If you have been keeping up, then you already know that I have gone back to school at the University of Georgia to finish my undergraduate degree that I started back in 1989. You know how people would joke about being on “the 6 year plan” or “the 7 year plan”? I seem to be on “the 32 year, maybe longer, plan”.
I just completed my first class! It was a short summer semester online class called Digital Storytelling. When I first signed up for the class, I thought to myself….hmm, I’ve been writing my own blog for over 5 years now…this will be easy peasy. NOT.
I had to set up another blog, yes, and that part would have been easy peasy; however, the server that was hosting my account crashed twice and I lost all of my work…twice. Thankfully, my professor had graded my work prior to the second crash, and she did not require me to re-do it for a third time. From then on, I wrote everything on a google doc and then copied and pasted.
I learned SO MUCH. I had NO IDEA what a “Listicle” was! I’m not going to tell you, either. You can look it up. I also had no idea that anything like “Twitterature” or “Twitter Fiction” even existed! I learned how to use google slides and make a slide show AND add music!!!! Lucky for me, Mini Me writes and records some of his own music, and he allowed me to use one of his songs-free of charge.
We had to come up with a “Digital Story Project” that we would work on throughout the short semester. The idea was to use a media that we were not familiar with before taking the class. I chose Podcasting.
I purchased the Podcasting Plus theme on WordPress. I bought an external USB microphone. I learned how to use Audacity and also Garage Band. My subject would be HAMILCAMP: Stories from the Sidewalk of West 46th Street. The Middle Child and I still keep in touch with some of the friends we made while sleeping on the sidewalk for Hamilton tickets back in 2016. You can read about that experience HERE . I contacted some of them, and they agreed to do podcasts with me about their own experiences in the Cancellation Line.
I obsessed over this project and over the other assignments in the class like I have never obsessed over classwork before. It was important to me. That is a new thing. I do feel like I have a leg up because I am 50. I may not have taken these classes before, but I have learned a thing or three in my old age.
We were at the beach when final grades were being posted. I think I must have checked 15 times. I think the biggest thing I learned this summer is that it doesn’t matter how old I am. I can still make the grade.
You can access my podcasting website HERE .
If you check it out, be sure to check out my “About the Author” section. I’m really proud of that! 😉
Yay, Jennifer! You are amazing! So proud for/of you!
Thank you!!! 🙂
Soooo proud of you❤️
Thank you!!! 🙂
I’m so excited for you and proud of your return! I’d love to go back and learn about writing. Maybe in my not-too-distant retirement. . .
Thank you!!! I’ve learned a lot about writing. This is mainly for that damn piece of paper that is so important. I feel that it is unfinished business and something I need to do before I die!! 😉