Part 1: My PlanFor my blog, I’ve decided to write about a topic that is currently relevant to my life. I have researched, and will be writing about, how to apply to the Disney College Program, and what happens if you get in. Living with the Mouse. I chose this name for Disney's most iconic character, Mickey Mouse. This is a play on the fact that I will be living in Walt Disney World during my program. The main intention of this blog is to be informative, but also include advice and my personal feelings. When writing to my readers I plan to be informative, yet personal. I want my audience to receive the information they need, while also being able to connect to me and my experience. I plan to try and connect with my readers, but to not come off as if I know it all. This entire process is new to me, and I'm learning as I go along. Specific topics:Blog #1: Initial Application I intend to write about what the applicant has to do, and how they might feel when they apply to the Disney College Program, I will also include tips, and personal advise for each step of the process. Phase one includes submitting an initial application. Here, I will explain what the most important sections of the application are, what you should spend the most time on, and what the recruiters might be looking for. Then you wait. Blog #2: Web-Based and Phone Interview You'll receive a thank you email, but what you're waiting for is a pass to the web-based interview. Once you take the 30-40 minute interview, you wait again. After this you might receive a pass to schedule a phone interview. Now, you prepare and practice for this. After your interview, you wait once more. At this point you can wait days, or you can wait weeks/months. Honestly, at any point during this time you can be waiting days/weeks/months between each step. Also between each step you could receive an NLIC (no longer in consideration) email. This nicely means, "Thank you for applying, but you're out." This post will include mostly little tips and advice to get through the interviews. Blog #3: Disney College Program Auditions This was something I went into completing blind and alone. I traveled to NYC to attend the audition to potentially be a character performer. Turns out, it's not all that it seems. This is the most competitive aspect the Program has. Between travel time, and the length of the audition, it is a long and tiring day. I plan to tell what happened there, what you can where, and information I was unaware of going in that day. This blog is unique because it’s not just information spit out onto a page. This is an experience that I have been through and am still going through. I will be writing about the Disney College Program application process, and all that follows. While there are other blogs that inform students of this information, I’ve yet to find a blog that puts you in that person’s shoes. That’s my main goal for my blog. I want the reader to view the process through my eyes. My audience for this blog are students interested in program, but don’t know much about it or the application process. The only people who can apply to this program are students enrolled in, and are attending, college. So, I am writing to college students, and high school students who intend on attending college. There are other programs for other individuals, but this one pertains specifically to students in college and who are over the age of 18. The college students reading this blog are students who want to know about the process and what it feels like to go through the process. Part 2: My ResearchWhile I researched 10 different blogs, I've decided to highlight the top two that stood out to me, and will most influence how I write my own blog. This piece is written differently than most blogs. It's not paragraphs or loads of detailed information. Instead, it's 180 thoughts that you have as you go through the DCP. The author's purpose is to allow the reader to feel what she left as she went through the program. She is writing about 180 different ideas that no one mentioned to her before she attended. This article is written for readers who are looking to find out what it feels like to be a part of the DCP. This includes students in college, or who will be attending college, and are looking into the program. This post is not meant to give information about what the program is, but rather learn about how it feels to be a part of the DCP. The blog post will three years old in June, but it is still relevant to the readers. It doesn't matter how much time goes by, it does not affect how this author felt during the program. The author does not introduce herself in this post, I am assuming because she has another tab that's all about her. However, it would have been nice to learn something about whose writing before reading. It would allow the reader to see who the author is and maybe why they are writing this in the first place. The author's main goal of her blog is to write about something that most people forget about, how it FEELS to actually experience the program. It's a personal post about a personal experience. At the conclusion of the post, there are photos and links to share the blog on social media. Additionally, there is a space available for readers to leave comments or ask questions. The number of comments is not calculated, but there are a lot of people who responded to the post. The author frequently responded to her reader's comments. This shows that the author cares about their blog and their readers. By talking to them, they are connecting with them
Initial Reaction: I LOVE the way this blog is set up. It's bright, colorful, and attractive. There are also images that are clearly personalized for her page and post. What I first noticed about this blog is that it's nearly four and a half years old. However, from my personal experience of actually referencing this post during my process, it's still relevant. This post is unique to this topic. Usual blogs about the phone interview phase of the process are advice, tips, or tricks. This blog post is a "cheat sheet". The author provides sample prompts, questions, and responses for the reader. It's reference that has been created to be used to practice your phone interview, or to have handy during the phone interview. Her main goal is to prepare the reader for the interview. She intends to expose the reader to what a phone interview could entail. Like another blogger I've researched, this author does not write about or introduce herself. This is not the author's only blog post, so it's assumed that if you want to get to know the author you will go to her "About Me" page. This page has a title, as well as the job description of the author. This allows the reader to see that she has been through this process before and is here to share what she knows. Additionally there are multiple tabs at the top that lead to other pages on her blog site. The post is then broken up into five different headings with various information, questions, and responses posted underneath. A reader can leave comments on this post, in fact twenty-four people already have. Some readers left commentary on how much this sheet helped them, others asked questions. From what I can see, the author kept up with her page and answered questions/discussed with her readers. People who would be attracted to this page is an even smaller audience. Once you have made it past the initial application and web-based interview, you have to complete a phone interview. So, she is writing to college students who have made it to this point and are preparing for their phone interviews.
