THE END IS..finally here!

IT’S THE END; how bittersweet. Incredibly awkward, confusing, and inspiring is exactly how I would chose to explain this class. Frustrating at times, yes, without a doubt, however in the same way it was amazing it was also very rewarding. I know it sounds like I’m only praising this class but it’s only because it goes beyond basic concepts. In week three, we were asked to create our own definitions for storytelling; my previous definition went something along the lines of this,

Storytelling exists everywhere. It exists from the time you are born, to learning about the Tooth Fairy, to now when my professor tells stories to get us more involved in stats (which is not an easy thing to do). What did I learn about storytelling? That there is no definition (sorry Merriam Webster), that it is not just for children and it has been happening long before me with no near end.

However, my oh my how my definition has changed over the semester. While I still agree with myself on a lot my definition, I don’t necessarily think it’s so vague as I once did. My definition now goes beyond basic storytelling through oral, or having a theme or a plot to go with it. I learned that storytelling involves using some sort of creativity, something that captures an entire and running wild with. Rather than thinking that storytelling must done through a means for creating something new, I learned that you can story tell through someone else’s idea, by remixing and making it your own. Anyone is still capable of storytelling about anything — the sky is still the limit but now I think that storytelling involves caring about your work; the more care, the more effort, the better the product, whatever you chose it to be. Storytelling can capture any audience, with the right things, i.e., through the right media, using the right words to really portray your idea. Storytelling is the ability to tell an idea through the appropriate manner, and really allowing yourself and your audience to become apart of it. This is what it means — at least for the most part.

Not Quite There…Check back tonight! UP!

Ahh, this has all been such a whirlwind! I wish I hadn’t left the bulk of my media to the last minute but thank god for planning because it made everything so much easier! Before I get deep with my reflection, let me give you the pesky details of my making media, which would be (in chronological order of the story); here, this one, don’t forget this, hereherehere!, moremediafun!!!, and lastly. So onto better things, where I got my story from/ what I want you to see. Well, lets start with all basic Disney Princess’s, aside from Mulan, how many actually could fend for themselves? Cinderella waited for him, Meg got crushed by a pillar for Hercules — but where’s the heroin romance? So I picked Tangled with the hopes of putting her in a position power because it seems as though she was so easily taken advantage of. Therefore, in my story, Rapunzel starts a business using her hair to advantage with Mother Gothel as a partner. Of course she’s still the long lost princess but this time, she choses to explore the world after Flynn asks her; she chooses to go to the kingdom once she realizes who she is. At no point is a decision made for her or without her consent, no one is making her victim like in original. I might watch too many Disney movies but I’m so sick of women having to be rescued, it was time for a change! Rapunzel wasn’t rescued, Flynn had to beg her to leave her because it was her choice to stay. I wish I could have invested more time and media into this assignment just because it was worth it — I really loved. I really love putting Princess’ in powers of position and not making women so weak/ feminine. WOMEN CAN BE VICIOUS TOO. It was awesome to be able to do it and really put my own ideas in here.

It’s a Team Effort!

The ds106 community has been a very forgiving and giving one, to say the least. For starters, it is not an easy task to hold a class in which no one steps foot in a physical class. Therefore, to be able to really connect the way in which we have, without ever meeting each other, shows the true support that comes within our little ds106 community. HOWEVER, as far as individual contribution goes, I hope I’m accurate in saying that I have left my mark. Although I lacked in some things (blog comments, sorry!), other things like ds106 radio show really got me into the mood of the class. While it wasn’t required to listen to everyone’s radio show, I still found myself listening out of curiosity and out of willingness to go that extra mile for my fellow classmates. Also, this is where the giving goes, because I noticed that fellow classmates also listened to my own. This is comforting to know they take time out of their day to listen to something that didn’t receive any credit for doing. How did I know they were listening? WELL, it was through the ever useful twitter. After this class, I don’t see why every class doesn’t use twitter as a means for communication. It was incredibly easy to use, and it made easier to get help not just from Alan but from everyone. Everyone was helpful and responsive, which is way better than snail mail, so whenever I would be stuck on an assignment, help would  be a tweet away! Another part of this class is that while I may have not commented, it did not stop me from visiting various blogs. I was truly impressed by the amount of creativity that everyone put into their assignments, which only made me work harder to raise the bar. Therefore, while group commenting wasn’t my strong suit, it definitely gave me different perspective on how to do certain things or understand certain concepts. All in all, I hope that with my assignments, tutorials, weekly summaries, so on and so forth, I gave a significant amount of contribution to the class with the hopes that I am not so easily forgotten as we go through the future weeks of ds106ers.

Giving, giving, giving!

