Most Influential Presentations

Top 3 presentations that have opened my eyes

I think the presentation that have opened my eyes the most would have to be the ‘copyright’ ‘Internet of things ‘ and also ‘the Treaty of Waitangi’

The copyright presentation really made me think about who these copyright laws are really protecting, because it’s in most cases not the owner of the work but usually the big corporate organisations. The American laws that the U.S.A are trying to get passed made me worry about the destruction it would bring to people’s privacy, even countries privacy if these laws were permitted. It also made me think about how stupid it is that the law enables the owner of the internet account to be prosecuted for any copyright breaches even if they themselves didn’t commit the copyright breach. I thought how could they monitor who exactly committed the copyright breach? it would be near impossible to do without some sort of personal log-in for each individual person using the internet, maybe that’s what it will come down to if these laws get any worse. I think as I.T. professionals we need to be especially aware of copyrights of products and software that we install or use when fixing businesses computers and when we are creating websites etc…, if not we could get prosecuted with copyright breaches ourselves, which would not look good for an I.T. professional or an I.T. company.

 

The ‘Internet of things’ presentation was interesting. Just imagining how the world will be in the future is exciting and it’s crazy how vital to everyday life the internet will become. Everything being connected to the internet is such a huge concept to us today but people of the future will think nothing of it, it will just become normal for people to press a button on their computer and start their car that’s sitting in the driveway or to look at their fridge and be told how much milk is left, see how much a new bottle of milk will cost at the supermarket then place an order for more milk , all from the front of the fridge . As I.T. professionals we will be the ones keeping all these gadgets going and connected so we will become even more necessary to the everyday running of the modern world. The demand for I.T. work will continue to increase year by year so the job opportunities for I.T. professionals in the future look pretty solid which makes me excited about joining the profession. It is an integral part of being an I.T. professional to keep up with the technological advancements because technology is advancing faster and faster everyday making it easy for us to fall behind if we don’t stay on top of the ball.

 

I think the Treaty presentation had an influence on me because before we had the presentation I never really knew much about the history of our country and the Treaty of Waitangi, it’s quite sad that this is the case for a lot of New Zealanders and I think we probably should have learnt more about it in primary and secondary school because I  believe it’s an important part of being a kiwi, knowing our past. After reading the documents I was surprised by the amount of difference in the actual writing of the two Treaty of Waitangi documents and also the use of quite a bit of western terminology that lead to some misunderstanding between the two cultures. After completing this article I feel better about my understanding of our past and I feel I have a greater understanding of why Maori claim on breaches of the treaty today.

 

The main thing that’s excited me in the last year from the I.T. world is the release of the Playstation 4 gaming console. Finally after 9 years a new console with some decent processing power. The Playstation 3 was a good little console when it was released but in the world of gaming today it’s not enough to run the crazy amount of power needed for new games. The Playstation 4 however has 8 GB of GDDR5 RAM and 1.84 TFLOPS of processing power, making it the most powerful gaming console on the market today. O.k. it’s not as powerful as the new computers that are out today but not bad for $599.  We can look forward to plenty of games with decent graphics arriving in the near future. It will also be interesting to see where the augmented reality part of the PS4 system will go in the future, hopefully we get some awesome innovative and interactive AR games coming out. I’ll definitely be keeping up with the latest to come out on PS4 in the future through the PS4 system itself and using google to search the latest developments.

 

I.T. is supposed to be here to make our lives easier!!!!

This sentence is funny because although Information Technology does make our lives easier overall it also makes parts of our lives more complex and in some ways harder, especially for us I.T. Professionals who will have to deal with fixing all these gadgets and programs. As more gadgets and programs get created to make our lives easier, the more complex those gadgets and programs will become, making it more and more complex and difficult for I.T. professionals to diagnose and fix these gadgets and programs. In conclusion I guess in a way it looks as if I.T. is making other people’s lives easier but the I.T. professionals lives harder.

