Reflective Letter
My Portfolio:
Introduction:
When I think of portfolio I think of a stack of never ending essays. I got to do something this semester that changed my way of thinking and changed my writing for the better. In the beginning of the semester professor Mangini asked our class to write down three goals that we want to achieve this semester. I wrote down…
1. Creating a website.
2. Uploading a YouTube video.
3. Understanding Twitter.
I accomplished these three goals. For my Writing, Research, and Technology class I have conducted a website. I never thought I could ever do such a thing since I am not technologically literate at all. But, I have achieved this goal along with uploading YouTube videos and understanding Twitter.
Twitterive:
For the twitterive assignment we had to tweet about a certain place that was special to us. I have only used Twitter once for the class, Introduction to Writing Arts. I wasn’t a big fan of Twitter until I understood it. This class has helped me develop the knowledge of hashtag retweets, and twit pic. Understanding twitter made the twitterive assignment more enjoyable to do. May people don’t see tweeting as a type of writing but for this assignment we used this kind of website writing to develop a project about place. The place that I had and have a connection with is my home. I tweeted a lot about being home or wanting to be home. The processes of this project was to use technology through twitter first then develop a story about your place through your tweets. Learning about Twitter has made me more knowledgeable about different types of social media. It has broaden my horizon for new technology.
stephdibella: Relaxing with my family at home #twitterive
stephdibella Love my bed... #twitterive
stephdibella Ready for some Sunday dinner! #twitterive
stephdibella Finally understanding Twitter! #twitterive
Oral History:
I have learned to conduct an interview from taking this class. I have learned that you need a connection or a friend who has some sort of connection with the topic when interviewing. But, in conducting an interview the most important part is having a person who wants to tell his or her own story. That is the necessity of oral history, someone who wants to pass down their story to you and others and give history to life. From the reading by Cynthia Brown, “Like it was: A Complete Guide to Writing Oral History,” I learned how to conduct an oral history. My job as an interviewer is to tell he or she’s story. I am just not telling a story I am making connections and gathering up feelings/ thoughts. It is my job to make sure I tell the story right and have emotion while telling it because that is what makes oral history special. When choosing someone to interview you have to focus on what type of interview you want or interested in.
For my oral history project I got to work collaboratively with Sarah, Megan, and Kelly. We had to perform two interviews with experts or knowledgeable people in the topic we studied. Our research topic focused on the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian. To find this out we conducted the two interviews, one with a health food store owner and another with a dietitian. Melissa Pickell, R.D is a registered dietitian who owns her own practice in Stockon New Jersey. Her main focus is weight loss, special diets, and health coach. Our second interview was conduct with a health food store owner, Dorothy Boody, one of the co-owners of Health Now, a health food store in Vineland New Jersey.
When conducting these interviews we used a computer and a video camera. We brought two different types of technology into our interviews. From doing the oral history project I learned how to upload interviews to YouTube and upload the YouTube videos to my website. There was tons of revision involved while putting the videos together. Since we were all new learners with the website it took us time to revise to make a final interview. Converting different files and uploading videos has made me become more technologically literate which, helps for the future.
Collaborative Research Project:
I was a vegetarian for five years of my life. I started right when I left high school and before I entered into college. I wanted to eat healthier and save the animals along with the environment. I wanted to make a change to my body inside and out. I wasn’t a vegan but I always tried to buy organic eggs and milk. Having healthy or organic food in your household is a step for a healthier future. I feel the reason why I stopped being a vegetarian about a year ago because I didn’t have the knowledge. I stopped being a vegetarian because I was getting sick often, I had hardly any protein in my diet, and I felt weak. I was doing the vegetarian living for a healthy lifestyle but I didn’t have the knowledge to stick with it. After doing the collaborative research project on the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian I now feel that I have gain the knowledge of the lifestyle. Being a vegetarian has many positives if you have the facts. People who live this lifestyle aren’t just helping themselves but also helping the planet.
The collaborative research project related to the oral history project. I worked in the same collaborative group as the oral history project. Our research question was what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian. While performing my research for this project we read as a class, “Turns of Thought Teaching Composition as Reflexive Inquiry,” by Donna Qualley. This reading taught me a lot about being a reflexive learner vs. a reflective learner. Reflexive is the “other.” Learning something new is about learning the other, putting ourselves into the situation/ the other’s point of view. Can change your view on any situation, we don’t know our point of view until we explore. Being reflexive is being flexibly. Qualley states that she wants us to challenge our thinking and struggle to get our answers. Reflective is about comprehension. Understanding what you already know.
