DATABASE STRUCTURES, LANGUAGES, AND ARCHITECTURES

3 pages.

The purpose of the Session Long Project in Trident University classes is to give you the opportunity to explore the applicability of the Module to your own life, work,

and place in space and time, and to experiment with the Module to see how the otherwise academically rigorous presentation of a topic may, with more or less work

and/or trauma, become “up close and personal”. This is done in a number of different ways — sometimes cumulative papers, sometimes practical hands-on experimentation

with a tool of some sort, sometimes reflections on a place of work or life. The common thread is personal application, aimed at demonstrating a cumulative knowledge

and understanding of the course’s material.

In this course, the Project assignments for each Module will involve your experimenting with database software of various forms — some downloads (if possible – see

below), some online demos. In each Module, your SLP assignment will consist of filling out a report on your “adventures in software”, summarizing what you looked at

and offering to the degree possible some critical evaluation of it; you’ll also be invited to reflect on your cumulative software experiences.

Option 1: For those who have no prior work experience with database or have taken ITM440 before Feb 2011, your task is to study the following tutorial:

Microsoft (2010), Choosing between Access and Excel, from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/choose-between-access-and-excel-RZ010253998.aspx

Since our course is about database, it is good to understand the differences between spreadsheet and the simple database that Microsoft offers.

The tutorial is quite short, please finish the entire tutorial, then prepare a 3- to 4-page review of the tutorial, like the kind of review that you would find in a

good computer/information systems journal or website, covering the following topics:

a comprehensive review of what the tutorial teaches, choose at least two key concepts to discuss in technical detail
a thorough report on what you learned specifically from the tutorial
(optional, not graded but appreciated, and of benefit to you as well by studying from different sources) If you can find one or two other similar video tutorial(s)

or reading material(s) on this topic, please study them and give a simple review (one or two paragraphs suffice). Please also refer them in your reference list.

Option 2: For those who have years of experience with database or have taken ITM440 after Feb 2011, you are required to discuss a database system used in a company or

an organization (It could be your organization, or any other organization). Your paper should cover the following topics:

Why it is necessary to use database system?
What kinds of information this database system collect? and what information it provides?
Which database management system is used? Access? Oracle? DB2 …? Why or why not it is a good choice?
Any other topics you would like to discuss related to this database system?

Your paper should be three to four pages in length, and reflect your personal experiences with this issue. The important part of all these project assignments is to

carefully assess your own experiences with the topic, and then reflect critically on what you might have learned about yourself and about situations through this

assessment process.

The more that you can use the exercise to develop personal implications for your growth as a potential business person as well as a moral individual, the more value

you’ll get out of the exercise