Author: teddixon3333

To Sleep or not to Sleep

As our adventure continues into our professional interventions, groups have begun designing their TedTalks. My TedTalk will be the best, only because my name is actually Ted. Hehe. Anyway our group is doing a talk on sleep. Mainly hitting on the effects of having sleep vs. lack of sleep.

We bring up the history of sleep. Specifically the fact that it has always happened. Sleep is vital. It affects ones memory processing. Here is a common example of sleep and memory processing. Say, I have a test in three days. How should I go about cramming for this. Right answer: study during the day for the two days before and get close to eight hours of sleep at night. Wrong answer: Stay up all night the night before and just study all the way into the test. This is wrong because scientific studies have shown that no sleep kills your memory, so essentially all that studying you did would be wasted because your brain wouldn’t be able to remember it due to lack of sleep.

We also emphasize the fact that sleep is essential to restoration. Without sleep, one’s immune system would be weaker than a toothpick. Not only does sleep help your memory, but it also helps you stay healthy. It seems as though sleep is impulsive to staying on top of classes here at tech. So why do so many people go without it here? Is it effective? We still have to investigate that side of the story.

I have attached the rough introduction of our TedTalk, please let us know what you think.


Hand Made Card

The Empathy section of Dan Pink’s section stood out to me, as expected. Post-discussion of Joan Halifax’s TedTalk I kinda had a feeling this section would.

Reading the section not only stood out to me but I actually had fun doing the exercise for once. I made a home made card for my big brother in my fraternity. He’s helped me a lot during pledge-ship. While at first I thought of it as childish, I later thought about the emotions I have had and truly how much he has meant to me throughout this period.

I inserted a shot of the cover, obviously my artistic skills are lacking, but that is not what matters. I truly do need to thank my big brother for all he has done. I will likely hand him the card at sometime this week, well maybe not, but I will thank him at some point this week. I will later post his reaction.


Dear Self…

Self, you have got some work to do. I blame it on Dan Pink. After reading his section “Meaning” in A Whole New Mind, I have thought much about myself, and everything I have done up to this point. As I’m sitting in the study room (rudely interrupted by these guys talking about their facebooks and Justin Bieber…I’m somewhat worried), I have reflected on points in my life and how I could make it more meaningful.

I performed the “But Out” exercise at the end of the section. Honestly I overlooked the exercise initially simply because I did not expect if I believe in the exercise’s intended results being realistic. Regardless of my doubts, I have looked back on myself and moments in my life that could have made it more meaningful. Some of my more important thoughts are posted below.

I’d like to spend more time with my family but I am always busy with school work.

I’d like to spend more time with the people on my residence hall but I am constantly busy with my fraternity.

I’d like to have a more meaningful relationship with God, but I rarely agree with the college’s priest.

I then replaced each “but” with “and”. As Pink predicted I entered problem solving mode. I saw each problem at it’s core state and I came up with solutions.

1) Schedule lunches with just my family members. My family lives in Dunwoody, I can make the fifteen minute trip back for a night without a problem.

2) Like before, I can designate time to the people in my hall for meals.

3) I can make the trip to another church off campus. Both my siblings attend Georgia Tech and agree that our current priest is not our style, so we can make trips elsewhere.

I’d like to thank Daniel Pink, and everyone who has told me that time management is essential at Tech. It’s true.

 

 

 


Storytime

The Daniel pink section “story” is probably my favorite section so far. The section stood out to me mainly because I personally think its the most fun. Another thing that stood  out to me in this section was its universal application. Stories truly are more than just “stories”, and Daniel Pink provides great evidence for this.

I loved the section because Stories have always had a deep emotional connection to me. I love a good story, whether its about you or your cousin or your grandpa’s dog, I will most likely enjoy it. Stories have always meant this much I do. Much of my clearest, and oldest memories consist of my mother or father reading me a story, or watching any show with my friends (most likely Blue’s Clues), I truly always have been a sucker for stories.

In the  the section Pink mentions the amount of stories you probably hear overtime. It’s overwhelming, and it truly does apply. Just today as I walked around CULC I heard people talking about their weekends. Everyday when I come home from classes I always have a story, and so do the rest of the people in my dorm hall. Storytime is an everyliving and universal activity. I experienced it when I completed one of the activities: Interview a friend.

