Reflection 2

Benefits

1. How do you think your English writing skills have improved after completing this Wix e-portfolio? (You can talk about your improvement in these aspects: vocabulary, grammar, writing skills, motivation and confidence in writing, and interaction with peers.)

Actually I think it doesn't really help much with the aspects of vocabulary, grammar, or writing skills because those are about one's personal ability regarding essay writing. What really matters is that it does make me want to write a better essay in order to present the best to other readers. So, it is a great motivation for me to keep working hard on my writing skills, yet that doesn't mean it will absolutely improve those skills simply by doing the Wix e-portfolio project. However, the most interesting part I think maybe is the interaction with my peers and others from NCUE. Their comments also encouraged me a lot which helped me build up the confidence to share more things in my life.

2. What do you think about creating the Wix e-portfolio for the final essay drafts?

I think it helps us to dedicate ourselves to writing a better essay because eventually what we are going to show on our website must be the best vision. In addition, if we've written a good essay, it would be a good opportunity to perform our work to others. After all, we all spent much time on our writings, it would not be bad to let others witness our efforts.

3. What do you think about creating the Wix e-portfolio for journal writing and commenting?

I think it is quite interesting for us to share our daily lives, as well as comment on others' journals. It is one of the manners that we are able to share all kinds of experience or thoughts after going through some special experience. For example, some shared their experience of going camping with their family, some expressed their feelings towards a movie, tv series, or dramas, and there were others spent their time doing nothing special but still wanted to share how they lived such a plain life. In order to comment on others' journals, we had to read through their journals word by word. Not only can we engage in their lives, but we can also learn some beautiful words or phrases in their articles.

4. Do you think that journal writing should be conducted in the same way as essay writing (i.e., Draft 1, peer review, Draft 2, conferencing, and Draft 3 on Wix)? Why or why not?

I think it is not necessary that journal writing should be done in the same way as essay writing because it is just a record of our lives, whether the grammar or sentence is wrong or not, it doesn't matter much. Except for a serious mistake, otherwise I think as long as it is fluent enough to read, then it doesn't require draft or peer review. Another reason is that these processes take time to finish, so it will become a time-consuming task which will be a little bit annoying for me.

5. What did you benefit from TA feedback after you posted each final essay draft and journal on your Wix e-portfolio? (TA feedback was presented via Excel file and PPT slides).

It really helps me understand what style the readers will like or think better since I still remembered the first time when I designed a page without knowing this website well, I did a poor decorate and typesetting which bothered the readers a lot. After receiving TA and professor's feedback, I finally realized how to present a good webpage for my readers. I didn't dare to say that mine was the best, but at least I made a big progress when comparing with the one I created at the first time.

6. What did you benefit from conducting self-assessment and peer-assessment of the Wix e-portfolio in the second semester?

Self-assessment allows me to review my website because it may have be a long-time-ago stuff since last time I edited it, and others might have different perspective about my design. Therefore, thanks to the peer-assessment, I could know where I should revise and redesign by referring to their opinions. I hope my suggestions in peer-assessment can help others to improve theirs as well.

7. How did this Wix e-portfolio enhance your skills other than writing?

I think it's more like an art designing part because it is important to make the webpages look comfortable for the readers to read. It's like to test our aesthetic I think? But everyone has different perspective, there's no right answer for our creation. Nevertheless, it really enhanced my skills of designing a website, including the word style, color contrast, and many other things related to art part.

8. Overall, what did you benefit from creating and managing this Wix e-portfolio? How is it different from uploading your assignments on ecourse2?

It's another aspect different from just handing our assignments on ecourse2 because we need to learn how to manage a personal website which is a kind of job that needs to be well-organized, and we have to check it from time to time. The biggest benefit I think is probably the same as the previous answer, the designing part. I realized that it was not easy for you to do whatever you thought, after doing practical arrangement, there might not be suitable in terms of the appearance or effects, and then you have to redesign or change another way to match your ideal page as much as possible. Different from uploading the assignments on ecourse2, it took more time to accomplish.

Challenges

1. What difficulties have you encountered in terms of creating and editing your Wix e-portfolio over these two semesters?

When I was creating and editing my Wix, I found it difficult to arrange my words and pictures in different ways. I only knew a couple of simple ways for combining them together. As a result, it seemed to be less creative.

2. Among all the difficulties mentioned above, what was the most challenging one? How did you handle this challenge?

Still, the biggest difficulty is to figure out what kind of website will appeal to others. I've tried hard to be more creative, but it turned out that I still couldn't manage to do it. If you look closely, each page looked like the same pattern because I couldn't create it other than using the same style. Although I had trouble dealing with this problem, I did as much as I could to make it more appealing. Moreover, thanks to speaker Liao for teaching us other skills, I've learned a lot from it.

3. Will you continue to use or write posts on this Wix e-portfolio in the future? Why or why not?

I'm not sure whether I will keep using it in the future because it really takes time to manage. However, it is undeniable that it is a wonderful experience for me. This is my first time creating my own website, and I enjoyed a lot. Of course, I have to thank Dr. Sherry for giving me this chance to learn these skills which may not be taught in other classes. Others who have helped me improve my website are also important. I hope one day I can create a fabulous webpage that makes everyone surprised and curious about. Again, thanks to Dr. Sherry, TA, speaker Liao, my peers and those from NCUE. Thank you everyone!