In beginning my first week of graduate classes, I knew I would have to stay on top of updates and ensure that I was prepared on every front. Thankfully I had a majority of my blog sites and digital media platforms established prior to beginning classes. I knew I had my basics: The top 3 (Intagram, Twitter, and Facebook) and Youtube. With the others, I knew it would take a little bit of work since I had also not logged onto a few of theses sites for active use in a while. Without fail, I ran into my first obstacle.

I consider myself relatively tech savy. I built my first website at 15 and and about 2 years ago, I had converted the blog site over to my official website and had not logged in here in quite some time. I assumed that my site would have the same password variant I used for everything and that I wouldn’t have any problems logging in. Boy was I wrong. 2 hours later, I finally reset my password (which was synced with a email I no longer had access to) and had relinked my new email. After logging in, I was greeted with an entirely new layout and updates that I hadn’t installed since my last login. It took me a little while but I was able to reteach myself how to maneuver the site, just like riding a bike. It definitely shifted my thought process from “let’s just check off that I did this” to “lets understand how to do this.” Although I’m familiar with the WordPress hosting, I had to step back and had to force my curiosity into relearning the site.

Going through the process of reestablishing some of these sites, specifically this WordPress blog, definitely got me a little more intrigued and excited to dive into class. In previous classes, discussion boards and the occasional “blog post” seemed necessary to ensure that the information was absorbed. Even within this blog (circa 2013-14) and on my Youtube channel, you’re able to look back at posts from my film studies classes, which was the closest I ever came to using digital media in a classroom setting. With so many resources now, it seems almost wasteful to not use these platforms and engage with classmates in this way. We live in a digital age with resources and feedback just a click away, so why not experiment and challenge our skills with new digital media and networking platforms? I look forward to being able to utilize these resources in new ways and cannot wait to see where it takes me.