Week 11 :: Reflection

It's been a trying 12 weeks, but the quarter has officially come to an end.

The first thing I'd like to say is, this has been an incredibly rewarding class. I can't believe the variety of programs I've learned... from Indesign to Photoshop to Dreamweaver.. I feel like anything I want to create I now have the basic know-how to do it in any one of these programs! I usually leave a class thinking "well I wont be using any of THIS information ever again!" but in this case, for Comm 350, I feel like I've learned a lot of real world, career oriented skills that I can use in the future. With our society becoming more and more technologically robust, having the ability to learn new programs will only get you father, especially as a soon-to-be graduate going into careerland.

Above all, Dreamweaver is by far the program I am most proud of learning. I can't say I'm especially apt at it, but I do know the basics and how to add in third party html code, which is wayyy more than I could have ever done before! The most used skill I acquired was doing Hotspots on my website. A Hotspot is a rollover  clickable area that brings you to another page, pop up, photo, url, etc. Since I used a mix of jpegs and code to create my website (www.kaylalynnphotography.com) I used hotspots on the jpegs to create links. It was really simple to do, but I kept forgetting how to do it, so I referred to this video quite a bit when I was working on my own:

                                     

Moving on, looking back at my blog posts I saw on my "Social Media" blog I signed up for Digg.com, which was for an assignment to try out a new social media site. Until I looked at the blog, I had totally forgot that I had created an account. In that blog entry, I compared Digg to Reddit, which I consider myself a regular redditor, so I've frequented that site a ton, but not Digg at all.

The blogging process this quarter has been enjoyable, but also tedious at times. It was hard to write some weeks when I just wasn't feeling like writing, and those I'd say are my worst blog entries. Others, I'd be really excited about putting my ideas out in blog form, and I'd get really creative and put a lot of voice into my posts. Reading through them again I can definitely tell which weeks were the 'blah' weeks and which ones were my enthusiastic ones.

It's been real, Comm 350. Thank you, Jason, for all the skills you've taught us and for a fulfilling quarter!

Signing out,

Kayla

Week 10 :: Sans Cell

Nomophobia: The fear of not having your cell/mobile phone.
I experienced this uncomfortable phobia-type feeling for 6 days this past week due to switching service providers for my cell phone and there being an error with my activation for almost an entire week. So, instead of following the exact assignment, I'm going to explain what a week without my cell phone was like.

Not being able to just call or text any moment I desired was a bit off putting. The biggest challenge for me was making plans with my friends. Instead of texting one of my friends randomly during the day, "Hey want to grab lunch between classes?" I had to make plans the day before. Seems normal for some people, but for me and my schedule it was almost harder to plan things in advance because I didn't know what to expect each day. So I'd email or instant message my friends on Facebook, set a date, time, and location to meet, and then hope they'd remember and that I'd remember. It honestly reminded me of the days I didn't have a cell phone and I'd make plans with people via calling them on my home phone (with their numbers MEMORIZED unlike today with everything programmed on our phones, eliminating the need to remember). When my phone finally activated (yesterday) I was instantly relieved. It sounds incredibly technologically dependent, but I never realized exactly how much I use my phone for so many things.

With not having my phone I noticed I would compensate by being on my laptop a lot more. Mainly it was to make plans, but I also found myself slightly bored during my freetime without my phone. Having access to other technology when I didn't have my cell made me want to use it more, not only as entertainment, but just a way to reach out and communicate with my friends and photography clients.

It was a disconnected feeling, but in a weird way it was a bit nostalgic of days without sporadic contact and with scheduled plans. I improvised with more technology, but even while using my laptop I still had the feeling of disconnectedness from people I wanted to have instant contact with. Not having my cell phone for a week allowed me to really appreciate the amount of access technology has given us to the people we care about.