Personal Tutor Meeting Review

The personal tutor meeting went well. We discussed a few queries I had, which were answered nicely. We also discussed the modules that we had next year and even showed me some practical work we would be participating in next year, which I am looking forward to.

The tutor meeting was a useful experience for two reasons. I was able to get to know my personal tutor a little better, and also clear up any problems I was having. A tutor meeting may be useful again later on in the year when I may have more queries, which of course I can book if I need to.

Having a Mentor

I found having a mentor very useful. My mentor did not have a technical background but had already finished a degree. This helped me as I could draw on her experience to help with my assignment. My mentor gave me advice on what I could do better and where I was going wrong.

It is useful to have more than one mentor. A range of different viewpoints is always useful when reading assignments as different people look for different things. All these views combined make for a thorough check.

Having acted as a mentor for someone else I appreciate the time it takes to read over and check work, which can be very time consuming with long essays. I am very grateful to those who acted as my mentor especially those with full time jobs.

Presentation Review

The presentation went well over all. Our main aim was to keep it interesting and keep our audiences attention. I think our main goal was achieved very successfully and we received some kind words from Jo after our presentation.

On a personal level I kept within my time limit, I didn’t really have much choice but to keep to it as I pre-timed my slides to change automatically. In retrospect this added more pressure on getting the speech across to the audience whilst also keeping in time, along with extreme nerves. But I feel it was fairly successful.

I only had a few key words for my speech in front of me. This worked well as I was aiming for a natural flow to the presentation, but also added to the pressure of getting it correct with little to fall back on if it went pear shaped, thankfully it didn’t.

If I was to redo the presentation I would probably not have the slides self timed. I would also try to practice more in front of larger audiences in an effort to reduce nerves on the day.

As a group everybody designed their own slideshow, along with their speeches. This was successful as each individual felt comfortable with what they were presenting and saying. On the day the team did an excellent job, nobody forgot their speech and everyone presented clearly.

Meeting Minutes

Attended: Anna Lapo, Samera Jayaratne, Tristan Wahl, Helen Son, Madjosi Da Silva

Outcome:

All must research chosen products.
Find quality images for use.
Remember to reference images and research.

Come to next scheduled meeting.

Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion

Abstract:

Mobile phones have been a part of our life for decades and have found uses that they were never intended for by the creators. They have found their way into many different aspects of life including home, social, work and education. Some say the mobile phone has a positive effect, some say otherwise. This report will look at the arguments for and against these theories, conduct research into the feelings of those around us, compare the results and finally state the findings and recommendations.

Introduction:

This essay will look into the effect that mobile phones have had on society and compare the positive and negative effects to get an understanding of whether they have pushed society in the right direction or if they are leading the new e-generation into a dark hole of despair. To get a better insight as to what extent the mobile phone has affected us, the effects that were brought about by the original introduction of the telephone will briefly be looked into.

Back in the seventeenth century if one wanted to contact another outside of travelling distance they would have relied on the postal service; a slow and possibly unreliable method where a handwritten letter would be put in an envelope and physically taken by hand to where ever the letter was addressed. If you were well off maybe a telegram, a slightly faster service but possibly too expensive for the working class. Now days this method of person to person, non commercial contact is all but going extinct (let alone the hand written bit). The option of sending a letter is not comparable to the convenience, cost, speed and reliability of other methods available in the world of today.

During the eighteenth century there was a lot of development in the communications industry, more specifically in the telecommunications industry. The telephone worked its way into society and a new method of mass communication was born. With one million four hundred thousand telephones around at the beginning of the eighteenth century people were able to pick up the ear piece, dial a number (most likely using a rotary dial system) and speak to another as though they were next to each other (Russell, 200?). Granted the quality was at first poor, and maybe the equipment was a little expensive but the business boomed. People could now telephone friends and loved ones, news would travel further and faster than ever before, business could now spread out, as quick reliable communication was achievable. Now, fast forward about seventy three years and a revolution is in the mist with the introduction of the first ‘mobile’ phone, the Motorola DynaTAC. The background of which was brought into reality and practicality by Joel Engel and Richard Frenkiel (Ament, 2006).

Heading now to the 1990’s the second generation mobile phones were introduced and now another method of communication was born, maybe one which has far more impact and relevance in society today than would have been imagined at its conception, the text message. At this point people can call or text anyone with a mobile phone, anywhere (as long as they were in a network covered area). So considering the mobile phone is just an extension of the telephone, a revolutionary communications device that made business and family life easier than ever, how would this new technology affect society in years to come?


