Reflective essay

Many computer science students go into the field with at least some knowledge of the course,
since computer science is a complex major. Even though I knew my way around working with a
computer, I had no clue of coding or creating websites. And mostly computer science students
are required to be good at talking to people, or interacting with people.
Speaking has never been something I’ve been good at. I never once thought to myself to
improve on my oral communication skills, my mentality in high school was “ my major will be
computer science in college, I will be working in the computer science field, there is no need to
interact with people or talk since I'll always be sitting behind a computer”. And I never bothered
myself with learning how to text people for questions or answers because I liked to be left alone
and figure everything out myself. But my mentality has changed this year. With the introduction
of artifact 1, I realized that not every assignment is going to be an individual assignment, and
some assignments will require me to communicate with a group of people to be successful. And
doing artifact 2 was especially challenging for me. Not only have I never created a website, I
had to face my fear of speaking into a microphone. As a computer science major, I was able to
teach myself how to work with Weebly, and create the website for the first time. But the real
problem began when i had to answer the question “what do you see” into a microphone, and
upload it so that anyone can listen to it. That’s when I realized that learning these skills is
important, not only for college, but also my life, and the computer science field.

I am proud of the improvements I’ve made on my communication this semester alone. In high
school, we were sometimes given group assignments, but I didn’t need to talk to my group
members in any way. We just divided the work, and everyone does their part, then we put it
together. I got used to this and hoped to go through college with it. When we worked on artifact
1, I realized this wouldn’t be the case, I would need to communicate with my group both
personally and over text messages. My group and I split the work between ourselves, and I got
to be the designer for the group, and the guy who had to put everything together on the poster,
so this meant I had to constantly text my group mates for feedback and suggestions. This was
challenging at first, but I knew it was something I had to do to be successful, and a skill I need to
develop sooner than later, to get me through college.Now thanks to the completion of artifact 1, i
feel more comfortable asking questions both face to face, and through email or text messages.
This will improve how well I do in my future classes, since I no longer fear talking to people.
Coming from high school, I was never given an assignment where I had to develop a detailed
website hosting a podcast and visual art, in fact, I never even knew such assignments existed.
Working on artifact 2 was completely foreign to me. This was a challenging process for me. I
had to teach myself how to format pages in the website, and how to even add background
pictures. When I was creating the website for artifact 2, I left some of the default pages created
by the template I used because I was unaware that I could delete pages. But with the help of
research and playing around with the software, I figured out how to properly add a background
picture and delete default pages. I also figured out how to add some colors to my website, since
the website I built for artifact 2 was a bit plain, and implemented what I learned into building the
website for the final portfolio. Now I feel more confident in my electronic communication for my
other classes, and no longer fear being given an assignment like that.
Another thing that is completely new to me is writing an essay in this format. In high school, we
weren't given an essay where we had to write anything over 400 words, so after the introduction
of the final reflection essay being 1,200 words, I was panicking. It was the first time I had been
introduced to an essay like that, and also my first time writing an essay about how I’ve improved
as a communicator with evidence showing how I’ve grown. In the past, I’ve had some trouble
with written communication, while others write too much, I tend to write too little. I found myself
making that same mistake while writing my script for artifact 2. I had more that I wanted to write,
but the words weren’t just flowing through me. Then, I was more concerned about completing
the assignment than how much I wrote or how well I wrote. This is something I did in high
school and got away with most of the time. But to grow as a good communicator, I need to
realize that’s a bad habit. So to take the first step in improving as a written communicator, I’m
using this essay. I plan to be less concerned about finishing the assignment and getting it over
with, and focus more on how well I write, how much I write, and the amount of time I put into
making it a successful first reflective essay I ever wrote. Another thing I improved on is aiming
higher than the suggested amount of words. In my previous classes, i found myself relying
heavily on the set amount of words my professor’s provided, this mostly lead to an unfinished
essay, because I brainstorm the exact amount, and when I go to finish the final essay, I end up
removing most of the content in my draft, and end up with less than the amount of words i
needed to write. In my Survey of history class, I was asked to write a 400 word essay about the
silk roads in Afro Eurasia. But since I drafted exactly 400 words, my final ended up being 307,
and I had nothing more to add, which cost me a lot of points. My professor added a note telling
me to pay attention to the word minimum next time. Because of that, I plan to make changes
with my writing style, beginning with the reflective essay. When given a word minimum, I will not
pay much attention to it, I will finish writing, then go back to make the necessary changes, either
that being adding more or reducing some content.
Taking this class this semester is something I will never regret. It’s been a really helpful class.
While I struggled to talk to people in the past, artifact 1 helped me out of my comfort zone by
forcing me to communicate with my group mates to be successful. Artifact 2 faced me with
assignments I have never done before, like writing a script, recording a podcast, and creating a
website. Even though I didn’t do as well as I wanted on artifact 2, I still think It’s a good thing I
was introduced to it, because it serves as a learning experience for me. Thanks to this class, I
am a better communicator than I was before, and I plan to continue improving as a
communicator with what i Learned in this class.