Yesterday's class session was the most interactive yet!
As usual, Haridev (Dev) and Glenda showed up 7 AM to test their metal against a bonus quiz. This week, Dev took the pole position in scoring on Bonus Quiz 10. After I gave the class an overview on what's to come in next few weeks, Hunter educated the class on What is an Ethernet Cable? I used the remaining classroom session for the second half of lecture/demonstration 4: Key Excel and Spreadsheet Analysis Concepts which includes my favorite signature walkthrough that engages and challenges students more than before. The closing topic of L4 was my signature decision tree that helps translate one's numbers and calculations into something that the audience find much easier to comprehend.
A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer definitely give students a new opportunity to demonstrate what their Microsoft Excel knowledge and skills. Up until now, students are accustomed to step-by-step instructions and the simulation grading engine of LabSim. The Spreadsheet Analysis portion of A6 allow students to show their individuality while with Trailer takes students from the quantitative to the qualitative!
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Hunter gave us an underneath the hood/cover view to an ethernet cable's connecting ends and different types of ethernet cables. I like his closing slide showing himself working with an ethernet cable doing what it does best: connecting devices and transmitting data.
My 'Household', 'Portfolio', 'Stock', 'Clinic' scenarios placed the nine students in attendance center and front stage in thinking and re-thinking through each scenario to answer the question. Justin, Dev, and Madi, courageously voiced their thinking and re-thinking :-)
Afterwards, I solicited feedbacks from the nine students. Anthony and Madi bravely shared their discomfort with mathematics. I replied: "These scenarios are more logic than mathematics" -- they involve only simple operations such as addition, subtraction, division, and order of operations. When to use a weighted average vs. a straight average, correctly and fully understanding what the question is asking for, do you even have the necessary raw numbers to do the calculation, are all logic in nature, not mathematics or even Microsoft Excel.
Numbers and "mathematics" often intimidate or overwhelm people, especially when presented in large quantity. One way to mitigate that is to use charts and graphs to visually represent the information. But this can also be place where one's logic falters unintentionally or intentionally. The lower right corner image below illustrates the faltering/misleading representation vs. the logical on-point representation.
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Looking beyond IS101 and much into the past, a brilliant piece of creative storytelling always stood out in my mind and have been part of my A6's with Trailer since I laid eyes on it. The context of that brilliance is this: during the 2008 recession, then Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Chancellor James E. Rogers illustrating the importance of what higher education faculty do in defense from looming budget cuts.
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Students,
If you have yet to complete A6 Spreadsheet Analysis with Trailer, be sure to complete it and send it in before commenting on this blog post.
(1) What was your experience in doing the Spreadsheet Analysis portion of A6?
(2) What was your experience in doing the with Trailer portion of A6?
Please watch this 24 min 27 sec video: Pig Butchering Scams: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).
(3) In this video, a bank's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), fell for a social engineering scam and lost more than double what the CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) lost in the article mentioned in my last week's blog post. Have you experienced or seen a social engineering scam? How was it played out?
1) How was your experience with the Spreadsheet Analysis part of A6? The spreadsheet was alright, not extremely difficult but not extremely easy either, so it was a happy medium.
ReplyDelete2) How was your experience with the Trailer portion of A6? It took a bit longer, about an hour or so, to complete that section of the trailer for A6.
3) Have you ever experienced or witnessed a social engineering scam? How did it unfold?
No, I have not, but I've heard about them and they don't seem enjoyable.
(1) I've been catching up with assessments, so reaching this point was a relief. It was a bit of a review and still fresh in my mind. I'm glad, I was able to complete it quickly. The only trouble I'm having with these types of assessments is that they're not Mac OS friendly. I would be able to finish them quickly, but instead, I have to find a specific way to solve the issue. This makes the whole assessment just a burden to finish, because I know if I had something running Windows I'd finish it in half the time.
ReplyDelete(2) When it came to the trailer portion of A6, I felt like it was tedious. Most assessments in this class are honest. I overcomplicate basic tasks all the time, so it definitely took a lot longer than I would've wished for.
