Introspection Time!

This is one of those crazy-nostalgic moments when I come to the end of another term and find myself speculating about everything. Good term? Bad term? Why, or why not? How did I do? What do I need to do better next time? All those sorts of good questions. Here is a breakdown of that evaluation, presented through the structure of our lovely learning outcomes.

• BYU-Idaho. I'm still glad that I'm here in Provo and not there... but they do have a pretty good learning model! They have three nice key phrases- Prepare, Teach One Another, and Ponder and Prove. All of those together demonstrate self directed learning. Key word: SELF DIRECTED LEARNING. This was crazy! Class preparation initially included reading Rainbows End, but after that was much more focused on our individual research. Rereading The Scarlet Letter, writing blog posts, doing scholarly research, toying with media tools, talking to social contacts. In the classroom, it was great to talk with my cohort and classmates. I could share what I'd learned, share insights that I'd read in their novels, offer opinions, help them talk out ideas. And they did the same for me! I usually came out of class with quite enough material to ponder, and could then go home to do follow-up research on more media tools we'd discussed, or do a blog post based on thoughts from class. 

• Write Substantially and Publicly about Literature. This was definitely my first blog, my first time using Google+ to post literary references, my first time posting my academic writing on Facebook. It was also the first time I'd really integrated modern culture into my study of a classic novel. Oh, and my final paper!! I know it wasn't perfect, but to be honest? It is one of my favorite papers that I've ever written. I loved all the background information and research that I did on it, and how much that gave me to talk about. While some papers are painful, this one wasn't. Stressful? Yes. Time consuming? Ohhhh yes. But painful? No! Far from. It was a great reminder of what a paper can be and feel like if I only put in enough research and revision time. As for my preparatory writing on my blog, I was initially kind of uncomfortable with throwing out my unpolished, underdeveloped academic ideas onto the web, but I came to the point where it felt as natural as posting silly pictures of me and my roommates. And that feels a bit too natural. 

• Warning: Napolean Dynamite accent coming up. "Scholars only like students with sweet research skillz!" Well, no worries.  I was already fairly familiar with JSTOR, Project Muse, and the library website, but added to my list of favorites are Google Scholar, Academia, online newspapers, and academic conferences. I really enjoyed looking through sites like Slideshare, (found a great one there by Maria Ciaffaroni) and searching for syllabi, like one by a Mrs. Shamy. (She made her students wear Scarlet A's around school for three days!) Facebook, YouTube, Google+ were great to help me get a pulse on modern interpretations of the Scarlet Letter, like this Athiest movement. I also found academic societies that were centered on my subject, and encountered some overall great material, thanks to the varied mediums through which I was able to do my research. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmgimages/with/4660273036/

• Perfect Ideas Socially.... Well, I wouldn't say 'perfect', necessarily... As it turns out, my former English teacher steered me away from one of the ideas that Professor Burton told me he'd have liked to see more of in my final paper. Dang it. This was one of the most central elements of this class for me, however, and I loved it. I spoke to that former English teacher, to my cohort, to a good English major buddy, to my cousin, to a teen band named The Scarlet Letter,  and I even Facebooked all of the members of the Hawthorne Advisory board. I Google+ed Maria Ciaffaroni, Jason Courtemanche,   Alexander Mimran, and Esteban Contreras. And best of all? I emailed back and forth with Magnus Ullen, a Swedish scholar who is on the Hawthorne Advisory board. AWESOME. (Too bad that happened right near the end, when I was a bit caught up in writing my paper.... I never did a blog post about it. Shame on me!) But social proof is great. Yeah!!!

• Digital Literacy. This was probably the biggest stretch for me. There is a part of me, (Dad says it comes from Mom's side of the family) that really doesn't like it when someone tries to change a belief or a practice that I consider an integral part of who I am. And traditional scholarship, physical books, etc. are a big part of who I am. Why do I need media? It doesn't apply to me! (Think again, stubborn self!!) I had a reeeeeeeallllyyyy intense wrestle with that part of me before I could really get into all this digital media stuff. But look what happened? I created a blog, I got Google+, and I registered with GoodReads, Diigo, and Google Reader. (Diigo saved my life, by the way.) I created a profile on Academia, and I attended my first webinar. I discovered tagxedo, a word cloud website, and I created an original mix of Scarlet Letter songs. And I posted my first video on YouTube!! So cool. I learned how to research things through various online mediums, and I now use the Creative Commons library for almost everything. Basically, I have much fonder feelings for media than I ever did before. It really DOES apply to me, and I know that I'll be more able to learn, teach, and communicate in the future because of the exposure I've had in this class. And I'm not just saying that.

By: J. Enokson

• Well, I really could just refer you to the last five bullet points to demonstrate my new understanding of how the digital age has changed literature. This former technosaur (You know, technosaur? The person that loves only physical books always and forever and considers media a degenerative threat to literary study?) has changed her mind about the state of literature in the modern world. I can share my toys after all! Literature? Go play online. You have just as much value there as you do within the more traditional paper medium. Now I'm not saying that the web is the only important element of education or literary criticism, but I've reformed my opinion to include a more varied array of scholarly and social mediums. Go team! Thanks for the term, everyone.