Final Reflection

Part I

The writing that I performed this semester, particularly the Major Issues assignment, I foresee to relate to my major academic field in the future. As of right now, the major academic field that I would like to go into is ecotherapy or ecopsychology. The Major Issues assignment talked a lot about the correlation between unstructured time spent in the outdoors and positive development health in young people. Because I am the oldest of four, I have been surrounded by young people for as long as I have been alive. I am very fascinated by young people’s behavior and mental well-being, therefore this essay carries over into this interest of mine and will eventually carry over into the work that I do someday. Additionally, I learned quite a bit about the role that writing plays in the particular field of psychology. Much of this learning was done while working on the Digital Literacy Narrative piece and the Major Issues piece. I did quite a bit of research and digging into what people in the world of psychology, particularly at Appalachian State, are talking and writing about. Upon reading and becoming more familiar with their written works, I began to realize that writing plays an important role in the field of psychology because it is the end result of extensive research and efforts from the professional to prove something to be true and/or relevant in the world of psychology.

Throughout the course of the semester, I learned various lessons and ideas as each assignment was worked through. As far as the writing about your world assignment goes, I learned that words are even more powerful than I thought when in the shape or setting of something other than a written essay. The photo collage and photo taking that was required of us was really neat because it allowed us a different lens to see words through. It also proved to me how emotionally effective photos can be in conveying a message or idea to the audience. As for the multimodal mini-ethnography assignment, I spent much more time here than on any other assignment thinking about the role of personas, voices, identities, etc. in telling a story or message to the audience. What I learned is that writing and media do not always have to be told in our own voice. As I took on the persona of and used the voice of a Piping Plover shorebird in this assignment, it gave me an inclination to reflect about what the birds would say if they could talk. I have found in this assignment that sometimes stepping into the shoes of another being provides us with a perspective that we may not have otherwise been provided with. It is always important to be open and keep a positive perspective.

 

Part II

After reading the course goals and outcomes, there are some that I feel were achieved and others that I feel were not achieved over the course of the semester. One goal that I did feel as though I achieved was “develop information literacy strategies and skills that transfer across the curriculum”. Under this goal it talks about using different “technologies for researching, drafting, and sharing writing”. I believe this was achieved in more ways than one. The first way it was achieved was through the use of WordPress. I feel as though I have much more comfort in publishing or posting writing using WordPress. Because we had to post our QQCs and journals to WordPress, I felt very prepared to use WordPress as my medium for the final ePortfolio. Second, it was required of us in almost every assignment to work with various technologies to get our writing out there. For example, in the multimodal mini-ethnography, I chose to use Canva, which is an online database for creating media graphics. One goal in which I feel as though I did not achieve this semester was “exhibit increasing disciplinary awareness”. Why I feel as though I did not achieve this goal is because every assignment felt like I had to do the same thing over and over again. Yes, there was room for creativity, but there was not a lot of branching out to other genres in my opinion. I feel as though the class would be much more enjoyable if we had the opportunity to write creatively, and by that I mean writing a fiction piece, a short story, or even a poem. Repetition got the best of me this semester and I felt as though my creative tendencies were being smothered and that I could not truly express myself in my writing. Additionally, I understand what rhetoric is, but when the goal says “using rhetorical theory”, I definitely am unsure about what that means. Maybe it was a lack of me paying extra close attention to the readings, but I still am unsure about this. Overall, I feel as though I definitely gained a lot of knowledge and skill in the class, but my hope is that there will be more creative freedom to express oneself in the assignments for future students who take this course. Additionally, it would be nice to see more time spent talking directly with our classmates in class about the processes we go through to complete the assignment as opposed to only writing about the processes.