DIT/DSE Semester 4 and 5 ~ July 2009

Salam. This is me. And these are my dear students. They belong to DIT and DSE semester 4 and 5. I'm currently teaching Web Programming and Human Computer Interaction for their group. Very young indeed! And very naughty as well! In order to capture their attention in class, I need to be very patient. It really challenge me as they're very talkative and stubborn. However, I enjoyed my time with them.

My Children, My Life

My children, my life
Revolving around and around
Spinning and turning
Looking
Lost and found
Mommy, mommy, mommy
Unbearable and bound

One, two, three
Four, five rebelling
Crying and fighting
Screaming and yelling
My children. My life

Silence!
Peace of mind
Ears stunned
Quiet
Oh so kind
Stillness unwind
Misplaced
My children, my life

Mom, mom, mom
Joy and laughter
Running and playing
Singing and dancing
Swinging and swaying
Parading and prancing
My children, my life

Inspiring me, Teaching me
Accepting me, cherishing me
Loving me
Unconditionally
My children, my life

My World is dear
Waking in this atmosphere
Sunny skies
Three hundred and sixty five days
Winner of the prize
Smiling and grinning
Top of the inning
Shouting and screaming
I love
My children, my life


By, Ebony L Rhinehart

Introduction to Human Computer Interaction

Dear students, please take note of the following summary:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human%E2%80%93computer_interaction

Human Computer Interaction

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is the study of interaction between people (users) and computers. It is often regarded as the intersection of computer science, behavioral sciences, design and several other fields of study. Interaction between users and computers occurs at the user interface (or simply interface), which includes both software and hardware, for example, general-purpose computer peripherals and large-scale mechanical systems, such as aircraft and power plants.

The Association for Computing Machinery defines human-computer interaction as "a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them."

Because human-computer interaction studies a human and a machine in conjunction, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and human performance are relevant. Engineering and design methods are also relevant. HCI is also sometimes referred to as man–machine interaction (MMI) or computer–human interaction (CHI).

Goals

A basic goal of HCI is to improve the interactions between users and computers by making computers more usable and receptive to the user's needs. Specifically, HCI is concerned with:

• methodologies and processes for designing interfaces (i.e., given a task and a class of users, design the best possible interface within given constraints, optimizing for a desired property such as learning ability or efficiency of use)
• methods for implementing interfaces (e.g. software toolkits and libraries; efficient algorithms)
• techniques for evaluating and comparing interfaces
• developing new interfaces and interaction techniques
• developing descriptive and predictive models and theories of interaction

A long term goal of HCI is to design systems that minimize the barrier between the human's cognitive model of what they want to accomplish and the computer's understanding of the user's task.

Professional practitioners in HCI are usually designers concerned with the practical application of design methodologies to real-world problems. Their work often revolves around designing graphical user interfaces and web interfaces.