Reflective narrative
Blogs
I thought the blogs were an interesting part of this class. I have had to blog in other classes before, but not as often. I really found the blogs useful and organized. Aside from the blogs I wanted to mention something about Weebly. I found the site really innovative and easy to track of all work. I liked that I could create new pages that way each assignment could be separated and its separate thing but could be included in one site. To talk about the blogging though, I used to hate it. The way these blogs were set up though, I came to like that much more. My favorite blog that I did was the one that was about the photo essays. I thought that the Mother Jones site was really cool and was an interesting use of technology. My blog focused on what a bedroom meant to different people. I thought it was an eye opening experience and blog.
All together I did not find any challenges with the blogs at all. I felt like they were all triumphs for me to really reflect and think about each topic. I also liked that we could use it as a type of conversational piece to talk about what was going on in the class. Another thing I thought was interesting that we were able to see other people’s blogs in our class so easily. That allowed me to see other people’s opinions and allowed me to gain other viewpoints. Overall, I liked that we blogged often and also the Weebly site.
This I Believe
For the This I Believe essay, I felt like I had a lot of triumphs. I enjoyed this project most out of the ones we completed this semester. I especially liked this assignment because the topic I chose was one that I was passionate about. I liked the freedom of the project, like being able to use whatever pictures you wanted and choosing a topic that you were extra passionate about. In addition, the way that the project was put together was a new way for me. I was at first indifferent to the idea of making a voiceover, but after trying a few times I really liked adding that element to the assignment. It was interesting to see the project all come together and the slideshow go along with the voice over made me really proud to see. I felt like it showed the audience a true argument and why this belief meant so much to me.
I also enjoyed seeing the other participants in our class present their projects because I thought everyone did a nice job. In all, it was really cool to see everyone’s project because I had never seen these types of technologies used before. One challenge I had with this though was being able to make the pictures run accordingly with the voice recording. I had to listen to the recording over and over and change the photos so that they made sense. Overall this project was really fun to put together and it was awesome to portray my passion for urban education through the use of these technologies.
Social Media Investigation
For this project, I feel as if I had more challenges then triumphs. Collecting the data and choosing an audience was no trouble at all. I definitely felt challenged when compiling it all together in a research paper. When trying to find a source, use the tweets, and create an argument to put into a paper felt really confusing. I am not sure if I misunderstood the assignment or was trying to do too much but I really struggled in all aspects of the paper. Not only did I have problems organizing the paper into a clear, argumentative paper I struggled. I also struggled finding enough information to meet the page length requirements. Perhaps it was challenging to me because the paper came at the very end of the semester and I needed to manage my time better but either way this was the least favorite of the projects this semester.
If there were any triumphs for this project it would be gathering the information from the group. I felt like I gathered sufficient tweets that allowed me to gather lots of tweets to work from. Also, I felt as if I picked an interesting group, college athletes, to analyze for the social media investigation. I believe that another triumph was the actual argument that I formed. I like that this was a relatable topic for me at this age and that it is one that could be up for serious debate. The sacrifice that college athletes have to do, giving up the first amendment, is one that is a hot topic. I feel as if the argument was done well but I am not so sure about the information and the organization of the paper.
Advocacy Project
This project was one where I felt like I had more triumphs. This was another project that I enjoyed. It was interesting to me because I had never thought about advocating and what really goes into it. Though I am normally not so fond of collaborative work, but this project was organized and everyone in my group worked well together. Once again, I liked the freedom of being able to choose what the topic was and that you could create basically any type of visual you wanted. I thought that we had a fun idea with the wine and that our visual was creative and inviting. One triumph we had was trying to choose what to make the project really stand out and go above and beyond. Eventually, we figured that making fake invitations for a wine meeting would be a fun idea if they were made out of wine corks. It was fun using different technologies and things to create this project. I feel like if this was a real advocacy campaign that many people would have been interested in.
Furthermore, I feel as if this project allowed me to use technologies in ways I would not have considered before. I had to use different images, writing, fonts, etc. This project made me especially think about the process of design. We really needed to think about design schemes, colors, size, and more could all come together and speak to the audience most. We needed to test and try out different designs for our advocacy and see what we thought worked best. This project allowed me to focus on the design process and think about the design choices. I had never had a project in a class where I had to think, analyze, and create designs. This project did open my eyes to other uses of technologies.
