A final word...

Back in January when we first began ALES 204 I was a bit unsure of what to expect. The first glance through the syllabus presented things that were unfamiliar to me--no midterms or finals? Awesome! But...what is an e-portfolio? And Twitter?... isn't that only used for silly updates between friends and celebrities? Dr. Laccetti did an excellent job of thoroughly explaining to the class what we should be expecting and how to properly prepare for what was ahead. She quickly helped me understand that not only were Social Media tools, like Twitter, excellent for connecting with friends, but perfect for forming bonds between people all across the world who shared the same interests as my classmates and I. Through tools like hashtags and tagging, finding these people is almost overwhelmingly simple and quick. If I wanted to gain a perception of how my classmates were responding to the class and what their thoughts were, a simple search of #ales204 in the search bar brought me to numerous points of views of all of the students in the class. 

Figure 1

My favorite part of this class is how diverse and versatile it  is, especially when it comes to being applied to other class and even many areas in life. I think this would be an extremely helpful class to take in the first year as University as it sets a base for so many things that will be frequently used throughout an academic career. Proper use of PowerPoint proved to be very valuable, as there are so many mistakes people, myself included, easily make because they have never learned the correct way to create the best presentation possible. Stepping beyond my comfort zone in lab and doing a Pecha Kucha presentation, that we did not have much time to prepare, helped me to see that public speaking does not have to be so scary and definitely does not--and should not, rely on reading off of a cue card or straight from the distracting blocks of text on the slides.  

Being exposed to the professional side of Social Media made me think twice about how I was using it and inspired me to push the boundaries that I had subconsciously set for myself when it came to devices such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. A year before even taking this class, I began following a Swedish blogger named Kenza who inspires me every day with her fashion sense and carefree attitude. With the knowledge derived from ALES 204, I see this would not be possible if it weren't for Social Media, as I discovered her the same way I found out about the Tone It Up girls in my last post, through a site full of inspirational photos. Her hundreds of thousands of followers all across the world would not be made possible without digital communication and it is truly impressive how it brings together so many different kinds of people in different places.

Figure 2

Something that really allowed me to get a good idea of who I was taking the class with was looking through everyone's blogs. I am always impressed at how many different creative solutions can be thought up despite working with the exact same information. A blog that I particularly enjoyed, for both it's content and visual interest, was Bianca Cimino's. She used eye catching fonts and colors that compliment each other for a beautiful layout and design that put me in an automatic good mood just looking at it. Her blog posts were well thought out and consistently professional; and in her final post she notes that the students in this class will be leaving ALES 204 with a whole different perspective on Facebook, and other social media alike, then when we first began. I think this sums it up perfectly--my perspective has certainly been broadened and I am thankful that so many things I learned in this class will carry one in other classes as I complete my schooling. 

I appreciate the input that Dr. Laccetti and the TA's put into this class and definitely plan on keeping my Twitter after it is all over! It will be interesting next semester to type in "ALES204" and see what different things pop up, as the next set of students prepare to acquire knowledge on all the perks of social media, PowerPoints and proper professional behavior that I have over the passed 3 months.

Links to my 5 Comments:

1. Brittany

2.  Caitlyn 

3. Jen 

4. Brenna 

5. Shannon 

 References:

Figure 1: Latulippe, L. (2009). Free twitter birds (image). Retrieved from http://drawn.ca/archive/free-twitter-birds/

Figure 2: Moody, T. (2012). Business goodbye farewell card greeting card (image). Retrieved from http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/good-bye-farewell-cards/general-good-bye-farewell/business-goodbye-farewell-card-264016