What did you set out to work on? (Did you change course, once you started working? If so, why?)

• We set out to create a button to increase text size in the books, to reach accessibility standards, and help Ezra’s group. We did not change our course of action, and it still seems very doable. We almost finished it, and just need to figure out where to put the script to make the changes, we can talk to one of the other groups to do this, and have messaged them, though without getting a reply. 

How much time did you spend and how far did you get?

• Me and my group spent about 4 hours on it, I spent about 2 hours just setting up the book, and components, I couldn’t get it setup on my laptop. I was able to write a script to get it working much faster on my teammates laptops though. I was also able to write a script for a button that changed the text size on a press. All we need to know is what file to place the script in. 

How would you like this to inform how you will spend your class time in the coming week?

• This means that all my group has to do Monday, is talk to the dark mode group, and then inset our script, and we should be good, maybe test it a few times, and talk to Ezra’s group and see if there are any other particulars that we need to accommodate.

• What did you set out to work on? (Did you change course, once you started working? If so, why?)
  • Me and my team set out to be able to test our code, and work on it to get a base working. It changed when we started working on it, as we were expecting Brad to have responded since wednesday, but he had not gotten to it, so we were not able to do anything new. All we could do is go over the code, and we did send a test pull request to Brad so he could see our code, as he mentioned previously that once we thought we had an idea what we were doing, he would look over our code.  
• How much time did you spend and how far did you get?
  • We spent about an hour on it, and got our changes uploaded to github, and the test pull request sent to Brad. 
• How would you like this to inform how you will spend your class time in the coming week?
  • It won’t really, not until Brad responds, and then if he has looked at the code we sent him, it would allow him to help us fix errors in our code, or get a better direction. 

• Thinking about your own personal style, blog about how you can benefit from celebrating your wins, and finding a way to learn from your mistakes and losses after a tragic loss.
  • I don’t often celebrate my wins, I suppose, if I had to name a benefit I might gain from it, I suppose it would be stress relief. Enjoying yourself before next jumping in to a task sounds like an intelligent thing to do. However, as a college student there often isn’t time to do such, and I most often end up just going from one task to another, with no time to mourn my losses or celebrate my victories. As for learning from my losses, I suppose I already do, if you get something wrong on a homework, you now know, and have until the exam to learn how to do it right.  
• Discuss why you think that having losses are arguably just as valuable, if not more valuable than having wins when it comes to reaching a goal.
  • In real life, it is always much more valuable to have a loss and learn from it, than to guess and get something right the first time, you do not learn much, if anything from victories. Losses help you develop and grow, especially when working towards a goal, as if you stumble later on into a project, you will not be as prepared as you would have been had you stumbled early on.  
• Pick a win and a loss you have experienced while working on Runestone Interactive, describe the situation and explain how you feel it has helped you in this course and possibly beyond.
  • While working on Runestone interactive, my win loss ratio has been significantly skewed in favor of losses. I have worked on 4 or 5 different issues, the first few were little nothings, and only one or two of those got accepted. The first commit that meant anything to me, was a demonstration of writing to a txt doc, and that example only took about 8 minutes to plan and 10 to code. It was denied, as though the code and example were fine, inserting another example there would screw up the numbering of examples that were referenced later, and so it was denied. The first accepted one was one I remember working on I worked on with Ezra, and it was a re-explanation of some code to make it more clear. I guess from these wins and losses, I learned it takes more than having the correct coding skills to make a commit, it needs to make sense for the project, and the direction it wants to move in, as well as fit with the mindset of the main author of the project. 

