"Working Online" Reflection

The past few weeks I have been learning about and practicing skills necessary to work efficiently online. For example, learning the skills necessary to use websites such as Delicious and Stumble Upon now offers me useful alternatives to the traditional, and probably overused, Google search. My education the past few weeks has been supplemented by discussion with my classmates on the pros and cons of the perpetually expanding internet, which goes hand in hand with personal web presence. A brief summation of these posts: the internet is a tool, that if used properly, can be beneficial and exciting for its users... but at the same time any type of misuse is permanent i.e. Facebook posts, tweets, etc., so usage should be carefully monitored to protect one’s reputation. The final accumulation of all of this information learned resulted in the creation of my personal pre-professional portfolio and blog.

 Making a personal website sounds easy, right? In theory, the idea of making a website all about yourself should be easier then say, doing a research paper on the theory of relativity. However, when handed the task, I found it extremely difficult. The technical side of creating a website, adding tabs, pictures, etc I didn't find too difficult; with the help of the step by step video tutorials, I was able to figure out exactly how to do what was asked. I found the difficult part of the assignment to be deciding how exactly I want to portray myself through this medium, especially after spending so long discussing web presence. The only solution to this was to sit down, and really think about what I was doing. What would I want an employer to know about me at first glance? I believe that, had I not taken this class, I would have eventually thought about making myself a website, then I would have had the same thought process, but for all I know that could have happened in ten years when it's almost too late. This assignment is perfect for any emerging artist in the 21st century because in this day and age employers evaluate potential employees from all angles.  Would you want a simple Google search of your name to yield promiscuous pictures on Facebook OR a nicely put together, thought out e-portfolio of your work? Should that even be a question? After figuring out how to simply create and set up a website/blog, I plan on expanding on these skills with a goal of perhaps always keeping an updated e-profile of my work that I can use to promote myself as a dancer/future choreographer/teacher or for whatever pathways I end up following. I approached this task with my usual attitude of trying to keep an open mind and diving right into the work, until I hit a road block; then I usually (and did this time as well) stop, re-read and and ask questions either to myself or to an instructor, until the material makes sense. By inquiring the simple who, what, when, where, why(my personal favorite) questions I usually am able to figure out most information. I think I did a good job following directions and followed, to my knowledge, all of the requirements. For myself, I want to work on taking everything a step further ie following all directions and then take the initiative to individualize my work within the guidelines of the assignment. Next time around I will look for more opportunities to be creative, while also keeping a specific eye for accuracy in all of my work. For my website and blog my goal is to create an aesthetically pleasing, informative, yet creative space to share my craft and experiences in this class with the cyber-world. 

Applying my ideas on what I could improve upon in this assignment, I dove a little deeper into my pre-professional portfolio. I explored a little bit, and found out where I could adjust the template, fonts, font colors, etc. These types of settings are under manage site>colors and fonts and manage sites>themes on the google sites platform. I then had to experiment a bit and figure out what the different parts of the website were called ie the sidebar, page content, and the different navigation bars. 

Thus, the past few weeks have yielded a good amount of valuable information regarding the internet and its capabilities. I am confident that this knowledge and practice has set up a strong foundation to build and grow upon in the coming weeks of my digital media experience.