Throughout the semester, I feel that I have learned a lot when it comes to the digital world of writing. It has also been a semester of change!
During Professor Chandler's class, my first assignment, which I had never done before, was to set up a blog. I have blogged before on my Myspace page, but never on an official blog website. I consider myself rather computer savvy, but needed the assistance of some of my peers in the class to help me set up a blog. Sue, who has been in a Dr. Chandler class before, was more than willing to help me set up a blog. This was my first new experience of the semester.
The next thing I learned was just how far back the history of the internet goes. I guess you can say that I lived a sheltered life, and just figured that the world of technology started when I began using computers. By doing the history of the internet time line, I realized things did exist before I found my way to the internet world. The other thing which I realized is that my literacy developed through peer influence.
A phenomenon which I knew nothing about, which I learned through reading an article was the phone novels. I never thought it possible that people would post whole stories while using a cell phone as their media. I think that the idea can shape the way we look at the future and literacy. Currently it is a fad overseas, but who knows, maybe it will take us all by surprise and people will be writing phone novels instead of publishing books. Who knows?!
Smart mobs, yet another new topic that I never even heard of. Sending out a mass message to have thousands of people show up at a central location and be a mob. What an idea. While learning about this topic, I thoroughly enjoyed going on the web and just seeing all the different flash mobs that exist: pillow case fights, ninja fight, supermarket mobs. The list goes on and on. Reading and learning about this opened yet another door.
Then there was the Wikipedia post. In the past, I have used Wikipedia as a source while doing research papers, but never knew that the website was operated by ordinary people like me and you. This mindset changed while being in Dr. Chandler's class. We were going to become contributors on a page within Wikipedia. First we set up accounts and then we explored to see what topic we might want to contribute to. Shortly thereafter, we were all official members of Wikipedia. Some of us had our information taken down the minute after we put it up, and others stayed up and continue to stay up. What an accomplishment this was to be able to say I've contributed to a page on Wikipedia!
Another thing that changed about me or something that I realized while in this class is that when it comes to school work, I am deep attentive and can only focus on one thing (my schoolwork). However, when it comes to everything but my school work, I am hyper attentive and multitask. While cleaning my room, I'll have my music on, I'll be on the phone and/or text messaging. Isn't that amazing?!
All in all, I came into this course expected to be writing for cyberspace, after all that is the name of the course; however that is not the only thing that we have done. I have learned about some many new things and have explored areas that I otherwise would not have explored unless I was told to do so in the context of this course. Overall, I am very happy that I took this course and I'm happy that I am going to walk away with a wealth of knowledge!
Writing the Literacy and Technology was another teachable moment as us education majors say. While doing pre-writing exercises and figuring out the angle I wanted to take on my essay, I learned a lot about myself. I found out that my family and peers had a major influence on who I have become as a writer and how it all developed. I think that if I didn't take the time out to write
Safe place, no judgement.
3 years ago
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