Brandon Toscano

11/30/19

EDT180D

Mr. Gary Lewallen

Final Reflection Essay

Looking over my previous reflections, it is clear to me that I was very underwhelmed by

how a majority of the content was presented. To evaluate each project, I think a positive

experience of the class was that I was more and more aware of my expectations for each module.

However, most of the reflecting wasn’t done on the assignment given. In my own experiences,

most of the reflecting was considered after I had submitted the project assignment. I think the

modules were listed in order of increasing importance, with an exception of the construction

module.

My only observations were less about the technologies themselves and more about their

uses. Most things we did this semester were near useless, given I am a mathematics major. I

think going more in-depth on the Excel sheet as well as trying to find better ways to incorporate

technology into the classroom may be more beneficial to the practice at hand. I believe that there

weren’t a lot of explanations that reinforced any sort of clue as to why the material is important.

The lack of explanations only served to disintegrate any excitement that may be stimulating. If I

cannot understand what the end goal of any assignment is and why it is relevant to my career,

then there is a very high chance I may not put as much effort into said assignment as I would

with something that benefits me. That being said, I acknowledge that our world is becoming

more digital and that understanding technology is essential for survival, but I still do not feel the

need to learn about the different technological applications or inventions we had covered over
the course of the semester. If I am honest, I think the Inquiry Module was essentially useless

because it wasn’t important at all to conduct the research on technologies that we aren’t able to

utilize on a regular basis. On the other hand, I think the Expression Module was very important

because it was not only open-ended, but there was a wide amount of creativity given to us to

complete the project.

Over the course of this class, my approach to dealing with problems has been different.

Some of the problems I found were very different than others by nature, but there was a

depressing, but clear solution to these sorts of problems. The solution was to put in less effort

into discovering different routes around the problem, while asking my classmates what they had

done for the same issue, as most of us tended to experience the same issues. I wouldn’t

necessarily say this is a complete loss, as we sometimes need another perspective in order to

produce better results. What makes this strategy depressing is that problem solving isn’t an issue

when you can ask someone else for their help.

The longer this class went on, the less I tried to solve problems by myself. Sometimes, all

I needed was reassurance that I was doing what I could to get the best grade rather than doing

what I could to produce the project I enjoyed. When dealing with problems, I started to think of

the grade rather than what I wanted to display in terms of effort. Despite learning the exact

opposite, I felt like doing the bare minimum was the best use of my time in this sense.

I don’t think the learning process with technology has changed over the course of the

semester. If it has, then I think it transformed from learning the practical uses of an application

that may be important in my life to just learning about a certain application. An example of this

was shown through the Construction Module. I doubt I will use the application’s feature, but I

suppose it is something to know. Given this information as well as the lack of drive I had
throughout the semester, I can show that I show less effort as a whole the more I progressed

through the semester. I guess I was expecting the skills I had initially learned to build up to

something important, useful, or even creative. This wasn’t completely routed through the

Expression Module, but I felt let down in a sense. My first few assignments were met with

unrelenting vigor on my part, as I had always thought that I could and would build up to

something bigger. However, maybe the lack of building up to something bigger may be less to

do with the material itself and more of the time frame we are given.

I don’t really use my classmates’ work directly. Most of the processes I take away are

those that might not resonate with me as a student. My work ethic and how I work as a whole are

different from others’ enough to the point where it isn’t worth using any sort of strategies they

may use. Furthermore, I don’t see any way or method to engage in the same practices of others

besides the peer reviews. Editing others’ works gives me an idea of how I should approach mine

to an extent, but I wouldn’t say it has been an amazing way to be inspired through others. For

those reasons, I really don’t see any practices that are worth taking the time to experiment with to

any legitimate extent.

If I could go back to the start of the semester, I would try to not fuss over any potential

mistakes like I had in this semester. This doesn’t necessarily mean to not try as much, but I

probably put in 120% of my own effort when I didn’t need to. As I stated before, it is very

important that I have a drive and a reward of experiencing or doing something I want to do. This

was only partially fulfilled with the variety of topics we were given and that we could choose

from, but sometimes I had felt like I wasn’t working towards anything grand or exciting. This

was especially the case with the Inquiry Module, but I had said enough about my experiences

with that already. That being said, my one goal for next semester is to learn something from each
class that doesn’t necessarily pertain to the class itself. If I were to accomplish this, then I think I

would have the skills to succeed in a college, academic, and social environment.