When I first began this class I was not sure what to expect. Digital Writing in the modern age could mean anything from writing blogs to even doing podcasts, and short documentaries. I was taken out of my comfort zone. But overall I was able to navigate unknown territory with the help of my team and professor. I felt confident in my ability to put out great content, while also taking on deep meaningful projects that I felt made an impact.
The first project that showed me this would not just be any old English class was the Digital Literacy Narrative, this project demanded that I not only express myself but do so through audio. This project made me nervous because I never before had to record myself and elaborate on, who I was as a person, but once I finished this project I realized that it was not difficult at all to express myself. This brought on new-found confidence in my abilities I learned that I could be the subject of interest.
Furthermore, The Documentary project pushed me even further creatively. In which we had to conduct interviews and edit a 15-minute long documentary film, from the beginning I knew this would involve a lot of work. My major is sociology so my knowledge of computer editing was limited and a novice at best. Conducting interviews seemed simple but editing and clipping everything together was something I never did before. But because this was a group project we had a great team, we were organized in scheduling interviews on campus, days before it was announced that the campus would be closing for the entire semester due to the COVID-19 virus. Away from school, we had everything we needed to finish the project with communication from everyone we managed to create a film we were proud of. The film focused on the deteriorating effects of Social Media on personal and intimate relationships. Content was juicy to say the least, influenced by previous projects we knew it was possible to create a documentary that was interesting to watch and meaningful. Through the guidance of Professor Santosh, he revealed to us step by step the ingredients involved in making an exciting documentary, we read articles and watched short videos on how to create edits and how to design sound in order to capture the audience's attention.
The challenge came when we had to do the Wikipedia Project, which we had to write out 3,000 words on a subject that might have little to no content available to research. As a group we decided upon the subject of Armature puppetry, we were confident that it would be easy to research this project. But as we soon found out we had little to no information we can elaborate. We had to dig deep and read a vast amount of data in order to elaborate 3,000 words. It was a tense few days trying to keep up the word count but we managed to complete the project on time and get full credits. Heading towards the end of the semester our team was confident that we tackled a wide array of projects that we all passed with flying colors. I am proud of our team's hard work and the way we communicate positively in order to reach our goals.
In conclusion, I am glad I decided to take this course because this class has pushed me beyond my comfort level in creating content in a digital medium. Exposed to documentaries, blogs, Wikipedia Articles, and even podcasts I feel I am ready to provide content in the digital space that is both quality and value. Because the class valued cooperation we managed to get something more out of this, the importance of valuing each other during times of need. We managed to ride out a Pandemic and still make it to the end. I am proud of my classmates and proud of myself because I can honestly say nothing was going to stop me from making my deadlines.