Writing:
My experiences in this class have affected my writing in various ways. I was required to utilize a variety of different genres throughout the semester. From tweeting, to blogging, and other multi-modal projects, this class required me to look at my writing in a very different way. I really enjoyed using Weebly to create a website for this class. It was a great tool for organizing all of my material for the course. It allows the class to interact more than in a typical college classroom. Everyone has their own voice and can post and comment on others' posts as well. It's nice to get new and different perspectives on any piece we may be instructed to blog about. Through reading and commenting on my classmates' blogs I feel like I am better connected to the class as a whole. I found blogging to be a very helpful tool for reflecting on readings for class. It was a more of an informal way to get my own thoughts out there, while forcing me to really think about the readings. I also like that with a blog I am able to get immediate feedback from the professor and other people in the class, and to see what others took from each piece. I like the interactive aspect of that genre. The blog was also a very good reflective tool to use throughout the semester. I was able to organize my thoughts while composing both my oral history project and the collaborative research project.
When I heard that I would be using Twitter in this class, I was less than thrilled. I've used it in other classes and while I do find it helpful to keep up on assignments and ask questions, the idea of using it to tweet about my surroundings intimidated me. I'm not one that likes to broadcast my business on the Internet. Even on Facebook I prefer to use the more personal message feature and Facebook chat, where my conversations can be more private. This apprehension about people reading my personal thoughts and ideas probably hindered my ability to "connect" with my "place" for the Twitterive. I would have preferred taking personal notes about my surroundings rather than post them on Twitter. Perhaps then my observations would have been more meaningful and less inhibited. But despite my apprehension with using Twitter, I did enjoy composing my Twitterive. I liked the challenge of creating a multi-modal piece, rather than a typical writing assignment. I’ve never written something like that before. With the use of pictures, song lyrics, journal entries and more, I feel like I was able to get my story across very effectively. I was able to express my thoughts and feelings in a different way. I do, however, believe that Twitter is a good way to connect with the class. With the simple addition of a hash tag everything related to our class can be put in one convenient area. It's simple if you miss a class to get quick feedback from anyone in the class.
We also applied Twitter to a couple other different writing situations. The task of composing a micro-fiction story based on one of my tweets was interesting. Tweets have such a limited word count, so it was interesting to see how I was able to expand it into a short story. Then composing a poem from a collection of my tweets proved to be a bit of a struggle. I already struggle with poetry as a writer, so the restriction of only being able to use a specific collection of words made it that much harder. I found myself wishing I had gone into more detail with some of my tweets, or used a different word to describe something. The use of twitter was taken a step further as I created a haiku poem from my micro-fiction story based on a tweet. From this assignment I was able to see how a different genre can change the tone of a story. While my poem had the same theme as the micro-fiction, it took on a more serious tone. The poem also focused in on just one aspect of the story. The use of Twitter to write in many different genres provided a challenging learning experience for me.
My writing was also greatly affected by my peers in this class. First, peer reviewing of my Twitterive proved to be a very productive experience. I was able to get a more clear idea of what my story would be about through talking with my classmates. Through a suggestion from a classmate, my ideas even ended up going in a slightly different direction than I originally planned. It was good to get a fresh perspective on my writing. This interaction allowed me to narrow down my subject and make my story clearer.
I also found my peers to be very helpful through the process of collaborative writing. I was able to work with Liz Mason for both my Oral History Project and the Collaborative Research Project. Through working with Liz, I was able to get a different perspective on the topic for both projects. Both projects explored individuals with food intolerances. Liz happens to have a food intolerance, so it was incredibly helpful to work with her on the projects. Without her input I would not have been able to get such a deep insight into what it is like to live with a food intolerance. I enjoyed the process of working with her to write the project itself. It was good to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and work together to get our points across in the best way possible. We would work together to word our sentences properly and to clearly put our thoughts down on paper. We were each able to put our own perspectives on the project. The end product came out great, and probably much better than it would have been if done individually.
Research:
My experiences in this class have also affected my notions about research. The use of Twitter as a means of research, again, was very new to me. I found it to be a challenge to tweet about my surroundings. But it was interesting how it lead me to be more aware of thoughts and feelings towards my place. I had never thought of Twitter as a means of research before.
The course also required me to use interviewing as a means of research, which is something I had again never done before. I struggled with some aspects of the interview, but I got some very useful information from it. I was able to use the interview for both the Oral History Project and the Collaborative Research Project. It was very useful to get a first-hand explanation of the topic I was researching. The interview was semi-structured, so I had a list of several questions that I wanted Liz to cover, but the interview itself was more of a conversation. The questions were a good guideline for me to stick to when I was talking with Liz. I also found it easy to converse with Liz and ask questions off the top of my head throughout the interview. I feel that it was important to be engaged in the conversation, rather than just asking questions and not responding to her. I found interviewing to be a very useful form of research. I was able to use the Liz’s oral history for the collaborative research project. Her stories and unique perspective proved to be very useful for our research.
