IS 101 Second Attempt

     I took this same course more than a year ago but I didn't earn a good grade (poor planning and execution on my part) However I can happily say I learned a lot more this time and glad I decided to retake this course. I probably won't ever take a course on a Saturday morning I learned it was very difficult to fit into my schedule, I thought I wasn't going to have any troubles but it seems like my life always had me occupied during Saturday mornings. I enjoyed doing the PowerPoint presentation especially since we were able to choose the topic, I'm confident I dramatically improved my skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. 

Using Slide Masters

     I found slide masters to be very useful, I never knew that existed and I presented many PowerPoints during high school and some in college. It's ideal to use slide masters to make all changes to your slides at once but it was a little confusing to maneuver at first even with LabSims I would often make mistakes on certain options in slide master mode for example I know I accidentally added a slide master into the slide while I was in slide master mode a couple of times. I actually enjoyed doing the LabSims for slide master I will definitely be using this option at my next presentation. 

Conditional Formatting

 I go back to my time in the Marine Corps once again, I had an OIC (Office in Charge) drag me and two of my peers into his office and taught us conditional formatting however I can't say I 100% paid attention but I'll never forget thinking "how does he know all this stuff and why." I never did get my answer but I assumed since he was an officer he must have taken a course in college on the subject which brings me to the current time. Now I'm the one taking a course on Excel and I just wish I could go back in time to show everything I learned. I regret not being mature enough to understand the tools that were in front of me during my active time in the Marines. I find conditional formatting to be essential in creating any worksheet that involves progress because it's such an easy thing to identify and follow, for example, the way we learned to use it in our Excel workbook was if reports were still not submitted after 2 days the rule would make that cell red. 

Hate Headers

All college essays require headers, of course I was probably introduced to it in high school but at that age I probably didn't care for it. Now in college the amount of header editing I was doing was annoying me, during this class I learned that you can actually save a template header. That was the one thing I'm so happy I learned from this class I can't believe I was writing a whole new header each time I wrote an essay for a class. I also learned more about footers which I was not too familiar with, after learning more on how to use it properly I doubt I would use it unless required. This section in LabSim personally impacted me the most I know it sounds crazy since there was tons of new material I learned doing the labs but the header section is something that would bug me all the time I always did the header portion once I was all done with my essay, this is a skill that I can certainly pass on to my sister as she begins college next year.

Introduction to Office Applications

I can't pinpoint my first experience with Microsoft Word but I know at one point I was exposed to it during school. Unlike college (at least for me) most essays in high school were done by hand it was really only during a big project or final did we use Microsoft Word but even then my knowledge was at the bare minimum the same goes for PowerPoint. I believe most people are aware of office applications and if forced can probably navigate through the basics. As an HVAC technician, I have not touched any office applications however during my deployment that was my ultimate exposure to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, and OneNote. It was a little embarrassing having an older gentleman in his 50s teaching me (a 22-year-old) how to use these office applications and although I did find it so complex and boring at the time, I'm so thankful for learning those skills.

Collaboration with Microsoft OneNote

Collaboration tools are key to any workforce, it's a tool that keeps everybody in the loop while still moving forward.  I refer back to my deployment because that was the most exposure to computer applications I ever had other than emails and Microsoft Word. My officer in charge (OIC) had an obsession with OneNote and of course, it drove me mad however once you understand how to navigate the application it can be a beautiful thing. The basic routine was usually I make a document and send it to somebody above me while they make their edits they send it to their higher up then it will reach the OIC but this was all done individually there was no system to unite us all until my new OIC had us communicate only through OneNote for all correspondence and movement plans which were hard at first but it was cool seeing everything being updated live on my page I can make changes quickly and it would update everyone else and we can upload our files to one location so whoever needs to make changes they can without doing all the emails back and forth. Collaborative editing and calendaring are essential to any project or work that involves others.

Encryption and Authentication in the Military

Anybody who is military or worked with the military knows about encryption and authentication, being a 19-year-old Marine at the time I kept hearing those words but I never knew what they meant exactly I just did what I was told but fast forward to my deployment in Kuwait all emails had to be encrypted and when I would receive emails from the contractors they would always send it with some form of authentication being required to open the email and this would annoy me so much, however, like I said I had no idea what it was really doing just that it kept everything "secret." Once I started lesson 1.4.11 everything started to make sense, having our emails encrypted is essential and now I learned how it actually works with scrambling our data. I know we all use some form of authentication every day with signing into websites or even our phones, I consider learning about this topic has improved my skillset because of course I knew how to send an encrypted email but I never cared for how it worked or why we always had to do it.

First Impression

My first impression of IS101 was not a good one, my first take was that it can get overwhelming fast and most of it does seem easy but it can get challenging quickly if you don't pay attention to details especially in Excel. I know there is some features in Microsoft Word that I'm not proficient in but overall anyone can use the program unlike Excel, maybe the basics you can mange but the true potential of Excel is massive there's so many features that can make your life ten times easier.