Unit 1 Reflection

In the Unit 1 Portfolio, I completed a source analysis on an article in the New York Times about a pencil shop in lower Manhattan, and three other sources of my choice that were related to my research topic. For these three sources, two of them focused on scientific studies or research regarding the effectiveness of learning when using different writing tools, whether this is handwriting, typing, or with a digital pen. My other source was an article about the benefits and drawbacks of using technology in a learning environment. I wanted to use this source specifically because I wanted to hear both sides of the argument, and I thought I could potentially use certain information in my refuting paragraph. Because of this, I feel confident in the choices I made for my sources, I believe that each one will provide for me very useful and effective information. Additionally, I made sure that the website I was getting research from was reliable, so I checked for certain key things, like the url and author credentials; the authors were stated in the article and the url was .gov, so the source seemed trustable. For example, my second source consisted of a scientific study, and the end results suggested many different claims, like "the movements involved in handwriting allow a greater memorization of new words. The advantage of handwriting over typing might also be caused by a more positive mood during learning. Finally, our results show that handwriting with a digital pen and tablet can increase the ability to learn compared with keyboard typing once the individuals are accustomed to it," and all of these claims are backed up with strong evidence, which would only make my research paper more reliable. Additionally, I enjoyed how my third source provided arguments for using technology in writing and not using it in writing. For example, the author states that a “plurality of AP and NWP teachers across all subjects say digital tools make teaching writing easier,” this is despite the fact that the quality of writing in students has decreased due to digital tools (with the use of AI, informal typing types, etc.) but the author takes multiple different approaches to the topic of writing and technology, which helps me understand both sides of the argument; it builds complexity to the issue and allows for more room to refute the other side of the argument (how technology should be used in class settings).
As much as it might contradict some of the sources I analyzed, I think that technology made this project much more efficient for me. For example, I was able to find a lot of high-quality research journals and incorporate them into my source analysis. Without the help of technology, I wouldn’t have been able to find sources like this, especially in a short amount of time. Additionally, I was able to write a lot of analysis on these sources, and share them with my peers. As a result, they were able to read my analysis and give me constructive feedback, and I was able to improve and revise my writing because of it. Getting feedback from different people has been very helpful for me, because people are able to pick up different perspectives and catch onto different flaws that I might have in my writing.
Some holes that I see appear in the conversation about this topic would be that why educational institutions are pushing for more students to use typing and digital pens to take notes and learn during lectures, rather than handwriting, which would be the optimal tool to use in order for students to maximize the quality of their learning experience. Ultimately, the push towards a more technological approach to education will have its benefits as well as drawbacks and consequences, which would be interesting to look more into for future research. Despite this, I definitely see myself using the sources I chose for this portfolio in the next two units, and this is because all of the sources are closely linked to each other, which would make it possible for me to gain ample research about the topic, along with different perspectives about how technology hurting students' full potential to learn.
Finally, I believe that the Unit 1 Portfolio assignment has been a good experience for me. My major in college doesn’t require a lot of writing classes, and for this reason I’ve grown shy from writing as much as I used to, and had a lower tolerance for writing or analyzing complex documents. Also, I forgot a lot of writing strategies my teachers taught, like how to find a reliable source, how to paraphrase or smoothly structure evidence into your sentences and more - so my writing grew more poor. Having done this assignment, I forced myself out of my comfort zone and really tried to make this a well-written portfolio, just like how they used to be in high school. Although I haven't gotten there fully yet, I hope to improve my writing more throughout the semester.