The Internet of Things

Review of the Two Videos

It’s quite crazy to think that one day almost every object in the world will be connected to the internet in one way or another. The first video made me think about the speed at which technology is advancing. Within the last 20 years the increase in computerised gadgets has exploded, technology is progressing more and more rapidly and the amount of things we are able to do and control through the web increase every day. The second video on ‘The next 5000 days of the web’ was a good watch. Where it’s all heading is impossible to imagine, it’s a lot like when the internet first began, people thought that it was going to be like a better version of t.v. but it turned out to be something much different and much bigger than they ever thought. This is why I don’t think that we could ever accurately predict what will come, all I know is that technology is becoming more and more intertwined in people’s lives every single day. It makes it exciting to know that after studying I.T. at NMIT I’ll be involved in the evolution and creation of such things and also help keep those things working.

The 3D printer

What awesome little machines these 3D printers are. Todd gave us a quick look at just how these little printers work in class. One of the students had their 3d image scanned and uploaded to a program, the 3d printer then printed a figure that resembled the student. The figure was quite low quality but the 3d printer was set to a lower quality so it printed faster otherwise had it been on high quality it would have taken a lot longer than our 2 hour class session.

I can just imagine the usefulness of these little gadgets with creating everyday things, for example if I dropped my phone and broke the rear cover, I wouldn’t have to go and buy a new one from the manufacturer. I could just print off a new phone cover on my own little 3D printer, even choose a different colour for my phone, maybe add some personal touches to the design or redesign the phone altogether. It just opens up a whole new world of creation, there are some amazing creations already being produced, such as in this video in the next section below.

The 3d Printed Gun

A 3D printed gun which all parts can be printed on the 3D printer, apart from the firing pin which is a nail that can be picked up from any hardware store.  The latest that I’ve read up on these guns is that they are more dangerous to the user than they are to the target. Apparently in the testing range on a few of the test guns the entire barrels have blown off,  embedding in the firing range roof, they have also been found to be highly inaccurate and are usually are only capable of firing one shot before being useless. It won’t take long though just like everything it will get refined. The thought that any person could print their own gun out of plastic is crazy not to mention dangerous. They plan to release the data on how to build this gun to the public for free!!!, is this not just going to cause a lot of trouble for everyone?. Just imagine a gun that can’t be detected in a metal detector, how would they detect these plastic guns at airports? how easy would it be for gangs to buy a bunch of 3d printers and just start printing off their own arsenal of weaponry?.  Ok, for now they can only print the gun on the best 3D printers out which are not cheap at all. Eventually though, those high quality 3D printers will be the norm and everybody will have one. I still believe overall that the 3d printer will have more good uses than bad but it may need some sort of regulation or law on designs for weapons.

My Reflection

The web is going to become the most important and powerful tool in the world, connecting everyone and everything to everyone and everything. The amount of data and information travelling around this giant interconnection between everybody is going to be phenomenal. Control over all your everyday items using the web will become normal, which will in turn make the web even more vital to the everyday running of the world. People’s social lives will become merged into the web, you can see this happening already with everyone signed up to facebook , twitter etc. . As everything becomes connected though it will also give hackers more desire to take control of these everyday things. This makes it vital to create more sophisticated security systems in the future that will protect against hacking of people’s gadgets. Let’s hope this monumental shift to internet connectivity and social networking makes our lives better and easier, which is what technology sets out to do in the first place isn’t it?.

 

 

What is real?

1. What do you think is real?

Well I’m glad that the question asks what do I THINK is real as opposed to what IS real. The answer to what do I think is real is an easy one, I would define real as something I can feel, taste, smell, see and hear which is pretty straight forward . Here’s an alternate view that makes you think though; does anybody really knows what IS real?, think of the movie ‘the matrix’ where Neo is not physically but mentally living in a virtual world created by machines. All he had ever known was that virtual world which he himself would have defined as ‘the real world’, little did he know in the real world he was sitting in a pod full of goop with his body rigged with sensors and cables which were harvesting his energy. He thought that world was real because he could feel, taste, smell, see and hear everything around him and that was all he knew. This brings me to a few complex and unanswerable questions; how do we know we are in the ‘real’ world ourselves?  granted in the matrix there were some glitches which could be detected but what if our world is just a perfect, glitch free version of the matrix? maybe in the real world you and I are just human guinea pigs for some research project which was set up for an experiment or to blow your mind even more what if we are actual real guinea pigs?……………maybe that one was a bit far fetched but the possibilities could be endless. This makes answering the question ‘what is real?’ very hard to determine, I can only give an answer to ‘what do I think is real?.