Conclusion:

In conclusion mobile phones have had a big impact on society. Mobile phones have diffused into all age groups and cultures. These devices, originally designed as an extension of the telephone, have evolved to encompass new uses and now even have their own language which again is adopted by people of all age groups, not only youths. Mobile phones have found themselves useful in all walks of life, some would even say starting to encroach and have a negative impact on life. The findings of this report show that the opinion of many is very negative on the effect of mobile phones in education. The report also confirms that health warnings on mobile phones do little to change the way people use their mobile phone probably due to not enough research available to say mobile phones have a negative effect on health. The mobile phone does appear to be having a good impact on family and social life as people can keep in contact which surely is only a good thing.

Evaluation Of Results

The questionnaire results show that mobile phones have diffused into the culture of most age ranges with 96.6% of volunteers owning a mobile phone, the percentage of those volunteers in each age range can be seen from the results section.

The questionnaire agrees to a large extent with Aykac 2008 that mobile phones are viewed as having a negative impact on children in the education system, 83% of volunteers having this view, and disagrees with Castells theory that mobile phones and the text language sparks creativity. However the survey shows that the abbreviated text language has had a huge impact on society with 60% of volunteers using such a language, this is almost double that of non users of the text language.

The questionnaire agrees with the findings of Ofcom in that although 83.3% of volunteers were aware of the health issues only 16.7% were inclined to change the way they used their mobile phone, suggesting that there is not enough evidence to prove mobile phones are actually bad for your health. Mobile phone masts themselves were only a cause for concern for one third of the volunteers suggesting evidence contrary to the findings of Hale, Poulter and Whiteside that children in schools were at risk from the harmful effects of radiation from phone masts.

When investigating the uses of mobile phones it can be seen that only 7% of volunteers use their phone for work contrary to the theory of Chelsey that mobile phones have encouraged the spill over of work and home life. The survey shows that the primary use of mobile phones is for social purposes with 60%, family coming in second with 30%.

Research Results

Questionnaire

My name is Tristan Wahl; I am currently studying for a degree in Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University. As part of my degree I am writing an essay considering the effects of the mobile phone on society. To complete research in the subject area I have put together a fully anonymous questionnaire. All the questions are optional, if you don’t want to answer a particular question then please do not.

What age range are you?
18 – 24	25 – 30	31 – 40	41 – 50	51 – 60	61 +
Do you own a mobile phone?
Yes	No
What do you primarily use your mobile phone for? (please tick only one)
Social	Family	Work	N/A
What medium do you primarily use your mobile phone for? (please tick a maximum of two)
Call	Text	E-mail	Web	Photo	Video	N/A
Are you aware of health issues surrounding mobile phones?
Yes	No
Does this affect the way you use your mobile phone?
Yes	No	N/A
Do phone masts and the radiation emitted from them give you cause for concern?
Yes	No	N/A
When you write a text message do you use abbreviated ‘txt’ language or proper words?
‘txt’	Proper	N/A
Do you feel that the ‘txt’ language has a positive or negative impact on the language of children in education?
Positive	Negative	Don’t Know
Please add any comments about your thoughts on mobile phones:

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey, I greatly appreciate all input received.

Research Methodology

Data will be collected from reading a mix of primary sources and secondary sources using books, the internet, leaflets, newspapers and a survey.

The survey will consist of convenience samples of different age groups, and administered in the form of an interview, this is best practice meaning the data collected will be more reliable as the conditions the survey was taken in and the manor in which answered can be controlled (Robson 2007).

For the purposes of this report the survey will consist of thirty samples due to time and resource constraints. Ideally a much larger and representative sample would be used to represent the opinion of the general society. No pilot questionnaire will be undertaken.

The survey will supply objective data which will be used to produce statistics for comparison to current theories. There will be ten questions to cover the basis of the report. The questions will be easy to understand and not leading. Answers to the questions will be multiple choices as this is a quick way to collect objective data.

There will be a short letter of introduction to explain why the survey is being carried out and to explain that the survey and all answers are optional. The survey will be completely anonymous as personal information will not help with the report.

