If I had listened to my friends, I would not have survived week one of ds106 boot camp, in fact I would not be in the class at all. After all  who really wants to take 17 credits their final semester when they only need three classes to graduate? Apparently I do, and when it came down to it, I chose ds106 over puppet making since I figured it would be the last chance that I would get to take a class that I had heard so many good things about.

The class has benefitted me so far. While I was setting up this blog, I was also setting up the blog for my Senior Project entitled Sex, Gender, and Sexualities of the South. The tutorials I was given for boot camp this week to set up this blog came in handy when I had to work on that blog, and while the work between that project and this class coupled with my other classes may seem like a lot, it really has not been that bad.

I feel like I was a little more prepared for the class than some of my classmates. I have been using Twitter since 2008 and have had to use it for classes in the past. I actually got rather excited about the Twitter usage and sent out my first tweet about #ds106 nearly a week before boot camp actually started.

Just got my first email about #ds106 ! So excited for the class!

— Nancy B. (@bellekid) January 7, 2013

I also already came in with a domain name which I was able to transfer to UMW Domains as well as a Google account which I was able to link to YouTube and Flickr. My SoundCloud and Gravatar accounts were the only ones I had to set up this week and neither one took much time. I also set up my about page on which I included links to all of my accounts related to ds106.

Despite being somewhat prepared, I still had a bit to learn. My parents gave me a new hyper-zoom camera for Christmas and until this week, I had not used it to take photos of anything but my ducks. I did every daily create this week, in part because I was trying to figure out how the camera worked. All of my Daily Creates for this week can be found in this blog post. We were only required to do Tuesday’s Daily Create which was to “Find nearest over-looked everyday object. Fabricate a story about it being a key part of your childhood.” and to upload it to YouTube. After opening up iMovie for the first time in the nearly five years that I have had my MacBook, I managed to successfully make my first YouTube video.

I enjoyed seeing my classmates YouTube videos as well and was surprised by the creativity of some of them. I would have never thought to do stop motion animation for the DailyCreate like one of my classmates did.

During the ds106 live show this week, I mentioned that I thought that we should have a subreddit for our class and long story short, I am now co-modding the ds106 subreddit with Daniel, a former ds106 student. I am not totally sure what it will become but I am hoping it will evolve into a space for ds106ers throughout the world to connect to share ideas, get help on projects, offer advice, and critique each other’s work.

I enjoyed watching the YouTube videos that we were assigned for class. I got a lot out of them and they really made me think. Robert Hughes struggled to define art in his video, finding it to be almost too abstract to define. What one may see as art, others may see as obscene or as crap. This sentiment resonated with me. My favorite artist is Keith Haring. While I see his works as art, many people see his paintings as phallic squiggles and simply as graffiti.

When Steven Johnson talked about how the internet has lead to a historical increase in connectivity and being able to more easilly connect with others to share ideas and colaborate I could not help but think about my ideas for the ds106 subreddit. I see the subreddit being used to connect with others involved in ds106 in order to better our work and to share ideas as ds106 evolves and changes. I see it as being a way to connect with a wider audience without being limited to 140 characters in a single message as we are on Twitter.

I also found Kelli Anderson’s notion that visuals speak volumes, in things like type, shape and design to be extremely relevant while setting up my DS106 blog and while evaluating other’s work for the class. I have a habit of judging people and things based upon typefaces. If a product or a person uses Comic Sans for example, I will be quick to discredit them, yet if they use something more modern like Cambria I will think of them as being more up to date.

I agree with Cage’s ”Rules for Students and Teachers” especially with his helpful hints, in which he says to ‘always be around’ and to ‘come or go to everything.’ These are the approaches that I am taking with ds106. I check the #ds106 hashtag multiple times a day and have been trying to interact with my classmates. I have set aside chunks of time each week to make sure I can attend the ds106 show on Tuesdays, making sure I leave my practicum by 4pm and freeing up my Thursday nights so that I can drop into office hours.

I am also looking at the subreddit that I am working on as an experiment like rule 4 states. Although I have an idea of what I want it to become, I will be happy with whatever it looks like at the end of the semester and even after I graduate in May.

All in all, I feel as if I had an easier time this week than I thought that I would when it came to doing the work for this class and I really enjoy being in ds106.