Key for Updates:
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about my digital past is when I created a secret MySpace account. The only time I had access to the internet in 5th grade was at school, or at a friend's house. Without our parent's permission, my friend and I created a MySpace account. We added friends, posted pictures, updated our statuses, and created our "top 10 best friends." I knew nothing about the internet or how dangerous it could be. My friend's mother found out we had been using the site and told my parents. After this, I had to delete my page and I was given a lesson on why I wasn't allowed to use the internet at my age. My parents sat me down and explained to me how dangerous the internet could be, then we sat at my dad's computer together and learned how to safely use the internet.
Another idea I have for my narrative is to write about my frustrations I've experienced with technology. From the moment my family and I went to Verizon together to get our new phones, my parents have struggled with technology. I have always had to be the one to figure out the new technology and then teach them. From phones, to computers, printers, iTunes, paying bills, and online shopping, I have been the one to learn and teach. Not only am I the one who my parents call, but also my grandparents. I am always happy to help, but it often can be frustrating trying to figure out how things work and how to fix them when they break. This narrative would be my story of how I had to become "tech-savy" and how I handle myself with my not-so-tech-savy family. My last option for my piece would be to talk about all of my cell-phones that I've gone through throughout the years. It starts with my lime-green Firefly, moves to my first flip-phone, then my enVie, my Droid, and finally an iPhone. I learned to text on my phone before I could "correctly" type on a computer. I've had a phone for a very long time and I hate to admit it, but I rely on my phone all day, everyday. From the pages of Literacy Artifacts, by Berry, Hawisher, and Selfe, a specific statement grabbed my attention. While it is long and detailed, it forced me to think about what a digital story means. I started to think about how each persons digital story is unique and personal to them. We all use and have access to the same devices, however, we use them in ways that are individual to our lives. The same way we have individual stories and discoveries about technology in the digital world. "The stories that these individuals tell, we believe, reveal details not only about their particular pasts (about the worlds in which their parents lived, about the literacy practices and values established within their families and the cultures they inhabited), but also about their present (the globalized world in which they now live) and future (the world in which they want to live)," (Berry, Hawisher, Selfe, Chapter 2.1). Thinking about my past, my first "cellphone" only had the ability to call three numbers (my moms, my dads, and 911). It was simple, but it was exciting to 4th grade me who felt "cool" because I could call my parents whenever and wherever. Now, I have all the information and accessibility I could ever need at my fingertips. My present phone can do more things than 4th grade me could've ever imagined. I also never thought that I would own such a thing considering my sister and I shared our first computer together. It took forever to start up, and it didn't even have access to the internet. We used it solely to play our collection of CD games. Even without the internet, we looked forward to, and fought over, the time spent on this computer. The only time I could go on the internet was at school, or a friends house. Now, I have my own personal Mac computer and free reign over the internet. Technology and the digital culture is forever growing and changing. Our digital future is unpredictable, and also limitless. In 5th grade, I wasn't allowed on the internet. My parents monitored my every move in the digital world because it scared them (it still does). However, I didn't understand how the internet could be such a scary place. Sometimes, I was more excited to play on my friend's computer than I was to actually see them. The internet was this fascinating place where watched my friends play games and go on social media. That same year I created a MySpace, with my friend, without my parents' permission. Knowing what I know now, I was WAY too young and knew FAR too little to be using this site. I personalized my page, added friends, pictures, music, and talked to people, organized my "top 10" friends. I didn't realize how dangerous of a place the internet could be until after my parents found out about my secret page. They sat me down and gave me my first lecture about he dangers of the unknown digital world. Children today require access to the internet to reach their homework, lectures, textbooks, and to take exams. Students today, starting at a young age, know more about the internet and how to use it because they will be using this tool for the rest of their lives. Still, even with specific lessons on internet safety, parents still worry about their children using the internet. The same fears my parents experienced are the same fears that parents today experience. I use social media to connect with friends, colleagues, and classes. The use of social media has grown, and my parents have embraced this form of digital literacy. My dad has a Facebook and loves to connect with old friends and post pictures/statuses of his family. The reality that social media is a necessary digital literacy is real. It's a reality that students and parents must learn to be comfortable with.
