For this week's digital story critique I have selected two images from articles on www.elearningindustry.com

Beneath each picture I will list the title of the article along with the abstract:

From elearningindustry.com:

How to Use The 5 "Moments of Need" Model In Corporate eLearning

In this article, I'll share how you can use the 5 “moments of need” to your advantage when designing eLearning courses and training events. Capitalizing on these “moments of need” when designing and developing your eLearning courses will help you to create deliverables that improve knowledge absorption and retention, which is the ultimate goal of any learning experience.

From elearningindustry.com:

Augmented Learning 102: Voice Activated eLearning - Listen Up!

You’ve probably heard that the only silly question is the one that you didn’t ask. Well, technology has now taken that saying one step further. Voice recognition allows us to talk to, rather than through, our mobile devices. One of the best things about our mobile devices... they don’t judge. No question is too silly.

The elearningindustry.com website is an online community of eLearning professionals which includes articles, research, resources, software, collaboration, and other useful tools related to eLearning. Professionals can post articles to the website for publication. Each article comes with a visual (which follows the title and abstract) that helps portray the message of the article. I've chosen two photoshopped images that I will evaluate based on the following dimensions:

- Knowing how to import an image into an image editor 
- Understanding how perspective, shadows and shading etc. work
- Understanding how to create a recognizably meaningful juxtaposition of images


Knowing how to import an image into an image editor 

This is a fairly simple dimension but its important to point at that both images (for the purposes of this critique I will call them the stairs image and desert image) show real people. Placing real people in a photoshopped image helps the viewer create a somewhat personal connection. "If there are real people doing that then it must be possible for me to do it". I think it was important for the author or editor to specifically use live images in order to drive the reader to internalizing the message of the article. Therefore, to use real people, importing images into Photoshop or any other photo editor is a key function. In the case of these two pictures where the people are placed against a different background, it is also important to be able to crop and alter those images to make them look like they belong in the new background.

The editor here does a good job of accomplishing this. At first glance, it appears the images are part of one snapshot.

Understanding how perspective, shadows and shading etc. work
 Perspective, shadows, and shading are important attributes to photoshopping in order to create a believable remix. This is actually how I know that the images were done with a photo editor. In the "stairs" image notice where the shadows are and then look at the man on the middle set of stairs.....no shadow. Likewise, the female in the "desert" picture is also missing a shadow where the others have them. The presence of shadowing on the correct perspective line help the image be believable. I really had to look closely at the "desert" picture to make sure it was edited. I was ultimately able to find small clues (such as the lack of a shadow and the feet of the man on the right) but at first gland it appeared to be a snapshot.

Realistic images are important because it draws the view into the picture. Upon looking at both of these images, I was immediately engaged and found my eyes wanting to explore the image further. Exploring the image further turned into telling a story in my mind.

Understanding how to create a recognizably meaningful juxtaposition of images

Yes, I did have to go to dictionary.com to look up the word "juxtaposition". But now that I know what it means, I can see the relevance and importance of this dimension to photoshopping. This is the component that is not immediately noticeable but is what makes the image appealing to the eye. Notice the balance of the people in each of the images. For the "stairs" image, each man is spaced apart equally creating a balance to the picture. However, the man at the top of the latter is all the way to the right. For most languages, reading takes place from left to right. This translates into visuals as well. By seeing the first two men with bigger stairs come to an obstacle, we understand more of the meaning of the third man and how he overcame the obstacle. We, as viewers, then once again tell our own story of how and why this image came to be.


The pictures are great examples of photoshopping especially within the context of digital storytelling. Picture books help children keep attention by providing some visuals to guide them during the story. These pictures follow the same principles. They are an invitation to read the article and understand the message the author is trying to convey. I feel these images appropriately represent the articles. A few photoshop touch-ups could be made to suspend disbelief completely but they certainly serve their purpose.

How well did I complete the requirements of the weekly assignments? This week was both challenging and exciting. Reading two chapters instead of one took more time than I had hoped. Although the requirements were to respond to only one chapter, it was unclear whether we still had to read both chapters. Nonetheless, both chapters […]

Here is the Daily Create from a few days ago:Hand and Paper Drawing

This week seemed more difficult than previous ones to find the kind of mojo to complete assignments. Even now as I write this, I struggle to find concise thoughts and the words to explain them.

I think the biggest struggle was when the book I’m using as the linchpin to my focal theme, writer’s block, could not be related in my mind to Chapter 5 of Lankshear’s and Knoble’s New Literacies in my reading response this week. One classmate did find a relation, and it was a great one about how artists, musicians, and other creators collaboratively push the boundaries.

