Linda's Learning Adventure

This is the end. The last week of the internship.

Sharon and Victoria started filling out evaluations during this shift. They showed me how the evaluation form looked like and how to conduct an evaluation if they were to be working in main at the time. In addition, they explained that evaluations must be filled out for each consultant that a senior consultant works with, even through SB Connect.

Glen again allowed me to be senior consultant. Though there is nothing much left to teach me, I value the experience that he gives me. In addition, he gives me advice that is not outlined for him. For example, what he felt like first starting out and tips and tricks to answering messages.

This week, Adrienne had to sub out, much to my disappointment. I hoped to spend the last week with all my current mentors. However, I was lucky enough to shadow Michelle before I become a senior consultant. She allowed me to be senior consultant, but she also taught me something important, which is how to be a leader. She made a clear distinction between a boss and a leader and even showed me one of her favorite videos that summarized traits of each characteristic. I thought this was a great conclusion to the internship shadowing. We’ve been taught so much information but we miss the simplest things at times, like morals. Michelle gave a great reminder that though you are a senior consultant, you shouldn’t let the power go to your head.

For the last class, Alvin and Christy gave a great presentation about AV services to conclude our final learning experience. They talked about headquarters, Jarrod, and services they offer. After they presented, our intern class surprised John Tom with a birthday cake! I felt like this was a great way to end the internship and a clear indication of a stronger bond between the class.

My final reflection would be that this class helped me be more out there. In the beginning of the class, I was so scared because I barely knew anybody in the class and because of that I tried to be quiet. But as the days went by, I began talking with every one of them, adding them on social media, and even creating a group chat with them. To be completely honest, we’re not that close yet, but I hope to grow closer during boot camp and especially during the next school year. My fear of meeting faculty members has also diminished after the interview with Jennifer Adams as well as talking to Rich. I felt like Rich has been a very observant individual and a great help to our class. Things I still need to work on, however, is my confidence with the phone. I still find myself stammering at times but with conditioning and practice, I am sure it will go away. Overall, this has been a pleasant experience where I met new individuals and built my own character a little bit more. I can’t wait to create more memories with my TLT team. So those who have been reading my journals, thank you for following and I hope you enjoyed my journey as much as I did.

When I shadowed Sharon and Victoria this shift, I took attendance and started working on my resume. After taking Helen’s workshop, I wanted to integrate her lessons to my own. I used horizontal lines, 3 columns, ruler, etc. I liked this method more than a template because it allowed more room for creativity even though a template has more design options. However, I know exactly what I’m changing around and if I mess up or want to add experiences into my document, I wouldn’t be lost. I had my mentors look over it to see if I needed to tweak anything at the end.

This week Glen allowed me to assume the role of senior consultant. I did a few tasks here and there and asked Glen any questions I had about senior consultant. For example, I asked him the pro and cons of being a help desk.

This week, Adrienne allowed me to assume senior consultant as well. During that time, I was able to pick up a phone call. The user was angry about not being able to pay her summer tuition even though she signed up for classes. I told her that she should wait a bit if she just signed up for classes or that the tuition may not have been posted on SOLAR yet. However, she accused me of not doing my job, since she was always able to pay her tuition early. She asked me if I get paid by the school, to which I responded that I am a student. I talk about this experience because this marked my first angry user. Adrienne told me that it is nerve wrecking getting yelled at at first, but this role will help you toughen up because there will be many more like her. However, you just have to keep doing your job.

There was no class this week because of Roth Regatta! Though I didn’t mention it in last week’s post, I helped tape up the boat’s fins with Kyeong ( but they ended up throwing them out anyway). This week, I visited the team after my closing shift in SBS and helped with painting, shirt making, and cleaning up. The boat was amazing! We were able to get to second heat with the help of all the pushers and rowers. It was a fun experience and I urge more consultants to come.

I started off the week shadowing Sharon and Victoria. Sharon was creating a site meeting and was making a doodle. She took this opportunity to show me how to create a doodle as well as quiz me and take suggestions from me on what content  to put into a site meeting. Luckily, the color printer needed a change of black toner. I’ve never changed the toner for a color printer before so this was a great learning opportunity. I noticed the body of the toner is much smaller that what I was used to, but otherwise it was as easy as changing a regular toner. For the remainder of the shadowing period, I was allowed to work on my Google Site. This week I was due to present!