(3) Social Engineering is such an interesting scam. I've never fallen into this scam, mainly because I don't really talk to people. Or it's really the other way around, to be honest. However, this method is incredibly easy to do if you have charisma and wit. Totally not speaking from experience, but the amount of information people are willing to share online and in a conversation with someone new is scary cool. All you need is to connect the pieces together and, most security questions are answered, phone numbers provided, emails, etc, not speaking from experience.
(1) The Assignment reinforced the Excel concepts. I found applying them to another project challenging but helped me understand how to use the functions and tools available in Excel. I have problems in understanding what exactly LabSim asks me to do so projects like this I find helpful as it asks me to complete tasks in different ways.
ReplyDelete(2) I found the Trailer portion interesting, and it took me about two hours to formulate gather my data and present my facts in a coherent manner such as the Chancelor did. Must be nice to have a staff of statisticians, researchers, and writers!
(3) Honestly, I was expecting to watch a video on midwestern slaughterhouses, and the shortages of pork tied into a social engineering scam, so this was enlightening. Luckily, I have not experienced a social engineering scam. I have received texts as described in the video and just ignore them as I am suspicious by nature. If I do not recognize the text or email, I ignore and delete them. My rule of thumb is if I did not initiate the contact I do not respond to any communications via email or text messages.
I did witness one involving my cousin. My aunt and uncle were traveling in Africa, and she received an email from an unknown address claiming to be from my aunt stating that my uncle was in hospital recovering from a heart attack. Both had posted photos on Facebook of their travels. My aunt and uncle are in their seventies, so are not tech savvy so the person claimed to be a good Samaritan, helping them out and my aunt needed money wired to an account to pay for the hospital bills. My cousin knew something was wrong with the email and immediately called my aunt’s hotel and left a message, verified no heart attack or hospitalization, and disregarded the email. No money was wired, and all extended family members were notified of suspicious emails, in case the scammers tried again.
(1) What was your experience in doing the Spreadsheet Analysis portion of A6?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was good. Answering A6, provided the choice of open - ended question. Which allow us to answer it based on our understanding.
(2) What was your experience in doing the with Trailer portion of A6?
Its bit time consuming part, but help us to bring up our comparative study analytical skill.
(3) In this video, a bank's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), fell for a social engineering scam and lost more than double what the CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) lost in the article mentioned in my last week's blog post. Have you experienced or seen a social engineering scam? How was it played out? No, I haven't experienced it. But I have heard from my friends and family members, some of them witnessed it.
1) There were times when I wanted to rip my eyeballs out of its socket when doing these kinds of assignments. I personally despise this kind of work but that's just me.
ReplyDelete2) It wasn't bad at all, I personally didn't struggle with it. The video was actually interesting to watch too.
3) As someone who gets many spam calls, I always decline or troll the caller acting like a demented individual and harass them back for my own enjoyment. As for purchasing items online I always check reviews, If I don't see any then I don't bother. Sometimes you have to think like a scammer to not be scammed. I loved the video by the way, certainly an interesting watch.
(1) What was your experience in doing the Spreadsheet Analysis portion of A6? That was cool, I like to work with spreadsheet some times with struggling and when I start it somehow I want to complete it. I think I did it well.
ReplyDelete(2) What was your experience in doing the with Trailer portion of A6? For me it took more time to complete that part.
(3) Have you experienced or seen a social engineering scam? How was it played out? No, I haven’t.
1) I liked how it was accumulative of the things we learned in LabSim and the Fun with Functions while also making me feel like it was my own project.
ReplyDelete2) It took a lot of time coming up with a solid response to the MMA figher, but I think I did well. I enjoyed reading the Memorandum too.
3) I've never personally experienced common social engineering scams, I just know of stories found across social media
1) Initially, I found A6 to be easy and straightforward, as I was confident in my computational skills. However, during last Saturday's review, I discovered that my graph was incorrect. This means that even though my answers on the table chart were technically correct, presenting a wrong graph renders both aspects incorrect. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed working on that Excel spreadsheet.