After I completed the interview I realized the activity’s application to the section. I listened to the recording and found that in my interview with my good friend Matt Faenza I ask relatively simple life questions, and short stories were often shared between us. This occurred by coincidence. The sound link is posted below to a youtube video, I couldn’t figure out how to add just the audio, sorry!

Another thing that stood out in this section was Pink’s analyzation and evidence of the application of Story in business, and Medicine. Before I read the section I had no idea of the importance of story. When put in two perspectives of business: 1) The advantage of a story will help you stand out from others. 2) The essential stories within the economy, and how people are successful. Successful medical practice relies on stories. Much of what we know it the medical field is based of hiSTORY. Without knowledge of these stories, doctors wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between strep throat and brain cancer.

These points that Daniel Pink mentions really stood out to me. I enjoyed this section and am beginning to understand the book more clearly.

 


Test Interview Questions!

So I have decided as a practice-interview I will interview a third year IT concentrated management major, Ronnie Andris. Ronnie is a brother in the fraternity I am currently pledging and has an internship with Home-Depot.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

1) What were you expecting to get out of this concentration?
1a) Have your expectations been met? And why not?

2) Is there anything you regret about being IT?
2a) What would you do to improve the IT program?

3) How is your internship?
3a) Do you have a favorite aspect of your internship?
3b) Do you have a least favorite aspect?

4) Did you ever consider other majors before IT management?
4a) If so what?

5) Are you pursuing a minor or planning on it?
5a) What minor?
5b) Why?

In my final interview I will have more questions to ask, but I believe a test run with these questions will be extremely helpful.


Why Information Technology?

When you ask a student at Georgia Tech what they are studying what do you expect to hear? Probably any form of engineering right? I, however, am a rare breed here at Tech I am a business major. I have always wanted to be a business major since I met my Uncle Ken and grandfather. They were both business graduates from the Warton School of business. Both were extremely successful economists that have modeled me into a future business man.

My concentration is Information Technology. This concentration in the management school often comes with a minor in Computer Science or Industrial design. For this reason, I have researched people and Tech grads working in all three of these fields. The first of which is involved with Apple.

Scott Forstall is the Vice President of iPhone software at Apple. He studied computer science at Stanford University and plays a key role in Apple’s iPhone production. He is responsible for the software for the iPhone and user applications as well as the phone’s operating system. I would love to be involved in anything relative to this once I graduate from Tech.

The next two influential people on mainly my concentration choice are more personal. Clayton Burnett and Alex Saltiel are both brothers in the fraternity I joined, seeing them work with their majors prompted me towards the information technology concentration.

Clayton Burnett is an industrial design major and a graduate my high school. Over the past few years we have always chatted about his major and what it involves. He designs furniture and common fixtures in houses and buildings around Tech. Often his work involves business majors. I would love to be involved with Industrial design and because of Clayton. Though I cannot minor in industrial design, it is something I would love to work with.

Alex Saltiel is a Computer Science major here at Tech. He is the reason I am considering a computer science major. While coding is no fun at all, Alex consistently has job interviews and offers. This is a major reason that I am considering a computer science minor, I have always been a sucker for money and CS is where the money is.

These people have been major influences on my major and concentration choice. I come from a family of engineers and doctors, but these two have always kept me interested in business, simply because they proved there are no boundaries in business. Steve Forstall, Clayton Burnett and Alex Saltiel have helped me choice my intended concentration. I’ve decided I would be happier doing something involving more than just business. Computer Science is a definite potential minor for my future. These people have provided a great base and idea of my future.


Georgia Tech: The Enginee…no, The Business School

Georgia Tech; the top engineering school in the southeast, better yet, the fourth best engineering school in the nation. The College of Engineering at Georgia Tech is no doubt the most prestigious school in the entire university, but what about the other schools? Sadly, these schools get thrown under the bus the majority of the time. As a business major here at Georgia Tech and a student in the college of management, my dream is to help make the College of Management’s name stronger. When people look at Georgia Tech they see an engineering school, however, there is much more than that.

A lot of the time people look over the college of Management, which, by the way, is ranked twenty eighth in the nation. The Management school is not so shabby my friends, with a $53,000 median salary for graduates in their first year of work and 92 percent of their graduates employed within their first year out of college, who is complaining? Unfortunately, statistics like these go unrecognized when people look at this school.

One negative of this applies to college applicants. High school seniors looking for a business school are really missing out by overlooking Tech. My dream would be to push the name for the College of management in any form. I finally found out about the College of Management’s achievements when I came for a tour, for some high school students, finding out then may be too late, or may never occur. A solution to this is including the College of Management in college fairs, or having presentations from current students to high school seniors in the area. I believe that this would not only benefit Georgia Tech, but high school seniors as well.