I felt as though my ds106 mashup assignment was lacking in creativity this week. It was nearly a re-creation my video assignment. I’m starting to wonder if I should abandon my focal these for the remaining assignments. The concept feels a bit used up at this point. Maybe I should try something else that will inspire me more. After all, I have completed the minimum amount of assignments for the focal theme.

The subject of my critique was also maybe not the best choice either. I selected the Green Day drum remix because of my fascination with John Phillip Sousas encouragement of amateur musicianship. As I was explaining my critique to my girlfriend, she asked “but how is it a story?” Of course she isn’t as familiar with the Digital Storytelling class, but she had a point. This remix did lack a story. I thought I could have probably found a better example of a musical mashup that did provide story.

Even when it came to responding to other classmates’ critiques and reading responses, I struggled to formulate feedback. My responses felt very obvious (“no duh” I like to refer to them as), or off-base. I don’t know – I really slogged through this week. It was a rough one for some reason. Maybe someone could explain why.

A Game of Thrones Trashy Book CoverThe Daily Create Assignment:I find covers to romance novels to be hysterically over-the-top cheesey. Originally, I wanted to try to create a trashy cover to my favorite novel, Fight Club, but the lure of a Cersei and ...

For my next Daily Create assignment, I have to write a haiku poem from the point of view of someone who is going to die. I decided to take a more humorous approach to the challenge. Here it is: Was it all worth it? Did I live my short life well? Man, I sure hope […]

Blogging as a medium and contentAn interesting lens into blogging is to take the reader’s...

This week's chapter in Lankshear & Knobel's New Literacies was about blogs, so I thought I'd take a look at the little blogosphere that my wife and I occupy. In particular, I will critique a blog entry that I created for my wife's painting blog, a blog post about her painting called Day of the Dead.

Emily Lisker is a professional painter and illustrator. Her paintings are brightly colored surreal images, emotional and psychological commentaries on life and relationship. The imagery could be called narratives, stories told with a single image, like photographs from another planet. Lisker's paintings almost always present a theater stage, with characters, props, costumes, backdrops, theater lighting and perspective, a sense of drama, and quite often red stage curtains. Her body of work is clearly the product of remix practices. Certain characters appear and reappear as do certain objects, shapes, and colors. As is the case with many artists, Lisker seems obsessed with certain themes and emotional settings, so her compositions often feel like rearrangements of a basic set of elements. These elements often reference the work of other artists. Lisker exemplifies Lessig's idea that cultural artifacts, and culture itself, are made from the practice of mixing and remixing (Lankshear and Knobel, p. 97).

Lisker's blog is designed to be a gallery of her work. Usually a blog entry consists of the painting title, a photograph of the painting, short commentary by me, and details about the painting, including purchase price. There is a page that summarizes information on all the paintings using thumbnail photos and links to the appropriate blog entry. I had the idea one year that I wanted to document the evolution of one of Lisker's paintings. Knowing Lisker's work habits, I knew this would have to be a multi-year project, and that I would have to catch just the right moments. This project resulted in two additional blog posts; one summarizing the painting's evolution using an animated GIF image (An Emily Painting Comes to Life), and another detailing Lisker's process and how the animated GIF was produced.


I referred to Lankshear & Knobel's appendix to Chapter 4 in New Literacies about remix practices to examine both Lisker's and my own literacy practices.

The animated GIF shows Lisker's literacy practices as a painter. The practices start with Lisker collecting images that appeal to her. These images inform and inspire Lisker's daily practice of sketching and drawing. A sketch may be transferred to a canvas, sometimes interacting with a pre-existing sketch on the same canvas. Lisker then refines the image, enhancing some details and eliminating others, while adding and changing color. Lisker enters a process of refining and finishing, with an eye toward a finished product. This is primarily a projective configuration with proprietary possibilities. The participatory configuration consists of a dialogue Lisker has with herself and her own body of work, with the works of artists which influence her, and with commentary (both live and via email) from the small audience that sees the work as it progresses.

The animated GIF is itself a story of how a painting evolves. My literacy practice began with photographs I took over time. These photographs were imported into Photoshop and prepared for eventual inclusion as frames in an animation. The preparation made use of typical Photoshop literacy practices. Of special note was the distortion I introduced into the first two images so that the spatial relationship of the elements would correspond with the painting's elements. I added a transition between frames that allowed one to briefly see how the images looked overlapped - a mashup practice. I paced the animation so it would proceed in a stately manner, not rushing the viewer.

My first media critique!  Even though digg.com has lost a lot of credibility in the past few years,...

