Inspired by Jeff McClurken, I’m going to attend Camp Macgic Macguffin this summer as a virtual participant in ds106. I am already behind, but with school ending this week I hope to tackle more activities soon, as well as to involve my son. Self-directed learning in community, here I come. Mad props to Bunk 4.
Here are a few of my early responses to The Daily Create, and following those are screenshots of my new (in-progress) pad on the ds106 Minecraft server.
The Daily Create 137
The Daily Create 138
@chadsansing’s beach house & mine
@chadsansing’s beach house & mine
I’m thrilled to find two other NWP teachers in my bunk, and it’s been great to “meet” and see the work of familiar tweeps at play. If you want to practice digital story-telling this summer and learn how it feels as a learner, I say join in!
Today’s Daily Create assignment was to Bugs Bunny. At first I was intimidated on drawing a character or something that symbolizes life. Drawing something technical, such as a electronic circuit or building diagrams is what I love to do. Luckily the wise folks at DS106 included a link to YouTube with a video from the master animator himself Chuck Jones on how to draw Bugs Bunny. Grabbing my trusty Mitsubishi Uni Kuru Toga mechanical pencil (the ultimate geek tool) and went to work. I am pretty impressed with the out come. The video is incredibly informative and for my first try I am pretty happy with the results. After sketching Bugs I scanned the drawing and found out my scanner is creating lines in the captured picture. Lacking time I just added a tint to the picture to create a wood grain effect that make it look better and I was happy with it.
I arrived at camp a little late, so I’m feeling behind and a little overwhelmed. While everyone is skinny dipping in the lake tonight or making out in the poison ivy, I’ll be catching up on videos, articles, daily creates, and so on and so forth. My bunk mates seem pretty cool and friendly, which helps.
You were right about camp not being as awkward as I thought it would be. I dipped my toe into Minecraft today. I’m looking forward to playing that more. I’m also looking forward to becoming more adept at toggling between the Minecraft window and TeamSpeak window. I feel pretty clumsy, but also motivated by the small amount of progress I made.
Ok. Ok. I’ll say it again. You were right. I’m glad I’m here. I’m glad I didn’t wait until next year to sign up like I had planned. I wanted to learn more about WordPress this summer. I wanted to get into Minecraft this summer. Camp Magic Macguffin is letting me do that and with other people. Things aren’t quite as intimidating when there are other folks around. There are other people to flouder with. There are other people to help guide me through the road blocks. So yeah… I’m excited about camp.
Though this particular video is nothing to write the congressman about, I think it hints at some exciting possibilities. It was just a lark that led me to see if it was possible to transmit from Second Life in Google Plus.
My first idea was to use the application I’d used before when doing something similar with Justin TV a year or so ago. That application is called CamTwist. It worked but not nearly as well as it did when I used the screen sharing feature of G+ Hangout (as seen in the video above).
So now I’m getting more and more excited with Lisa’s suggestion to have a dance party during the midterm week of Camp Magic MacGuffin. For those unwilling or too scared to venture in to SL, it will be possible to watch the event live.
But who’s gonna choose the music? That is an important question.
It is a long time since I’ve been camping and this is a very different sort of camp. There are bunk houses, not tents. There are even toilets and sinks, wifi is good.
I am setting in but finding it hard to sleep at the same time as everyone else, might be jet lag.
There are tons for campers and it is hard to remember who is who and which bunkhouse they are in. I made a list or two but need more information, my facial recognition is never good. Everyone seems very friendly
There seem to be this really weird wide-game going on. I remember when I was wee at camp we played lots of games where we ran about in the wild capturing folk and generally carrying on. This game is much stranger I’ve only played once and was ‘eaten’ straight away. In the game I have to carry a big block of wood around, it was sort of like a nightmare where your feet are stuck to the ground and you cannot move. I took two minutes, two minutes, to look at my iPhone to see if I could find any rules and I was ‘eaten’. They said I could have my life back and play again but I decided to try and get some sleep. (update, I tried again today, met a couple of folk and got killed a few times before minecraft froze, perhaps I should not have been exporting Quicktime, exporting MPEG streamclip and importing into iMovie al lat the same time).
I have been managing to join in the daily chores, if you remember I always liked that bit of camping. I even like washing dishes in the stream, grit is better than squeeze for getting pots shining (not so good for Teflon).
Before I came some friends suggested there was a sinister aspect to the camp that it smelt a little like a cult, I m happy to report that you have no need to worry about brainwashing, although some of the camp songs are a bit strange.
cheers
John
I do realise that the gif could be really annoying. I am also playing with Google Web Fonts which might be annoying too.
TDC144 – Record yourself saying I Love DS106 ten times.
TDC145 – Draw Bugs Bunny like Chuck Jones
I’d rather not have drawn anything given that my drawing prowess is really in diagrams and charts vs. cartoon characters but that’s not the point. Part of my purpose for choosing DS106/MagicMacGuffin was to do a little edgework with both my skills and knowledge of digital storytelling and media.
If I had to pick two out of three I’d choose the first and, ironically, the last as my favorites this week. Sure my Bugs looks a little chubby in the center and club footed but who am I to judge. I don’t dislike the Love DS106 radio TDC but watching @jslezak’s (blog)take on it, I’m left wanting for my own. Check Jerry’s contemporary, rational, and level-headed take on I Love DS106 10x
So, in the words of Meatloaf…you’re already singing it…I’ll leave it at that.
Watching Michael Wesch‘s lecture “From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able” (part 1 and part 2) was a great return to some thought provoking material for me. I had the fortune of meeting Wesch briefly and seeing an earlier version of this lecture … Continue reading →
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
