Reflective cover page

English 468, Writing in the Digital Era, was not at all what I expected the class to be . I expected the class to be about different online stories and analyzing them. When I hear the words four hundred English Level class I automatically assume we will have lots of papers and analyze many stories. Gladly this class is not anything like an English class. This class is very much connected to more current activities in the world. English 468 has helped me develop my computer skills and to understand that writing does not have to be done in the traditional format.

The first day of class Dr. Fornes opened with the syllabus like most teachers do at the school, but immediately I knew that this class was going to be different when he compared writing in the present to the past. He mentioned how students today write ten times more than the students did when he attended school. Everyone was surprised by that comment because as a teacher maybe he would not assign so many papers. This comment was interesting because he mentions how texting, email, blogs, instant message, and many more are all forms of writing whether formal or informal. Like many other students in my class I never considered these formats as apart of our writing system. I just looked at them as things to do on the computer or phone.

I also knew I would enjoy this class because it was located in computer lab. Most classes that are conducted in computer labs are fun. I think they are fun because the teacher allows to get online, and I can quickly check my myspace or facebook.

Blogging is something I had never done before taking this class. I have heard people mention blogs, but I never knew what of they were speaking. We as a class learned how to use blogger.com, and like many of the other sites such as Facebook and Myspace we added each other as friends and connected. Blogging is very fun and it is also a good way to let out some steam. All the stuff that was taught in class was connected with the Internet in some way. I had personally drawn away from the web because it seemed so boring and the only interesting thing that seem to be out there were social networks, but now that I have learned about this other world the web is no longer boring.

This class also helped me realize that I depend on my cellphone too much. This was seen when we were required to unplug for twenty-four hours. I had mentally lost my mind because I was missing out on the world. I felt as though without my cellphone I could not survive. All the emotions that were going through me at that time I was able to express on my blog that he asked us to create. The blog was a very important tool for this class, and I appreciate the fact that he explained it to us and did not expect us to already know what to do.

My expectations for this class were met and beyond. I am glad my advisor suggested this class because it is very interesting, and it always keeps me on my toes with new formats, links, and pages. Some things that I may suggest is that the professor slow down some with the teaching of new material on the computer, and not require us to become members of so many websites like: Digo, Google, Youtube, Blogger, and many more. Although these sites are very helpful I suggest he allow us to pick one to maintain, and simply let the others be optional.

Overall this class was very interesting because of the professor teaching. I do not believe it would be so interesting if someone like Dr. Lacy or Dr. Lumans taught it. Karl Fornes’ technique was very original and exciting. I could not have asked for a better professor for this class.