I had many difficulties getting started with all the sign-ons, addresses, codes and software, but once I finally got going, I found it hard to stop. My husband had to remind me that I had a family in the house! Time flew by as I explored the internet.
I have many ideas but because I got started so late and had so many problems setting up, I ran out of time to develop these ideas. But since I have a little time off before I start my last semester at UIC, I plan to develop some more ideas and add on to my pages.
I'm still a little disappointed I spent so much time trying to figure out how to get set up at home and trying to install shareware that I didn't get the chance to try so many things that I wanted to do with my pages. But I'm satisfied with what I have managed to put together so far. It just needs a little more lishing.
I'm very impressed with what many of my co-students have done with their pages. There's a variety of subjects and many topics explored. Some really accomplished some neat stuff with graphics. Some found neat ways to display their writing talents. Some really had a good time exploring their imaginations.
I also enjoyed the e-mail dialogues and the wwwwrite conversations. I know people have been using e-mail for a long time now, but like I said before I have fallen a little behind. I was very excited to see others join in that were not in our class, that was really exciting. It's a cool concept to think, truly, anyone out there can be reading our stuff. I think this is a great way to get feedback because it's more likely to be honest rather than in a workshop atmosphere. It's a little difficult to tell a fellow student that something isn't working in their project face to face. In my experience, some people can take criticism and some people can't. Some students take any negative criticism very personal. I hope that in this format I can try some stuff out and get real honest answers from the reader rather than the usual "I liked it, it was interesting" comment.
I'm very excited to hear some feedback from people out there. I can't wait to see my first message from across the ocean filled with comments about my work.
There are still so many places on the internet I haven't explored yet and I'm excited to take a look around again, not that the class over. There are so many possiblities out there for so many different projects. There's also so much controversy surrounding the internet in the media lately. I would like to find what all the fuss is about and judge for myself. I havn't come across anything controversial yet. Hopefully I will soon, controversy is an interesting writing topic. There's also the possiblity of having an on-line debate about all this controversy. Once a debate gets started, there are so many possiblities and areas that one can write about: censorship, freedom of speech, guidelines, where to draw the line, etc. I often wonder how far can someone really go on the internet. And knowing the internet there is probbly a debate already going on!
Although I had so many difficulties and I have spent many frustrating hours with my system this summer, I'm so glad I took this class. I have learned so much in so little time. I can just imagine what this class would be like in a regular semester. I recommend this class to any students out there that are considering taking it in semesters to come. It's a very exciting class no matter what level of expertise a student is because each person has a project and what they do with it is completely up to them. We are able to explore, imagine, and try and that's so refreshing from the usual English class. We are given the tools and instruction on how to use them and then we are let go to explore on our own. Exploration is a great way to learn!