Week 6

This page is under construction.

This journal entry is due on Thursday, February 22, at 12:01am Pacific time.

Overview

The purpose of this assignment is:

• To become familiar with a relational database using the Microsoft Access software
• To manage files in the Windows operating system

Individual Journal Assignment

• Store this journal entry as "username Week 6" (i.e., this is the text to place between the square brackets when you link to this page).
• Invoke your personal template that you created for the Week 1 Assignment on your individual journal entry page. Your template should provide the following set of navigation links:
  • Link to your user page.
  • Links to the weekly Assignment pages.
  • Links to your weekly Individual Journal entry pages.
  • Links to the weekly Class Journal pages.
  • The category "Journal Entry".

Homework Partners

You will work in groups of two for this week's assignment. Please sit next to your partner in class. You will be expected to consult with your partner, in order to complete the assignment. However, unless otherwise stated, each partner must submit his or her own work as the individual journal entry (direct copies of each other's work is not allowed). Homework partners for this week are:

• Hailey & Charlotte
• Katie & Natalija
• Dean & Andrew

LinkedIn Learning Tutorial for Microsoft Access

LMU provides free access to LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com). You will take advantage of this resource by completing the tutorial for learning Microsoft Access, the database software we will use in this class.

• To access the LinkedIn Learning tutorial, do the following:
  • Go to LinkedIn Learning portal.
  • Enter your LMU lion email address, and click continue
  • You will be prompted to enter your LMU username and password on an LMU Authentication page.
• Complete the course called Learning Access for Office 365 by Adam Wilbert. It is 1 hour and 7 minutes long. Be sure that you are selecting the right course because there are several for Microsoft Access. It is best if you follow along doing the exercises. The files needed are downloadable from the tutorial.
  • We will have time in class on Tuesday, February 20 to work on this, but you are welcome to get started before that.
    • Please bring headphones/ear buds to class on Tuesday, if possible so that you can listen to the tutorial video at your own pace.
  • Microsoft Access is not available on computers running MacOS. It is available on the Windows computers in Seaver 120. There are also 22 computers running Windows in the Hannon Libray Information Commons that have Microsoft Access installed.
• When you are finished, download the certificate of completion, upload it to this wiki and link to it on your individual journal page.
  • Be sure to change the filename so that it is specific to you (e.g., add your last name or username to the filename) because there will be 6 of you uploading similar files.
  • Also, be sure to use the syntax [[Media:filename | visible label]] to create the link, not [[File:filename]].

Preliminary Tasks

Turning on File Extensions in Windows 10

• The Windows 10 operating systems defaults to hiding file extensions. To turn them back on, do the following:
  
  1. Go to the Search menu (circle icon) "File Explorer Options" in the search field. Select the result.
  2. When the File Explorer Options window appears, click on the View tab.
  3. Uncheck the box for "Hide extensions for known file types".
  4. Click the OK button.
• The computers in Seaver 120 are are set to erase all custom user settings and restore the defaults once they have been restarted, so if you have done this previously, you might have to do it again.

Setting the Download Options for FireFox and Chrome

• For Mozilla FireFox (122.0.1 or higher)
  • For this class we want to set the default download folder to "Desktop" and have Firefox ask each time a file is downloaded
    • Go to the Settings menu, General.
    • First, under the Files and Applications > Downloads section, next to "Save files to" click the "Browse" button, select the Desktop, and click the OK button.
    • Second, check the box next to "Always ask you where to save files"
• For Google Chrome (Version 121.0.6167.162 or higher)
  • For this class we want to set the default download folder to "Desktop" and have Chrome ask each time a file is downloaded
  • Options set to default downloads to Desktop and to ask each time a file is downloaded
    • Go to Settings page, click on the "Downloads" menu item on the left hand side.
    • First, under the "Location" section, click the "Change" button, select the Desktop, and click the OK button.
    • Second, move the slider "Ask where to save each file before downloading" to the right to turn it on.

Shared Journal Assignment

• Store your journal entry in the shared Class Journal Week 6 page. If this page does not exist yet, go ahead and create it (congratulations on getting in first :) )
• Link to the Class Journal page from your user page (should be part of your template).
• Link back from the Class Journal page to your user page.
• Sign your portion of the journal with the standard wiki signature shortcut (~~~~).
• Add the "Journal Entry" and "Shared" categories to the end of the wiki page (if someone has not already done so).

Read

• Blog post by LMU librarian Aisha Conner-Gaten, Lynda Becomes LinkedIn Learning, posted on August 1, 2019.
• Return to “What is Code?”, now looking at these sections within Section 5, “The Time You Attended the E-mail Address Validation Meeting:”

5.1 What is the Relationship Between Code and Data?

5.2 Where Does Data Live?

5.3 The Language of White Collars

Reflect

1. What are the advantages of using a database, like Microsoft Access, instead of a spreadsheet program, like Microsoft Excel, when managing your data?
2. Which part of the tutorial made the most sense to you?
3. Which part of the tutorial do you feel least confident about?
4. What would you like to know more about?
5. The blog post mentions a "fraught relationship about data, privacy, and how private companies operate in public spaces."
   • What is this fraught relationship?
   • How do you feel about it? I.e., where do you stand on the trade-off between the "ease of use" you receive as a user and giving up your private data to companies who will use it to turn a profit?
   • What are the social justice issues involved?