...that is the question!

image taken from a Google image search References: Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (2011). New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning. New York: Open University Press.

A Response to Lankshear & Knobel, New Literacies, Chapter 5

I remember my wife asking me that, 9 years and about 8,200 posts ago.

I was excited about reading Chapter 5 because it explored certain literacy practices with which I am very familiar - blogs, wikis, and Google Docs. It occurred to me that these are the practices that the teachers in my school are also most familiar with. I have created almost a dozen blogs for me and my wife over the years. They serve many different purposes: as notebooks, as publications (of text and imagery), as websites, as stores of information, as advertising and promotion, as grad school portfolio. Interestingly, none of our blogs employs a participatory or collaborative configuration.

Almost a decade ago, during the financial crisis and Great Recession, I discovered the world of economics blogging. Blogging has become the primary way that economists try to have their voices heard. This econoblogosphere ranges from the political left to the political right, from academic economists to political advisers to financiers. There is the salt-water - fresh-water rivalry, Keynes vs. Hayek, macro and micro economics, history and philosophy. It is a remarkably lively community. A prominent blogger is the Princeton professor and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, blogging for the New York Times. He writes that the traditional process of economic discourse through journal publication lost its relevance 25 years ago. It was first replaced by an informal publication process called white papers, and eventually replaced by the much nimbler Internet in the form of blogging.

Does this new, amorphous system work? Yes! In just the past few years we’ve had what I’d consider three classic economic debates — on the effects of monetary expansion at the zero lower bound, on fiscal multipliers and austerity, on the effects of high debt ratios; the emergence of major new themes involving issues like private-sector leverage and the need for safe assets; and more, all strongly informed by data (The Facebooking of Economics, 17 December 2013).

Here are links to two blog posts he wrote on this topic: Open Science And The Econoblogosphere, and The Facebooking of Economics.

Lankshear and Knobel wrote in great detail of a fan blog called Blogging Project Runway. It was fascinating to see how the blog changed so profoundly over time and yet was still recognizable as "a blog." One aspect of the blog and its relationship to the television show disturbed me, and I was surprised that Lankshear and Knobel did not bring it up. I noticed how much the television show was benefiting financially from the blog, and wondered if the blog was benefiting as well from its relationship to the television show. Was the relationship symbiotic, or were the blog owners and writers effectively working for the television show, and for little money at that? When does a participatory configuration unwittingly become hijacked by a proprietary one? Lankshear and Knobel did mention this dynamic earlier in Chapter 3 (p. 81).

There were a few more points that stood out for me in this chapter. I was intrigued by the exploration of the idea of collaboration in the context of wikis. Different literacy practices tend to get lumped under the broad category of collaboration but need to be more clearly explicated (p. 161ff).

I have had the opportunity to participate at length in a forum associated with a computer program called Celestia. The forum is defunct now, but I recognized myself in the description of how a wiki participant can transform from novice consumer to collaborator (p. 162). (I did wonder why Lankshear and Knobel did not address forums as a literacy practice.)

I was struck by the idea of a kind of knowledge that is produced at the level of the community, and the role of "boundary spanners (Halatchliyski et al.)" as mentors and mediators in this process (p. 164ff).

I have never created or participated in a wiki (except as a consumer, like with Wikipedia), but I have seen wikis created by physics teachers and students, and have been curious about it. The opportunity exists in my school, and a few teachers there have created wikis - so maybe now I'll finally explore what they have been doing.

For today's Daily Create, I give you a haiku about death:The final whistleA rolling ball comes to restWho kept score?

I decided to try Dylan Gott's mashup assignment Twittr at ds106. Instead of two websites, though, I chose two Twitter accounts.Did you know that in a few days a satellite will zoom past Pluto and take a jillion photos and measurements? NASA launched ...

The proliferation of collaborative practices is having an important impact in educational and working environments. The chapter focuses in exploring blogs and wikis as participatory and collaborative literacy practices. I found interesting the evolution of blogging practices which are increasing due to the accessibility of easy-to-use publishing tools and hosting services. In terms of encouraging […]

For this week's digital story critique I decided to keep it upbeat.  I have critiqued some fairly serious stories in previous weeks but Lisa's Taylor Swift parody inspired me!  I was also looking at Emily's critique to get some ideas and read...

I thought my life dew and fog, a lantern with which to light the moon, a dragonfly’s dream of...

