For my IST 210, Database Organization, class our semester project was to create and implement a service to Penn State students that utilized the database theory and technology that we learned about over the past few months. While my experience with Bonsai Studios put me at a slight advantage in technical skill, I still found a lot of the theory behind database design to be useful in making the implementation process much more smooth.
This project has been one of my favorite projects thus far at Penn State and I think it really highlights the situation based learning that a lot of the IST classes use. Less exams in the major is very relieving, yet it still puts on the pressure in a situation that more realistically resembles my future career. I will have teammates and I will be able to seek external resources. Projects will be a growing and evolving process, rather than some assignment that gets completed and dropped from thought.
Other than highlighting the IST program’s teaching technique, I also feel that the project shows a lot of the technologies I have used over the past couple years and ways I have used them. The project contained standards compliant XHTML and CSS for the coding of the site. Working in Photoshop to contribute to the design. Discussing usability and interface design with teammates. Designing SQL databases and determining the proper relationships between entities. Adding jQuery and Ajax to increase usability and decrease page refreshes.
Despite completing this almost a year ago now, I had rekindled interest in the project as the semester project in my Java class reminds me of it. Perhaps just because it will be another assignment heavy on the development side of things, but that doesn’t make it any less important. I’m excited to start working in teams to create something that will hopefully be of use.
The web space where this has been posted has been taking down, so I am going to try to convert the MSSQL PHP stuff into MySQL PHP stuff and host it so you can actually experience the greatness that was Classroom Portal. I’m sorry I can’t provide a link to the working site, but I can give you a few more screen shots on my Flickr.
