Media ecology is the study of media as an environment. Media plays such a large role in our lives that it shapes our environment by filtering what we read and see and manipulating how we feel. The media ecology of my high school varies greatly from that of UGA, in terms of the uniformity of the media used. Everybody at my high school was required to purchase the same version of a Chromebook, in which we could only use Google Chrome, Gmail, and Google Classroom. All of the forms of media we used were monitored by our teachers using a software called Go Guardian, in which they could watch our screens and close any tabs or apps we had open on our laptops. After arriving at college, it’s been nice to have the freedom of the ability to use my computer how I want to in class and not be limited to what only a Chromebook can offer. It took time to adjust to new forms of media that UGA prefers, such as Microsoft Outlook over Gmail or PowerPoint over Google slides, but the adjustment wasn’t hard, as these forms of media are very similar to one another.

Another difference in media between my high school and UGA is the forms of media that professors and teachers use to communicate. In high school, many of my teachers used Remind 101 and Google Classroom to contact students. On the other hand, professors at UGA use email and eLC as a form of communication. Although different institutions utilize varying forms of media, it isn’t hard to adjust to these changes, as media is so universal. Different forms of media affect the media ecology of an institution, as what content we receive and how we receive it varies depending on the media platform used.

I’ve noticed the media ecology of UGA and college in general is different than that of high school. In high school I remember I could always refresh my Twitter feed, and new tweets would appear every few minutes. Twitter was a pastime all students would look to when they were distracting themselves in class. It was a platform where we could all share short, relatable thoughts with each other while we were all in class. People always tried to tweet funny things for recognition, retweets, and favorites; they could interact with new people and other friends through witty, silly impressions.

In contrast, college has changed how my friends and I use Twitter. First, we barely check the app at all. Everyone is at different universities and not in class at the same time so the feed doesn’t update with new tweets as often. We’re not all in the same school anymore so the Twitter audience can’t relate anymore like in high school. Second, college is so full of new and exciting experiences that we find ourselves on our phones less often and are out interacting with new people face-to-face. Third, there are potential employers now that students need to look out for. Social media is forever, and it could seriously give one a bad reputation, hindering employment opportunities. People are more cautious now in college about what they post because there are a multitude of new and unprofessional things one could share on social media.

Media at the University of Georgia is much more prevalent than it was at my high school. While students both at my high school and UGA used the same social medias outside of school, UGA students use more media with the classroom. My high school recently made the switch to allowing computers in class about three years ago. Many of the teachers in my high school were very skeptical of using media in class since they were not used to it. Some teachers still required notes to be handwritten and did not even allow the use of laptops in class. At UGA, professors use PowerPoints or other notes projected on a screen during class, and then also post these notes online so students can follow along on their own laptops. Almost every student in the class has their laptop out and is taking notes during class.

At my high school, all laptops were equipped with an app called DyKnow, which allowed teachers to view what students had open on their laptop screens. This way the teachers could make sure that students were paying attention and not getting distracted during class. I was surprised at how much more freedom students at UGA have with technology within the classroom, but I guess this freedom comes with getting older. I do not have my teacher watching over me now to make sure that I am not shopping online during class, rather it is not my responsibility. I guess my high school was just a little more old-school than UGA, but I think as the years go on, teachers at my high school will become more accepting of the use of technology in the classroom.

The media ecology of the University of Georgia is not substantially different from the technology used and seen throughout my high school. While in high school, we used similar if not the exact same forms of technology to learn and study. Because of these few changes, it has been an easy transition from high school to college.

Specifically, in high school we mainly used PowerPoint as our lecture style for teaching. In almost every class I attend this semester, my professor lectures using a PowerPoint and puts the notes online for the students to view later at their discretion. This technology is familiar to me and allows me to stick to the routine of how I learned in high school. Personally, lecture style is my favorite way to learn. Because my professors use this medium to communicate the information for their class I am benefited, and learn to my full abilities.

A discrepancy between college and high school media ecology is the lack of remind101 at UGA. In high school this form of technology was used to remind students of assignments or send quick messages from the teachers to the students. Remind101 is not present at UGA, because we are now college students and should be capable of remembering our assignments. This change in media ecology is beneficial because it teaches college students the importance of self-reliance and to be on top of their assignments. Overall, there are only a few changes seen in media ecology from my high school to college which makes the transition that much easier.

I struggle with considering email a “legacy medium.” On one hand, I rarely use email as a form of communication but on the other, I still receive a ton of emails. Email definitely hit its peak of popularity about 20 years ago, but it is still a favored way for professors and students to communicate. The article was helpful to me because I seriously struggle with email etiquette.

