Monthly Archives: October 2018

The C Stands for Creativity

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What/why: In high school, I was in the television production program. During that time, I managed to create quite a bit of content: promo reels, documentaries, commercials, and graphic art. I’ve chosen to create a portfolio website to highlight my best work. I made one over the summer before senior year on Weebly, but it looks very amateur. Weebly doesn’t allow much creativity besides following a template. I’ve also learned a lot between now and then, and creating a portfolio site is the perfect place to showcase my new work. My film teacher always expressed to me the importance of having a portfolio to sell yourself as a prospective candidate.

Who: The audience I hope to attract with my site is potential employers. By seeing my work, I expect opportunities to open up once employers can see my media and observe that I made the website as well. I also want to attract other creators, so I can build a network to collaborate with others and improve my craft.

Final Pitch

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What/Why: After really spending the effort to come up with something clever or different,  I figured that it was in my best interest to develop a personal portfolio with my new skills. It is unoriginal (suggested, actually, I believe), but it is an opportunity to put all the hard work I’ve done in my undergraduate career into one place. I have made portfolios before, but this one will be the one I use moving forward that will have all the cool gadgets. I plan to include my resume, a generic cover letter, and example of my work ranging from academic papers to news articles and even a little bit of photography I do on the side. I also plan on linking my social media and contact information on the site. The plan is for this to show my best work as well as show off the ability to create a functioning portfolio on my own. Just in an effort to show my versatility in all facets of content media, and even those things that happen behind the scene.

Who: This will be for future employers, as well as friends and family who are curious to see what it is I am up to these days. Those who may see me on LinkedIn or other various websites can go to this page to see if I fit their criteria for an employee.

 

 

Yikes.

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We’re at the halfway point (or near it, at least). Just when I thought things were going great and I was excited to put what I learned into action, it all blew up in my face. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on jQuery but this week, it slipped through my clutches.

Here are a couple things I learned:

  1. If something doesn’t sound familiar, ask for help immediately. Don’t assume it is just another way to say something you already know.
  2. Write down thorough notes when doing the Codecademy lessons. I did this with my HTML and CSS lessons, but stopped writing as much when I got to JavaScript and jQuery. Once it was time to create something of my own, it was harder to recall the step-by-step.
  3. Attention-to-detail is key. Coding is particular. One wrong character and all the slides that were previously hidden show up again, even though you just figured out how to get your button to work after spending hours just figuring out that you had to load the jQuery before the JavaScript in your HTML (true story).

If you couldn’t tell, this week was challenging. This video helped me a little, but I still couldn’t quite get it and I still don’t know exactly what it is that I don’t know.

Here are a couple specific questions I had:

  1. When working in JavaScript, do you use language from both jQuery and JavaScript? Or is it that once you load jQuery, you have to use it the whole time?
  2. How do you increment/decrement in jQuery(/javaScript?)?
  3. What am I doing wrong when trying to increment that makes all of the slides come back up?

Anyhoo, jQuery will not take me out without a fight. I’m coming to class with my pencil ready, and my mind clear.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect for my midterm:

Diana O. Eromosele is a software developer at Newsela. She is also the founder/developer of categorizedtweets.com, a tool that sorts politicians’ tweets out by issue so constituents can easily take a quick look at what they care about. When she’s not busy coding, Diana also teaches web development languages. She has a journalism background. Look out for my profile to find out how/why she made the switch!

Week 6: Feeling Hopeful

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This past week we had to apply the concepts we learned about jQuery and create a photo gallery. We created an outline of the steps during class, which was really helpful. The thought of having to figure out making the gallery on my own is overwhelming. As we worked through it during class I realized, I am picking up on the vocabulary and concepts. JavaScript alone was challenging, but jQuery helped make it a little more bearable. Writing code is really about understanding how different parts relate to one another.

The highlight of this week was being able to interview a black female web developer. This class has really opened me up to the industry and hearing her perspective really impacted me. Though the field isn’t as diverse as it could be, she stressed the importance of showing up. Karen had a totally different career before transitioning into web development and design. Hearing about her career path also reassured me that it’s OK to jump around in your career. Interests change and that is perfectly normal. As a senior with no current job offers, this was a helpful message.

