Touch the firehose of ds106, the most recent flow of content from all of the blogs syndicated into ds106. As of right now, there have been 92448 posts brought in here going back to December 2010. If you want to be part of the flow, first learn more about ds106. Then, if you are truly ready and up to the task of creating web art, sign up and start doing it.

  1. kirklunsford

    A Tribe of Designers: Designing To Learn Networked Learning Space

    by

    After last week’s discussion and exploration in “tribes” by review of two articles by Jeff Goins: Finding Your Tribe May Be the Hardest Thing You Do, and Three Important Steps to Building a Killer Tribe, and another Ted talk by Seth Godin The tribes we lead, I think I am ready to apply these concepts to the networked learning space project. The NLS that will be created for course work in INTE 5665, and out of personal and professional interest, is Designing To Learn. Designing To Learn network provides resources to engage and motivate members to be productive by learning through practicing design. I do believe there is a need for organized and directed multi-discipline study of design as we move through this century.

    Firstly, I think this network is helpful for anyone trying to engage and communicate effectively in web 2.0 practices such as blogging, creating a website, creating a logo, and a whole host of artistic and creative things typical educational paths has not lead one to be proficient in. Secondly, those who are learning about design, which should be just about everyone who does design for a living, or those who are enrolled in college for design, should be looking for inspiration from multiple sources outside of their niche disciplines. Additionally, knowledge and skills needed to be successful in design in the 21st century cannot be obtained through typical education. The needs of society and the rate of change in the design disciplines is beyond the scope of courses for credit. In other words, successful designers should be connected to communities of inspiration and practice.

    To help myself clarify my own intentions for the “tribe” I intend to create, I will look for guidance in Jeff Goins 3 Steps:


    1. Be as personal as you can be...


    I’m going to be honest, I don’t really share too many personal things to the world via social media. I may be guilty of a couple “fur baby” pictures and rants about racism and equality on Facebook, but other than that I try to keep my personal stuff out of the limelight. However I think when it comes to my own successes and failings as a designer and student I’m an open book. I’ve definitely been feeling the burn lately with being an instructor and designer AND grad student. I’m willing to share what I can without breaking professional boundaries.

    2. Stay relevant to your audience…


    This one is tricky. What I think is relevant may not be to the community. Because many of the entries to the community may be selected and curated by me, I intend to follow what I see trending and post more things like that. For now I intend to mix it up and pull from many resources until I find what sticks. The other challenge with relevancy is feedback. I’m still wondering about all the different ways I can get the community involved with feedback, other than “liking” something. This may result in finding a niche for this community that I did not expect.

    3. Create mouth-watering anticipation…


    Another challenge. How can this be done? I think first and foremost people can anticipate new posts to the community at least every other day in order to keep them engaged. Perhaps I can create weekly tutorials and freebies like downloadable Photoshop brushes, 3D assets, and drawing demos. Of course this takes a lot of time, but I’m hoping my dedication would be reciprocated by the community.

    So what do you think? Are you ready to join this tribe?
  2. kirklunsford

    How To Render a Realistic Interior in Photoshop

    by

    Finished Rendering

    See the full tutorial here!

    In this tutorial doc I walk through how I rendered an interior in Photoshop with an exported line drawing from Sketchup. I’ve found many people are looking to add some extra flair to their 3D drawings or learn how to completely render their sketch in Photoshop. This tutorial should serve both, but mostly shows how one can create a realistic interior in Photoshop without having to texture everything in 3D software.
     
    Line Drawing + Materials
    I’ve included both the original line drawing with material references as well as the finished rendering. What do you think? What unique ways do you use Photoshop to create or enhance your renderings?
  3. kirklunsford

    Get Loose! How I Used Vine to Show How I Warm Up Before Drawing

    by


    Practice makes perfect! The old adage usually applied to learning something new like playing a musical instrument or sport. But what about drawing? If practiced regularly, I think anyone can draw well although most people think you either got the talent or you don’t. The challenging part, is tuning everything out and warming up to practice. I teach my design students on the first day of class each semester some basic exercises to practice different mediums, and train their muscles, eyes, and minds to “sync up” to produce better results before tackling a more complex drawing.



    Try it out - try to draw some straight lines, perfect circles, and ellipses. Throw in some curvilinear lines. Stay fast and loose. Try standing up. Think about what your elbow, wrist and shoulder is doing and fine tune your movement. When you start feeling good and you got your head in the right state of mind to draw, move on to a more complex drawing. I’m sure you will find you enjoy drawing more and your results will be better with a little practice!

    To show how I practice warm up drawing exercises, I wanted to use Vine, a simple app to feature looping videos. I’ve been captivated by this medium since I discovered it back in July of this year. Some of the loops are incredible and I enjoy watching them again and again - especially in the Art channel. One of my favorite “Viners” is Pinot - very inspiring! I found Vine particularly useful for showing processes or animation like Pinot. Or utilized to pique someone’s interest in a subject to explore further. Because of these things, I chose it as a particular social medium I would like to explore to feature design topics. This is my first Vine of many I hope.

    The first barrier to entry to use Vine effectively for me was figuring out how I should prop my phone up to record myself drawing. The vine app requires that you hold down on the screen of your phone for the duration you would like to record. Obviously this is not conducive to any physical activity or drawing especially. I can’t hold the phone and draw at the same time! I’ve seen other incredibly complex Vines out there so I know there was some other way to create these Vines. I did a little research and found iKlip Grip was a great product to use as a tripod.

    iKlip Grip

    I went to my nearest Apple store to find it and I asked one of the workers, where this product was. He walked me to the back of the over crowded store and pointed to the selfie stick section. He had no clue it was a multi-functional device and thought it was just a selfie stick. I picked it up and showed the box to him and pointed out all of the features, mainly, it can be a desktop tripod or extended height tripod with a Bluetooth shutter remote. By the looks of this young man, I was twice his age so this was gratifying to point out something “new” to the youngster.


    With my iKlip Grip, I was all set to start creating Vines. However I was confronted with one last hurdle. The Bluetooth remote does not work with the Vine interface! I discovered by Google search that since 2014 Vine users could use clips from their camera roll instead of via the record functions in the Vine interface - perfect! I set up my tripod and recorded a few sessions through the iphone camera app. I found it best to show a top down view of the drawing page with the extended tripod. After I finished recording my sessions, I imported all of my clips into the Vine app and edited their duration and start and stop points. Overcoming both hardware and software hurdles I can say I’m happy with my first Vine. I hope to produce many more exciting Vines featuring design process and drawing. Maybe one day I can produce something as great as Pinot.


  4. kirklunsford

    My First Twitter Experience Changed The Way I Learn Forever

    by
    Games for Change @G4C

    Summer - the time of year where I always try to cram six months worth of stuff into three. There’s something about it, maybe it’s the longer days due to the summer solstice, or maybe it’s my way of making up for all of those lazy summers I had when I was a kid sleeping until noon. Whatever the case, in the summer of 2015, I decided to begin my journey as a graduate student at CU Denver in an intensive eight week course, INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling, that changed the way I think about education and the potential of social learning.

    My first term as a graduate student in Information and Learning Technologies & Adult Learning, I knew very little about social media platforms and pedagogy of social learning. I had been lurking on Facebook for about a year, my Google + profile was full of cobwebs, and I just started to learn how to use Twitter. As a fledgling Twitter newb, I decided to jump into a Twitter chat to begin to spread my wings. My first tweet chat was with #EdGameChat with the focus of digital games in the classroom and Greg Toppo to promote his book The Game Believes In You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter. I have strong interest in “gamification” and educational games as I have a background in game development. As the Twitter discussion began, it was a little overwhelming. The questions were asked by the discussion moderator and then all the answers would fly by before I could even finish reading the question. I kept having to scroll up and down in the browser to look at the participators responses and engage based on that. I think I managed to come up with a couple of good replies by the time the rest of the discussion was three questions ahead of me.


    I stumbled through my first Tweet chat, I gained several new followers and several others followed me. Some of the people I followed were key figures in games ed. By following them I feel as though I am “in the know” when it comes to things regarding games in education. All I need to do is open up the Twitter app on my mobile device and read through the daily Tweets. If I choose to, I can engage in chat with others in #EdGameChat to promote collaboration and social learning. This includes authors of pedagogical texts and professors at renowned universities. To me, this is the most powerful, motivating, and enlightening learning experience I have ever engaged.

    Throughout the remainder of the summer semester, I was able to engage with several others in the affinity group ds106, which served as the primary home for the digital storytelling course. I was also able to engage with all of my classmates in many meaningful ways on Twitter and follow their educational journeys over the course of eight weeks. In fact, I continue to engage with my colleagues at UC Denver through Twitter. I can follow what they are doing in other classes, and coordinate with them to take classes together in the future, or see what they are up to in their professional work. In essence, through the use of simple 140 character communiques and links, I have established some basic networks and relationships to promote social learning beyond the confines of a school, a classroom, and the LMS.

    The ease of access and simplicity of the platform makes Twitter easy to engage throughout the day - waiting in line, uploading or downloading files, in between meetings, etc. This leads to routine behaviors and ways of being that enable life long learning that is current, relevant, and ever-changing based on trends and shared knowledge. Although I think there are many great platforms for social learning, Twitter, in particular, has made me a believer in the power of social learning and behaviors that lead to rich online experiences. It has changed my life.

  5. kirklunsford

    Digital Storytelling Final Course Portfolio and Reflection

    by


    How did you learn in this course? How do you understand your social learning practices given theory shared by L&K?


    As a learner relatively new to online social learning, the practices of this course INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling, were at first, challenging to adopt. Prior to the start of the course, I set up a Twitter account and started participating in discussions like #edgamechat, and looking for people to follow in regards to education and personal interests. I set up a website called Designing To Learn to feature my professional and educational work that tied in with the blog I had already set up. I also read a majority of the course text New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning 3rd Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Nobel. However, I did not fully comprehend what I was reading or doing prior to the start of the course, things quickly started to make sense after the first week of engagement. By the practices as outlined in Ds106 how to write up assignments like a blogging champ” and the syllabus for the class, I was able to quickly participate in ‘new literacies’ as described by Lankshear and Knobel.

    Social learning, as described by Lankshear and Knobel, simply put, is complex and self-reliant. Engagement involves aligning oneself with affinity groups and social media networks to participate in discussions and perform works that have meaning to the participators of these networks. Although in theory one can participate in these networks simply by being a passive read-only member, the requirements for this course meant that students were read-write participators. This means production by making blog posts, carefully crafting critiques of media, producing original Tweets, and a host of many other creative things as outlined in the ds106 assignment bank, the storytelling affinity group which this course was aligned. The choices and works produced in the course were decided upon through self-interest and focus on a particular theme of scholarship, essentially creating a sense of self reliance and autonomy in one’s own learning. Success and failure may depend on one’s ability to participate in online social learning and deep thinking through synthesis of multiple resources and networks. Ultimately, successful online social learning creates a sense of identity and ‘learning to be’ that sends learners on trajectories to become masters in their own crafts and domains.


    How might your experiences in this course inform how you learn in the future, whether in formal (graduate) coursework or when pursuing your own interests? In what ways do you understand yourself a connected learner, someone networked into other communities (like DS106) and also linked with other people?


    Through the connections made in this course, some weak and some strong, I can potentially engage with people on future projects or collaborations by continued membership and appreciation of the affinity groups which I belong to. Or refer others to their works for guidance. This sense of being a member to a community of practice transcends the course and formal education. I may interact with others through the connections made next year or ten years from now through twitter, blogs, ds106, or other means of communication. I may listen to Mariana Funes podcasts and continue to correspond with her on Twitter. I may enjoy tweets from Dr Garcia as she practices drawing exercises and offer advice and encouragement through tweets and retweets. Who knows if this will happen? The important thing to note is that it can happen because of the connections made and shared interested in being a digital storyteller. In essence, the affinity groups, connections, and affordances by web 2.0 have provided the means to be a life-long learner.

    How was this course different from prior (graduate) courses?


