My Learning and Work Experience - Essay Example

Through all these activities I learned managerial skills at a professional level. Then I used all this knowledge to improve our information systems at the school level. Specifically, I applied my new skills to protect confidential information from external users. Through the implementation of a maintenance plan, the school saved time and money in a consistent manner. My critical thinking has been enhanced throughout my time as a network administrator because of the nature of the job. In computer systems, everything is dynamic. Problems happen every minute, and always happen in different ways requiring different ways of fixing them. Critical thinking skills were essential in making decisions quickly while efficiently and economically using the resources available. I consider my more developed critical thinking skills as my most important everyday tool. For instance, imagine that somebody purchased a new printer for a thousand dollars; of course, all the ink cartridges are new, including all color inks. However, when the person tries to print a test page, there is just black ink on the page. For me, this is a simple problem because I can quickly and logically identify a basic driver conflict. I always use critical thinking to isolate and fix problems in a logical way. There is an idea in philosophy that states that something cannot come from nothing. In my case, I have learned many things working as a network administrator, but one of the most important things that I have learned is how to conduct research. For example, in my daily activities I need to identify, diagnose, and correct problems affecting the local area network. Sometimes problems are extremely difficult to detect, but I have enough experience to find many network issue in minutes. For instance, in the school system, children like to play with everything. One day, my network stopped abruptly. Using my research techniques I found that one of the students decided to connect a wireless router into my network, and this created conflicts with internal users. The end result was that nobody could access the Internet and internal servers. I am positive that through the execution of my job assignments such as this incident, I have enhanced my research skills. Creativity is another essential tool I’ve developed through my work experience, particular during the period in which I served as microsystems technician. In 1996, I went to training in computer hardware, in which I leaned many concepts and expanded my creativity. This was a training course provided at Florida Computer and Business School, but the implementation of this knowledge took place at Everglades K-8 Center. I applied and improved my creativity through the design of local area networks, and the implementation of a proprietary wireless network. In addition, my creativity was expanded during the implementation of dedicated software for classrooms, and the development of databases in Microsoft Access. Also, my creativity skills were improved during the design of the school webpage, especially in the section of technologies. In this section, I developed a remote access support system which is still in use. This is a remote global system that can reach a computer in any place in the world, but necessarily requires only minimal assistance on the client side. This is not a program, but rather a product of my creativity combined with ideas submitted from other engineers in the computer field. In 2004, my actual school principal promoted me to the position of computer specialist. This position is one step above the microsystems technician. My managerial skills have been of primary importance in this position. While my basic duties remain those of a network administrator, I have also been given some enormous responsibilities over and above my former duties. In addition, the school principal assigned me the responsibility of keeping the records of school property. This means that I have a great deal of confidential information to protect related to property control. My managerial skills have been consistently improved as a means of meeting these responsibilities. In particular, I have learned what and when to provide instructions to co-workers, as for example, new computer technicians, new teachers, and new students and when it’s appropriate to allow them to work out issues on their own. Also, I have expanded my managerial skills using managements systems, planning tools, and sophisticated help desks support systems. All of these systems have been implemented by me at the school level network. During this period as a computer specialist, interpersonal relations have also played an important role. The key in this issue is how interested we are to assist other people. When we remain egocentric, no longer willing to share our knowledge, then our intelligence remains very shallow and mundane. By expanding our abilities to work with others, our intelligence can transcend the mundane and find new ways of approaching problems. As a specialist in the field I have continued to enhance my interpersonal skills. I enjoy listening to and helping other people, especially the students who are eager to learn. I have learned to be a more collaborative and more humanitarian person. I believe that the best thing I can do is to assist people in whatever way I am capable. I always apply my interpersonal relations experience when I am providing assistance to teachers, students and staff at my job location. Critical thinking has obviously remained one of the necessary skills needed to carry out my job responsibilities. In a school system, there