I feel that I have definitely grown as a writer since January. I have learned many tricks and proper grammar or techniques that I may not have known in the past. The most useful tool to me has been hypothesis, which I already am using while writing research papers for other classes. I’m not a big annotator generally outside of occasionally highlighting, but after using hypothesis for this class I find myself doing it more which is very useful. Overall this has been a very engaging and useful class which was a fun surprise because going into it I just wanted the credit and to move on. But after a whole semester gone I can safely say I enjoyed the class and can definitely use the skills I have learned going forward.
Author: Iris Cabej
Collage Reflection
I liked using mmm.page to create a collage. I think the full freedom you have to make whatever you want makes the experience very fun. It helps to have that creative freedom when trying to get a point across. My collage was just a collection of interests basically, no real message behind it, but it was fun moving things around to create an interesting picture. Due to the inherit freedom with collages, you can show a visual representation of the point you are trying to make, something that traditional writing cannot do. I don’t know if there was something I didn’t like about the website, it seemed good to me. I wouldn’t add anything to my collage seen as it was just a silly first one, but I would definitely want to make more for other topics.
My mind is going
Nicholas Carr’s commentary on search technology and the subsequent results of the convenience of said technology has stuck with me because of how much I can relate to what he is saying. The things that are happening because of how convenient it is to get information are things that people may not pay attention to, I certainly paid it no mind, until Carr spelled it out in his article.
I used to be a big reader and you could often find me in my room sitting with a book until I finish it. Recently however, even though my enjoyment of reading has not gone away, my attention span has. I find myself reading shorter stories online instead of a proper novel. I have novels at home that I would like to start, but can’t seem to find the energy or appropriate attention to do so. This is also shown in how I approach most readings for my classes. Even if the reading is interesting, I find myself just naturally skimming the page and skipping words even if I don’t mean to be doing so. I even remember asking my mother, who reads a lot of books on her kindle, how she reads so fast. How does she do it you might ask? Yup, she skims the page.
In terms of how we interact with knowledge on a daily basis, there is also the fact that instead of reading the textbook pages to help you solve a homework problem, you may google the question and find a quizlet deck with the answer. Most people cannot sit and gather information how they used to, it needs to be quick and snappy and I myself am honestly one of these people as much as I hate to admit it. Will I pick up a book sometime soon, honestly maybe. But as far as this technology goes, as Carr says “I’m not thinking the way I used to think.”
What does this do?
The learning principle from James Paul Gee’s “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning & Literacy” that resonated the most with how I learn, is the probing principle. When I was in middle and high school, our teachers had us take a survey to see what type of learner we are (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.) so they could use that information to help accommodate the class. With these surveys, and this information was by no means new to me, I ended up being a kinesthetic/ visual learner.
This relates to the probing principle in that I need to do something and try it out to then piece the puzzle together. I am also more of a math than English person, and to do math I can’t really explain it, I need to “probe” it and see what happens so I can eventually get to the product. In a video game context, in open world games or rpg’s, etc. you will see me talk to every npc to try and pieces stuff together. At times I don’t even pay attention to tutorials in the games, mainly because a tutorial can only do so much for me. I need to form my own hypothesis or come to my own conclusion by trying it out myself.
As Gee says, probing is to do something and then form a hypothesis based on that, and then do something again. In a video game context if you try and talk to a certain character you might get a piece of the storyline. You keep that information in mind, and talk to another character to see if the story you have in your mind plays out. For the math example, I would try out one method as to how I think I could get the answer. If it doesn’t seem to be working, I adjust. Either I try something new or maybe the original method had me on the right track and I change it a little.