“Situating Narrative Inquiry” by Clandinin talks about the different aspects of narrative inquiry. The first aspect of narrative inquiry discussed was that “…narrative inquirers recognize that the researcher and the researched in a particular study are in relationship with each other and that both parties will learn and change in the encounter.” This absolutely proved to be true in my interview with Liz. I learned a lot from Liz’s stories, and it changed my own insight about what I eat. I realized just how careless I am when deciding what food to put in my body. After learning about her condition and the special care it takes to decide what to eat, I have become more aware of my own diet.
The use of an annotated bibliography in constructing our collaborative research project also proved to be very useful. When we came across an article that looked useful for our project, we would add it to the annotated bibliography and provide a brief summary. This made it easy to look back to our sources when writing the actual paper. I found this to be a very useful research tool. Many of the articles that we were required to put into the annotated bibliography initially did not prove to be useful for the final project though. The use of a variety of different research tools, including interviews, going out into the field, and researching articles proved to be very useful in composing the final project.
Technology:
As mentioned earlier, this course has influenced my view of many technologies, particularly Twitter. This course required me to use Twitter in many different ways. From my tweets I composed a Twitterive, a short story, and a poem. I had never considered Twitter a valuable tool for any of these tasks. This class has allowed me to see the many affordances of Twitter. Another technology that I was introduced to as a result of this course was Weebly. While the website had some glitches in terms of font and formatting, I found it to be very easy to use. It was very easy to simply drag tools that I wanted on my website right onto the page. I absolutely see myself using this website in the future, particularly as I embark on my career as a teacher.
The technology of blogging was a very useful tool in this course as well. I found it very useful in reflecting upon my experiences and assignments. I blogged about my struggles and experiences throughout the process of constructing the oral history and collaborative research projects. I even used the blog to keep track of my diet through a food journal for a week. This journal was then used in the collaborative research project. I like the freedom of being able to blog about anything I wanted, rather than being required to blog about readings as we did in the beginning of the semester. It was easier to blog about things that interested me and proved to be more useful for class projects.
For the oral history project, Liz and I uploaded our videos using Viddler. We both had no experience with uploading videos, but it went pretty smoothly. At first we had an issue with uploading one of the videos. We thought that we had lost half of the video. Luckily it was just a computer issue and we were able to resolve it. Viddler proved to be a relatively easy technology to use.
Overall this course provided me with many valuable insights regarding writing, research, and technology. My writing was expanded through the use of various multi-modal projects, and the use of many different genres. My notions about research were expanded from the traditional methods that I am familiar with. The course opened my eyes to the many affordances of technologies such as Twitter, Weebly, and Viddler.
My experiences in this class have affected my writing in various ways. I was required to utilize a variety of different genres throughout the semester. From tweeting, to blogging, and other multi-modal projects, this class required me to look at my writing in a very different way. I really enjoyed using Weebly to create a website for this class. It was a great tool for organizing all of my material for the course. It allows the class to interact more than in a typical college classroom. Everyone has their own voice and can post and comment on others' posts as well. It's nice to get new and different perspectives on any piece we may be instructed to blog about. Through reading and commenting on my classmates' blogs I feel like I am better connected to the class as a whole. I found blogging to be a very helpful tool for reflecting on readings for class. It was a more of an informal way to get my own thoughts out there, while forcing me to really think about the readings. I also like that with a blog I am able to get immediate feedback from the professor and other people in the class, and to see what others took from each piece. I like the interactive aspect of that genre. The blog was also a very good reflective tool to use throughout the semester. I was able to organize my thoughts while composing both my oral history project and the collaborative research project.
When I heard that I would be using Twitter in this class, I was less than thrilled. I've used it in other classes and while I do find it helpful to keep up on assignments and ask questions, the idea of using it to tweet about my surroundings intimidated me. I'm not one that likes to broadcast my business on the Internet. Even on Facebook I prefer to use the more personal message feature and Facebook chat, where my conversations can be more private. This apprehension about people reading my personal thoughts and ideas probably hindered my ability to "connect" with my "place" for the Twitterive. I would have preferred taking personal notes about my surroundings rather than post them on Twitter. Perhaps then my observations would have been more meaningful and less inhibited. But despite my apprehension with using Twitter, I did enjoy composing my Twitterive. I liked the challenge of creating a multi-modal piece, rather than a typical writing assignment. I’ve never written something like that before. With the use of pictures, song lyrics, journal entries and more, I feel like I was able to get my story across very effectively. I was able to express my thoughts and feelings in a different way. I do, however, believe that Twitter is a good way to connect with the class. With the simple addition of a hash tag everything related to our class can be put in one convenient area. It's simple if you miss a class to get quick feedback from anyone in the class.
We also applied Twitter to a couple other different writing situations. The task of composing a micro-fiction story based on one of my tweets was interesting. Tweets have such a limited word count, so it was interesting to see how I was able to expand it into a short story. Then composing a poem from a collection of my tweets proved to be a bit of a struggle. I already struggle with poetry as a writer, so the restriction of only being able to use a specific collection of words made it that much harder. I found myself wishing I had gone into more detail with some of my tweets, or used a different word to describe something. The use of twitter was taken a step further as I created a haiku poem from my micro-fiction story based on a tweet. From this assignment I was able to see how a different genre can change the tone of a story. While my poem had the same theme as the micro-fiction, it took on a more serious tone. The poem also focused in on just one aspect of the story. The use of Twitter to write in many different genres provided a challenging learning experience for me.
