Although the course remains unfinished, it has proven to be one of the most versatile and in-depth courses I’ve taken in my three years as a humanities student. Other courses follow what they outline, editing, creative writing, cultural perspectives, and they do it marvellously. But this course made you explore different mediums of digital writing, adopt and analyse them. That in itself encourages and forces you to research different programs and experimental works while also creating your own. This course illustrates to students the countless number of programs and platforms available to emerging writers, and provides the basics on how to use them if interested.
As well as being in-depth, the course will also prove to be one of the most intricate and time consuming. Almost every assignment will take hours of work, research, edits and experiments. That is the nature of digital writing. Admittedly, I didn’t comprehend how great the course load would be, and would encourage further students to begin their pieces early in the semester, not just their Google Maps piece.
I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to use Google Maps, Vue, and experimenting with non-linear blackout poetry and stream of consciousness film. While I still am fairly disadvantaged in regards to Photoshop, I am happy that we explored how to use it, and will continue to experiment with it in the future. I also believe that while Gimp is a decent free program, it no where near matches the sophistication or ease that Photoshop provides. Also valuable programs to learn included iBooks Author and infographic formatting explored with Piktochart. I also appreciate the group work in class, particularly the class feedback on the Google Maps piece to show you if you were on track or not.
At times I think the course has been a little vague, particularly in regards to learning activities and assessment items. The assessment outline online only offers so much, and does say ‘come to class for more information’, but I feel as though there should be more guidelines and boundaries in regards to each assessment. I know personally I like knowing exactly what is expected and having a firm copy of guidelines, as opposed to conversational guidance. That said, Alinta was very helpful when you sought advice.
For my portfoilo I have decided to go with the following:
Google Maps Fiction: a contemporary story of infatuation and travel. iBooks Author: a melancholic series of vignettes, perhaps circulated around a family.
Photoshop Text: A series of GIFs thematically linked by seven deadly sins, though this will be difficult with the limited time available.
Non-linear Text: A series of blackout poetry pieces sourced from ripped pages of a book, theme currently undecided.
In regards to the iBooks Author and Non-Linear pieces, I almost want the pieces to be surreal and melancholic. This will be easier with the blackout poetry, but if adopted in iBooks Author will hopefully deter aligning too closely to current templates.
I will also be using iBooks again for my final Hypertextual/Multimedia Essay, however this I hope to make more square as opposed to surreal, to have the effect that it is indeed something academic.
I’m very happy, albeit sometimes stressed and daunted, to have taken this course, and I know it will help me with my future writing career. I’d recommend it to future students, particularly those who are technology literate.
digitalhannah 