When I walked back into class after Fall Quarter, I was not sure what to expect. All I knew was that this class was one that was going to push me to think about my opinions more critically to be able to succeed in this class. When I found out what the content of the quarter was going to be, I realized that Spring Quarter was going to be very different from Fall Quarter, but I was going to learn a lot.
            The greater focus of Fall Quarter was to be able to search out important information that would help us create a meaningful original contribution, as well as learning how to be able to navigate our way around the Dreamweaver program—something that I in particular found very difficult seeing as how I am not very technologically gifted. That being said, as the quarter went on I made steady progress and got relatively comfortable handling it by the end of the quarter even though I still put more emphasis into my writing.
            By the time Spring Quarter rolled around, it was safe to say that my extensive experiences with Dreamweaver had been somewhat blurred by the information I took in during Winter Quarter, so my research hypertext was a bit of a struggle at first, seeing as how I had to re-teach myself what I had learned in the Fall. However, by the end I was back on track and ready to get creative. The emphasis of Spring Quarter was not so much on the original contribution but more so on being able to remix it so our original contribution was shown in a new creative way, which is where the cartoons, Bitstrips, poems, songs, and finally the Machinima project came in. Although we only read one book this quarter, Doctorow’s Little Brother was filled with a plethora of underlying issues that we had to actively search for. I felt that finding a major theme that I was particularly passionate about was difficult to find because it was difficult for me to read deeply enough into the text so I could find a substantial issue. However, I ended up choosing the topic of youth rebellion and how Doctorow expressed his feelings about it in the novel and I feel like it ended up being a relatively decent topic for a research hypertext.
            The second major project of Spring Quarter was the Machinima video. This project, although being relatively difficult until we got the hang of Second Life, was probably the most fun of the entire year. Although my creative streaks are few and short-lived, I am really proud that my remix script was chosen to become a Machinima video. I decided to twist around the ending so that rather than failing in taking down the Department of Homeland Security, Marcus succeeded and turned into a tyrant, but having him be taken down in the end. I feel like the quote at the beginning of my video summarizes the point that I was trying to make in my remix—“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, which is another point that Doctorow was trying to make when he showed the Department of Homeland Security taking advantage of how much authority they had. This assignment was a really good way to show us how beneficial remixing can be in order to understand different perspectives on an issue, which is crucial if we wish to fully comprehend any issue. Spring Quarter concentrated on taking the skills we developed in Fall Quarter, like being able to recognize various outlooks on an issue, and appropriately remixing them in a way that the other points of view become apparent.
            Looking back on both quarters of this class, I realize that I learned so much more than I thought I did. Although initially I thought that assignments like the Bitstrip comics, Glogster, and writing the screenplay for the Machinima video were just arbitrarily assigned, I realize now that all of those assignments were teaching me different ways of expressing my views other than just writing a paper. The Bitstrip comics showed me how to express my point in an extremely concise manner using fewer words than how many would be in a paragraph as well as express myself in a way that would be interesting and entertaining for others to read. Although the Glogster assignment was not assigned as something to express my views, it helped me show how my research hypertext came together in a creative and colorful way that also had to be extremely concise.
Creating a well-written screenplay may have been one of my bigger challenges of Spring Quarter. When I produced my first draft, I thought that since I had tons of script that it was a solid screenplay. I had never written a screenplay before, so I was unaware of the fact that a large portion of a successful screenplay is being able to specifically describe every scene, every action as I saw it playing out in my head. After several drafts and rewrites I finally had a screenplay that I was content with. Writing a screenplay taught me how to be able to use more than just dialogue to tell a story. I learned that a successful screenplay needs explicit detail of almost everything involved—the locations of filming, the tone of the actor’s voices, the actions of the actors, and so much more. Creating a well-written screenplay required a large amount of editing, even after I thought I had already finished. I feel as though the success of the Machinima movie relied greatly on the input of the entire group, which is what my group in particular was very good at.
            Having acquired the ability to be able to create substantial remixes of subjects that are frequently discussed is probably the most important thing that I learned in this class. Not because I know how to make a five minute Machinima video using all of the roles of production as well as all of the steps of production as well, but because I am able to recognize that major issues have more than just two perspectives looking in on them. This is an aptitude that I can take into other classes and even beyond school because if people think that there are two sides to every story or every issue, then that is just being ignorant and naive.
Being able to represent multi-sided conversations is a skill that I hope to carry with me for a very long time. I plan on pursuing a career in the medical field, and I feel as though being able to see situations from a variety of perspectives would be particularly helpful, especially in ethical situations. Having the skill of being able to see from multiple points of view is something that critical thinkers as well as good problem solvers have. Although the chances of me making a Machinima video as a remix when I have a career, being able to remix different people’s outlooks so they become easier to understand for others would also be a helpful skill to carry into the professional world.
In addition to the skills that I mentioned above, the skill of knowing how to express myself in a variety of new medias will also be an important skill to carry along. We are living in an age of technology, to be resistant of learning newer forms of media is basically refusing to progress with the rest of society. The basic hypertext, while being difficult to grasp at first because of the unfamiliar format is actually an ingenious way to pass information along in a way that is very concise but is also linked to other information of similar context or of deeper understanding about the subject if one wishes to read more extensively into the topic. Just knowing about a hypertext in general has already put me ahead of the rest in the knowledge of new media, and that’s because of this class.
I have always been a relatively strong willed person, and through all of the various hypertext assignments that I have done throughout both quarters in this class that concerned original contributions (which was almost every single one) I managed to improve my argumentation skills by being able to look into a position I was taking, defend it with substantial research, and put my own original spin on the topic. The original contribution to my hypertexts is one of the biggest and most notable differences that I have seen between my writing in high school and my writing throughout this class. In other papers where I needed to state my opinion, I used to just agree with a previous made statement. Now I am able to create my own original opinion on topics that I have researched.
My skills in writing have improved greatly since I came into this class. I am now a stronger writer, and I am extremely thankful that I have acquired skills that I can carry into classes in the future and beyond. Although I may have struggled with some aspects of this class, I definitely made progress and I certainly see this as a huge learning experience. I learned a lot about different types of new media, which I definitely expect to see on the rise in the near future, as well as how to vastly improve my writing in multiple aspects. I am glad to be able to look back on the past two quarters and say that I have definitely grown through this class.