Consultations seemed like the hardest part starting out and I was really nervous before the first one. However, after doing a few they began to feel more natural and I started to learn how to better explain what I knew in a way other people would understand. The most challenging one was creating a PowerPoint on Canva, which I had never done before. During the consultation, I learned how it works while working with my mock guest. During these consultations, I gained confidence in helping others with systems I know how to use myself.
Month: April 2022
Showcase
For the final DKC showcase, I created PowerPoint wherein I show off my Photoshop skills. I started messing with Photoshop between assignments. I went from knowing nothing to learning the basics of it.
Canva and Piktochart
I have used Canva before and felt like I was coming to understand it pretty well, but I had never used Piktochart. This meant I learned a lot when I had to use Piktochart to make an infographic.
Canva
While I had used Canva before, I still learned quite a bit about it.
Presentations
Before a mock consultation with Mandy and Edmund, I had never built a presentation on Canva. When we were doing it, I learned a lot about how building the slides works, the different presentation modes, and what the timer at the top meant (even though I was stuck on it for a while).
Charts
Later, Mandy revealed to me that despite the fact I thought Piktochart was the only one with the charts, Canva will also allow you to make charts. This was a great discovery as it allowed me to make the charts used for this blog on Canva.
Piktochart
Piktochart was completely new to me, so I booked an appointment with Mandy. She explained Piktochart to me and I was delighted to find it functioned a lot like Canva. I was a little less thrilled when I learned I would receive only two downloads and only be able to have 5 designs on my account at once if I was not willing to pay for it.
Difference Between Them
By practicing with both, I learned the pros and cons of Canva and Piktochart.
Domain of One’s Own and WordPress: What I Learned
Before starting here, I had most of my skills in Domain of One’s Own and WordPress. I knew how to sign up for it, create a subdomain, install an application to the domain, post in WordPress, and how to customize WordPress. However, there was still a lot I learned.
Troubleshooting
One of the skills I was most happy to start learning was troubleshooting. I had never been inside the files manager before the task was assigned to fix a WordPress blog where we were unable to get into the backend. (I also didn’t know it was called a backend before working here.) Using WordPress’s guide, I was able to navigate through what might be causing the White Screen of Death before realizing it was the latest theme installed. I guess now I also know to add easy-blogily to the list of themes to tell people not to get alongside Adventure Journal.
Changing the Adminstrator’s Name and Adding More
During my mock consult with Bob, I had to help Bob add people to Bob’s blog and make it so everyone had their own name. I was stuck and I couldn’t find any good guides (admittedly this is because I needed one, at that moment and whenever I need one I seem unable to find it). I asked Adura (who found the guide very easily) to assist me. During this, I learned how to add more administrators to a blog. Next, I had to learn how to change the name. Assuming it was in the same place where you added people, I was able to look at the options available and figure out how to do it. I was later able to assist someone else with this newfound knowledge.
Menus
While I have played around with menus before I learned more about them!
Before and After: An Overview
Before
Before I completed my DKC consultant training all my digital knowledge, so to speak, come from my Intro to Digital Studies class and my very limited experience from being online in the past.
After
After I finished training magically my skills increased.
Note
These numbers have no real meaning as they were random values created by yours truly. However, hopefully, they should demonstrate how much my skills have improved.
