As I reflect back on my semester in J198, a reoccurring theme is how much I thought I knew going in. I am a very modern thinking/tech savvy person. I grew up in this age of extreme media along with the rest of my generation. We are currently living in a whirlwind of technologically advancement. I figured I knew a lot of what was going on, but I didn’t.
I was active on MySpace and now Facebook. I wake up and check the local and national news. My TV is usually set on ESPN. I have a good feel of how information spreads. I can honestly say that I learn a great deal of information in this course.
The class opened me up to a lot of social media tools, but also showed me how to go more in depth with some I was already familiar with. For example, I had dabbled in Twitter before I enrolled in the course but it was mainly just to comment on things and send snide remarks to my friends. The power of it can be displayed just recently with the death of Osama bin Laden. You know where the first place I heard the news? Yup. Twitter.
I gained skills in movie making and publishing. I had done some projects like this before, but one key gift I gained from the class was an eye for style. Now when I see video, especially news stories and commercials, I pay attention to the style. When you break it down and look at it, they all pretty much share many of the same concepts. I recorded pod casts and created slideshows. I learned how to shamelessly plug my work to create awareness.
I really appreciated using things I didn’t know about. Tools like Storify and Weebly, I had no experience with, but was really impressed with how user friendly they are.
In summary the class was truly did introduce to me some new ways of connecting with people and the ability to relay information through more mediums.
My group website LVfit turned out great. I had a great partner and a great community to work with. I was impressed with what the Lehigh Valley had to offer and how helpful the community was. It fined tuned my abilities to use the tools we had been using all year. Outside of this, i’ll even say it helped with my social skills. Connecting and contacting people for meetings, interviews, etc. can be difficult but I definitely gained some experience this semester getting the website started.
When evaluating myself, I think I did a good job with all of the projects and labs. There was not anything the whole year that I felt bad in that respect. I really enjoy the projects and labs that forced me to learn more about the area. I found that to be very beneficial. The one challenge I struggled with down the stretch was my blog. I started off strong and motivated, but by the end I lost touch. I can’t really pinpoint the problem because I would still say I am very interested in the topic. I have dealt with blogs before and they are not really I have gotten into. Besides this challenge, I think I handled the workload well.
I would like to give special thanks to my partner Christine and the rest of the class You could really tell they put a lot of time and effort into these projects and it showed. Also would like to thank Professor Littau. He truly is passionate and knowledgeable about the subject. He made the class interesting by using variety and diversity in the tools and assignments.
-Josh Fitch