2. What could be 2 great things and 2 negative things about google glass?

Google glass is an interesting technical gadget but I think 2 good things about google glass is that it will make navigating around the world easier for everybody. You would never have an excuse of being lost because google glass could direct you no matter where it is you wish to go. Another good thing about google glass is capturing those picturesque moments when you really want to take a photo but by the time you get your smart phone or camera out the moment has gone. A couple of bad things that I think about google glass is that I believe it will dumb people down, nobody will retain any knowledge on anything anymore because they’ll just ask google glass the answer to everything, although that seems to happen a lot these days with google search anyway, but I think it may just take it a little to far. The other bad thing about google glass is the breach of other people’s privacy, taking pictures or videos of people without them knowing about it seems a bit dodgy to me.

3. Do you think that Facebook’s purchase of the Oculus Rift company is a good thing?

I think that Facebook’s purchase of the Oculus rift could be a good thing as long as they don’t try to turn it into some social media hub type thing. I think if they keep it separate to Facebook, as they say they are going to, It could become a great piece of technology using Facebook’s deep pockets.

4. Post a link to (or embed) an online video that demonstrates the use of either of these technologies and explain briefly what it is and why you have chosen it.

I found this video very interesting because it helps show where augmented reality is heading with these exciting new ideas, I also invite you to look at my augmented reality post where you will find some Playstation 4 augmented reality videos which show some uses of the fun side of AR.

 

Interaction Design

Monday’s class was with Todd Cochrane and we talked about interactive design.

I never really thought about it before this class but afterwards I couldn’t help but look at everyday items and think about how they are designed. Using good design on a tool or object can make using that tool or object so much easier for the user it also invites the user to use it. For example, with Todd we looked at some elevator buttons, they looked alright from the start but when we really started analysing the design of them we realised that they were designed badly, the actual buttons were next to the symbols whereas if the buttons had been part of the symbols then people wouldn’t have been so confused using them. A good design invites the user to use it e.g. a door handle invites you to turn it by the way it is designed, same with the handle on a cup invites you to hold that handle.

One very good designed object I came across a while back was in the toilets in the Richmond mall, no it’s not the obvious thing ‘the toilet’ which itself is good interaction design but it was this:

The Dyson Airblade.

At first when I seen it I thought what the hell is that? but after seeing the yellow strips at the top I realised that it’s for your drying your hands,  something about the shape and colour of the Airblade gave an obvious affordance for me to use it. After using the Airblade I realised they have the instructions on the top on how to use it, but it was designed so well that I didnt even need to see those instructions.

Affordances in everyday Items

There are many things around our environment that have affordances such as: A door knob has an affordance for you to turn it, A seat affords you to sit on it, Gloves afford you to put them on your hands because they are shaped like your hands, A cup has a handle that you grasp to pick up, you probably don’t even think about these actions before you do them and that comes mostly down to the affordance of these items. These objects invite you to interact with them in a certain way. I think the best affordance or the most relevant to me is a game console controller, you instantly know how to hold the controller even when you haven’t used it before, This is becuase of the affordance of the design.

Our group of 4 was ‘the holograms’ and we designed a Portable wristband watch holographic image maker (p.him). The p.him is a portable holographic image making device which you wear on your wrist, it has a d.u.v (deep ultra violet) laser light transmitter built into it. There is also a beam splitter mirror attached to the device which can be deployed when the device is in use. The beam splitter has holographic paper stored into it so they work as one unit. When using the device all you need to do is point your arm or p.him in the direction of the image you wish to capture. When you are ready to capture your image you press a button on the device and it emits a laser beam. The image can then be recreated holographically whenever you want.

