Final Post!

I think our project and group two's project are the most relevant for the English department's web site. I don't mean to pick on group one: what they did was interesting and I liked the multi-media aspects, but I felt like it was just information. It didn't have a real direction. It was interesting information and I enjoyed reading through (particularly the timeline), but I guess I just don't see the strength of connection that I did with the other two projects. Or, perhaps I should just say that I felt ours was more along the same lines as Group Two. I think we were definitely aimed at the same audience: English students seeking information about their department. Multimedia aspects are similar: links to information. There wasn't anything over-the-top. I think all the groups focused more on function than on flash. 

As far as other groups' input to our project, the consensus seemed to be that the slides were crowded. I'm not great with power point, so that could be true, but I tend to disagree. Maybe a couple of them could have been split up, but I would be less intimidated with more information on less slides than less information on more slides. That could just be me, though. 

April 25

This project isn’t really exceeding my expectations. I feel like we’re just suffering through it. The English Collective has been great in terms of helping us know what they would like to see. I’ve been really pleased with that. But the project itself isn’t something that gets me excited in any way and I don’t think any of the group members are super-geeked about it. My understanding of audience hasn’t changed too much through the course. Audiences vary and I adjust.  I feel, at this point, that it’s still too haphazard to even answer the last question. I don’t feel like anything has been answered by this project. It just . . . is. I don’t mean to be super negative and I don’t want to sound like I’m bashing my group’s idea – please don’t take it that way. I just feel like this is sort of becoming another school project: just a matter of survival. 

April 11

I don’t know that our project allows much for voice to emerge. The English Collective wants their slideshow to be “classy” and pretty streamlined. That means there’s a professional voice that must emerge and my voice isn’t necessarily professional. I don’t mind changing my voice for the project: I don’t feel so dedicated to my personality bursting through this project that I can’t handle it. All of us are basically coming together to create a professional voice for the club. 

April 4

I don’t really play many multi-media games. I think the closest I come to this is Bonzai or Scene It. In both of these, the game play itself happens on a physical board: you move your pieces and roll the dice, etc. The interactive element comes with the DVDs included in the game. In Bonzai, parts of Japanese game shows are shown and the players have to take bets on the outcome. In Scene It, there are different sorts of games involving movies. As far as computer games, though, I’m really not well-versed. And in the previous two, there aren’t really options offered. The games are segmented and guide the player. 

March 14

Communication is . . . sparse. We send out emails trying to get everyone together for a chat and we get one, maybe two responses. It’s just not working out for some reason. I think it’s hard for everyone when we don’t know each other, even a face to go with a name. There’s no accountability with no face to go with it. I’ve been sending out friendly emails because, really, nothing’s going to happen by getting bitchy. And a couple group members are pretty awesome about it, but there are a couple more that I’m not feeling much from. This, of course, is coming from someone who’s not always great about communication either, of course. I don’t want to pretend like I’m this perfect rally queen who is gathering everyone together. Not at all. My big problem is that I count on Oncourse to email me my messages which, of course, is not the case (unless someone clicks the “Send to Email” box, which doesn’t always happen). One group member did, however, send out an email asking everyone to start checking that box so we can be kept up to date mobile-ly. 

March 1-7

Well, first for the positive: I’m very glad there is a wide array of talents/interests in my group! Greg, I believe, will be our technological savior. It looks as if the other group members, like me, are _good_ at the basics of technology, but not necessarily adept or well-versed in any of it. This isn’t a bad thing, of course: we all seem to be learners and will be able to catch on once we sort out what’s required of us. But it will be very nice to have someone on the team who has solid experience in these things. I’m also glad that we all seem comfortable with meeting online. I’m a little scared of new people and unfamiliar situations, so this is sort of a security blanket for me. It’s likely that at least one in-person meeting will be necessary, but hopefully by that point, we will be relatively familiar with one another through electronic communication. It looks as if two of us specifically are interested in the more creative aspect of writing and we have two interested in editing as well. My main concern with that is that I feel as if I have very little to contribute here. I’m a great creative writer, but with another creative writer, I’m afraid I’ll either be a total jerk and demand my way or the highway or I will cave to other ideas without voicing my own. The latter is more likely than the former, but you never known. Creative Demons take control sometimes. Other than my writing abilities, I don’t know what I have to give to the group. Fortunately, it looks like we have a diverse enough crowd that we should have everything covered. I hope, I hope, I hope! I’m a little concerned about contacting one another. One of the group hasn’t yet posted to the Wiki and another openly admitted that he is hard to get a hold of, and a procrastinator. I don’t mean anything negative against these folks: I’ve missed assignments in this class and I don’t always answer my phone. I guess it comes down to the fact that it’s a lot easier to be concerned about other people’s priorities than my own. I trust myself to get it done – eventually. I just don’t necessarily have the same faith in others.

