I had my doubts about a course devoted to digital writing. This past semester was my first semester at Crookston, attending online, and digital writing as a course was chosen for me by my advisor since I signed up late; I had to take what I could get. I was simply glad to have any classes and to be starting something new again. I honestly had no idea what to expect, but it seemed like there would be lots of technical computer things I’d have to learn and I am not tech savvy whatsoever. My expectations for this course were rather low looking back and I find that’s usually when my expectations are pleasantly surprised after the fact. I can say, for this situation, that is exactly what happened.

What surprised me most about this course was how much enjoyment I felt in the writing of each post. I think this came from the amount of freedom we had in how we could both write and create for each assignment. There was a good balance between specific instruction and creative encouragement. It scared me at first, not knowing exactly what to do, but gradually the wide boundaries helped my ideas and thoughts run free. Because of the creative freedom, I enjoyed the assignments more and because I enjoyed the assignments more, I learned more. 

The digital literacy narrative we had to make was one of these surprising enjoyments. I wasn’t sure how to start, but once I did the words flowed and reflection taught. My thoughts progressed back through all the years of my life in experience with technology and showed me the importance of balance. 

Balance came up again in our assignment on the principles of design. What I thought was a topic I knew all about turned out to be brand new in light of different surroundings. The principles of design can be applied to all types of designers and creators in every area of work while teaching you something new every time. This time around balance seemed vital and fresh. Honesty in each principal struck me as important.  

Honesty in being raw and real regardless of what people think has always appealed to me. I wanted to carry this into the creation of my podcast. Once again my nerves quaked at the thought of creating something I felt hopelessly out of depth in, but prayer inspired me to interview my mother. What seemed like an ordeal that would only cause me great stress and anxiety turned into creative inspiration and excitement. While the finished podcast is far from perfect, the process was motivating and full of growth. It was about relationships, but I wanted the overall feeling to be like an unprocessed meal, satisfying and full of sustainment. I wanted the mistakes and blunders to reflect a real relationship and the importance of being honest and true with people. 

This value of honesty and rawness is one of the things that so attracts me to the book The Valley of Vision of which I created a Wikipedia page about. Through prayer again, this book came into my mind for our wikipedia assignment (It did not escape my attention that in prayer, a book of prayers came to mind). All of a sudden I was excited to work on this assignment when before I was dreading it. Pulled along by this new enthusiasm, I not only learned about the surprisingly detailed and thorough wikipedia creation process, but also more about a book I had come to love. 

Our previous assignment directing us to reflect and revise, enabled me to see how much this duality of learning encouraged my growth. In each assignment we had instructions that applied to everyone, but then within the instructions was also an urging to add a layer of our own personal experiences and interests. Therefore there was both a learning of course specified information and also a learning of subjects we were each uniquely intrigued by. For me, this combination greatly served to intensify my motivation for and interest in this course.

Reflecting on all our assignments and this course as a whole, a lens of creativity and personal experience through which to view the subject of digital writing enhanced my writing and helped interest me in a topic I initially felt no interest in. 

Looking ahead, I know this course has served to cultivate more openness to learning which will affect all areas of my life. It has also further solidified my thought that true growth comes not from suppressing but facing your fears. 

Revision is a very important aspect of writing especially when that writing is public. You want to make sure your writing is accurate, clear, and understandable. Everyone makes mistakes, it’s a part of being human, but we can also have the integrity and good character to correct those mistakes as much as we are able. This post highlights the various revisions I made to posts on my webpage. It runs through both my thought process as well as literal changes I made. I hope the revisions I made not only make my posts more clear but also serve to show you the importance of revision itself. 

Revision of Understanding the Internet Post:

In going back to revise this specific post, I kept a few things in mind. Feedback I had received for its revision was that I would make paragraphs smaller and focused, write an intro paragraph, and add more personal experience with the topic. I definitely agreed with this feedback and aimed to complete these things. In summary I accomplished each of these things as best as I could see they needed, cutting out unneeded sentences, separating paragraphs into smaller ones, forming an intro as well as a conclusion, and added a bit more personal experience. I tried to be candid as much as possible and keep only the necessary information for the reader. 