    I can imagine the design of this course was very different from many other available graduate courses in the ILT program, or in any other program at any other school for that matter. This is because what Remi has put together is ‘new’ and relevant to the technologies and pedagogies of today (refer to Remi’s Ecological Pedagogy). There are similarities to what was outlined in the Lankshear and Knobel text in the last chapter, however we utilized several divergent platforms that were not mentioned in the text. Namely, the use of Twitter and course alignment with ds106. This is in stark contrast to courses held in the confines of a LMS with a small number of students. Our interactions in this course overlapped many networks and engaged professionals and students alike. The result of this ‘externalization’ of course discussion and products, in my opinion, yields more professional and fruitful results. As stated in my response to chapter eight in the Lankshear and Knobel text, there’s no ‘secret’ LMS hiding intellectual gems from the world. This motivates participators to succeed because anyone, co-workers, colleagues, classmates, future employers, and the like, may have the ability to witness the products of the course, and perhaps it will mean something to someone else. In final reflection of this, I prefer to engage with ‘the rest of the world,’ instead of limiting Discourse and discourse to the secret minds and murmurings of the few who would choose to take a digital storytelling course that only uses a LMS.

    How did you contribute to the development of this course and our learning community?


    The initial two weeks of this course were rough. Most students shared that they are new to social learning practices and leery about exploring topics outside of the LMS. Additionally, the syllabus and pace of the course left little room for fault. As directed by Remi, students were to attempt to answer each other’s questions in the LMS within the first two weeks. Many issues came up about using Twitter, or making ones avatar show up, or how to best implement a feature on a blog, or clarity in assignments, etc. Through the online practices in the courses I currently teach, I felt desire and ease to help students with many of these logistical questions at the beginning of the course. As the course developed, I shared my expertise in drawing, design, and illustration and I believe I contributed to the development of techniques and ‘know how’ in regards to some of the daily creates and visual-design assignments as represented in tips and tutorial links in my blog and tweets.

    In what ways were you responsible for directing both your own learning and also the shared experiences of peers/others?


    Whenever I had a questions or concern I also shared this on Twitter #cudenver15 to notify other students. My two biggest concerns this semester that were ‘open air’ questions and answers on Twitter were in response to copyright concerns and morality / ethics. Mariana Funes was very helpful in suggesting readings and guidance as well as Lisa Dise in regards to copyright. Mitchell Woll offered some inciteful tidbits about morality issues in light of the Charleston shootings by reminding us about artifacts like manifestos created and shared by affinity groups as I was seeking answers to chapter three responses and trying to cope with news about senseless killings at the same time. Asking the tough questions and sharing the explorations of these inquiries very publicly helped direct my learning and contribute to others in and outside of the course simultaneously.

    How would you have designed this course differently?


    First and foremost, many of the practices and social learning that was engaged in this course was appropriate, current, and enjoyable. The course was only eight weeks long, the learning and participatory practices were intense. Although it was mentioned that it may require a minimum of fifteen hours a week to properly complete course work and engage in social learning, I probably spent 25-30 hours a week devoted to this course. Part of this may be because of the choices in assignments or new technical learning in combination with divergent platforms. It’s easy to get distracted and follow learning down rabbit holes to other topics and musings. Knowing the high possibility for technical error and multiple paths and choices delivered through autonomous learning, I would choose to reduce the amount of assignments each week. I would suggest a week of production that looks more similar to this:

    1. A Daily Create
    2. An Assignment Bank project
    3. A response to L&K text synthesized with scholarship
    4. A critique of a digital story
    5. A response to another student’s reading response
    6. A response to another student’s critique
    7. A response to another student’s AB project
    8. A weekly reflection

    The last requirement, “a response to another student’s AB project,” was not a required part of this course. I think this would be a welcomed addition to further learning, analysis, and critique, in place of one response to the Lankshear and Knobel text. This may reduce potential redundancies with multiple responses to other’s Lankshear and Knobel text each week. Also students would be well served to receive critical feedback on their work especially in an educational setting. Being able to carefully, and critically, craft responses to peers work is a highly valued skill in professional work as well as being able to accept criticism. As a professional design and an instructor of design I can attest to these skills, not just in my day to day practices, but also from community feedback at the college where I teach.

    How do you understand Remi's course design and ongoing decision-making? As many of you are educators (whether in K-12, higher ed, or corporate settings), how did this course change your understanding of pedagogy?


    From the beginning of the course when Remi discussed ‘ecological pedagogy’ and ‘open’ course design I was eager to experience the course practices and theory as a student. Similarly to Ken Robinson’s concepts of ‘organic systems’ in relationship to learning, Remi suggested pedagogy that creates the conditions to cultivate learning through a multiplicity of learning environments, platforms, and settings. In essence, this pedagogy allows learners to make their own learning choices by finding ways to flourish in the rich landscape of web 2.0 platforms. The particular way in which we ‘learned to be’ in this course can be represented as the ‘pull’ model rather than ‘push’ as defined in the Lankshear and Knobel text. There was some necessary ‘push’ in the form of the syllabus and requirements for the course, however individual choices ‘pulled’ individuals in directions that supported their own interests and learning goals. Pedagogy that can be classified as ‘pull’ is a departure from most courses I have taken or taught. The practices in this course has made me appreciate the autonomy and ability to choose ways in which I define to learn.

    Has your understanding of "instructor" changed, and if so, how?


    I have also come to appreciate collaboration with others in social learning networks as ‘instructors’ in their own right by demonstrated expertise and the sharing of knowledge in areas in interest. This in some way has changed my idea of instructor(s) and the roles they serve. In this course Remi was for the most part ‘hands off’ and allowed students to explore ideas and ‘teach’ each other. Remi offered advice and inspiration in the form of screen casts and tweets, but the day to day practices of the course were essentially, in the hands of the students. Although I would not suggest this approach for all classes and subjects, it was very appropriate for this course at this particular point in time at the graduate level.

    What feedback would you like to share with Remi as he (or a colleague) will likely teach another version of this course in the future?


    For the most part, this course was excellent. I thought engagement and social practices were evident for most students. It was very challenging and motivating and I would gladly do it all over again. If I had to make any suggestions, it would be to lighten the load in the first week and require students to create a screencast to introduce themselves and share their strengths. This may help students direct questions or promote an overall sense of comradery and personality from the get go. This perhaps will also allow students to deal with logistical questions and concerns with social learning and the requirements of the course. My second suggestion would be to change weekly production to what was shown previously in response to question number two of this reflection. Week one and week eight would be less typical production for introductions and conclusions to the course. Overall the course was solid and requires only minor tweaks if any. I can’t wait to apply what was learned to the courses I teach and develop new curriculum with these online social learning practices in mind.


    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Nobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.


    Robinson, K. (2006, Feb). How Schools kill creativity.
  6. kirklunsford

    Trajectories and Reflections: Week 7 Reflective Practice

    by
    Week 7 Collage

    Introduction

    As part of the educational discourse in digital storytelling each week, I will conduct a reflective practice self assessment. These ‘reflections’ will serve as both formative and summative assessment to the learning goals of the course INTE 5340.

    See learning goals in the INTE 5340 syllabus. See DS106 syllabus.

    Requirements and Production


    DS106 Assignment Bank (Video Assignment)
    Creative Education Compilation: VideoAssignments1736

    Response to Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies” chapter one and selected scholarship
    Social Learning Trajectories: A Response to Lankshear & Knobel Chapter 8

    Digital story critique
    The Cake is Not a Lie: A Critique of Portal 2 Puzzle Maker "Making Space for Physics"

    Comment peer critiques (x2)
    Week 7: Critique

    (I only found 1 critique to examine posted by other classmates this week!)

    Comment peer chapter responses (x2)
    Moving Towards "Pull"- Last L&K Response

    We need a remix for that books ending!

    Reflective summary
    Trajectories and Reflections: Week 7 Reflective Practice

    What was challenging?

    As usual, the assignment chosen from the video assignment bank was the most challenging product of the week. I had to search for and review dozens of YouTube videos around the focal theme of ‘the importance of creative arts in education.’ Then I had to figure out how to process these YouTube videos into something I could import into Adobe Premiere. Once imported, I made many clips from the videos to merge into a single cohesive video that synced with the music. Some parts synced better than others, although I was happy with the completed result. Another challenge this week was finding a quality ‘remix’ that I wanted to critique using Lankshear & Knobel literacy dimensions and coordinate with the focal theme. I did happen to find a great digital story about modding as used in education and synthesized with core subjects. The critique of which was challenging however due to lack of depth in the story. Overall I think many of these digital stories available for critique lack some depth because they are designed for rapid consumption on the internet. Overall, with both the video assignment and critique, I had to reach to get what I needed.


    What was most enjoyable?

    The most enjoyable part of the week was seeing the video I created come to life with the music. It brought me great joy to remix these videos of students enjoying creativity and the arts along with the music. This week was also enjoyable to Tweet with members of the course about looking forward to wrapping up this class. Also a couple of students created interactive, collaborative stories that were fun to read and engage with. Although I missed the boat on contributing to the story because I was very busy working, I enjoyed seeing the collaboration.


    What was learned about the focal theme and what issues / questions have emerged?

    What emerged this week as an issue or area of concern was brought to light by Anne Melzer in her response to the Lankshear & Knobel text. She was very critical in her response and mentioned that it may be unfair for instructors to teach who do not know how to use technology, or may be illiterate in ‘new literacies.’ My question for her was essentially, “how can we help?” As students and teachers at CU in the ILT masters program we hold a unique responsibility in our communities to, in some ways, inform others about these ‘new literacies’ and how they may be leveraged in courses and communities of practice. My concern is that there may not be ways to reach current instructors from K-12 to higher education in our communities because there are not systems set in place to inform and instruct. I can say from experience at the two year technical college where I teach, there are some workshops, but seldom to never do these workshops inform others about how to use ‘new literacies’ in their classes, and more in general, how to be computer literate. This is touchy and complicated issue because many of my colleagues are of mature age where they perhaps did not ‘learn to be’ with digital technologies. Some may not wish to learn these new technologies or simply have a hard time grasping ‘new literacies.’ My hope is within the next couple of years I can work through the systems, and build some programs to support faculty and staff better to integrate and understand current technologies to facilitate learning and engagement.

    Points earned 10/10?

    Although we were assigned less work this week, I still challenged myself through the video assignment and critique. I also researched potential ways to deliver the portfolio final assignment by practising with various applications. I discovered, through Emily May’s assignment in Storify, that it seems it is the best platform to produce a portfolio for this class because of the ease to leverage social media. I appreciated the awareness by Remi to drop the daily creates so we could spend some time preparing for our portfolios and produce quality and depth in our last assignments. I also noticed an increase in engagement on Twitter this week and there were some great discussions and collaborations. For continued self-criticism and engagement with others, I give myself 10/10 points this week.


    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

  7. kirklunsford

    The Cake is Not a Lie: A Critique of Portal 2 Puzzle Maker “Making Space for Physics”

    by


    As part of the continued practice in digital storytelling, in INTE 5340 MA ILT at CU Denver, I will consume a digital stories and offer critiques. Until now the course has focused on Jason Ohler’s assessment traits as criterions to assess stories. For the remainder of the critiques in the course, I will focus on “everyday remix practices” as described in the Lankshear and Knobel text New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, on pages 127-140.

    To coincide with my theme, ‘the importance of creative arts in education,’ I’ve reviewed and critiqued some everyday remix practices of teachers in creative curriculum settings. This week I wanted to look at another creative way students ‘remix’ learnt material. I was inspired to look at Institute of Play after reading chapter 8 in Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies.” Chapter 8 describes in some detail how Institute of Play creates ways for K-12 students to engage in creative and social learning that utilizes ‘new literacies.’ As can be seen in the video, using game mods in an excellent way to solve problems and experiment with practical applications of math and social learning.

    Kind of Remix: Modding video games


    From modding video games: “Likely to involve lots of trial and error and retrial, etc..”

    Math students use Portal 2 Puzzle Maker, a mod of portal 2, to create scenarios that can demonstrate learnt knowledge such as solutions to mathematical problems. Lisa Castaneda, a teacher at The Evergreen School describes how she used Portal 2 Puzzle Maker to demonstrate parabolas and vertical motion. However, the process of creating this was not directly shown in the video, I can imagine it took several tries to successfully create a level that operated correctly and applied mathematical problems. Joshua Weier, Project Lead at Valve,goes on to describe how Portal 2 lends itself to the creation of these levels and puzzles by mod communities. What was done in puzzle maker reduced the barrier to entry easy so that any student or teacher can create their own puzzles. Although accessibility makes the mod and game easy to create with, it still take lots of trial and error to make a fun and functional mod level that makes sense. Yasser Malaika,Developer at Valve talks about playtesting, iterating, and implementing as processes that Valve uses to create levels and how Valve wanted to give this process to the creators in the puzzle maker mod community.