is no way to survive without having developed critical thinking skills. In my daily activities as a computer specialist, I troubleshoot computers, switches, routers and other computerized equipments. I also work troubleshooting network problems. Mostly, I am able to use my personal experience to fix many problems, saving time and money. Sometimes, when the issue is really complex, I use software utilities and special tools. These skills have been enhanced through training. In 2005, I participated in two training courses related to microcomputer networks. Those training sessions aided me in improving my critical thinking and management skills. Also, I received training regarding the use of online applications. This training enhanced my managerial skills, and I used the learned concepts to assist teachers and staff at Everglades K-8. As a result of this type of training and experience, I am also able to provide advice to other teachers, technicians, and students. In addition, I use my critical thinking in generating new reports to predict future problems. Furthermore, in programming, I used my critical thinking skills when developing a new interface, in which I attached some Glencoe programs in a friendly manner. Those programs were sectioned on thirty CD ROMs, and I encapsulated them in a virtual disk. Then, through a software interface, the students were able to access those programs in an easy manner. This project was in collaboration with other coworker at Everglades K-8 Center. No less important to my position is the topic of investigation and research. A network environment always requires investigation about new tools and programs .Working as a computer specialist, it is necessary to use various software utilities and special tools in order to implement the newest programs and security precautions. One of my responsibilities is to identify, diagnose and correct problems affecting the local area network. This process requires doing a great deal of research to collect the appropriate information. Those data could be crucial to troubleshoot specific network problems. In conclusion, as a network administrator I have learned how to conduct professional research and apply this information to repair network problems. Creativity is very necessary in the computer and networking field. Under the pressure of economic problems, I believe that I have improved my creative skills. My school principal always avoids spending any money on new projects. She prefers to refurbish or pay for repairs instead of making purchases of new and expensive devices. I believe that she is right in some ways. One of my job responsibilities is keeping maintenance and warranty records on all equipment. Another is maintaining a dynamic inventory of computers. These assignments are impossible to achieve without a good database. Some time ago, I requested a computer system and a new version of Microsoft Access in order to create the necessary database. My principal instantaneously refused my idea. Then, I implemented an online database using a freeware program named Spacewalk. To implement this project, I also used an obsolete computer running a free version of Linux. Thus, I was able to implement my plan without incurring additional expense. Another example of creativity on the job occurred when about twenty teachers were unable to take attendance because they did not have Internet access. This difficulty was experienced in about six portable buildings that serve as classrooms for the school. The price of the project was about thirty seven thousand dollars through an outside vendor. I fixed the crisis in four hours. I used a Linksys access point in bridge mode as a repeater. I attached it in a virtual manner to another four Linksys. I finally connected the repeater to my router, and using their manufacturer antennas, they can reach the signal. The only problem was that the antenna of the repeater had to be extended with a coaxial cable and a small adapter which I made from an older connector. The total price of my project was four hundred dollars, and this wireless system is still used by teachers and students at Everglades K-8 Center. I understand that synthesizing my experiential learning in thirteen pages is somewhat impossible. Therefore, I will sum up the majority of my on-the-job experience as it was developed at Dade County Public Schools. This was developed first while I was working as a microsystems technician and later when I was working as a computer specialist. Through these two jobs, I have improved my managerial skills, my interpersonal skulls and my supervision skills. Therefore, based on the information that I have released, I would like to allocate 40% of the credit granted to the area of General Administration. My job at Amertec Granada increased my critical thinking, my creativity and my interpersonal relations skills. Even though this job was not important to the greater operations, it was important for me because it served as the starting point or basement for future learning. At Amertec Granada I largely improved my interpersonal skills and my creativity. This is why I would like to allocate 20% of the credit granted to the area of Communication. Finally, through the different jobs I’ve held from 1991 to 2008, I have gained a large bank of knowledge that remains in direct connection to my daily activities. For example, I have learned valuable and time/money saving concepts from my jobs as security officer, microsystems technician, and computer specialist in addition to being a finish room sander. All of those jobs have helped to make me a more cultured, well-rounded person. Read More