Blog Post #1

"Hollywood Babylon II" by James Anthony is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Hello Blog!

    I wanted to attend this class because I want to attain a Minor in Education. However, that is not the only reason that I want to take this class, after reading the syllabus it became clear to me that this class wasn't just going to be a boring Microsoft computer class, but a class that eventually will give me the skills to create assets through technology, how to manage my work (One Drive) and that technology can be fun! I hope to learn how to properly use Excel, or at least any other spread sheet creator. I have never been good at Excel or Google Sheets, but I know how useful of a program they both are for time management, class management, planning for travel, and so much I don't even know about! 

   Prior to this course my experience with technology within an educational setting has been less than optimal. Technology started becoming a part of my every day school life around 2nd grade for me, first with Smart Boards and typing classes. The Smart Board was not a touch screen, but a projector for my teacher's desktop. As I got older, and technology began to take over more of my schooling, we used software for math games, we would play Kahoots on the board, and of course once I got to high school, everything had to be typed. It wasn't until the Pandemic that I started using resources such as Canvas and Google classroom. But the entire time I went to school, my teachers typically had no idea how to work with the technology. I remember watching teachers spend so much time just trying to get the Smart Board to turn on, or them yelling at the students for making dirty names in Kahoot games.

    I love learning about pop-culture history, specifically film and music history. My mother is also a huge pop-culture nerd, so the majority of my childhood, she was my encyclopedia for all random facts. But now as an adult, still with a thirst for knowledge, I spend so much time watching Documentaries, reading books and articles. One of my favorite books when I was younger was the Hollywood Babylon, a giant book that dissected all the drama from the first 1/4 of Hollywood's history. Watching films of course is a valuable activity when you love to learn about Hollywood, but I find the behind-the-scenes stories intensely fascinating. I read many celebrity memoirs from the time periods and actors and actresses that I want to learn about the most. One of my favorite documentary filmmakers is a Youtube channel called Be Kind Rewind. She provides all of her sources and has a credible footprint online, so when I first found her channel, I devoured almost every video (I'm sorry, but I truly do not care about John Wayne). Another Youtube documentarian that I adore is Kaz Rowe. They make documentary style videos about not just old Hollywood, but the Queer history of so many aspects of history. I love using Youtube and JSTOR to find what I desire. The thirst for knowledge will forever live on!!