Each class we take in college prepares us for the next class, the class after that and eventually the world. Taking what I learned in the course of this class, I am able to say I learned eight of the habits of mind. These eight habits will follow me wherever I go and eventually will guide me in my own professional career as a journalist.
Since the beginning of English 105, my curiosity about the world and what it entailed grew dramatically. I never truly understood the role of technology, barely even questioned it, and let its “trivial” aspect continue to be perceived in that light by me. It was not until I was in presented with the question, “are we in a race against the machine?” in which I truly had curiosity over this so-called “machine.” By engaging with in discussions, writing papers over it, my curiosity instead grew into knowledge— leading me to newer, more intriguing conversations to explore in my life. This is a skill I will carry forward.
Before I completely devoted myself to my exploratory essay, ““Technology and its Effects on Politics and Journalism,” my thesis was, “Fake news media is consistently tearing down the reputation of well-written journalists. No one in particular is to blame, rather it is the internet that has failed us.” However, when I devoted my time, researched, and attended a public discourse, I thought, “hm, I could be wrong.” This openness is new to me, as I am a very stubborn person when it comes to changing my beliefs. Yet, after taking on this adventure with my peers and engaging with different beliefs, I concluded that it openness is the key to becoming active in learning.
Being invested in the topic this semester was the key to learning, I concluded. In the beginning of the class I had entered with unaware of the deep, complex and rich relationship I had with the technology. “Was it a bad thing to be dependent on it? Was it good to want to use technology as a resource? What does technology mean to our world today?” I asked often. After finishing up the course, it is these types of questions that advanced my thinking about the topic. I explored how the internet is intertwined with the human bad and equally the human good. By engaging, it brought me awareness to all kinds of worlds I had no clue existed.
Creativity is an incredibly powerful and useful tool. It has allowed me to present ideas differently while being interesting and content worthy. It can be seen in my groups proposal project and in even in this website. It is interesting because when creating this website, I found the idea of not going the traditional route to be intriguing. This path led me to want to engage the audience with my content instead of skimming an essay which at times can be unappealing.
By allowing my creativity to lead this website, it has allowed me to present my ideas in the way that I view them inside my head.
Persistence has been an obstacle that I have been attempting to overcome for the past years. However, as I am approaching the end of this class, I can see how much persistence I employed. For example, in the proposal and video presentation section of the course, my group and I managed to complete roughly 15 pages of human trafficking, its effects, legislation and a solution, including a video. This persistence has grown within me and it no longer feels like a tedious task to embark on, rather one that I can continue to grow and advance on even after this class.
I learned about the different tier’s responsibility carries often in this class.
In the first half, this meant to take ownership of deadlines I had given myself and deadlines for my essay. Including taking accountability of what I could have done better to get a better score on my test, quiz, or discussion.
In the second half, responsibility meant taking ownership of the making sure to meet with Ms. Telles at the time I said I was. Or, doing the work I was meant to do in my group project.
I had to understand that each of these parts carried responsibility of myself in one way or another but it still all meant the same thing. To take accountability for my own actions.
One of the biggest habits I learned this semester was flexibility. Whether this meant with class, for example Ms. Telles falling ill, or the first event I had chosen for my exploratory essay was cancelled, I had to learn how to adapt. This flexibility later translated into my writing as well and in particular with my exploratory essay where I changed my opinion on what technology meant to journalism and politics. I had to learn how to make room for the opinions, events and additional information I gathered in order to present an up-to-date paper to turn in. This is the greatest skill to have and I am glad I had the opportunity to get comfortable with it.
I learned the habit of metacognition many more times than I realized throughout the course of English 105. Devoting countless letters to understanding how technology affects certain aspects of human life or replying to my peers in discussion board. The level of awareness I had throughout was subtle but when creating this webpage, reflecting back on all the prior work I have done, I become immensely metacognitive of how much growth, information and opinions I have come across. I have changed, grown and evolved on my opinions over technology in the past semester; taking the processes and applying it not only to myself but on a wider-scale of society.