Tip #7/ Closing Post

Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve posted various tips on this website regarding how to stay sane at college. I created this website for struggling Rutgers communication students; however, I strongly believe these tips can apply to any student, at any school, with any major. My last tip for staying sane at college is to be appreciative! If you appreciate all the things you get to experience at school, your college experience will be much more meaningful. When school becomes meaningful,  students tend to enjoy it more. As a result, students are more likely to stay sane at college.

To emphasize tip #7, I want to discuss three things I’m appreciative of. The three things I’m appreciative of are all memorable topics I learned in my Strategic Presentation class this semester. The first thing I’m appreciative of is learning how to use the computer program “Screencast O-Matic”. This tool was great because it allowed me to visually show my readers how to stay sane at college. As stated in “Screencast captures what words can’t”, by Job Udell (2016), “I’m reminded how much we can learn by observing software use through the medium of screencasting” (p.2). I completely agree with this statement. I feel that visually showing someone how to do a task is far more effective than having them just read about it! Thus, users are able to learn a lot when watching a screencast.  I’m really thankful I learned how to use Screencast O-Matic in this class, and I believe it will be of great use in the future. If you want to see what a screencast looks like, visit my previous post or look at the image below! 

AGeremia (Photographer). (2017, March 14). Screencast-o-matic [digital image]. Retrieved Wiki

The second thing I’m appreciative of is learning how to use the tool “Pixlr”. Pixlr is an application that allowed me to create the header image for this website! This tool allows one to layer images on top of each other. As stated in “Article from Computation Culture”, by Lev Manovich, layers “redefine both how images are created and what an “image” actually means” (p. 10). Alone, the picture of Rutgers found in my header represents school life at the university. In addition, the meditation image alone represents being “zen”. When layered together, the meaning of these images are redefined; the final header represents staying “zen”, or sane, at Rutgers University. Overall, Pixlr is a really great tool for creating a new image and redefining its meanings. If you want to know what Pixlr images looks like, take a look at my header image below! The picture of the Rutgers building is from Flickr. The picture is called Rutgers Campus and was taken by Rodrigo Bernal on August 22, 2012. The picture of the person meditating is from Google images. The picture is called Meditation Meditate Crossed Legs Yoga Orange and was taken by Clker-Free-Vector-Images on June 16, 2014.

The third thing I’m appreciative of is learning how to make a podcast. This was one of my favorite things I learned while in Strategic Presentation. I listen to a lot of podcasts, so I think it’s really cool that I now know how to make one! At first, making a podcast was not easy. In order to create the podcast , our class had to use Audacity; this was an application I had never heard of. Fortunately, our in-class meetings taught me how to navigate this tool. As a result, I was able to record my very first podcast! After, I was able to upload my finished  podcast to Soundcloud. I’m very grateful I learned how to create a podcast; I think it will be very useful in my future communication studies.  

Yagraph (Photograph). (2010, March 12). Podcast-icon [digital image]. Retrieved Wiki

Overall, being appreciative of the things I learned in school really made me enjoy this past semester. Since I was enjoying school, it was SO much easier to stay sane at college. I really hope tip #7 helps you stay level-headed at school. Thank you so much for visiting this website, I really appreciate you guys going on this journey with me! I wish you all the best with staying sane at college!