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| 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.
