English W390 Week 7 Post

Late last week we submitted our Second Life Analysis essays to the OnCourse forums for peer editing. Sadly, I only received one peer edit. This may be because I waited until Saturday to post my draft. It might also have been that people started to read it, found it boring and moved on, with the exception of one very kind soul. She was very complimentary of my work, and my cool avatar, which made me smile. She also gave me some helpful feedback about the conclusion of my essay and how I might improve it with information from my overly long introduction. I knew the conclusion needed work when I submitted the first draft and her advice was just the ticket. When I did my peer reviews, I suppose the question I would have added to the PR form was in regards to grammar and sentence structure. I think that’s a good thing to mention in any peer review, but since it wasn’t on the form, I didn’t want to sound nitpicky. I would love to have feedback on grammar because sometimes my sentences don’t sound to other people the way I hear them in my head. Yikes, it sounds like I hear voices. I promise, I’m not schizophrenic; my spirit guide told me so…but I digress.

After reading through some of my classmates’ papers, I gained some insight into their personalities as well as finding the assignment to be more rich and involving than I expected it to be when I read the criteria for Project 1 in the beginning of the semester. Also, after some of the other essays, I was reassured that I had written the right kind. That was a load off of my mind.

W390 Week 6: Multimedia Experience

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I’m going to leave the following prompt in the blog post this week so civilians reading this blog know the reason for my blog topic this week:

“What media do you have experience writing for or working with (video, audio, digital pictures, etc.) (if you don't have experience with any of these, think about things you have experienced that could translate)? How might writing for other media be similar? How will it differ? How might you make your strengths work for you? How might you work around your obstacles?”

I work as a children’s librarian. Really, I’m not officially a librarian, yet, but a mere clerk. I work in an elementary school and spend much of my time reading to children and teaching things like how to research, or how to choose a “just right book”.

My job also affords me some other interesting opportunities. For instance, when the Media Specialist (that’s the modern day term for a school librarian) is out, I produce and direct the morning announcement broadcast and sometimes also, the bi-weekly news report anchored by 5th grade students and reported by students from each grade level. The Media Center (A library with more than just print material, for instance computers and video sources, too.) has a full video production studio complete with mixing boards and stage lighting. The production experience is great for the kids and has been great for me, too.

In addition to video production, I edit a newsletter that is distributed in print and on the web. I use Microsoft Word to produce it and then upload it as a .pdf to the school’s website. This can be a bit tricky sometimes because saving things in Adobe’s format occasionally alters the formatting in a way that makes it difficult to read. I’ve learned some tricks to minimize these mistakes through trial and error. The same goes for Word. Frankly, sometimes it’s a real bear to work with. I suppose I should learn to use Front Page or some publishing type of software. I’ll put that on my endless list of to do’s.

As for digital photography, I’m pretty hopeless. I can take pictures and upload them to places like Photobucket or Facebook. I can even manage slide shows in Powerpoint or other online slideshow makers. I’m a terrible photographer, though.

I have a little experience in audio, too, because of a previous class. I had to produce a podcast. I made it using iTunes and uploaded it to a free web service that allowed me to link it for distribution. Fortunately, I saved the instructions on how to do this because I honestly don’t remember exactly what I did. If I have to do it again, I’ll have to relearn some things.

I think my strengths in writing for multimedia aren’t going to be the production of content so much as the ability to manage the technological hurdles of various computer programs and gadgets like cameras and recording equipment. In my newsletter and video production jobs at school I’m more of an editor and director than a writer. The tasks assigned in this class offer some similar experiences in production, but they also offer up some new territory for me with content production. As I complete assignments , I will have the opportunity to create original content. I can only hope I am blessed with sufficient inspiration.

Facebook Log Stardate 021912: Rickroll'd

Kristen Nicoson
‎David Nicoson and I were both rickroll'd by Wil Wheaton.
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Francisco Iramain likes this.

Tiffany Clark I don't even know what that could mean, but it's easily the best status of the day :D
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Tiffany Clark WHEATTTONNN!!!
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Francisco Iramain ‎#epic
5 minutes ago · Like

Kristen Nicoson Wil Wheaton
You guys, seripusly: http://t.co/IUCLePsN
2 minutes ago · Like

Carol Clarkson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickrolling And LOL

W390 Week 5 Post

When it comes to multimedia, this isn’t my first rodeo. I have an active life on Facebook, Ravelry ( a knitting and crochet website), Pinterest, and a message board about poker. Occasionally, I tweet on Twitter, too, but not often. I have trouble keeping my posts under 40 characters. I suppose I should work on that.