I’m not exactly sure where my career is going but I’m so glad I am in the School of Communications at Howard University. Our journalism scheme forces us to have knowledge and skills in a variety of different mediums. I never would have thought I’d be learning how to code, but here I am. I can only hope that my diverse skill set will allow me to stand out as a potential candidate for jobs.

Midterm Szn

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This week was dedicated to finishing our midterm assignment, which turned out to be a bit of week off. Coming off of last week, where most of my classmates and I were confused, it was nice to research on something a little different. For me, I was able to focus on a project that combined my love of law, and the very intriguing things I am learning in this class. It was quite enjoyable to see these things mix. Along with seeing this, it sparked my interest to see if I could find different law schools that had similar design teams in their schools. It was one of the best aspects that came from the project that has opened my eyes to more things available. This school year has started to pick up and I am already feeling the pressure. While this class is a bit difficult, it is a change of pace compared to my other classes. While it has to deal with aspects of journalism, that is not its complete focus. It is an opportunity to engage in something new — almost foreign — and it helps end my weeks. The challenge is also something to look forward too, since I am not hearing the same jargon like in the rest of my classes. Having to find my own solutions to issues rather than just explaining it or convincing someone of an argument is something I enjoy about the class. The middle of the semester is almost here, time to buckle down and finish the semester off strong.

Getting Over the Mid-Semester Hump

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The midterms are in. The gallery assignment was rough and left my confidence a little shaken.

However, writing the midterm restored a little confidence in my ability to get into development. My subject, Diana O. Eromosele, had a journalism background but switched careers (for the second time) after noticing that the journalism world was changing and there might be no room for her.

Her confidence and determination made it seem like a real possibility to get into that field, or at least learn some more basics. She used her coding skills to build an application that categorizes politicians and influencers’ tweets by issue. Because of her unique perspective, she was able to create a tool that was helpful to change a social atmosphere.

Just imagine what kinds of things we could be building if we had diversity of thought in that white male-dominated field. I don’t know what I thought web development was before, but I had it all wrong. I never realized the power in knowing what’s “working underneath the hood,” as Eromosele put it.

If an urban girl from New York City with a liberal arts background can do it, so can this New Orleans girl. I want to leverage that power, not only in journalism but in social change. I don’t know how yet, but I just know I feel like the wool has been pulled over my eyes for far too long.

I’ve also been using the principles I’ve learned in this class in my everyday life, especially the DRY principle. I’ve found countless ways to automate the things I’m doing and it’s been very helpful in this stage of my college career. I’m a senior with e-board positions/campus involvement, an editor of the newspaper and I’m taking 17 credits, on top of being out of town multiple weekends throughout the year. It’s been vital to create processes that make my jobs easier. Thinking like a web developer has been my saving grace this semester.

Passion Found

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Toren Desuly is an web developer from Washington, D.C. who works for Seaberry, a development and design company in Washington, D.C.. Desuly began his journey with web development in 2007 when his first job was to be in charge of web presence of the company. Along with that job, he had to gain a knowledge of web development, so he enrolled in classes at George Mason University and began to learn basic HTML and JavaScript. After completing his time at George Mason, he began to take classes around the D.C. area from companies that provided extra training. Desuly has been an developer for 10 years now and has yet to look back. Desuly states that his intentions were not to become a web developer but, because it was presented to him, he took the opportunity.

Desuly holds the position as the lead web developer at Seaberry. His main structure of development is using the WordPress system. He stated that WordPress is used in many big businesses and, in his opinion, it is the best on the market. It’s also more accessible when discussing price. All of his work is done through WordPress, but he also oversees content management with all clients sites because content is important. “There’s no reason why you should have a great site with no real content,” he said. Desuly takes pride in his work and applies the principles taught to him while in school.

