Digital Reflections

My Superhero Self
www.marvel.com

Looking back into this past semester I am delighted that I chose the Writing, Literacy and Technology course at UCF.  It can be said that my use of technology wasn’t that of the amateur, but by no means was I taking advantage of the many opportunities the digital world offered me.  By this I mean in knowledge, or even awareness of how it affects every aspect of my life and the many ways I can use it to my advantage.  The readings assigned were helpful to understand the direction of the course overall, but what was most essential for me as a student were the class discussions. 

In Week-1, there was a heavy focus on Bruno Latour and his Sociology of a Door.  Reading this article was like reading stereo instructions, in French.  Latour became quite a fixture for the course, but only through lectures and fellow classmates who understood his point did I appreciate the meaning of a material object replacing human effort.  I found Marc Prensky to be an easier read, but mostly because I understood the concept of digital immigrant versus digital native.  I felt I was a part the immigrant world being forced to learn new technologies in order to adapt to the ever changing advances even on a basic level (like changing the settings on my iPhone), whereas for my kids it was almost innate.  However, the bonus this semester was that I found through the many projects I wasn’t such foreigner after all.  I firmly believe that if the desire to understand is there, then learning a new technology will come much easier.

I was fortunate that my last name placed me in a fabulous group simply fashioned alphabetically.  Having always dreaded the group project for the universal reasons of those not pulling their weight, not being available, blah, blah, blah - I truly had a cohesive unit willing to work together.  Our presentation on digital identity was based predominantly on our understanding of Mark Dixon’s Identity Map. The premise of his article is that each individual’s digital identity is constructed on our core identity.  What makes me unique (like everybody else) are my core elements, such as reputation, knowledge, experience, my many roles in life and relationships, to name a few.  It is because of these many components an identity thief is only able to steal the attributes that represent me. What a relief!  Not necessarily to my credit rating should it happen, but the notion offers a little more peace of mind.

The project assignments for the class challenged me to gain literacies I intend to expand on in order to succeed as a writer in the twenty-first century.  Project 1 required me to write about how digital technology has affected my life, my Digital Autobiography.  Choosing the current format I’m using now, a blog, ended up being the perfect arena to translate my life digitally. Recalling the many technologies I encountered within my oh-so-short lifetime was an eye-opener for me, but not as much as learning how to make the blog work for me to share the story.  I was enabled by this knowledge to bring my reader into my world by outsourcing key points of my discourse through hyperlinks. What’s ironic is I’ve always been one to look things up to either gain a better understanding of what I’m reading, or writing, and stopping immediately to do so. What a convenience hyperlink is for a reader like me.

Project 2 was to create a web page to explore transliteracy, studying a text as it has transferred across various forms of media.  I chose to research Bram Stoker’s Dracula with a focus on authorship while highlighting intertextuality (and not just because it’s fun to say).  I used Ellyssa Kroski’s guidance from her blog, as well as class lecture for understanding of authorship.  It can both flattering and distressing to see your work transformed into someone else’s model of what they want it to be whether it’s named remix, parody, adaptation or appropriation.  As far as creating a web page, I explored the free web hosting sites and chose the most user-friendly.   I’ve never been one to read a manual, even in the days of yore (i.e. before the internet), so being a trial-n-error gal I successfully created a site that embodied my focus and my digital self.   I did this through the my use of language, research, experience with the blog creation as well as simply choosing fonts, photos and colors that appealed to me.

My latest, Project 3, introduced me to transmedia where it was now my turn to remix.  Although the concept was to take a text and remix it into a form of digital media such as video, comic strip or audio, I chose to create an animated video about how I researched my text.  I wrote a paper last semester on an eighteenth-century novel, The Coquette, and was essentially forced to use an online library database for ease of research.  Therefore, my focus was on how I utilized my foraging-for-information internet skills, as well as the acquisition of a new literacy with the epistolary format.  And since then, it has been my goal to write a fiction piece that incorporates journals or email messages as it seems letter writing is unfortunately losing it's value.  The animated video enabled me to manipulate my character’s actions and incorporate my actual voice, both of which allowed me to integrate my sense of humor through personalization.  I was limited with the free service I chose, so I signed up for a free trial that allowed greater opportunities with the use of characters with the pretense I would pay a fee after a month’s time.  It was truly a great project and I will no doubt be creating more videos just for fun.

So, I decided when I grow up I want to be a writer, but more importantly I want to enjoy what I do.  In this class I learned how technology has changed the face of writing and I am armed with the skills I need to write a blog, create a web page or even design an animated cartoon to get my point across. In fact, I have already put my web literacy skills to work making a web site for a club I'm starting at my daughter's school. My eyes are now open to the nuances of digital media and it's impact on my social experience I have through its use. I am more confident in expanding my digital identity, allowing me to play a bigger role in the ever changing world of technology. 