    From modding video games: “May involve sharing tips and problem-solving advice on forums.”
    Joshua Weier talks about how a week after Portal 2 Puzzle Maker launched they received nearly 120,000 level submissions. He then talks about how it’s exciting because people are sharing their maps. Today there are several communities where ‘puzzle makers’ can contribute tutorials and commentary about level creation. For instance, on the Steam Community (Steam is a platform utilized by Valve to download and play video games, chat with other gamers, share achievements, etc.) web site for Portal 2 there are 88 guides to ‘modding.’ There are wikis, blogs, YouTube videos, and a website dedicated to teaching with portal called teachwithportals.com. The product was such a success there are many social learning communities to engage with.

    From modding video games: “Paying attention to design, layout, what can and cannot be done within the terms of the original game to make the mod workable or user friendly, etc.”
    The primary way to interact as a player in Portal 2 is to create portals in the walls to move from an area to another. The level creator will design levels to make moving from area to area a challenge. Leslie Redd, Director of Education Programs at Valve talks about a “low threshhold” and being able to transfer from the tools to build a level to actually playing the level within seconds. This makes the mod user friendly and relatively easy to engage creators and players. This promotes engagement with ease, which is why this mod is so appealing to learners and educators.

    Overall, Valve created a really inspiring product that just so happened to be useful as an educational tool. It’s nice to see that once Valve learned how their product was being used in schools they developed programs to support this learning. I really enjoyed learning about how this mod was used in educational settings. I just wish the video demonstrated more clearly the practical applications such as the parabola example given in the first part of the video. How was this problem given to the students and how did they solve it?


    Citations
  8. kirklunsford

    Creative Education Compilation: VideoAssignments1736

    by



    Creative Arts in Education

    Throughout the semester while researching scholarship related to ‘the importance of creative arts in education,’ I’ve looked at many YouTube videos. I’ve critiqued and examined mostly creative everyday remix practices of teachers and the works of Ken Robinson. To round it all out, I wanted to create something that showed the students. What does it look like when creative arts are implemented into education?

    Different Colors

    I chose to compile the videos set to Walk the Moon Different Colors. Since the first time I heard this song it made me think about why teachers do what they do and fight to make better experiences for their students. Hence the lines, “this is why we’re biting the bullet, we know the kids are right.” It’s not easy to change the landscape of ‘high stakes testing’ and integrate engaging, creative curriculum. Although there have been great improvements at some schools, as can be seen in the compilation video, others still lag behind due to governmental policies and funding. Never the less, we can see instructors “biting the bullet” as they may struggle to implement creative curriculum.

    The lines, “Different colors! We carry each other,” I also thought were poetic in regards to education. We know from Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences that everyone has several modes of thinking and learning. When assessed, we find some are more dominant learning perspectives than others. In the classroom and school setting these different ways of being and thinking must be attended to in order to fully engage students. This is why the arts are so important, because they engage students in several other ways that are otherwise alienated by sitting in a chair quietly studying for a test. There is additional poetry in the lines, “Different colors,” that can be seen in this compilation by the various ethnicities and cultures. As a member of various cultures one may belong to various Discourses through which they develop a sense of being and seeing the world. These often are expressed in the typical school day and must be respected and appreciated. I believe through various means of expression whether it be physical activity, the creation of visual art, or music, one can find ways to relate to another who may identify with a very different culture. These means of expression bring out potential collaboration and social learning.

    How This Video Was Made

    I first had to watch many YouTube videos to get a sense of some that may work for what I was trying to achieve. I tried to find some videos I knew would work with the lyrics and structure of the song. Fortunately, I was able to find most of what I needed on the Edutopia YouTube channel. I also used a video from Institute of Play. To edit these videos, I had to convert them into a format that I can import into Adobe Premiere. I used “clipconverter” to do this. This tool is nice because it is all web based and does not require the user to download any software. It is important to note that with ‘“free” to use software and web tools there is always potential for malware and viruses. I noticed the tutorial for this assignment linked to tools that were considered malware by my virus scanner. Hopefully I dodged a bullet on that one, but it’s another important lesson to learn about engaging with ‘new literacies’ to not blindly trust these “free” softwares or sources linked by others.

    Once I had all of my videos and music collected in Adobe Premiere, I was able to make different cuts and arrange them as I saw fit to sort of sync with the music. I also created a title screen and credits roll, and a few other transitional effects such as the flashes for “tonight we raise a fire!” I learned how to do all of these things previously last week when I created “Fish Out of Water - Boundaries Exercise tdc1276” a daily create. I was able to accomplish all of this simply by spending a half hour to an hour watching tutorial videos about Adobe Premiere.

    Disclaimer
    The intent of this remix is for educational purposes only. The work is intended to be transformative in nature. The work is not for sale and it is not to be used for profit. This work was a requirement for a graduate course INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling. Please see citations for additional links add credits.

    See 17 U.S. Code § 107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.

    Citations
    Walk the Moon (December 2, 2014) Different Colors, Talking is Hard ℗ 2014 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

    Edutopia, (June 15, 2015) “Rolling Out” a Game in the Classroom

    Institute of Play, (December 5, 2014) Say Yay to Play: The Anti CookieCutter School

    Edutopia, (May 21, 2013) How a Longer School Day Can Improve Academics

    Edutopia, (August 29, 2012) Arts Integration for Deeper Learning in Middle School
  9. kirklunsford

    Social Learning Trajectories: A Response to Lankshear & Knobel Chapter 8

    by

    Digital Storytelling For The Illiterate Generation(s)

    The eighth and final chapter of New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel was like reflecting on the past seven weeks of my life from a programmatic point of view as a digital storytelling student. My first response to this was “Why didn’t I read this chapter first so I knew what I was getting into?” Then I realized, I probably would not have understood any of it had I not experienced ‘digital storytelling.’ As I was reading the chapter, I was constantly analysing the program Lankshear & Knobel suggest, and comparing to what I am experiencing in current curriculum. The first major difference in the curriculum noted in the text versus what students at CU Denver Masters in Information and Learning Technologies program experience was some limited face to face and group instruction. The MA program at CU Denver is completely online. Students may meet face to face if they reside in the same relative geographic location, however many students in the program live in various ‘out of state’ locations. This changes the dynamic of the course. We did not work in groups in face to face or even telecommunicative means. We instead, entered a much broader network more similar to a MOOC. Where students created their blogs, set up Twitter accounts, and participated in the online practices as described by ds106. None of which are centralized in a typical classroom or even online practice of a university such as the use of a LMS. Canvas was used in the course as the LMS but it wasn’t by any means critical to the course and was only seldom used for logistic reasons. By doing this, students were expected to ‘pull’ information and resources from any number of places in the larger network of online social learning. In fact, in many instances fellow ‘ds106ers’ contributed to the more intimate conversations and inquisition on Twitter #CUDenver15 or on personal blogs of students. In essence, the course experience by CU Denver masters students can be viewed as many overlapping networks and communities of practice.

    Although students did receive, help, guidance, comment, and critique from fellow students and members of the broader communities of practice online, there is a sense of isolation. This, at first, makes engagement challenging, especially during the first two weeks when ‘learning to be’ a digital story teller. However, reflecting upon the solitude of the experience in digital storytelling with CU Denver, I appreciated the autonomy and ability to ‘win or fail’ through my own desire to ‘pull’ in various directions. This of course, creates a more stressful situation perhaps, but the reality of the situation rapidly prepares students for meaningful participation on their own terms. Successes and failures are our own publicly seen. There’s no ‘secret’ LMS hiding intellectual gems from the world. This motivates participators to succeed because anyone, co-workers, colleagues, classmates, future employers, and the like, may have the ability to witness the products of the course, and perhaps it will mean something to someone else. In final reflection of this, I prefer to engage with ‘the rest of the world,’ instead of limiting Discourse and discourse to the secret minds and murmurings of the few who would choose to take a digital storytelling course that only uses a LMS.

    “Because the ‘natural home’ of social learning is the everyday world of social practice at large, it maintains points of connection to human lives as trajectories in ways that are often lost by hiving off formal education into contrived spaces, time frames, and idiosyncratic ways of doing things.”
    (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 248-249).

    Preparing The Next Generation

    The second interesting part of chapter eight in Lankshear & Knobel describes scenarios in which ‘new literacies’ and social learning is deployed in K-12 settings. In short, this is inspiring and fascinating to me because what is described aligns with the focal topic ‘the importance of creative arts in education,’ and prepares young students for the world in which they live, whether they intend to go to college or not. According to Ken Robinson,

    “In practice, teachers in all disciplines usually do, and should, use a wide repertoire of approaches. Sometimes teaching facts and information through direct instruction, sometimes facilitating exploratory group activities and projects. Getting that balance right, is what the art of teaching is all about.”
    (Robinson, Ken Ph.D. 2015, Ch. 6).

    What Lankshear & Knobel describe as ‘gamelike’ instruction at the Quest to Learn school, exemplifies social learning practices that are engaging both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ influences. Essentially, a pedagogy that is ‘balanced’ and relevant to the everyday practices of the times. Students understand complex identities in situated learning scenarios where they must assume the roles of designers, scientists, historians, mathematicians, inventors, etc. These roles are assumed by the deployment of various quests that include group and solitary activity. (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 247). What’s really inspiring, is the curriculum spelled out in the Lankshear and Knobel text. In summation, I have taken points from the text to provide in list form. This can be understood as:
    1. “Five key conditions for learning: sharing, reflecting, responding to and providing feedback, evaluation, and distributing knowledge and understanding.”
    2. “Three competency dimensions: Civic/Social-Emotional Learning, Design, and Content. Across these dimensions include: learning for well-being and emotional intelligence; design and innovation; complexity (or ‘systemic reasoning’); critical thinking, judgement and credibility; learning using a design methodology; and learning using smart tools (ibid.: 46).”
    3. “Five learning practices: system thinking, play design, intelligent resourcing, meaning production, and tinkering (ibid.: 66).” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 248-249).
    The list is impressive by higher education standards let alone K-12. If these things are truly engaged one can see extreme value of pedagogy that brings these things out through social learning and creative thought processes. All of these things are, in essence, designed to develop one’s way of ‘doing or being’ along the trajectory of their lives. The ultimate goal of this trajectory is to become mature learners who can engage by various means and roles necessary to solve problems, or at the very least, be literate or know how to become literate in ‘new literacies.’ (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 252-253). Additionally, these learning trajectories, in theory, should create ‘prepared’ students for college or life in general.

    Designing To Learn

    It is in these practices of social learning and ‘new literacies’ that I find great passion and motivation to implement new pedagogy into the design classes I teach. The next semester is just around the corner but there is still some time to plan and implement a few of the many great things I learned this semester. Although I am not sure it is possible to do so, I am starting to think through some of the questions I have about applying social learning and online practices such as: Can students set up blogs to post and discuss their assignments? What platforms and social networks are best for design students to engage? Other than the LMS, how can I engage students outside of the classroom in hybrid courses? Will these social learning practices be accepted by the college where I teach? Will my students be motivated to engage in social learning? How does this all align with the competencies of the courses I teach? In truth, to address all of these things may be a huge undertaking. For the moment it is worth focusing on a few things that will promote engagement and relevance to ‘the everyday lives’ of design students. For the future, I dream of design MOOCs and ‘game like’ scenarios. I know if I continue on my own ‘trajectory’ by designing to learn, many great things are possible.

    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

    Aronica, Lou; Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Creative Schools the Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. 2015. Narr. Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Tantor Media. May 8, 2015. Accessed June 20, 2015. Digital File.
  10. kirklunsford

    ‘Pulling’ Things Together: Week 6 Reflective Practice

    by
    Week 6 Collage

    Introduction

    As part of the educational discourse in digital storytelling each week, I will conduct a reflective practice self assessment. These ‘reflections’ will serve as both formative and summative assessment to the learning goals of the course INTE 5340.

    See learning goals in the INTE 5340 syllabus. See DS106 syllabus.


