Reflective Narrative
Sam Olenowski
And were back! to Rowan University's Writing, Research and Technology class Reunion Show! I'm your host Professor Mangini. Right now, I have Sam Olenowski here, a Senior student who has just taken the class and is here to talk about what she has gained from the class assignments and how her experience was. Hello Sam!
Hi Professor! it's good to be here.
Likewise! Okay so tell us what you initially thought walking into the class?
Well, to be honest, at first I wasn't sure what to expect. The first thing we were asked to do was fill out a note card with information as well as answer the question whether we consider ourselves a teacher, a writer, a writer and a teacher, or a teacher and a writer. I wasn't sure what to think at first.
Hmm..That's interesting.
I put down teacher then a writer and was eager to see what this class had to offer. The class then was asked to interact with each other by guessing what random fact matched up with what they shared. I noticed from the beginning that this class was going to be very collaborative, interactive, as well as open.
As we begin to really get into the class, our professor set the tone by introducing to us the 3 major assignments: the TWITTERIVE, ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, and COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT, as well as daily tweets, and posting in our blog twice a week. He also said that by the end of the class we were going to feel more open and connected to most of our classmates, through reading/commenting on their blogs, working in groups, and hearing presentations.
Wow, that sounds like a good amount of work, did you accomplish that as well as becoming close to your classmates?
Yes and yes! Our whole class felt really comfortable with one another and we were able to work together very well.
Okay! On to some other questions. Since the class is called Writing, Research, and Technology, how do you feel you used technology in the assignments?
Well, right off the bat we were asked to create a Twitter (if we did not already use one) and a professional Weebly website, were we would keep our major assignments, blogs posts, and about me section. I was already familiar with Twitter, but Weebly was very new to me. Our professor made the explanation easy to create and had his own Weebly website replacing Black board, where he explained how to create headings, drop-down tabs, and including text, videos in our blog posts. He also had a class page connecting all of my classmates together where we could visit their sites, comment them to get ideas for projects. I really enjoyed creating, editing, and updating my website throughout the semester.
When it came to using technology in the projects, the Twitterive is where I learned the most. In the Twitterive assignment we were asked to formulate a story using multi-genre pieces. Here, is where I really used technology. I used pictures, text, created fake news paper articles, a virtual mirror, video/audio, and a slide show into my own story. I felt that by having that assignment first, gave me the confidence and tools to utilize technology features in my future projects.
For the Oral History Project, I became familiar with recording Youtube video and uploading them to our website, while we did the same in Collaborative Research Project.
Sounds like you had a lot of practice learning new technologies. How about the research aspect?
Well, I thought when it came down to research, our class did more of that on a daily basis through reading scholarly articles, passages from books, and interviews. We were asked to create a writing response in which we took our own interpretation along with facts from the article. I think have readings and responses on a daily basis went hand in hand with research and writing and kept us up to date with our writing skills.
I felt that by having small writing responses in our blog along with a major project at the same time we were working on really enhanced our writing ability. I think that the term "research" the Professor Mangini asked from us was very broadly defined. This class was not like traditional classes where we strictly look at internet documents and books. For the Twitterive assignment, we were asked to research differently, not from scholarly articles, but from our own personal lives. I did my project on the story of my grandfather whom I've never met by interviewing my family, uncles, aunts, my dad, and grandma. It was very cool, informative, and provided me with a wonderful personal story connecting my family.
For the Collaborative Research Project however, is when we had to work as a group to collectively find data to create an informal project on the food industry. Our group decided to research and compare organic foods vs. conventional foods and we were able to interview 2 people, find 2 books, and many web sources. So I think research played a huge part in this assignment.
Very nice. It sounds like though your projects you really discovered a lot about your writing ability. Do you think that you became a stronger writer?
Definitely! By doing the day to day blog posts, readings, and all of the major assignments really brought me closer to my goal of being the best writer I can be. This class was more than just writing papers and handing it in to the professor, it was interactive and communal but most of all multi-modal. No two assigments were a like. Some assignments were simply just tweet 160 characters or less, while others were compile lots of information. We worked individually as well as in groups. All and all I think this was a very well-rounded class that shared many ideas, intellectual as well as personal, and I think we all discovered a lot about ourselves as writers and our classmates.
