This is a test post to check my feed into DS106. In a way, it's kind of like sending a message to the future...

Image Crop of Panoramic

DS106 Surreal Panorama VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments1330 

I have been fascinated with surrealism art since I first learned about it when I was in highschool (1998). I was captivated by the works of Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali among several other incredible surrealists. What is interesting about surreal art, is that it often times combines photorealistic qualities to give a sense of realism yet something isn’t quite right with the juxtaposition of the elements in the scene. The viewer gets an odd sense of an alternate reality or dream like state. The inspirational works of surrealism provides a creative lens to the tangible world, and the world of visual arts.

Rough Concept Sketch

Although technically day three of this class I debated for two days whether or not to drop this class.  It is not because I don’t want to engage in a free thinking class but rather I am terrified of learning so much new technology in such a small amount of time.   Coming from a person who… More Day One: Try not to bleed out or faint.

For this assignment from DS 106, it asked us to make a GIF from a movie of our choosing. With my interested in games I decided what better than a GIF from Wreck-It Ralph. I think this will be a great start in my focal work in Games and Diversity!    

For this assignment from DS 106, it asked us to make a GIF from a movie of our choosing. With my interested in games I decided what better than a GIF from Wreck-It Ralph. I think this will be a great start in my focal work in Games and Diversity!    

Dear Mom,   I want to express how much you mean to me because I am not always able to. You and dad came here to America with hopes to make a better life for not only yourselves but also for your children. I want to express how proud I am to be your son. I understand that growing up you wanted to give me everything, through all the struggles you and dad have been through coming to America was one of the hardest things either of you had to do. To leave your family behind and to come to a country

Dear Mom,   I want to express how much you mean to me because I am not always able to. You and dad came here to America with hopes to make a better life for not only yourselves but also for your children. I want to express how proud I am to be your son. I understand that growing up you wanted to give me everything, through all the struggles you and dad have been through coming to America was one of the hardest things either of you had to do. To leave your family behind and to come to a country

For this assignment from DS 106, it asked us to make a GIF from a movie of our choosing. With my interested in games I decided what better than a GIF from Wreck-It Ralph. I think this will be a great start in my focal work in Games and Diversity!

FALLING OUT OF LITERACY:A 21st Century ParadoxRemember when being literate was as simple as reading and writing? When you got "hooked on phonics" and demonstrating understanding only required a pen and paper? Or, better yet, remember when once you were...

Dear Mom, I want to express how much you mean to me because I am not always able to. You and dad came here to America with hopes to make a better life for not only yourselves but also for your children. I want to express how proud I am to be your son. I understand that growing up you wanted to give me everything, through all the struggles you and dad have been through coming to America was one of the hardest things either of you had to do. To leave your family behind and to come to a country you

Good Morning,Today my sweet message goes out to my mom living in Madrid, Spain.  She is the strongest, most confident women I've ever met and has given me the strength to be the person I am today.  Thanks mom!  There are a million more t...

This blog is the starting shot of an 8 week sprint through the world of digital storytelling. Success, as stated by the course syllabus, will come through a careful understanding of four dispositions: course affinity with DS106, course location, social...

Warning of Change

#visualassignments #visualassignments1549 #ds106 #cudenver15

Everyone experiences change throughout their lifetime - new manager, birth of a child, loss of a pet, etc. I created this “warning” poster to illustrate some of the negative feelings and emotions we encounter during the initial phase of change. It’s important no to feel ashamed or embarrassed when we feel this way. These are all natural emotions to experience; however, we should work on finding constructive ways to channel these emotions, especially in the workplace, so we do not disrupt or damage the personal or professional relationships.

Warning of Change Everyone experiences change throughout their lifetime – new manager, birth of a child, loss of a pet, etc. I created this “warning” poster to illustrate some of the negative feelings and emotions we encounter during the initial phase of change. It’s important no to feel ashamed or embarrassed when we feel this… More

Sir Oliver (Ollie) Dise is approximately 9 months old.  He is just over 2 feet tall, slim build, with blonde hair, hazel eyes and has two bottom front teeth. This  young man is wanted for being the best baby ever.  The list of his crimes include: sleeping through the night at eight weeks old, always […]

I am a lot of things. I’m a sister, a daughter, a grad student, a Social Media Strategist, yada yada ya– the list goes on. But, most importantly, I like to think of myself as a photographer and a traveler. Both bring me great joy and pleasure and I couldn’t imagine my life without my camera and some kind of… Read more →

The post Rear-View Montage: Travels of my Past appeared first on Emily S. May.

My life is full of adventure, there is never a dull moment, and I love every minute of it!  Here is my life in a nutshell...(Word cloud created using Wordle for DS106 Visual Assignment) 

#DS106  #VisualAssignments  #VisualAssignments1701    When I saw this assignment in the DS106 bank, I immediately knew what photo I wanted to use. The challenge was to color change a photo, creating a new or different perspective on the environment. I lived in this building, the old Hot Springs High School, during the year I spent in Arkansas. President Bill Clinton attended high school here and graduated in the class of 1964. My studio loft was a largely unchanged classroom with massive windows

The circle has meaning across the many cultures of the world. For some, the circle represents wholeness, centering, and unity. Others see the circle as a symbol of revolution, nuturing, and cycles. Overall, the circle  has a universal connotation of infinity and inclusion. In celebration of these themes, I chose to use the circle in my first ever The Daily Create through DS106. If you are unfamiliar with DS106, have a look at the open course on digital storytelling (more like a movement!) and

The circle has meaning across the many cultures of the world. For some, the circle represents wholeness, centering, and unity. Others see the circle as a symbol of revolution, nuturing, and cycles. Overall, the circle  has a universal connotation of infinity and inclusion. In celebration of these themes, I chose to use the circle in my first ever The Daily Create through DS106. If you are unfamiliar with DS106, have a look at the open course on digital storytelling (more like a movement!) and

Reviewing the term “literacy” was an interesting study because I only knew it, as Colin Lankshear expressed, as a word that “came to apply to an ever increasing variety of practices” (2011, p. 12). I had no concept of the term’s history and evolution into becoming such a commonly used word to define a person’s proficiency or mastery of a practice. Nevertheless, Lankshear points out the criteria for literacy is deeper than proficiency, or mastery, or experience, et cetera-et cetera.

