Week 2: Report and Reflection

In 5-10 years, I hope to be well established withing my career. Considering I am an accounting student, I hope to obtain me CPA certification as well as practice accounting by running my own firm. I envision myself as being a confident leader, and applying all the skills and concepts that I have learned throughout the years to my own company. I will use the various forms of learning through work experience and academic learning through my studies to not only better myself as a professional, but also as a person. The environment I currently learn in is the perfect environment for me. While I am at school, I am surrounded with many friends who provide a great support system. Also, there are many facilities and professors who making learning extremely easy. While on co-op, the learning environment allows for me to try new things and explore different concepts within accounting that they don't teach in school. Living in today's society, many students develop bad habits. A habit that I hope to get rid of is procrastination. My generation specifically has become lazy. We like to leave things to the last minute. In order to improve my learning environment, I must stay on top of my work, and become more proactive when being faced with new challenges.

Currently, I am a third year accounting co-op student at Brock University. I am now on my third co-op term, working for an accounting firm in downtown Toronto called Monte-Lisi & Smith Chartered Accountants. I know what I would like to do after graduation, and I won't let anything stop me from my aspirations. The basic skills needed in order to be successful in the accounting professions are organization, analytics, and time management. My skills are constantly being improved everyday through my work experiences, and through the theory that is taught in school. I look forward to the new challenges that my path to my career goals present to me.

Yousif, Z. (CC) 2015.

In my PLE, I chose four categories: Organizing, Collaborating, Connecting, and Creating. These four categories are personally important to me as I think they will really improve my career aspirations. In order to be organized, characteristics such as time management, note taking, and prioritizing are extremely important. In order to be a successful accountant and business owner, these are basic skills needed in order to stay on top of your work, and keep clients happy. Collaborating is something I'd like to do within my personal life. Team work is important to me because, I love to play team sports. I love the comradery of the game of basketball, and I always consider my teammates like my brothers. Communication is the basis of collaborating. Without it, there is no way we can collaborate successfully. Team chemistry also relates to team work. In order to be successful withing a team, chemistry is needed to help the balance of the team. Connecting with people is another category important to me. I have made so many friends over the years through different jobs and schools. Using the various different medias in order to keep in touch and connect is something that I cherish. Finally, one thing we should all strive for is to create. Creating allows for the brain to work, for us to grow and improve our everyday lives. Things that help is create is reflection, innovation, and invention.

Yousif, Z. (CC) 2015.

Thanks for reading,

-ZY

Week 1: Report and Reflection

I have really learned a lot from the week 1 reading, which was about the advantages and disadvantages of a digital footprint. Through my readings, it doesnt seem as easy as it looks to generate a great digital footprint. Although it may not seem like a big deal, digital footprints follow you for the rest of your life, and they can really open and close many doors for you as we begin to pursue or careers. The generaliztions about the internet can really hurt individuals in their everyday lives. People seem to believe that once something is deleted off of the internet, it is gone forever. However, this is not the case (Ribble 2011). Ribble sets out many “Nettiquette” standards for us to use as protocols when we are olnline. In order to have a good Netiquette, we must know how to use our technology appropriately and not take advantage or abuse it. Poor Netiquette inevitably leads you to have a negative digital footprint, which is what will be the cause of all the “closed doors” that I have mentioned earlier. There have been many cases where great candidates have been rejected when applying to jobs, this has been because the employers have found and/or seen their negative digital footprints.

One other thing that stood out to me was the teacher student blogs (Shareski 2008). I feel as though this is an extremely useful tool since it becomes that much easier to build relationships with not only your classmates, but also your instructor. You begin to build a relationship more than just the academics or the contents of a course. You become open to sharing personal ideas and thoughts, which is what creates great friendships. I really appreciate the opportunity I have with this course to be able to read and learn about my classmates’ thoughts, feelings, and opinions on our course content.

I took the Digital Driver’s License exam from the textbook, I scored 16/20. After reflecting on what I had read and been “tested” on, I’ve realized that I really need to work on the “Digital Access” sector of digital citizenship. From here on out, I’ll do my best to participate full within the electronic world and connect and interact with not only my classmates, but even other people online. By doing so, I will be able to learn the real value behind digital access. I look forward to pursuing this challenge, and I’ll make sure to keep you all updated!

Thanks for reading!

-ZY

ADED 1P32 Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Zaed Yousif, and I'm currently a third year student at Brock University. I am currently taking an online course here at Brock, called ADED 1P32. This course teaches us how to be proper digital citizens, whether we're just browsing the web or using applications such as Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook

An individual's "digital footprint" says a lot about who the individual is. Furthermore, employers look upon the digital footprint of their potential employees and most of the time, that is the candidate's first impression on the employer. Therefore, I wish to learn to make my digital footprint as professional as possible, as this is a skill that I would be able to use in the professional world as well as throughout my time here at Brock.

As an accounting student, this course is definitely different from the usual courses that I am required to take as part of my program, but I look forward to a different learning experience and also to communicate my thoughts and ideas through different media!

Thanks for reading!

-ZY