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Ahmir King

Reflection

I definitely got more out of this class than I expected. I thought the course was going to focus on writing for digital mediums like screenplays, blogs, etc, but I ended up interacting with those mediums more directly than I expected. The digital literacy project and audio movie review helped me hone in on my audio mixing skills. I was already using GarageBand and Audacity before I was in the class but the workshops taught me how to use some tools and shortcuts I was unaware of. After completing the audio movie review I was more comfortable using automation in my own personal projects. 

I’d never thought I would be able to learn how to make a movie in a college class without being a film major but the documentary project in this class proved that wrong. I knew nothing about video editing before the workshop in the class. Now I know the basics and layout of iMovie. I also became more comfortable working behind a camera even though we had a tripod and I didn’t have to worry about keeping the camera steady. 

The Wikipedia article was probably the most frustrating project for me. Not because of the research but because Wikipedia has a complicated format. I used to think anybody could make and add to a wikipedia article but it takes a certain level of intelligence and patience to even put something into wikipedia and have it look how you would like it to. Not only that but Wikipedia will take down an article or edit if something is wrong with it. The first time I tried to submit the article to Wikipedia it got deleted immediately because I put a line of space in between each subsection. I had to copy and paste everything all over again from my group’s google doc. I did learn a lot about my topic and I learned how to write without inputting my opinion into the work. 

Although I was surprised to find out that the majority of my assignments in my english writing class were not going to be a written final product I ended up enjoying the fact that the projects were multimedia. I was able to apply my own nonacademic skills in the class like audio editing/mixing. It felt good to get A’s in projects that involved skills that I take pride in. I made the background music for my audio movie review from scratch and I even freestyled at the end of my digital literacy narrative. I may not be the most academically motivated student, I’m usually fine with just passing my classes, but it feels good to have above a 95% in this class.