Revision of My Digital Literacy Narrative Post:

For this post my main goal was to shorten up the narrative into more concise and clear paragraphs that were comparatively shorter. This is something I’ve definitely always had to work on; using words and sentences wisely and clearly to communicate my message. My assignments and posts can get very wordy and repetitive. As I revised My Digital Literacy Narrative, I cut out sentences or words that were unnecessary while shortening and separating paragraphs, all contributing to the post being better understood and more interesting to read. 

Revision of Design Principles Post:

I did not change too much about this piece. I continued revision on this post with the mindset of making it more concise and clear as a whole. This brought me to cut out some sentences that didn’t need to be there. I tried to make this post more clear for the reader to understand which I think is important for a blogger’s website. 

Revision of Podcast Reflection Post:

As this course went on I can tell that my writing style changed a little bit for the better. As I received feedback and read other’s posts or articles, my writing changed to reflect what I learned. Coming to my Podcast Reflection post for revision I could see that here my paragraphs were small and language more clear than previous posts. I cut out a few sentences here and there, but for the most part I left it as is.

Revision of Wikepedia Page and Experience Posts:

I did not change my wikipedia page at all mostly because I put so much effort into creating it in the first place. There was not a whole lot of information about the Valley of Vision available on the internet, so going forward with any further research I would definitely need either some help or find different resources. With the post about my wikipedia experience I wrote it just previously to writing this very post so I didn’t change too much, only separating a few paragraphs. 

Revision is something I have never liked to do. I hate rereading my work, mostly because I’m my own worst critic. I often have the terrible habit of simply completing an assignment or post and submitting it as is regardless of mistakes. However, for this course we had an entire assignment based around revision and therefore I could not escape it. 

Even though it was tedious and not what I would prefer to do, revising my various posts and creating this post about the process was a key learning experience that I think will cultivate better revision habits in the future. What you say and what you read are very important and life changing. I would never want someone to interpret my words in the wrong way or not be able to understand what I’m saying because of any errors that I could change with a little effort. Revision is critical for a clear and concise piece of writing and I will be able to remember that practically because of this course. 

Similar to pretty much all of the assignments for this course, the idea of creating my own page for Wikipedia was extremely daunting. I had no idea how I was going to think of a topic that had not already been covered by someone else; it seems like everything is on Wikipedia! However, I knew panic and despair were not friends to success or clarity, so I banished them from the room for a time so I could properly think. In prayer I offered up a cry of help and received an answer very sincere.

The Valley of Vision came to mind, so unexpectedly perfect for the occasion. It’s a book I have recently been reading over daily but didn’t happen to know much about. It also had never been before written about or recorded among the vast collections of wikipedia pages. Therefore, it would both fit into the requirements for our assignment and also contribute to my knowledge about a book I was interested and invested in personally. Inspiration hit and gratefulness followed, even if it should have led the way. I then outlined my plan for the piece and later began its construction. 

I first read up on everything that our professor and wikipedia had to offer in regards to writing your first wikipedia page. I also had to start up my own profile on wikipedia and edit a few random articles to initiate myself for the eventual formulation of my own. Then the production of The Valley of Vision on wikipedia began. I found all I could about the book itself and the author who created and collected the writings for this work, which was very little. Slowly I composed the information into a wikipedia page of my own, trying to provide all the references and citing as much as possible. When I had done all I could, well then that was that and to publishing it went. I don’t think it will ever make it into a real wikipedia page, but I had accomplished my part. 

On looking back a major takeaway is that research, referencing, revision, and citing for wikipedia contribute to its creation a lot more than I thought. Throughout my school career I’d always heard the bad things about wikipedia; how anyone could just start adding to it and therefore it wasn’t to be trusted as a factual source. However, this assignment to create my own page showed me how much effort is put into making wikipedia factual and true. You can’t just post anything you want. Wikipedia takes the facts seriously and although anyone is welcome on board, there is a long and in depth process of editing and revising before it can be officially published.

It is also interesting to think about how anyone could be reading and editing your published article in the future. Someone off in Zimbabwe could be correcting me about the correct placement of a noun while another right next-door to me could tell me to switch around the facts. The way it draws people together in the pursuit of true knowledge and community based learning is delightful and encouraging.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:The_Valley_of_Vision

The idea of making a podcast was very daunting to me at first. I wasn’t sure what system to use, I had no idea what to talk about, and I really did not want to record myself speaking again. However, I did feel a bit curious and interested in making a podcast as well. 

