1. On the first day of CT101, I thought the Prof. was chill and he had a sense of humor. The class was going to be easy and chill. After all, this class is not like other classes where there are deadlines and the homework would be different because the class is based on media and its tools.

2. I liked hearing about the course because I felt that it could be useful when I want to build an online identity, whether for business or content reasons. It made me feel confused because I was unsure of what the class entailed and how I imagined what the classwork/homework was somewhat different. For example, when reading the course description and mentioning “build an online identity” and “narrate”, I thought of voiceovers through pictures and videos to tell stories. I see I was wrong because instead of voiceovers or showing our faces, we use pictures and videos to express something.

3. Compared to my other classes, CT101 is not heavily lectured or requires a lot of reading. However, since this class is easygoing, it will be easy for me to fall behind. If I give myself deadlines for this class and stick to them, I will be fine. I want to be sure I am caught up with what is happening in class and know how to do my assignments.

4. The creative potentials of this class are learning how to make my edits and incorporate edits and designs to expand on a topic. Overall, I will be capable of creating endless ideas for materials based on social media purposes.

          Giphy (left)                  Imgur (right)

5. Learning new skills that use Internet tools is interesting and would take me some time to navigate. With Imgur, I thought it was straightforward. I felt that way because I was creating a meme instead of a gif. When I realized this, I was lost because I did not know where and how to turn my picture into a gif. With Giphy, it was easier because the site told me that the picture was still a picture and showed me the options to turn it into a gif. From there, I was able to make the gif. I do not know if it is because I did not know how to navigate Imgur, but it seems as if Giphy gives more options to be creative (I have the option to add stickers, effects, and more). Overall, creating my gifs for the first time was surprisingly easy. I went on Google to look for a certain emotion, uploaded the pictures to Giphy, and then turned them into gifs.

6. When I read the article “A Brief History of the GIF, From Early Internet Innovation to Ubiquitous Relic”, the first thing that shocked me was that gifs were created 30 years ago. I thought they were more recent (less than 10 years ago). Jason Eppink stated, “Before, Gifs were dressing up the content” but now “the Gif itself has become the destination”. This quote made me wonder how long gifs will have relevance. It is obvious that gifs are not going anywhere any time soon, but how long until there is an end to them?

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