Summarize how you contributed to the ds106 community- not links or counts, but a qualitative summary of how well you participated in twitter, blog comments, the ds106 show, the group projects, ds106 radio, etc.
As I go into individual contribution, a great deal of that were the specific contributions we were required to make. The creativity and details, however, we left up to us! Therefore, I tried my best to do tutorials that would best help future students, or anyone else that was stuck on the assignment. I enjoyed doing this because I felt like it was a good/ easy way to leave your mark on this class. In the future, I would hope that students looked at my tutorials as an example or as guidance for their own use. Here are my tutorials that I created out love for this class! Our contributions, however, did not stop here. Instead, we were able to keep giving it back to students. The ever wonderful Daily Create’s (that were, unfortunately, much more popular in the beginning of the semester than currently, but still wonderful!) were another way to help Alan out. I submitted two, although only one has been featured thus far, which is ‘If you could be any pastry in the world, which would you be?‘. This was possibly one of the easiest assignments that felt good when you saw people responding to it; yes, I know it sounds controlling but it feels good that people go out of their way to answer my daily create. The other one, that has yet to be posted, was If you could be any president, who would be? I know it sounds lame but I’m a history buff and therefore, mine would have been Theodore Roosevelt, I won’t reveal why BUT I will say that I named my own dog after him…If that says anything at all. Our third contribution were assignments that we had to create ourselves and add to the bins (Visual, Audio, etc.). Is there any better way to really add to class than to create assignments for future ds106ers? I think not! I happily created two, one visual and one video (which were two of my favorite weeks!). I found these easy for me to make, or at least after I got my creative juices flowing, so that was ultimate goal: do something fun and easy, but hard enough to where they would have to dedicate actual time to really get credit the assignment. Therefore, I called myself, the assignment itself, assignment wizard.

The of the Best

Something I’ve always struggled with is giving credit where its due; at least when it comes to myself. Therefore, in creating my best work category, I took lots of opinions and I needed reasons behind why people thought those were my ‘best work’. Therefore, I wouldn’t feel right in just giving no exact reason for why I picked each one. I also went for work during my more favorable weeks (aka, not audio, sorry!). During visual week, we had to do a variety of stars, and in one of the assignments, we had to a six-word memoir that depicts us or something we stand for. This is what I went with, which reads “I’m a MexiCAN, not a MexiCAN’T”. This plays a significant role because I am Mexican-American and while it would seem that in 2013, there would be improvements in our society as far as race goes, a lot of adversity comes into being Mexican, and therefore, I thought this would the best way to really honor my heritage and show I’m willing to fight for my rights as a citizen. My second assignment, however, went to my assignment of a video in which you take the original music video and mash it up with a movie. For my assignment, I chose Eternal Sunshine of the Mind with P!NK’s, ‘Just Give Me A Reason’. For the last three years, I’ve been in a relationship and this song really hits me deep because it shows that I’ve been willing to do whatever it takes to maintain this relationship, and while at times it can be really tough, all I need is one simple reason to stay — show that I’m in this for the long haul, and that no matter how much we fight, I’m willing to stick through this. SO why Eternal Sunshine of the Mind? Well, that was easy. In the movie, the idea revolves around this new surgery-type hypnosis that erases someone from your memory. How wonderful that sounds at times; to forget everything and be me before him. However, the movie ends with realizing it was all worth it and that they don’t actually want to let go; that the love is forever. That’s why I chose it. As much as I dislike him at times, I will always love him and the two together made the perfect combination.  I also picked this assignment because I felt that, other than the radio show, it is where the majority of my effort went towards; it really helped me learn the ins and outs of iMovie and video week, leading into my next assignment! This next assignment had the purpose of taking movie scenes, putting them together and saying why/how they may have impacted apart of your life. The movies I did consisted of The Pursuit of Happiness,  which was an amazing movie that stressed struggle but how someone overcame so much; the particular scene I chose was where he tells his son not to let anyone tell him he can’t do anything, something that I always felt was emphasized in my life despite the adversity I faced. The next one was Milk, which emphasized an important part of my personality and how someone long ago really fought for my rights to be where I am now. Of course I had to pick a scene in Toy Story 3, because it was a movie I grew up with and it marked apart of the ending of my childhood. It came out around the time I was getting ready to graduate, therefore, it hit home when I saw someone my age letting go of his childhood as he went onto college, as I would soon enough. The final movie was Alice in Wonderland, which was a continuance of the original Alice movie. The particular scene I chose was because of one reason: it was the Jabberwocky scene and not only is that one of my favorite poems, it’s something that I’ve actually done for myself. To think of six impossible things that you can actually achieve is really a self-reminder that you’re capable of much more than anyone, even yourself, realizes.

Once a DS106er…

Always a DS106er! Gosh, quite obviously I enjoyed this class, but i have my laundry list of complaints..Well, really only one..Audio week -___- please, a moment of frustration and ‘hell-yeahs’ for this. Don’t get my wrong, it was an experience but that is it. However, it did give me more confidence to record myself, it was still a total pain in my ass. All in all, i learned a lot more of what i’m capable of media-wise. I learned that I better ideas than I thought and that I should give myself more credit than I did. I learned you don’t need to meet fellow classmates to feel close and that sometimes your best classes are the ones that go beyond a basic textbook, one that truly teaches you the ins and outs of technology that you’ll be using the future. With that, I bid you adieu ds106! It was awesome knowing you but we had to part sometime… but on more thing!:

What You Put in is What You Get Out