ReplyDelete2) I find the trailer portion much easier.
3) When I first arrived in Las Vegas, I nearly fell victim to a scam. I was searching for a rental house and entered my information on Redfin Website because I found a suitable option within my budget. Two days later, I received an email and text from someone claiming to be the owner of the house. They were trying to convince me that they offer the best price since he is the owner of the house, which raised suspicion in me because he is very persistent. Upon verifying with my realtor, we discovered that the house was already occupied and not available for rent. Fortunately, I didn't fall into their trap.
1. I found it quite fascinating; I have a fondness for tinkering with spreadsheets, although I admit it can be a bit challenging at times. Once I get started, though, I'm determined to see it through to the end. I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out.
ReplyDelete2. Personally, I found it to be quite time-consuming. Integrating trailers into the project added an extra layer of complexity that required a significant investment of time and effort to get right. Nonetheless, I persevered and managed to complete it.
3. I can't say that i have
My experience with the spreadsheet was pretty easy. I fell behind on my assignments so doing this when everything was fresh in my mind was a relief. After I understood what it was asking me to do, it did not take long for me to complete it.
ReplyDeleteThe trailer portion was about the same as the first. It did take more time, but the video was interesting and I did not struggle with it.
I have never fallen into a social engineering scheme. When I got my first cell phone there was a scam where if you answered a phone call from a certain number they could hack into your phone and blackmail you, making you do crazy tasks. Because I have a horrible memory and could never remember the number I have always stayed away from answering numbers I do not recognize. I immediately delta texts and calls from random numbers out of the fear of this list that was going around.
A) Similar to the Previous two assignments, at first glance, the assignment seemed a bit confusing. Once I read the requirements and looked through the assignment, things slowly started to click. I found it easier than the previous two, the only downside was that I was unsure if the changes I made were correct like in Fun with Functions. I appreciated it though because it felt like a real word experience with minimal instructions.
ReplyDeleteB) I did not like that I had to do additional research to complete that part of the assignment and writing in that style was not pleasing. I guess I do not like that specific method of rebutting someone’s point.
C) Yes, I was the victim of a real scam. Many moons ago, I was withdrawing some money from an ATM. An individual approached me to help them cash a check and they would give me some money for my troubles. Their check was for 500 dollars. He got the money, but the check never cleared. I was crushed hahahaha. The first time I truly lost a bit of faith in humanity.
1) I found the spreadsheet section to be not too difficult at the time. It seems to be pretty simple with lots of depth to go into if you are willing to sink your teeth into it.
ReplyDelete2) I didn't end up completing the trailer section when i sent in my A6 but it looked to be a interesting writing assignment. It is not preferred way to counter a argument but i get the idea.
3) I personally haven't been a victim of Social Engineering but i do understand how easy it is to fall into it as people can often fall for very obvious things or see something designed to trick them and not think much about it.
1) It wasn't too difficult but I did struggle because I felt the instructions were too broad and most likely I would overthink it and do it wrong.
ReplyDelete2) That portion was a bit hard for me since I wasn't sure how to defend a position using the same technique.
3) I have not been a victim of social engineering but my mother-in-law was tricked by a scammer through the phone they claimed to be the bank and she gave them her social security number fortunately my mother-in-law is broke with bad credit so nothing came up.
1) How was your experience with the Spreadsheet Analysis part of A6? To be honest it was okay. It wasn't too fun but at the same time it wasn't boring. There were times were I struggled with it, but in the end I worked it out.
ReplyDelete2) How was your experience with the Trailer portion of A6? It was alright, it was probably the most difficult portion of A6. This is because I did not know exactly on how to go against him. However I just used his own words against him, and did pretty well.
3) Have you ever experienced or witnessed a social engineering scam? How did it unfold?
I do not think I have been a part of a social engineering scam so I dont know how it unfolded.