Archive for the ‘bunk2’ Category

« Older Entries
 

The Value of My Experience at DS106

Monday, July 30th, 2012

As I write my final “letter home” or weekly reflection, I will share advice with future ds106 participants, especially students. Understand that I write this from the perspective of an adult student, in my mid-30′s, in the midst of a successful, demanding career, with a family and home to manage…all while balancing a school agenda, pursing my Bachelor’s of Professional studies degree in Leadership & Management. Obviously, I am an extremely busy woman, whose time is a precious commodity.

I will also share that I dropped another class off my summer schedule because the amount of work required was so intimidating and overwhelming that I was afraid that I could not get it all done successfully to maintain my 3.8 GPA. After dropping that class, I quickly looked for something to take it’s place. Seeing as I am short on general electives, I found this class that thought it would be a fun, creative, even easy way to accumulate credits over the summer. I was a few days late enrolling in this course and felt like I was constantly playing “catch up” right out of the gate. But Martha and Alan were welcoming and the other participants and students were great in helping me along the way and encouraging me with accolades and constructive criticism. My think that ds106 would be fun and creative part was accurate, but easy? Well, not exactly easy for ME, but I certainly learned a lot and I’m sure this ds106 experience is one that I will never forget.

So my advice and experience comes in the form of a David Letterman-style Top Ten List.

10.   Come prepared.

Be ready to hit the ground running. Review the list of materials or potential tools you will need to use throughout ds106, including image editors, video editors, audio editors, etc. Familiarize yourself with unfamiliar programs, if necessary. This will save you time later. I started a bit behind the curve and used a lot of time trying to find the right tool to do what I envisioned in my head.

9.   Pay attention.

Bookmark, and check daily, the activity at ds106. As this is an online environment, use Google Reader, Twitter, the ds106 website and other pertinent tools at your disposal to get announcements and tutorials and follow what’s going on with other ds106ers through blogs, tweets, etc.

8.   Get involved and interact.

You should make a few minutes each day for ds106, including getting involve and interacting with others. It really is a lot of fun to browse blogs and see what other ds106ers are working on. Leave substantive comments whenever possible to not only let everyone, including the professors, that you are participating, but to enjoy the creativity that takes place here. Don’t forget to tweet your new blog posts and daily creates! Again this shows participation and alerts others to review and comment on your work too.

7.   Be consistent.

Daily participation in ds106 is critical.  Be consistent in your activities…planning, interacting, doing assignments, blogging, tweeting, etc. Some tasks and some days will require more time and investment than others. Just keep making progress and you’ll do fine.

6.  Plan ahead.

This is KEY! One of my strategies to plan my week was to browse through the ds106 Assignment Repository at the beginning of each week or segment and start thinking about which assignments I wanted to create and how I would go about doing them. I took myself on field trips often, both around town and online, looking for ideas and inspiration. Also, I recommend looking at the daily create as soon as it’s published each day, to give yourself time to think and do, depending on your schedule for the day.

5.   Do NOT procrastinate!

Putting off until tomorrow what you can or should do today can be a fatal error in ds106. Falling behind will likely create a snowball effect that will leave you overwhelmed. Plan accordingly. If you know you will have schedule conflicts or issues, communicate them to your professor and plan ahead to mitigate these demands. Trust me, I fell behind once or twice and it was so much harder to get back on top of things. There’s a lot of work to do here and you should be ready to commit time every day to ds106.

4.   Open your mind…and your eyes.

This was  one of my favorite things about ds106! If you open your eyes and your mind, you will begin to look at every day things different. As you move through the course, you start to see the concepts all around you. The daily creates really help to stimulate this as well.

3.   Challenge yourself.

DS106 is likely to push each participant out of his or her comfort zone at some point. But I challenge you to push yourself. Don’t always pick the easy assignment or use the same tool every time. Stretch your imagination and reach for the stars. The support system here is fabulous, if you get stuck or have trouble, say so! Others will jump in to help or offer advice.

2.  Tell the your story.

The blog write-up are important. Don’t just post the final product. Explain the story behind why and how you did the assignment. Make it personal. This is not an English class, so informal writing is preferred. EMBED your work, not just link to it. A reader should be able to see or view the media directly on your site and not be re-routed elsewhere. The website is yours…make it yours. Personalize it, own it, enjoy it!

and the number one advice and informal motto of ds106…

1.  “Make Art, Damn It!”

I think this is pretty self-explanatory. You are assessed on your participation and effort, not the perfection of your product. Have fun and be creative!

