Anna Donato

Reflection Paper Assignment

EDT 180 Section C
April 24, 2019

EDT 180 Reflection Paper

Computer literacy is an extremely important skill to have in today’s day and age. Practically

everything these days requires some sort of technology, computers and/or Internet. Though I

personally had a lot of prior knowledge of tech literacy and software knowledge, taking EDT 180

this semester was very beneficial and taught me many new skills that I will be able to use each

and every day for the rest of my life. This semester I feel that I have specifically improved my

skills and knowledge about specific Microsoft programs, knowing which programs to use for

what purposes and how to more efficiently use google drive to share documents and information.

In elementary school, my class was required to spend several hours in the computer lab every

week. We learned how to use Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint.

At the end of the year we even printed out all of our practice projects and compiled them into

binders for later reference. I have always been pretty good with technology, and the things I

wasn’t so good at were taught to me young. I came into this class knowing a lot about computers

in general however, I certainly left with greater knowledge and quick tricks to make my tech

skills even stronger.

Since I am majoring in Fine Arts, I have taken photoshop focused classes and know a lot about

Adobe programs. However, taking a step back in the photoshop unit was very refreshing and I

even learned some much simpler ways of doing things. Units like these and the PowerPoint/

Word units were really fun for me because learning new shortcuts made me feel like a

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Anna Donato
Reflection Paper Assignment
EDT 180 Section C
April 24, 2019

professional. I know I can efficiently use these programs and could now confidently add them as

a skill on a future resume/ job application.

The things I found most impactful about this class quite honestly, as corny as it sounds, changed

my life. For starters, our Microsoft Excel unit made me significantly more confident using the

program. I used to dread Excel, as many people probably do, but once I learned about more of

the possibilities for efficiency I was hooked. Things like discovering how to autofill cells that

follow a sequence, and how to input way more types of functions and equations than I ever

thought possible quickly made Excel much less daunting. Microsoft Excel is magical, and I will

never be afraid to use it ever again. I even used these new tricks in my astronomy class to work

out my math equations rather than having to write the same equation a million times with

different figures.

An even crazier experience than Excel was the introduction to coding unit. Although the website

we used to learn was quite simple to maneuver, I found myself feeling so accomplished after

completing the tasks given during each game. I was so invested that I made sure to repeat each

step/level until I completed it perfectly, and afterwards I would click to read what I did written in

code. I was incredibly fascinated. So fascinated, in fact, that I went home and played around with

code.org a little more and that led to me calling the ASU advising office to talk about finally

adding Computer Science as one of my undergraduate majors! Long story short, this unit really

gave me the little push I needed to realize I am truly amazed by computers and gave me the tech

confidence to really do something with it.

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Anna Donato
Reflection Paper Assignment
EDT 180 Section C
April 24, 2019

Although it was frustrating at times to have to go back to the basics with some of these units, I

am eternally grateful for my semester in EDT 180. I truly learned so many things that I will

never forget and will be able to apply to every aspect of my life. I can easily say that after this

course I am completely in love with computers and I feel like a technology wizard. Sometimes it

is very important to take a step back and accept that (even if you feel like you do) you do not

know everything, and it is so important to learn more because you never know how it might

change your life!

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