Who You Callin' Old?

It has been twelve years since I worked as a Marketing Manager at the Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach. My last day was July 16, 1999. In fact, it has been twelve years since I had any job working for The Man, if you will. I worked as a travel agent from home for a while, and then there was that family business where we bought a Subway franchise with my in-laws. (Yea, don’t do that.) However, I chose the route of the stay at home mom and never looked back until August of 2009 when my family moved to Orlando. 

So the plan was for my husband to attend law school and I would get a job since all the kids were finally in school anyway. It would seem that being a full time housewife and mother doesn’t qualify you for anything. No, really…it doesn’t.  I finally did get one interview at the new Hilton on International Drive for a Marketing Manager. Oh boy, I can do that! All I need to do is brush up on my desktop publishing and do a little research about this new hotel before I get there.  My interviewer saw that dazed look in my eyes when he asked me my experience with eMarketing.  According to Alan Charlesworth, “Internet marketing ties together the creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales.” Wish I had that little nugget beforehand.  Marketing was no longer simply creating sleek brochures and direct-mail pieces, which I of course brought with me in my fancy portfolio. It was now all about how to get greater exposure on the WorldWide Web.

Well, I didn’t get the job needless to say. As this did nothing to boost my spirits or ego, I got to thinking about going back to school. Yea, if I get finally get my bachelor’s degree I can get a job for sure! I decided to start small and went to the Valencia Community College in the spring of 2009. A little trivia, your GPA from college way back when stays with you for all eternity. In my school endeavor, I came across WebCT for my summer online classes; or if a professor didn’t like that program, they could use Blackboard – oh yea, even better. So began the juggling act of figuring out the two programs so I could simply know what my assignments were, where and how to submit my work, and learning to take a timed test with the hopes that my internet connection wouldn’t sever with the summer storm. I prevailed. Even when one professor wanted to do online conferencing with the class every Tuesday, I prevailed. I didn’t go to the help page, mostly because I’m tough like that, but went back to my trial and error method I used in the past. 

When I moved on to UCF the following spring, I didn’t take any online classes, however two of my classes called for postings on Blackboard. Fortunately it wasn’t too different than what I used at Valencia, so navigating through the system has been pretty easy from the beginning. I understand how to use all the tools on the system, or at least the ones I need. This past summer I took three online classes, and now have two in the fall. I have come to enjoy the freedom that online access to education provides me; it’s my equivalent to telecommuting to work. I am still faced with the challenge of what I want to do when I grow up, but at least I feel better equipped because of the technology I have had access to each step of the way.

Finally Got a Piece of the Pie

My view everyday.

It’s a beautiful day if you are driving across the Julia Tuttle Causeway over Biscayne Bay towards Miami Beach where your dream job awaits.  That was me beginning in 1996 when I became employed at the famous Fontainebleau Hilton, where the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack once hung out.  I was fortunate to become the Executive Secretary for the Director of Sales & Marketing, with the goal of become the Marketing Manager.  I already established my skills in creativity and advertising, which promoted me from the Public Relations secretarial position I was originally hired for after three months.  I was utilizing the basic Microsoft Office programs to create in-house advertising items with simple manipulation of Microsoft Word. It wasn’t until a new Assistant Director of Public Relations was hired that my eyes were opened to the desktop publishing world. 



Heather previously worked for a magazine that used Quark Xpress for their publication.  The first time she demonstrated its design capabilities, I was hooked.  Being a Windows application in our office, I convinced the IT person to let me “borrow” the program for my home computer to practice (our little secret).  My husband and I had recently purchased our first home computer in 1997, a Compaq Deskpro.  Sadly, that would mean that I was almost 27 before my own home moved into the age of computer technology.  It came with a free scanner, too - score!  Nevertheless, I once again devoted myself into learning how to use a new software program with daily discoveries of what it could do for my creative liberties.  I went from getting basic projects where I stuck a photo of the resort in the corner of a guest room announcement, to designing full color resort brochures that were normally reserved for an outside advertising agency.  

Someone famous once said, “With great power,comes great responsibility.”  Don't I know it!  It wasn’t long before my services were offered to other departments within the resort.  I was creating menus for many of the seven restaurants, revamping the catering department’s menu, designing a new program and brochure for the kid’s activity center, and many other projects.  The biggest project I received was organizing the renovated spa’s advertising which included mailers, in-house pamphlets, photo shoots and video production. I worked with the advertising agency, but I had become the lead contact.  I have to admit that my learning a desktop publishing software program paved a career path I didn’t think possible.  Needless to say, I earned the coveted title of Marketing Manager within the first six months of my three years at the hotel, and free parking, too.   

