Q1AntonioGonzalezPena

Document Q1AntonioGonzalezPena

1. Your Name

Antonio González-Peña

2. Your field of study?

Computer Science

3. In which semester of study are you?

First Semester of Master's Degree

4. Why are you interested in taking this course?

For more than 5 years, I have developed diverse Web and Desktop Applications without full understanding of the design principles or the user needs as human beings. I expect that your Design, Creativity, and New Media Course will provide me with this and other recent knowledge.

5. What courses / work activities / background knowledge do you have which might be relevant to this course?

From 2003 to 2005 I was one of the Instructional Design Engineer of the Universidad Iberoamericana, Ciudad de Mexico. The last big project I was part of, before arriving to Boulder, was the redesign of an interactive system of augmented and alternative communication, this project was sponsored by the Sectorial Budget of Investigation in Health and Social Security SSA/IMSS/ISSSSTE-CONACYT in Mexico. Also in 2003, I was part of the design and development of "SOFIA - System Oriented Towards Integral Formation and Learning" http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=20660

6. Indicate your own digital literacy / fluency:
6.1. Describe your programming experience (languages, projects)

Structured Programming: ANSI C, PHP, TCL/TK, GTK+
State Machines Programming: ANSI C
Object Oriented: PHP, JS, GTK+2
Structured Query Language: MsSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle
Other Scripting Lenguages: HTML, CSS
System Administration: Microsoft Windows, Solaris 9 & 10, Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu
Web Administration: Apache, Joomla, Mambo, Jaws
Design: Flash, Ilustrator, Dreamwaever, Freehand, Director

6.2. What applications are you familiar with (e.g. Photoshop, Canvas, Dreamweaver,...)?

Well, I feel comfortable using GIMP and almost all the Adobe software but to be honest I know how to use the software but I'm not a good graphical designer.

7. Give a brief description of the most important book / article which you have read with respect to the topic of the course.

8. What do you hope and expect to learn from this course?

Like I said before, I have been a designer and a developer for quite a while now and I never have had a formal training or a full understanding of the best design methodologies to facilitate the use and interaction of the users with our systems.