My dream of leaving my mark on the College of Management also involves my work after graduation. My professional aspirations after Georgia Tech, though I am in the Management school, involve technology. My planned concentration at Tech is Information Technology. This concentration requires engineering courses as well as management courses. My aspirations, while unsure, involve working with any well-known business. Recently I heard from a brother at my fraternity that he had received an internship with Arthur Blank and Home Depot. I would absolutely love being involved in work like this, and I aspire to do so when I graduate.

I have considered my aspirations to come while attending Georgia Tech as well as what I would like to do after graduation. I want to leave my own mark on Georgia Tech. Personally as a Business major I am sick of always hearing about how great the engineering program is and would love to spread the word on the College of Management. Post-graduation I aspire to be managing large informative technology businesses. With much work, I believe both of these dreams are possible and more importantly will have positive effects on Georgia Tech.


Finish Line in Sight!

Our first English project of the semester is almost complete! Our group has decided to make a game board and here is the most recent update!

So far…

Our group has finished the game board. Me and Quinn designed it and drew up a hard copy first and then Murtaza designed it on the computer using adobe or another computer program intended for visual design. Anyway, we have decided to use photo paper for quality. When we printed it on normal paper it did not look as nice, therefore, we used firm glossy photo paper. I am in the process of completely finishing the game cards now. We have a total of 75, but we only used 50 for our test rounds. We are using green colored font to make it more visually attractive and are also printing the cards on photo paper as well. Here is a shot of the board as well as a few of the game cards.

Photo by Quinn Campbell

Test Run

We ran a few test trials with participants in CULC. People seemed to enjoy the game. We took a couple pictures of people playing and asked one group to help us make a “how to” video. We created a slide show from the pictures, and a video with their help (and a rented Flip Video Camera from the library). Here is the video And the Presentation is attached below. Video by Ted Dixon, Quinn Campbell, John Rhinehart and Murtaza Husain.

Presentation1 Photos by Quinn Campbell


Latest News on “Outside the Box”

We have made much progress on our Invention Mob Project over the last weeks. With multiple facebook posts, tweets on twitter, and blog posts we have communicated our need for outside help; specifically the donation of random object ideas. We have received multiple replies and are putting them to use. These replies will be printed onto photo paper and used for game cards

We started our game board and it is looking great, the process is hard getting the right scale to print from, and photo paper is expensive, but it is worth what we’ve got so far. Also, our instructions have been finalized they are as follows

- Make 3 or 4 groups consisting of 1-3 people each

- Each round consists of picking 3 objects off the top of the deck

- Groups collaborate to come up with a unique scenario/use of the objects

- The winner of the previous round is the judge of the next round or can pass off to another player to be judge

- Groups must win 6 rounds in order the think your way out of the box

These are the instructions as of now. A picture of the pamphlet of instructions is attached.

We have also printed multiple game cards and finished their box. At first we looked for pictures of the objects people gave us but the citations and searches took too much time. Instead we just typed the word onto a nice card.  A photo of these is posted with the instruction pamphlet.

Photo Taken by John Rhinehart


I WANT YOU…to post a random object!

Quinn, John, Murtaza and myself are embarking on an adventure…and we need your help! We would like you to post any object, your favorite childhood toy, your favorite toy now, something in your closet, really anything! We are constructing a game that requires objects for the game cards and we would like to include you! Please comment with any idea! Thank you!

^ Above was our original idea of coming up with ideas for getting objects to construct the game cards. Evidently, it was unsuccessful (see comments below, actually, see no comments below….exactly). Murtaza and myself posted the same posts on Facebook and had more success. People posted their ideas there as well as in response to my twitter post. However, neither of these methods were the most successful ways of getting random objects.

In need of objects, I went around Field Hall asking people for their help. I asked people any question to get a random object from them. Example: What was your favorite childhood toy? I did this in my residence hall as well as my lecture and recitation classes. Finally we got enough ideas and began making our game cards! The development of the rest of the project came along too.

One setback we experienced with the game cards was not being able to add pictures on the card. Initially we wanted to add a picture of the object on the card as well as the name of the object, but we could not, mainly because the required citation. We planned on making a lot of cards, so all of those citations would have been a real pain. Instead we just put the name of the object.