It’s rare that I use email to communicate with anyone other than my professors, so I’m not super practiced with it. For me, I wouldn’t say writing the email itself is the hard part, it’s more about how to address the recipient. I don’t want to be too formal, but I also don’t want to be too informal. Besides that fact, I really don’t mind email as a way of communication.

In a sense email could be considered a legacy medium. I mean it has been replaced with faster communication (texting/calling), but I also think that email allows us to communicate in a way that texting or calling doesn’t. Email has evolved to stay relevant in this day and age by allowing us to share documents or pictures. I can’t count how many times in high school I would just email my teacher my assignments instead of printing them out or saving them on a flash drive. In a way, email has made flash drives a thing of the past.

All in all, I think email is still a useful tool that has just been downgraded to a specific set of uses.

After reading the two links, one that is more comical and the other that is more serious, I was honestly able to better understand how to write e-mails to a professor. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was the clear distinction with the more serious article and the implied distinction with the more comical article between a professional and personal e-mail.

A lot of times when e-mails are sent to professors, the line between sending a serious and professional e-mail and sending an e-mail as if to a friend is blurred. One of the biggest reasons that this mistake happens more often than not is that students are never made aware of how exactly an e-mail should even be sent. In the current generation, people have grown up using e-mail constantly but never in a professional manner. It was always a fun way to communicate with friends. So the jump can sometimes affect people differently, leaving them to not be aware of how to properly communicate with a professor.

Colleges and even high schools demand that students use the school e-mail to contact teachers with any matter. E-mail is the most widely used type of communication in the educational system. Part of the reason is that administrators are able to keep all forms of communications between faculty and students in one place, making it easy to find any specific communication for any reason.

However, the question of why colleges and universities don’t use different forms of social media such as Facebook or WhatsApp raises the issue of how much more personal communications become between a professor and a student. Social media is much more personal, allowing access to more than just academic performance or curriculum information. Students are able to access personal data about professors and vice versa through these communications and tracking any of it becomes much harder because how big the social media platforms are.

I personally didn’t start using e-mail till about 7th grade which was when my middle school set up e-mail servers for the students and the teachers. From then on, I used e-mail very frequently and still do. However, I rely more on social media solely to contact friends or family because of how much more accessible it is.  E-mail has always been something I saw as being used by me in more professional settings in which I needed to contact an employer, professor, organization, etc.

For me, email is absolutely not a legacy medium. I would receive emails almost hourly, seriously hourly from random businesses and specifically colleges. I actually have over 11,000 unread emails(I don’t delete them for fun now). Both of my parents are regularly using their email accounts in the workday, constantly checking messages and reading mail. Many companies create work accounts for employees to email through, so the company emails are all on a single server. This has transitioned to the college world even more. UGA has given each student a school email account that is run through Microsoft. This account is so all-inclusive, that a current student would practically not be able to pass classes or sign up for anything without the account being used. Emails are sent everyday reminding us students of upcoming events and deadlines. Everything from football tickets to volunteer service runs through the email system here. Another aspect to the UGA email, is that it is the primary source of communication between a student and professor. If a student needs clarification regarding something discussed in class, or a question about office hours, he or she can be most helped by sending the professor an email through the UGA account. This transitions into the article about emails sent to professors from students being unprofessional or useless. Certainly there are some students who lack formal communication skills through media, but that does not represent the majority of college students. These are rare blips in a vastly intelligent pool of college students who are able to construct a professional email worthy of being sent to a professor. This stems from the fact that students at UGA specifically are being more and more acclimated to the technological world, that email skills are being acquired along the way.

Email is definitely the easiest way for students to communicate with their professors and vice versa. Email may be a “legacy media” when it comes to communicating with family and friends, but with professors, it is probably the most efficient and professional way to get in touch with each other. I went to a very small high school where I had personal relationships with all of my teachers, and would often times send rather informal emails when I had questions for them. After reading about proper email etiquette, I realized that I could never email my professors at UGA the way I emailed my teachers in high school! Now that I am in so many large classes with three hundred people in each one, my professors have no idea who I am and that is something that I’m not used to. I have not had to email one of them yet, and am thankful that I have this article to refer to from now on. Now that I am in college and school is much more serious, I think it is very important to be respectful and professional when emailing a professor, and show them that you are serious about their class. One thing that I noticed on the second article making fun of students emailing their professors unprofessionally, is that text “slang” was being used such as writing “u” instead of you, or  “ur” instead of your. Many students email in this way because our generation is so used to texting and shortening words, that it even appears in their emails. However, most students think this is okay because they have never been told what is proper email etiquette. I am grateful for this article, because now I no longer have to worry about my emails being too informal or too formal. It is definitely a format that I will use in the future!