Jann's final reflection

     I have been raised in the digital culture but never really paid attention to it. For me, the digital world was something that was always there but the inner workings of it was a mystery. This class brought to light and broken down the changes and advances digital technology have been through. This class is like the first drop in the bucket of knowledge of digital technology.
     Technology continues to change and evolve in an exponential speed. Most of the digital applications we covered in class I wasn't familiar with. I have blogged during my early days in undergrad but havent continued it. I have continued to read blogs that have things I am interested in and have used the information provided by them in my life. I have to admit i am not a fan of twitter because of the oversharing. I dont need to know that you are "taking a shower" or "of to the Bronx zoo". This problem is not only with twitter but is a general problem online. The oversharing culture that is fostered by digital technology has negative effects. Gossiping, venting frustrations and sharing of inappropriate pictures online has gotten people in trouble. For example, businesses look into their employees websites to keep an eye on them or dig up information on them that could get them in to trouble or worse, fired. I do think that jing and prezi are great tools and they are something I will use again. I like jing for its ability to capture anything online or show using a video how to do a task. I really like prezi because it makes a presentation very unique with its zooming capablity and posting videos right on the presentation. For teaching, i think it would be interesting to create daily lessons to show in class or lesson overview for students to view at home. One of the things that struck me when I was working on our final project is how time consuming and how much hard work went behind the making of the video. the problems you encounter with sound, video quality or editing. It puts the videos we see on youtube and other websites in perspective. The authors of these videos have put a great deal of time and energy to put out a product.
     I have always been a visual learner. If i see something then I am more likely to retain it. I liked the videos assigned in our syllabus. It brought different aspects of our texts into the visual realm. I think it is a powerful was to bring content to different types of learners, especially as the educational environment moves more online. Smart-boards, cheaper laptops and desktops, and cheap fast internet access allows the digital environment to be in the hands of more people than ever before. this opens the door for more catered learning and to bring in outside materials to help students.
     I do think digital text is revolutionary in the sense it brings in outside materials to aid knowledge. You can link, tag, add videos and other materials to text and enrich the readers experience. It really allows for the reader to get more out of the text than just the words and its content. Digital text allows the writer to play around with different type of fonts and visual images in order to solidify their point of view. It is also cheaper to purschase digital text such as ebooks and that way it is available to more people. This doesnt mean printed text is irrelevant. I think printed text is very good for reading academic papers. Texts in blogs or newspapers are often shorter than academic papers and i am an avid reader of these sort of digital text. For academic papers or longer pieces of work i still prefor hardcopies. All the readings for this class i printed it out because i still like the interaction between the page and reader. I like to underline and make notes on the side. Maybe an application exsists out there that allows for this but so far i havent found it. another problem is the computer screen. Staring at it for hours to read takes a toll on my eyes.
     The future is just filled with new digital advances and we have to figure out tactics to deal with the changes. Digital text and digital technology opens up many gateways to learning and leads to hurdles. One of the things this course has taught me is that there is so much thought, propaganda and business behind the internet. It is not just an open universe, distant from our physical world. it is a reflection of our physical world: filled with the same or similar dangers and ideologies. This course has allowed me to begin to see the content online more than just its face value.  For example remix culture, which ping pongs between original craft and plagiarism. It walks a fine line between the two and it is something I began to understand because of this class.