This was great. Thank you for sharing with us your experiences and being here today.
Thanks Professor. Take care!
Hi Professor! it's good to be here.
Likewise! Okay so tell us what you initially thought walking into the class?
Well, to be honest, at first I wasn't sure what to expect. The first thing we were asked to do was fill out a note card with information as well as answer the question whether we consider ourselves a teacher, a writer, a writer and a teacher, or a teacher and a writer. I wasn't sure what to think at first.
Hmm..That's interesting.
I put down teacher then a writer and was eager to see what this class had to offer. The class then was asked to interact with each other by guessing what random fact matched up with what they shared. I noticed from the beginning that this class was going to be very collaborative, interactive, as well as open.
As we begin to really get into the class, our professor set the tone by introducing to us the 3 major assignments: the TWITTERIVE, ORAL HISTORY PROJECT, and COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT, as well as daily tweets, and posting in our blog twice a week. He also said that by the end of the class we were going to feel more open and connected to most of our classmates, through reading/commenting on their blogs, working in groups, and hearing presentations.
Wow, that sounds like a good amount of work, did you accomplish that as well as becoming close to your classmates?
Yes and yes! Our whole class felt really comfortable with one another and we were able to work together very well.
Okay! On to some other questions. Since the class is called Writing, Research, and Technology, how do you feel you used technology in the assignments?
Well, right off the bat we were asked to create a Twitter (if we did not already use one) and a professional Weebly website, were we would keep our major assignments, blogs posts, and about me section. I was already familiar with Twitter, but Weebly was very new to me. Our professor made the explanation easy to create and had his own Weebly website replacing Black board, where he explained how to create headings, drop-down tabs, and including text, videos in our blog posts. He also had a class page connecting all of my classmates together where we could visit their sites, comment them to get ideas for projects. I really enjoyed creating, editing, and updating my website throughout the semester.
When it came to using technology in the projects, the Twitterive is where I learned the most. In the Twitterive assignment we were asked to formulate a story using multi-genre pieces. Here, is where I really used technology. I used pictures, text, created fake news paper articles, a virtual mirror, video/audio, and a slide show into my own story. I felt that by having that assignment first, gave me the confidence and tools to utilize technology features in my future projects.
For the Oral History Project, I became familiar with recording Youtube video and uploading them to our website, while we did the same in Collaborative Research Project.
Sounds like you had a lot of practice learning new technologies. How about the research aspect?
Well, I thought when it came down to research, our class did more of that on a daily basis through reading scholarly articles, passages from books, and interviews. We were asked to create a writing response in which we took our own interpretation along with facts from the article. I think have readings and responses on a daily basis went hand in hand with research and writing and kept us up to date with our writing skills.
I felt that by having small writing responses in our blog along with a major project at the same time we were working on really enhanced our writing ability. I think that the term "research" the Professor Mangini asked from us was very broadly defined. This class was not like traditional classes where we strictly look at internet documents and books. For the Twitterive assignment, we were asked to research differently, not from scholarly articles, but from our own personal lives. I did my project on the story of my grandfather whom I've never met by interviewing my family, uncles, aunts, my dad, and grandma. It was very cool, informative, and provided me with a wonderful personal story connecting my family.
For the Collaborative Research Project however, is when we had to work as a group to collectively find data to create an informal project on the food industry. Our group decided to research and compare organic foods vs. conventional foods and we were able to interview 2 people, find 2 books, and many web sources. So I think research played a huge part in this assignment.
Very nice. It sounds like though your projects you really discovered a lot about your writing ability. Do you think that you became a stronger writer?
Definitely! By doing the day to day blog posts, readings, and all of the major assignments really brought me closer to my goal of being the best writer I can be. This class was more than just writing papers and handing it in to the professor, it was interactive and communal but most of all multi-modal. No two assigments were a like. Some assignments were simply just tweet 160 characters or less, while others were compile lots of information. We worked individually as well as in groups. All and all I think this was a very well-rounded class that shared many ideas, intellectual as well as personal, and I think we all discovered a lot about ourselves as writers and our classmates.
This was great. Thank you for sharing with us your experiences and being here today.
Thanks Professor. Take care!