 

 

Copyleft

Our class with Clare Atkins was a wrap up on copyright which was named copyleft. After the session we were asked to answer a couple of questions.

Do you think that copying is always theft or not? explain your reasons

I don’t believe that copying is always theft, I believe copying something is not harmful to the owner like theft is. When you steal something you are taking something from the owner for yourself,  the owner is then left without that stolen item. When you copy something you are generating a duplicate of what the owner has, the owner keeps their item and you get to have a duplicate for yourself aswell, everybody wins!!. Copying ideas creates innovation and creativity which helps us improve and evolve products and creates even bigger and better ideas, this can only be good can’t it?.

Who was Aaron Swartz and what part has he played in the copyright debate?

Aaron Swartz was a computer programmer, writer, political organiser and internet activist. He was involved in the creation of the organisation creative commons which created a type of licence which allow creators to communicate which copying rights they reserve, and which rights they wave for the benefit of recipients or other creators. He was also instrumental in the campaign to prevent the passage of the S.O.P.A (Stop Online Piracy Act) which sought to combat internet copyright violations but was criticized on the basis that it would have made it easier for the U.S. government to shut down web sites accused of violating copyright and would have placed intolerable burdens on Internet providers.

I chose to add a CC licence to my blog using Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Copyright, is it right?

Copyright is a very complicated issue, especially when it comes to digital copyright. I believe that copyright is essential in giving the creator rightful ownership and credit of their creation and to protect their financial interests in such a creation. One of the biggest issues with copyright today is companies trying to prosecute individuals who used the web and websites for breaching their copyrights.

I think one of the biggest problems with digital copyright are the legislations that are attempting to be put in place that give the USA power to prosecute websites and individuals outside of the US who they believe have breached copyrights or are helping people breach copyrights. The CISPA legislation which is trying to give technology companies legal immunity for disclosing users information and activity to the US government and NSA is also very worrying, is this not just spying in disguise?. All these legislations put power in the wrong hands and ruin internet freedom, people’s rights to privacy and freedom of speech, also the secrecy that surrounds all these legislations are making things worse.

Another big problem with digital copyright infringement is accurately identifying the person who actually breached the copyright, how can they know exactly who breached their copyright? currently they are claiming this is done simply by identifying which I.P. address that the breach came from but how can this be accurate?  I believe that trying to prosecute people using this method is wrong and is in no way accurate. It’s like prosecuting the Internet Service Provider because the breach was made through their ISP, Is that correctly identifying the person responsible for the breach of copyright? it may have narrowed down the breach to a large group of people but it does in no way identify the person responsible for that breach, It’s like someone taking your car for a drive, crashing it and killing someone then you getting prosecuted for murder because the car was in your name, it’s just not right. The same goes for the account holder of the I.P. address, The group is narrowed down (even more than the ISP provider) but the person who breached the copyright is not truly identified. How many different people use your internet at home? you? your partner? friends who visit? family? friends of family? work colleagues? and that’s only some of the people you know about. What if someone uses your internet connection without permission? If someone hacked your password and illegally downloaded copyrighted material? should YOU the owner of the connection be prosecuted for that breach? I should think not, but the legislation says otherwise.

The biggest problem is that all these legislations and acts don’t actually protect the creator or owner of the copyright but are more about protecting the media giants and distributors who are trying to make money off of the creators work.

I think that the internet being the World Wide Web that it is today, in order to create fair protection and legislation for everybody we need a World Wide Organization that openly deals with such issues. An organization made up of representatives from all countries, businesses and users associated with the internet and copyrights to come together to find and create a legislation that will work for all people, businesses and countries involved. We can’t let a few U.S. politicians dictate what should happen on the internet otherwise the entire World Wide Web will be controlled by the USA, which isn’t really World Wide at all is it?.