I’ve worked with wikis and blogs for other classes and on top of all of that, I administrate the website at the elementary school where I work and sometimes help to produce our morning announcement broadcasts on closed circuit television. Oh, and I guess I shouldn’t leave out the school newsletter. I edit that too, occasionally producing content of my own for it.

My weak link in this jumbled up multimedia chain is blogging. I feel like I need to find something more interesting to offer to the outside world. On a message board, I generally respond to topics or questions that interest me. Sometimes I have a moment of inspiration and come up with inquiries of my own, but often my online conversations are hatched by someone else. This forced blogging my actually help me exercise my idea muscles. We’ll see. As for strengths, it’s been nice to not have to learn about the nuts and bolts of the technology we are working with. To show off my chops, I might try to do a little video for this blog. There are some fun websites that allow you to make a photo collage video to music. Maybe I’ll give that another go to spice this thing up.

Game of Thrones Valentine: LOVE IT!

The Khaleesi Rocks.

Source: facebook.com via T on Pinterest

W390 Week 5

When writing interactive material for the internet, Garrand, author of Writing for Multimedia and the Web emphasizes that it is important not to be too restrictive with the user’s possible interactions within the media you’ve created. He says, “The stumbling block…is not limiting interactivity and maintaining control over the multimedia experience…but failing to give users adequate control over the flow of information or story material” (Chapter 1 ¶ 23). I suppose we all have a vision of how our work might be received or used and we don’t want to allow the user to ruin it with seemingly arbitrary choices. But that is not the way that work in interactive media should be viewed. While David Riordan makes a good point in Garrand’s book by saying, “Infinite choice equals a database. Just because you can make a choice doesn’t mean it’s an interesting one” , I think the problem for most creators is brainstorming all of the things a user might want to do, and crafting choices that satisfy the user while forwarding the progress of the story or flow of information in a meaningful way (Garrand Chapter 1 ¶ 22).

In my experiences as a website user, I’ve often found the problem of not enough choice to be pervasive. In many consumer websites, when I’m trying to find contact or pricing information or make changes to my account settings, I find a series of virtual hoops to jump through before I can finally get to where I need to be. It’s like automated phone messages where we hope to just jam down the zero button and get a real human on the line instead of punching in our account number followed by the pound sign and trying to say “account representative” in an accent that the cyborg operator can understand. “Please listen to all the options, as our menu has changed.” NOOOOOO! Ajkffajlfajlfdfdfdjlfjlfjfjlafd!!!!!! But I digress.

I think the key to giving choices is to really think about the end user and focus more on that than the aims of the programs or even the client. What do they want to do? What else? How can we make the flow of information smooth and satisfying like a good cup of coffee? Blending good user interface with necessary content is very tricky and needs to be approached thoughtfully if we want people to read and use what we’ve created.

Work Cited

Garrand, Timothy Paul. Writing for Multimedia and the Web: A Practical Guide to Content Development for Interactive Media. Amsterdam: Elsevier Focal, 2006. Kindle eBook file.

How Cute is This???

When you mouse over and click on this hand, it moves the thumb and pushes the buttons just like you would on a real iPod. Then, you can actually listen to Etienne's music. Where can I get this for my music?

http://www.desclides.net/etienne/podfolio/

W390 Week 4: Exploring Second Life

For W390, I’ve been exploring the virtual world called Second Life. Many real life places have been recreated here as well as some fantastical places, too.

It is fun to change into all the different clothes and hairstyles and to visit places like the Eiffel Tower set in the year 1900 or a fairy haven where giant mushrooms and winged creatures abound. Scuba diving or horseback riding from the couch is pretty fun, but flying is the best. It’s cool to see the landscape from the sky.

I’ve only interacted a little bit with other avatars,

but tha

t’s usually how I behave when I’m a tourist in a foreign land. I like to take it all in as I trek through unfamiliar territory. When I’m sightseeing, I’m not loquacioua. If you know me personally, you know how unusual that is for me. Although, I have had a couple of interactions with the keepers of some of the places I’ve visited. Sometimes people give you things like notes to read or props to add to your inventory.

The most challenging part of the Second Life experience, for me, has been fighting the software. It’s a real memory hog and often the whole program crashes or stalls when I’m at a critical moment in my explorations. I’m using my husband’s computer, which is pretty new and beefed up and it’s still taxing our hardware. For that reason, I’m looking forward to finishing up the Second Life exercises. I don’t want to knock it though. Second Life is a cool world.