    Requirements and Production


    The Daily Create (x2)
    Fish Out of Water - Boundaries Exercise tdc1276

    Look at all the people - hyperbolic tiling tdc1285


    DS106 Assignment Bank (Web Assignment)
    What Is Your Passion Archetype Character Buzzfeed Quiz


    Response to Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies” chapter one and selected scholarship

    Comment peer critiques (x2)
    Critique: Machinima- The Druid: Tree of Life - (A WoW Machinima by Nixxiom)

    Mash-Up Lecture Series


    Comment peer chapter one responses (x2)
    Chapter 7. Pedagogical Implications
    New Literacies Review (Ch. 7) – An Need for a Changing Education System


    Reflective summary
    'Pulling' Things Together: Week 6 Reflective Practice

    What was challenging?

    Creating the buzzfeed quiz was the most challenging part of the week. I developed this assignment over the course of the week. I researched multiple intelligence theory and practiced several multiple intelligence assessment tests in order to craft it. I completed several versions of the quiz and opened it up to friends and family before I published it to work out some of the kinks. Ironing out the questions, the images used, and results was the most time consuming and challenging. I would have liked more time to test the quiz before I made it available but it’s hard to do everything I would like to do in the short amount of time available for these weekly assignments.

    What was most enjoyable?

    Overall I must say many people that took the Buzzfeed quiz after I posted on Facebook and Twitter commented saying the result seemed right for them. Seeing people comment or discuss their results from the Buzzfeed quiz was the most enjoyable part of the week. And some also mentioned they took the other self-assessment multiple intelligence test to see how they scored there as well. The idea of exposing people to this knowledge through a fun and humorous test designed for social media is inspiring.

    What was learned about the focal theme and what issues / questions have emerged?

    Chapter seven in the L&K text clarified what I was suggesting from week one - ‘mastery’ is a part of diving in to these ‘new literacies.’ It takes countless hours to develop true skill in various areas of interest fueled by passion. Finding these passions at an early age through diverse learning practices and exploring creative arts is essential to provide a backbone in understanding many of the ‘new literacy’ practices and online social learning.

    Points earned 10/10?

    I pushed myself again to deliver a quality ds106 assignment. I also participated in social media discussions throughout the week regarding area of focus and course topics. I really felt like my response to the L&K text felt natural and effortless because it answered many of the questions I was begging to know the answer to since week one. I give myself 10/10 points this week.

    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

  11. kirklunsford

    What Is Your Passion Archetype Character Buzzfeed Quiz

    by

    Archetype Collage (Buzzfeed quiz cover)

    What are your natural aptitudes? Based very loosely off of multiple intelligences. Are you the Artist, the Technologist, the Naturalist, the Performer, the Musician, the Poet, the Athlete, Puzzle Fighter, or the Renaissance Man or Woman?



    Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/421860690073254141/
    Diana Ziv - http://zivcreative.blogspot.com.au/

    A Meaningful Assignment

    This week I focused on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and Ken Robinson’s The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. In so many ways this scholarship resonated with chapter seven in the Lankshear and Knobel text as well as my focal theme ‘the importance of creative arts in education.’ I wanted to find a ds106 assignment that could help me synthesize scholarship with ‘new literacies’ application. The literacy dimensions and cultural appreciation in order to craft a Buzzfeed personality quiz that has humor and meaning is really challenging. To create a quiz in this nature, one must use writing skills, logic, artistic, and technical ability. This is exactly why I chose to do this assignment: WebAssignments, WebAssignments1641. I wanted to ‘apply’ multiple intelligences and share this theory with others. I believe understanding and application of this theory as teachers and learners, one can better know oneself or their students. This understanding leads to better study habits or lesson planning and engagement. It’s important to note that as a teacher, this would also mean catering to several different types of learners, thus, why it is important to practice creative arts disciplines through synthesis of core subject curriculums. If you are new to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, I suggest watching this brief video here.

    After watching the video take a short self assessment test. With the results of the assessment in mind, then take the Buzzfeed quiz. The Buzzfeed quiz is intended to add an extra dimension to the concept of multiple intelligences. In that it suggests you may favor certain roles or archetypical characters. It is this idea of these ‘characters’ that makes the ‘just for fun’ Buzzfeed assessment inspiring. As opposed to Howard Gardner’s classification such as “visual-spatial,” the Buzzfeed quiz suggest you are an artist or a designer. Not just any artistic character, Salvador Dali, was in fact the artifact image I chose to represent artists. I think by using artifacts in this way, it has great meaning to the test takers. Perhaps more meaning than knowing one is ‘logical’ or ‘visual-spatial’? Or for test takers that are unfamiliar with the chosen artifact it gives them an opportunity to click the link for the source image and read about the character represented. All things considered, this assignment for myself, and I hope the test takers, is meaningful and fun. (This is for entertainment purposes but some may still find the quiz inciteful).

    Take the Buzzfeed Quiz


    Crafting a Buzzfeed quiz

    At first, I brushed off the Buzzfeed quiz as something that may be relatively easy to do. I’ve made quizzes before as an instructor, but actually, the dimensions to the Buzzfeed quizzes are far greater than a typical quiz you may give students in a brick and mortar classroom. For instance, every question requires a picture which then needs to be given appropriate credits and linkage. These images as cultural artifacts are intended to have meaning to a vast number of people. So the breadth of cultural knowledge to consider is challenging and then also the choice of one cultural artifact over another. 

    Then there’s the questions - witty, meaningful, with a little bit of tact (hopefully not too offensive). Also embedded in each question there are three answers. For each answer, the quiz maker can assign a result and this is the tricky part. The way in which the answers are phrased (biased of course) can mean more or less probability for one result over another. For example:


    Q1: I like to paint, draw, or create things.

    A1: Yes, Creating art is my life.

    A2: No, Art is boring.

    A3: Sometimes, When I feel inspired.


    If “No” is selected, I can assign that result to ‘logical’ or ‘technical’ based characters as they are, in my mind, the opposite of artistic. This is a stereotype of course but the Buzzfeed quizzes, in my experience, are intended to be funny and rely on these stereotypes. Just like a good comic makes his or her jokes relatable to the audience, they use artifacts that rely on stereotypes - it’s part of humanity and culture. Ultimately, these responses to the 20 total questions created 60 possible answers to sort through. I decided to make equal chances for each character result and after I tested this it was too boring. I tested the offline quiz and had a few friends and family members take it as well. I took the quiz at least 10-15 times and I tried to enter a frame of mind of each character to result in that character. I had to spice up the responses a little to make it more funny to engage the audience.


    I added the characters here for amusement. There are 10 different characters so chances are you will only result in a couple. I hope you enjoy the quiz!


    The Artist
    You might be good at creating compelling imagery, sculpted objects, or motion graphics. You observe the world and interpret it through artistic expression. You thrive in disorder and lack of income.

    The Designer
    You seek order and perfection in all things man-made. You may practice drawing, CAD, 3D modeling, and building structures… and sometimes you may also practice obsessive compulsive disorder.

    The Technologist
    You specialize in using technology to your advantage. You may be good at coding and (or) electrical engineering. You have an intimate relationship with your computer(s).

    The Naturist
    You love nature. You often long to be outdoors. You may enjoy hiking, gardening, and taking care of pets or domestic animals. Baths are optional.

    The Performer
    You like being in the spotlight. You may like to dance, act, or play and sing music on stage or in front of the camera. Your excellent at ignoring the strange looks in public transit for reenacting all the parts from entire plays.

    The Musician
    You enjoy listening and (or) creating music. You find meaning and purpose in experiencing life through music and can’t live without it. When lacking inspiration, you may find interesting places to put tattoos and piercings.

    The Poet
    You relate to the world through words. You may like blogging, writing in a journal, or creating poetry. Your favorite past time may be curling up with a good book or correcting your best friend’s grammar mistakes.

    The Athlete
    You can’t sit still for more than 10 minutes. You seek physical activities and competition where you can exhibit your athletic tendencies. You were once diagnosed with ADHD and refused to take your meds… then proceeded to literally climb all the walls in your school.

    The Puzzle Fighter
    You enjoy exercises in logic. You may be good at solving rubiks cubes, Pi, and the mysteries of the universe. You may enjoy studying the molecular structures of various types of cheeses through sniff tests.

    The Renaissance Man or Woman
    You excel at many things and you find variety stimulating. You thrive when you can use your multiple talents to solve problems. When bored, you may find yourself looking for employment in a completely different profession or applying to graduate school… again.


  12. kirklunsford

    Artistic Fan Remix: Critique of Ken Robinson on Flourishing

    by



    Voice: Sir Ken Robinson, Director: Jim Batt, Artist: Molly Crabapple

    As part of the continued practice in digital storytelling, in INTE 5340 MA ILT at CU Denver, I will consume a digital stories and offer critiques. Until now the course has focused on Jason Ohler’s assessment traits as criterions to assess stories. For the remainder of the critiques in the course, I will focus on “everyday remix practices” as described in the Lankshear and Knobel text New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, on pages 127-140.

    Kind of Remix: Fanfiction short movies (if one must be chosen from L&K text)


    Three Literacy Dimensions:

    1. From making movie trailers: “May involve knowing how to include written text in the remixed video to help convey new storyline.”

    2. From creating fanfiction: “Understanding the structure and purpose of narratives and using this to guide writing.”

    3. From creating fan art: “Being able to draw/paint etc.”


    “May involve knowing how to include written text in the remixed video to help convey new storyline.”

    Molly Crabapple, the artist creating the painted images in the video, does a great job of accentuating the narrative by Ken Robinson. She does this by very artistically including choice words into the story being painted. These words are painted large in some parts of the animation to emphasis points, other times the words are positioned by the cat characters such as holding a sign, or thought bubbles. This ultimately takes place to create another clever story using cat characters doing various things. Overall the combination of text and characters creates a new story while still supporting the narrative.

    “Understanding the structure and purpose of narratives and using this to guide writing.”

    The creators of this animation clearly have a great understanding of the narrative provided by Ken Robinson. The whole animation keeps pace with Ken Robinson’s words, thus the animation had to be planned to keep up with spoken word. This must have been challenging because there are different pauses and pace throughout the narrative. In addition to adhering to the structure of speech, the narrative directly guided the paintings in relative time with each other. This seems like a very challenging process to keep sync but the animation makes this look effortless.

    “Being able to draw/paint etc.”

    When I first watched this video I took for granted that Molly was painting this. I thought it was a marker or pen. Then I saw her splash paint on the page and I noticed the pool of paint on the sides and the brushes. I started to really pay attention to the craftsmanship and detail and it’s amazing there are very little, if any, visible errors. There is poetry in the creative expression by this ability to paint and what is being said in the narrative. That people are creative and talented and should “flourish” if given the opportunity to practice things which they are interested in.


  13. kirklunsford

    I Can Feel The Pull: A Response to Lankshear & Knobel Chapter 7

    by
    "New Literacies" Lankshear & Knobel cover with 'pull' sticker

    Introduction

    Chapter seven in New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel was like listening to the preacher preach to the choir. One of my mantras all semester has been ‘mastery.’ The mastery that develops in one’s skill by practices in creativity that lead to broader ability in ‘new literacies,’ or the ability to solve a variety of problems by utilizing various approaches through diverse practices in social learning. This may involve being keen to understanding multiple intelligences, and the ability to switch from one mode of learning to another. Or ‘learning to be’ through communities of practice and deep learning (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 218-219). Many of the participators on ds106, and my fellow classmates in the CU Denver Masters in Information and Learning Technologies program, myself included, are learning to do many different things for the first time. We are learning through our frustrations and comparisons to others in the broader ds106 network that we may be much less proficient in ‘the thing’ we are attempting to do than somebody else. This is mostly because we have not been exposed to it through traditional modes of education and practice. Or we previously did not have much interest in the subject. We are not taught any of the many great things we are trying to do by some regimented classroom. We are taking the initiative to ‘self teach’ and let others in the affinity groups to which we belong, help us, critique us, and praise us. We have perhaps never been so frustrated, but at the same time, never been so rewarded for our efforts by the sense of belonging to the affinity groups and broader networks to which we are ultimately trying to engage or reach. Although myself and my colleagues may not consider ourselves masters in any of these ‘new literacies’ which we study, at least we now have the appreciation to know what it takes to develop these skills and masteries through online social engagement, and ‘grit.’

    “At the heart of Gee and Hayes’ discussion is what they see as the significance of ‘grit,’ understood as a disposition that combines ‘persistence plus passion’ (ibid.: 67) for experiencing success under current and foreseeable social, economic, ‘globalizing’, and epistemic conditions.”
    (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 227).

