Reflection on IT150 with Rachel Chung

To be completely honest, I – like most of you – only took Information Technology I at Carlow University in the Spring semester of 2009 because it was part of my major’s requirements.  I didn’t even know what Information Technology was when I registered, but I figured my first semester classes were pretty easy and I’d be able to fly through this course too.

I was wrong.

When I walked into the classroom the first day, it was almost full.  By the next class half of those students had disappeared.  Rachel had spent most of our first meeting warning us about how much work we were going to get and it scared some of the students away. I, on the other hand, didn’t believe her.  I’d heard that so many times before and it always turned out to be an over exaggeration.  Again, I was wrong.

IT150 is a lot of work, but for what you get out of it, it’s completely worth it.  In the beginning we got packets of homework assignments almost every class and I spent hours each night just trying to get it done in time for the next class.  Then on top of that, the Google project was added and we had to do even more work every day.  It was hard and stressful and I didn’t always agree with the workload, but in the end, it was useful.  I don’t think there is one thing in any of those assignment that I won’t use again in the future or that won’t give me an advantage and put me ahead of other people in the workforce.

I liked the hands on work we did with Microsoft Access and Excel and the in class exercises.  I also liked learning about the different Information Systems businesses use in the background to help themselves improve and the other little things we learned like how the internet works, Google’s various useful applications, and how to read database language.  The Google AdWords project was a lot of work and could be really confusing sometimes, but it was fun to work with a real business and real money and it really gives you a lot of experience and a great advantage.

If I had to give advice to any future students all I would say is don’t give up and don’t slack off.  It’s a lot of work and it’s going to stress you out and overwhelm you, but I think that what you get back from it is the dealbreaker.  Not only will you learn inside the classroom, but also outside of the classroom because it’ll teach you how to teach yourself, how to learn from your mistakes, and it will really get you ready for the workload that you’ll face throughout the rest of your college experience.

The best thing that you’ll get from this course is a competitive advantage.  Of course you only touch on things like Access and Excel, DreamWeaver, information systems, HTML/database language, and various other useful things, but you can build on those skills and use them to your advantage in your career because there aren’t a lot of other people out there who are going to know what those things are let alone how to use them.  I bet you’ll meet plenty of employers who have no idea what Google AdWords or Google Apps are and might not even know what information systems are and because you do, you’re going to stand out and they’re going to want you.  IT150 is tough, but like I’ve said before, what you learn from it will continue to help you throughout your career.