Q1MattSmith

Document Q1MattSmith

1. Your Name

Matt Smith

2. Your field of study?

Computer Science & Psychology

3. In which semester of study are you?

4th semester (Sophomore)

4. Why are you interested in taking this course?

I took the Intro to DSS course in the fall and wish to continue the work my group began last semester and of course it fulfills a requirement for my degree in CS

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

I took Intro to DSS last semester so am familiar with the wiki and the assignments and structure of the course as well as this semester taking User Interface Design which will help me in learning the development progress of creating user designed programs.

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

I have programmed in C, C++, Python, Java, and Ruby. I'm continuing to learn ruby on rails and this semester will be learning a little php and a few other web based languages.

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

I am familiar with final cut express, aperture, a little photoshop, and I have dreamweaver, but have not began to use it (being that i will be using it in another class this semester i expect to know how to use it by may).

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

The most important book for this course is probably going to be Leonardo's Laptop, which was read in Intro to DSS, because the main themes of the book are Collect, Relate, Create, and Donate. Which seems to be a good theme for this course to continue on.

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

I expect to gain more experience in the new media and social systems which are evolving and also gain more experience in the design process which will benefit me for the rest of my carrier.