This course gave me the opportunity to learn about a variety of technologies and how they are (and can be) used to compose texts. I learned that “technology” encompasses everything from the physical tools we use to the processes that we undertake to bring about new ideas. I gained an understanding of how technology operates and impacts our society, as well as what makes science fiction important (it helps us think about technology in ways beyond “just facts”). I learned how technology is used in activism (augmented reality) and how it’s used for storytelling and poetry (Twine games, Nick Montfort’s digital poetry). And then, to close out the course, I learned about the difficulty of digital preservation, and why it’s important to different audiences.  

​

But the best part about learning all of these things was the way in which our class learned them. While there were several, traditionally published articles assigned, there were also websites, videos, and digital games for us to explore and “read” critically. It was refreshing to be able to discuss scholarly topics in a modern context. For example, many of us had seen several of the Netflix Black Mirror episodes prior to enrolling in the course, but most had never discussed the implications of an episode’s technology or studied the design and other rhetorical devices of an episode.  

 

As someone with no interest in becoming a scholar (in the traditional, academic sense), I found this course to be relevant and practical for my career pursuits. I like to write for digital spaces (web/social) and I often do write in these spaces in my current career. This course helped me expand my technological literacies so that I can write in even more spaces and in more interesting ways. For example, the movie trailer project gave me the opportunity to learn how to work with Adobe Premiere (a program I had never opened before taking this course), which required new technological skills and compositional skills. Adobe Premiere is a widely popular film editing program and many companies seeking web editors look for this skill in prospective employees.  

 

There’s a lot to be said, but if I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that people don’t like to read long pieces of web copy without some kind of media break, so I’ll keep it short—