    A World in Peril

    In further synthesis of the Lankshear and Knobel text with my focal theme, ‘the importance of creative arts in education,’ I looked at Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory and Ken Robinson’s The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. In so many ways this scholarship resonated with chapter seven in the Lankshear and Knobel text. The primary statement, of all three scholarships suggest, simply put, - we are not preparing students in the current dominate educational practices for the future, rather, we are preparing them for test taking and regurgitation of learnt material by superficial means. In other words, as Lankshear and Knobel call it, the “push” model. Where educational systems are designed by governing bodies and ‘pushed’ into the schools for consumption (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 221). Or as Ken Robinson would emphasise, this as an industrial model for education when we are, in fact, living in a postmodern society. Which then brings us to the ‘pull.’ The pull from society to make education relevant to the everyday practices of our time and, in theory, our future. Who knows what problems will need to be addressed in the future? We can suggest a few, such as global warming or rapid consumption of resources, or over population. Essentially, the inability to sustain life, as we know it, on our planet. How will we solve these problems?


    Another Paradigm Shift

    Ken Robinson, Howard Gardner, Lankshear and Knobel, and many others would suggest the problems of the world will not be solved by the ‘push’ model. That’s why we may be at odds with the world and the traditional education system. It’s no longer relevant to our everyday lives. Thus, we are experiencing the revolution that is the transition to the ‘pull’ model.

    “This ‘big shift’ entails a move from the familiar ‘push’ paradigm toward an emergent ‘pull’ paradigm as the conditions for ‘being successful’ change.”
    (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 227).

    As Lankshear and Knobel describe ‘pull,’ they call attention to ‘platforms.’ Platforms like Twitter, or Facebook, or Wikipedia, or ds106. Essentially, places where collaborative learning can happen, where resources can be gathered, dispersed, and discussed (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 228-229). It is through these affinity groups that we create spontaneous learning and develop a sense of belonging that ultimately motivates people to participate, create, and ‘learn to be.’

    I Can Feel The Pull

    As a final note in chapter seven of Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies,” they include a hint to what will be discussed in the next chapter “social learning into Master’s-level study” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 230). This made me think about my current experience at CU Denver ILT MA program. I can honestly say I would not be willing to participate in these courses if the pedagogy was not current and relevant. Furthermore, I am pursuing a Master’s degree in information and learning technology & education to hopefully be a part of these emerging technologies that are revolutionizing education and the world. In a short amount of time there is already a sense of fulfillment because of the practices in this course. I can’t wait to see what I will ‘learn to be’ as I continue my educational journey.


    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

    Aronica, Lou; Robinson, Ken Ph.D. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. 2009. Narr. Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Tantor Media. 2009. Accessed July 13, 2015. Hoopla.

  14. kirklunsford

    Fish Out of Water – Boundaries Exercise tdc1276

    by

    Ds106 tdc1276

    1. Find two spaces that share a boundary
    2. Do something to highlight or alter the relationship between those two spaces.

    I chose to highlight the boundaries of fish and terrestrial beings. What would it be like to be a fish in a fish bowl? What would it be like for the fish to be walking on the ground or swimming through the air?


    The visible, physical boundaries explored were created by the meniscus of the water and the edge of the ‘fish bowl,’ and the computer screen and the rest of the live world. This was created by filming a youtube video: Fish relaxation scene - real life fish swimming to their delight by PlayerResidentCraft through a wine glass half filled with water. I used Adobe Premier to cut the video and add some text and sounds. I had to learn how to use AP by looking at some tutorials. I browsed freesound.org and found two tracks to use under creative commons for this project: ryanconway Underwater / Breathing and Robinhood76 WATER related sounds » 01643 underwater bubbles.wav

    Boundaries - Zarouhie Abdalian | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios

    What a great example of how to utilize 'art thinking' to solve problems. This is explored and demonstrated in the video and it was a fun exercise to practice as part of the ds106 daily creates.What kinds of boundaries exist in our everyday lives? Can you create something to highlight this to bring about discussion or change? Or perhaps make someone think in a new way?

  15. kirklunsford

    All Mashed Up – Week 5 Reflective Practice

    by

    Introduction
    As part of the educational discourse in digital storytelling each week, I will conduct a reflective practice self assessment. These ‘reflections’ will serve as both formative and summative assessment to the learning goals of the course INTE 5340.

    See learning goals in the INTE 5340 syllabus. See DS106 syllabus.

    Requirements and Production


    The Daily Create (x2)
    DS106 Assignment Bank (Mashup)
    Internal production and discussion only. See analysis below.

    Response to Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies” chapter one and selected scholarship
    Is Design Important? A Response to Lankshear and Knobel Chapter Five

    Digital story critique
    The Everyday Remix Practices of Teachers: A Critique of Christopher Emdin: Hip-Hop and the Remix of Science Education


    Comment peer chapter one responses (x2)
    What's a Blog?

    The Perfect Storm - Ch. 5 Response


    What was challenging?

    Week 5 presented many challenges. The first part of the week I spent looking at copyright research and in regards to educational uses and remixes in particular. In short, it’s still very vague what can be construed as ‘infringement.’ What I have concluded is that it is better to be safe sorry. It’s important to try to clarify ‘ownership of others’ as much, and in as many ways, as necessary. I don’t believe most of the remixes as seen by others on ds106 do the best job of doing this or making it abundantly clear where source material is derived. But because I am a professional self-employed artist and designer it’s really important for me to understand and respect copyright concerns as much as possible. It’s also important to consider that many others don’t share the same view or opinions as expressed in the Lankshear and Knobel text or on ds106. And there are others that are ignorant to the importance of culture as mentioned in the L&K text. For me I walk a fine line participating in some of the practices of this course because my superiors, co-workers, or clients may not understand these remixes as a cultural practice, rather, it may be viewed as trying to deliberately ‘copy’ someone else’s work. Or that, in some way, I may be un-capable of producing something original. I would not expect all of the viewers of my work to have read the same literature as myself in order to appreciate remixes as a cultural practice so these assumptions are in some ways fair by others.

    The second most challenging part of this week was creating a music mash-up remix (ed reform themed) while trying to deliberately create new meaning in a transformative nature. There were many issues in regard to technicalities in Adobe Audition, but as those were overcome, new issues with music technicalities emerged. Once the music and sound issues were resolved then I had copyright issues to contend with. Internally, I struggled with this mashup assignment because of copyright so I decided not to make my mashup public. However I completed the assignment and write-up / analysis. This was really unfortunate for me because I felt like I did an exceptional job on the mashup and I paid considerable attention to many nuances that made it a bit more polished and easy to listen to.


    What was most enjoyable?

    My favorite part of my week was creating the music mash-up. I liked the sound and the finished product. In fact, I would like to make many more music remixes but after my experience with copyright concerns, I simply will not. I suppose the enjoyment will have to remain intrinsic. I would have enjoyed this week more if I could find clear evidence that these music mashups and remixes are not in fact infringement. Everything I read stated to “get permission from the copyright owner,” which is totally feasible to do, in a week, for a school assignment, with no money. Right? (sarcasm) I think with extended periods of time and planning it is possible to get ‘permissions’ from all copyright holders. But is there a cost associated with that? Is it challenging to get in touch with the copyright holders? How are restrictions of use negotiated? So many more questions about copyright and everyday remixes. I simply could not feasibly deal with all of the questions and concerns around this subject matter to deliver as I would have liked in less than one week.

    What was learned about the focal theme and what issues / questions have emerged?

    This week I focused on some everyday practices of teachers who integrate creativity into their lessons of ‘core’ subjects to promote engagement and interest of students. Namely, the work of Chris Emdin, a science educator that integrates poetry and hip-hop into his lessons. What I learned from this is that there are many unique ways to integrate creativity to promote interest in the classroom. The way in which creative activities enrich core subjects is demonstrated by Chris. However, for Chris, his unique way of using hip-hop is appropriate for the demographics or urban population where he teaches. This method may not apply to other areas in the country or world. It should be noted that subject matter and methods to integrate creativity should, in as many ways as possible, be relevant to the students. Finding this relevance requires ‘strong ties’ to the community and culture of the school district, individual school, classroom, and the individual students.

    Points earned 10/10?

    I exhausted myself again this week. I’ve researched subject matter beyond my focal theme. I’ve engaged with others about their focal themes.I participated in discussions about copyright with other ‘ds106er’s’ outside of this course. I spent significant time and effort crafting a remix that has a lot of meaning to my focal subject. I responded to other students questions as a response to the L&K text. In summation, engagement and research was above and beyond the course requirements for exemplary grades. However because I could not find a clear way to make my remix public I have to give myself 9/10 points.

    References:
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.
  16. kirklunsford

    Elephant Element Drawing tdc1278

    by
    Elephant Element Drawing"From The Sketchnote Workbook. We can draw everything with these 5 basic elements. Shall we try it? Find a complex subject for your composition and draw it using only circles, squares, triangles and dots!" -tdc1278I am not ...
  17. kirklunsford

    Is Design Important? A Response to Lankshear and Knobel Chapter Five

    by

    Intro

    In chapter five of New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel the reader begins to take a detailed look at the practices of blogs and wikis. Much like the changes as seen in web 1.0 to web 2.0, it can be noted that the participation, authorship, and readership of blogs and wikis has changed dramatically since the development and implementation of accessible user interfaces and publishing mediums. Lankshear and Knobel mention this when referring to the limitation of blogs as seen in the 90’s, because blogging in the 90’s required some knowledge of HTML. Fifteen years later, we can see the explosion of blogs, and microblogging in conjunction with social media and accessibility on mobile devices. The result of this ease of access and mobility is diverse content and practices amongst bloggings offering multi-faceted dimensions of engagement in our lives (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 142-144).

    Blogs

    Interestingly enough, as Lankshear and Knobel refer to research by Eric Baumer, Mark Sueyoshi, and Bill Tomlinson, “most research on blogs focuses on either the blog itself or the blogger, rarely, if at all focusing on the reader’s impact despite the interactive nature of blogs as a medium.” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 145). Perhaps this is due to the somewhat relaxed nature of blogging and the views which expressed on blogs are typically opinionated, personal narratives. This may or may not be interesting to read based on one’s opinion, but as a collective of blogs, such as the ‘multi-blogger’ Project Runway example given by Lankshear and Knobel, one may find deep interest in the various opinions and accounts of the blogs and responses to posts (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 147,148). The blogging of ‘Project Runway’ evolved over time as technologies evolved and the blogging community grew. In summation, Lankshear and Knobel describe the Blogging of Project Runway as ‘full-fledged cultural practice.’

    “The Blogging of Project Runway “is no single blogging practice. It has evolved massively over time: from a static, post facto, monomodal medium to a multi-temporal, multimodal medium which, durings seasons, functions as a real-time mediator of the TV show - but still with the original purpose of enriching fans’ experience of the show."
    (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 156).

    Wikis

    In short, wikis are a community of practice, a collaborative work of writing, data, media, and links which people develop and share about a subject over time and space. Wikis can be ‘online’ or ‘offline’ or only available on an intranet, such as typically seen in many places of work where proprietary information would not be seen publicly. Lankshear and Knobel refer to Halatchliyski (and colleagues) who identify “three dimensions of wikis as a medium for knowledge building: content, discursive, and network.” Essentially, content being ‘epistemic artifact’, discursive being ‘scaffolding’, and network being ‘connections.’ (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 164). Wikis can be seen as a collaborative practice and process which enables mentorship, meaning negotiation, and generation of new knowledge by the collective intelligence. (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 165)

    Collaborative Documents

    The last part of chapter five, comparatively, a footnote in the chapter briefly describes collaborative documents such as Google Docs. I think this is partially because the widespread use of such documents was not as prevalent when this book was written and subsequently published in 2011. Because I use Google Docs on an everyday basis since 2011, rather than summarize the text, I will describe from my own experience. From my own accounts, I could see the rise in use of Google Docs in my own places of works from 2011-2015. Now two of the three companies I work for rely heavily on Google Docs to collaboratively collect and track data from multiple team members, vendors, and partners. And recently, as a grad student I can see professors in the Information and Learning Tech department at UC Denver SEHD use these google docs to share syllabuses and other resources with colleagues, students, and sometimes the greater public. In fact, for the course which I am writing this response, I have various folders on Google Drive setup for production and I refer to the syllabus created in Google Docs by the professor.

