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My Final Challenge
by Victor Souza NoalMy Final Challenge
Hello, everyone! My name is Victor, but you can call me Vic if you want to 😊
This is me! :D
You might know me from our classes this semester, but I want you to know me in a different way. So, I’m passionate about teaching and writing (not only academic writing, but mostly fictional stories), and I love to buy new fun pens and cute notebooks. My favorite sitcom is Modern Family (have you ever heard about it?), and my favorite TV series is The Crown (looking forward to season five!). Also, I have a sweet and supportive boyfriend called Henrique, who makes my life way happier.
For me, this has been an amazing term (quite challenging, though…). During this semester, I’ve changed a lot - from the person who was very insecure and cautious about teaching, I’m now planning to join an international program to teach an additional language to people who can’t afford language courses. In the last six months, I’ve started teaching, learned so many incredible things, and even made new friends. Last year, If you told me that all of this was going to happen, I’d really be skeptical, but I’m truly glad it all changed me and my life.
In this subject specifically, I found the texts from FutureLab very interesting, mainly because the authors define digital literacy as
“[...] the skills, knowledge, and understanding that enables critical, creative, discerning and safe practices when engaging with digital technologies in all areas of life”.
This definition really enlightened me about how digital literacy is not only connected to our professional and educational lives, but mainly to our daily routines - it is everywhere. I also got some powerful insights from Kress and Van Leeuwen’s Grammar of Visual Design, as I’m a very visual learner, and from Bloom's Taxonomy, which I already used to teach my students in a clearer way. I think these contents were (and still are) extremely useful to me not only because they can be implemented in classroom activities, but also because they’ve helped me to better understand my students (as they’re so connected with the digital world, even though they still need help to see it critically) and my own digital fluency ongoing process.
This is my Bitmoji :D
Considering I took this course in an online mode, I think it was a great opportunity to put into practice what I've been learning during the semester. Besides the obvious distance between me, my colleagues and the professor, our interaction was nice, especially in classes that demanded discussion. Also, our professor was open to helping us with any questions we might have. Moreover, this digital environment we’re working with made us use digital tools and exercise our digital literacy throughout the course in the most natural way. One of my favorite activities was to explore a game made by Google, which intended to educate students about online safety. On the other hand, my least favorite activity was to present some topics of a text we’ve read in the last workshop, mainly because the chapters we’re presenting were connected between them and I felt it got a little repetitive due to the number of teams presenting. How did I feel about the course? Well, since day one, the professor was very welcoming and hugely supportive to us, so I think our experience together as a whole was great. I liked a lot that we could use different technologies throughout the course, and I think this is an extremely important aspect to focus on even more.
Also, considering all things that happened in my life during this semester (including the loss of a loved one), I think my performance was pretty good. I know that there are some things that I can improve throughout the graduation course as a whole, and I intend to do so, but I don’t think my grades shouldn’t be bad at all. I’m happy with the results we’ve accomplished and I’ve learned a lot from this class.
Thank you all for this wonderful experience! See you next term!
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