When asked what his favorite project was, he told me it was the D.C. Chambers website, www.dcchambers.org. This website was conducted for D.C. Chambers, a company that reflects on the diversity of Washington, D.C. and the business and tech aspect of the city. The website was developed with PHP. PHP is a scripting language, generally inscribed inside HTML. PHP hides underlying code from the client side. When you look at the site that was developed, you see a lot of movement, and a lot of content. A lot of information is given on the site. The site personally grabs my attention because of the colors and movement presented in the site. Another one of his favorites was the D.C. National Environmental Site, https://www.neefusa.org, which was also done in PHP. He states that these to sites were fun to work with due to the different graphics, colors and content

Desuly has never used his talent to freelance. He has always worked for companies. In his opinion, he believes that the freelance time is not worth the little money it brings due to smaller clients, where as his company brings bigger clients.  The resources provided by his company were also a factor of not freelancing his work. With freelancing, you only have what you can afford and what you know, but with other resources and others around you that you can lean on, he believes you can accomplish way more. His favorite languages to work with are PHP and HTML. He states that you can do so much with them and they are the basics, so you can’t go wrong with them. He first learned HTML and then began to grow from there.

When I discussed that I was studying development, he asked me how I felt about it and how I felt everything was coming along. I stated that this is my first time doing anything related to coding and, in this experience, I am currently learning something new every day. He was very excited that I was interested in development and that I wanted to continue to learn more. He continued by giving me some tips that he felt was important for me to know. He first told me to get as much training in school as possible because that is the best way to learn it, with guided help. He also told me there are never enough classes you can take. There are always new language classes that you can take, or events where other developers get together to teach each other things that they learn. He also stated that development and design are two different things, but if you can do both, that makes you more competitive than someone who just knows one. Content management and design classes are very vital and you can never perfect your craft too well. He also told me that having knowledge with the Adobe Suite also sets you apart because development and design are evolving everyday. I mentioned to him my minor is graphic design and I am very fluent with the suite. He also emphasized networking and getting to know others, and to me that is very important and something they teach us at Howard University constantly. Desuly says that he will continue to develop until he finds a new passion, but this seems to be his for the time being.

 

Where to Start?

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I was overwhelmed when I first started this project. My biggest challenge was finding a web developer. I was thankful to get in contact with a woman named Jessica who was a software developer but still had background knowledge in web development. I was so focused on finding someone that worked in the media, so when that didn’t work out I panicked. I had to broaden my search and thanks to my sisters experience as a nurse, she informed me on the presence of developers in the healthcare community.

I was nervous before the phone call, because I wasn’t sure if I would ask the right questions to get me the answers I needed. I learned some interviewing skills when I worked as a producer for my school news channel, so I was able to put them to good use. Jessica was very helpful and guided me into a part of computer science that I knew nothing about. It was interesting to see the many ways developers utilize code to complete a broad range of tasks. I didn’t think I was going to hit 800 words after we completed our conversation on the phone. It was kinda quick and her answers weren’t too long. Doing outside research on the programs she used did help with allowing me to reach my word count goal.

After the conversation, Jessica asked if I was interested in entering the programming field and I was unsure. The programs she uses sounded complicated and I barely have a grasp on Javascript. She did put me at ease by explaining that it wasn’t something she learned overnight. Her skills were learned through trainings and lots of practice. Her first job hired her, even though she only had a little bit of experience from taking one introductory course to coding in college. She expressed the need for diversity in the workplace and that it produces a more productive environment. Here is the profile: https://wp.me/p3hpaQ-DG

From Kitchen Floor to Front End Developer

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This time last year Kristen Kagei, sat in her pajamas on her kitchen, in the middle of the day, covered from head to toe in flour. She cried as she attempted to bake cookies to comfort herself from being let go from her job, one that she had started just months earlier. Unsure what she was going to do, Kristen dodged calls from her parents because she knew for certain she didn’t want to return to home to Tokyo, not yet at least. Desperate to find something, Kristen began a 24-hour job hunt, and in the middle of the night she thought to herself “coding.” Fast forward a year later, and Kristen Kagei is currently a junior web developer at National Public Radio (NPR) located in Washington, D.C.

Kagei’s journey into web development is an unconventional one and not the one she set out on when she traveled to the United States for school. Born and raised in Tokyo by her Japanese father and American mother, she left the only home she knew in 2009 when she enrolled in Georgetown University to study linguistics. Upon the completion of her degree, she thought she would travel the world, possibly teach in another country—the possibilities were endless. Infatuated with D.C., she decided to stay here and see what the city had to offer.