*underlines are hyperlinks*
I thought the blogs were an interesting part of this class. I have had to blog in other classes before, but not as often. I really found the blogs useful and organized. Aside from the blogs I wanted to mention something about Weebly. I found the site really innovative and easy to track of all work. I liked that I could create new pages that way each assignment could be separated and its separate thing but could be included in one site. To talk about the blogging though, I used to hate it. The way these blogs were set up though, I came to like that much more. My favorite blog that I did was the one that was about the photo essays. I thought that the Mother Jones site was really cool and was an interesting use of technology. My blog focused on what a bedroom meant to different people. I thought it was an eye opening experience and blog.
All together I did not find any challenges with the blogs at all. I felt like they were all triumphs for me to really reflect and think about each topic. I also liked that we could use it as a type of conversational piece to talk about what was going on in the class. Another thing I thought was interesting that we were able to see other people’s blogs in our class so easily. That allowed me to see other people’s opinions and allowed me to gain other viewpoints. Overall, I liked that we blogged often and also the Weebly site.
This I Believe
For the This I Believe essay, I felt like I had a lot of triumphs. I enjoyed this project most out of the ones we completed this semester. I especially liked this assignment because the topic I chose was one that I was passionate about. I liked the freedom of the project, like being able to use whatever pictures you wanted and choosing a topic that you were extra passionate about. In addition, the way that the project was put together was a new way for me. I was at first indifferent to the idea of making a voiceover, but after trying a few times I really liked adding that element to the assignment. It was interesting to see the project all come together and the slideshow go along with the voice over made me really proud to see. I felt like it showed the audience a true argument and why this belief meant so much to me.
I also enjoyed seeing the other participants in our class present their projects because I thought everyone did a nice job. In all, it was really cool to see everyone’s project because I had never seen these types of technologies used before. One challenge I had with this though was being able to make the pictures run accordingly with the voice recording. I had to listen to the recording over and over and change the photos so that they made sense. Overall this project was really fun to put together and it was awesome to portray my passion for urban education through the use of these technologies.
Social Media Investigation
For this project, I feel as if I had more challenges then triumphs. Collecting the data and choosing an audience was no trouble at all. I definitely felt challenged when compiling it all together in a research paper. When trying to find a source, use the tweets, and create an argument to put into a paper felt really confusing. I am not sure if I misunderstood the assignment or was trying to do too much but I really struggled in all aspects of the paper. Not only did I have problems organizing the paper into a clear, argumentative paper I struggled. I also struggled finding enough information to meet the page length requirements. Perhaps it was challenging to me because the paper came at the very end of the semester and I needed to manage my time better but either way this was the least favorite of the projects this semester.
If there were any triumphs for this project it would be gathering the information from the group. I felt like I gathered sufficient tweets that allowed me to gather lots of tweets to work from. Also, I felt as if I picked an interesting group, college athletes, to analyze for the social media investigation. I believe that another triumph was the actual argument that I formed. I like that this was a relatable topic for me at this age and that it is one that could be up for serious debate. The sacrifice that college athletes have to do, giving up the first amendment, is one that is a hot topic. I feel as if the argument was done well but I am not so sure about the information and the organization of the paper.
Advocacy Project
This project was one where I felt like I had more triumphs. This was another project that I enjoyed. It was interesting to me because I had never thought about advocating and what really goes into it. Though I am normally not so fond of collaborative work, but this project was organized and everyone in my group worked well together. Once again, I liked the freedom of being able to choose what the topic was and that you could create basically any type of visual you wanted. I thought that we had a fun idea with the wine and that our visual was creative and inviting. One triumph we had was trying to choose what to make the project really stand out and go above and beyond. Eventually, we figured that making fake invitations for a wine meeting would be a fun idea if they were made out of wine corks. It was fun using different technologies and things to create this project. I feel like if this was a real advocacy campaign that many people would have been interested in.
Furthermore, I feel as if this project allowed me to use technologies in ways I would not have considered before. I had to use different images, writing, fonts, etc. This project made me especially think about the process of design. We really needed to think about design schemes, colors, size, and more could all come together and speak to the audience most. We needed to test and try out different designs for our advocacy and see what we thought worked best. This project allowed me to focus on the design process and think about the design choices. I had never had a project in a class where I had to think, analyze, and create designs. This project did open my eyes to other uses of technologies.
*underlines are hyperlinks*