Students at Ithaca College may apply to prusue individualized study oppurtunities with professor in applicable departments. After completing two internships in the summer of 2013 that had me frequently publishing to the web, I was interested in studying digital composition and the rhetoric of digital design. In the fall of 2013, I applied to participate in an independent study in digital literacy with professor Mary Lourdes Silva of the writing department. 

The main focus of this course was to obtain a broad understanding of the discipline of digital literacy and develop my own opinions in it by critically reviewing articles, books and talks related to the subject. I did this in the form of a reading journal which has developed into a blog known as Becoming Digital. To support and advertise this site, I crafted a social media platform for myself on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and about.me while simulataneously considering how such technologies effected my composition on them.

During my bi-weekly meetings with Professor Silva, we discussed things like the nature of the discipline and major players in it, how the design of websites (including my blog) impacted a user's use and interpetation of it, and how my studies could be applied to a possible elective writing course on digital literacy. Other projects include the design of this web portfolio, which was developed in TaskStream. To capstone the course, I also created a "metaphorical map" of the discipline, which is represented and explained here. 

This course not only taught me about digital technologies and the rhetoric of web design, but also made me more capable of driving web traffic and help me establish an interesting and fun blog voice. I plan on continuing this blog as a side project and hobby.