I took this class for a number of reasons.
1. I do not wish to be an academic and this course seemed like a good way to gain some new skills which would be beneficial to me in the "field".
2. I was exciting about learning some things that were new.
3. "Big Data" sounded important. The world is changing, and I better understand these new things if I wanted to stay relevant.
So, I met with Prof. Offenhuber who assured me that the class would be interesting, not too technical and that my "goals" would be satisfied. I signed up. During the winter break I was super excited.
Then, school started back up, I started teaching and as the initial excitement of being back in school wore off, the work started piling up, and this class started to look really scary.
I have a habit of over reaching. I think about doing really cool things, I get carried away, and I often go beyond the scope of the task that was at hand.
In our second class Prof. Offenhuber introduced us to a journalism class and we were given the opportunity to team up with a journalism student and work on a story. I got carried away, talked about sex selective abortions in immigrant communities, imagined that we could do something really cool with big data in Boston and either prove or disprove the hypothesis. Sure enough the flash caught the ear of a student and we started working together. Slowly, the project got blown way out of proportion, and started looking more like a thesis. The thesis started freaking me out. And, I went running to my department asking if there was any way I could drop the class without a W on my transcript.
Thankfully, my department chair and administrative assistant told me to suck it up and go for it. I went and met with Prof. Offenhuber who brought me back on track and helped me focus and find another project.
R freaked me out a little bit. But, I've been playing around on Tableau all day today and I am happy to say that I am very excited to learn how to do these cool things again. Rini is back on earth!
1. I do not wish to be an academic and this course seemed like a good way to gain some new skills which would be beneficial to me in the "field".
2. I was exciting about learning some things that were new.
3. "Big Data" sounded important. The world is changing, and I better understand these new things if I wanted to stay relevant.
So, I met with Prof. Offenhuber who assured me that the class would be interesting, not too technical and that my "goals" would be satisfied. I signed up. During the winter break I was super excited.
Then, school started back up, I started teaching and as the initial excitement of being back in school wore off, the work started piling up, and this class started to look really scary.
I have a habit of over reaching. I think about doing really cool things, I get carried away, and I often go beyond the scope of the task that was at hand.
In our second class Prof. Offenhuber introduced us to a journalism class and we were given the opportunity to team up with a journalism student and work on a story. I got carried away, talked about sex selective abortions in immigrant communities, imagined that we could do something really cool with big data in Boston and either prove or disprove the hypothesis. Sure enough the flash caught the ear of a student and we started working together. Slowly, the project got blown way out of proportion, and started looking more like a thesis. The thesis started freaking me out. And, I went running to my department asking if there was any way I could drop the class without a W on my transcript.
Thankfully, my department chair and administrative assistant told me to suck it up and go for it. I went and met with Prof. Offenhuber who brought me back on track and helped me focus and find another project.
R freaked me out a little bit. But, I've been playing around on Tableau all day today and I am happy to say that I am very excited to learn how to do these cool things again. Rini is back on earth!
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