I do not agree with the copyright (infringing file sharing) amendment act 2011 (a.k.a 3 strikes) legislation put in place by the New Zealand Government mainly for the reasons described above about identifying who actually committed the copyright infringement. The whole legislation is in breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 which states that one of the minimum standards of criminal proceedings is the presumption of innocence ( innocent until proven guilty). Clearly the copyright amendment act 2011 states that “allegations of copyright infringement made against you (account holder) by the copyright holder are presumed to be correct unless you give evidence or reasons why you aren’t guilty”, which is in complete opposition to what the bill of rights states must be done in order for any criminal proceedings to take place. Therefor they cannot legally prosecute you for copyright breaching until they have evidence of you personally breaching that copyright.

Fair dealing Examples:

One example of Fair Dealing is when a student or tutor copies a small part of text from a copyrighted book for a class project. The student/tutor is not in breach of copyright laws because the laws of fair dealing allow for people to use a small amount of text for educational purposes. I believe that this is fair use (fair dealing) of the copyrighted work because the person using the material is not making profit from its use and it is solely being used for teaching and learning which is very unlikely to cause the publisher of the work to lose much (if any) potential money from the use of the material.

Another Fair Dealing example is if I were to write a review about a copyrighted book, it would be considered to be fair dealing because writing a criticism or review about a copyrighted product is allowed. I think this is a good part of fair dealing because I believe without the ability to review and criticise products, consumers would not have the ability to see how that product performs and is rated, which could mean the consumer/customer is not getting a fair deal when buying that product. I think it is the customers right to be able to see a product’s review and I think having these reviews is important ito encourage and motivate the creator of the product to refine and improve that product.

Our Treaty of Waitangi

This week Craig talked to us about our history and the treaty of Waitangi.

I think that my understanding of New Zealand history was quite limited at the time we started this lesson. I knew the basics of what had happened in the 1800’s between the Maori and the English in regards to the treaty of Waitangi but nothing of any real depth. I had only skim read information at this time so most of my knowledge on the subject was through hearsay and the media mostly.

It’s hard to think of how I feel about our history, being of mixed European and Maori race myself I feel I should have a neutral view.  I do feel annoyed at the way the English went about with the signing of the Treaty, they purposely didn’t tell the Maori of the full nature of the agreement. I don’t believe my opinion is an us vs them opinion. Even with the difference in text I believe the Treaty of Waitangi is an important document for New Zealand because it set out what obligations and responsibilities both Maori and English cultures were agreeing to when the English settled in New Zealand.

I read all of the documents but  the document ‘all about the treaty’ was the most interesting because of the different understandings of  a lot of the terminology used in the Treaty. The way the Treaty was written caused a misunderstanding between the two languages due to the different interpretations of what each word ment, the meanings were lost in translation if you will. In saying that, I’m positive the English would have known that the Maori would not have understood a lot of the terminology used in the treaty and had used that lack of understanding to their advantage. I think the English feared that if they had told the Maori the true meaning of some of this terminology, that a lot of the Maori chiefs would not have signed such an agreement, though maybe some of the blame of this translation should be put on the language interpreters themselves. A good example of this misunderstanding is the interpretation of the word ‘Government’ – how could the Maori have any concept of understanding of an English term such as ‘government’?, in a time when the Maori didn’t have any type of government or similar system. I also found interesting the fact that most of the Maori only signed the Maori version of the Treaty (530 chiefs) with a very small number signing the English version (39 chiefs), I thought why would they have signed the English version? would you sign a document written in a foreign language that you didn’t even understand? Most likely not, I know I wouldn’t.

Because of the difference in text, the treaty itself cannot be used as a legal document, so it was decided to refer to the treaty of Waitangi in 62 separate acts of parliament. Most of these acts have no reference to the treaty itself but refer to the ‘principles’ of the treaty, Lord Woolf describes these ‘principles’ as “the underlying mutual obligations and responsibilities the Treaty places on the parties. They reflect the intention of the Treaty as a whole and include, but are not confined to the express terms of the Treaty.”

