Writing
I may be a Writing Arts major, but that doesn't mean I'm a writer. It is most definitely something I enjoy, but my writing is not necessarily something I pride myself on. Coming into this class, I didn't know exactly what to expect. The title of the class, "Writing, Research, and Technology" seems as if it should tell you exactly what the class will entail, but it turned out to be so much more than that.
This class really took advantage of the different styles and types of writing and I have learned so much from it. By working on my twitterive, a multi-genre piece, I learned how writing can be enhanced by different pieces like pictures, video, and/or audio. This project was not the biggest challenge for me when it comes to writing, however, because of its feel. I enjoy creative writing, and that is what it became for me. Blogging is something that was not a new concept for me, for I've done it in other classes as well as in my own personal blog, but I used it in a different way for this class. There were times when I was doing work for this class that I began planning and thinking about things to myself and thought, "I could blog about this." Not so much because my stream of consciousness blog posts are appealing to others, but because they helped me figure things out. Instead of talking to myself, I wrote to myself - that sometimes helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to do with something specific, like a project. For example, check out this blog post about my reflection on our interviews for our Oral History Project.
For our Collaborative Research Project, I'm pretty sure everyone has the same feeling about group projects: ugh! When you work in groups, there's always someone (and it's usually you) who ends up doing the majority of the work. Even if you're friends with one or more of your partners, group projects always end up being more trouble than they're worth and I am not scared to admit that's the way I feel about them. After my experience with my group this semester, however, I feel a bit differently. I had the pleasure of working with two dedicated individuals who were willing to step up and do as much work as necessary for us to successfully complete our project. I had no negative experiences with my partners and that made our project that much easier (more will be said about this project under the "Technology" title).
My writing process has most certainly evolved from the different kinds of writing we had to do for this class, and I'm hoping to find more reasons in future classes to use new things I have learned.
This class really took advantage of the different styles and types of writing and I have learned so much from it. By working on my twitterive, a multi-genre piece, I learned how writing can be enhanced by different pieces like pictures, video, and/or audio. This project was not the biggest challenge for me when it comes to writing, however, because of its feel. I enjoy creative writing, and that is what it became for me. Blogging is something that was not a new concept for me, for I've done it in other classes as well as in my own personal blog, but I used it in a different way for this class. There were times when I was doing work for this class that I began planning and thinking about things to myself and thought, "I could blog about this." Not so much because my stream of consciousness blog posts are appealing to others, but because they helped me figure things out. Instead of talking to myself, I wrote to myself - that sometimes helped me figure out exactly what I wanted to do with something specific, like a project. For example, check out this blog post about my reflection on our interviews for our Oral History Project.
For our Collaborative Research Project, I'm pretty sure everyone has the same feeling about group projects: ugh! When you work in groups, there's always someone (and it's usually you) who ends up doing the majority of the work. Even if you're friends with one or more of your partners, group projects always end up being more trouble than they're worth and I am not scared to admit that's the way I feel about them. After my experience with my group this semester, however, I feel a bit differently. I had the pleasure of working with two dedicated individuals who were willing to step up and do as much work as necessary for us to successfully complete our project. I had no negative experiences with my partners and that made our project that much easier (more will be said about this project under the "Technology" title).
My writing process has most certainly evolved from the different kinds of writing we had to do for this class, and I'm hoping to find more reasons in future classes to use new things I have learned.
Below is a Wordle of all of my blog posts:
Research
This was the scariest word in this course title for me. In my past experiences, I have shown to be nothing but a terrible researcher. The thought that there are so many things out there that no one knows about, in all honesty, baffles and overwhelms me to the point of never wanting to research anything. For this class, I was forced to research. Guess what? I didn't hate it!
The beginning research for the Oral History and Collaborative Research projects began with assigned readings. Soon after, when we found our group for the projects, we began researching on our own. Besides the qualitative research found in readings, we acquired so much new information from one-on-one interviews with Rowan students. These interviews included more formal ones where the interviewee knew the topic of conversation and "man on the street" interviews, where we asked anyone around campus what they thought on the spot. I found the latter to be the most informative because of its quick nature - we did not give anyone real time to think about what they were going to say, so we received such pure responses.
Looking back on the research portion of class, I feel that I could have done a bit more when it came to finding sources and more sources for information, but I found myself entranced with the video editing (see below).
The beginning research for the Oral History and Collaborative Research projects began with assigned readings. Soon after, when we found our group for the projects, we began researching on our own. Besides the qualitative research found in readings, we acquired so much new information from one-on-one interviews with Rowan students. These interviews included more formal ones where the interviewee knew the topic of conversation and "man on the street" interviews, where we asked anyone around campus what they thought on the spot. I found the latter to be the most informative because of its quick nature - we did not give anyone real time to think about what they were going to say, so we received such pure responses.
Looking back on the research portion of class, I feel that I could have done a bit more when it came to finding sources and more sources for information, but I found myself entranced with the video editing (see below).
Technology
Technology. Most of the time, it's one of the most terrifying words in my vocabulary. In one way or another, technology always finds a way to screw me. I worked with technology in a previous Writing Arts class and it was incredibly difficult, but this semester proved to be different. By creating a Weebly, Twitter (I have a personal one, but created a separate one for class), and using so many different types of technology, I bit the bullet and faced my fear.
My two favorite projects for this class were the twitterive and Collaborative Research Project (surprisingly, because they involved the most technology). I thoroughly enjoyed taking advantage of Weebly to use different genres to construct my project, and looking back on it I know I wouldn't have been able to do anything like it without the technology I used. When it comes to the Collaborative Research Project, I think I had a little too much fun. I know the project did not come out as good as it could have (there's always room for improvement, right?), I would not change a thing about my experience working on it. My partners and I interviewed people and places by using a Flip Video Recorder and had so much fun doing it. Finding the right soundtrack and pictures for the video proved to be an exciting, fun challenge. Schoolwork, fun? What? I know. The use of Viddler helped me upload all of my videos and I used iMovie to edit the video.
Needless to say, due to my incredible frustration with technology past semesters and the fact that I overcame it, my attitude has changed a bit. I no longer cringe at the thought of using technology for a class (but with my luck, this will be the last class where it's actually required) and have learned so much along the way! I'd say that's a success.
My two favorite projects for this class were the twitterive and Collaborative Research Project (surprisingly, because they involved the most technology). I thoroughly enjoyed taking advantage of Weebly to use different genres to construct my project, and looking back on it I know I wouldn't have been able to do anything like it without the technology I used. When it comes to the Collaborative Research Project, I think I had a little too much fun. I know the project did not come out as good as it could have (there's always room for improvement, right?), I would not change a thing about my experience working on it. My partners and I interviewed people and places by using a Flip Video Recorder and had so much fun doing it. Finding the right soundtrack and pictures for the video proved to be an exciting, fun challenge. Schoolwork, fun? What? I know. The use of Viddler helped me upload all of my videos and I used iMovie to edit the video.
Needless to say, due to my incredible frustration with technology past semesters and the fact that I overcame it, my attitude has changed a bit. I no longer cringe at the thought of using technology for a class (but with my luck, this will be the last class where it's actually required) and have learned so much along the way! I'd say that's a success.
P.S.
Hey EVERYONE! Thanks for a great semester! :]