I found that I could use Garage Band, which was included on my MacBook when I bought it, through simply googling how to record a podcast on a Mac. What I really like about Garage Band is that it does most of the work for you! Basically all I had to do was hit record and then stop when I was done. There were a few different recording type choices and I chose the “narration” type because all the others had a certain amount of echo to your voice when you talked. I recorded my three sections of the podcast, lined them all up together to my liking, and then saved the product. Finally I had to figure out how to put it into a format I could submit it in and I came up with mp3 after some research. I then found a youtube video on how to do this with  a Garage Band recording and that is the technical process of how I made my podcast! 

I have a few podcasts that I’ve listened to in the last few years, “Front Porch with the Fitzes” being one of my favorites, and I always thought it would be fun to make one myself. In my head, though, I would never make one on my own. There would be someone I could collaborate with or talk to. 

I always liked how in “Front Porch with the Fitzes,” it feels like you are right there with them in their dining room, or wherever they are during that episode, a part of their family for those 45 minutes or so. They have a general guideline for each episode and they plan for guest speakers to join them, but for the most part everything is unscripted and natural. You are invited into their real family dynamic.

I wanted this rawness for my own podcast. I made a general script of what would happen and who would be there, but mostly I wanted to just hit record and see what happened. 

I came up with the idea of interviewing my mom when I was trying to come up with a topic for the podcast. I wanted it to be about relationships somehow since that is the subject of my website, but I wasn’t sure what topic to have. All of a sudden I thought of simply interviewing someone about their own relationships. It would make the dialog flow much easier for me not having to talk by myself and it would be much more interesting, in my opinion. I was so grateful to finally have an idea after praying about it for a while. 

After that first spark of inspiration the podcast script came to me easily. I would have a brief introduction from myself on a separate recording to start. Then would come the main recording section of me interviewing my mom. We would start by introducing her and I would ask a few fun questions for the audience to get to know her better and then we would jump right into the relationship questions. 

I didn’t ask her all the questions and I knew I wouldn’t when I wrote down all my question ideas. My mom is a lengthy talker and when you ask her a question by the end of her answer she doesn’t even remember the question, so I knew she would jump around when talking and I wanted to see where she went. I didn’t want to restrict her or guide her too much. I simply wanted her to feel free to lead the conversation to whatever she felt led to talk about at that time. That being said, I knew we would only get to a few of my questions and I was totally fine with that. As the podcast went on I just listened and as I felt we needed a new question I looked at my script for one that I liked at the time. 

Immediately when we finished my mom wanted to scrap the whole thing and redo it. I knew that would be her desire after hearing herself talking and I just laughed saying, “No mom I love it. Those were your first reaction answers to my questions which is just what I wanted.” 

You can tell throughout the podcast that she is a bit uncomfortable and unused to being recorded or interviewed, and you can also tell how unused to interviewing and recording I am! I didn’t want to try to edit that out, though, or redo a hundred times until that was gone. I wanted that uncomfortable sense to be there because in reality it’s very uncomfortable to be vulnerable. I wanted listeners to relate to this and feel like what they were hearing was something real. I didn’t want it to be a perfectly sounding podcast, edited and scripted to make the listener hear what I wanted them to hear. 

I was the creator of the podcast, but in a way I wanted to take away those definitions of listener and speaker to put us all on equal standing. I wanted us all to be the listeners. I wanted my podcast to simply be a glimpse of reality. A dialog both familiar, but new to the listener. Familiar in the sense of family and relating to your own relationships. New in the sense of its rawness and unedited quality.

The last part of my podcast was another separate recording of me concluding everything and thanking the listener. I reflected back on what I had heard and felt like there had been a theme of selflessness in my mom’s answers. Over and over she brought her relationships back to that solution. Selfishness was a key destroyer, if not THE key destroyer, of relationships. I found that I wholeheartedly agreed with this.

Overall I enjoyed the making of this podcast. I think it taught me a little of the technical recording process which was new to me and a bit daunting at first. It also brought me just that much closer to knowing my mom better which I always enjoy. I hope whoever listens to it feels like it was at least slightly interesting and enjoyable!

The process of making a website for me requires a lot of balance. I think all of life requires a large amount of balance and because of this it might be my favorite principle of design. I see the essentialness of it so much. It has been tempting for me to become overwhelmed by all the things I don’t know about making a website and to simply give up on making it into what I want it to be. On the other hand, however, it has also been difficult not to have too grand of plans and take on more than is necessary or possible in the creation of my website. There is a need for balance in the creation of anything and the process of creating a website has really been bringing that into perspective for me. 

