Final Project:

I used Mean Girls as my main theme for my project because bullying has been in the media EVERYWHERE lately. Basically, the girls bully everyone. One girl gets fed up and buys magical earrings that will make karma catch up to the bullies. Originally, I was only going to do the story line of Mean Girls using media assignments. After submitting my project proposal, I was instructed to mix it up some. That is when I decided to try to add my own twist to the project and storyline. In the movie The Plastics just broke up and went there separate ways. They did stop being mean to others, but I didn’t think that was enough. I wanted to see them suffer like they caused others to suffer. In my project, Regina ends up pregnant, Cady goes to jail, Karen gets buried, and Gretchen is convinced she is a cat. So, Be nice or you will suffer.

For this project I made an animated movie poster. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be! I actually think this took the longest to make and it was the least satisfying. My poster does not look nearly as good as many of the examples. Next, I made a super cut of mean girls. This was fun I tried to make it almost as a summary of the whole movie, including only mean parts. The super cute was time consuming, but simple.  Then I made an Amazon product using Hackasaurous and X-ray goggles. I had a lot of fun with this. Lastly, I compiled a few photos of the actresses and made a “where are the mean girls now” video. It was fun finding bad images of them all (especially Lindsay Lohan). I think my project came together quite nicely. It flows pretty well between text and media.

What is digital story telling?

In week three, I basically said that digital story telling is telling a story using today’s modern technology. In week three I felt that this was extremely cool, but at the same time I felt like it took away the personal aspect of storytelling. I like having a book in my hand to read or reading a bed time story to kids. I had mixed feelings about it then and I still do. I think that at times there is nothing wrong with digital storytelling and it can be awesome. However, I also think that sometimes the old fashioned book is the way to go. I don’t want to be reading my children a bed time story from a computer screen.

My contributions to DS106:

Tutorials:

I created a tutorial for visual assignment 615. I provided directions on how to created an A to Z themed collage, my theme was green. I also created a tutorial for Draw it. I posted directions on how to make a photograph look like it was drawn, I used a photo of my horses.

Assignments:

I create an assignment called,  Where are They Now? for this assignment you are to make a video of what happens to the main characters after a movie. Almost like a sequel, but not really. I also created an assignment called, “Public Service Announcement” for this assignment you create a video (serious or humorous) public service annoucement.

Daily Creates:

Best Work Category:

I chose my favorite assignment from each category to be placed in my Best Works category.

AND THE WINNERS ARE…DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

I was fascinated by the fact that there was actually a website that archived former copies of other websites! It was so cool to see how American Eagle changed over the years. I was in awe that there were so many saved copies of the website!!

Dear Future DS106er,

I made this BEAUTIFUL collage of Keep Calm posters just for you! All semester I procrastinated, each week I told myself “This week I will start monday” but as Monday rolled around, I never did! So please, START ASAP. (If ASAP to you is SUNDAY, just don’t bother). And when your instructor tells you a certain week, like oh I don’t know AUDIO is going to be time consuming and a headache…PLEASE KNOW THIS IS TRUE. They really do want to help you, and they are very good at being as helpful as possible. SO LISTEN TO THEM. Also, this is digital STORYTELLING, so make sure to try to always tell a story. I always forgot that this was the main point.  If you think of it as “FUN” (which is usually is) you will have fun and actually joyfully complete your work

Shine on future DS106ers!

PS. Making keep calm posters is fun and easy with the keep calm o matic, but be careful it is addicting!

 FINAL THOUGHTS.

As much as I loved DS106 this semester. I honestly cannot wait to submit this final post. I am ready to be finished with the course (not because I didn’t like it, I am just ready for a change). I can honestly say that before this class, I had close to ZERO computer skills. However, now I feel completely  confident with creating on the computer. I think that where this most shows is video and audio editing and making GIFs. I had NEVER done any of that before and Ds106 sure did give me a hearty helping of it.

I would highly recommend this course. It is A LOT of work and can be VERY time consuming, but honestly 99% of the time it was fun. I found myself putting off other classes to work on my blog. (Maybe future students should not follow that path) Also, I think the skills we were taught are things we can definitely use in the future!