I originally signed up to take a digital rhetoric class because I felt that as a writer, as a student in the program in Writing & Rhetoric, and most importantly as a future ELA teacher, I think it's important to know about digital rhetoric.
Ten years ago our world wasn't as hypermediated (I'm not sure that's a word, but you get what I mean) as it is today. Green Day sang in their 2004 song "American Idiot" we live in the "information age of hysteria." They were clearly referring to the internet in that lyric (the way the internet was circa 2003/2004) Back then, YouTube didn't even exist. It's hard to believe.
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| pop punkers Green Day clearly understood a thing or two about the new "net" |
Social media changed the face of the internet. It started with sites like Friendster and Myspace, and eventually those sites got overrun by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr & Reddit. I would say most people who go on the net now log into at least one social media site once an hour, if not more often than that.
Since the internet is so different than it was 10-15 yrs ago, writers and educators need to become aware of how to use the "new internet" to their advantage. My goal in taking this class was to learn a little something about the history of the net, and how to use the "new" internet to my advantage, not just in the classroom, but also, in the writing field.
I think I learned what I hoped to learn in the class. I'm still confused about why/how video games are a part of digital rhetoric, but it was interesting to learn a little something about video games and stuff, because I have met quite a few gamers, and I do hate being clueless when conversing with them.
When I first signed up for my discussion lead, I chose the week centered around digital storytelling because that was one of the topics I found most intriguing. As a writer, I'm always fascinated with/by new ways to tell my stories/get my stories out there. By learning about digital storytelling for my final project, I was able to see different ways/mediums to tell/share stories-- ways that are not only inspirational for me as a future ELA/Writing teacher, but also, inspirational for myself as a writer. I was also glad I worked with Camtasia 2 for my project. Being able to record off sites like YouTube helped me be able to tell my story without having to hire actors to work on a scene. Camtasia helped me use the power of music videos to be able to remediate my story, and create a remix. I had never worked with remixing video footage, or audio files before, but it was something I enjoyed partaking in. I also felt that by creating remix of the videos I used, and remixing audio files of various songs, I was living out what I had presented on during my discussion lead, which was kind of cool. I read about this stuff for my discussion lead, but I had never done it myself. I liked doing it myself, and learning. I had a good time with the project, and I look forward to finishing it/sharing it.
Aside from the digital storytelling aspect of the class, I think my favorite class week was the one where we discussed memes. Memes are great. But learning about them in school. That's even more awesome.
Overall, I'm really glad I took Digital Rhetoric this semester. I wish my friends were in the Writing Program so they could have taken this class with me, since it seemed everyone took the class with their four best friends. But aside from that minor weekly disturbance, I think it was a good class, and I'm glad I took it.
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