    The main appeal to using Google Docs is that it is more privatized collaboration if you want it to be. Also the documents save automatically and they can be accessed on mobile devices. One could start writing a paper in a lab, then continue working on the paper on their mobile device on the train ride, then again in their study at home, or at the coffee shop, or social meet-up, etc. Additionally, documents that used to be incredibly annoying to share and update, i.e. spreadsheets, can now be shared ‘live’ and viewed or worked on simultaneously. This is incredibly useful when you are collaborating with several co-workers and vendors throughout the country or world. Google for me, has taken the social practice of creating and emailing a spreadsheet to co-workers, which then gets passed on to a vendor, then back to me, and so forth, and simplified this exchange to one live collaborative process. In essence, collaborative documents have streamlined workflow, tracking, and collaboration and have enabled the ability to work seamlessly with many others in various time zones or locations throughout the world, from the comfort of one’s home or from the cubicle on the 40th floor of an office building.

    How does this relate to the subjects of scholarship?

    How does this all relate to digital storytelling or creative arts education? As can be seen by ‘ds106er’s,’ and the students in the CU Denver digital storytelling course, the comprehensive list of blogs shared on ds106 is astonishing. Each of which describes one’s journey to become literate in these ‘new literacies’ and collaborate with the greater digital storytelling community at large. One begins to construct an identity, and record of personal narrative as they sequentially make blog posts over time. To me, blogging is the fundamental framework for which to craft and share one’s story. The comments and feedback and subsequent sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc., acts as the means for which others to critique one’s work and add to the collective of shared experiences and intelligences.

    Although my scholarship in ‘the importance of creative arts in education’ this week did not directly address wikis or blogs, it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest blogging and creating wikis are social practices that involve many creative endeavors such as design and layout, photo-manipulation, creative writing, and a host of other technical skills that contribute to the overall function and design of a blog or wiki. Seemingly simple things like: What font should be used? What layout looks best? What colors evoke a certain meaning? All have bearing on the overall aesthetics and functional use of a blog or wiki yet seldom are these design topics focused upon in typical schooling. As it is now one may learn these things through trial and error and personal interest until they develop an eye for visual design aesthetics. That’s why things like ds106 are so great for the continued development of one’s craft that ultimately contributes to their maturity in ‘new literacies’ and critical eye for design.

    Conclusion

    I found chapter five relatively easy to grasp as I actively engage in most of the things described in the chapter in my professional and school lives. I’m not sure if this is why I did not find profound meaning in this chapter, or if it is because I am somewhat disinterested in Project Runway? I focused on the remix practices of teachers for my scholarship research this week and I did not stumble across any relative use of blogging or wikis in that search to relate or ‘synthesis’ with this chapter’s material. I suppose questions for my classmates and colleagues remain: How does one learn to effectively use design in their blog? In other words, develop a sensibility for type font, layout, and design principles. Is this something that is or should be learned in school? How confident should digital storytellers be with design sensibilities; is it important?


    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.
  18. kirklunsford

    The Everyday Remix Practices of Teachers: A Critique of Christopher Emdin: Hip-Hop and the Remix of Science Education

    by


    UC Denver digital storytelling students wishing to comment on this critique: 
    Although I would love it if everyone had the time to watch the full youtube video, you can get ‘the just’ of this remix practice within 5-10 minutes of watching if you would like to participate in comments. Please don’t shy away because of the length of the video.

    Critique Format
    As part of the continued practice in digital storytelling, in INTE 5340 MA ILT at CU Denver, I will consume digital stories and offer critiques. Until now the course has focused on Jason Ohler’s assessment traits as criterions to assess stories. For the remainder of the critiques in the course, I will focus on “everyday remix practices” as described in the Lankshear and Knobel text New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, on pages 127-140.

    Introduction
    In efforts to transition and answer some of the questions from last week, I started to dig into some everyday remix practices of teachers. This also in light of the critique of @Remiholden #youthclinica15 with Denver youth @hivedenver5280.
    @Remiholden picture from exercise #youthclinica15
    Remember that ‘ed reform helicopter’ with the ‘help bubble’ and no stickies around the brainstormed topic? I’m hoping to answer some questions about ‘education reform’ especially in urban youth culture. After watching the lecture “Hip-Hop and the Remix of Science” by Christopher Emdin on youtube, a professor at Columbia University, I’m starting to think more about the things teachers can do, whether or not ‘reformed education’ is part of the curriculum. After much research and scholarship on the issue of ‘the importance of creative arts in education,’ I’m convinced the best practices of teachers may be to ‘remix’ the major subject at hand with creativity and culture whilst still supporting the required material. Christopher Emdin is a superb example of this with his integration of hip-hop into science material. Although his lecture did not mention how his hip-hop lyrical poetry helps students retain material, per se, I’m willing to theorize that with engagement, connectivity, and relativity to one’s life this allows students to retain learnt material. If nothing else, Christopher’s artful and relatable technique melts the ‘ice grill’ of any stone-cold look and opens the door to learning.


    Kind of Remix: Political Remix (if one must be chosen from L&K text)


    Three Literacy Dimensions:

    1. From political remix: “Having something to say that appeals to others.”
    2. From political remix: “Identifying how to convey a lot of meaning in a limited amount of space or time.”
    3. From political remix: “Requires being up to date with current news events, or familiar with significant social issues.”


    “Having something to say that appeals to others.”


    Firstly, Christopher’s lecture appeals to me as an educator so my ears perk up when he talks about pedagogy and methodology. I’m sure the other educators in the room during his lecture did the same. Secondly, some young students also attended his lecture and Christopher called them out as appreciating his rhythmic and poetic use of acapella hip hop around the topic of physics and science as a whole. Furthermore, Christopher talks about the culture of urban youth and the physical presence often presented as a defense mechanism to things that sometimes make them feel vulnerable. In urban slang, also known as ‘ice grill.’ Christopher says his hip-hop is appealing to his students and it brings them to the threshold of learning by melting their ‘ice grill.’ One can imagine the appeal in being able to melt that ‘ice grill’ and see the grins of engaged students. “The beautiful thing about ice is what? Ice can always be melted.”


    “Identifying how to convey a lot of meaning in a limited amount of space or time.”


    When Christopher spits lyrics he does so in a fashion that is in rapid succession. Rhythmically, and powerfully combined with scientific terminology. Before he began to rap, he first read from the physics text and you can hear the confusion and boredom of the crowd and he asks “Is that clear?” When he combined the information, and more ad lib, you can feel the crowd - even in the youtube video, sit on the edge of their seat listening to what he is saying. As Christopher continues to speak he continues to do so, not as rap, but still rhythmically. And as he does so he is conveying a lot of meaning with his words and the pictures and videos he shares.


    “Requires being up to date with current news events, or familiar with significant social issues.”


    What I really appreciated about Christopher’s lecture was first, his superficial look at the culture of hip-hop and urban youth and then his much deeper dive into the sources of these cultures through a historical and anthropological appreciation. And the concept of ‘education’ through history as an exercise in uniformity, that in many ways, strips or ignores social cultures and is stagnant to change. He talks about a need for new theoretical frameworks to analyze the classroom such as “neo-indigenous cosmopolitanism.” Christopher says, In other words, “what happens historically will play out again in the classroom.” Both globally and locally, these issues have an affect on the culture of the classroom. He compares this to “oppression at the hands of a dominant other,” such as colonial America to what we see today in the criminal justice system. And that we need to understand the connections back to the indigenous people. Not just the street corner or ‘hood’ but the historical context of the things that brought that individual to that neighborhood. I find great relevance with what is going on in current affairs and what Christopher is suggesting in his theory. This puts the magnifying glass on the culture and history and relates it to what is going on with urban youth in the classroom. Chris’s ultimate suggestion to address urban youth in the classroom is “reality pedagogy.” Overall, a very critical and relevant approach to the social and cultural issues at hand.


    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Nobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

    Emdin, Christopher. WGBHForum. (2014, April 4) Christopher Emdin: Hip-Hop and the Remix of Science Education
  19. kirklunsford

    Reflections of Immersion: Week 4 Reflective Practice INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling

    by
    Week 4 Collage

    Introduction

    As part of the educational discourse in digital storytelling each week, I will conduct a reflective practice self assessment. These ‘reflections’ will serve as both formative and summative assessment to the learning goals of the course INTE 5340.

    See learning goals in the INTE 5340 syllabus. See DS106 syllabus.

    Requirements and Production



    The Daily Create (x2)
    Ms Kitty Stop Moving tdc1269
    High Tide at Torrey Pines tdc1271

    DS106 Assignment Bank (Design)
    What Do Creative Humans Do In School?

    Response to Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies” chapter one and selected scholarship
    Ed Reform Remix: A Response to Lankshear & Knobel Ch 4


    Comment peer critiques (x2)

    Comment peer chapter one responses (x2)
    Response to Lankshear and Knoble’s New Literacies: Chapter Four

    (comment added here because comment awaiting moderation)

    “Emily,

    I too am interested to see how this copyright thing pans out. In fact I feel somewhat insecure about engaging in the activities in this course because of the remix requirements. I've done my best to state ownership of others where applicable and I'm certainly not making money off of anything. To that point, I really don't think there is much interest in enforcement of copyright unless someone has turned significant profits by use of the copyrighted works of others. And pretty much everyone engages in everyday remixes that technically may infringe on copyrights, but to the point as mentioned in LK text, remixes are and have always been part of our culture. Until recently people could for the most part engage freely in these remixes.”

    The Future = Mind Blowing...Chapter 4 Response

    Reflective summary

    Reflections of Immersion: Week 4 Reflective Practice INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling


    What was challenging?

    Week four was another challenging week! I’m still struggling to find life balance with the amount of professional and coursework I must complete each week. I really enjoy it all but I know I function best with more sleep and exercise. I will work on the schedule and limitations next week. The new critique format also through a wrench in the typical production I was used to each week. I also had to stretch to classify the remix I chose and in effect, remixed the remix by critique. There were also some additional conversations on Twitter that took time and place when I would be engaging in other production activities. I appreciated and thought all of the tweets were engaging and useful but definitely added another dimension of work / learning this week. Overall, the production exercises themselves were not too challenging but the time and place which production needed to take place was exhausting.

    What was most enjoyable?

    I think I really enjoyed the daily creates this week. The “art history in everyday” and “make a photo better” were fun to do. It was also enjoyable to see other classmates produce these daily creates. Some of these were also humorous. I found the humor much needed in the week and it also encouraged production.

    What was learned about the focal theme and what issues / questions have emerged?

    I really dug into the focal theme this week with both scholarship and Twitter conversations. I finished the audiobook by Ken Robinson, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education, and listened to several chapters a couple of times for further understanding. When I synthesised this with the Lankshear and Knobel text some questions emerged: “When education is no longer relevant it brings up many questions as I think about the future of education and ‘new literacies.’ Such as, if public education is no longer relevant will we see more home-schooling and online alternative education? Will there be a massive privatization of education in order to seek relevance? Will some social classes be left out of home school or privatized education?”

    To me, the solution to ‘new literacies’ engagement and core education is to ‘remix’ subjects to include a multi-disciplinary and technological approach. However this requires curriculum to support this. This curriculum is unlikely because typical current curriculum is designed to support achievement on standardized tests. These tests are part of national and state governmental requirements. So before we can effectively change curriculum, the government requirements and societal values must change. Because change in this way is less likely, I believe people will turn to private schools to receive education enriched with multi-disciplinary approaches and relevant technologies.

    Points earned 10/10?

    I delivered everything with excellence and on time this week. I exhausted myself through thought and creativity. As I type the tips of my fingers hurt with each key depression. When I sleep I dream of ‘new literacies’ and education reform. When I wake, I awake to tweets about ds106 and scholarship. Total immersion has happened and it is as it should be at the end of the halfway point in the semester. The next step is to re-invigorate all of this into my daily life as I have hit possibly the most exhausting point of the semester in an eight week course. Realizing this as well as delivering this week I give myself 10/10.


    Citations
    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

    Aronica, Lou; Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Creative Schools the Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. 2015. Narr. Robinson, Ken Ph.D.
    Tantor Media. May 8, 2015. Accessed June 20, 2015. Digital File.
  20. kirklunsford

    High Tide at Torrey Pines tdc1271

    by
    High Tide Torrey Pines tdc1271DS106 daily create 1271Inspired by Katsushika Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa. Combined with a photo I took at Torrey Pines. I accessed the image from google cultural ...
  21. kirklunsford

    Twitter As a Means of Digital Remixing: A critique of @remiholden #youthclinica15

    by

    "The Land of Now"
    As part of the continued practice in digital storytelling, in INTE 5340 MA ILT at CU Denver, I will consume digital stories and offer critiques. Until now the course has focused on Jason Ohler’s assessment traits as criterions to assess stories. For the remainder of the critiques in the course, I will focus on “everyday remix practices” as described in the Lankshear and Knobel text New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, on pages 127-140.

