Unit 3 Reflection

At the beginning of this assignment I had thought about doing a Prezi however I decided it was best to explore new territory, so I chose iMovie as my medium for this Unit 3 project. I believed that this was the best way to project my argument to my audience because it was not just a presentation you typically see. It was voiced by me while introducing evidence on my argument claiming that technology may be putting doctors at a lower level now with so many technological advancements. Also, as I mentioned before I didn’t want to do a Prezi for this assignment again because I had already done a Prezi for unit one. This made it more of a challenge for me to figure out how to use iMovie and its features, so I got not only a completed project out of this, but I also taught myself how to work with and make an iMovie. I submitted my Unit 3 Project through my Instagram account with a brief preview of the video that is linked in the bottom of the post for those who wanted to learn more about what I had to say about technologies and its toll on doctors. It is important to remember that my thesis from my unit 2 project changed briefly so my initial pitch was not the same for my argument in unit 3 project. However here I will post my pitch I had originally before I changed my thesis at the beginning of my unit 3 work.

The responses I got to this pitch on my Instagram were very positive and people wanted to find out more on my pitch. Even though the comments I got were only “interested”, “awesome”, and “what examples did you find” I was still satisfied that I got some feedback even though not effective, but it gave me the sense that people were interested in what I had to say about my topic. Following my new post including the new argument and thesis here is what I posted on my Instagram to my projected audience. However, in this given pitch I did not receive any feedback at all. I wanted my audience to at least show some interest or go take a look at the video and at least see what they have to say about my topic. Even though my audience is mostly adults my age I would have liked to know whether they agreed or disagreed with my argument.

During peer review of my unit 1 project post draft my classmate, Mitchell left a comment that gave me both encouragement and a reminder. In response to my drafted Prezi he said “Very nice presentation! I was super interested in how you were able to tie medicinal technological advances with technology and writing. Nice use of quotes when analyzing Baron too. You’re fourth analysis seems incomplete, not sure if intentional or haven’t finished it yet.”. I implemented Mitchells comment not necessarily directly but I did take into account how he mentions that I incorporate Baron and another source on medicinal technology in order to back my claim. Here is an example when I say in my unit 1 presentation, “Baron says, ‘Little did we know writing began as a form of accounting...intended to perform numerical calculations too tedious or complex to do by hand.’ (Baron). Like Baron, Agius mentions the creation of the Internet as ‘the second major effect of networking’ (Agius). They both believe that throughout time technology itself has evolved from just being a calculation program to coding a robotic arm to move.” I tried to continue using Baron as a basic example where I could relate back to when using the sources, I found on technology and medicine. That example aside, his comment made me have more confidence in my project because he said it was “a very nice presentation…I was super interested” which made me ensure that my project was clear and interesting at the same time.

I took some time to edit my blog both artistically and grammatically in which I’ll explain later. Firstly, I wanted my blog to be more attractive and not just the plain old theme that I left on it since I created the blog for this class. To do that I decided to change the color scheme of my blog to a more appealing one, so I decided to leave it with a pink contrast. Also, intentionally choosing the summer vibes and flowers theme the blog settings had to offer so I cannot say that is original I just decided to change it from the standard theme. Another major part I improved on my blog was my blog name. I wanted it to have a different name and not just “writing 205 blog” as the generic name of the class. As a new title I wanted it to be something unique and some title that represented my work made throughout the class. Therefore, I decided to go with “A walk through my summer class” as my blog name.  This name not only fit in with having a unique touch, but it also gave me the feeling that if anyone viewed my blog it would be as if I was taking them through my works in the summer. Little did I know that this name would also benefit because looking at my new bog theme with leaves and summer colors it seems like I’m taking my audience through a walk in a park. I also went ahead and realized that my blog seemed a bit too wordy when scrolling up and down my posts, so I thought adding a picture or illustration to each post would help make it seem more even and interesting. It would also give the reader a quick preview of what I may talk about in the given post.

To sum up my experience in this class, I would like to add that I enjoyed the challenges this course offered me. At the beginning of the class I remember I was uneasy about the fact that it was online and a writing class both of which I am not really a fan of. However, throughout its trajectory I think this is the first writing class I have enjoyed most out of my college career. I loved how communication between professor and student remained clear even with a non-classroom setting. It was easy to contact and ask the professor for questions or feedback on assignments. Even though I would agree that my unit 3 project was not as strong as I hoped it would be I am still happy to know that I was able to make it what it was and make the most out of it. I sometimes tend to lack confidence in my work when it comes to writing. But I think the fact that this assignment was visual and informatics I was able to overcome that confidence a little bit. I remain happy about my Prezi for unit one assignment I think I was able to really show my ability to do further research in a topic. One thing I would have appreciated more would have been peer review that would ensure that peers commented on my work because I was not able to get any comments back for my unit 2 project and I think it would have been a factor to help me determine whether my project needed further work.