A New Year, A New Semester...

A few months ago, we were asked to write our first blog entry about ourselves, our backgrounds, and our futures. Now that our first semester is over, it's time to see how far on to achieving my goal at the end of the two years.

The first semester has been, dare I say it, easier than I first imagined. This is not to say that the first semester has been easy, I think that I had just prepared myself for something a lot harder. I'm not planning on slacking off mind, as I know that the next semester, and the whole of the next year, will just get harder, more assignments, more to do, possibly less peers to keep up moral, who knows.

The class will already seem much emptier on a Wednesday, now that Chris has decided to drop down to the HNC. It will be interesting to see how this affects the minds of some people on the course, after Steve has mentioned about the 'domino effect' in previous years.

My main goal of the course is still to use it as a stepping stone, either to a job or a full degree, however where as a few months ago I was dead set on just a job, and not really considering a degree course, the news that Steve is applying for a third year at Thornes has made me think otherwise.

So far I seem to have learnt more on the course than my brother has in 3 years of university. All be it he is on an entirely different course to me, but from what I hear about his lectures and lessons (what little of them he has) not much learning seems to go on. Also, speaking to others doing similar courses at universities seem to be able to do very little work and turn up to very few lectures, and still manage to pull off a decent grade. It makes me wonder how employable they will be after their course, with or without a degree.

At the present time I am still trying to work out what I would like me end career to be. Up until know I have know that I would like to work in some kind of design or computing job (ignoring my journalism instincts for the time being), but have not sat down and worked out exactly what. This was probably something I should of done a long time ago, but I never really saw it as important. Working out what career path I wish to take at the end of the course will then help me decide on whether or not I need a full degree or not.

Whatever I decide to do at the end of the course, the first semester has helped me greatly. I have gained valuable experience in new software and theory, of which I can now put into practice in future assignments, to adapt and build upon my new found skills further. Because I have had very little experience working with web and graphic design, it is good to have more experienced members in the group and to use them as a sort of goal, and to try and improve my own work so that it is to their standards, and then try and improve further.

I think the next few months will be the most important yet, as we are using more advanced software (such as Dreamweaver) which we will be using quite a lot through out the rest of the course, and so getting used to it and learning it well will be my next key goal when returning to the second semester.

I look forward to seeing what new challenges the next semester brings up, and eagerly await my results from my previous assignment.