 

My personally favorite segment of ds106 was the visual (photography). I bought a new camera at the beginning of the summer, and really enjoyed playing with it and learning to use it in new and exciting ways. This is definitely an area where I didn’t have the time toi do ALL I wanted to in the assignment repository, but watch out…I do plan to keep working ds106 as an open online participant as time allows me. I can’t wait to do some new assignments and maybe even refine some of the ones I already did.

I have truly enjoy my ds106 experience and learned so much, it’s hard to recap it all. I will say I plan on using the skills I learned here to help my boyfriend re-design the website for his business and link it up social media using the media I learn to manipulate here – images, video, audio, etc. The tools will be a great help in marketing his business and increasing traffic and exposure to his work.

Good luck and enjoy ds106…it’s a great place to be creative and play with others! :)

Posted in bunk2, ds106, ds106 Reflections, finalreflection, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, Weekly Recaps | Comments Off on The Value of My Experience at DS106

Camp Magic Macguffin…the unexpected

Monday, July 30th, 2012

This was the first online class that I had ever taken, so I was really nervous and quite honestly I had no idea what to expect. I had friends take other online classes before and they told me how they had to meet in an online chat room x-amount of times a week, and that it was not really that much different then a regular class except it is harder to remember to do your work. So basically my initial expectations for this class were that it was going to be like any other college-lecture type class, but online. But boy oh boy was I wrong, and I am glad!

This class ended up really being about getting comfortable with all sorts of different media outlets. I was able to create and upkeep my own domain, get active on flickr and twitter, and learn a lot about the free resources that are available on the internet (and even already on my computer) that I did not even know existed! It was a lot more laid back then I expected to be as well. I mean it was a LOT of work, but it was not like your standard read a textbook and take a test kind of class. I was able to learn so much more through actually working hands-on with what I was learning. I also become aware of copyright and creative commons issues that I did not even know existed. I was able to create my own opinions and be enlightened about how I think ideas should be shared, and was able to take part by allowing my published worked to be used by others as well.

It is actually kind of ironic because about a month before this class I was trying to edit a video for a different class project and had NO idea how to do it. Now I can edit photos, videos, and sound clips no problem. I mean I am not an expert, but I can don it. I have really learned a lot in this class and I know it is going to come in handy in the future for me.

If I could pick my absolute favorite assignment it would have to be the Silent Video Assignment. I mean it was a lot of fun and I spent a lot of time working on it, not to mention I think that it is one of my best pieces of work in this class. I had to incorporate massive video editing along with audio. Here it is if anyone wants to take a look:

I think if I had to choose one thing in this class to go back and do over…it would be all of the design section. I don’t think I fully grasped the concept of the design projects, I mean I get the basics, but I think there was a lot of information about it and I wished I (and we as the class) had spent more time on it.

Well this class was definitely more then I had expected (in a good way of course) and below are my top tips for future DS106ers:

 

 

Posted in bunk2, finalreflection, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, Weekly Letters Home | Comments Off on Camp Magic Macguffin…the unexpected

Ongoing Dream: Camp Magic Macguffin

Monday, July 30th, 2012

There are two main types of dreams. The kind where you are almost watching a movie unfold before you, kind of hoovering over everything that is going on, but no one knows you are there. Then there is the type where you are active in the dream and interacting with what is going on. Every Sunday night for the past ten weeks I have had the same ongoing dream, that hoovering kind of dream. You know the kind that unravels like a story, you wake up one morning and realize your dream is sort of deja vu, like you have been in that dream place before?

My dream place was called Camp Magic MacGuffin. It was filled with great mysteries, it seemed like in almost every dream either a new mystery was developing or more facts would surface about an old one. The dream started fairly nice though, with two camp directors, Martha and Alan. They seemed to get along fairly well at first, and they were the main characters in my dream.

Some things were kind of random though, almost like a crazy Alice and Wonderland type dream. Early on there were just these random images that would pop up in a few dreams of this slide guy. This is what he looked like:

SlideGuy at CMM BavaLava

But slide guy just vanished suddenly. This guy Joe Beets tried to uncover the mystery of what happened to slide guy, he found him at a local Chiptole, but slide guy wouldn’t go too much into his story.

Next Martha and Alan (the two main characters in my ongoing dream) had some issues, Alan was constantly missing and then meeting with this guy Marco in Shed 4? Poor Martha was left to direct camp by herself. She really wanted to know what was going on in Shed 4 and Alan planned to show her but then he came up with the following excuse:

Between spending time in Shed 4, falling down holes, and then going to out of state camp meetings, none of which poor Martha was invited too, Alan became a questionably devious character in my dream. Well that was until Martha actually got to see Shed 4!