February 22-28

I actually was very pleased with the feedback I received. This isn’t to say I didn’t expect my peers to be able to critique me or anything like that. I just worried they would be too nice to feel comfortable actually editing. And, yes, their comments were very kind and very diplomatic, but they were also helpful. They pointed out some grammatical things that I had missed (to my horror), along with stylistic suggestions. They pointed out what they liked as well as what they didn’t. Overall, it just gave me a really pleasant sense of community. It probably would have been better had I posted earlier in the week, but even at the point I did post, I got plenty of good response. I loved reading my peers’ work. I loved how there was very little overlap of experience in what I read. People made their own way in Second Life, just as they do in First Life. It’s all just really interesting. I don’t know that reading my peers’ work did too much to help with my revision. It marked a couple red flags, I suppose, to go back and check on, but that’s about the extent of it.

February 15-21

I have a couple blogs I write for and . . . that’s about the extent of my multimedia writing. I’ve delved into the world of Facebook and Twitter, but I don’t do a whole lot of writing there. Facebook because it’s just status updates, Twitter because it’s only 140 characters. The latter has actually helped my writing both in spite of and due to the brevity of the posts. I really hate 21^st century abbreviations (u r, lol, etc.), so keeping my Twitter posts within the 140 character limit without these devices is a true exercise in concision. It’s taught me a lot in terms of paring down. I’ve gotten a kick out of another “tweep” (singular “twerson”?) who writes stories in 140 characters or less. His or her handle is: http://twitter.com/veryshortstory. This person has the Twitter thing down.

But I digress. I have some experience with video and digital photography, more the latter than the former. I’ve done very, very, very little video editing (though some) and I’m slightly more experienced with photo editing. I can crop, enhance, “artistify” . . . that’s about it.

I don’t think any of this will significantly help writing for other media. It’s experience, of course, but I think the main thing is just being open to figuring out how to communicate in each particular realm. In Facebook, it’s through pokes and status updates and photos. Twitter is short and sweet. Blogs are whatever you want them to be. It’s just a matter of flexibility. My particular generation has this in leaps and bounds, so that’s really going for all of us. We’ve been at the forefront of all the new developments and so we find ourselves experts without even realizing it. It’s just a matter of having the confidence and patience to go forward with it.

February 8-14

In your reading, Garrand quotes David Riordan as saying, "Infinite choice equals a database. Just because you can make a choice doesn’t mean it’s an interesting one." Think about this quote and its implications for multimedia and writing. What are the implications for you as a writer? Explain.

I had a similar case recently in the art world. I’m designing a pop-up book for a company and I was showing my husband different choices I was going to give them. One was a complex, burst-from-the-middle-in-glory design while the others were a little more standard. He chose one of the more standard ones as his favorite. Of course, having spent forever on the Complex Monstrosity, I pointed it out to him specifically. He (being ever diplomatic) said, “Yeah, that’s really cool, but just because something’s harder doesn’t make it the best design choice”. Jerkface, always being right . . . J Anyway, he had a really good point and, as a matter of fact, the folks I presented it to agreed. Complexity/”pizzazz” are awesome if used right, but sometimes they’re just overdone. And that’s the case with writing as well. I need to know when to bring out the big guns and when to let subtlety speak for itself. I’ve found when I’m really trying to make a point (and this could just be a matter of my personal style), I really pare down my writing. I make it choppy and simple and I find that brings the reader into the more raw emotion of it. Of course, with multimedia writing, I may not be going for anything emotional at all, but I think the base point still remains: make sure the pizzazz has a purpose.

February 1-7

I kinda hate Second Life.

And here’s why: I can’t get my stinkin’ avatar to look right. And it’s not like a little tweak here or there. Like old age, it’s hair bursting from places it shouldn’t. It’s a hat I can’t remove. My skin is stagnant. I have no idea what’s going on. I’m fairly certain I’m going to have to have my husband help me and I really don’t want to do that. He’s an engineer and stupidly smart and I hate giving him the satisfaction of assisting me. J Nah, he should be able to help out pretty well. I’m sure we’ll get this figured out. I’m pretty astounded by the vastness of Second Life. It’s just . . . huge. And I get the sense I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. This week, a couple avatars tried to talk to me, but I couldn’t figure out how to talk back yet, so they wandered off, a little miffed, I think. Once I get the hang of it, I’ll apologize.

January 25-31

Anytime I see the word “writing” in a class, I’m immediately compelled to take it. From that point, it automatically gets eliminated from candidacy if “writing” is preceded or followed by “technical”. Anything remotely creative: I’m there. Hence my taking this class. I hope I really polish my voice on the internet. I have a strong personality to bring to the table (a blessing and a curse), but I also have trouble focusing and coming up with topics. The focusing issue is just one I’m going to have to suck it up and deal with, but I’m hoping there might be some techniques of idea-generation that I haven’t stumbled across yet. Basically, I come up with ONE GREAT IDEA and think it’s the best ever and it turns out it’s usually good enough for maybe one blog post. Two if I’m lucky. Here’s hoping this class changes that. J