Hi ds106ers!
So, is it just me, or are you guys exhausted too? Thank goodness we’re halfway done with Boot Camp! Here are all of the things I’ve done this week:
Reflection on Media
This week, we had a decent number of videos to watch and reflect upon. Here are some of my “nuggets” about the various medium from this week:
- When I was watching the video entitled “Where Good Ideas Come From” by Steven Johnson, I was intrigued by Johnson’s idea that good ideas are made by several hunches, not just one. It’s interesting because nowadays I feel like people are becoming more and more egotistical, and everybody wants their solo 15 minutes of fame. Because of this, we have lost that wholesome sense of community. Hopefully, others will watch this video and realize that “Hey, maybe I should collaborate with others and be successful as a team rather than being a party pooper.”
- Let me just start by saying that I love TED talks. Last summer, I tried to watch at least one a day, but surprisingly, I haven’t seen this one by Kelli Anderson called “Disruptive Wonder for a Change” before so I’m glad it was assigned for us to watch. I really enjoyed how she turned something as simple as paper into a record player. It just reminded me of a course I took back when I was a sophomore called ENGL295 Intro to Literary Studies. On the first day, my professor asked us to balance 12 nails on one nail. Most of us (including myself) tried to stack all the nails on top of each other and even though we wouldn’t make it past five tops, we kept using the same method, hoping for a different result (definition of insanity, right?) Eventually, one group tried something new and different, and ended up completing the task. Here’s what they did:
In the end, we realized that the solution to a problem isn’t always the most obvious one and that we shouldn’t limit ourselves to one single conventional method. I guess that’s what Kelli was trying to tell us too through her super cool paper record player. - In the “Rules for Students and Teachers” by John Cage, the one thing that stood out for me wasn’t a rule by a helpful hint; “SAVE EVERYTHING.” This hint is something I wish I could have embedded into my head last year. For my classes, there were many papers I wish I didn’t throw away or misplace. This is most applicable to my creative writing course because there were many writing assignments/prompts I wanted to use for a story idea but couldn’t use because I misplaced them. Now, I keep all of my scraps of papers and random scribbles in one huge folder so if I need to remember a certain prose phrase or line, I will always be able to find it.
Daily Create
One of the first things I did this week was create my first ever Daily Create. I thought this was a really cool concept and really similar to something I already do called Write One Leaf, which is probably the English major version of Daily Create.
Anyways, despite being an English major and taking loads of creative writing courses, I’m actually not that creative! It took me a long time to think of my fictional story behind the bracelet (which is actually my boyfriend’s). I hope my daily create made me seem outdoorsy because in reality, I have never been camping in my life!
Social Media Accounts
Below are the links to all of the accounts I will be using for this course. I’ve actually already had a Youtube and Flickr account prior to this course, but I’m looking forward to learning how to use the other mediums, such as Soundcloud.
First Tweet
Speaking of social media mediums, I had my first tweet for ds106 this week. If I had known I was going to blog about it, I would have done some cute, quirky introductory tweet. But no. My first tweet was this:
@helloemilyyy @cogdog I had the same problem too! I think it was because I typed in “va” instead of “Virginia” for state. #ds106
— Sarah Park (@sarahhpark2) January 16, 2013
Yep, instead of getting my feet wet, I ended up diving in head first. I hope my tweet helped you out, Emily!
For some reason, I really don’t like writing about myself. I feel like I end up blabbering on about random facts, and I like to think of myself as a woman of few words. So, I decided to keep my page short and sweet (and added in some pictures from a photo shoot I did my freshmen year).
Reflection on First Week
Although I have had a lot to do and learn this week for ds106, I feel like this week was pretty manageable. I think it was because I started things earlier during the week, such as setting up my domain, so I could comfortably familiarize myself with WordPress for a few days before turning in my weekly summary post. I guess time management is a key factor in being successful in this course.
Also, this week has made me excited for a lot of things we will be doing for the rest of this semester. One of the things I’m excited for is making more Daily Creates. The one I made on 01/15 was the first video I’ve posted of myself on Youtube, and although I hate being filmed, I thought it was kind of fun (or at least more fun than writing tedious papers or reading British literature from the 1800′s). Another thing I’m excited about is creating a digital identity for myself. I learned about digital identities last year in my Communications course called Visual Rhetoric, but I never really thought too much about it until this week. Hopefully, this course will help me discover and embody my own digital identity.
So that’s all for now. Comment below and let me know what you guys think of ds106 so far. See you guys next week!
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