New Zealand fits in with what was happening globally.  The Treaty was signed instead of the English dominating New Zealand because the English were moving away from the imperialistic views of the past to a more democratic global society. I think they seen that imperialism wasn’t working and that the whole global situation needed to be approached from a different angle if the british empire and the world was to prosper and live in peace. This lead to the Maori wars because land confiscations used to punish tribes that fought against the Crown had left a long legacy of grievances and the Maori had decided to fight back against this injustice.

Thinking of the New Zealand from a global prospective will allow us to realise that we are all human and we are all after the same thing ‘peace’, which we will never achieve if we look at each other as the others.

After the United Nations created a declaration on the rights of indigenous people. The UN then created a report about New Zealand, the Treaty and how the government should correct the wrongs that were committed against our indigenous people (the Maori). This report was then rejected by the New Zealand government.

The Treaty is still relevent today because all of the rights of the Pakeha under the Treaty have been honoured, yet the rights guaranteed to the Maori have largely been ignored, this ignorance has led to social and economic disadvantages for Maori. In order to correct these disadvantages we must effectively redress the historical breaches of the Treaty and improve relationships between Maori and the crown and also Maori and Pakeha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business systems

Today we had a class on Business systems with Sandra. It’s a class that teaches us the different terminology used in businesses to give us a better understanding of the business environment.

1. Explain the purpose of the following documents:

• Purchase order – A purchase order is a document that a purchaser gives to a supplier, which specifies the goods they are ordering, the price they are willing to pay, the date the goods are required, order number, delivery address and other important information.
• Invoice – A tax invoice is a docket which has the businesses tax number (gst number), business name, the date the invoice was issued and the amount the item was (excl. gst). It is used for tax return purposes
  
• Statement – most businesses issue a statement to their credit customers. It gives a summary of tax invoices and any credit notes issued and payments received. It also shows the amount that the customer owes to the business and past amounts owed to the business.
• Remittance Advice –  When payments are made to a supplier they usually come with a remittance slip attached. It helps the supplier to correctly identify and reconcile payments.
• Credit Note – When a customer returns an item to the supplier, the customer is supplied with a credit note.
• Bank Deposit Slip – This is a form filled out when a deposit is being made at the bank. there is an original copy which the bank keeps and a duplicate which is given to the business for them to keep track of their deposits.
• Cheque Requisition Form – this is a form which gives the person authorisation to write a cheque, it includes a cheque requisition number, payee’s details, the amount the cheque is written for, the name of the person writing the cheque, the reason for writing the cheque and the authorisation signature and name.
  

2. Explain the flow of documents in the following situations:

• Our business buying goods on credit and then paying for them the next month – Firstly the  purchase requisition document is obtained then the purchase order is completed. Once the item arrives at the premises the delivery docket will be issued to the business and also a  tax invoice is issued.
• Our business selling goods on credit and receiving payment for them the next month – The business receives a purchase order from the customer. The goods are then shipped to the customer and a copy of the delivery docket is received from the shipping company. A tax invoice is then issued and a statement is sent to the customer.

3. Create a set of links to Inland Revenue’s website for the following resources:

• IR320 Smart Business
• IR1010 Business Support in NZ
• Internet Tax Guide

4. List the information required on a tax invoice?

A legal tax invoice must contain:

• The words tax invoice in a prominent place
• The name and GST registration number of the supplier
• The name and address of the recipient
• The date the tax invoice was issued
• A description of the goods or services supplied
• The quantity or volume of goods and/or services supplied
• The amount (excluding GST) charged for the supply; the GST; and the total amount payable for the supply; or a statement that GST is included in the final price if it has been.

5.   Reflect on the importance of IT professionals understanding business terminology and document flow.

  I think it is important for I.T. students to learn these terminologies and document flow because after gaining our qualification we could be programming software and tools for businesses to help them be more productive. We would need to know how the documents move between customer and supplier and the terminologies being used in order to fully understand and make the most effective software and tools for the job. We could also have our own business so we would require this knowledge to effectively run that business.

My biased view

This week Mark tought a class on problem solving. We done an activity which made us open up our minds and think outside the box using a simple set of 3 by 3 dots. He also taught us how personal biases affect the decisions we make and the way we think. Afterwards we were asked to write about three things in our blog.

