Digital Engagement #10

For my tenth digital engagement post, I have decided to summarize my notes from each week in Digital Studies 101 while reflecting on digital tools I learned how to use.

Week 1

During week 1, we discussed the importance of maintaining a strong online identity that showcases our strengths for future opportunities.

For our first digital engagement assignment, I had to reflect on my current digital identity and establish goals that I wanted to achieve within my digital identity by the end of this course. I noted that there was not a lot of information about me online and that I hoped that I would be able to use my Domain of One’s Own page to display projects I have worked on that I would like an employer to see. I also identified some pages I wanted to create for my website, such as an art page, a written works page, and an achievements page.

Week 2

During week 2, we established how to create a domain for our personal websites. I created my domain, kenziemariewallace1005.com , and created the subdomain I would continue to use for this course, kwallac2dgst101 .

For our second digital engagement assignment, I created my first blog post for this subdomain, my About Me.

In class, we discussed the history of the internet and potential ideas for our website design.

Week 3

During week 3, we discussed digital history in class, and explored the September 11th Digital Archive .

In terms of website development, I learned about different images I could create for my website using different aspect ratios, such as:

I also created my third digital engagement post, which was a rough sketch of some ideas for images I had for my subdomain.

Week 4

In week 4, we discussed different types of digital methodologies, such as textual analysis tools like Voyant Tools, or immersive tools such as those used in the Virtual Martin Luther King Jr. Project .

For my fourth digital engagement assignment, I wrote about my experience using digital AI tools.

Week 5

Week 5 was a continuation of the topic of digital methodologies. I submitted my Digital Identity Image Project Proposal, my Digital Identity Image Progress Check , created a self-evaluation on my work thus far, and provided peer feedback on my classmates’ image projects.

Week 6

Week 6 marked the beginning of our unit on digital culture. In class, we discussed how technology has facilitated and influenced our culture, such as by creating spaces for communities to interact that did not previously exist.

We also learned about how to create an audio project. A guest speaker informed us about tips such as creating an outline/script beforehand, recording audio with a quality microphone and in a controlled environment, and how to correctly edit audio using different platforms such as Audacity or Soundtrap.

For my fifth digital engagement assignment, I submitted an audio recording explaining what I had learned about creating an audio project.

Week 7

During week 7, I submitted my Digital Culture Audio Project Proposal for my podcast episode on social media communities, and my sixth digital engagement assignment, where I discussed Back to the Future II’s prediction of what 2015 would look like.

In class, we discussed how digital culture is portrayed in media. We specifically analyzed how it was portrayed in the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. We also had the opportunity to workshop our scripts for our Digital Culture Audio Project.

Week 8

In week 8, I submitted my Digital Culture Audio Progress Check, provided peer feedback to my classmates’ audio projects, and self-evaluated my own work thus far.

In class, we discussed our personal engagement with digital culture. For my seventh digital engagement assignment, I created a log of my Internet of Things and concluded that I spend long intervals of time on a few pieces of technology rather than short intervals of time on many pieces of technology.

Week 9

Week 9 marked the beginning of our unit on digital creativity. We began by defining our own ideas of what digital creativity means, which lead to our deep dive into creating video projects.

For my eighth digital engagement assignment, I submitted a brief video where I discussed important tips I had identified for creating a video project.

Week 10

During week 10, we created our groups for our Group Facilitation Project. I decided to join Group #2, whose lecture focused on Technology and Mental Health using the findings from Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation.

We continued to discuss digital creativity and debated whether or not creations from AI could ever reflect digital creativity. I submitted my Digital Creativity Visual Project Proposal, which described a video essay that compared successful and unsuccessful social media campaigns. For my ninth digital engagement project, I submitted a video montage of video clips and background audio I wanted to use for my Digital Creativity Visual Project.

Week 11

During week 11, I continued to work on my group facilitation project, submitted my Digital Creativity Visual Project Progress Check , provided peer feedback for my classmates’ visual projects, and self-evaluated my own work thus far.

During the group facilitation project, I got to create an online survey on Mentimeter, which displayed its data in a visually appealing way for viewers. I also created the majority of the visuals for the presentation, such as:

Week 12

Week 12 is when my group presented our lecture on Technology and Mental Health. We also participated in Group 1’s lecture on Technology and Knowledge, which discussed how instant information access can change the way we interpret and repeat information.

Week 13

For Week 13, I attended three peer lectures. The first one discussed Technology and Race. Specifically, racial bias in artificial intelligence and how it can affect society in the future, as AI technology continues to develop and mimic jobs originally meant for humans.

The second lecture discussed Technology and the Environment. We reflected on the environmental impact our use of technology has, as well as how technological corporations are participating in eco-terrorism.

The final lecture, “Technology and Global Governance”, had us engage in a debate between personal privacy and public safety. We tried to solve this heated topic ourselves by creating our own countries that had their own rules and regulations on how citizens could use the internet.

Week 14

In week 14, I submitted my plans for my Final Project Revisions, which included modifying my Digital Studies 101 subdomain, improving my Digital Culture Audio Project, and slightly altering my Digital Creativity Visual Project.

Overall, I had a lot of fun in this class and learned a lot of interesting tools that I will use in the future, especially as a social media manager for multiple organizations on campus, and the main contributor behind my own digital identity.