Future Student,
As it was my time to register for Writing,Research and Technology my main focus was not to register for Professor Wolf's class because rumors unleashed that each student was required to have a YouTube account. Unfortunately, his class was the only one that fit into my overwhelming schedule. I knew I had to bite my tongue and just get over my fear of exposing my thoughts and emotions via video camera. As winter break quickly came to an end I received an email from Professor Mangini stating a room change for our Writing, Research and Technology class. I closed that email with an ear to ear grin knowing I wouldn't have to create a YouTube account which means I wouldn't have to push my boundaries. Little did I know the boundaries and restrictions Professor Mangini was going to force me to break.
ALL ABOUT THE WRITING
Throughout this semester, I was exposed to multi-genre writing such as poetry, blogging, solo/collaborative, and even tweeting. As an individual, I was forced to pour into my creative side, which I must say is not very large, and pull out new ways of looking at writing. As my Writing Arts college career progressed I viewed writing as collegiate papers and/or creative writing whether it is poetry or a story. Everything I completed was very literal, paper and pen (or Microsoft Word) finished piece. Writing, Research and Technology broke the mold for me because I was able to unleash and form a creative side for myself due to the fact all of my projects and assignments were expressed via personal website.
Along with producing a website, a style of writing I never considered, we weren't given proper directions or guidelines for any of our projects. Do not get me wrong, we had different components that must be in our finished products but Professor Mangini wanted us to express whatever we felt. Now, I must tell you I did not accept this way of teaching in the beginning but that is because I was never exposed to it. Professor Mangini really allowed his students to dig deep inside themselves and develop their own style and own direction with his help and suggestions along the way. Even though I didn't have to create a YouTube account I was forced to break the traditional mold I have been practicing and find my own confidence in my writing whether it was thinking outside the box or expressing these new ideas.
ALL ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The research aspect of the semester was my least favorite part of this class. I feel like you are the type of person who loves research or hates research. Unfortunately, I am one of those individuals who hate research. The difference about research for this class was strictly through our own experiences. Thankfully, we were not required to go to the library's database and research five peer-edited journals.
It seems like Professor Mangini wants to make learning fun for his students while keeping it informative. As a class we had to break up into groups and research a health topic of our choice. The topic that each group chose was integrated within our Oral History Project and Collaboration Research Project. Allowing us to choose our own groups and topics made the experience more exciting. The main issue my group had was "time". The timing of this assignment in general was bad for me because of the work load of other classes began to weigh-in to my free time. Even though we were given the opportunity to have class time to conduct interviews and research it was hard to get our interviewees schedule to align with our own.
During the Collaboration Research Project, it was evident that my group took the hierarchical approach of collaboration which requires each individual to have their own role within the group. Once you complete your own role you come together as a group and share your results with each other. I believe my group took on this approach due to the time constraint that we had.
Overall, it seems like I disliked this section of the class strictly because of the time constraint we had on our research. If my group and the interviewees we selected had more of a flexible schedule it would have made the experience more enjoyable. But hey, that is what makes life interesting.
ALL ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
Before this class I did not realize how much I enjoy the use of certain types of technology. The requirement for this class was to develop an individual website using Weebly that will be used to express all of our work throughout the semester. I enjoyed creating this website by selecting my own color scheme, layout, and theme. I was able to express my emotions through my choice of colors and fonts. The only frustration I had with Weebly was the inability to change fonts throughout the website. I was strictly forced to two fonts in which I made work for all of my projects.
The Twitterive assignment was a project I thought I would never accomplish. Through the explanation of the project and the lack of step by step directions I felt lost and confused. Little did I know, I was able to create an interesting project that became my favorite Writing Arts assignment throughout my college career.
In order to complete the Twitterive assignment we were forced into signing up for a Twitter account where we must tweet daily about some sense of place. I was introduced to Twitter during my Intro to Writing Arts class, which I developed a large hate for the whole social media website. Through this semester I developed a love/hate relationship because I was able to develop an interesting piece of writing. This Twitterive assignment allowed me to view the different ways I am able to develop inspiration for my future writing.
The course blog was easy and interesting for the first half of the semester. I enjoyed the assignments we were asked to blog about. This was the stability and direction for the class I was hoping for. Once we were asked to blog about our own topics I fell apart. I had no interesting topics to share. I found myself babbling about nothing but isn't that what blogs are for? I don't understand why I felt this intimidation towards my blog.