A few days ago my little daughter drew a bird “to keep me company”. I decided to “take” it on my finger and give it an ink friend to love it. How did I make my Hand and Paper drawing? I drew a little magic girl using ink and markers and took a picture of […]

Machinima videos are a new discovery for me. I found a production very well developed for a young team of producers that is at the same time an excellent example of remixing practices and it is related with my focus theme. Regarding the story, it have a original narrative, is creative and attractive, and also […]

Functional fixedness is a plight of the adult mind. As we age, our tendency to focus on a singular function of an object solidifies thereby rendering us less capable of creative thinking. The candle puzzle is a classic example of the dilemma. The test ...

New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, is divided into 3 parts; Part 1: New Literacies: Concepts and Theory Part 2: New Literacies: Some Everyday Practices Part 3: New Literacies and Social Learning Below is my response to Chapter 6, which falls under Part 2. This week we were […]

For todays critique I listened to a band called Girl Talk. No, Not the 80’s board game… I came up with this idea after telling my brother about this class. My brother said iGirl Talk was a favorite band of his and they did a great job of mixing together music containing different genres. I… More Need motivating remixed music?

Digital technologies have made it much easier these days to connect and stay connected with individuals and/or groups of similar interests and goals. In Chapter 6 of their book, Lankshear and Knobel discuss concepts and applications that help perpetuate the ongoing acquisition of social networks. Many of us have belong to social networking sites either […]

I know nothing about poetry so I apologize in advance. Here is a death poem:

 Sunset

A thrush's flute plays
dancing daisies
I drift on the horizon

 

TDC

The dream of the Dragonflies – A death poem

“Here I’d like for people to write a somewhat serious poem, ideally a haiku or tanka, from the point of view of someone who is going to die and knows it. Haiku in English has been often been taught as a nature poem of three lines alternating as five syllables, seven syllables, and five syllables. Not only is that not really the case (haiku in Japan are often written in one vertical line), but it has done such a disservice to the form of haiku that poets who work in the form are often overlooked. And since everyone thinks they know what haiku are, there are thousands upon thousands of awful poems that simply miss the boat.”
Cameron Mount (@cameronmount)
You have been told. Write your death poem. If you need more guidance Cameron has written a lovely poetry game for death poems to help us learn how to do it well. There is also a why ‘no 5-7-5′ post referred to in the game that will give further guidance.

Blogs and wikis Participatory and collaborative literacy practices Participating/collaborating within blogs, wikis, and various online forums has and continues to evolve. Various sites began as ways of reading content that interested select groups. As technologies changed, the ways that we could participate and collaborate virtually dramatically increased. Blogs became less of a expert/insider only activity […]

Assignment: “Here I’d like for people to write a somewhat serious poem, ideally a haiku or tanka, from the point of view of someone who is going to die and knows it. Haiku in English has been often been taught as a nature poem of three lines alternating as five syllables, seven syllables, and five […]

I haven’t felt much of a connection with this week’s selection of daily creates. I’m glad I waited until today instead of forcing one just to get it done. Today’s DS106 daily create is another writing assignment titled: The dream of the Dragonflies – A death poem. Details: “Write a serious poem, ideally a haiku or tanka, from the point… Read more →

The post Joe’s Poem appeared first on Emily S. May.

Late last year, the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool was demolished due to structural concerns. Long Beach preservationists and conservationists sadly said goodbye to a well known landmark for the community, while a surprising niche of the community quietly shared in their woes. The "Belmont Benches" were utilized by skateboarders in Long Beach long before the many neighborhood skate parks appeared. I didn't truly recognize the value in skateboarder's connections to our built environment until I

In Chapter 5, Colin Lanskear and Michele Knoble examine collaborative online literature, highlighting mainly blogs and wikis. Their dissection of the Blogging Project Runway blog reminded me of some of the blogs I currently follow, and some others I used to follow. These blogs are as formal as economist and columnist Paul Krugman’s blog on The New York Time’s website, or the All Things Avs blog on the Denver Post’s website. More informally would be BloodyElbow, or a blog I have since grown out of, Mile High Hockey. Each range in the way they are written. As Lankshear and Knoble note, a blog is a medium, or a “channel through which people can communicate or extend their expressions” (2011, p. 144) Different writing practices can be done on a blog, like journalism, or writing a diary.

Krugman’s blog, for example, is hosted on The New York Time’s website, so, Krugman, a widely respected economist and Noble Prize winner, only uses it as an extra avenue of expressing his opinion. The All Things Avs blog is perhaps a tad less formal because it’s content has to do with the Colorado Avalanche hockey team, yet because it is hosted on an esteemed newspaper’s website, the beat sports writers use it as a way to provide extra notes on the team which would not normally warrant their own published story.