Glorified Brown Noser

Getting a ‘real’ job in the early 90’s for me essentially meant I didn’t have to deal with the general population.  I liked that. I got a job as a receptionist for a real estate development company while being a very part-time student at the community college.  I of course, answered the telephone, greeted anyone who entered, and made lots of coffee. Aside from that, I pretty much stared into the vast emptiness of the lobby.  Never being content with just simply taking up space, I started fiddling with the computer that seemed to be just for looks next to my desk. I don’t recall the kind, but it wasn’t the same outdated Apple IIe at home.  I am delighted to add that the parents finally upgraded to a Packard Bell by the end of the 80’s.  You know the one that PC World named as the worst PC of all time in 2007. 

So, rather than using the typewriter stationed at my desk, I started using the computer to do labels for hundreds of file folders.  Unexciting for my reader, but thrilling for me at the time.  The word processing software was WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, which I was entirely unfamiliar.  I began to dedicate my working hours to learning the program.  I refused to touch the typewriter at this point and arranged to have the computer take its place.  There was only one secretary for the two owners, so she gladly handed over things for me to do, but never had time to teach me how to do any of them on the computer.  I soon realized that the software was programmed to make formatting letters or forms easier with drop-down menus – there were presentation enhancing options that didn’t require remembering function keys! I made my way around the office, asking to type letters or update old forms. Being the Geek that I am, I aligned margins, I italicized, I formatted tables, and I manipulated fonts.  Then I discovered the mail-merge process within the software.  It wasn’t long before everyone in the office came to me to handle their projects, especially those with mailers to hundreds of clients.  This is when I came to the realization that because I had taken the initiative to acquire skills above the expectations of my job, I had a reason to ask for a raise. Cha-Ching!

Essence of Geek

High school was at best, the worst.  However, there were a few classes that I did enjoy such as Computer Science.  It was 1989 and learning how to write my own programs was all the rage, that and acid wash jeans.  Creating algorithms that bring your computer screen to life was pretty cool stuff as far as I was concerned.  Being the overachiever, I created a program that would slowly bring the Apple logo piece by piece to the screen, and with its many colors of course.   Fortunately for me, our school didn’t have the greatest budget for this program, so we were using the same outdated Apple IIe I had at home. By this time, I logged many hours on my adventure games; but more importantly, I could type with greater speed and navigate through the operating system. 

Being the science that it is, I experimented my many theories using a computer language that would not only provide color, but shape of the apple.  According to Donald Knuth, Computer Scientist at Stanford University:

"The programmer must translate the algorithm into a language

that the simulator/computer/computor can effectively execute."

I painstakingly worked out each algorithm with the trial and error method. Meaning, after creating each equation and recording it into the computer, I would RUN the program hoping for the desired effect. In this process, I essentially gained a better understanding of how to manipulate the computer's dialect.  Needless to say, I was successful in my quest and received an 'A' for the assignment.  I must say, I would be super excited to have the disk that I recorded my program on, however I would be hard pressed to find a computer to accomodate a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

My first time with a computer was right around the year 1984.  It was a good year.  My step-mother came home with an Apple IIe because her company was sold, leaving computers up for grabs. It was the obiligatory ecru-cream color  that all units were then and rather chunky when compared to today’s models.  I specifically remember turning on the computer because I had to wait for what seemed like an eternity for it start.  Not sure what my hurry may have been, but patience has never been one of my many, many virtures.  At the time, my Dad was the computer whiz of the family, but mostly because he knew how to turn it on.  He would encourage me to type one of my many stories I liked to write.  For a fourteen year old who spent most of her time outside, climbing the neighbor's tree for sanctuary to write creatively, learning to use a keyboard with letters not in any particular order was daunting at best.  It would take forever just to type up a paragraph with the hunt-n-peck method, and then there's the Apple Dot Matrix printer.  That was a novelty in itself and I can still hear the painful sounds it made.  I did keep trying to use the computer as a means of getting my stories on paper, but needed the ninth grade typing class to pick up the pace. Yes, they actually had typing classes in my day.  It could be said that by transfering my stories from my notebook to paper helped in organizing the structure of my story.  I was able to navigate back and forth through my "writing," not to mention the ease of tapping the delete button to make changes; this is opposed to scratching out what I wrote or starting over. 

There were a few games on the computer, however I mostly had fun with the role-playing games like the Odyssey: The Compleat Apventure.  It was an adventure game where I had to read a story and make decisions for my character that I liked most.  Would he open the door at the bottom of the staircase, or continue on the path that led to yet another locked door? It was a new way for me to read at the time considering I could usually be found with my nose in a book - even in that tree.  However, this was different, I got to respond when asked “What would you like to do?”  I was in control (which I like anyway) of my gaming destiny. These games were pretty much out-dated and replaced with better graphics before my full acclimation, but I was on a roll!  So began my fascination with the computer world.