Overall, the class was a great experience. I have developed new branches of creativity I can pull from to enhance my writing in future courses. This specific class was fun, intimidating and time consuming but well worth it. If I could give you, the future student of WRT, one source of advice would be...... STAY ON TOP OF ALL OF YOUR ASSIGNMENTS!!! Once you fall behind, you will struggle to get back on track.
ALL ABOUT THE WRITING
Throughout this semester, I was exposed to multi-genre writing such as poetry, blogging, solo/collaborative, and even tweeting. As an individual, I was forced to pour into my creative side, which I must say is not very large, and pull out new ways of looking at writing. As my Writing Arts college career progressed I viewed writing as collegiate papers and/or creative writing whether it is poetry or a story. Everything I completed was very literal, paper and pen (or Microsoft Word) finished piece. Writing, Research and Technology broke the mold for me because I was able to unleash and form a creative side for myself due to the fact all of my projects and assignments were expressed via personal website.
Along with producing a website, a style of writing I never considered, we weren't given proper directions or guidelines for any of our projects. Do not get me wrong, we had different components that must be in our finished products but Professor Mangini wanted us to express whatever we felt. Now, I must tell you I did not accept this way of teaching in the beginning but that is because I was never exposed to it. Professor Mangini really allowed his students to dig deep inside themselves and develop their own style and own direction with his help and suggestions along the way. Even though I didn't have to create a YouTube account I was forced to break the traditional mold I have been practicing and find my own confidence in my writing whether it was thinking outside the box or expressing these new ideas.
ALL ABOUT THE RESEARCH
The research aspect of the semester was my least favorite part of this class. I feel like you are the type of person who loves research or hates research. Unfortunately, I am one of those individuals who hate research. The difference about research for this class was strictly through our own experiences. Thankfully, we were not required to go to the library's database and research five peer-edited journals.
It seems like Professor Mangini wants to make learning fun for his students while keeping it informative. As a class we had to break up into groups and research a health topic of our choice. The topic that each group chose was integrated within our Oral History Project and Collaboration Research Project. Allowing us to choose our own groups and topics made the experience more exciting. The main issue my group had was "time". The timing of this assignment in general was bad for me because of the work load of other classes began to weigh-in to my free time. Even though we were given the opportunity to have class time to conduct interviews and research it was hard to get our interviewees schedule to align with our own.
During the Collaboration Research Project, it was evident that my group took the hierarchical approach of collaboration which requires each individual to have their own role within the group. Once you complete your own role you come together as a group and share your results with each other. I believe my group took on this approach due to the time constraint that we had.
Overall, it seems like I disliked this section of the class strictly because of the time constraint we had on our research. If my group and the interviewees we selected had more of a flexible schedule it would have made the experience more enjoyable. But hey, that is what makes life interesting.
ALL ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY
Before this class I did not realize how much I enjoy the use of certain types of technology. The requirement for this class was to develop an individual website using Weebly that will be used to express all of our work throughout the semester. I enjoyed creating this website by selecting my own color scheme, layout, and theme. I was able to express my emotions through my choice of colors and fonts. The only frustration I had with Weebly was the inability to change fonts throughout the website. I was strictly forced to two fonts in which I made work for all of my projects.
The Twitterive assignment was a project I thought I would never accomplish. Through the explanation of the project and the lack of step by step directions I felt lost and confused. Little did I know, I was able to create an interesting project that became my favorite Writing Arts assignment throughout my college career.
In order to complete the Twitterive assignment we were forced into signing up for a Twitter account where we must tweet daily about some sense of place. I was introduced to Twitter during my Intro to Writing Arts class, which I developed a large hate for the whole social media website. Through this semester I developed a love/hate relationship because I was able to develop an interesting piece of writing. This Twitterive assignment allowed me to view the different ways I am able to develop inspiration for my future writing.
The course blog was easy and interesting for the first half of the semester. I enjoyed the assignments we were asked to blog about. This was the stability and direction for the class I was hoping for. Once we were asked to blog about our own topics I fell apart. I had no interesting topics to share. I found myself babbling about nothing but isn't that what blogs are for? I don't understand why I felt this intimidation towards my blog.
Overall, the class was a great experience. I have developed new branches of creativity I can pull from to enhance my writing in future courses. This specific class was fun, intimidating and time consuming but well worth it. If I could give you, the future student of WRT, one source of advice would be...... STAY ON TOP OF ALL OF YOUR ASSIGNMENTS!!! Once you fall behind, you will struggle to get back on track.
