effectiveness

of the trial and error method when writing a

program. 

It is usually not a good idea to get involved with

something before knowing exactly what it is you're

getting involved with. The same rule applies to

choosing what courses to take. At the time of

choosing courses, I was blinded by the light at

graduation and did not bother to learn what the

courses were, which I was choosing. Because of

this, the first couple of class meetings were very

intimidating. I wish I could have told myself that,

yes, the courses will teach you how to write

programs, but it will do so at a manageable pace.

What I would have also said was that this course is

specifically for business students, and it is

likely that not many others in the class have

prior programming knowledge either. I remember

thinking what a great mistake I had made picking

this course and how I felt I did not belong in the

class. I believe that knowing what the course was

going to be, knowing I was not the only one

without prior knowledge and understanding that the

course was designed for students like me would have

not only helped me prepare for this course, but would have

also helped ease my nerves in those first few

weeks. Another piece of advice I would have liked

to tell myself at the beginning of the semester is

the importance of eating your vegetables.

Professor Huerta does not make practice

programs mandatory. Instead, she encourages students to

complete them for their own sake as opposed to for

the sake of grade. Huerta uses the analogy of

eating your vegetables to explain this importance.

People don't usually like to eat their vegetables,

but is very important to do so to ensure that

you're getting the nutrients needed. Doing the

practice problems is very similar to that.

Students don't often want to do extra work if it

is not required for grade, but doing so here is

very important to fully understand the material

and pass the course. I believe that had I actually

understood this lesson, I would have completed

more and more of the practice problems and would

have had a much better understanding in the course

and a better grade than I do now. The last thing

that I wish I could have told myself at the

beginning of the semester is how effective the

trial and error method is to writing and solving

programs. During the first few weeks of programming,

I felt like a fish on a bicycle, completely unsure

about so many aspects of what I was trying to do.

One of the things I discovered later in the

semester that helped me a lot with writing

programs was how helpful trial and error was in

getting a program to do what I wanted to do. This

involves making small changes to programs and then

attempting to run them and doing so over and over

again until the desired output was given. Once I

learned the trial and error method, I began to

succeed at a much higher rate in writing programs

and I would advise any new programmers to use this

method.

Had I known all of these things at the beginning

of the semester, I believe that I would have been

a much more successful student in this class than I

actually have been.

Thank you for listening to my podcast. Don't

forget to like and subscribe down below.

Good bye.

Students of Lecturer Laura Guardino produced podcasts examining the significance and influence of sources in the study of history. Here is one of the student podcasts:

Listen to or download the podcast, "Examining Sources in HIstory"  

Download the transcript to the podcast, Examining Sources in History.

Read the transcript to the podcast, Examining Sources in History:

For this podcast, we will be discussing

Nathaniel Bacons Declaration of the People, a

document issued in response to Governor Berkeley in

the midst of Bacon's rebellion. It is important to

understand the purpose of this document. Nathaniel

Bacon's Declaration of the People was a list of

complaints issued by Nathaniel Bacon on July 30th,

1676, in which he accused Virginia's colonial

governor, Sir William Berkeley, his cousin, of

being corrupt, playing favorites and protecting

the Indians for his own self-interest. Now,

what Bacon was trying to get across here is that,

Here are our list of reasons for rebelling

against you. He specifically mentions imposing

unfair taxation, having neglected to promote trade,

putting unqualified people in positions of

government, and having failed to protect the

colony from Indian attacks. The message that Bacon

gives in his declaration is explicit because he

directly expressed his reasons for rebelling

against Berkeley in the colonial government. For

example, the first reason Bacon gives for rebelling is

that, he says, for having a conspicuous pretends

of public works raised great, unjust taxes upon

the commodity for the advancement of

private favorites. Basically, what Bacon is

saying here is that Berkeley raised taxes for the

colonies for his own self benefits at the expense

of the people in the colony. Now, to conclude,

this uprising was one of the earliest major

popular rebellions against British colonial rule

in the Americas.

The 91猎奇 2022 Adobe XD Challenge for students was named Turtle Hurtle. For this creative contest, students were challenged to create a climate game or app to educate and inform about disaster risk reduction and what to do in the event of a natural disaster. Students could choose from one of many climate disasters. The game or app teaches about climate change through engaging, interactive, and science-based gaming experiences!

This 91猎奇 Adobe student activity was produced by Tina Korani, Assistant Professor of Media Design, Co-founder of Immersive Storytelling Lab in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University.

View presentations of the outstanding student projects on YouTube using the links below.