Through this e- portfolio you will note it consist of six blogs, two papers, introduction to my inquiry project (this), and a about me page. Throughout this semester I have familiarized myself with what our school’s library has to offer through interlibrary services by requesting scholarly articles on skateboarding. I have practiced the utilization of keywords when searching through search engines and our library database. I have strategized the way I go about research in about four ways. First I keep my window wide open so I search for information on my topic through everything; videos, websites, blogs, individuals opinions, Wikipedia, unscholarly and scholarly. Then as I develop a sense of knowledge for that topic., I begin to ask what was it about that topic that I will or want to elaborate on. So I come up with research questions, pick out keywords from those sentences and search the engines one more time to refresh my mind with the help of my questions and list of words. After the familiarization process is taken care of the real deal begins. It is then when I begin searching for more credible sources such as scholarly articles, video talks such as Ted Talks or professionals of the subject, and interviews/data.
All was practiced when researching skateboardings benefits and culture as a whole. In my proposal you will see I used a variety of sources such as a ted talk from a professional skateboarder himself, scholarly articles and blogs written by academics. Through this I was motivated to conduct a little research myself and created a google forms survey to send out with the help of Facebook and Instagram, which also goes back to my literacy paper where I discuss Facebook being an educational literacy. In short I utilized my daily literacies to find and conduct more research.
Thanks to the basics I learned through WordPress and managing a blog space as well as creating this e- portfolio, I was able to figure out how to use two other website builders. One in which I used to create my inquiry project and the other for another course. I see myself being able to utilize website creators to share my literacies as I continue on with school, future inquiry projects, and individual projects. Having said that, the literacies I have encountered this semester and integrated to my education has given me another set of transferable skills to merge into my interest.
Writing this semester has not felt any better. I have been able to express myself. My creative side was ignited through the freedom I was given. Throughout this semester I have written two formal assignments; the literacy paper and proposal for my inquiry project. The comical thing is that it did not feel formal. When writing these formal papers I felt a sense of relief because I wasn’t given a prompt on a topic that I cared none for. I mean don’t get me wrong, writing is still a pain although the freedom given to me this semester allowed me to write the best I have in my opinion. I was able to implement links, photos, and hashtags to emphasize my points while maintaining a formal tone throughout the papers. For example in my Literacy paper I utilized hashtags throughout the paper to emphasize my message. I feel even if the reader just read the hashtags he would understand a good percentage of the message and will only become clearer as they read along.
Literacy Paper Outline…
#ChangeIsInevitable, EveryThingIsSociallyConstructed #IgniteCreativity
#EducationalLiteracyIsSociallyConstructed #OldWaysAreNotAlwaysTheBestOfWays
#FacebookCanBeAnEducationalLiteracy. #PracticeMakesBetter.
#LiteracyIsMoreThanYouThink #LimitationsAreNoFun #UtilizeTodaysResources
I always had trouble figuring out when to create a new paragraph. But I finally figured it out and it is shown in my proposal in the research section where I divided my paragraphs as an individual section that better shapes this idea of skateboarding and what it stands for. For example I began with benefits of skateboarding, transitioned to community, then innovators and ended with the message of innovation and diversity within skateboarding. Besides noticing some room for content and improvements throughout my proposal #ThereIsAlwaysRoomForImprovment I caught that I had fairly smooth transitions from paragraph to paragraph.
Also, having a discussion through the sources I retrieved was something I was proud of as well; that will have to be given credit to Brittany Delacey #mentor for the suggestion early on the draft when I had the sources but wasn’t sure how to implement them. It helped me create a mental outline in my head for what I wanted my project to be. Which was just one of the many examples that my peers from our section contributed to my learning. Unfortunately I deleted most of my peer suggestions because Its sort of a pet peeve for me to leave comments right before I send it in or leave it to be graded. Although in general I can remember our workshop being extremely comfortable with sharing ideas and papers. That allowed a creative environment to come out and improve each others work.
I created a website for my inquiry project. Before that idea went into action I was pondering on whether I should create a short film trying my best to exemplify the culture within skateboarding and what it has to offer. But when I actually sat down and thought about it, I found it more realistic to create a website because I would be able to go more in depth about what I chose to cover instead of limiting myself with a couple minutes through film. In my website I have an introductory page, a video talk page, videography blog page, and a photographic blog page. Every page with the exception of the introduction is a blog page; which gave me the opportunity to hand pick videos or photos that I felt exemplified skateboardings values, way of living, benefits and then write about it while tying in what I researched. I even blogged about a source I used in my research part of my proposal. I do plan to continue to use this website in the future to upload more content from me and other friends of mine. As of now I am pretty satisfied with its layout although I do sense an art page is missing. I would definitely add an art page where skateboarding related art will be shown and most likely blogged about in my own words. The only thing that almost pulled me away from this website idea was the thought that I am going to write about a whole culture that changes constantly from an individual’s perspective (me) and some sources. This is because skateboarding evolves day to day as technology, media, businesses, etc have an influence on it. For me to try and explain the whole culture is really near to impossible. But I am also confident I did a good job in explaining some important values skateboarding offers throughout my LIVE.SKATE.CREATE website. I definitely would have surveyed more skateboarders and created a short film if I had more time before I have to present it because I am still going to create that film when I have my own camera and can take my time to make it good enough to be in my weebly created site.