    As if it wasn’t hard enough to jump into a new practice, I would like to stretch the boundaries of what is defined in the ‘Lankshear and Knobel’ text under popular everyday remix practices. In fact, the remix practice I would like to briefly analyze is digital remixing of events as re-accounted over the course of a live event then selectively broadcasted on Twitter. Although I do not believe this is described in Lankshear & Knobel in chapter four as 'remixes of everyday practice,' I think this is a common remix, and in fact may be the most popular remix social practice today as millions of people do this around the world everyday. 

    Let’s start with the definition of ‘remixing’ as Lankshear and Knobel define on page 96: “remixing involves taking cultural artifacts and combining and manipulating them into new kinds of creative blends and products” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 95). And as an example in everyday culture from the text, referring to Lessig: “At its most general, simple, necessary, and profound, remix is quite simply the idea ‘of someone mixing things together and then someone else coming along and remixing that thing they have created’ (Lessig 2005: n.p.)” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 97). Lessig then goes on to describe an account of a movie as it unfolds amongst friends and how that is in fact a remix in everyday life (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 97). Twitter can essentially be used in a similar fashion as reaccounting a movie amongst friends or with the rest of the world, and so much more.


    #Youthclinica15

    It is with this understanding and interest in Twitter as a means for remixing that I would like to look closer at a series of tweets by @remiholden while he was attending #youthclinica15 with #Denver youth. on July 1st 2015. In short, I have come to know Remi as a higher ed educator that believes in the social practices of Twitter to further enhance educational experiences. It’s included in his endeavors to create concepts of relevant pedagogy and educational ecology. Remi’s tweets, as well as a few others also engaged with Remi on Twitter, who participated in the activity #youthclinica15 captivated me for several reasons, but most of which, the topics involved some things of interest related to my focal theme ‘the importance of creative arts in education’ and education reform in general. Plus, the larger issues of equity and community.

    Framed in conjunction with the Lankshear and Knobel text:

    Kind of Remix: Account of live event on Twitter (or Political Remix if one must be chosen from L&K text)


    Three Literacy Dimensions:

    1. From political remix: “Requires being up to date with current news events, or familiar with significant social issues.”
    2. From political remix: “Identifying how to convey a lot of meaning in a limited amount of space or time.”
    3. From political remix: “Knowing how to tap into spaces where the remix is likely to attract widespread attention.”

    “Requires being up to date with current news events, or familiar with significant social issues.”
    Poem #youthclinica15

    The denver youth brought up many important and meaningful topics based on current events. Mainly ideas of race and social class, such as over the past year police brutality against blacks in particular. The expression of these ideas as they unfolded in the pictures Remi shared from the events along with Remi’s texts were very powerful and shocking poem about police brutality that he shared as the first shock to me. It made me realize our youth are exposed to all of this hate and discrimination and they are internalizing and processing it and then sharing it in powerful ways. Another shocking story unfolded while looking at a vine that Joe Dillon shared that was part of the same text being created in a picture that Remi shared.

    Vine #youthclinica15
    The vine stopped before she finished what she was writing, but it looked like it said “Who do you call when the police kill…” Another shocking realization of the fear and insecurity black youth face. Needless to say, to engage in these topics one must be up to date with current events and social issues, which can be seen as Remi engages in tweets and retweets.
    I can recall the

    “Identifying how to convey a lot of meaning in a limited amount of space or time.”

    Remi slays Twitter with masterful and poetic use of characters within the 140 character limit.

    For example: “What are "real issues" in community? Youth asking powerful ?s abt equity, identity, priorities, change at #youthclinica15 #connectedlearning

    He’s telling a story about denver youth asking questions, but he’s also asking the same questions to people on the Twitter space in a clever way. The use of abbreviations like “?s abt” disregarding the apostrophe and saying “questions about” help produce text that is within the character limit. Yet commonly used forms of abbreviations so the readers don’t have to work to decipher texts. While Remi was processing this text at the live event he’s probably multitasking so he has little time to produce this but the message is still very powerful and meaningful.


    “Knowing how to tap into spaces where the remix is likely to attract widespread attention.”
    "Help" ed reform #youthclinica15

    “This seems oddly appropriate #edreform #edchat #connectedlearning at #youthclinica15

    The Tweet that Remi shared that really caught my attention in regards to my focal topic was the picture of the drawn helicopter from “The Land of Now” activity / brainstorm / illustration. Next to the helicopter was a sticky that said “education reform.” This was both amusing and interesting with Remi’s comment “This seems oddly appropriate.” There was also a ‘help’ bubble and no other sticky notes around this. Possibly indicating that this is an uncertain area of concern. With this powerful and amusing image, Remi also added #edreform, #edchat, #connectedlearning at #youthclinica15. Adding this image in particular to #edreform and #edchat has potential to engage other people on Twitter as these hashtags have a wider audience of participators and readers around the topic of education. Another masterful and deliberate example of engagement on Twitter to perhaps attract more widespread attention.

    All together the combination of artwork in conjunction with social commentary and engagement with activities was impressive and inspiring. It made me think about many issues in current affairs and how this impacts community and education. What’s interesting in regards to my focal theme is how this was drawn out through creative expression by the various means demonstrated at #youthclinica15. It makes me wonder why we don’t do things like this more often? Or why does it take this special event to have these creative social expressions? 
  22. kirklunsford

    Ed Reform Remix: A Response to Lankshear & Knobel Ch 4

    by
    80's kid remix (me)

    Upon the first read of chapter four in New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel I glossed over many of the details described in remix practices. This essentially happened because I have ‘grown up’ at an age that can be marked as the beginning of the digital age. Thus, I am very much aware of the the remixes described in chapter four. Some of which remixes I practice on an everyday basis as a means of production and to facilitate learning and explanation in my professional practice. In a way I have taken it for granted that digital remixes are a means of expressing culture and ideas as ‘new.’ It wasn’t until the second or third read that things started to ‘sink in’ for me to recognize the importance of remixing and ‘new literacies’ and that remixes are and always have been a part of human culture.

    Additionally there is controversy surrounding the idea of remixing and copyright laws in the digital age. As I write this, I just reviewed my Twitter feed (#copyright decision) to find that the US Supreme Court just made a decision that could affect the rights of programmers who create API’s (application programming interfaces). Virtually every remix as described in Lankshear and Knobel is subject to copyright laws which may or may not be enforced depending on a variety of reasons, but essentially, in my view, the ability to make money on said remix or not is the deciding factor. One may also mark the digital age as a ‘corporate age’ where money rules all regardless of how greed affects culture, social practice, and the progress of humanity.

    Although analyzing the text to understand the implications and effects of copyright on remix practices is interesting, the subjects in the Lankshear and Knobel texts are very broad. Therefore, I have limited my scope for this reading response to a focus on read-write social practices and the skills necessary to participate in these practices. And in further synthesis of the focal theme I have chosen for this digital storytelling course, ‘the importance of creative arts in education,’ and additional scholarship associated with the theme, I can make many comparisons to the points expressed by Ken Robinson in, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education and the ideas expressed in “New Literacies.” Although I have included scholarship from the works of Ken Robinson, in previous responses to Lankshear and Knobel, I do not believe I have exhausted these resources as there are numerous accounts and comparisons that are useful in the discourses I have chosen. Furthermore, the texts written by Ken Robinson are exceedingly rich with value that can be expressed to further deliver meaning in conjunction with the Lankshear and Knobel text.

    Firstly, I’d like to point out from Lankshear and Knobel text, in reference to Lessig, that participating in remix practices are both ‘RO’ and ‘RW,’ or read-only and read-write (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 97). One may only consume digital stories to create intrinsic meaning without ever contributing to said culture by producing remixes of their own. Such as, being a watcher of funny cat videos on Youtube but never actually capturing video of their own cats engaging in funny things and then posting it on Youtube. Where as read-write may be perceived as making a remix of the funniest cat videos on Youtube and coordinating it with music to be re-uploaded and consumed by others. By further reading the text the reader gets a lengthy, very detailed description of a person known as ‘Maguma’ who engaged in ‘RO’ practices for sometime before engaging in ‘RW.’ The anecdote in the the text spans from pages 117-126. But essentially, RO practice, in my view, is a typical practice for people to learn about cultures. Not only said culture but the means to create and be functional in said culture. Once a person is ‘cultured’ he or she may feel like they can engage in critique, discussion, original works, or remixed works.

    The level of involvement which someone chooses to put into a culture can mean learning many technical things in addition to social aspects and language required to engage. Referring to the ‘Maguma’ example again, 

    “Maguma has pursued a deep understanding of what needs to be done to create what other AMV remixers consider a ‘good’ AMV” 

    (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011, p. 122). 

    It is the concept of ‘good’ that I would like to emphasis when I think about the importance of creative arts in education. ‘Maguma’ is unique individual that had deep passion for AMV and anime culture. It is this interest that motivated him be so engaged in many technical things like audio and video editing and post production effects along with an understanding of anime culture, all things considered. But what about people or students that don’t have a deep passion to dive in and participate in read-write social practices? There can be fear of failure, lack of ability to be creative, and lack of skills necessary to engage in the social practices of remixes. I think for many, because of this, they are simply passive read-only participators. I believe integrating the arts into core subjects in both digital and analog ways can stimulate interest and ability to participate in everyday remixing practices as part of ‘new literacies.’

    This week alone, as was seen on the daily creates as part of Ds106, there were several drawing assignments. Several people participated in these exercises, but also they noted along with their tweet texts or blogs that ‘this is a bad drawing,’ or similar negative comments on their own work. The expression of their work and self-confidence is negative, most likely because they do not have any formal education or informal practice drawing. This could be due to lack of interest or lack of application in school or professional practice. Regardless, an education that synthesises visual arts, performing arts, music, technology, and core subjects creates situations for which students to adequately and confidently engage in remixes and ‘new literacies’ by means of practice in the fundamental creative means of expression. Thus, potentially creating more positive read-write experiences for the participators.

    An example of a school that practices ‘remixed’ education, as I think of it, was given by Ken Robinson in chapter six of “Creative Schools.” In reference to High Tech High, a school in San Diego, he says:

    “You’re trying to wet the pedagogy of tech with the content of academics. The students cover the whole curriculum effectively because they integrate one discipline into another. Art and biology might be combined for instance, or humanities and math. The students are publishing texts, making documentary films, and creating a wide variety of projects” 

    (Robinson, Ken Ph.D. 2015, Ch. 6).

    The students at High Tech High are participating in many of the practices that are part of engaging in everyday remixing. Their works are publicized and open to critique and the students develop a language and appreciation for criticism. It is this practice, whether in person or in an online forum, of publicly displaying works that engages students in the art of self-reflection and effective communication. One can see these things as valuable practices in order to be successful in college or the professional world. “Nearly all High Tech High students go to college, and seventy percent of them go to four year colleges. Our college completion numbers are extraordinarily good” (Robinson, Ken Ph.D. 2015, Ch. 6). If High Tech High is so successful what is stopping other schools from implementing curriculum like this?

    As I review what was learned in chapter four of Lankshear and Knobel “New Literacies,” as well as what I learnt from continued scholarship in the works of Ken Robinson, I can see tremendous value in the the everyday remix practices for creative educational purposes. As seen in the appendix of the Lankshear and Knobel pages 127-140 there are many different ways to engage in these remixes. I think about education reform in order to make relevant and enjoyable curriculum, most if not all of these kinds of remixes promote literacy beyond what one would typically receive from public education. Furthermore the social practices of everyday remixing contribute to a sense of humanity and culture and a sense of belonging. As a society we should seek to leverage these remixes for education, however after analyzing Ken Robinson’s text “Creative Schools,” I know we are not because of standardized testing enforced at a governmental level. Where curriculum is developed to support performance on the tests, in other words ‘test prep.’ The additional complicated and exhausting details of which I will not include here, however, as I understand through synthesis of texts, the point of typical education is not to create situations for which students to be functional and prepared for society. Rather, to perform well on tests which feeds the ego of a competitive global ‘educational’ landscape measured on ‘core subjects’ rather than core relevancies.

