Eliza Morse

Reflection Paper Assignment

EDT 180 A
April 22, 2019

1. Demonstrate electronic information management habits (e.g. backing up files, organizing

files in a logical fashion, transferring files to various storage areas, etc.).

My initial goal for this course was to absorb as much information as I could, as I tend to be

confused about technology and how to effectively use it. I realized the first thing that would help

me succeed in this course would be to stay organized and keep all assignments within the same

place. By creating a folder on my desktop, I was able to easily access all the projects without

needing to search through all the documents saved to my computer. I was able to apply this to

another course that had multiple drafts of each project and labeled each project to help me easily

identify what I needed. This skill has saved me time and is something that I will use in the future

to keep me organized.

2. Demonstrate your ability to use computer applications for productivity, data analysis, and

problem Solving.

The final research project brought together a few of the applications that we learned about

throughout the course and I feel as though I was able to effectively use those which made the

project easier to manage. Excel was the main application that I felt like I successfully used in the

project as I pushed myself to understand new formulas and organizational tools to make the data

analysis more comprehensive. The formulas that I used show how I was able to read data from a

survey, turn it into a set of numerical data, and answer the question that I was asking. This was

the basis of the entire project and without an accurate analysis of the data the project would’ve

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Eliza Morse
Reflection Paper Assignment
EDT 180 A
April 22, 2019

been all wrong. Using Excel effectively made me feel more confident in my abilities to use the

application in other areas outside of the course.

3. Describe key terms and concepts associated with computers and software applications.

I knew that I would not be able to successfully understand each concept and application if I

could not describe its use and what it is best at helping the user with. The five key applications

we learned were Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Photoshop, however, I learned the

most about Word, Excel, and Publisher. I describe Word as a word processing program that

allows users to easily format and save documents. It includes the basic tools such as spelling and

grammar checks and word count, however, there are many features that I was unaware of that

have helped me become a more proficient user. One example of this would be being able to

replace all instances of a word or phrase in the entire document at once. Excel is a spreadsheet

program that gives businesses and personal users a platform to display and organize their data.

This spreadsheet platform allows its users to bring large quantities of data together and includes

helpful features for analyzation such as formatting, formulas, and charts. Excel was the

application that I was most nervous to learn about as I knew it was important to have a good

understanding of technology in order to use it correctly. After using Excel in many different

projects, I feel much more comfortable with the application and have been able to use it to

organize the grades and study hours of over 30 girls within my sorority. Publisher is an

application that I was unaware of, however, after using it I would describe it as a program that

emphasizes layout and design rather than word processing. This tool in uniquely helpful in

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Eliza Morse
Reflection Paper Assignment
EDT 180 A
April 22, 2019

making publications such as brochures, business cards, and resumes. The program is filled with

templates to make it easier to start and organize the publication and is great for those who have

little experience with design. This program is a tool that I will use outside of class for many

projects as there are many things that are easier to begin if there is a template. I was able to use

Publisher to create a professional resume, first as a project for the class, but I then used it to

apply to employment opportunities.

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