In week three of DS106, I guessed/created a definition of digital storytelling.  Having now completed the course, I have to say:  I’m pretty impressed with my January-self.

“Digital Storytelling:  (course, noun, verb)  Employing the use of multiple forms of visual, audio, and perhaps even tactile/the-scent-version-of-these-words media for the purposes of evoking emotions, describing events, planting ideas, or simply connecting people to one another.” (Me, 2013).

We have absolutely done every one of these things this semester!

For my final project, I led Ron Burgundy – of The Anchorman fame — on a journey toward self discovery.  This journey led him to college, which led him toward respecting women (and himself) more, but in the end he did not find the love he was searching for.  For the project, I mashed up an image of Ron Burgundy that I made into a poster and a photo of a wall to make it look like a real poster and added his reaction to it using a clip from the movie, I made a web site about feminism that he had to visit for a college class, I made a slide show for him to give to Victoria showing her how he’d changed and how he respected her, and I made a music video showing his experiences throughout the whole story, up to and including his devastation at the end upon realizing Victoria had no interest in him.

I started out thinking that it would be a cheesy romantic comedy, but when I actually thought about it I realized that just because Ron respects women in this story it doesn’t mean he deserves the girl.  Women don’t owe men anything just because they’re suddenly ‘nice guys.’  Ron can lose the girl but still gain something, so that’s what I was shooting here for.  At the end of the story, he moves on and continues with his life because as almost always, ‘this too shall pass.’  Just as women are more than their sexuality, men are more than their exploits of women, so that’s what I wanted to show.  I don’t know that I actually achieved that because this is still cheesy and …c’mon, it’s The Anchorman.  It was a lot of fun to make though and I don’t think I did half bad.

When it comes to participating with the DS106 community in general, I don’t really feel I lived up to the expectations.  I used twitter to communicate with group members and used it to tweet things I found online that were relevant to DS106, but overall I didn’t participate very much.  I didn’t honestly realize how much I wasn’t utilizing those tools until the end of the semester, and it’s not as though I NEVER used it, I just didn’t use it to its full potential.  I had never used Twitter before though and I participated in a live-tweet (?) session during the semester though that I thought was really interesting (it was for Women in the World #witw).

I created “Celebrity Life,” which is an assignment to photoshop your face onto the body of a famous person you admire.  I chose Andrea Gibson, an activist and slam poet.

I also created “Play that Back,” which instructs people to find a clip of a magic trick or a sports play and then record themselves doing the same trick or play (safely), but to be creative with it.  It could be a spoof of the play or the real thing, if you know how to do it.

As for Daily Creates, I don’t think I know how to find the links to them, but they do exist!  I created one instructing users to take a picture of any object they want and to photoshop it and decorate it using any software they have available.  The other one was to Google your favorite color and write a three-line poem about the first result.

And finally, to the new students:

DS106 has been an interesting ride.  It was more work than I’d anticipated but I also learned more than I expected to.  I can’t say I’ll miss scrambling to finish my assignments each weekend, but it is definitely an experience I’ll reflect upon positively.

And now for some coffee, dogs, and activism.

This is a new fitness magazine centered around body positivity and knowledge about your body.  It is also queer-inclusive, making it extra awesome.  Figured I’d end this on a good note