Samantha Alexander

Reflection Paper Assignment

EDT 180 C
23 April 2019

Technical Literacy

I was not initially enrolled in the class EDT 180. Instead, I had opted for a class that sounded

more fun, although I had no idea what “Media for Dance” would entail. I soon found out on the

first day that this class, in a passive sort of way, required one to be at least mediocre at dancing.

Being me, someone who failed at every extracurricular activity I tried to participate in as a child

except for kung-Fu, I quickly realized Media for Dance was not the class for me and I dropped it,

only sacrificing the $3.00 I had spent on the textbook in the process. I chose EDT 180 to enroll

in for my computer science credit this semester because my roommate was in it as well and

because it fit perfectly into my schedule where the media class had been. However, what I have

gained from this class has amounted to so much more. I had almost no prior knowledge

regarding basic technology terms such as netiquette, copyright and fair use, or even

software/hardware. It was truly a ‘lightbulb above the head’ type moment when I learned that

hardware is just the tangible technology that helps a computer function such as a mouse or a

keyboard. You would think by 19-years-of-age one would have that vocabulary word under their

belt, but I suppose I missed the mark on that.

In addition, my computer files were a mess before taking EDT 180. Do not get me wrong, I do

know how to make a folder in order to organize my files, but I just did not care as much before.

But with all the files I had to keep organized for this class that begun with my last name and first

initial, I began to understand why organizing files might be worth it, and I learned how to

organize in a neat and logical way through creating my portfolio. The portfolio, although just a

collection of the other works I have accomplished throughout this class, was one of my favorite

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Samantha Alexander
Reflection Paper Assignment
EDT 180 C
23 April 2019

assignments this semester. I loved editing each page to make it my own and being able to express

everything I have learned this year in a cluster-free fashion, like what I am doing here!

Although I began this class with a lot of experience using Microsoft programs like Word,

PowerPoint, and Publisher, I was still able to learn small tips and tricks that could save me a lot

of time in the long run that I did not know about. My favorite trick was the Fill Series Handle in

Excel that would fill out boxes for you if it could predict what series you were typing like days

of the week or months of the year. In some instances, it even worked for formulas, which I found

quite groundbreaking. Coming into this class, I did not know anything about Photoshop, so that

was probably my favorite application out of all of the ones we learned.

I am grateful that I took EDT 180 this year. I truly feel as though I have gained a sense of basic

technical literacy and cannot wait to feel less awkward in situations where my friends are talking

about “hardware,” because I will now know what they are referring to!