For this last section of the class, most of our focus was on the text My Mother was a Computer by Katherine Hayles. We learned quickly that although we have devoted an entire semester to this subject matter we are nowhere near experts in the field. But we managed to push through the complicated text and find real world connections that enhanced our understanding of this course.

From there we moved onto our digital artifacts. Some pioneered new blogs while Jessie completed the first ever graduation magazine. I, on the other hand, created an English unit plan that integrated technologies that weren’t necessarily made for education. I am really happy with the way that the lessons turned out. I think it’s important for teachers to stay current and find new ways to teach through technology. This project allowed me to search for ways to make a novel relevant to a class that might otherwise ask the question “Why do we need to know this?” It showed me that technology is an easy way to get kids interested.

The term paper was another key component of this section of the semester. My focus was again on education, but this time I was making a case for why lessons like the ones in my digital artifact should be emphasized in school systems. Test-driven curricula are necessary in order to obtain government funding, so often less traditional subjects like technology education get put on the back burner. My paper argues that technology integration in these traditional disciplines is a solution to this current problem.

And now, for my final portfolio…

Depth
Depth is the category meant for entries that go above and beyond the requirements for each post. I explored Charles Ostman’s ideas and expanded upon them as they related to copyright issues in one blog post. In another entry, I connected the hypertext novel to movie representations of texts.

Interaction
The interaction category is where I place entries that link to another peer’s blog. This was a category that I didn’t pay much attention to this time around. When I reflected on the entire Hayles text as a whole, I recognized our class as a direct example and linked to Jessie, Jalen, and Katy’s blogs, so I guess that this entry could count as several examples of interaction. I did also link to some research that I did about Charles Ostman on my entry about how his and Hayles’ ideas connect to our discussions about copyright.

Discussion
For discussion, I include blog posts that show a significant conversation with my peers from class. This could be shown in a number of ways, through regular comments on a peer’s blog or returning to conversations on my own blog. In this section of the course, there was a lot of discussion on my blog entries, including the post where I looked at issues of copyright and Hayles’ references to Ostman.  Aja and I also briefly discussed the concept of yawning on my entry about the addition of consciousness in code. I was the first to comment on Katy’s blog about artificial intelligence and some others followed afterwards. On Aja’s blog, we also discussed a similar topic and whether or not computers could actually replace people.

Timeliness
Timeliness is for entries that were completed early enough before their due date in order to facilitate significant conversation. My post about narratives being used as a launching point for cognitive surplus was complete at least one day early.  My connections between our class and Hayles’ examples were also posted a day early.

Coverage
Coverage is basically the leftovers. Here is where I include posts that didn’t really fit in any of the other categories. I have an entry dedicated to my ideas about the eventual term paper as well as a post from in class where I attempted to research a topic that came up in Hayles’ text.