For the designer, balance is key in everything. A designer wants to create something original, but also everything that they design is based off of and built onto centuries of past designer’s work. Pushing past tradition and habit are good attributes of the designer; they cannot allow themselves to become accustomed to anything really. However, an appreciation for past designs and an ability to realize when something does not need to be improved upon are also good attributes of the designer. They must find a balance between innovation and contentment. The designer must push themselves to see what they are looking at in a new light, either to realize how it can be made better or realize how it is already contributing to making things better. Just like balance is a principle of design, it is also a principle of the designer and more generally just a principle of life. 

In Tony Fadell’s Ted talk ‘The First Secret of Great Design,’ something that caught my attention throughout was his desire for things to be the best and most efficient that they can be. He does not let things rest as “good enough,” but pushes himself to go back to the drawing board when something isn’t right, and keep fixing problems. He wants people to be happy with the product more than he desires to make money or be successful. I think that this is an important attribute of the designer, that they do not allow themselves to be compromised by thoughts of power or greed, but always strive to make the best product they can make for the person using it. You could also tell that he had a great admiration for past designers, like his boss Steve Jobs, who have brought innovation to where it is today. Past designers inspire his work so that he can build off of their contributions.

All of the principles of design that are used for a product can also be used to describe a designer or design team. The product after all comes from the person or team of persons, so you can see a reflection of these people in their work and vice versa. In a team of designers, for instance, there must be a vast variety of perspectives because the product is going to be used by a variety of people. Within this variety, however, there must be a unity in the designers in order that the work is cohesive and can be accomplished. As well as unity and variety, hierarchy is seen in designers. Different people are placed on different parts of the hierarchy pyramid based on their differing talents, but all contribute to the whole. These principles can also be seen within the individual designer in the way that they form and develop ideas. These three are just a few examples of how all the principles of design can also be seen in the designer. 

Just as the principles of design are a part of the designer, the product is a part of the designer as well. Because of this, when I know and like someone who is a designer or hear good things about a certain designer or company I am more apt to buy or highly value their product.The good designer cannot help but weave themselves into their product and if they have good values then this increases the value of their product. My favorite instagrammer recently created a webpage for herself (https://www.shutthekaleup.com) and even in its infancy you can see pieces of her and her ideals inside of it. When you first arrive you are welcomed in with the words “Welcome to my home.” This refers to her webpage home, but it also refers to her real home. Home is very important to her and this is immediately evident right when you arrive at her new website. When I see this honest reflection of a person into their work I respect the product more. To me this honest reflection is refreshing and makes me trust the product more. The designer is not seeking to hide who they are and put on a fake show in order to make you like the product more. I greatly value honesty in people and I greatly value it in design. 

Even though there are general definitions of the principles of design, everyone interprets them a little differently because of who they are. How they choose to format and design their product is unique to their personality and ideas because when they themselves were designed and created they were created completely unique and different. Our ability to design is one way that we reflect the image of God. He himself is the ultimate designer who designed us and the entire universe! You can see the various principles of design in everything that he has created and it is the everlasting job of the human designer to learn from his work. There is design in everything and so the principles of design are not only important for the commercial designer, but for everyone. 

Researching the principles of design for the creation of my website has shown me that the principles of design are useful in so many aspects of life. They not only teach you how to make an appealing and unified website for your audience, but also how to create in a way that is honest and reflective of what you truly value. The different facets of design are endless and unique in both the eye of the beholder and creator. That is what is so amazing about design. There are so many possibilities within it. It’s important to learn about the general and well known principles of design, but then it is also important to add to each of them your own spin of creativity and innovation. Take the time to research what these principles are and then let them inspire your ideas.

I grew up in a family more concerned about me being present in the real world rather than the technological world. My days as a child were filled playing outdoors with the neighborhood kids. TV was restricted to certain times and to fun movie nights. Of course, whenever my parents weren’t home and I was alone the free for all began.

