Portable Partners .::. Featuring Agnes

About Me

Hi there, I hope you have enjoyed your time at our site, with the interactive features that I have painstakingly thought through, improved and implemented. I am Agnes, a student from Dunman High School, Singapore.

I am a typical student who dislikes homework, enjoys the company of friends, loves eating, and is constantly intrigued by technology. Naturally curious, I enjoy learning about anything new and taking challenges. As the eldest member of the team and the only Computing student, it is inevitable that I take upon the leadership position to point our team towards the unified goal of succeeding in our mission of educating other youths while enjoying the process.

Although I am a Computing student, I am still fresh in web developing and have not had experience in creating an entire website prior to this competition. Our school curriculum specialises in writing basic Java program, but does not exactly cover on HTML, CSS or Flash. Hence, I had to pick up certain skills from scratch and take it upon myself to learn beyond what is thought. In the process, I have not only learnt new softwares, but also realised my potential in this field and am very satisfied with the outcome, especially that we only had a few weeks to work with.

As a leader, I have taken on the added responsibilities of allocating jobs, consolidating the information, doing background research for the team, as well as, writing, editing and proof-reading the site contents to ensure consistency. In addition, my main job is to manage and design the layout of our website, compile with it the contents, and include interactivity through JavaScript and Flash.

Note: My reflections are quite long, please brace yourselves... For convenience sake, it can be divided into my experience as a leader, and how the topic is relevant to myself.

My ThinkQuest Experience

As a fan of the EPL, in particular Arsenal, I have always seen and known the significance of a leader to the entire team. In this 08/09 Season, what we have seen with Arsenal, is a slump. The reason why, to me, is apparent in that it is lacking of a team leader with the abilities to drive the team towards a common goal.

It's a night for the team to stand up, more than any individual.
- Arsene Wegner, Arsenal Team Manager

However, more importantly is the team spirit. Everyone has to put in their most consistent effort for a project to be successful. It cannot only rest on the shoulders of one person whom is recognised as the leader. Therefore as a leader, I have taken it as my responsibility to motivate the team into pushing themselves to reach their maximum potential.

It was not easy to consolidate and organise the team, especially when I did not know any of the team members before I took up this challenge. In fact, it was the ThinkQuest 'team finder' tool which directed me to this unique and diverse team. I am very thankful to my coach for presenting me with this opportunity and helping me throughout.

Of course, as in all projects, there were many ups and downs. I was often frustrated when I was not able to contact the group members. I was later informed that sometimes, in Pakistan, their internet access was much more limited and unstable as compared to mine and this was quite tricky for our project since our sources of information and communication relied mostly on the internet. It was definitely very stressful and worrying. Worrying because I was afraid that the team did not share the goals that I did. You may call me a masochist, but the stress was actually rather enjoyable and pleasurable. It motivated me to work even harder and every time I achieved another step, no matter big or small, the satisfaction to me, made all the work worthwhile. Of course, my worries were unfounded, as the team also gave their utmost effort.

To me, our project is a very relevant one and in the process of doing it, I not only learnt how to be a better leader from my coach and peers, discovered new technologies, but have most importantly learnt more about mobile devices. Equipped with this knowledge, I can tell you truthfully, how important the message Portable Partners tries to deliver is.

For example, I've always enjoyed loud music. Having music blared into my ears can sometimes serve as an escape from reality and a means to relax for me. I've always knew the dangers of loud music and hearing loss, but never have I expected them to be so severe. Hence, you can imagine my fear when I started to do research and realised how much harm I have unknowingly caused my ears to suffer throughout these years. Now, I no longer listen to loud music with my earphones on, and definitely also use them a lot less. Especially, with so many benefits to media players, I never want to lose my hearing.

Another instance, is that I lost my thumbdrive in the process of completing this website. In it were some of my latest scripts and compiled pages which I had to later do again from scratch. If only I had learnt the importance of backing up information and data earlier. Besides important scripts, there were also some personal files. Hence, another 'if only I had password my documents'. Many if onlys, gave me the inspiration and the realisation on how important our site is.

Every day, every minute, every second, someone is losing their hearing, losing important data, ill-treating their spinal structures, injuring their wrists and harming their brains without knowing why. It is my dream that these people learn of Portable Partners and how adhering to simple guidelines and understanding their 'best pals' could improve their quality of life.