BloodyElbow, an MMA blog, and Mile High Hockey, a fan-made Colorado Avalanche blog, are more informal. Today they are more formal than they used to be seven or eight years ago when I first started reading them. Nonetheless, they have since become more journalistic, but compared to The New York Times and the Denver Post, these blogs are used more casually. Both blogs have established their own affinity spaces. Whereas people may ready Krugman’s blog or the All Things Avs blogs more for news, blogs like BloodyElbow and Mile High Hockey have established their own fan communities. Lankshear and Knoble point out that blogs can be written and considered “in terms of interactional features and readers’ experiences” (2011, p. 147). For example, on BloodyElbow, readers regularly leave comments expressing their opinions or humorous takes about the blog entry. Sometimes these opinions or jokes are recycled in other entries, and sometimes they become so common in the blog that they are an established opinion or joke of the blog.

Lankshear and Knobles examination of wikis also reminded me of wikis I have used, like Wookiepedia (love the name), A Wiki of Ice and Fire, and Muse Wiki. But the collaboration in these websites reminded me of some of my professional experiences using collaborative literature. They already mention Googledocs at the end of Chapter 5, saying Googledocs “enable all manner of collaborative writing practices” (2011, p. 172). I used Googledocs at an employer to document the statuses of projects and keep co-workers involved in their progress. I also used it once academically to write a couple reports with two other students (here and here).

My current employer is using Salesforce like a wiki, providing all employees access to create and edit articles which can be used to help customers with technical questions about their software. Similarly to wikis, these articles are a “basis for further explanation and extension of knowledge” (2011, p. 164). Through constant changes by other employees, technical documentation becomes adaptable and consistently up-to-date. I can see how the collaborative ethos is being utilized more and more in the professional world.

The War of Art, Pages 118 to 148
The Ethos of the Internet and a Culture of Innovation
Unfortunately, I could not relate the concepts of online collaborative literature with the next few pages of Steve Pressfield’s The War of Art. It was my goal each week to do so, but I simply cannot make this comparison this week. In these pages, Pressfield describes how inspiration comes from outside sources, and do not originate from a person’s Ego. Often times artists, authors, musicians, etc. say that their ideas “just come to me.” Pressfield asserts that any real artist does not selfishly take all the credit for their creations. They have a sense of humility because they know the struggle of creative effort. The best I could do was maybe align this notion with online collaboration, can how collaboration acts as an outside source from the Ego, but it’s too much of a stretch for me.

Instead, I found this short article titled “The Ethos of the Internet and a Culture of Innovation,” by Elizabeth Lupfer. I chose it while I was searching for something that talked about collaboration as being part of the ethos of the internet, and how it could contribute to inspiration, or innovation. This may not relate completely with my focal theme of writer’s block, but Pressfield does mention that his idea of Resistance effects anyone starting “any entrepreneurial venture or enterprise, for profit or otherwise” (2003, p. 5).

In her article, Lupfer first mentions that the internet has fostered collaboration, just as we’ve read about. She then makes this jump to how businesses should nurture an "innovation culture" within their companies, writing “an innovative culture is a combination of the right technology, culture and people, working together seamlessly.” At first, I was confused by her article, and her connection between collaboration and innovation.  It’s very brief – and I think she should of spent more time on this factor – but I think when she writes “innovation culture, of course, is likewise an expression of people, their past, and their current beliefs, ideas, and behaviors,” she is asserting that the collaboration of a employee's knowledge and experiences is what can inspire innovations.

For the record, I think “innovation,” “innovative,” or any other variable of the word has become an overly-use buzzword in the business world, so it can be difficult to understand what exactly is meant by “innovation.” In the article, Lupfer makes reference to companies like Google and Apple, which developed new inventions that have changed the way we live. So, these types of inventions are what I will consider as innovations.

Yet, after reading Lankshear’s and Knoble’s book New Literacies, we could consider these inventions or innovations as remixes. It is interesting to think about how the beliefs, ideas, and behaviors that Lupfer references, and what we call the human elements and social practices in this course, are being utilized together to create new inventions, which spawn new social practices, and new paradigms. Really, these innovations and their effects on people are like collaborative remixes.
Citations
Lankshear, C. (2011). New Literacies: Concepts and Theories. In New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning (3rd ed., p. 144, 147, 162, 172). New York, New York: Open University Press.

Pressfield, S. (2003). The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles (p. 5,). New York, New York: Grand Central Publishing.

Week 5 Critique: Original Version: The Scarecrow This disguised ad sends a lot of messages about the world of fast food and food quality. The ad implies that their food is a lot fresher and healthier. The overall message in the ad provokes emotions about where you can find high quality food that is fast. […]