Literature Review

Aykac 2008 argues that cell phones are “disruptive and distractive” and that they have no use in the educational environment, however Castells 2006 notes that the new language brought about by having to summarise text in SMS text messages sparks creativity in the younger generations. Castells goes on to cite Fortunati 2003, the action of texting makes adolescents discover “the attraction of the written word”. Hale, Poulter and Whiteside 2005 state that a third of British schools have a mobile phone mast within 200 meters and go on to say their findings come “days after Government experts warned of a genuine radiation risk to young brains, particularly in children of primary school age.” On the other hand an Ofcom report cited on the World Health Organisation Fact sheet 304, 2006 explains that “Ofcom has performed over 500 measurements around masts, predominantly near schools and hospitals. The highest radiofrequency emission level recorded was 1/279^th of the ICNIRP guidelines.”

Reimer 2006 cites Chelsey that mobile phones have lead to an increased level of spill over between work and home and has noted that this has had negative effects to family life. Interestingly, Reimer went on to describe how the mobile phone is increasing gender inequalities at work as women were more often contacted by children or family than men. Devitt and Roker 2006 find that mobile phones play an important part in family life and allow children to gain independence whilst the parents still have an element of control through the mobile phone. Older children use the mobile phone for a courtesy text/call to worried parents. They also find that the parents prefer to physically hear their child’s voice whereas children prefer to text.

“Developing countries are driving an explosion in global mobile phone use” says Tryhorn 2009 who then carries on to say that from 2002 to 2007 mobile phone usage increased by about 3 billion users, two thirds of which was accounted for by developing countries. Tryhorn compared this to a modest increase of only 0.27 billion using landlines over the same period, suggesting that developing countries are skipping straight to mobile technology. Oxfam 2007 shows that mobile phone coverage in developing countries is still not excellent with mainly the big towns and cities having coverage and that people still may need to rely on a satellite phone, which is more expensive.

VARK Reflection

Visual: 3

My result for the visual learning is quite low and this is understandable. I find I learn from diagrams better if I actually re-draw the diagrams in my own way as this makes use of the Visual and Read/Write learning styles.

Aural: 1

This result is expected. I do find it difficult to learn from listening to someone speaking and need to take notes, visualise and use the information I have gained before I am happy I have learned the information. I find it easier to learn this way if the speaker includes jokes and speaks more personally as this is more memorable for me.

Read/Write: 3

I find it easier to learn by writing as the information does sink in better. When I read I tend to get bored easily and it is a struggle for me to carry on reading. However I find it better if I read then write the information, going over the information twice and not allowing myself to become bored.

Kinesthetic: 7

I was not surprised by this result as i find it much easier to learn things by actually putting knowledge into action and even easier if I can find a relevance to me. The trial and error method works very well for me and as people say, you learn from your mistakes, I have found this rings true throughout my life. I feel this is a slight disadvantage to be mainly a kinesthetic learner as it is probably the hardest one for lecturers to implement in lectures.

Conclusion:

I find the results quite true to life as i do learn best by doing, however if this is not possible i need to use multiple learning styles to help me learn. I need to work on my aural learning skills. I have looked on the VARK website for information on how to implement each learning style and found the information interesting and I shall try to use some of the methods in my study. I found the VARK websites description of a "K" learner frighteningly similar to myself.

SWOT

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Below is my SWOT assessment for the start of University:

Strengths

Having been in industry for three years I have gained skills such as organisation and effective communication, but to a larger degree I have been motivated to do well to improve my career aspects. A big part of my previous career was to learn new skills quickly so I could implement them at work, therefore I know I have the ability to learn and make use of new skills quickly.

Weaknesses

The disadvantages of having been out of education for so long are that skills such as essay writing and study skills have been partially forgotten as they were not used. I am also aware that my spelling is not perfect as this has always been a problem. I feel I may also lack skills for oral presentation.

Opportunities

University will bring opportunities to learn how to use new software and gain new skills in a wide range of areas. It will also open new career paths to a much wider array of careers. Along with the academic side there is also the opportunity to experience independence, living away from home for the first time, and also make new friends.

Threats

The most imminent threat is the Student Loan, having still not been assessed properly it is the most worrying factor at this point. Other threats that will be apparent throughout my time at university include peer pressure to go out and socialise and perhaps put off assignments and general work from university.

Learning Line

1. Primary School




2. Secondary School




3. College




4. Italian Restaurant




5. Driving




6. RWO Marine Equipment Ltd




7. College (IT Support)




8. Web Design




9. Database Design




10. CAD




11. University