As for my experience with the portfolio creator wordpress; I would say it was great to just post blogs. User friendly and looks neat and organized when in publish mode. Although when creating this e-portfolio it was a bit tricky in my opinion. I am all for learning and figuring out how to work with a certain program although once I got introduced to weebly where e-portfolios may also be created,…I feel in love. Therefore, I suggest taking a look into it. I know it was easy for me to use although others may not feel the same. But the main thing here whether it be weebly, wordpress or even wix (another website/e-portfolio creator) is that they were all at no cost and functioned extremely effectively. I love the fact that they are things out there for free it opens doors for everything! And stay open even after college. I know my knowledge of creating a website will be one of the most important transferable skill I will leave higher education with as I do plan to one day own a business. I’m sure you know in what field of course. Hint: skateboarding…
Throught this e- portfolio you will note it consist of six blogs, two papers, introduction to my inquiry project (this), and a about me page. Throughout this semester I have familiarized myself with what our school’s library has to offer through interlibrary services by requesting scholarly articles on skateboarding. I have practiced the utilization of keywords when searching through search engines and our library database. I have strategerized the way I go about research in about four ways. First the window is wide open so I search for information on my topic through everything; videos, websites, blogs, individuals opinions, wikipedia, and really anything. Then as I develop a sense of knowledge for that topic., I begin to ask what was it about that topic that I will or want to elaborate on. So I come up with research questions, pick out keywords from those sentences and search the engines one more time to refresh my mind with the help of my questions and list of words. After the familiarization process is taken care of the real deal begins. It is then when I begin searching for more credible sources such as scholarly articles, video talks such as Ted Talks or professionals of the subject, and interviews/data.
All was practiced when researching skateboardings benefit and culture as a whole. In my proposal you will see I used a variety of sources such as a ted talk from a professional skateboarder himself, scholarly articles and blogs written by academics. Through this I was motivated to conduct a little research myself and created a google forms survey to send out with the help of facebook and instagram, which also goes back to my literacy paper where I discuss facebook being an educational literacy. In short I utilized my daily literacies to find and conduct more research.
Thanks to the basics I learned through wordpress and managing a blog space as well as creating this e- portfolio, I was able to figure out how to use two other website builders. One in which I used to create my inquiry project and the other for another course. I see myself being able to utilize website creators to share my literacies as I continue on with school, future inquiry projects, and individual projects. Having said that, the literacies I have encountered this semester and integrated to my education has given me another set of transferable skills to merge into my interest.
Writing this semester has not felt any better. I have been able to express myself. My creative side was ignited through the freedom I was given. Throughout this semester I have written two formal assignments; the literacy paper and proposal for my inquiry project. The comical thing is that it did not feel formal. When writing these formal papers I felt a sense of relief because I was not given a prompt on a topic that I cared none for. I mean don’t get me wrong, writing is still a pain although the freedom given to me this semester allowed me to write the best I have in my opinion. I was able to implement links, photos, and hashtags to emphasize my points while maintaining a formal tone throughout the papers. For example in my Literacy paper I utilized hashtags throughout the paper to emphasize my message. I feel even if the reader just read the hashtags he would understand a good percentage of the message and will only become clearer as they read along. (Take photos of hashtags
Not until now, I couldn’t figure out when to create a new paragraph. But I finally figured it out and it is shown in my proposal in the research section where I divided my paragraphs as an individual section that better shapes this idea of skateboarding and what it stands for. For example I began with benefits of skateboarding, transitioned to community, then innovators and ended with the message of innovation and diversity within skateboarding. Besides noticing some room for content and improvements throughout my proposal #ThereIsAlwaysRoomForImprovment I caught that I had fairly smooth transitions from paragraph to paragraph.
Also, having a discussion through the sources I retrieved was something I was proud of as well; that will have to be given credit to Brittany Delacy #mentor for the suggestion early on the draft when I had the sources but wasn’t sure how to implement them. It helped me create a mental outline in my head for what I wanted my project to be.
I created a website for my inquiry project. Before that idea went into action I was pondering on whether I should create a short film trying my best to exemplify the culture within skateboarding and what it has to offer. But when I actually sat down and thought about it, I found it more realistic to create a website because I would be able to go more in depth about what I chose to cover instead of limiting myself with a couple minutes through film. In my website I have an introductory page, a video talk page, videography blog page, and a photographic blog page. Every page with the exception of the introduction is a blog page; which gave me the opportunity to hand pick videos or photos that I felt exemplified skateboardings values, way of living, benefits and then write about it while tying in what I researched. I even blogged about a source I used in my research part of my proposal. I do plan to continue to use this website in the future to upload more content from me and other friends of mine. As of now I am pretty satisfied with its layout although I do sense an art page is missing. I would definitely add an art page where skateboarding related art will be shown and most likely blogged about in my own words. The only thing that almost pulled me away from this website idea was the thought that I am going to write about a whole culture that changes constantly from an individual’s perspective (me) and some sources. This is because skateboarding evolves day to day as technology, media, businesses, etc have an influence on it. For me to try and explain the whole culture is really near to impossible. But I am also confident I did a good job in explaining some important values skateboarding offers throughout my LIVE.SKATE.CREATE website. I definitely would have surveyed more skateboarders and created a short film if I had more time before I have to present it because I am still going to create that film when I have my own camera and can take my time to make it good enough to be in my weebly created site.
As for my experience with the portfolio creator wordpress; I would say it was great to just post blogs. User friendly and looks neat and organized when in publish mode. Although when creating this e-portfolio it was a bit tricky in my opinion. I am all for learning and figuring out how to work with a certain program although once I got introduced to weebly where e-portfolios may also be created,…I feel in love. Therefore, I suggest taking a look into it. I know it was easy for me to use although others may not feel the same. But the main thing here whether it be weebly, wordpress or even wix (another website/e-portfolio creator) is that they were all at no cost and functioned extremely effectively. I love the fact that they are things out there for free it opens doors for everything! And stay open even after college. I know my knowledge of creating a website will be one of the most important transferable skill I will leave higher education with as I do plan to one day own a business. I’m sure you know in what field of course. Hint: skateboarding…
Carlos Torres 