Reflective Letter
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started this class. I wasn’t new to most technologies that we used, and I felt like I was starting off on a solid ground as far as my writing was concerned. I looked forward to the projects, although not so much with the Twitterive because I’m not a fan of Twitter. I didn’t realize what a challenge I was up against – and how that challenge would change the way I thought about so many things.
I had used Twitter previously for a class and I wasn’t too impressed, but at least it familiarized me with the program. I Tweeted bregrudgingly for this course in hopes that I would find something to make a Twitterive out of. Somewhere along the process, the Twitterive took on a life of its own, and in the end, the Twitterive itself became my favorite project of the class.
It was my first time using Weebly for anything, and I thought it was a very user-friendly website to navigate. I had written multi-genre pieces for previous courses, but not like this. My favorite part of writing a multi-genre piece on Weebly was that I could get visual with it. I love photos and I love layout. Weebly allowed me to play with fonts, colors, and different ways to display pictures. It also allowed me to reorganize pieces of my Twitterive without too much hassle. The only downside that I found to Weebly was that you cannot place MP3 files on your website unless you have a paid account. I would have loved to use songs to enhance my Twitterive since music is such a big part of my life. I substituted song lyrics instead.
I was both nervous and excited at the thought of conducting interviews for the Oral History project. My group and I ended up having several issues with technology during the process. The first time I recorded my interview, the camera didn’t tapre more than three minutes of it. My interviewee was kind enough to sit for another interview the next day. I made sure I used the right equipment this time (a real camcorder instead of a camera that happens to record video) and I also was able to bring one of the group members, Breanne, with me. It was more effective having two of us conducting the interview. We each came up with new questions and topics.
While I had recently learned how to upload video onto my laptop and onto YouTube, Casey had some trouble uploading the second interview. We tried using different media programs at the library until we found one that worked. Eventually all the videos were up and running. Casey’s video got a 500 word transcription and my video was edited to a shorter version by me. I discovered that I really loved doing video editing. I also discovered that it was a ton of work; but when it was completed, I felt so accomplished because I was learning a skill I could see as being useful in the future.
The Collaborative Research project became quite messy for our group when we had to change topics at the last minute. We thought that comparing big, chain restaurants to small, local food joints would make for a good topic, but we found ourselves stuck on the same points and unable to continue research. We switched to the topic of the slow food movement because we didn’t know anything about it, but it seemed interesting. It was hard work to pull together a lot of information in such a short time, but I feel that the effort was worth it, especially during our presentation to the class. At the very least, most of us learned something new by researching the topic.
What I enjoyed most about the Collaborative Research project was that the end product did not have to be a traditional research paper. We were allowed to write in other genres (if it worked for us), and that included video. I’m not sure when exactly I turned into such a fan of video, but suddenly it seemed so interesting to me to use video to strengthen a research paper. The whole process really opened up my eyes about the different ways in which it was possible to present research. It also made me think about how to present writing in general, and what writing can be defined as. Or, possibly more importantly, what it can strive to become.
As far as the other assignments were concerned – mostly to read and write in our blogs – I think that they were an almost subtle undercurrent of the whole course, tying everything together in a big picture kind of way. Even when I didn’t always read an article thoroughly or write enough blogs, I understood the need for them in the course. I will say that I much preferred blogging when I was given something specific to blog about. Blogging tended to fall by the wayside when the topics were left up to me. Perhaps that it a commentary on my self-discipline (or lack thereof), but at the moment, it is what it is.
The reading assignments were often challenging, but they also made me think. I enjoyed group discussion of the readings the most. Sometimes it took a while for the ideas behind the readings to sink in, and I may not remember all of them, but I will certainly not forget all of them, either. I think the one thing that will stick with me the most is the idea of what it means to truly write in a collaborative way. I will admit that most of the writing done in the group projects during this course was simply cooperative writing. Nonetheless, the idea that collaborative writing can produce something even stronger and more interesting than writing by one’s self is an idea that I am sure I will put to use in the future. I already have potential plans to possibly start writing collaborative poetry with a graduate student here at Rowan University.
In the end, I think I learned a lot more than I banked on in the beginning of this course. I came to hate Twitter and group projects a little less and become more skilled at video editing. I found a new friend in Weebly, which I will continue to use to showcase my writing and as a supplement to my resume. Lastly, I am confident that I will move on in my education and my career armed with new ways to tackle and present writing.