Access Database Project

After finishing this project in Access, I have learned a lot about this piece of software that I had never used before. Its similarity to the other software applications in Microsoft Office 2007 allowed me to understand the basic functions and made it easy to learn how to maneuver through Access. For me when it comes to Databases, it's out of sight out of mind. Never having known about Access, I never knew there was a such database that made it so easy to sort data the way Access does. I learned how to move data between Access and Excel in order to make the most of the different pieces of software that are out there. I learned how to use my critical thinking to get what I want out of a set of data.


In order to increase the functionality of this database with the data that we have of the membership to the fitness center, I would sort the data in a way that would show me how long the members remained members at the fitness center. This set of data returned the start date as well as the leave date for each member that has left. For those that are no longer members, I would dive into the information to see if I could uncover the reason for them leaving. Using a Query, I would (in theory) subtract the start date from the leave date to see how many months the average member remained a member. This average could then be tracked over time to determine if there was a need for some sort of incentive program for retaining members.

This picture was taken by Karina Mills in 2011 showing the screen shot of part of my Access Project. Pictured is the Query section where I sorted the Individual members who left the gym in the past 6 months by end date and last name.

Google

Google has made the world a better place. I hope that everyone that can read this Blog is familiar with Google, but just in case, check it out - and you will want to after reading this! Google is a  Portal website that offers many services to it's users all in one site. At it's homepage www.Google.com, the simplistic design makes it user friendly and clutter-free(which is especially good for those aging eyes). When I want a search engine that will return many results - most of which are "just what I was looking for" - I turn to Google.

What you might not know about Google...

Gmail is Google's email service. Although Gmail is gaining popularity and many people have a Gmail account, there are many things that make Gmail the best email client I have ever used.

1. It's free! What's not to like?

2. It's chat feature. After signing into Gmail, the page returns most of the view showing the inbox messages, but the bottom left side of the page shows all of the contacts that have been manually added to the list. Contacts who are online are marked with Green, idle are marked with yellow, and offline are marked with gray. This chat option can come in handy. I have had team projects that were solely web-based and when you are working with a deadline, sometimes that instant answer is what makes all the difference.

3. You can personalize it! There are many different settings and themes that you can choose to make your email just like you.

This is a screen capture that I created 3/27/11 of my personalized Gmail account.

4. Filter, Filter, Filter! Gmail's filter options allow you to filter your emails by sender, words included, words not included, etc... Not only that, but once you have applied a filter, you can apply a second filter on the filter that you have already created which allows you to really narrow down your search results. The screen cap pictured above shows the top portion of Gmail's home page. As you can see, to the right of the search bar, there is an option to "create a filter". Once clicked, you should see something like the image below:

Here is a screen capture that I have cropped using Paint 3/27/11 on my own computer to demonstrate the Filter option in Gmail.

I have applied a couple filters here in this image. I am planning to shop at a beauty retail chain tomorrow and want to see if there are any free offers or coupons that I should bring to the store. I set a filter for the "From" because I want my filter to only return emails that have been sent from that retailer. Next to the filter "Has the Words" I wrote "free" because I only want results that return a listing of promotions or a coupon for a free item somewhere in either the subject or the body of the message. Next to "Doesn't Have" I entered the words "today only" because I plan to shop tomorrow once the store is open again.

Filters can also be added to future postings. Gmail makes it easy to color-coordinate frequent senders in your inbox to prioritize emails quickly at a glance.

5. Google Documents. Google Docs allows users to upload documents onto the website which can then be shared, reviewed and/or modified by contacts who are granted access to those documents. Using the online project example again, being able to edit and save rough drafts of our project right there over the internet saved the hassle of ensuring we all had the most accurate and up-to-date draft to look over. Google Docs also shows the date and time of the most recent edit to the document was made and it shows who made the changes. These documents can also be viewed straight from an email on most smart phones now. Since the most complex document software my phone comes with is an application called "Notes", I count on Google docs to convert word files into a Google doc  so that I can read important documents straight from my phone.


I hope that this information will encourage you to either set up a Gmail account or use your portal account to it's full potential. There are many functions that I just recently learned about that could have saved me countless hours in the past. Even if you do not use Google, but you use another portal style website, having the inter connectivity between all of your internet needs has proven to be quite useful to me and I assume it will do the same for you.

The Saxophone Presentation

Here is the link to my Presentation on the Saxophone:
http://www.screencast.com/users/KarinaMills/folders/Default/media/33a4ac59-526c-4b5e-a0e8-92fd67c9df23

Image taken by Karina Mills

Overall, I am pleased with my presentation. Going over the evaluation rubric though, I found some things that I could have improved. After a short introduction, I dove right into the meat of my project without much information to the audience of the purpose of the presentation and more of an outline for what I would be presenting. It was more of an informative presentation, so it was not as imperative to precede my presentation with putting the audience into that persuasive mindset. The purpose was to introduce to the audience some information about my passion, and maybe something they did not know before.

Seeing as how the majority of my audience is not familiar with the Saxophone, I don't expect that my audience had too many questions leaving the presentation because I thoroughly covered the basics about the saxophone. Since the topic is very broad, there may have been random questions that I could not necessarily  anticipate from the audience. I did not ask questions to spark curiosity; rather, I caught the attention of my audience through the use of multiple multimedia outlets. From the first slide where I played a simple blues scale,  to the video clips I included to show different musical styles, the audience was sure to be left with a tune in their head.

I took the time to ensure my information was accurate and presented in an easy to read format. Sometimes when we go into a presentation knowing EVERYTHING about the subject, there is a disconnect between the presenter and the audience because of the knowledge gap. I tried to tone the information down to be pretty basic. Had I gone too much into detail with the information, I would have bored the audience. I left the simple information with lots of visuals on the slides, and expanded upon the information by explaining it in more detail to be more engaging.

Image taken by Karina Mills

I learned a lot from this presentation. Never before had I been successful in recording my own audio to accompany the presentation - let alone figure out how to upload it online! Taking the time to read the resources given and researching on the internet allowed me to learn many things about Media, Software, PowerPoint, and the internet in general.  This knowledge will come in handy in the future. Especially since I am part of the Online Business Program, I need to know how to do the things that I did in this project. It was also good that we were able to see other peoples' presentations. One of the best ways that I learn is to take ideas from my peers. Before I even began, there were some projects already posted for me to review. It was also nice to see how my presentation compared to others once I finished. Even if I have a presentation that I will have to present in person, knowing how to record the audio will come in handy. It will be nice to use the audio as a resource to allow me to do a rough run through of my presentation and use the playback feature to hear any issues and correct them before I present live.