91吃瓜

Student Spotlight

The 91吃瓜 First-Year Writing Program's Digital Literacy Showcase
Date and Time: April 25, 2025 from 2:00-4:00PM
Location: Digital Humanities Center, MLK Library, San Jos茅 State University

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Sponsored by: Adobe Systems, 91吃瓜's College of Humanities & the Arts, 91吃瓜's Department of English, 91吃瓜's Digital Humanities Center, 91吃瓜's Office of the Provost, and 91吃瓜's Office of Research.

Students of Professor Esperanza Huerta Espinosa created podcasts as an alternative to writing essays in their business class. Here are two of the student podcasts produced using Adobe Audition.

Listen to or download the podcast, "Programming for Beginners"

• Read the transcript to "Programming for Beginners"

  • Welcome back to talks with CHC, where we may end

    up talking until the sun sets.

    Hi, everyone, it's CHC. Today we'll be talking

    about what you should do to be successful in a

    programming course for beginners. When I first

    started programming, I struggled a lot.

    And because of that, I can tell you it's not

    something that came easy to me. Now that I'm a more

    seasoned programmer, let me tell you about what

    you should do to succeed. To start, read the

    textbook. Yeah, I know it might not be fun, but

    you have to read that textbook more than once.

    Read it two times once before your class and once

    more after. Before you go to class, not only should

    you read the textbook, but you need to take notes

    on the important concepts that stick out to you,

    whether that be an actual concept, a function or

    command or a definition of a term. It helps to

    actually type or write things out because it tends

    to stick with you more than if you were to just

    read the textbook. After you write those notes,

    take it to class and add what is being taught in

    class to your notes. After class, review your notes

    and open the textbook to read again. When you do this, things start

    to come together now that you've heard and seen

    everything at least three times. Once you start

    getting more interactive with the content, you

    begin to learn more. In addition to reading a

    textbook and taking notes, find practice problems. If

    your textbook doesn't offer anything, go on to

    Reddit.com and find practice problems on a subreddit

    called r/programming help. There are no spaces.

    Here they don't offer you complete practice

    problems, but there are people who post about

    needing help with their code. You can get practice

    by attempting to solve their code, by doing it

    yourself and then checking if you've done it right,

    by reading the solutions that are offered in the

    comments. Similarly, you can go on to stack overflow

    and do the same thing. Just browse

    through the post and click on a problem that

    interests you and relate to the programming that

    you are learning. Practice is everything. Using

    these websites will give you the opportunity to

    read and practice solving other people's codes, as

    well as learn from their mistakes and avoid doing

    what they did yourself. Finally, the last advice

    that I have to give you is to use YouTube. It's an

    amazing source for students. You get people all

    around the world teaching you how to program. If

    one person's teaching style doesn't match yours,

    then you can easily find another. On YouTube, you

    can pause and replay things at any time. This can

    give you a chance to catch up on your notetaking

    and have some time to completely understand the

    concepts being taught. Just search up the concepts

    you're having trouble with and then browse through

    the videos to find the one that will help you the

    most. The video that will work for each person is

    different because everyone has different problems

    and a different way of understanding things.

    Because of that, I won't go into too much detail

    about who to watch and what to watch. And it looks

    like time is up so and my advice giving here.

    Don't be discouraged if you don't succeed in

    coding right off the bat, programming is difficult.

    You might run into a lot of problems as you go

    through your programming course. But keep in mind

    that there are a lot of ways you can mitigate

    those hardships. Remember, read your textbook and

    take notes. Use online resources like Reddit,

    StackOverflow and YouTube and most importantly,

    practice, practice, practice. Following these

    tests will help you succeed in your programming

    course, just as it did for me. I wish you the best

    of luck and I'll see you next time. Bye.

    Disclaimer, all of the sound effects and

    background music are not mine. All sound effects

    are from freesound.org and the background music is

    from pixabay.com, who's part of these websites for

    the Rights and Licencing. Thank you.

Download the transcript to the podcast, "Programming for Beginners".

Listen to or download the podcast, "Things to Know at the Start of the Semester"

• Read the transcript to the podcast, "Things to Know at the Start of the Semester"

  • Welcome to my podcast in which I'm going to talk

    about what I wish I had known at the beginning of

    this semester.

    The beginning of a semester can be an uneasy time

    There are students trying to crash and add courses

    in order to fill out their schedule and graduate

    on time. Students trying to figure out if the classes they are in,

    are the right fit for them and much more

    anxiety than necessary for college age kids. I

    remember the beginning of this semester. It was no

    different for me. I was not worried about having to

    crash or add any courses, but I was nervous that

    certain courses I enrolled in would prove to be

    too difficult for me. With this being my last

    semester, that possibility frightened me to my

    core because it would mean I didn't graduate on

    time. One of the courses I was especially nervous

    about was Business-one-120G. I had ended up enrolling

    in this course because I needed another accounting

    elective. Due to the pandemic, the options are

    limited. Because of the limited options, I seemingly

    chose at random and decided on Bus-one-120G. I was

    not even sure what the class was at the time. All

    I was concerned with was that it would satisfy the

    elective requirement I needed. The first day of

    class, I finally learned with the class I had

    enrolled in really was programming and systems

    development and AIS. I quickly learned that this was

    essentially an introductory course to programming which I

    knew nothing about and never thought I would

    know anything about. I found myself filled with

    nerves that the course would be too difficult for

    me since it was such a foreign concept. Having now

    almost completed the semester, there are a few

    things I wish I could have told to my past self in

    order to help prepare me for what's to come. First

    off, I would have tried to explain what the class was as

    opposed to going into it, not knowing anything.