The majority of our world revolves around technologies, whether we like to admit it or not. We use it for communication, work, research, and enjoyment. The article by Rhinegold's is titled, "Introduction: Why You Need Digital Know-How - Why We All Need It," discusses how it's not technologies that are negatively impacting our lives, it's the people who don't know how to "mindfully" use the technology. Rhinegold admits right off the bat that digital culture is in the palm of all of our hands. He explains that while we should take advantage of what is ours, it's just as important to be aware of HOW we use the resources around us. Our culture has been modified and influenced by the technology around us. From the time that the printing press was the world's biggest advancement in technology, to the ever-growing world-wide-web, the future depends on the way the technology is used. Specific choices made and actions over time have affected the way technology advanced. He explains that this will continue to happen as long as we are in a growing digital culture. So, it's suggested that anyone who has access to a phone or the internet reads this article. Rhinegold believes that if you want to be a part of the technological or digital literacy world, you should be responsible about the five literacies that are significant in our world today:
"The shapes of our connections and what we know about them are not only the subject matter of a developing new science of networks but also matter in the ways that technological networks amplify and extend human social networks," (Rhinegold, pg. 12). When Rhinegold states this in the reading, he is making reference to how we use technology in our lives and how we incorporate new technology. The beginning part of this quote stood out to me the most. It mentions the connections that we make with technology, and this instantly made me think of how attached I am to my phone. I can talk to anyone I want to at any point of the day, I can check my grades, and check in on all of my social medias. I use my phone to connect with friends, family, and school, but I learned over time how to actually use my technology in a safe, effective way. Rhinegold discusses how it's by experience that you'll learn which websites to go on, or what's safe to do over the internet. I was the oldest child in my family, so I was the one who figured out how to use the technology in our lives. I would later take what I learned and teach it to the rest of my family. After reading this article I started paying more attention to who picks up their phone at dinner, in the middle of a conversation, and who spent the most time on their computers. I was genuinely surprised to how much I didn't notice because of how connected to my technology that I am. One thing that I will take away from Rhinegold is to be more self-aware of how and when I incorporate technology into my life. While it makes living and working incredibly convenient, I'd like to spend more time disconnected from the devices that can connect me to the most.
For our first assignment, we read Situated Literacies, by Barton and Hamilton. Throughout this article, the authors frequently reference back to literacy being a social practice. What they mean by this, is that literacy, and reading itself, creates a connection between the people, environment, and culture surrounding it "In the simplest sense literacy practices are what people do with literacy, " They used the term practice as a reference to the different ways the cultures create and use literacy. Literacy is what brings people together. It's embraced within cultures to share stories, experiences, and news. It creates a social network within the culture. Literacy also generates connections and communication between cultures by enabling the sharing of cultures. With the connections that come with literacy, there are also discourses. Barton and Hamilton describe discourse communities as the differences in literacy that separate groups of people within a culture based on their domain.
What brings these groups together are what they have in common. For example, the "primary domain" in people's lives is their home. Another domain in one's life might be at work or school, where the literacy, relationships, and resources are more structured. The environment, or the domain, will affect the literacy that is available and utilized. A social group that I personally connect to is at school. At Rowan University I study Elementary Education and Literacy Studies. I've been taking classes with a lot of the same people for a couple of years now, so I connect with the other students in my major. We frequently use a mix of print, and digital literacy practices. For example, digital literacy has allowed us to communicate and work online without having to be next to one another. However, we also use print literacy practices when creating and collaborating on lesson plans for our students. As future elementary school teachers, we will be eventually teaching students to read. this means that we spend a lot of time discussing and sharing materials, plans, games, and ideas on how to potentially do this task. My social group and practices reflect the social nature of literacy because we became a social group through the classes, materials, and experiences that we have shared. Our major is described as "Literacy Studies", so we have, theoretically, spent the last three years connecting over the study of literacy itself.
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Jada GriggsI'm a college student attending Rowan University, and I will be attending my first Disney College Program this summer ! Categories
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