Digital Media Learning

I'm Hunter Hagin and yhis is my IM260 blog about my digital media learning. I am a St Cloud State engineering major with a passion of accpting and concuring any challeneg in my way. When i was a kid my mom enrolled me in little league baseball and I played for several years. One year i just got sick of playing and wanted to quit the team. When i told my mother about this she said,"Winners never quit and quitters never win." Such a simple concept that stuck with me my entire life. Over the years she would always tell me to never give up and to fight as hard as i can for as long as i can. Ever since then i have given everything my all. My digital media laerning wil not be any different. 

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Barn Find

© carjournalism

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[somenerdthing]

[iivanov92]

Bugatti. Next portion of renders

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Blog: After

Most of my blog entries are completed and know i can officially say I am a blogger. IM260 has made me travel out of my comfort zone and has challenged me to learn new ways of educating and expressing myself. These blog entries have made me think things out and have taught me that extensive planning is extremely helpful. When creating my info graphic i learned that a visual representation of information gathered can help you realize things you did not think about before. When creating and writing about my survey i learned that other peoples thoughts and ideas can be useful i gathering other ideas and collecting your own thoughts. It also helped me gather key points to bring up in my research paper. All the posts I have made helped me write the paper in a timely manner and taught me that planning things out offers the highest chance of success. IM260

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Blog: Before

Before taking IM260 I have never attempted to write my own blog. I have had a Tumblr since the end of middle school and used to find pictures that i enjoyed, but i would really consider that blogging. I never added any captions or comments on the photos i was re blogging. Nor did I ever create a post with just text. I have read other peoples blogs on tumblr and other websites before and always thought of maybe attempting to do it myself, but obviously never did. I am glad that IM260 is making me go out of my comfort zone and try new things that i have always wanted to try. 

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Research Paper: After

I have finally finished writing my research paper. When i finished typing my last sentence i got overcome with a feeling of relief. This paper was a lot more hard work then i was expecting,but the final result is more then worth it. I wrote two rough drafts before coming up with a final copy. My final copy is 1750 words so i met the length requirements. Overall, I think this is the best research paper i have ever written because of all the planning i did to prepare for the paper and all the information that is included in the paper. I actually spent time writing this instead of rushing through it to just turn it in and get a grade. I feel like if i want to write amazing research papers i have to write using the same process and the same amount of planning that i put into this one. I thought that writing this paper with all the planning i did was going to be easy, but it was still a little difficult because the paper had to meet the length requirements. Overall i am very pleased with my final paper and i am expecting a very high grade. 

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Research Paper: Before

Well the day has finally come. It is time to finally start writing the research paper. It seems i have spent so much time doing assignments preparing me to write this paper that i feel like i have already written it. I am glad i had to do the infographic, survey, and annotated bibliography because they have all given me so much information that i feel that writing this paper will be a breeze. I am a little nervous about the length of the paper. It has to be 1500-2000 words which is not terrible, but is not that easy. Without the preparing i have already done writing this paper would have taken Weeks. With the information i have gathered over the semester i believe it will be done within a week. I am going to accomplish writing this paper by sitting down at least 2 hours a day and starting the writing process. I am going to create a a rough draft before writing the final paper. Planning is everything with research papers. That is one thing i have learned in IM260. I feel confident in my abilities to write this paper in a timely manner. I know i can do this and i know i can do it well.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Twitter: After

i have successfully created a Twitter account and am following many different blogs that i find to be very interesting and helpful for my major. I have learned how to use the hashtags and how to people peoples attention with them to get people to view my post. I didn't think i was ever going to like using Twitter, but its nice to see that i can still be wrong. I enjoy posting on Twitter now because i have a lot of friends who started following em right away and right after i post something i get a comment on it almost right away. I feel like more of my friends are on Twitter then any other social networking site I have. i think this project went as well as it could have because i have learned how to use the website in its entirety and have gained perspective and knowledge about my possible field of employment. I am happy that i had this assignment and finally joined Twitter. If i had to do this assignment again i would do it the exact same way. Even after IM260 i believe i will continue to use Twitter. 

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Twitter: Before

I have never had a Twitter before so i am not 100% sure on how to use it. I know it has a hashtag system that allows people to look up posts by searching the hashtag. I know it also has a feed that you control by choosing what pages you want to follow. I also know that the current president of the United States as a twitter and uses it to share his thoughts and opinions on politics. I have never used it before because it has never interested me. Now that i have to make one for IM260 I am excited to see how it truly works and experience a different type of social media account. I am going to make this twitter shortly after making this post by going to the Twitter website and signing up. I wonder how many of my friends are already on Twitter and can show me the ropes. Hopefully ill be able to get a lot of followers right off the bat! 

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Technology Disconnect: After

Wow! This technology disconnect was way harder than I thought it was going to be. The piece of technology that was the hardest to give up was my cell phone. I kept my lock box on my desk and when I was home I was able to hear my phone vibrating from calls and texts and I wanted to check it each time I heard it. If it wasn’t for my lock box I think I might have gave in to temptation checked it so I’m glad that I had the lock box during this disconnect. The piece of technology that was easiest to give up was my TV. I don’t watch television very often so it didn’t bother me to give up using it for a short time period. I only find myself using a television when playing on my Xbox. I was expecting that my Xbox would be one of the hardest things to give up, but I only thought about playing it once so obviously I didn’t miss it that much. The most challenging part of this disconnect was not being able to contact any family members that I talk to everyday. My mother especially. We talk everyday so not hearing from her left me wondering if anything was happening that I should know about. My phone was receiving texts and calls very often so I was worried it was my mother. I expected to worry about who was texting me, but I didn’t think I would have worried as much as I did. This assignment was very hard on my mother as well. She knew I was doing this assignment and she was calling/texting me anyway not to talk about anything important, but just to talk because she missed me. She is used to talking to me every day so just going a day without talking to me was a big deal to her. The easiest part of this disconnect was spending time with my girlfriend. My girlfriend and I helped each other a lot during this disconnect by doing thigs together that didn’t involve technology like going to the gym, reading some books and magazines, talking our dogs to the dog park, and by going for a ride on our bikes. I expected that we would have trouble disconnecting, but turns out spending quality time together without technology was just what our relationship needed. I was surprised by how many times I went to check my pocket for my phone. I always have it on me when I leave the house so when I was out doing activities I often checked my pocket for my phone. I enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to become closer to my girlfriend and I enjoyed not being glued to my phone for countless hours throughout the day. In the future I think I might use the lock box more frequently to put my phone inside to stop myself from checking it all the time.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Technology Disconnect: Before

