Final Post

Answers to the final questions:

1. The most surprising part of investigating digital literacy is how much I actually didn't know. There is a huge digital world out there, and for some reason, I felt like I knew a lot about that world. However, through this course, I realized my digital literacy was very basic and I have learned to expand it. I also found it kind of surprising that there are many people just like me that do not know a whole lot about the digital world. It is important for us to learn, however, because the world is a digital world and it's only going to get more so that way.

2. The most challenging part of the course for me was realizing that I am not as digitally literate as I thought I was. Like I said early, I know the basics, but there's a huge world of digital literacy out there and I still need to learn in order to keep up with the fast pace of that world. I felt at times like I had great ideas but I often struggled with how to put those ideas into use in the digital world because I have such a lack of literacy. That became frustrating at times for me because I wanted everyone to see my great ideas but I couldn't execute them without some sort of help from other individuals or instruction manuals.

3. My proudest accomplishment would have to be that I feel like my digital literacy, through the group work and class time where we shared, has advanced in such a way that it will be of great use to me. I feel like I can do a lot more on my own when it comes to computer programs and such. I enjoy trying to figure out programs by myself, but sometimes it gets frustrating. Something that I know now that I didn't know before is that powerpoint isn't always the best way to present a topic to a classroom setting. I've always been taught to use powerpoint for presentations, however, now after learning some of these programs, I feel like my presentations could have been enhanced and shown better if they were in like moviemaker for example. Yes, those programs take more time to set up, but the quality of the product you are showing will also increase. I can actually work a program like Windows Movie Maker now which I definitely couldn't learn before. I can also go online and find fun cool games that I wouldn't have even known where to start looking for. Also, some of the topics that were brought up in class for the "Things you didn't know" project, such as the library of books website can be helpful in other classes.

4. What I have learned in this class will definitely affect me in my other classes when giving presentations. I get kind of excited thinking about how much better my presentations will be than the other students (haha)! Also, in a work scene, I think this class and all we learned to develop our digital literacy more will help me in whatever job I will have. Also, blogging is my new form of journal writing. I didn't know there were actually places you could go (like this website) to write out different blogs. I enjoy writing in a journal but I hate the mechanical writing part of it. I am on a computer most the day so it is just easier and quicker for me to type what I'm feeling or trying to say! This class has really been beneficial for me in many ways!