In your twenty-third blog entry of the semester, after you’ve spent a couple of hours working independently, write a blog entry (250+ words) which addresses the following questions in short essay form::

• What did you set out to work on? (Did you change course, once you started working? If so, why?)
  • I set out to work with Rusty’s group and mine and to catch them up on how the process of making a library for a javascript impersonation of another language works. As well as to get the python sound library itself working on the pc.    
• How much time did you spend and how far did you get? 
  • I spent about an hour and a half working on it, I feel like Rusty got a pretty good understanding of how the process is going to work, and that we have helped them almost as much as we can, as the process is similar, but the particulars will be fairly different. As for the sound library in python, we got close, but their is some error keeping Pysine from working, I believe it is possibly due to it trying to run in a VM.  
• How would you like this to inform how you will spend your class time in the coming week? 
  • I am not sure how this will affect the rest of the week, I am honestly just feeling lost. Brad still hasn’t replied to my groups message, and none of my group is confident about what exactly we need to do moving forward. 

What did you set out to work on? (Did you change course, once you started working? If so, why?)

• I set out this weekend to finish getting my personal version of our project up to date, I did so. I also wanted to find what python library we needed to emulate, and how we would do so with JavaScript. I also wanted to get started doing the basics for how to setup a new JavaScript file.  I did not really end up changing what I set out to do, I was able to do most if not all of what I wanted, though I did not set my goals super high, as I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend more than 2.5 to 3 hours on it.

How much time did you spend and how far did you get?

• I spent about 2 and a half hours on it, and ended up getting pretty much all of what I set out to accomplish done. I finished getting my personal setup of skulpt working and I got an html file to work with the skulpt js. Though I didn’t start a new js file to work with the library, I did gain a decent understanding of what needs to go into the files, and how we would make them work together. 

How would you like this to inform how you will spend your class time in the coming week? 

• This means I can spend the rest of the week in this class finishing studying up the file format and setup. As well as should be able to get the basics of the sound library’s js file working. I Also need to install a specific javascript library into skulpt.   

• Keeping the first of these readings in mind, describe some of the best ideas that you think are most likely to help improve output for yourself or others you work closely with.
  • I already make lists and prioritize, I also schedule tasks. Doing these things by myself and in teams has gotten me this far into my college career. To improve my team productivity, I will try to focus more on delegation and communication, and see if this helps my team projects. I may have a tendency to do more than I should on projects or micro manage, and will work on giving the rest of the team some breathing room while also communicating properly what I think needs done, and listening and taking into proper consideration what they believe needs done.    
• People struggle with managing tasks, especially when it comes to bigger projects. Remembering that no one is perfect, describe how you honestly evaluate your task management skills. What do you think you do particularly well with respect to task management? What ways do you think you could improve with respect to task management?
  • I think I have an above average if not at least decent, ability to manage tasks. I set reminders when I need to, and am always scheduling events and homework time. When working on group projects I always email the team members and manage meeting times and goals. The only area I feel weak regarding task management, is I tend to be easily distracted. I definitely stand to gain if I could become better at staying on task and blocking out distractions.  
• Reflect on your approach to larger projects before this term. Has this course helped you with larger projects like we are working with in Runestone? If yes, explain. If no, please suggest ways the course could be more useful to you with respect to large project work. 
  • I honestly do not believe this class has helped my approach to larger group projects, at least not anything we have implemented. Some of the things in the readings sound useful, but we don’t really implement them in class, we are so busy scrambling trying to make progress towards some goal, that we don’t actually end up making any meaningful changes in our methods. That’s not to say the computer science department hasn’t helped in my project dynamics or in how I go about completing large complex tasks. 226 and 236 instilled good team programming tasks, and the other higher level ones encourage a certain level of teamwork for anything of note to be accomplished, so it could very well be that their wasn’t that much left to improve, beyond perfecting the basics of our teamwork. 