The curious thing about my dream was that I really could not see into Shed 4, and I did not believe that it was really just a “electrical control panel” for the camp like I once heard Alan say. I was starting to think that maybe it was a spy shed….like in it housed equipment that kept tabs on all of camp…like a Big Brother type deal? I wasn’t sure, but now I was starting to question Martha as well.

In my dreams rumors started buzzing about camp. Joe Beets seemed to be spreading most of them, that camp was not real and all sorts of things. Maybe it was Joe beets who was the bad guy? Maybe I was wrong about Alan…maybe Beets caused Alan to fall down the hole? My dream never really explained it all clearly to me. I could only make inferences and assume things. All I know is that in my dream no one knew that I was watching, I was always there watching and waiting to find answers to my many mysteries.

 

Posted in bunk2, finalstory, magicmacguffin, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Ongoing Dream: Camp Magic Macguffin

Final Letter Home

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Queridos Madre y Padre,
(Dear Mom and Dad)

When I first arrived at camp I had absolutly no idea what to expect I was going in completely blind. All I knew was that the entire course was to be online, and having never taken an online course before I could not have been more clueless on how it was going to work. In the end I was very pleased with my DS106 experience I think that the way the counselors set it up was perfect. By posting everything we had to do on Monday and having until Sunday night was very helpful because then I could complete the work on my own schedule which was key with work and other activities.  In the end it turned out to be a very enjoyable and educational experience.

Its hard to choose which assignment I am most proud of, but if I had to choose I think I would go with my Postcard from Camelot.(http://kevin4518.com/2012/06/postcard-from-camelot/) I really like this project because it was a lot of fun deciding where the postcard was going to be from and I really like the way this one turned out for some reason. I think it looks just like an actual postcard so that might be why I like this one. I would like to re do  is the my re dub of the Pulp Fiction dance scene, I think I could do a better job with a re dub now, I would start from scratch and try something new I think it would be fun.

I would like to keep working on my portion of the radio show, I would try to add more effects especially sound effects like the big radio shows do. I would also make my portion longer with different segments maybe, I would also work on making my audio clearer and more like a professional radio personality. I really just found this assignment fun so if I had my choice I would keep working on and add to that assignment.

I think that the media and editing skills I have gained in this class will be extremely helpful in the future. I think first and foremost this class has introduced me to tons of new applications that I had never used and being familiar with these will help me have an edge if I need to use them again in a class or in the professional world. The skills I gained in this class will help me the most with presentations in the future. I think that I have gained skills that will enable me to create effective yet entertaining presentations for school or work which is an excellent skill considering no one wants to sit through a boring presentation. Finally the experience of the radio show was the first time I had to work on a group project without ever meeting in person, I think that experience will help because much of the business world is international so there are many times where the communication is not in person.

The thing I liked about the class was how I was able to do it on my own schedule which was nice because of my work schedule. I also really like how I was able to choose my own assignments, I mean there were a certain amount of stars that needed to be completed but the actual assignments were up to me. The part of this class that I liked the least was probably the video assignments and that was mostly just because my computer is on its last leg and it gave me some issues but it was not too bad overall. The other part is the lack of classroom atmosphere, I mean everyone was very nice and did their best online but there is something to be said for meeting in person. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

My favorite assignment was the group radio project. I liked this assignment because of a couple reasons, my groups topic was that there was a zombie apocalypse and I thought that was a fun topic and working with the group exchanging ideas was very enjoyable. I especially liked the topic because I have been watching the show “The Walking Dead” which is a similar idea. My least favorite assignment was probably creating a story with only sounds, I didn’t hate it by any stretch but it was one of my first sound assignments and I had no prior experience working with audio so I found it difficult and a bit frustrating but overall not that bad once I got a handle of audacity.

I have to say my fondest memory of camp was the whole radio show experience, especially listing to my groups show and finally hearing the other members parts and how they decided to go with the show it was really interesting. Overall I had a good experience with DS106 and camp Magic MacGuffin.

 

Advice to future Students:

Posted in bunk2, finalreflection, Letters Home, magicmacguffin, Random Stuff, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Final Letter Home

Week 10 Daily Creates

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

My first daily create was to record a water sound so I was near a toilet so I was like thats easy and I recorded the sound of a empty toilet flushing.

My next daily create was to draw a flower with my eyes closed. Now this was difficult because I struggle enough drawing with them open so I am actually quite happy with how I did I feared it would look much worse.

