Reflection

Community Media Literacies to me are the books and magazines and newspapers of the 21st century. This may be an oversimplified description but it is true that we have come into the 21st century with less and less paper and more digital platforms. As children we used everything from crayons, pencils, alphabet toys and more to learn how to engineer our ideas with these different materials. These things represent the materiality of communication practices and the fact that our senses also enable us to become literate. We in the 21st century have taken a digital approach to literacy that has been influenced greatly by the socio-cultural language exchanges. During this course I have learned that there are a lot more digital platforms than I ever realized and that they are always evolving and improving. We have just experienced 18 months of a global pandemic and many of the digital platforms have allowed (to some extent) schools to continue, companies to go remote and conduct business, churches to meet by "zoom" and physicians to treat or examine patients remotely. These are amazing successes if you think about what could have happened without our digital media literacies. We have reached a point of no return with respect as to how medicine is practiced, how big a global classroom may be and by which a grandchild and grandma can visit by "facetime". It is a great time that we live in although we also have to consider all of the risks that come along with these literacies. We now live with the threat of cyber bullying, identity theft, computer viruses and having our bank accounts hacked online. I think that I am most appreciative of my Samsung smart phone as a modern digital literacy. Even though I am only 25 years old, I remember my first flip phone and how primitive it now seems when compared to my advanced smartphone device which is really a small computer. It is amazing, and I would never want to be without it. Our communication practices are constantly being challenged and changed as they morph into new forms. Words in books are great but not enough anymore. As for what I would like to see improved would be how digital literacy can be an agent for positive change in society. We also need to be concerned about everyone's access to digital literacies. For example many children may not have all of the tools and benefits of a well equipped technologically sound home. There are still households in NC without decent access to the internet. This is astonishing but true, and I come from such an area. The Pandemic has created the need for online schools but there are many challenges that have come with it. 
The social and political context of these literacies is obvious. The poorer rural areas of our nation suffer without access to our global neighbors and the world at large. If one can not log on and connect with the news, the current events, the globe in general then that person is getting yesterday's news today. It is never going to be current or relevant to the world in which we now live. Politically it is a death wish. Imagine how it would have been if we could not read about the crisis at the Texas border in real time or the US exodus from Afghanistan and on and on? You get the idea. We are living in a very current events type of world. To be informed and to keep up with the changing global world we need digital media literacies. My interest in them is varied but a lot of it is due to the social nature of my digital literacies, I enjoy Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, LinkedIn, texting and more. The text mentions social mediafication of social relationships is being intensified because of the blending of work, business, education and recreational lives. I think that this is very true and that younger generations are quite comfortable with this phenomenon while some older generations find it too much of a mixture of business and pleasure for their own comfort zones. As for similarities of this course in IPS and any others that I have completed I would say that my IPS course on Self-Awareness (306) was somewhat connected to this course. It basically has made me aware of the intersection of my social-material and socio-cultural approaches to literacy and my life long love of books and having books. I have a great love of knowing that there are poetry books, art books, history books, and others on my home shelves. It is an old literacy model (owning books) but it is still important to me, and this is something of which I am very self aware. My speaking assignments aren't too nerve wracking because I know that it's technically not a "live" audience. However I do try to prepare mentally and emotionally so that I will not be too obviously shaky on video. When I was in high school I once almost had a panic attack while I was doing a class presentation. My teacher was very kind and allowed me a few moments to gather my composure and a "do-over". That really helped me a lot, and I am pretty ok with doing these online videos for now. I enjoy the writing assignments but I am not always quite confident with the references or if I have correctly acknowledged them. I would like to do better by that part of the writing assignments. This course has been very enlightening as I had no idea about the broad range of digital media. I guess that I had never quite thought about it as I have grown up with a cell phone, etc. since I was seven years old. It is basically a part of my life and not anything that I had to really get used to as my parents and grandparents had to. I wanted to mention that my Grandfather got a cell phone and willed himself to learn how to text as soon as he could so that he could keep up with his grandchildren. It was no easy task but it shows you how he loved his family and how far he was willing to go to be "near" us. It also shows you how important the digital media is for social and cultural interactions. I was glad to have had the "design a website" experience because it wasn't that difficult once I really practiced with the design elements of Wix. The Wix website offered graphics, design suggestions and much more so I really just had to read the directions and continue to practice and edit my own material. I would have liked to incorporate more of my own pictures and artwork but I am happy with how it turned out overall. It is a lot easier than I imagined although I am not anywhere an expert with graphics and web design, etc.
When I realized that I had made a much too broad subject proposal I was glad that Dr. Field stepped in and suggested that I narrow my scope for a project. It became obvious that I did have a good (or correct) idea because the text often mentions the members of society who are marginalized by their opportunities of their own particular social class, urban space and even race. It made me aware of how much our world is affected by literacy practices that  that  that  that are found in such things as economic and social groups. I have been very fortunate in my life, and I feel that it is important that I am willing to share my opportunities and to try and and recognize the diversity of different language practices in my own community. For example I learned that approved street art and graffiti is one way that an urban community helps to allow it's residents to represent their literary experiences in their home town. With this course I have learned some basic skills such as website building and also trying to be more creative (my Zoom model) with little artistic ability. This has been great because I can always probably need to design other websites in my lifetime. Whether on my own or with other groups in which I engage professionally or maybe with non-profits this is a great resource to possess. This is one of the last courses that I will need before graduation, and I am very excited to be getting so close. The discussions groups have been outstanding and so supportive. I could not have asked for more wonderful classmates or a more knowledgeable instructor than in Dr. Field. If I could have changed one thing about my college experience it would be that I would like to have finished school a little bit sooner but a lot has happened and overall UNC-G has been a very rewarding experience. Even though I started out at ECU in Greenville I am grateful that I was able to transfer to UNC-G and finish my degree work here. That was a while back but it seems just like yesterday and a lifetime ago. I was able to have had the most wonderful people at this University mentoring me and my life goals. One or two of them were my advisors with the Spartan Recovery program, and they may not know just how important they are but here is a great big thank you! My goals right now are to finish my undergraduate degree in December and to perhaps look for a future employer or to further my education. However my biggest goal is to be a great Mother to my beautiful Evelyn Jane.