• Discuss why the author asserts that simple is sustainable. Do you agree? Disagree? Explain.
  • The author presents that if a process is broken down enough into simplified patterns it can become effectively effortless and can be repeated indefinitely, and people can be trained to do it with minimum effort, as well. Thus when both of those processes are simplified a process is sustainable. I would say that it does make it sustainable, the more easily done and repeated a process is.   
• Using the criteria from the reading for developing a process and without talking with your teammates, brainstorm a draft process for ensuring that tasks get done properly within your Runestone Team. (You will discuss each of your draft processes in the next class.)
  • We could break up the large group task into smaller much simpler tasks, to help make it doable. Then have everyone work on a few different specific tasks every class until it is done. Then we need to distribute our people to work on the parts of the project that lie with their strengths, while hopefully still allowing them to learn a bit as well.
• Leverage the reading to brainstorm creative ways that open source teams might better gear their on-ramp to help bring in more new open source software developers.
  • The teams definitely need to make both their goals and instructions for their software, as well as how to get their current software version up and running as clear possible on their documentation. They need to be open to answering questions they may find trivial respectfully, as well as encouraging towards other community members answering questions, so long as they are respectful. They need to have a well known and implement system based around bug fixes, feature requests and answering user inquiries for members to use. Finally they need to be able to give respect and credit where it is due, towards their community members who have made helpful contributions, and encourage the community to do the same.   

• Identify Bandura’s all four sources of efficacy that were discussed in the video. Then discuss which of these sources of efficacy you are typically good at finding/achieving/doing intrinsically for yourself and which you sometimes might benefit from working harder at for yourself. Explain perhaps with an example.
  • The four sources of efficacy Bandura lists are: Experiencing Success, especially regularly in that or a related field, See other people succeed, especially if they are coming from a similar place as you, Receive encouragement, the more frequently the better, and Manage negative emotions. The ones of these that I am typically good at are Managing negative emotions, and Succeeding. Typically if I succeed once at something, it sets me up to succeed again, I gain a lot of confidence once I get it right at least once. I am also typically good at identifying and managing negative emotions, I have specifically been working on this both last semester and this semester. The ones I need to work on, are gaining confidence from other similar people’s successes and receiving encouragement, I could definitely work on realizing it is feasible for me to do something no matter how difficult, as other people from similar backgrounds have done it before, I tend to think of something as incredibly difficult until I complete it or something similar at least once. As for encouragement, I suppose I could encourage myself more, though that sounds strange. 
• Have you ever experienced anxiety about a task and/or lack of self-efficacy regarding that task? (This time might or might not relate to computer science.) Reflect on what factors caused you to feel that way. How has your perception of computer science and yourself as a programmer evolved over your 3-4 years of your undergraduate career?
  • One time I felt a great deal of anxiety regarding a task was when I was working on my final project in Tad 460. The project was making an analog to digital library for a non arduino micro-controller. It was an incredibly hard learning curve and there was very little documentation on anything relating to it. I had to constantly quadruple reference myself and essentially just to begin, I had to complete a 16 week online course in less than 3 or 4. My perception of computer science since I came to college has widened, I thought I was fairly skilled coming out of highschool, it is only now that I realize how broad and encompassing computer science is. I was also very intimidated by it throughout my sophomore and junior years here  at Berea, it seemed scary and intimidating in its broadness and in the amount of people I was competing with. Now however, half way through my first semester senior year, I am having more trouble with it than ever, and yet it seems less intimidating and less competitive than it did before, as I know now how broad it is, but how interconnected it is, and how everyone is constantly learning. Having made it this far, I also know that I can learn it, at least as well as anyone else.
• Describe a time you have felt a great sense of self-efficacy. (This example might or might not relate to computer science.) Based on that experience, explain why you believe having good self-efficacy will help you and your team in regards to completing your current Runestone project. Drawing upon the materials you read and watched, how you might be able to support others in your team improve their own self-efficacy.
  • A time I felt a great sense of self efficacy is the time I was working on my capstone for senior projects and I finally got an image to change on a click. I had finally made the breakthrough I needed and had been working on for 2 or 3 weeks, and in that moment, I saw the path I would take to implement the rest of that function; It was beautiful, and after that I was able to complete that entire class in the next two days following that breakthrough. This is an extremely important thing to have, as feeling confident in your abilities drastically influences both your motivations and your abilities; It can be the difference in finishing a project on time, and not finishing a project at all, so me and my team will have to help keep each other and ourselves motivated if we are going to get anything done on skulpt. We will need to encourage each other and experience victories as a team to keep morale up. 