The first thing we were asked to write about was a personal bias we have towards something. I thought for a while to myself and I started realising that I’ve got quite a few biases. Being a mechanic, the one bias I’ve chosen to write about is ‘surprise’… performance cars and their origin. I have a strong bias towards japanese performance cars, you could tell me all day about how your European, American or Australian made cars are better but I’ll still go home thinking (knowing in my mind) that japanese cars are better.

The next thing we had to answer was am I a ‘big picture’ person or a detail oriented person. I’m definitely a detail oriented person; for instance, when I buy a new electronic device, I like to read all the specifications of the device, read online reviews and compare the device against others of similar value before I buy it. After finally buying the device I like to read the manual from front to back before using it. This tends to be time-consuming but I wouldn’t do it any other way.

Lastly we were asked to write briefly about a time when the above interfered with my problem solving. In the automotive industry there’s been a few instances where I’ve had to diagnose a vehicle and I’ve been so caught up in the detail of the problem, that I’ve failed to notice the overall issue. If I had of just stepped back and had a look at the ‘big picture’ I could have solved the problem easily. This detail oriented thinking can be frustrating at times if I don’t have all the details that I want, which is often the case in the automotive repair industry because quite a lot of customers don’t know how to explain their vehicles symptoms.

Tony

We are the message!!!

Our last ITC501 class was about customer service and the importance of the different aspects of face-to-face communication.

Pauline started with an interesting statement ‘If the medium is the message, we are the message’, in other words the way people perceive you influences how the message is understood by them, we need to understand that if we really want to make an impact on our audience or customer then we need to realise this.

Let’s think about which of these aspects of face-to-face communication are the most important, the way you speak, the way you say your words, or your body language?. Well, a lot of us would be surprised to know that body language is the most important of these three, in fact a whopping 55% of others impression of you is made up from your body language, 38% for how you say the words and a mere 7% for the actual words themselves. It’s crazy to think that your words don’t actually mean much by themselves, but together with the right body language can make a much greater and more desired impression on your audience. Using gestures, moving around, using eye contact and facial expressions can make all the difference. You only have 4 seconds to make an impression on someone, now that’s not a very long time at all is it?, not only that but to make a long-lasting impression you only have 4 minutes! and you only get one chance to do this.

A large part of the verbal side of face-to-face communication is using your voice well; the pitch of your voice, the speed in which you speak and the emphasis you use while speaking, these are important parts of good communication. You need to show mutual respect and empathise with the audience/customer, just put yourself in their shoes, how would you feel if you were listening to yourself?.

I think the main aspect of face-to-face communication I need to work on is the body language side of things, I don’t tend to move around and emphasize things that I am attempting to portray to people and now that I know it is such a huge part of making an impression on someone I’m going to have to work on it.

Once we had completed this part of the lesson we moved on to the D.O.P.E bird personality test. We were given a sheet of paper with sets of words on it which we had to give a score from 4 to 1 depending on the relevance to ourselves. We then had to count these numbers up which gave us our bird personality. The four birds were the dove, the owl, the peacock and the eagle.

The people with the dove personality; like people, are loyal, friendly and hard-working but do not tend to like confrontations, change or risk taking. The people who identified with the owl are logical, are big on details and are perfectionists but they are slow to make decisions and like to stick to the rules and logical decisions. People who are the peacock personality love being the centre of attention, talking and are optimistic and enthusiastic but they sometimes tend to talk to much and are not very good with time management. The last personality is the eagle, eagles tend to be dominant, decisive and direct but they can be stubborn, lose sight of the bigger picture and can be insensitive to other people.

Pauline explained that all of us can be any one form of these personalities if we want to be.

It definitely made me think about who I am and how I react to different situations. It kind of gives you a better understanding of yourself, like looking in the mirror at your own personality.

 

My mission statement

My purpose is to become more open, accomplish the best result that I can and try to become more creative.

My personal values

1. Accomplishment

2. Reliable

3.Open minded

4.Creativity

5.Expertise