What processes (writing processes, work processes) are you developing or learning about through your internship?

Work process involve data entry workflows with Excel and mySQL – there is great potential for duplicate information to arise when reviewing these reports to the commissioner of education – Such as Locations, names, dates – and rather than going back and appending information to a previous entry (which would involve either remembering or individually searching for a previous entry to exist) I have found it easier to create a separate entry of the same format (E.g. Location – Name – Year – Denomination – Misc. info) and then sort the table by names or location and merge like data – A number of interesting patterns arise – 1. Obviously, I can better see what years a particular individual was at a location, if they visited more than one location, and the overall story of traveling and expansion of the school system within territorial Alaska – It’s quite interesting.

Are you drawing upon any prior experience to be successful at these processes?

I have previous instruction in database design and administration from my Associates in Computer Science and Technology through the Mat-Su campus. I’ve never had a chance to apply some of that knowledge outside my homelab setup at my residence. As mentioned earlier, most of this is basic data entry but hours are saved with a slightly optimized workflow.

How do you think you use knowledge of these processes in future situations?

Two ‘databases’ are currently being kept – one in Excel which will be easier to read for Dr. Stone and the interns and one that does not include merged data (A unique entry for each individual instance of a person – which surmounts into a difference of year or location) which allows for greater fixability of extrapolating patterns from the database through mySQL queries. Entries are appended to the mySQL database through mySQL connector for Excel which allows data entry through excel to be committed to an existing database (One could also use access but I believe Excel would have more familiarity to the end user than Access) These processes allow me to better present patterns and allow for future work, after I have parted from the project, to be done in a manner familiar to the user (e.g. avoiding mySQL and sticking with Excel for data entry).