I went into this semester not knowing what to expect. After planning my course schedule on my own for two years, I decided to get additional guidance on my future classes from a campus advisor. During spring semester, I registered for fall early and had an endless amount of classes I was able to take. Of course, many were required or prerequisites, yet my advisor recommended an elective course, something different. I was pretty open to anything so I opted to take the class, Journalism 333: Interactive Media Design (JOUR 333: IMD) . Just in the name alone, It sounded more interesting than any of the other courses I’d taken over the years. Why not give it a shot?
JOUR 333: IMD ended up being the first course I attended during the semester, and the sound of the introduction from Professor Wilder was great. What I remembered most was no exams. Oh—this is awesome, I thought. The entire class was work and project-based which I extremely enjoyed. He treated the course like a profession allowing the students to feel more confident and serious about what they were doing. In this course, I felt like everything I did counted, and this was the first instance I have had this feeling in higher education.
This course introduced me to Wordpress, Twitter, Delicious, Facebook, Skype, Google Talk, Flickr, YouTube, DreamWeaver and Photoshop. All of this was new to me—except Facebook. Now, I don’t know what I would do without these tools. They are essential to nearly every career. I now have a better understanding of the design process, how the web works, basic web design concepts, web analytics, SEO and usability and accessibility. Professor Wilder also allowed us to gain insight on writing for the web, designing blogs, sharing blogs, showcasing blogs, editing videos, developing online communities, developing portfolios, sharing portfolios and showcasing portfolios.
It’s hard for me to say what was the best assignment or best aspect of the class. In my opinion, everything was informational and interesting, and I will continue utilizing all of these tools once the class comes to an end. I never would have imagined that I would develop into a blogger or web designer, and I am definitely grateful that this did indeed happen early on in my years. I wish there was a follow-up course to JOUR 333: IMD. I know this is just the beginning. I give Professor Wilder and my classmates a million thanks. This was a phenomenal course. I will absolutely continue putting in a good word for it.
5 Comments
Hi, Carsla,
I’m so glad you enjoyed being part of the “Staff.” I certainly did!
As I mentioned in class, reading everyone’s blog posts was a daily joy for me.
I know you’ll be successful in whatever you decide to do. Please know that your blog is always welcome here.
Michael
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Sometimes it’s really that simple, isn’t it? I feel a little stupid for not thinking of this myself/earlier, though.
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Great idea, thanks for this tip!
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Damn, that sound’s so easy if you think about it.
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Great idea, but will this work over the long run?
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