My writing was also greatly affected by my peers in this class. First, peer reviewing of my Twitterive proved to be a very productive experience. I was able to get a more clear idea of what my story would be about through talking with my classmates. Through a suggestion from a classmate, my ideas even ended up going in a slightly different direction than I originally planned. It was good to get a fresh perspective on my writing. This interaction allowed me to narrow down my subject and make my story clearer.
I also found my peers to be very helpful through the process of collaborative writing. I was able to work with Liz Mason for both my Oral History Project and the Collaborative Research Project. Through working with Liz, I was able to get a different perspective on the topic for both projects. Both projects explored individuals with food intolerances. Liz happens to have a food intolerance, so it was incredibly helpful to work with her on the projects. Without her input I would not have been able to get such a deep insight into what it is like to live with a food intolerance. I enjoyed the process of working with her to write the project itself. It was good to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and work together to get our points across in the best way possible. We would work together to word our sentences properly and to clearly put our thoughts down on paper. We were each able to put our own perspectives on the project. The end product came out great, and probably much better than it would have been if done individually.
Research:
My experiences in this class have also affected my notions about research. The use of Twitter as a means of research, again, was very new to me. I found it to be a challenge to tweet about my surroundings. But it was interesting how it lead me to be more aware of thoughts and feelings towards my place. I had never thought of Twitter as a means of research before.
The course also required me to use interviewing as a means of research, which is something I had again never done before. I struggled with some aspects of the interview, but I got some very useful information from it. I was able to use the interview for both the Oral History Project and the Collaborative Research Project. It was very useful to get a first-hand explanation of the topic I was researching. The interview was semi-structured, so I had a list of several questions that I wanted Liz to cover, but the interview itself was more of a conversation. The questions were a good guideline for me to stick to when I was talking with Liz. I also found it easy to converse with Liz and ask questions off the top of my head throughout the interview. I feel that it was important to be engaged in the conversation, rather than just asking questions and not responding to her. I found interviewing to be a very useful form of research. I was able to use the Liz’s oral history for the collaborative research project. Her stories and unique perspective proved to be very useful for our research.
“Situating Narrative Inquiry” by Clandinin talks about the different aspects of narrative inquiry. The first aspect of narrative inquiry discussed was that “…narrative inquirers recognize that the researcher and the researched in a particular study are in relationship with each other and that both parties will learn and change in the encounter.” This absolutely proved to be true in my interview with Liz. I learned a lot from Liz’s stories, and it changed my own insight about what I eat. I realized just how careless I am when deciding what food to put in my body. After learning about her condition and the special care it takes to decide what to eat, I have become more aware of my own diet.
The use of an annotated bibliography in constructing our collaborative research project also proved to be very useful. When we came across an article that looked useful for our project, we would add it to the annotated bibliography and provide a brief summary. This made it easy to look back to our sources when writing the actual paper. I found this to be a very useful research tool. Many of the articles that we were required to put into the annotated bibliography initially did not prove to be useful for the final project though. The use of a variety of different research tools, including interviews, going out into the field, and researching articles proved to be very useful in composing the final project.
Technology:
As mentioned earlier, this course has influenced my view of many technologies, particularly Twitter. This course required me to use Twitter in many different ways. From my tweets I composed a Twitterive, a short story, and a poem. I had never considered Twitter a valuable tool for any of these tasks. This class has allowed me to see the many affordances of Twitter. Another technology that I was introduced to as a result of this course was Weebly. While the website had some glitches in terms of font and formatting, I found it to be very easy to use. It was very easy to simply drag tools that I wanted on my website right onto the page. I absolutely see myself using this website in the future, particularly as I embark on my career as a teacher.
The technology of blogging was a very useful tool in this course as well. I found it very useful in reflecting upon my experiences and assignments. I blogged about my struggles and experiences throughout the process of constructing the oral history and collaborative research projects. I even used the blog to keep track of my diet through a food journal for a week. This journal was then used in the collaborative research project. I like the freedom of being able to blog about anything I wanted, rather than being required to blog about readings as we did in the beginning of the semester. It was easier to blog about things that interested me and proved to be more useful for class projects.
For the oral history project, Liz and I uploaded our videos using Viddler. We both had no experience with uploading videos, but it went pretty smoothly. At first we had an issue with uploading one of the videos. We thought that we had lost half of the video. Luckily it was just a computer issue and we were able to resolve it. Viddler proved to be a relatively easy technology to use.
Overall this course provided me with many valuable insights regarding writing, research, and technology. My writing was expanded through the use of various multi-modal projects, and the use of many different genres. My notions about research were expanded from the traditional methods that I am familiar with. The course opened my eyes to the many affordances of technologies such as Twitter, Weebly, and Viddler.