Starting at a young age I learned that when my parents weren’t home, I could watch all the television and play all the computer games I wanted. I think this developed my mindset up until even today to think of alone or “me time” as recreational technology time. There’s nothing wrong with sitting down to enjoy your favorite shows or movies when you have a free night to yourself, but it can develop into needing those shows or movies or games etc. which can turn into an addiction. To give a comparison, in my family we also were restricted on the amount of sugary and “unhealthy” foods we could have. Because of this I also relate sugary foods to alone/me time to treat myself and crave those sugary things all the time. Restrictions when you are a child can be a bit hard to balance out when you become an adult.

I’m also very grateful, however, that my parents didn’t allow me to watch all the television or eat all the candy I wanted. I think it made my childhood and my person more alive and active. It’s important to have rules and boundaries for your children if they come from the love and wisdom of the parent. Since I grew up in this way, my mindset towards technology has always been less is better. While growing up and forming my own ideas, I also would have to say I agree with this mindset for myself.

I have two younger siblings, younger than me by 5 and 7 years, and I think their childhoods looked even a little different than mine because of technology, especially in their schools. For me, throughout elementary and middle school the only technology I saw in school was the occasional use of old school owned laptops for research. Every piece of school homework was done without the need or use of a computer or technology other than a calculator. I learned to do homework by hand and while I then rued any form of handwriting, especially homework, I now prefer it as my method of writing. It wasn’t until middle school that smart boards were introduced to the classroom for me. They were a novelty. Before that all we had were dimly lit, ancient light projectors.

My siblings on the other hand from a very young elementary age, had their homework online whether it was actually doing the work online or simply the need for online resources. Something I noticed about this was that the amount of homework could significantly increase and become more complicated with the increase of resources. While technology lent itself to the increase of knowledge attainability, it also increased the amount of stress on the young student.

Through the use of online homework, organization increased and everything became contained in one place, however, the need for technological expertise increased and there was always the chance that wifi wouldn’t work or a computer would be glitching and then how do you do your homework? Being able to use the computer though, brought a whole new side to learning. The amount of information available to students increased significantly and I saw first hand how technology broadened the minds of my siblings. I also saw how it lessened their time in the real world outside of technology, significantly decreasing their time out of doors and the broadness of their imagination. The increase in the use of technology by schools had both its faults and successes. 

It wasn’t until highschool for me that technology became very prevalent. I switched school districts in ninth grade and attended a large public high school in my area. The first day of ninth grade we were each given our own iPad for school use through our entire high school career. Everything was done on the ipads. They were our calender, writing utensil, reading resource, notebook, folder, internet, and communication with students and teachers. Everything we would ever need was contained on the iPad and it was a major switch from what I was used to.

For the most part I did everything on the iPad with the exception of preferring handwritten notes sometimes. There has always been a connection for me between handwriting and memory. I could always remember the information better if I wrote it down physically with my hand and so I preferred this method.

I grew to really hate the iPad through out my high school career. I’m sure much of this hatred toward my innocent ipad though, was because of its undeniable relations with school and homework, both of which I abhorred. I think also because I wasn’t born into using a computer and iPad for school and life, it went against the very grain of my habits and preferences. I was always an avid book reader and continue to this day to prefer a physical hard copy rather than an online version.

It was in high school too that I received my first MacBook laptop for Christmas one year. I was going to start online PSEO classes the next fall semester and was in need of my own computer. With this new development I spent increasingly more time online than in the classroom. By senior year I was only physically going to the highchool for at most 2 hours a day. I was actually attending a class or two in person at a local college for PSEO at this time as well as some online though. Having a computer of my own contributed to the amounting independence I was feeling at that stage in life. Here was a piece of technology I could do whatever I wanted with and was restricted by very few rules. It felt amazing to have something I could escape into from my own dreary teen life. It’s still a challenge for me today to keep balance between online time and offline time in my life. I think this balance is important. Much of what is posted and available online regards life out there in the offline world. How can you contribute or really know something without experiencing it yourself? 

Today I feel both an immense thankfulness for technology as well as an equal amount of wariness for it. I feel thankful that it has allowed me access to abundant information, broadened my world perspective, and led me to many amazing opportunities that have made me into the person I am today. It has allowed me to repeatedly attend college courses completely online and in turn increased my independence and freedom as a person because of this opportunity. Connection to so many friends and family members, of whom I would not be able to keep in touch with easily otherwise, has also been a positive. Because of these connections and accesses the internet decreases my isolation and ignorance. However, I am wary of its addictive quality. The insatiable appetite it awakens in me for more that is never satisfied. Time is sucked away until I’m not aware how much of it has passed. My attention to the people who are physically right in front of me can decrease. My mood, anxiety and depression are also significantly affected with overuse. I am wary of its simply being virtual and not a real experience. I am wary but grateful for the ever increasing technological advancements around me.