    I would have also tried to express how important it is

    to, "eat your vegetables". Lastly, I would

    have liked to tell myself about the effectiveness

    of the trial and error method when writing a

    program. 

    It is usually not a good idea to get involved with

    something before knowing exactly what it is you're

    getting involved with. The same rule applies to

    choosing what courses to take. At the time of

    choosing courses, I was blinded by the light at

    graduation and did not bother to learn what the

    courses were, which I was choosing. Because of

    this, the first couple of class meetings were very

    intimidating. I wish I could have told myself that,

    yes, the courses will teach you how to write

    programs, but it will do so at a manageable pace.

    What I would have also said was that this course is

    specifically for business students, and it is

    likely that not many others in the class have

    prior programming knowledge either. I remember

    thinking what a great mistake I had made picking

    this course and how I felt I did not belong in the

    class. I believe that knowing what the course was

    going to be, knowing I was not the only one

    without prior knowledge and understanding that the

    course was designed for students like me would have

    not only helped me prepare for this course, but would have

    also helped ease my nerves in those first few

    weeks. Another piece of advice I would have liked

    to tell myself at the beginning of the semester is

    the importance of eating your vegetables.

    Professor Huerta does not make practice

    programs mandatory. Instead, she encourages students to

    complete them for their own sake as opposed to for

    the sake of grade. Huerta uses the analogy of

    eating your vegetables to explain this importance.

    People don't usually like to eat their vegetables,

    but is very important to do so to ensure that

    you're getting the nutrients needed. Doing the

    practice problems is very similar to that.

    Students don't often want to do extra work if it

    is not required for grade, but doing so here is

    very important to fully understand the material

    and pass the course. I believe that had I actually

    understood this lesson, I would have completed

    more and more of the practice problems and would

    have had a much better understanding in the course

    and a better grade than I do now. The last thing

    that I wish I could have told myself at the

    beginning of the semester is how effective the

    trial and error method is to writing and solving

    programs. During the first few weeks of programming,

    I felt like a fish on a bicycle, completely unsure

    about so many aspects of what I was trying to do.

    One of the things I discovered later in the

    semester that helped me a lot with writing

    programs was how helpful trial and error was in

    getting a program to do what I wanted to do. This

    involves making small changes to programs and then

    attempting to run them and doing so over and over

    again until the desired output was given. Once I

    learned the trial and error method, I began to

    succeed at a much higher rate in writing programs

    and I would advise any new programmers to use this

    method.

    Had I known all of these things at the beginning

    of the semester, I believe that I would have been

    a much more successful student in this class than I

    actually have been.

    Thank you for listening to my podcast. Don't

    forget to like and subscribe down below.

    Good bye.

Download the transcript to the podcast, "Things to Know at the Start of the Semester".

Students of Lecturer Laura Guardino produced podcasts examining the significance and influence of sources in the study of history. Here is one of the student podcasts:

Listen to or download the podcast, "Examining Sources in HIstory"  

• Read the transcript to the podcast, "Examining Sources in History"

  • For this podcast, we will be discussing

    Nathaniel Bacons Declaration of the People, a

    document issued in response to Governor Berkeley in

    the midst of Bacon's rebellion. It is important to

    understand the purpose of this document. Nathaniel

    Bacon's Declaration of the People was a list of

    complaints issued by Nathaniel Bacon on July 30th,

    1676, in which he accused Virginia's colonial

    governor, Sir William Berkeley, his cousin, of

    being corrupt, playing favorites and protecting

    the Indians for his own self-interest. Now,

    what Bacon was trying to get across here is that,

    Here are our list of reasons for rebelling

    against you. He specifically mentions imposing

    unfair taxation, having neglected to promote trade,

    putting unqualified people in positions of

    government, and having failed to protect the

    colony from Indian attacks. The message that Bacon

    gives in his declaration is explicit because he

    directly expressed his reasons for rebelling

    against Berkeley in the colonial government. For

    example, the first reason Bacon gives for rebelling is

    that, he says, for having a conspicuous pretends

    of public works raised great, unjust taxes upon

    the commodity for the advancement of

    private favorites. Basically, what Bacon is

    saying here is that Berkeley raised taxes for the

    colonies for his own self benefits at the expense

    of the people in the colony. Now, to conclude,

    this uprising was one of the earliest major

    popular rebellions against British colonial rule

    in the Americas.

Download the transcript to the podcast, Examining Sources in History.

The 91吃瓜 2022 Adobe XD Challenge for students was named Turtle Hurtle. For this creative contest, students were challenged to create a climate game or app to educate and inform about disaster risk reduction and what to do in the event of a natural disaster. Students could choose from one of many climate disasters. The game or app teaches about climate change through engaging, interactive, and science-based gaming experiences!

This 91吃瓜 Adobe student activity was produced by Tina Korani, Assistant Professor of Media Design, Co-founder of Immersive Storytelling Lab in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at San Jose State University.

View presentations of the outstanding student projects on YouTube using the links below.

In Spring 2025, 37 91吃瓜 graduate students participated in 鈥淓xpress Your Success: Grad Showcase with Adobe Express,鈥� an Adobe-funded digital storytelling initiative. This initiative, designed just for graduate students, provided hands-on training in Adobe Express to help them create polished, professional web pages that highlighted their accomplishments and told their story with clarity and impact. 

Eight projects were selected to receive Top Showcase Awards based on excellence in overall design, digital storytelling, visuals, and/or use of Adobe Express features. These project links, along with student testimonials, are shown here.