While performing this project I had to work collaboratively, meaning working together, getting other’s input on a subject, group working as one. Knowing the topic in a conversation and adding my input. Collaborative is more talking/ reflecting on our work and others work. We also had to work cooperatively, supportive in my own work and my groups work, supporting each other while working together. Cooperative work is supporting each other but not reflecting on the work. Lastly we worked as coauthors together. We each got to write our own pieces in this project. Our purposes of this project were done independently. Coauthoring is taking experiences from our own life and coauthoring it in a story.
While working together and performing our research we performed in a hierarchical theme, organized in a linear fashion, structured by the roles of each participant, and driven by a goal of accomplishing a task. Assigning roles, members of the group work independently. Collaborative work is always great since it cuts the workload for you but the downfall it setting up times to meet. My group and I knew we couldn’t meet as much as we wanted too. We set up emails and google docs to share information. This was an easier way for all of us to “meet.” Research played a major role in this assignment. In the end we gathered our research and made a mini documentary. With the help of Kelly’s technology skills we successfully learned how to document a mini movie. This assignment was great to do in a group and I liked how the oral history project was combined into as well.
Conclusion:
In the end I really enjoyed this class. I learned lots about technology and improved my different writing skills. Blogging about twice a week and tweeting a couple times a week I feel improved my writing skills. It is silly to say that a tweet or a blog improved my writing but I think any time when someone is writing anything can help improve. If you want to become a good writer, then write. Even website writing helped me by adding my about me and introduction to the website. I am very proud of what my website has turn out to be. I never thought that I would have my own website. I love looking logging on and looking at the work I’ve done. Not only has my writing skills changed from the beginning of class to now but my technology skills have changed dramatically. I now feel that I can teach friends or even my students one day about technology and research. Not only has my technology improved but my research methods have improved. Learning how to conduct interviews and learning different research themes has brought new methods to my learning.
Introduction:
When I think of portfolio I think of a stack of never ending essays. I got to do something this semester that changed my way of thinking and changed my writing for the better. In the beginning of the semester professor Mangini asked our class to write down three goals that we want to achieve this semester. I wrote down…
1. Creating a website.
2. Uploading a YouTube video.
3. Understanding Twitter.
I accomplished these three goals. For my Writing, Research, and Technology class I have conducted a website. I never thought I could ever do such a thing since I am not technologically literate at all. But, I have achieved this goal along with uploading YouTube videos and understanding Twitter.
Twitterive:
For the twitterive assignment we had to tweet about a certain place that was special to us. I have only used Twitter once for the class, Introduction to Writing Arts. I wasn’t a big fan of Twitter until I understood it. This class has helped me develop the knowledge of hashtag retweets, and twit pic. Understanding twitter made the twitterive assignment more enjoyable to do. May people don’t see tweeting as a type of writing but for this assignment we used this kind of website writing to develop a project about place. The place that I had and have a connection with is my home. I tweeted a lot about being home or wanting to be home. The processes of this project was to use technology through twitter first then develop a story about your place through your tweets. Learning about Twitter has made me more knowledgeable about different types of social media. It has broaden my horizon for new technology.
stephdibella: Relaxing with my family at home #twitterive
stephdibella Love my bed... #twitterive
stephdibella Ready for some Sunday dinner! #twitterive
stephdibella Finally understanding Twitter! #twitterive
Oral History:
I have learned to conduct an interview from taking this class. I have learned that you need a connection or a friend who has some sort of connection with the topic when interviewing. But, in conducting an interview the most important part is having a person who wants to tell his or her own story. That is the necessity of oral history, someone who wants to pass down their story to you and others and give history to life. From the reading by Cynthia Brown, “Like it was: A Complete Guide to Writing Oral History,” I learned how to conduct an oral history. My job as an interviewer is to tell he or she’s story. I am just not telling a story I am making connections and gathering up feelings/ thoughts. It is my job to make sure I tell the story right and have emotion while telling it because that is what makes oral history special. When choosing someone to interview you have to focus on what type of interview you want or interested in.