An obstacle many people run into while researching on the internet is not having the endurance to dig deeper and make sure you have the right and true facts. They just want to take the first answer they come across because it is the easiest. The problem with this is that when you search for something in a search engine, the results are simply catering to the nature of your query. It is your job to sift through them, discerning if they are reliable or not. With time and practice you can work on your double-checking/digging skills. In this article I will reveal some things you may not know about the internet, highlight reasons it is important to at least know some of the basics, and demonstrate my own personal experiences and thoughts with regards to the internet.

Actively looking for opinions that differ from yours in order to gain different perspectives is a sign of a seasoned researcher. Most people today have an over confidence in their search abilities, especially young people. A humble person can accept that there is a vast amount of information out in the web and being wrong sometimes is just a fact of life. You will never be able to become the best researcher you can be without a little humility. I myself am not naturally a person who easily understands technology but knowing that, I can accept help from and admire people who do understand it. Everyone has their areas of expertise. My brother in fact is very gifted with technology. It is really his passion and so anytime our family has technical issues we call him. It is a way for us to have easy access to technological help and also a way to show my brother that we acknowledge he is talented in that area and we respect his expertise.

Many searches you make in a day are pretty simple. You are just looking for a website, which would be a navigational query, or for a short piece of information, which would be an informational query. As your query becomes more complex there are some things you can do to improve the quality of your results. You can change or add terms into your search phrase in order to narrow your results down to the topic that you are looking for. You can also have multiple tabs open in order to experiment with what differing searches give you. You can get even more specific by using the phrases site:(to search within a website) and filetype:(to search for a specific file type such as PDF) or you can use double quotation marks to search for a specific phrase in a specific order. One trick I learned was to press Command-F in order to search for specific text within a website.

The best trick to use though is built right into your own brain. That is your critical thinking ability. As you are searching double check your results. Make sure what you searched for is specific enough to direct you to your unique query. You have to bring your critical thinking with you every time you search for something if you really want to get the most authentic results. Very often I am tempted to just go with the first answer I find when searching for something(and I often I do), but I remind myself to look through multiple websites and compare. For example, when I’m looking for a recipe I don’t just use the first recipe that comes up. I look through many recipes of the same dish, comparing other people’s reviews, differing ingredients and their affects, the recipe writer’s credibility or level of experience, etc. Its important to soak up differing information and then compare everything you have learned before you make a conclusion.

Knowing how to search for something is important, but it is also important to know what is going on behind the scenes when you search. Here I can give you a few processes for how the web works. When you search for a website, the website code is not located on your computer so you need another computer called a server to find it for you. The website you are looking for has a specific IP(Internet Protocol) address. When you search for that website, your computer sends a request to the server with that IP address. First though, your browser has to fetch the IP address translation from a DNS server(Domain Name System). This process is the process of your URL(Uniform Resource Locator) getting resolved. Once the IP address is found the request is sent to the server containing that address. When the request is made a data package is sent to this server through the “Hyper Text Transfer Protocol” or HTTP. This defines what the request needs to look like. Then this server returns the request with a response which shows up to you in the form of a website. Before you can actually see the website however, the response must be parsed by your browser. The browser reviews the data and goes from there. One piece of this data would perhaps tell the browser that it is type html which allows the browser to parse it as html code.

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and it is a core programming language that describes the structure of a webpage. Html gives the website structure while CSS(Cascading style sheets) gives it style. Javascript is another programming language that gives you more dynamic content for a website that programmers can control how you see on your browser. Being open to learning more is very important to becoming a good web searcher. I didn’t even know what http stood for until I researched for this post but since I took the time to read and be open to learning, I now know something new that before I had taken for granted.

Learning all these things is quite overwhelming and honestly boring to me mostly, but even so, it is important and even interesting when you give it a chance. In spite of my not having a natural interest or skill with technology or the internet, I learned more about its importance, creation, and processes that I would not have known otherwise. Because of this, the next time I need to research something, I will be just that much wiser in how I go about it.