So far I think I’ve learned a lot more in this course than I thought I would. Initially, I joined because I thought it would be interesting to discover what it was like to be in a class with a professor who has a perfect score on rate my professor and to see what has changed in the field of communications since I got my first degree. I think my first two posts were weak compared to my more recent posts. I wasn’t quite sure of what to put hyperlinks-wise because I didn’t make a habit of reading blogs back in the day. Even when I was a kid scrolling the internet freely, I wasn’t looking at blogs I was looking for anime and Japanese language tutorials. And even when I started blogging it was on micro blog sites like Tumblr where you post and repost as you like. I’ve never had an intentional blogging practice before.

I feel like this class has trained my eye to look more carefully at things than ever before. Now when I’m scrolling I try to scroll less and really take things in. When I watch things I’m thinking “that might make a cool gif”. Speaking of, I never even knew I could make gifs before. I would be so impressed with gifset makers when I was on Tumblr, thinking they had some crazy, unattainable skill when I could have just taken a tutorial and been amongst their ranks! 

It really challenged the way I saw content creation as well. I won’t go so far as to say it’s easy, but I think that having an established content creation practice where you take the time to put yourself out there and hone your skills as you go is much more manageable than I’ve been thinking. When YouTube first came out I was watching videos already so impressed and now those same people have amazing camera quality and professional editing they probably never imagined being able to afford. 

When you watch something change right before your eyes it can be hard to realize that change is happening at all. But you can’t compare your day one to someone else’s day one thousand. Despite knowing this I’m still anxious about the prospect of setting up my own website. The idea of making a site and having to commit to an idea makes me queasy. I’ve known this was coming the whole semester and yet I’m still torn about what to choose. On one hand I could finally make a photography website and live my best life with my camera and my cellphone. But on the other hand, this could be a low-stakes way for me to start my author website to drum up interest for my debut novel and other writing projects. I could take this time to really commit and dedicate myself to the craft.

I’m still too wishy washy at this point to make a decision but we have time. I know the answer will come to me, even if I just decide on impulse [Note: I did end up deciding on impulse]. I think I still have a lot to learn and improve so far, especially since I fell behind a bit, but I think I’m starting to get what this whole thing is all about. Even if I’m not, I’m still enjoying the process of a collaborative learning environment.