Course reflection

This course overall I think has been the most fun so far in my collegiate career, which may not be saying much considering I am a freshman, but I do think that I will take what I learned from this class and go on to use it to my advantage in other classes. Not to mention the type of work I want to get into everything is going digital now. As an English major I have to recognize early that everything is not black and white on paper anymore, and a lot of the publishing business is becoming more technical and going online now a days. I think at the beginning of this course I was completely lost as to what digital composition was, and now that the course is over I feel I am maybe even more confused. But confused in a good way, because now I am not sitting here thinking what is digital composition, I am sitting here thinking, in what way could this be considered digital composition, because if there is anything I learned in this class it is the fact that this genre of composition is so vast and really at this point in time has no specifications to it. Digital composition really is just such a general topic that it is hard to really describe it, or specified what exactly it is. I did find the course to be fun though. My favorite project had to be the video. I had not noticed until I actually did the music video, that when listening to music I tend to put scenarios in my head that sync up with the music. So that was an interesting experience to actually perform. It was mostly frustrating that not everything I wanted was easily obtainable. I also enjoyed doing this final project, even though it turned out to be the hardest for me, and most frustrating. I think it just all goes back to me not being entirely sure what digital composition is, which like I said, is not a bad thing, but just made things harder. It is difficult sometimes when things are broader than if they were more specific, but I have no doubt in my mind that in five years or maybe even less more of an emphasis will be put on digital composition, and the learning of it all. I know the manifesto tried its hand at explaining it, but I think the problem is there needs to be a dummies guide for people to really get the know of it. The manifesto just seemed way too highbrow, and I am not going to lie I only skimmed the first few pages and gave up on the whole thing. The wording and the way it was set up was just too confusing, which could argue, maybe that was the point, but really if we want people to really start understanding digital composition, and I think this really goes for anything, we have to simplify it, at least at first and to a certain point. I think the reason digital composition is so hard to teach or learn is because there so far is no restrictions on it. It just is what it is and that can be entirely overwhelming. I feel as though there should be a genre and then subclasses and so on and so forth. And I think perhaps if there were more manifestos or something out there then it would be easier on everyone. I cannot tell count how many times I went to Google digital composition and was led to so many dead ends, because there is like nothing practically, or at least nothing popular enough I guess, out there on the internet explaining what it is. Which I find slightly ironic that the internet, is a, if not the most vast source of digital compositions and yet it has such little information on what digital composition really is. I do not think I have ever taken a class where I was literally given so much freedom. I mean not just even talking about the creative freedom, but the prompts even were pretty much do what you want as long as you keep to these few restrictions, and that was a nice fresh look at how school could be. I mean looking back at Ken Robinson speech. I really enjoyed his speech because he touched on issues in schools that are just true. Everything in school systems are just like a factory, and they are trying to produce all the same things, and it is scary to think that my degree might not even be worth much when I graduate, and that finding jobs are just going to become harder and harder. The hierarchy is to blame for this, the one Robinson spoke of, how we put more of an emphasis on math and language and science, and this can connect to digital media, because advancements in technology is rising all the time. It seems every year they are creating something even better than the one a year before. Apple is constantly throwing something new out on the market but you really do not see them putting an emphasis on technology in school either. I think maybe that was what I was trying to explain in my final project, but I did not know how to portray that without my project being entirely too long. I am sure it could have been done, but I was unable to really find a way to do it, and that is another plus to digital composition, the fact that you can really explain a concept in such little time, but even with such little time it can still get explained so much easier and in so much more detail than if just words were to be used. At the same time it can be the opposite, and digital composition can be a tool used to help transition into a more detailed explanation. I really just rambled along for this. Like I originally said, digital composition is really just so vast and broad that there is so much to talk about and you can find yourself getting lost in thought and getting caught up in thought as you try to discuss it. So that’s what I have to say about digital composition and the course.