Eyes Closed Attempt At a Flower

The last daily create was to record a what you consider to be a very creepy sound so I did my best. I couldn’t think of anything creepier then raspy slow breathing, it is so common in horror movies so that’s what I tried to do.

So that is the last of the Daily Creates I enjoyed them the creators did a great job. Thanks for keeping them interesting!

Posted in bunk2, magicmacguffin, Random Stuff, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Week 10 Daily Creates

Your Camp Collage

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

I created this assignment because I was inspired to do something that had to do with a camp experience due to the fact that I was summarizing my Camp Magic MacGuffin experience all week. So I created my own which has a picture of a rope swing, canoe, and bunk beds which are from my one past camp experience. The other pictures are from movies that I have seen that are camp related. The picture of Ben Stiller and the Blob on the water are from the movie “Heavy Weights” which is a comedy I watched when I was little. The other two are a bit more grown up they are the movie posters from “American Pie Band Camp” and “Wet Hot American Summer” which are both movies I also watched and enjoyed. I had fun doing this little collage I hope others do to.

My Camp Collage:

Camp Collage

Posted in Assignments, bunk2, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments629 | Comments Off on Your Camp Collage

My donation

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

This was the other assignment that I created for the DS106 Assignment Depository. For my assignment you have to be funny. You need to create a comedy bit that has at least three sound effects within it. You should be able to find most of your sound effects at freesound.org.

For the example that I completed I recorded myself telling a joke that I knew about a man asking for a donation to the local pool. I recorded my voice on Audacity and then inserted in my three sound effects that I found on freesound.org into Audacity. It was a pretty simple assignment, and one that should be fun for anyone to do and fund for people to listen to.

Posted in Audio Assignments, AudioAssignments, AudioAssignments628, bunk2, magicmacguffin, umwsum12 | Comments Off on My donation

Mysterious Camp Magic MacGuffin

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Early this summer I embarked on my journey to Camp Magic McGuffin, I was pretty nervous I had no idea what to expect it had been years since I had been to a camp and I had no idea what to expect. But as camp began my fears began to subside and with my first assignment I began to get more comfortable, I shared a family story which was all but a train wreck having never recorded my self talking before it was awkward for sure.

After that first week I began to get used to the camp and all its inner workings and finally became comfortable and I thought this summer is going to be a nice normal summer camp, and that’s when things got a bit odd. The first thing I noticed was the rumors of the missing Dr,Oblivion and how the suspicious circumstances around it and how nervous the topic of his disappearance seemed to make everyone. After noticing this I decided to try to help out the cause so I created a Missing Persons poster I felt was appropriate.

Missing Poster

After circulating the wanted poster I assumed the issue was probably done with and camp would return to normal for sure I mean what else could go wrong. That is when I was made aware of Alan’s unfortunate incident with the strange object in the backpack that sent him to the infirmary and I began to worry this may be more serious than I previously thought.

After viewing the video above I began to worry what is so crazy about this shed #4 and is this something that should worry me as a camper or is this an issue better left to the proffessionals like Alan and Martha so when I found  out that they were investigating it I decided to leave it to them and let them work it out. Then some counselors began to disappear and Dr.Oblivion was still at large and I began to think there was a possible connection and maybe some creepier things in play here. So naturally my couriousity was to much to keep at bay so I was forced to go see this shed #4 for my self and maybe put my mind at ease.

When I reached the shed the woods were far to quite and then as I got closer I began to hear a deep creepy breathing and I decided I had seen enough and quickly turned around and left for my own good but before that I was able to record the sound so that I could bring it to the counselors attention. I was happy to hear that Alan and Martha were both going to the shed themselves to investigate.

After consulting with my excellent bunk mates we decided to go out as a group and re investigate the shed and after hearing the same sound I did we all concluded it could only be one thing…the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. I mean it all made sense the strange object that gave Alan headaches, it was a machine designed to create zombies (we assumed it was possibly created by Dr.Oblivion). We then agreed there was only one logical thing to do and that was alert the people. We did our best to accomplish this by recording and broadcasting our own radio show across the ds106 radio. We all did individual shows and research for different areas and then used our broadcast to educate the general population to the crises that was coming.

Later we gathered that we were a bit mistaken and the missing counselors returned and everything seemed to mellow out at the end and the zombie takeover never materialized but if it ever does our bunk is ready we have had a practice run. Plus with the mysterious disappearance of shed #4 who knows what was ever really in there and thought the mysterious package was secured who knows what other stuff was in there but that is a mystery for the next set of DS106ers so I warn them to keep an eye and an ear out for suspicious activity but also to have fun and enjoy camp.

