Monthly Archives: May 2010

Overall, this has been both a challenging and rewarding class for me. As I’ve demonstrated a couple times this semester, I tend to be pretty incompetent when it comes to technology, so there were definitely a number of frustrating moments. That said, one of my few concrete goals for this class was to become more comfortable with computers, and I definitely feel I’ve accomplished that. Beyond becoming familiar with the technologies used in this class, I believe I will be more confident when trying new programs and software in the future.

I agree with what others have said about the major strength of the class being its attention to both theoretical and hands on methods of learning about digital media. When reflecting on the technologies and projects we worked on this semester, I tend to judge them based on how well they worked alongside our readings and discussions.

Having worked for many hours now with Sophie, I will say that it has a lot of potential but is still kind of a pain to use. I feel that it is the most effective tool we used for analyzing texts—which helps its case for connecting well to our readings—but still has a lot of shortcomings. I’m actually pretty interested to see if those issues are overcome in later versions.

The thing I’m probably happiest to have learned is basic web design. This more than anything else is something I can use in the future. Though I only managed to learn the basics of html and css, having done so will give me the confidence to learn more later on.

Though I had some doubts about blogging process earlier in the semester, I’m very glad I had the experience. It’s definitely a very different type of writing that I’m not that comfortable with, but I have come to appreciate its potentials and have a lot more respect for bloggers in general.

I didn’t mention all of the technologies, but these are the ones I have the strongest feelings about. That, and I’m trying not to write yet another long and convoluted blog post. A couple more things: I’ve really enjoyed having class with you all this semester. I think it was a really great group and I enjoyed our discussions immensely. Professor Fitzpatrick, you’ve been great. It’s a shame you won’t be around next year. Good luck with the rest of your finals, everyone, and have a great summer!

Project !

As much as I am going to miss the class, I’m also excited for the new year. It seems surreal that this is the end to my first year here at Pomona. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to move on but I realized that I’m also ready for summer.
Over the course of this class I really enjoyed the fact that the readings were available online. Not only did it save me a lot of money on textbooks but it also helped with accessibility. I was able to read for class at any point of the day on my ipod or on my laptop.
Wave came to be a really nifty tool as well, it had all of the notes and discussions so I was able to review them later.

The only technology/software I didn’t enjoy working with was Sophie. I can see however, that a lot of my peers really got familiar with Sophie and many used it for their final project. I’m a film/web guy myself so I liked the idea that Sophie had but I did not like their frustrating software.

When it comes to Audacity, I can’t really say much because I like to work in Garageband. Same with video editors. I’m mostly familiar with imovie and even though people talk smack about it and how its for novices, I have come to really like it. I’ve done most of my work on it and I can say that my work in I-movie has rivaled work done on Final Cut.
Overall, the class has been great and it helped me decide to major in Media Studies.

Professor Fitzpatrick, you are great and I hope you have a great summer and upcoming year. As for all the people in class, it was good getting to know you and hopefully see you around campus.

P.S. Since I don’t cry, I’ll have this guy show my emotions. haha

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee925OTFBCA&playnext_from=TL&videos=WP5iwxrlKXk[/youtube]

Like others have expressed, I’m extremely saddened by the fact that this class has come to an end. This class was great in every regard. The readings were informative and interesting, the class-discussions were awesome and thought-provoking, and (most of) the projects were tons of fun to produce.

I found it incredibly valuable to have both the theory and production sides of digital media covered in class. I feel that both sides complemented each other well. As we discussed the future of publishing and books, we were also able to experiment with technology, like Sophie, that might very well come to replace what we consider today to be “books.” Similarly, as we learned about Web 2.o and Youtube, we created our own contributions to Web 2.0 in the form of websites, podcasts, and Youtube videos.  

I have a feeling I’ll be using more of Audacity this summer, as I find myself bored at home and wanting to have some fun making silly mashups. I’ll be interested in seeing if I feel motivated to maintain my website, and try to find new and interesting ways of getting my friends to visit it–they got a kick out of the conspiracy theories. I hope to continue to experiment with film, although I can’t imagine myself continuing to use iMovie–it’d be really nice to learn to use Final Cut Pro. I don’t know whether I’ll ever go back to Sophie, but I wouldn’t want to completely deny Sophie a second chance, once it gets some bugs fixed.

Anyway, this class has been great! You all have been great! Professor Fitzpatrick, you have been great! Thanks for a great class!

Okay, hold up, I can’t believe class is over already! This is the only class I still enjoyed and it’s just.. done… just like that! I’m so sad… I had so much fun.

Anyways, guys, you all are an awesome bunch of people (even if a lot of you use Macs, including you, Professor, but I forgive you~), I enjoyed the discussions in this class more than any other I was taking this semester — people were actually ope-minded and smart. It seems like there’s a massive lack of open-minded, smart people at the Claremont Colleges (well, or at least at Scripps, where if you’re not feminist, you’d better not take any of their classes), which is odd, because isn’t that what colleges are supposed to be famous for having? I don’t know, but you guys were great~ I hope you all have fun the rest of your college career; maybe we’ll meet again~!

Final Project, hope you enjoy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jerQ83q0hA[/youtube]