And It’s a Wrap!

The end of the semester has finally arrived and it has been a long but insightful ride. This class was initially an elective that I took just because it was one of the only classes available. I was a little skeptical about it at first but I am so glad that I stuck it out the whole semester. I learned so many things and became much more tech savvy then I would have been had I not taken this class. There was a lot of things to get through so assignments more stressful then other’s but I still found it all very fun!

One of the many things we had to accomplish was weekly blog posts. This is where we practically vented about our weekly assignments but also where we were able to put our new skills to use and make our blog posts fun. I learned how to link, add videos, and just make a blog site that makes someone want to look at it and where it grabs there attention. Every week whether it was a meme, digital redlining or bots, I was able to use my experience to bring my blog post to life and show my hard work of the week.

Twitter was something that I dreaded in the beginning because I was never much of a twitter fan. When I made one for this class and we started to use it more and more I began to realize all the perks that twitter has to offer. I even learned how to make BOTS! This was so cool because I could actually send out tweets without actually physically doing it myself everyday. For twitter we also had to do out daily digital alchemy tweets. Doing these required a lot of creativity which was fun and refreshing from all the dull work from my other classes.

After having been on twitter throughout the semester, I have evolved in the netnarr twitter space. My analysis of my twitter account has also changed. When I first started everything was blank and there was no information to graph. Now at the end of the semester it shows what time of day I was on twitter the most, all my replies, it has much more information graphed, hashtags, etc. It has changed so much and it is bizarre to think that I was even using twitter that much, but I sure did. We also did a lot of work with the make banks, which were sometimes stressful but very educational. Doing the make banks taught me how to use certain tools and how upload things onto the internet.

Now at the end of the semester when I used the twitter analysis tool. 

The first time I used the twitter analysis tool. 

Overall, I mostly intrigued by the privacy and surveillance topic we did in the beginning of the semester. I didn’t know that we allow ourselves to be watched the minute we get onto a site just because of the simple facts that the site has cookies. I also have a lot of fun with memes and gifs and learning how to make them! It was actually my favorite topic. Also the only topic that I was really challenged by was the bots and the e-lit. They were the only topic where it took me a little bit to grasp and I had to some background research on it, in order to understand it better. I know that going forward I will know how to use different tools which I will also be able to use in my classroom when I become a teacher. I can also use these tools to make my teaching much more fun and interesting.

Also, anyone that is willing deciding on whether or not to take this class, I would definitely tell them to give it a shot! It can be a little overwhelming at first but eventually it becomes such a great class and you really do learn a lot!! I know I will legitimately miss this class!