Unit 3 Reflection

How did you choose you genre/medium for your Unit 3 Project? What specific attributes of you argument and your projected audience helped you arrive at that decision?

I chose to create an Instagram page as the medium for my Unit 3 project. I created a series of permanent “stories” called “highlights” that featured each of the major sections of my argument as to why technology needs to be more incorporated into the school curriculum. The sections of my “story” were titles “Introduction,” “Tech in my Ed,” “Vision for Tech,” “Roadblocks,” “Code.org,” and “Consequences.”

I chose Instagram, and the story feature in particular as my medium because is a new and massively popular technology. My Unit 2 project was essentially just a research paper written in a less formal tone, and I wanted to challenge myself and get out of my comfortable mode of communication for Unit 3. I had done this on purpose since my primary target audience are school administrators and curriculum makers, and a vaguely academic paper seemed the most relatable format to communicate my message. When I was considering what to do going into Unit 3, however, it seemed hypocritical to adhere to the classic persuasive paper style as the main points of my argument are all about how important it is to incorporate new technology into the classroom.

Once I had decided to use an alternative form of media, I began to narrow down my choices. I first considered Facebook, the social media platform with the highest concentration of my school administrator target. But quickly decided against it, as it seemed difficult to tell any sort of a linear story through a Facebook page.

 Instagram was my next option, but at first, I was planning on using regular posts to create the different sections of my project. It seemed that it would be a good way to have each section be self-contained but also allow for a clear linear flow to the argument I was making. However, the self-contained nature of each post would have made it cumbersome to navigate between the various sections.

This brought me to the Stories feature of Instagram. I was hesitant at first because I have basically no experience at all posting Instagram stories and it seemed a daunting task to create an entire persuasive research project. However, I ultimately decided to use the feature for my project because of how viewer friendly it is. Taping through each section point by point allows the reader easily follow my line of thinking and ensures that my message will be interpreted in the order and manner that I intended.

I was also somewhat hesitant about using Instagram Stories because it is a feature that is notoriously utilized by social media savvy millennials, not crotchety old school administrators. But in the end I believe it is a very effective way to communicate with my target because it stands out from the other forms of more traditional communication that they are most likely used to.

There is a famous quote that “The medium is the message” which I believe applies in this case. My argument about more effectively incorporating technology into the curriculum is about shaking up the status quo, not sticking to it and selecting a medium outside of my target’s comfort zone further emphasized this point.

How did you submit you Unit 3 Project to your projected audience? What cover/introductory materials did you provide?

I presented my Unit 2 project, to the school administrator target audience through an email, which has become a traditional form of communication. For Unit 3 I decided to use the built in sharing capabilities of Instagram to present my project to my target audience. I discovered that the principal and several other administrators at my middle school and high school had Instagram accounts and so I was able to send the ”story”  sections of my project to them via Direct Message. I included the following message when I sent the sections in order to give them some background into the process through which I had created this project and to explain how I intended for them to view it.

“Hi _____, Technology has indisputably become part of the process of education in school and is regularly used to enhance students’ educational experiences. However, educating students on the most effective and appropriate ways to use technology in relationship to their school is often overlooked, especially in public school with rigid curricula. Over the past month, I have done both primary and secondary research on the issue and created a proposal as to how technological education can be incorporated into a curriculum without sacrificing attention to other important subjects.

As a school administrator, I though you might find this research interesting and I hope you will consider looking through the Instagram Stories I have put together to represent my argument.

I know this might not be the most familiar or conventional way for you to receive a proposal but I believe that my choice of medium helps illustrate my point as well as provides a quick and easy way for you to look through my proposal.

There are six “Highlighted” Stories on this Instagram page and they each represent a section of my proposal. I would recommend looking through them in order, from “Introduction” to “Consequences” but they are also created so that they can be viewed as standalone pieces as well.

Let me know if you have any questions about how to navigate through the stories or the argument itself.”

Directly quote at least one comment that one of your classmates posted on your blog during peer review/unit reflection from any of the three units. The describe, with direct quotes, how this comment influenced your writing.

On my Unit 1 Portfolio, I received the following comment:

“Writing embedded in technology is probably already taken for granted, which might be a good reason for understanding how we as humans communicate , and weather or not a tech shift to a more digital form or writing would be beneficial or not. And if writing is being perceived as informal in today's landscape, can there be positive implications to the decay of written language? “

Since I did not receive much analytical feedback on my posts, I chose to include this comment because it actually influenced the direction that I decided to take my project. I found the comment to be very difficult to digest because of the confusing nature of how it was phrased. This led me to progressively make my projects easier to engage with.

In Unit 2 I focused on using shorter paragraphs, similar to what might be found in a news article, images, videos and clear section headings to break up longer portions of text. In my personal experiences this makes engaging with media much more user friendly.

In Unit 2 I wrote:

“As discussed in the video, Grammarly is an AI enhanced spell checking application that is able to anticipate even the most egregious spelling and grammatical errors and offer useful suggestions to fix them. It has even helped make it possible for Lisa Wood Shapiro, a highly dyslexic woman, to become a successful writer without having to reveal her learning disability to any of her editors.”

Addtionally, I provided the following image to show what the Grammarly tool actually looks like in action. By adding in an image of what I was describing I believe I made it much easier for the reader to understand the technology that I was describing.

I took this a step further with my Unit 3 Project by using Instagram as my medium. Instagram provides a much shorter and more direct form of communication than an extensive blog post and really allowed me to share and emphasize the most pertinent points of my argument.