In August 2017, Kagei was let go from her job when the market research company she was working for was acquired during a merger. At the research company her desk was positioned next to the web development team and she was often intrigued by their work, citing their multiple monitors of “colorful gibberish” as what sparked her interest at first. Thinking that coding could be her next move, Kagei enrolled in coding school to learn as much as she could about the subject. She describes coding school as “the most grueling process of my life.”

Since Kagei entered coding school with no working knowledge or computer science background, she would look at the coursework and compare it to things in life she was familiar with. She often compared the systemic process of coding to the processes in the restaurant industry, an industry she worked in before. Viewing the customer’s order as the desired webpage action and the kitchen as the back-end frame. Kagei also came to understand coding as a method of solving problems mathematically. When trying to grasp new concepts she would ask herself, “How do people solve problems? How can they do that with technology?”

Upon completion of coding school, Kagei began a web development internship at NPR, working with their podcasts, community of radio station and apps. She worked on projects that made sure their products were accessible. This included developing bypass mechanisms within the app for users with limited or reduced mobility. She accomplished this by creating menu options that allow users to skip ahead, instead of having the entire page read to them.

At the end of her internship, Kagei was brought on to the development team full time as a junior developer, which involves working on emerging platforms. She described her new role as finding ways “to sync the information [content] with the new technology.” One of the platforms she works closely with is their new app, NPR One. NPR One is described as a constantly evolving platform that allows listeners “a whole new way to listen to stories, shows, and podcasts.”

Each day she asks herself, “How do you get people the news they want?” Kagei’s job is to work on NPR One and introduce its content to new platforms like Fire TV and Amazon’s Echo. Platforms like these allow the audience to engage and consume their favorite outlets in ways like never before. Kagei works to ensure that their user experience is the same regardless how it’s accessed: their website, app or an outside interface.

Kagei says working on code that someone else has written is one of the hardest parts of her job. Often she finds herself trying to manipulate long chunks of code without breaking it, but making it do what she wants.

Although she has had great success thus far in her career, Kagei still views herself as a beginner with a lot to learn. For example, she still spends some days learning code or tools of the trade to make sure she is up on all the latest things.

A year into her new career, Kagei is enjoying herself. She appreciates the flexibility she has to work in any industry and values her role in a large media company where she feels she can contribute to “a bigger cause.” She hopes from her story that others learn that they’re capable of anything and there is an “infinite amount of possibilities among these ones and zeros.”

Dr. Todd Shurn Speaks Computer Science

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Dr. Todd Shurn is an associate professor in the Computer Science program at Howard University. He earned his Bachelor’s (1983) and Master’s (1984) of science in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from Southern Methodist University in 1994. Dr. Shurn’s specialties include interactive applications, computational optimization and engineering and computer science entrepreneurship amongst many others. His research includes games, service oriented programming, agriculture applications, and immersive applications. Dr. Shurn has taught various subjects at the Howard University School of Communications and computer science program, such as video game development, interactive multimedia applications and discrete structures.

Dr. Shurn had many early influences and life-shaping moments. He explained that he is from Benton Harbor, Mich., a predominately black city that was taken over by the state of Michigan. Benton Harbor has a very high crime and unemployment rate. He explained that he did not want to be in a position where he was a part of the negative entities that surrounded him in his community. Thus, he strived to acquire a skill that would allow him to define his own way. That is what led him to computer science. Making sure that he was in a position to define his own way despite his surroundings is what affects his decisions still today. Dr. Shurn also explained that the reason why he came to Howard was to work with black students and be a part of the movement of empowering the community to have better representation in computer science fields, whether it was games, blockchain, interactive media etc.

Dr. Shurn explained the necessary qualities that are important for a developer to have are commitment to finishing the job, resourcefulness and confidence in your skill set. That’s because, when developing original software, there is always the question of rather or not your goal is accomplishable in the first place. Thus, those qualities are important to reach your end goal. In addition, Dr. Shurn mentioned that he appreciated the creative side of software deployment and that it enables opportunities for the black community to create jobs within the community, due to the many areas where software is deployable.

