Hi all: Aaminah told me about this class just this morning, and I knew I had to take it—even if it meant showing up to the party a bit late! I’m a first-year PhD student in the Graduate School of Education’s Language, Literacy, and Culture program. One of my main research interests is the bridging of print-based and digital literacies in the high school English classroom; I conducted a qualitative study last semester that examined students’ uses of Adobe Flash to visually represent their interpretations of 14th century Anglo Saxon poetry. I also just started working as a GSR for Glynda Hull’s Kidnet project (www.space2cre8.com), and taking this course sounds like a terrific way to explore the role of visual documentation in my current and future ethnographic work.
This class also appeals to the enthusiastic amateur photographer in me. I am an avid traveler and enjoy sharing my adventures with family and friends through my blog and Facebook albums. Documenting the ordinary and extraordinary on camera (using SLR, DSLR, smartphone, computer, etc.) is just plain fun to me, and I look forward to becoming better at it. I’ve taken some darkroom and digital photography classes, but I have much to learn and am looking forward to becoming more skilled at capturing moments/narratives through photography and video. I have some experience with Adobe Lightroom and iMovie, but, again, I have a lot of room for improvement and am eager to learn more about presentation software and techniques.
I check my email often: jhiggs@berkeley.edu