Digital Writing

Semester Reflection

Week 13

After 13ish posts, and a good amount of reading, we have made it to the end of the 2026 spring semester Digital Writing blog. While I am still working on the final assignment and quickly trying to master html, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my experience in the class. I want to start by saying I thoroughly appreciate the content of this class and know I will carry both the information and skills with me; all semester I caught myself telling people, “In my digital writing class…” sharing various readings and skills that stuck with me. 

The earlier readings on AI, Empire of AI and Atlas of AI, have stayed in my mind consistently; especially with how fast it is evolving and how many people are calling for regulations on it. In fact, I even mentioned it in conversation with my sisters today. Those two books offered a lot of important information, detailing topics like data farming and the training bases that have been created for and used by AI. Since these readings AI has continued to evolve rapidly, with data centers seemingly popping up everywhere. Hand in hand with each other, surveillance and data collection continue to rise as well. 

Since reading the assigned excerpts from these books I have kept my Google home device unplugged. These devices use Google’s AI to gather and repeat information. After having them in the home so long, I can only wonder how the data of my literal voice has been used. Spooky stuff in my opinion!

Beyond the readings, I have really enjoyed the blog and html aspect of the class. I have always wanted to create a blog for myself, and have only learned about more uses for a blog or personal website since I have been in Digital Writing. Both WordPress and HTML are great skills to have and I appreciate being able to work with them, and in the case of WordPress, work with them often enough to retain the skills beyond the classroom.

I have had so much fun working with HTML even though I am not anywhere close to great at it. Something about working in HTML is so satisfying, I guessed that I would like it better than Markup, and I was very correct. 

I am grateful that I was able to take this class right before graduation. The critical thinking (or searching) skills from Verified as well as the opportunity to work with Markup languages will be fresh in my mind when beginning my writing career. I plan to experiment with HTML more and eventually have my own website created by me in the future.

And, of course, thank you to all my classmates for the help and participation!

Also… this is eli 🙂 I am ipadbaby22.

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2 responses to “Semester Reflection”

  1. LKSOC1004 Avatar
    LKSOC1004

    I totally relate. I am very grateful for Verified as I learned quite a bit about research through reading it. I’ve even been using it when scrolling through news and stuff recently, so it has helped me practically. I have also loved getting into HTML and CSS. I want to continue learning it and getting better with it. It provides a lot of utility, but it is also very fun. More than likely, I’ll be using quite a lot of HTML in the future for my own personal projects after graduation.

  2. tacobell-CEO Avatar
    tacobell-CEO

    I commend you for unplugging your Google Home! It is really easy to see how these Alexa-style devices are really creepy, even before the AI concerns, there were concerns about audio recordings from these devices being used in court (which is fine and dandy when it is a murder case, but what about when these are being used for less dubious crimes?) I think this part of your post speaks to something that is not talked about a lot when it comes to AI. Although there are a lot of concerns with it, it is almost like a “temptation” in our lives. At least for me, I find myself thinking a lot, “this would be so easy if ChatGPT did it for me…” More and more, it is a very deliberate decision to not use AI. It is being shoved in our faces more and more, and increasingly becoming more reliable.

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