• Discuss the motivations developers have for writing for OSS that are explored in the readings. Compare and contrast your own motivations and traits with those explored in the readings.
  • The writing cites several motivations one may have for contributing to open source, from job signaling being one, to fun or personal need being others. Personally, I can see job signaling being a good reason, as well as fun, those are probably the two main reasons I would contribute to open source. I don’t much feel the gift culture or personal need reason, If I need a program that doesn’t exist, I would write it myself if possible, I can’t see one I need that doesn’t already exist having a big enough following that it would warrant an open source community.
• One of the readings states that “enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most pervasive driver.” Think of a time you did a big job or project solely based out of enjoyment. (Your example need not necessarily be in programming) Explain why you chose to tackle this job or project.
  • One time I worked on a big project based solely on my enjoyment of it was when I modded my family’s Nintendo Wii, I was like 14 or 15, and was just learning the basics of file systems and software, and honestly, open source. I would spend hours looking up how and why a certain thing was the way it was, I would scour for how to’s on shady websites, and download different mods for the system to change its color, emulate different older systems like the n64, nes and even ps1. I invested hundreds of hours over all, and learned a lot about how to navigate the web, find information, how release schedules and open source communities work, and how mods work. 
• Identify what you consider to be blockers in your life or career that sometimes hinder you or your motivation. Elaborate on what you might consider doing to overcome those blockers.
  • The biggest blockers in my life or career right now would most likely be time and energy. I spend so much time working, doing homework and researching for work, homework, and college/career stuff, that I don’t have much time to do anything. I also devote so much energy and focus to these things everyday that on the rarest of occasions when I have the time, I am so exhausted and brain dead that I can’t do anything but sleep, or think about how I should be working to get ahead of homework and projects.   

Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert? Explain your choice. Then describe some advantages and disadvantages for each of these traits in regards to software development and open source contribution.

• I consider myself an extrovert, I would almost always rather be around people, and I feel drained if I have been alone for too long, and recharged by being in public and around others. Even if it’s not necessarily friends, that I am around, being around people is much better than being alone. I also find it easy to talk to people, and do service jobs, as meeting and interacting with new people is not a challenge. One disadvantage I can see is that it makes it harder to do solo tasks. I I prefer to do tasks in a group, and have also found myself relying on others input on group assignments, so when it comes to doing big projects solo, I have been having to adapt. It also makes doing jobs where I spend hours alone harder for me, as I can’t keep up my energy.  

Of the seven secrets to effective teamwork, choose two that you feel are the most important when it comes to working on a team. Discuss why you selected these. Detail how you think these secretes will help during a larger Runestone project.

• It is very important to set clear goals and decide what you will complete each week. I believe these are the two most important characteristics of effective teamwork. If you don’t set clear goals you won’t be able to effectively manage progress and will lose sight of the bigger picture. You will also focus more on each individual task than the goal itself and will be less flexible. If you don’t keep your mind on the bigger picture and say your goal is to make a game, you will focus more on each level than the experience of the game as a whole product. It is also just as important to set smaller goals to complete each week, focusing again on the task as a whole and not the process of it, and with the larger goal in mind. You need to have smaller tasks each weak, abstracted from the main goal, that way you can make progress effectively each week, and know how much each person and the group as a whole has left to do and has accomplished. 

A continual improvement process or continuous improvement process is a key idea in business representing an ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes. Just like products, none of us is perfect. We can always improve ourselves. Think about your previous experience as a member of a team and discuss specific ways in which you can go about improving your mindset and/or actions on future teamwork so that you can contribute even more effectively to your team.

• When working on group assignments I find myself sticking to my strengths, and letting others do the same, but if none of us know how to do something, I tend to rely on my team members to research and figure it out, and then have them teach me, I have been working on this, as it’s not a great habit that I rely on my team to cover my weaknesses so much. Doing this will allow me to contribute even more to my team.