For my oral history project I got to work collaboratively with Sarah, Megan, and Kelly. We had to perform two interviews with experts or knowledgeable people in the topic we studied. Our research topic focused on the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian. To find this out we conducted the two interviews, one with a health food store owner and another with a dietitian. Melissa Pickell, R.D is a registered dietitian who owns her own practice in Stockon New Jersey. Her main focus is weight loss, special diets, and health coach. Our second interview was conduct with a health food store owner, Dorothy Boody, one of the co-owners of Health Now, a health food store in Vineland New Jersey.
When conducting these interviews we used a computer and a video camera. We brought two different types of technology into our interviews. From doing the oral history project I learned how to upload interviews to YouTube and upload the YouTube videos to my website. There was tons of revision involved while putting the videos together. Since we were all new learners with the website it took us time to revise to make a final interview. Converting different files and uploading videos has made me become more technologically literate which, helps for the future.
Collaborative Research Project:
I was a vegetarian for five years of my life. I started right when I left high school and before I entered into college. I wanted to eat healthier and save the animals along with the environment. I wanted to make a change to my body inside and out. I wasn’t a vegan but I always tried to buy organic eggs and milk. Having healthy or organic food in your household is a step for a healthier future. I feel the reason why I stopped being a vegetarian about a year ago because I didn’t have the knowledge. I stopped being a vegetarian because I was getting sick often, I had hardly any protein in my diet, and I felt weak. I was doing the vegetarian living for a healthy lifestyle but I didn’t have the knowledge to stick with it. After doing the collaborative research project on the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian I now feel that I have gain the knowledge of the lifestyle. Being a vegetarian has many positives if you have the facts. People who live this lifestyle aren’t just helping themselves but also helping the planet.
The collaborative research project related to the oral history project. I worked in the same collaborative group as the oral history project. Our research question was what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a vegetarian. While performing my research for this project we read as a class, “Turns of Thought Teaching Composition as Reflexive Inquiry,” by Donna Qualley. This reading taught me a lot about being a reflexive learner vs. a reflective learner. Reflexive is the “other.” Learning something new is about learning the other, putting ourselves into the situation/ the other’s point of view. Can change your view on any situation, we don’t know our point of view until we explore. Being reflexive is being flexibly. Qualley states that she wants us to challenge our thinking and struggle to get our answers. Reflective is about comprehension. Understanding what you already know.
While performing this project I had to work collaboratively, meaning working together, getting other’s input on a subject, group working as one. Knowing the topic in a conversation and adding my input. Collaborative is more talking/ reflecting on our work and others work. We also had to work cooperatively, supportive in my own work and my groups work, supporting each other while working together. Cooperative work is supporting each other but not reflecting on the work. Lastly we worked as coauthors together. We each got to write our own pieces in this project. Our purposes of this project were done independently. Coauthoring is taking experiences from our own life and coauthoring it in a story.
While working together and performing our research we performed in a hierarchical theme, organized in a linear fashion, structured by the roles of each participant, and driven by a goal of accomplishing a task. Assigning roles, members of the group work independently. Collaborative work is always great since it cuts the workload for you but the downfall it setting up times to meet. My group and I knew we couldn’t meet as much as we wanted too. We set up emails and google docs to share information. This was an easier way for all of us to “meet.” Research played a major role in this assignment. In the end we gathered our research and made a mini documentary. With the help of Kelly’s technology skills we successfully learned how to document a mini movie. This assignment was great to do in a group and I liked how the oral history project was combined into as well.
Conclusion:
In the end I really enjoyed this class. I learned lots about technology and improved my different writing skills. Blogging about twice a week and tweeting a couple times a week I feel improved my writing skills. It is silly to say that a tweet or a blog improved my writing but I think any time when someone is writing anything can help improve. If you want to become a good writer, then write. Even website writing helped me by adding my about me and introduction to the website. I am very proud of what my website has turn out to be. I never thought that I would have my own website. I love looking logging on and looking at the work I’ve done. Not only has my writing skills changed from the beginning of class to now but my technology skills have changed dramatically. I now feel that I can teach friends or even my students one day about technology and research. Not only has my technology improved but my research methods have improved. Learning how to conduct interviews and learning different research themes has brought new methods to my learning.
