For week one of Learning with Digital Stories we were tasked with finding an example of a digital story and critiquing it. Since I am still trying to figure out what digital storytelling is I went to examples that were provided here in the Story Center and found one that looked interesting. I ended up picking one of the featured stories to critique. I chose: “What I Mean” by Isaiah Clayton, the tagline reads, “A story about the need to change ourselves before being able to change the world.”

  But I’m computer illiterate! These are words I hear on a daily basis and to be quite honest they have driven me crazy in the past. Because I work at our local workforce center I am faced everyday with people who wear this statement like a badge. Our customers come to us for help looking for work, applying for unemployment, and making resumes, all of which are activities that require basic computer knowledge and skills. The first thing that came to mind while reading Chapter One of “New

I really didn’t understand the term “digital storytelling” when I started prepping for the week on Monday. I remember ready the syllabus and thinking I was way in over my head. The “flail and fail” experience is one that I…

Well, one chapter down. I believe in transparency. With that said, I am never a big fan of reading academic text. As I began to read this chapter, my first thought was, “Damn, time to digest theories and things that…

I am critiquing a story found from the Story Center, titled “Rollercoaster” by Denise Ward. I chose this story sort of at random as I looked to find out just what digital stories really are. Following the suggestions from the…

*I am currently working my way through my fourth semester of the Information and Learning Technologies master’s program at University of Colorado, Denver.  This is the first post within a series of Daily Creates that I’ve been assigned to complete for a course titled Digital Storytelling. I’m back at the Master’s program at CU Denver…only two semester to go!  I’m […]

This guy! I had so much fun with my first Daily Create. The first challenge I saw and the one that sucked me in was to imagine a colorful cow, and the disco cow popped into my head. I did this on Wednesday but it has taken me a few days to get my WordPress blog going, […]

To be completely honest, I am still a bit hazy on what digital storytelling is at this point in time.  I had a preconceived notion of digital storytelling and I’m not entirely sure if I was right or wrong.  I thought that digital storytelling was telling a story through an electronic medium and typically included […]

As I explored Digital Stories this week, I came across “You Are What Your Grandpa Eats” on Radiolab.  This 13 and a half minute audio podcast was about the results of a study conducted by Lars Olov Bygren, who is a professor at Umea University in Sweden.  Olov grew up in a small town north […]

ds106 is neither a product nor a magic bullet to "fix" education. But within ds106 are applicable attributes that can be used elsewhere: The Assignment Collection includes over 500 creative activities, all contributed by participants. Rather than being assigned specific tasks, UMW students are assigned, say, 15 stars of Audio Assignments (stars being a crowdsourced difficulty rating). Students are free to choose the challenges that appeal to them. Via tags, the work that students publish for a

Test blog for DS106

ds106 is neither a product nor a magic bullet to "fix" education. But within ds106 are applicable attributes that can be used elsewhere: The Assignment Collection includes over 500 creative activities, all contributed by participants. Rather than being assigned specific tasks, UMW students are assigned, say, 15 stars of Audio Assignments (stars being a crowdsourced difficulty rating). Students are free to choose the challenges that appeal to them. Via tags, the work that students publish for a

Greetings from “The Lonesome Crowded West” @ds106dc #tdc1474 Photo: Walden, CO.

Well here I am back for more fun in the ILT program at CU Denver for the spring semester. It's my second semester so I am hoping to be more adjusted to the program, the expectations, and coursework my second time around. Over break I did some exploring on my own and did some poking around Lynda.com with my library card. Lynda is free with our local library card here in Colorado Springs so I highly recommend it! I am always on the lookout for free resources, not just for myself because free is

I am going to be completely honest.  I am not a fan of this book so far.  Now I will hold out hope that it gets better or at least it reveals what the hell it is about, but I am not holding my breath.  First of all, where’s the book’s introduction?  What’s the argument? […]

Daily Create #1 – The colored cow in Photoshop #tdc1473

Nothing is better than Bacon. Save the cows. #tdc1473  @ds106dc

Yes, I am a placeholder so that the course tag for Learning With Digital Stories will work! This is a graduate class consisting primarily of Instructional Learning Technology majors and Language & Literacy majors. Our students come from a wide range of professional fields and offer a diverse mix of...

Cheers to the beginning!

As a teacher, it is easy to become comfortable using familiar and safe strategies to deliver, explore and evaluate. The new can be scary and making mistakes never feels good even if you do learn from it. Often, these are … Continue reading →

The industrial sector of a city fascinates me almost as much as it intimidates me. Watching plumes of smoke billow out of chemical plants is somehow mesmerizing, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture it through my new lens, a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 manual. Most of these images were taken in Commerce City, Colorado–home of the […]

I’ve always thought of Maui as the prettiest of all the Hawaiian islands. It’s kind of a long shot for me to say that, because I’ve only ever been to two of the eight Hawaiian islands. Still, during my last visit to Maui, I had the amazing opportunity to drive around the entire island with my […]

It may sound clichéd, but when it comes to photography, you can never go wrong with a sunrise. This was in fact the best part about my stay in Cancun, Mexico, where my family and I spent Thanksgiving this year. Waking up before the sun and walking on the beach was probably the most tranquil […]

In response to our discussion in Social Media class this week, we are talking about Voices for Social Change. How can social media affect social change? It's been a hot topic this week around the world because of the terrorist attack on Paris just one ...

Colorado has always been well-known for its abundant sunshine and abundant snow. This season, though, it’s been nothing but abundant sunshine, in some places at least. While the mountains have been ravaged by fresh powder, while the southeastern side was pummeled by a raging blizzard, all we had to speak of here in the foothills […]

This week's assignment from Social Media & Digital Culture class is to reflect how we did  to protect our privacy in this big data era. My professor shared several interesting articles to provoke us to think about this issue. One of the reading materials that she shared with us is the news about Carly Mckinney.    After reading these materials, I went over my base camp and NLS and made sure  is not linked to my Facebook account where I often post pictures of myself with my friends and family. I

This week's assignment from Social Media & Digital Culture class is to reflect how we did  to protect our privacy in this big data era. My professor shared several interesting articles to provoke us to think about this issue. One of the reading materials that she shared with us is the news about Carly Mckinney.    After reading these materials, I went over my base camp and NLS and made sure  is not linked to my Facebook account where I often post pictures of myself with my friends and family. I

Social Media is a crazy thing to me. I go to Facebook and scroll through an endless stream of political opinions, pictures of breakfast, stats on who goes to the gym (and who doesn't), and pictures of babies and dogs. Sometimes it's maddening to me, but I keep going back! This week, in my Social Media course, we are talking about privacy. Ahhhh yes, privacy. It seems like an oxymoron to me. We all want privacy in social media and yet we keep posting those pics of our breakfast...     At my

Temperatures are soaring this season and the first snow has yet to hit the Denver Metro area, but fall is in full swing, just in time for Halloween. For us, this was more than just an obligatory visit to a pumpkin patch to check off the list of things to do in the fall. It […]

Someone shared this article with me from the BBC about what makes younger workers happy. It really got me thinking this week. In the article it talks about a creating a culture of fun in the workplace and a lot of companies are attempting to do this to...