It’s the first week of DS106!
If you’re new here, check out this About Ms. Parker link to know more about what this blog is all about and who Ms. Parker is!
So, for this week, we viewed three videos and read John Cage’s rules for Students and Teachers.
Steven Johnson has a point that I think some people lose sight of in this age of technology. Too many focus on how overstimulated we have become. Yet, for me, all these random connections with people and their ideas on the internet helps us create in ways we never could before. I know that not everyone uses the internet in the same way as I do, but I feel like when I’m browsing reddit or tumblr or even stumbleupon, I am absorbing all these different ways of doing things. Just like how reading helps you write better, I feel like viewing ideas and media on the internet helps you build your skills to create.
Kelli Anderson’s TED talk made me indecisive. If you haven’t seen this talk, take a look at it. She discusses how “disruptive wonder” is about confounding our expectations for things—especially media. She tells us that creativity comes from messing up the typical forms of things, deconstructing them down to their basic pieces, and then building something better with those pieces.
What made me indecisive?
Well, first: I completely see the point she is making about bringing novelty (basically) back into our routine experiences, and I agree with this! The world is full of so much order that sometimes it’s better to break this down to find new combinations and new experiences. Even simpler, doing something out-of-the-ordinary forces us to rethink our expectations.
HOWEVER! I have a small problem with this. Novelty can only be novelty for so long, then it becomes ordinary and ritual. How do we keep creating? How do we keep making this fresh?
John Cage’s “Rules for Students and Teachers” are things I would encourage all people to try. While I don’t believe that each and every rule is appropriate for every situation/person, I think that most of these can help people who are struggling to create or learn. Too few people take advantage of everything around them, so those last few hints are especially important. ABSORB EVERYTHING.
This week is done! To all my fellow DS106ers:
WOOT! Hearing about this course last semester made me dread the first few weeks, especially “boot cam” So this is exactly how I feel! DONE! I feel incredibly accomplished, especially since I attempted to do many of the Daily Creates. Being home this weekend made my focus on schoolwork go down the drain, but I’m hoping to remedy that since I’ll be on campus for the rest of the semester.
Nevertheless! I was able to get this video completed.
MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT A FABRICATED STORY ABOUT AN EVERYDAY OBJECT.
Note: No animals were harmed in the fabrication of this story.
I can’t wait to start working on making gifs and videos to music (one of my favorite things to do!).
But in the mean time, I did get to at least create and link up my internet presence.
@cogdog Finally got it up and running! Thanks again! ds106.heymsparker.org #ds106
— Brooke Parker (@bparker5) January 16, 2013
This week was truly a test of my dedication and persistence. Having trouble with my domain at the very beginning was exhausting. Then trying to figure out how this class works was confusing!
When you don’t have someone verbally going over all these things it can be very hard to handle. Luckily, printing it out and marking off everything has really helped me.
I’m really intrigued by this class so far. I have a little bit of an idea where it’ll be going, but no idea what skills I’ll be testing. And that’s exciting.
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