    When education is no longer relevant it brings up many questions as I think about the future of education and ‘new literacies.’ Such as, if public education is no longer relevant will we see more home schooling and online alternative education? Will there be a massive privatization of education in order to seek relevance? Will some social classes be left out of home school or privatized education? In some ways the future looks bright, but as with all change in paradigms, which we are currently experiencing, there will be struggles and resistance to change. I for one, will continue to look forward to the future where everyone has access to relevant education designed just for them. And I look forward to seeking answers to these questions from the following chapters in Lankshear and Knobel as well as in the works of Ken Robinson and continued discussion with peers and colleagues. 


    Citations


    New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning Third Ed by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. McGraw-Hill Education 2011.

    Aronica, Lou; Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Creative Schools the Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. 2015. Narr. Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Tantor Media. May 8, 2015. Accessed June 20, 2015. Digital File.
  23. kirklunsford

    Ms Kitty Stop Moving tdc1269

    by
    Ms Kitty cleaning herselfI snapped a photo a few weeks back when trying to get a picture of Kitty for a blind contour drawing. She was licking herself and then she shook her head right when I snapped it. So now for "A bad photo made better" daily creat...
  24. kirklunsford

    What Do Creative Humans Do In School?

    by
    What Creative Humans Do In School
    When I saw the Barcode Transformation ds106 design assignment I immediately gravitated to it. After reading Ken Robinson’s, Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education,I have come to understand the typical public school system as a concept emerging from the modern/industrial era. Ken Robinson also refers to “No Child Left Behind,” and high stakes testing that is part of the current educational landscape for K-12. He even refers to the barcode system and children viewed as products with an expiration date. Ken goes on to describe people as creative human beings that would be best served under an ‘organic system’ rather than a robotic, industrial system. So in response to finishing “Creative Schools” I created this illustration with a propaganda feel utilizing the barcode assignment on ds106.

    For the past three weeks, I have been totally immersed in the narrative of Ken Robinson. I’ve watched his videos on TED and I’ve listened to podcasts and various other interviews in conjunction with listening to his audio book “Creative Schools.” Needless to say, I’ve been imagining the industrial educational system in my head as gears, assembly lines, and barcodes. So when I set about to create this illustration, I looked for art inspiration and assets that felt industrial. I was able to find some vectors of the figures and the school house on shutterstock for download. The gears I created myself in Adobe Illustrator along with the text, barcodes, and overall composition. I set my composition to A4 setting to create a mock-up as a magazine spread. In a way, this combines elements of other design assignments to make a more comprehensive project. Here is a brief tutorial on how to make a magazine layout as A4 size. Basically, the assignment was rated 2.5 stars so I needed to bump it up some.

    The composition came about by playing with the various vector shapes, scale, color, and contrast to get the desired layout. The biggest chore was using the pathfinder tool to crop out the ‘barcode’ lines on each figure. The pathfinder tool is sometimes picky about how shapes are separated and combined to trim, divide, merge, etc. I found the trim function in the pathfinder palette to be most effective, although there were some stray shapes generated. I just deleted any unnecessary artifacts and re-ordered the layers over the other element to get the ‘crowd’ look. My favorite part of the barcode elements is how the figures sort of dripped down into the area where the serial codes are implemented, along with, the ‘standardized tests’ text that is combined with numbers. Overall this was another really rewarding assignment that delivers meaning to my focal topic ‘the importance of creative arts in education.’

    Citations

    Aronica, Lou; Robinson, Ken Ph.D. Creative Schools the Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education. 2015. Narr. Robinson, Ken Ph.D.
    Tantor Media. May 8, 2015. Accessed June 20, 2015. Digital File.
  25. kirklunsford

    The Movement of ‘New Literacies’: Week 3 Reflective Practice INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling

    by
    Week 3 Collage

    Introduction


    As part of the educational discourse in digital storytelling each week, I will conduct a reflective practice self assessment. These ‘reflections’ will serve as both formative and summative assessment to the learning goals of the course INTE 5340.

    See learning goals in the INTE 5340 syllabus. See DS106 syllabus.

    Requirements and Production



    The Daily Create (x2)

    Where I Stand tdc1262

    The Power to Shape The World Through DrGarcia's Lens tdc1266

    DS106 Assignment Bank (Video)

    Ken Robinson HG Wells Quote - Kinetic Typography

    Response to Lankshear & Knobel “New Literacies” chapter one and selected scholarship

    Ed 2.0, Affinities, And Social Responsibility: A Response to Lankshear and Knobel Chapter 3

    Digital story critiques (x2)

    Let’s get fired up! CNN Ron Clark Academy Global Citizen

    A Curious Critique On A Story About A Story, About Another Story

    Comment peer critiques (x2)

    Critique Week 3-2: Critique: Edutopia- Fostering Creativity and Community with a Platform Video Game

    Week 3 Critique: 2 I Got 99 Problems… Palsy is Just One

    Comment peer chapter one responses (x2)

    Reading Response: Chapter 3 - "'New' literacies: technologies and values / War of Art, Pages 61 - 86


    New ethos and social learning – Week 3 reading response


    Reflective summary

    The Movement of 'New Literacies': Week 3 Reflective Practice INTE 5340 Digital Storytelling

    What was challenging?

    The challenges of this course overall is the amount of production that must take place each week. This would not be so bad if it was not for other responsibilities such as a full time job that also requires an intense amount of production and communication across several platforms and devices. I am currently experiencing multiplicities of ‘new literacies’ almost to the point of overload. I let Twitter distract me on a daily basis because I want to be thinking about the course, and what I am learning, pretty much whenever I am not sleeping (and I am sure some tweets find their way into my sleep). This slows down my work day and makes it more enjoyable but it’s a distraction. I’m finding part of navigating ‘new literacies’ is to choose times of focus and limitation of communiques and times of extreme communication across multiple platforms and devices.

    Secondly, what’s challenging about this week was the video assignment I chose from the video assignment bank. I knew it was going to be hard to learn how to animate effectively in Adobe After Effects, and it was going to take a long time to make the illustration I had in my head, but I knew I would learn a lot whether successful or not. Because I was finding success, I kind of became obsessed with animation and was working late until 2-3 am a couple of nights. This tends to happen to me when I start to grab a hold of something new. It’s good and bad. Because after staying up until 3am and getting 3 hours of sleep I got sick the next day and I was not as productive. This was a reminder to me about pacing myself better. I probably would be okay staying up until 1am and getting up at 7am so I should try to shut my brain off earlier.

    The third challenging part of this week was chapter 3 in Lankshear & Knobel. There was a lot of information to digest in this chapter. I read the chapter 2-3 times and I highlighted important things and put sticky notes on pages with thoughts as they came up. This was just a small step to being able to synthesise what is learned in the chapter with scholarship. I downloaded Ken Robinson’s “Creative Schools” this week and I have been listening to the audio book while I do my professional work. I know I am an aural learner, right next to social and visual so it is possible for me to get just as much, if not more, out of the audio recording rather than more reading. I found much relief in doing this because the amount of reading I do on a day to day basis is already immense. After making it halfway through the audio book, I was able to make some connections between Lankshear & Knobel and “Creative Schools.” Now the real challenge was limiting myself on what I wanted to focus on for my response. Chapter 3 encompassed so many things, but I decided to focus on the contrast between modern/postmodern, web 1.0-2.0, and affinities. I was able to draw out some deep thinking by focusing on the comparison in education reform to these concepts as well as suggest social responsibility in regards to participation in affinities.

    What was most enjoyable?

    I really enjoyed creating the animation as part of the kinetic typography video assignment. It was challenging, but I now feel empowered to create animations for many other things. In my mind on any given assignment, I see movement, I hear sounds, I see words - now I feel as though I can take what is in my head and deliver that to the world. Rather than something static or abstract from what is in my head, like simply writing about it, or making a static visual, now things can move and emote to communicate what I am thinking about. However with that in mind, I have to limit my scope of work so that I do not take on too much work. In fact, I would like to do a video showing some behind the scenes stuff and reaccounting the week in an animated compilation, but I know I will spend another 4-6 hours on this and I don’t have the time to do that. Knowing when and how to effectively use media, all things considered, is also part of the learning that happens in this course.

    What was learned about the focal theme and what issues / questions have emerged?

    The light bulb turned on for me when I saw the table on page 53 of Lankshear & Knobel. When I was able to see and compare and contrast modern/postmodern by use of the table and compare that to education it all started to make more sense. As a society we have entered the postmodern era and so must education. I likened it to ‘ed 2.0’ in response to ‘web 2.0’ as was learnt in the chapter reading. All this fuss about about creativity in schools, and creative arts, and technology is about this pull from society for education to be more relevant in the postmodern and digital age.

    The issues that have come up this week, however, in regards to’ affinities’ and ‘open,’ and as I think about education reform is: What is acceptable and appropriate use? We have seen, on numerous accounts, that young learners can align themselves with very harmful factions or individuals on the internet. In Colorado alone there has been accounts in the news of teens aligning themselves with ISIS through use of social media. And of course, the most recent event in Charleston, SC, where the shooter aligned himself with white supremacy. Is it okay for young learners to have a Twitter account, or email, or Facebook? How do we really monitor and guide young learners in ethical, moral, and responsible ways to interact, create, and ? When do we start talking to young learners about these things?

    Points earned 10/10?

    This week was rough. I got sick and I struggled physically and mentally. The pace and breadth for this course is extremely intense. I don’t feel like I delivered as well as I typically could on the critiques and as timely as I would have liked. I also came in a little later than I like (Friday) for the reading response to chapter three. Although I don’t feel the quality of most of my work suffered this week, the timeliness sort of did. However everything was turned in this week and I did participate in more than the required discussion on blogs and twitter. I give myself 9/10.
  26. kirklunsford

    The Power to Shape The World Through DrGarcia’s Lens tdc1266

    by



    Happy birthday! I hope you like it. Make sure you zoom in and read the tidbits in the HUD.

    I sketched the sci-fi landscape and made it look like HUD. I borrowed a HUD from a1samurai to help get me started on this daily create. "I'm uploading the photoshop for this file, so that people can download it and use it..." -a1samurai
  27. kirklunsford

    A Curious Critique On A Story About A Story, About Another Story

    by
    http://www.brainpickings.org/2015/06/17/ian-leslie-curious-rsa-animation/



    Assessment criteria: As part of authoring critiques of digital storytelling in INTE 5340 three criterions are selected from Jason Ohler’s assessment traits.


    Media Application (Score 1-10: 10 Points)

    Media supports the story. Media use is effective and does not overpower writing or story core.

    Comments:
    This digital story was interesting because it mainly features a wonderful animation, but it synthesises a presentation by the author of the book “Curious” by Ian Leslie with the story about how this animation came to be. Essentially it is like 3 stories in one - the author Maria Popova, wrote the story about the story on the story. This makes it a rich story to critique and it has lots of depth with the media application because of the quality of writing in conjunction with the video and the story about the book that inspired the video.


    Media Development Process (Score 1-10: 10 Points)

    Use of media was well thought out. The planning was well executed to deliver the story.

    Comments:
    What’s really amazing is that the animator was very deliberate and careful in craft so much that only one scene was shot a day for the lighting to be consistent due to natural light being part of the scene. There is a wonderful sense of craftsmanship in the variety of the scenes. Additionally, the scenes are relatable because the artist utilized everyday things to create the animation. I’m sure the artist created some sort of story boards and practiced constructing creative elements out of everyday found objects. The author of the story mentioned some of this ‘behind the scenes stuff’ to help the audience appreciate the development process.


    Craftsmanship (Score 1-10: 10 Points)

    The story was crafted well given the use of mediums and sensibilities to neatness.

    Comments:
    The author did a great job by telling the story of the book and how that influenced the animation. The use of links and quotes and placement of pictures helped break up the text in key areas to focus the audience throughout the story. The pictures and embedded media was appropriately placed throughout. The craftsmanship of the animation featured was also very well done to help illustrate the story.

    Total Score 30/30


    Other characteristics this assessment fails to capture:

    This assessment fails to mention the monetary and permission concerns one might have given the author provided a great deal of direct quotes and is asking for donations at the end of the story that features other people’s work. I would be interested to know the process behind this story in order to get permission to create and publish this.


    How could this digital story be improved?

    Maybe too much direct quote towards the end of the story? I would like to see some other more original ways to interest the audience towards the end of the story.

ds106 in[SPIRE]