When I shadowed Glen later that day, we discussed scheduling. He asked me if anyone has gone over scheduling with me, in which I responded with yes (Sharon allowed me to schedule as an exercise). Glen also asked me for my critique on the current system of scheduling. I personally think there are flaws. There are times during live sign up where I was scrambling for my last hour to fill my requirement. I think it would be more fair to cap the hours at the minimum. Then everyone will have enough to fill their quota. After 24 hours, it can be opened up for people that want to work more.

On Friday, Adrienne allowed me to come in an hour earlier because I had to practice the final presentation with Jin Wei. During the shadow period, she allowed me to work on the Google Site as I awaited emails, velaro messages, and phone calls. She gave me tips and tricks to presenting and assured me that I would do fine.

During class time, three groups presented. The first group was Nick Cheung and John Tom, who presented on the media lab in TLL. Unfortunately, the internet crashed during their presentation so they had to present without their Google Site. In my opinion, they did great with the set back! Next was me and Jin Wei. After all the practice we had presenting, I think we did great. Truthfully, I was terrified. I was stammering and shaking but I did the best I could and I think that’s good enough! Lastly, we had Kyeong, Jarrell, and Carol present on the faculty center. Their website was chock full of information and their group interaction wasn’t too bad either.

I started the week off by shadowing Victoria and Sharon once again. This time, a user had trouble scanning and printing out a tax form. The document persisted that the user has to click the print button on the document itself to print. However, upon printing it, the pages were blank. I asked if he could try printing from a Mac and print the form from a print set up pop up window instead. It seemed to work until he swiped his card at a release station. He released blank pages yet again! As an inexperienced intern, I asked Victoria for assistance. She found that when you opened the document on adobe acrobat rather than a document on preview, the document would print. Though I was disappointed that I could not help this individual, at least I’ve gained insight on what to do in the future. Victoria also tested me from the test pool on Blackboard.

At two o’clock the same day, I had an interview with Jennifer Adams. Jin Wei and I walked into the faculty center, where Jennifer was preparing seats for us. She was a nice, patient, and informative individual. She would explain concepts to me that I would not entirely understand. For example, I had trouble distinguishing instructional technology and academic technology. She used a great analogy about how academic technology is an umbrella and how instructional technology is under it. We asked other questions such as advertisement, her definition of instructional technology, and her experience with TEDXSBU. Before we left, we took a picture with her as well as thanked her for her time.

Now that we had the presentation done, Glen allowed me to use the mentoring time to create and get used to Google Sites. Jin Wei made and outline when he was shadowing Glen beforehand, but I had to change some pages around to make it look more neat and relevant to the guidelines we were given. It was hard at first. Neither me nor Glen knew how to work the navigation bar but through trial and error, we found how to manipulate the page layout. From there, it was easy to fill in the pages since the outline was written. So, we worked on the page up until Thursday, the day of our mock presentation to Richard and Tara.

Jin Wei and I stepped into the meeting room in TLL at three o’clock to present. We first introduced ourselves and began going point by point on our presentation. We were able to hit whatever we had written, but we lacked interaction and personal experience, as we later learned from the feedback. Richard and Tara were great with suggestions. For example, they recommend adding a screenshot of various services and have the audience guess which service is part of instructional technology. Another thing that would emphasize us as the presenters rather than the words on the screen would be our experience with clickers, for example. We were also able to ask them about any questions we may have such as going over time and the aesthetics of our website.

The next day, I came into TLL expecting to shadow Adrienne, but I found Jeff, my old mentor, substituting for her. Jeff allowed me to answer the phone regarding a teacher’s workshop. I informed her that she had to register with a $25 fee and that is why the link is not working for her. She thanked me for my services. For the remainder of the time, Jeff tested me from page 7 of the Blackboard test pool.

For class this week, we met up in the Humanities SINC Site, one of my favorite remote sites. We sat there for a while as we listened to classroom policies and our obligations as consultants. To give another example, Rose lead our class to the SBS SINC Site classroom where we learned about sparky and html coding. Steven was teaching this lesson, with he help of Kevin and Frank. Turns out, Steven was in the same web design class as I was last year, so this class was a great refresher for simple coding.