One of Dr. Shurns current projects involves blockchain technology. Merriam-Webster defines a blockchain as “a digital database containing information (such as records of financial transactions) that can be simultaneously used and shared with a large decentralized, publicly-accessible network.” Dr. Shurn mentioned the Black Blockchain Summit, which was recently held at Howard University. The summit’s website states that the purpose of the summit is to “convene Blockchain technology developers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts to present Blockchain applicants for solving challenges worldwide. The objective of the summit is to find innovative and lasting solutions that disrupt the unsustainable status quo, bringing lasting prosperity and independence as envisaged by freedom fighters and liberators in the ‘Arusha Declaration.’ ” Dr. Shurn gave much insight about the implications of blockchain.

Dr. Shurn explained that one of the utilities of the blockchain is that it creates an immutable record that parties can agree to. For example, if there is a land transaction, that transaction can be documented in a blockchain in a way that is indisputable. It is unchangeable and its validation is not dependent on any particular government or political organization. This notion, particularly in underdeveloped countries is major because you can, for example, stake out a deed for land or another resource and no one can dispute the transaction because the transaction is documented on computers around the world. Blockchain does not even allow users to pull documented transactions off their own systems. However, if that was to occur, the rest of the users in the network would still have the record. A possible con of blockchain technology is due to the fact that blockchain transactions cannot be changed. So if someone executes a transaction that they are not satisfied with, there is no way to undo it. The only possibility is to do another transaction. Thus, proper procedures and guidelines to ensure the accuracy and integrity of a transaction before entering must be established. When asked if he thought the implication was positive to use blockchain for transactions such as voting and taxes, he agreed and added that another major notion for blockchain deployment is using the technology to track nuclear material (waste and material for weapons). Another aspect that Dr. Shurn mentioned that made blockchain especially notable for undeveloped and African countries was its ability to transfer currency that it is not controlled by any one government or bank. The digital currency bitcoin for example is the same all around the world. Thus, governments cannot repress citizens with measures such as raising the cost of a product or not making something available. Dr. Shurn explained that it was relatively the equivalent of providing the ability to make international purchases and have the products sent to you.

Another project that Dr. Shurn is currently working on is “Smart Cities”, which is a system in which sensors are put in roadways that interact with cars and in waterways that identify pollution. Dr. Shurn explained that a current major emphasis in development is developing code around real-time sense-data, which means that inexpensive sensors can be deployed (in the ground, water systems, the air etc.) and decisions can be made in order to control what is desired to be controlled. For example, low-cost sensors programmed with software that can read water levels and pollution to control gates in a sewer system can be deployed to improve optimal water flow and to ensure that the treatment center is getting the most polluted water first. The Smart Cities concept involves computer science, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.

Dr. Shurn explained that he is an avid reader and participant in workshops and conferences to keep up with the constantly changing and evolving field of technology. When asked if he came across any problems or challenges in his computer science journey, he explained that he did not consider his challenge to be a problem but an opportunity. The broad domain of information technology (database, cyber security, network optimization, artificial intelligence, human computer interface etc.) makes it somewhat challenging to identify a core expertise. Dr. Shurn made some decisions in terms of the skill set within that space that he wanted to develop, which was network optimization (logistics, optimization, getting data from point a to point b efficiently, etc.).

In closing, a last message from Dr. Shurn for individuals who might be interested in the field of computer science was to reiterate the idea of identifying an area of specialization. In addition, he encouraged showing initiative by participating in competitions, which is very important (rather it is cyber security, robotics, programming, steel bridge design and other design competitions etc.). This is a means to test your creative skills and try to develop it as much as possible to solve problems. Lastly, for communications students, Dr. Shurn advised that learning how to code makes a communications student more employable. In addition, because technology is so heavily involved in the field of journalism, many reporters have to know how to interact with content management systems and conduct their own data analysis. Thus, Dr. Shurn shared with me that a major Journalism outlet views reporting as more of a data analysis type of endeavor, compiling data from various sources. Due to this, he has experienced that particular journalism company often recruit people from the computer science department at Howard, because their idea is they can teach the computer science student the journalism skills on the job. I had a very insightful conversation with Dr. Shurn.