Early on, literacy was a term used to identify whether a person could read or write, and read or write well enough to perform proficiently enough in their daily work. While minoring in Economics as an undergrad, I learned that one of the criteria of a growing or high-performing nation was its literacy (the strongest performing countries having high rates among women). Lankshear notes that literacy is associated with “a country’s ‘readiness’ for ‘economic take-off’”(2011, p. 7). If you peruse through the CIA World Factbook (which I commonly used to analyze economic statistics and indicators), you can view country’s literacy rates – which the Worldbook defines as appropriate for people ages 15 and above who can read and write.

What was eye-opening to me, was the deeper notion of literacy explained in the “three dimensional model.” Beyond the operational dimension (the read/write proficiency of literacy), the meaning-making aspects of the cultrual dimension, and the value-defining elements of the critical dimension were new concepts to me, and made me wonder how these standards would apply to war traumatized countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria. What kind of literacy do these nations have under the three dimensional model? At what rate are people able to, as Lankshear wrote, “speak up, to negotiate and to be able to engage critically with the conditions of their working lives” (2011, p. 19).

Aside from the larger, global view of literacy, I wondered about my own literacties when Lankshear wrote about the multiplicity of literacy and how literacy now means “to ‘be on the inside’ of a form or field of knowledge” (2011, p. 21) and “being able to ‘speak’ its language” (2011, p. 21). In my own experience, as with many people, I’ve had to adjust to new literacties when changing jobs, or changing industries; even getting into new hobbies, such as sports, or music, come with their own literacies. Yet, when Lankshear wrote about digital literacies, I thought about my experience joining Twitter as an assignment in my Social Media and Digital Cultures course in the Spring 2014 semester. More broadly, I’ve adjusted to the many digital literacties since enrolling the University of Colorado Denver Learning Technologies Master’s program. I remember when joining the program I was more concerned about learning the ideas and concepts ` instructional design, or as Lankshear wrote “a critical, action-oriented ‘academic approach,’” (2011, p. 23) rather than learning how to build a e-learning module with Dreamweaver (the “skills based vocational approach” (Lankshear, 2011, p. 23)) as I thought these concepts would be more beneficial long-term because technology changes so rapidly, and I feared a more vocational education may become quickly irrelevant.

Lastly, there are two other concepts I felt were important to understanding digital literacy, or “new literacies.” As a proponent of Connectivism, I enjoy Lankshear’s idea of the ethos of the internet, and that new literacies are “more ‘participatory,’ more ‘collaborative,’ and more ‘distributed’” (2011, p. 29). However, when sharing or collaborating, people should also have what Howard Rheingold called “crap detection” (Lankshear p. 25.). Crap detection, or more eloquently called “critical consumption” is an ability to know what is “worth attending to in terms of quality, relevance, and the like” (Lankshear, 2011 p. 25). This notion of deeming what is relevant is also present in Connectivism: what is correct now, may be incorrect tomorrow because of shifting realities, and learners must comprehend these shifts when analyzing incoming information.

Chapter 1 of Lankshear’s New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning provides cultural context, definition, and critical analysis to the term “new literacies” before we dive further into the subject matter, which is a nice meta cognitive practice of providing literacy. Now I could say I am more "new literacies literate."

Citations
Lankshear, C. (2011). New Literacies: Concepts and Theories. In New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning (3rd ed., p. 7, 12, 19, 21, 23, 25, 29). New York, New York: Open University Press.

CRUISING (TDC Shape Picture) This took a bit of time to figure out how to get the image from Adobe Draw on my ipad to flikr and beyond! At any rate, I don't draw but I thought I would step out of my comfort zone. Fun!

Hey everyone! Hope your summer is of to a great start! After a nice and rejuvenating break, I’m back at it– summer classes officially started yesterday. Before I jump into it, I’d like to mention that after my last post, I received an A in my Social Media and Digital Cultures class. YES! All the hard work did indeed pay… Read more →

The post Week One: The Daily Create 6/8/15 appeared first on Emily S. May.

Adding a post to this category, so that I can use it for DS106.

To start things off, I dove right in and created something for the daily create. The limiting factor of the assignment was to use only one type of shape to create something. I chose circles and whilst exploring the circle concept I came up with this "digitized" circle image. Somewhat inspired by the concept of parkour - I put a graffiti spin on the assignment. Like parkour, graffiti art is another form of creative expression often times most successfully produced in urban sprawl. I call it “DS106 Digital Graffiti.” The Daily Create #dailycreate #DS106

Today’s daily create asked us to create an image using only one shape. I created this image out of circles.  It’s a good representation of my life right now. Colorful organized mess!

Do any of us really know what we’re doing in life?  Life is one big learning adventure that we’re all on together! Especially being a new mother, I definitely don’t know what I’m doing!  I’m always worrying about doing the right thing, and maybe I should be more concerned about just doing the best I […]

This is just a test.

“Sun Day” The Daily Create Assignment – Shape Picture I have never thought of myself as a creative/artistic individual. When I made a comment to one of my instructors that I didn’t have an artistic bone in my body, the instructor told me “if you have a soul, they you have creativity within you” (Thanks… More