After the class, I substituted for Jessica for the One Button Studio workshop. Of course, we ran this by Richard and Tara before I got instructor permissions. Before the consultants came, I printed out the documentation needed and got the key from Richard. When people started coming in, I asked them to sign in at the account terminal as well as initial next to their name. When Jeff came, we all headed to the Chemistry building, room 338A. Jeff taught most of the workshop, teaching the consultants how to clean and operate the technology. Because Jin Wei was shadowing this workshop, Jeff allowed us to demonstrate how to film a video for our Google Site. In fact, he allowed everyone to film a short tutorial. Afterwards, we all went back to Main Library, took the survey, and signed out.

I decided to shadow another workshop after teaching the One Button Studio one. I chose to shadow David and Yun Shi as they did their Mac OSX and Windows basic workshop. Looking back, this week had a lot of TLT work embedded into it!

On Monday, Sharon and Victoria allowed me to work on my final project since I am behind with Jin Wei. I researched about Jennifer Adams, our interviewee. I found her e-portfolio, which was full of useful information and links to the DoIT web page. I found information about Echo360, podcasts, streams, clickers, and even a bit about her personal life. I felt as if her e-portfolio was as good a great supplement to the research I have been doing on instructional technology through DoIT. Later, I shadowed Glen. Glen showed me ITSM and DoIt web page and let me navigate through it. Glen also allowed to the do research on instructional technology and Jennifer Adams. I created a Google Doc and shared it with Jin Wei. Its contents included questions for the interview, which Jin Wei should be adding before Monday. On Friday, Adrienne allowed me to sit on the consultant chair and answer or respond to any questions. However, it is quiet most of the time so she went through emails with me. She asked me various questions, especially about NetID (since new students tend to ask about that a lot). As we were reviewing, the phone rang. A student was inquiring how to log into Blackboard, in which I asked her if she was a student and if she was using her NetID and NetID password. The problem appeared to be the latter and she thanked me for my services.

This week’s class opened my eyes to some new facilities that are appearing on campus. We first visited the Testing Center in Frey Hall. As of now, it is not open to the public and is used for certain classes and students for testing, hence its name. Those who are taking placement tests will be placed here. However, if this location is not successful, it may become a SINC Site. We then made our way upstairs to the third floor, where we were greeted by Diana. We sat in a conference room where some people have satellite classes. I really liked the room because of its new modern design and technology. The class really liked the power outlets. When Diana sat us down, she said she needs out input for the future of TLT. She showed us the new designs for NRR on the two TV’s. I really like the designs, it was very modern and had splashes of color. I like how they are utilizing the natural sunlight that people overlook on the second floor. However, I would like to see bigger tables for studying in the future. Check it out here: http://library.stonybrook.edu/about-us/library-renovation/renovation-updates/

On Monday, I began my shadowing session with Sharon and Victoria once again. This time, they introduced me to google apps. Instead of showing me all the features, however, they focused on Gmail, specifically creating tags and folders. Victoria first showed me how the site manager and TLT support line email accounts look like. She pointed out the colorful squares to the left of the screen as well as the folders under them. She taught me how to filter, create labels, and categorize emails that contain a keyword. As practice, Sharon monitored me as I organized my personal Stony Brook University email. After sorting my mail, my inbox never looked tidier!

Later that day, I shadowed Glen. Glen was preparing to teach me about TLT when the phone rang. I answered the phone with my well practiced greeting and found that a new student had trouble logging into Blackboard. I directed her to Solar, where I asked her to sign in and click on NetID maintenance. I told her she can check if her password has been entered in correctly. If all else fails, she may reset and create a new password. She thanked me and hung up. Within ten minutes, she called back stating that it didn’t work, so I politely asked her to try again and call back if she could not activate her password in ten minutes. She called back and this time Glen answered. She was able to reset her password and log onto Blackboard, but her class did not show up. Her case was different in that it was a satellite class. At the end, we wrote and ITSM ticket.

On Friday, Adrienne subbed out of her shift, so I mentored Nujbat. There were no phone calls so she taught me by showing me example emails from the TLT support line archive. She focused on Virtual SINC Site more because she said that it can be the toughest problems. She allowed me to read through emails, suggest solutions, write sample emails, and write sample ITSM tickets.