Kevin Murphy over and out.

Posted in bunk2, finalstory, magicmacguffin, Random Stuff, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Mysterious Camp Magic MacGuffin

The first to “Join the Conversation”

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

So this is one of the assignments that I, myself, created! I had fun with it. I hope there are no other assignments like it, I browsed through most of the video assignments to make sure. But for my assignment you have to find a media clip with at least two people creating dialogue and you have to mute one of the voices and use your own voice to create one of the voices in the dialogue. Now you cannot simply repeat the dialogue, because that is no fun. This class is Digital Storytelling, so you have to create a new story when you replace part of the dialogue with your own.

In my example I took a segment from the Godfather, one of the most recognizable segments of dialogue, and muted one of the voices and replaced it with my own to create a new story about how my cat fluffy is sick and needs to go to the vet. I did the assignment by downloading the original Youtube segment of the Godfather onto MPEG Streamclip and then saving it. I then uploaded the saved version onto Windows Live Movie Maker. I split the scenes where the dialogue that I wanted to mute took place and then i mute the dialogue. I then went onto Audacity and recorded the segments that I wanted to voice over with. I uploaded the different sound segments onto Windows Movie Maker into the areas that I wanted my voice, and viola I was done! We now have the Godfather helping me save Fluffy! …such a generic name for a cat I know.

Posted in bunk2, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, Video Assignemnts, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments627 | Comments Off on The first to “Join the Conversation”

Camp Magic MacGuffin: A place of mystery and intrigue!

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Have you heard about Camp magic MacGuffin?! What a fun and fascinating place to spend the summer! But there’s some strange things going on there!

I first raised my eyebrows at this strange character, Jim Groom. I  missed whatever started the commotion but he managed to get himself sequestered into a separate bunkhouse in the first couple of weeks of camp. Looking back over the summer, I have to wonder…is Jim Groom behind all the strange happenings at camp? Is Shed #4 really Bunkhouse X, aka Jim Groom’s lair? Is he responsible for the disappearance of camp counselors and the peculiar behavior of our beloved camp directors? Or was it the derecho that hit camp? Did we hit a nerve with our zombie apocalypse radio show? Hmmm…

Apocalypse Bumper by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

As I look back, I knew something peculiar was going on, but tried to mind my own business, even though the level of mystery was rising

Then, I think I touched a nerve…or at the very least called unintended attention to  myself.

 

Would I become the next target? Campers and counselors were all around at the beginning of camp. Slowly but surely they started going silent, disappearing. Even our directors, Alan and Martha seemed to be acting a little strange. I found this very distressing! They were our leaders, our guide through this adventure. Alan kept disappearing and reappearing in the new places, irritating Martha. Or was Martha’s moods being influenced by someone or something else. She got more excitable and a little paranoid as time passed. Was it the crazy weather and heat causing her confusion? Did the derecho leave something unpleasant behind that would infect us all with the same affliction that had its grasp on Martha?

I became very concerned for Martha…and the effect her apparent altered mental, emotional state would have on those of us that still lingered at camp. She keeps rambling about Shed #4 and, in this video released earlier today, appears to be “jonesing” like an addict when Shed #4 inexplicably disappears!

I know it might seem a little far-fetched, but here’s my theory about what happened at Camp MacGuffin this Summer:

Someone…I’m still unsure as to who…came to camp with a sinister agenda, ready and waiting for fresh meat for their experiments in mind-control. Was it Jim Groom…Hatchet Jack…Uncle Hector…or even Slide Guy? I don’t know, but whoever it is constructed Shed #4 and ds106 radio to distribute…a virus or infection of some kind?  Once infected, the victim becomes addicted, obsessed with the ds106, its participants, the assignment repository, the daily creates, any and all creative media projects and collaboration…a zombie of sorts. Over time, these victims, also known as #4lifers, become so creative that it takes a toll on their mental and emotional health. Their logic and reasoning skills are changing, perspectives evolving. It’s already taken so many…including directors Alan and Martha, nearly all of the counselors and even some fellow campers like poor Kavon! Some must have run away…or were taken. In any case, campers that made it to the end of the season, appear to be showing signs of possessing this #4life contagion.

And now I fear…it has ME too!

Day 2 diary at Stafford Lakes by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

Given all that’s happened here this summer, I had a great time and learned so much!

DS106 I’ll Have What She’s Having… by Chanda Sorrell Cowger

 

Posted in bunk2, ds106, ds106 Reflections, finalstory, magicmacguffin, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Camp Magic MacGuffin: A place of mystery and intrigue!

« Older Entries