finalreflection — Camp Magic MacGuffin

Archive for the ‘finalreflection’ Category

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

Week 10: Letter Home

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Hard to believe, but this is my final letter home. I made a video, so that I can remember this moment exactly. This week was really fun, and bittersweet.

For my final digital story I decided to do like a hybrid format. At first I was thinking a video, but I realized that recently I had been doing TONS of videos and audio creations. Writing has and will always be a strong storytelling tool, so I wrote it out. Of course with embedding links, videos, and tweets in it lol. The evolution of storytelling is shown through it I feel. How its no longer sentences, but videos, tweets, pictures on flickr, material from different blogs. It is so lively. I really went crazy with my story though, but hey- isn’t that what DS106 is all about? …

There you have it. My final video home. It was really tough shutting that camera off. I’ve come to realize that I’m a DS106er #4life as Martha so puts it. I plan to continue to be active when I can. Even if its something as simple as a daily create here and there. I also plan to do something else for DS106, BUT I won’t give that away. If it falls through though I’ll blog it, and hopefully ALL DS106ers will know about it

This course has been a real game changer for me. I feel like despite set backs throughout it- from work to family issues- my directors really helped me get through everything. They were understanding and showed me that it all really was about MY journey. And I’m proud to say I got through it to the end. All my work on here is a representation of who I am; they are all pieces of my views, experiences, and personality.

My advice for future DS106ers….

Until next time campers.

Posted in bunk1, finalreflection, magicmacguffin, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Week 10: Letter Home

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

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

Final Reflection/Letter Home/Advice?

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

This is my final reflection of Camp Magic Macguffin.

Below is advice that I give to future DS106 students. It’s all about time management seriously in my opinion that is what gets assignments done efficiently. Also look for tutorials and previous examples for other DS106 students. Manage your time and it will show through your work! Also remember to be creative and have fun! This has been the most interesting/ non dull class I have taken.

Posted in bunk4, ds106, finalreflection, magicmacguffin, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Final Reflection/Letter Home/Advice?

Final Letter Home

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Hey Mom,

Today is the last day of camp, heading home soon. I greatly appreciate you sending me to this camp this year. It has been one most eventful summer that I have lived through yet. You know when I first got here I was super nervous and scared, but I was treated like family. I really expected this class to hard and very strenuous, but it turned out to be very excited. Most of the work was pretty easy once you got going.

We started of the summer very easy. Just doing simple assignments and analyzing stories. Then we moved on up to editing photos and learning how to become better photographers. Later we learned how to do special things with audio. For example, how to talk on the radio and how to make things interesting. I already told you about the radio show, right? After audio we worked on videos. That was probably the hardest thing for me because of some of my software, but in the end I learned a lot. Lastly we worked on Remixing things and how to be creative with other people’s work.

I learned so much from this class that I never thought I would learn. This class really pulled my creativity out. Even when I thought I was being creative, my teachers pulled for more and I gave them what I didn’t think I had. I liked how I got to choose my assignments and my teachers didn’t force anything on us. If I could work on photo editing ALL DAY LONG, I would. The weeks where we worked on photos, I worked so hard my teachers had to tell me to slow down.

My teachers were AMAZING. It was so easy to contact them and when I needed any king of help they were right there. Along with that, there were a lot of people in the class that helped me to endure the summer. There isn’t enough time nor words in the world to allow me to thank everyone enough for how much they have helped. I would have never thought I would make some friendships like I did in a summer class. The only thing I hated about this class was that I was not able to see people face to face. I wanted to personally thank people for their help and actually greet them. But throughout everything, this class was amazing.

My fondest memory about this class was doing the bunk photo. Even though I wasn’t chosen to take charge I did. During this time I was able to have personally talks with my bunk mates and that allowed us to get closer. When they sent me their pictures, it made me feel like they were really a part of my family. I will never forget the team work from my bunk mates. They were truly awesome.

Posted in bunk3, finalreflection, Letters Home, magicmacguffin, umwsum12 | Comments Off on Final Letter Home

Last Letter From Camp

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Dearest Mother and Father,

I had really no idea what this class would be like. At the beginning, this class was an enigma. I was unsure of how it would be laid out and where I would fit into the dynamics of class. I was completely new to a lot of aspects of this class and was nervous about how I would complete assignments. In the end, DS106 was a great experience. It was a bunch of fun and stretched my knowledge and experience with the wonderful world of digital storytelling. It taught me many new things as well that I would never have realized had I not taken this class. It was much simpler than I had anticipated.

I am most proud of is my visual assignments. It always gives me a boost of confidence when I review my work. However, I wish that I could do some of my audio assignments over again. I have learned a whole lot more from that week in listening and taking others advice. I would definitely choose to continue on with visual storytelling. I deeply connected with the catchphrase assignment. I love catch phrases and lines from TV and Movies. I would also incorporate other things into the “catchphrase” genre, such as song and book titles. In continuing with this assignment, I would also compile several catchphrases to tell a story.

I definitely will use my photo and video editing skills in the future. Also, I will use the ideas that I learned from design and use them. I am a board member of an all breed animal rescue. My job also includes Webmaster, so using all my skills that I have gained from this class, I will re-tool the website into an astounding blog for the animal rescue.

My advice, wisdom gained from experience, to future campers is seriously manage your time. Do not let time get away from you because it will fly away on you. Also, the other major piece of advice I have for any future student is: Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t understand. No one bites and everyone is super helpful.