Lots of emotions that I can’t seem to get into words to start this final reflection. I’ve shared this feeling with most of my classmates who also found it hard to write this reflection as it is the one last thing we’re doing for this exceptional course. This course has helped me grow as a person on so many levels, I started to look at things differently after every class discussion or topic we came across. I’ve learned several things during this course which I will be talking about in this blog. 

What I learned in this course about myself:

As I just said, this course has helped me grow as a person. A fact that I’ve known about myself is that I enjoy discussions and debates. I’ve developed discussion skills throughout the course, I found myself engaged in most, if not all, discussions that were held. These interactions helped me learn more about the assigned readings, since I got to hear different perspectives. I also learned that I’m pretty good with hands-on activities such as the choosing my digital pathway I explain more about this assignment in my blogpost. I also learned that I can be creative enough to create my own game. Moreover, I also realized that I’ve evolved as a writer, even though I was already comfortable in writing assignments, having written more I think I developed the skill of expressing myself more fluently through writing.

What I learned in this course that I will use in my academic life:

The main thing that I discovered in this course that I will continue to use in my academic life is Hypothes.is, like I said in my tools reflection I used Hypothes.is a few days after we used it in class and I will continue to use it. I usually annotate most of my assigned readings and articles, Hypothes.is made my life easier since I can directly annotate online.

What I learned in this course that I will use in my social life:

I learned to keep an open mind to different mindsets and beliefs. Having participated in the spectrum our classmates created for AUCians, I stood looking at how different we  all are even though we are all AUCians. I also learned to ask about the people I know, whether they’re close to me or not. After discussing the suicide incident that took place a few weeks ago, we had an in-class discussion about depression and the reasons why someone would choose to end his life. This discussion made me realize that not everyone is exactly what they show to the people around them, a friend of yours might be facing difficulties that no one knows about; so I decided to check up on the people I know every now and then. One other thing that I will continue to use in my life generally is the importance of being cautious while using the digital platforms. I’ve become more prudent when accepting cookies or terms and conditions. 

What I learned in this course that I will use in my career:

In my major we learn a lot about the importance of social media and how to market products and services online. I’ve learned a lot about the importance of choosing the most suitable platform for every post. Other than my major, I have grasped a few skills that will benefit me in my part-time job, tutoring. I learned from Dr. Maha, our professor, to be patient and to always be kind and obliging. I also learned from her to be passionate about everything I do in the future.

If I were to show someone my learning in this course I would most definitely show them my game, because this assignment in particular was extremely personal and I got the chance to put my real-life experience into a game that gave people the chance to go through the experience, and I hadn’t done anything similar to this before. I would also show them my digital literacy pathway, since this assignment was very engaging and I would like them to try it out. Another assignment that I would show them is our Data Detox Kit assignment, in this assignment we were to help create Arabic resources by translating the article, Escape the Defaults, into arabic and recording it as a podcast. This assignment shows anyone who was not part of our course the variety in the assignments we were given. Honestly, I would show them my blog since they would need to get an overall view of the work we’ve done throughout the course.

Regarding things I would change in the course to improve it, I wouldn’t suggest changing something in particular. However, I would recommend increasing group activities since these help build relationships between classmates. Also, I would also suggest utilizing Hypothes.is more for annotating rather than reflecting, since these annotations encouraged discussions and allowed us to look at the annotations of our classmates. There is only one thing that I didn’t like in the course which was Soliya as I explained in my tools reflection, Soliya wasn’t very convenient for me as it didn’t suit my busy schedule.

What kind of person should take this course?

In my point of view, anyone can take this course. As I said before we are all very different; however, in this class I found it easy to get into a conversation and become engaged as there was a lot of diversity in our discussions and assignments. But to put it into one sentence I would say: A person who is open to difference and is ready to engage in discussions.

Opportunities to make choices over what we focused on, and how we presented our learning.

Having the choice over what we focused on was the most comforting thing in our learning. I enjoyed writing blogs most of the time; meanwhile, I also enjoyed creating the podcast I talked about above. I also found creating an ALTCV very interesting, as each one of us had the choice of the way we want to present it.

Final Note:

This wasn’t a requirement in the assignment guidelines; however, I would like to say a few things. To start with, I would like to thank my classmates for giving our class a whole different essence. Our class had a special connection, we all felt comfortable during discussions and we all grew closer to each other by the end of the semester making it hard to say goodbye to them. I want to talk a bit about Dr. Maha. I’ve taken a course before with Dr. Maha, and I was super excited to take another course with her before I graduate. With all honesty, I have never been this close to a professor before, I was able to tell her things that other professors wouldn’t take into consideration. This course wouldn’t have been as significant without her. I’ve seen her come to every single class full of passion for what she does, she just radiates positive energy. I felt comfortable asking her for favors outside of the class, because I know that she actually cares for us and she’s actually interested in what each and every one of us does. I want to thank her for being the highlight of my semester, she’s become one of the most influential people in my life. I’ll never forget this class and I’ll try my best to stay in touch. This may be the end of the course, but not the end of our discussions on Slack ♥.