I am about to start my twenty-four hours of being free of all technology. When we were first given this assignment I thought it was going to be easy and wouldn’t require any real effort because how hard can it be to give up technology for a day. Well now that I am about to do it I’m quickly finding out it that it is going to be much harder then I initially thought. I own a lock box that you are able to be a time limit on and for however long the time limit is that’s how long the box will stay locked for. My mom bought this lockbox originally to insure that she couldn’t eat her favorite candies while she was on her diet, but I think this is a great use for the box as well. I plan on locking my phone, Xbox controllers, and my small tablet inside to insure that I cannot use them during this disconnect. I have also prepared for this disconnect by alerting my family and friends that I will be unreachable via technological devices. I think the most challenging part of this disconnect will be giving up using my phone. I haven’t realized how much I use my phone for communicating and for social media until I filled out the media log form. I believe my girlfriend will make it much easier for me not to be tempted to check my devices because she will be with me for the full twenty four hours that I am disconnected from technology. It is also going to be very hard to give up my Xbox for twenty four hours. I play a game called Overwatch and you get extra experience points if you play at least one game each day and win so I am going to be constantly thinking about that and wanting to play. The easiest piece of technology that I will be giving up is my TV. I do not watch for much television so being without it will not affect me much. I am excited to give this assignment a try because I have always wondered how much technology affects me personally and this assignment is just what I needed to find out. I am also excited for this disconnect because my girlfriend will be giving up technology too so she can truly find out how much technology affects her.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Infographic: After

I have finished my infographic and proud of myself for how it came out. Piktochart offers a bunch of free templets so I used one of those and added my own twist to it. My infographic represents questions I asked on my survey and reveals results from questions that were most surprising to me. Each answer of every question is represented by a percentage of each person that answered that particular answer. I enjoyed doing this assignment because by thinking about the results of each question and determining which information would be most important for the participants of the survey to see helped me realize what results mattered the most for my research. I didn’t really find anything difficult about creating this infographic because I enjoyed making it. If I had to do this assignment again I do not think I would do anything differently. I would use the same website even because I liked more than one of their free templets.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Infographic: Before

The next step to writing my paper is creating an infographic. Before taking my IM260 class I have honestly never heard of an infographic. After sitting in class learning about it, doing research online, and seeing many examples I understand what it is and know why it can be useful when writing a research paper. I’m out of my expertise on this one so I am not sure how I am going to do on this assignment. It seems simple to make, but with different websites like this comes with new challenges. I have a good idea of what images I want to add and what I want to say to appeal to the audience. I am going to use www.piktochart.com to create this infographic because it was recommended to me by my teacher. I have already found some pictures that I think will look nice.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Survey: After

My survey is now completed and has been distributed! The last time I looked I had received 30 responses! I was nervous about writing this survey, but I found out that if you take your time and really think the question though for a couple of days then it will produce the best results. I have some friends who have taken the survey and told me they liked the questions I asked and it really made them think about how to answer them. The results of my question revealed surprising habits that I wasn’t expecting. 23 out of the 30 people who have taken my survey so far reported that they use technology for 3 or more hours before falling asleep. My survey also revealed that 19 out of 30 people are aware that their use of technology before bed does influence their sleep. I think it was very difficult for me to distribute this survey to a lot of people. I distributed this survey using all my social media accounts, emailing, and posting on my blog and only received 30 responses in 17 days. I enjoyed writing this survey because I wasn’t sure how to write one, but now that I have I’m confident in my skills to write more in the future. If I were to do this assignment again I would use a different website to see if they had other methods of distributing the survey.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Survey: Before

I haven’t started writing my research paper yet, but that doesn’t mean I’m not preparing to! The next step in planning the paper is to write a survey collecting the thoughts of my peers about how they think technology use before bed affects their sleep. I have never written a survey before so I am a little nervous to write one and distribute it to my classmates and other St Cloud State university students. Although I have never written a survey I excited to do so. I plan on writing my survey on www.polldaddy.com. I have a friend who has used this site before and recommended it to me. I have a few some ideas for questions to ask, but I haven’t decided on anything. I hope to come up with at least 10 solid questions to ask.

[mydigitalmediabloggingexper-blog]

Annotated Bibliography: After

I have completed my annotated bibliography and man am I glad to be done with it. It took me a few hours to find all sources I wanted to use and writing the annotations was a lot easier then I was expecting. I found all my sources through the refworks website. Finding all these sources on only this website was challenging because there were limited options and most sources all stated the same information about the same case study. I enjoyed finding the sources because I learned a lot about my topic. The most important thing I learned is that using any form of technology before bed affects the quality of sleep that you’re getting. I disliked writing the annotations, but doing so made me understand the authors point of view. Understanding things from multiple different perspectives helps you understand it on a deeper level and will help when I’m writing the research paper.  If I were to do this assignment again I would use more than one website to find all my sources.