For class this week, we met at the Earth Space and Science SINC Site for a walking tour. Unfortunately there was a class in there so we didn’t get to see much of it. However, I had a glimpse of the dual screen computers and I thought that was pretty neat. Then, we headed to Harriman to visit the innovation lab. There we met Ed, a student that works there. He gave us a little tour and an orientation on the space. I was impressed that they had 3D printers, sewing machines, paper cutters, and other devices that are available to students for free! At the end of the tour, he allowed us to sign up so we can utilize the equipment offered in the lab. After that we headed to the SINC Site where we were greeted by Jennifer Jaiswal. For the remainder of the class time, she showed us how to navigate Blackboard by creating a course in the application that we could edit. She showed us how to make tests, pools, file links, etc. I felt like creating this course was a great idea and would benefit me by letting me practice the duties of a senior consultant.

This week, we started shadowing different senior consultants. My first shadowing session was with Victoria and Sharon. Victoria started off first by checking which parts I went over and which parts I still needed help on. We went over things such as Mac basics,WiFi, 25live, etc. Then, Sharon taught me the art of scheduling by showing me her senior consultant email inbox and asking me to sort the consultants requested hours on a Google Sheets document.  At first it was a bit overwhelming, since I was trying to give people block shifts while accommodating them. However, Sharon told me scheduling them for block shifts is unnecessary, so I gave a few people single hour shifts.
On the same day, I shadowed Glen in CRR. In the late night, people do not usually call or ask for help, so Glen also started teaching me information I previously went over. This time, it was mainly Blackboard.
My last shadowing session of the week was with Adrienne. I shadowed her on Friday morning so there were a lot of people that needed assistance. She allowed me to write a response email and also an ITSM. She showed me that if I had to revise something, I can always go back to the ticket but I would have to jot the ticket number down.
This week we took a tour of the Networking Operating Center (NOC). There we saw phone cables, expensive technology, ways they safe guard their computers, how WiFi works, etc. The most interesting part was that I got to learn that you can track a student down by just getting his/ her NetID if their technological device is connected to the WiFi. My NetID was used as a test. Embarrassing but worth the learning experience!

Hello folks, no interesting posts this week since it’s Spring Break. Hope everyone has a great week off but check back next week for my weekly scheduled posts!

This was my last week shadowing with my current mentors! Jessica ended our session with how to edit blackboard pages. She also went over TLT supported labs, workshop information, google doc shortcuts, MAC shortcuts, Pharos, and ITSM. Jeff continued to allow me to respond to messages or answer the phone. Steven also went over Blackboard, Pharos, and ITSM.

This week the senior consultant Frank introduced software found in the Fine Arts SINC Sites. The class met in the Hybrid SINC Site briefly learned about the computers and projector in the room. I learned that there is one computer that controlled the projector and where the consultant computer is located. One big take home message was that the bulb for the projector is expensive, so always turn the projector off if not being used! After that, we headed down to the e-media SINC Site, where Rich and Tara tagged along. In my opinion, this SINC Site is more complicated because of the equipment that they offer. When I first sat down, I was faced with headphones, a piano keyboard, multiple rectangular boxes, and wires everywhere. Luckily, Frank explained the functions of the knobs and the software that they are correlated with. For example, we got to use Garage Band. Frank also talked about the big box in the front that controlled the projector.

This week I continued shadowing my mentors, but I had more hands on experience with Jeff. For example, he allowed me to update clickers and answer phone calls in TLL. We had some complications with updating the clicker so I restarted the computer and continuously disconnected and reconnected the clickers until the software was able to detect the clicker. Steven and Jessica went over past material to make sure I got it. This included blackboard, staff, and what not to do as a senior consultant.

For class, Rich substituted for Tara, who had a flu. Rich had us write down characteristics of a good or a bad presenter in groups. Then, we had to find a picture in five minutes and do an improvised presentation of it. Rich said this may be the hardest thing he would make us do. It was hard, not because of the content, but because I wasn’t prepared to talk about my topic. Some of my peers had informative presentations, and others had amusing ones, but it allowed me to learn more about what they liked. So, not only was that exercise good practice for presentations, it helped me get to know my classmates.

Rich had to leave early, so at the end of class, Rose guided our class to LLRC where we had a walk-in tour. The area was really quiet and an ideal study spot. There seemed to be some language classrooms in there as well. What interested me about this room was that not only did it have MAC’s and PC’s, it had these very old looking computers. Rose said we do not support them because they’re so old but some professors insist on using software contained in those fossils.