{"id":13684,"date":"2018-08-13T18:25:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T23:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theedublogger.edublogs.org\/?p=13684"},"modified":"2019-04-24T20:20:58","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T01:20:58","slug":"myles-zhang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theedublogger.com\/myles-zhang\/","title":{"rendered":"When A Student Blogger Enters The World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/a>This is a guest post from Myles Zhang.<\/a><\/p>\n

Myles is from New York City and is an\u00a0undergraduate student at Columbia and at Oxford University. His academic studies and independent research focus on architectural and urban history, with a particular interest in the causes of urban decay.<\/p>\n

Myles was introduced to blogging as a high school student and since then his online portfolio has grown and flourished.<\/p>\n

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The Seed Is Planted…<\/h3>\n

My experience with Edublogs began back in 2013 when my high school English teacher decided to teach “digital literacy”. She asked each of the 18 students in our class to set up a free blog on Edublogs.<\/p>\n

My teacher never explicitly told us \u201chow to blog”. But she gave us weekly writing assignments to respond to and post online.<\/p>\n

I attended a school that was only just picking up on new ways to integrate technology in the classroom, like loaning each student a personal laptop. So, the whole experience felt a bit new and unfamiliar to me. From the start, I was excited by the idea of sharing my work online to reach a larger audience than my small, high school community of 75 students.<\/p>\n

My teacher planted a seed. I ended up learning how to do things on my own.<\/p>\n

Finding A Purpose<\/h3>\n

Within two weeks of joining Edublogs, I realized a personal website and digital portfolio could become a handy way to showcase my artwork and personal projects.<\/p>\n

Over the previous five years, I had created a lot of artwork, merely to shelve it away in my dusty closet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Escher Inspired Artwork, 2013 (30x23cm in pastel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the following years, the website organically outgrew its initial use for high school and became an art portfolio<\/a>, a place to publish my academic research<\/a> in college, and a platform to spread awareness of issues like gentrification and traffic<\/a>\u00a0affecting my community.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what to describe the site as now. I suppose it\u2019s a \u201cdigital portfolio”. However, it\u2019s more than just<\/em> that … For me, it\u2019s a creative opportunity to ask myself: \u201cWhat work am I proudest of? And how can I best showcase this work online?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Building and curating a website helps me answer these questions, and gain self-knowledge too.<\/p>\n

\"Space<\/a>
De Chirico Inspired Space Age Imagery, 2013 (30x23cm in pastel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Power Of An Authentic Audience<\/h3>\n

This website also helps me reflect on my audience of readers. My high school teachers and now college professors often speak of the need to \u201cconsider one\u2019s audience\u201d when writing. For many of my research papers and essays in class, this audience is, unfortunately, no larger than the professor who reads my writing. But, for my website, the audience can be far larger — basically anyone with internet connection.<\/p>\n

This authentic audience encourages me to be more mindful of what I share online. Maybe Edublogs helped me become a more conscientious writer. The experience also motivates me to create more because I know thousands of people might potentially see the results.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Viaduct, 2016 (76x61cm in ink and watercolor)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Show, Don’t Tell<\/h3>\n

In other ways, the website has been helpful in internships and college applications. In the automatic footer of all messages I send from my school email, I include a line that reads \u201cMore about Myles<\/a>\u201d with the link to my Edublogs site. Most people discover my site this way, like employers and people who commission watercolors from me.<\/p>\n

\"Myles<\/a>
Lower Manhattan, 2016 (66x101cm in ink and watercolor)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A resume is often a list of things one claims to have done, which are not always substantiated. For me, it\u2019s helpful to list something on my resume and then to provide the link to see the actual project at Edublogs.<\/p>\n

My high school writing teachers always told me the mantra \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell”. Resumes are all about telling in brief, bullet points (that are frankly, kind of boring to read). Websites are all about showing, through colorful essays, through drawings, and through embedded video content.<\/p>\n

Edublogs has helped me put the mantra \u201cshow, don\u2019t tell\u201d into daily practice.<\/p>\n

For instance, my project to depict New York City\u2019s diverse and unique neighborhoods<\/a> in watercolor and photo collages was the main part of my college application.<\/p>\n

Or my summer project<\/a> to document urban change through photography led to several dozen of my photographs being featured at an exhibit at my city\u2019s public library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Personal Identity<\/h3>\n

In other contexts, friends and teachers learn another side of my personality that they never knew of before. In class and at school, I\u2019d describe myself as being a bit introverted — so many of my friends don\u2019t know that I can paint or draw until they see my website. In fact (and this might sound strange), I use my Edublogs website in lieu of posting on social media. In many ways, Edublogs feels like a more authentic and personalized platform to share my artwork than Facebook or Instagram.<\/p>\n

Currently, I\u2019d describe the website as a core part of my studies. It\u2019s a way to increase my audience, improve my writing, curate my artwork, and teach myself web skills.<\/p>\n

Many of the assigned essays I begin in class end up as larger and longer term projects and featured videos<\/a> on my website.<\/p>\n

More recently, I\u2019ve become interested in building interactive models of gothic churches<\/a>, computer simulations of gentrification<\/a>, and animations of urban history<\/a> \u2013 many of which I build from my small laptop in my dorm and feature on Edublogs for academic credit. These are all extensions of a small reading assignment or essay for class that inspired me to go further.<\/p>\n