Working on the final project has been interesting. Communication was a bit of a hang up from the get go. We thought we could rely solely on Oncourse email, but in the end, found this to be impossible. After meeting in the Oncourse chat room and talking a bit, I drafted up the project proposal and we divided up tasks for research and slide design for the final project. Megan had the most experience with film studies and was most definitely the leader of the group. Communication proved to be tough over the course of the project, but we were all good about emailing our progress to each other. I was fascinated to learn what courses were offered in film studies and found the student testimonials to be quite interesting. I wish that I would have taken some time in my IUPUI career to explore a film course or two. But then again, maybe it’s better that I didn’t. After all, I changed my major/minors enough…that’s why I’ve been here so long. We found that faculty within film studies were pretty amazing resources. I wish that we had had more time to work on the project or could have some how come together in person to work on it, so that maybe we could have expanded our knowledge of technology to include web design and so that we could have all played greater roles in the project. In the end though, I was happy with what we came up with.
EVoice December 15, 2009
Considering all aspects of e-communication I have encountered this semester, with my Second Life avatar, the use of this blog, and wiki entries, I do see where certain aspects of my personality come through. I think with my SL avatar, I am able to be more of the “real” me as I have the option to use gestures and expressions, though somewhat limited, when I speak. I have found that those pieces of communication are quite important when trying to portray certain ideas and when not being able to rely on tone of voice. Also, it seems more as if I am speaking to someone’s face, even if it is only the face of an avatar. In blogging, I feel I have a more laid back approach to writing, which is very similar to how I speak one on one with a person. In the wiki’s, I am a little laid back as my intended audience is my class, but still tend to be a little more focused than any other form of communication in class.
I find myself being more aware of my audience and thus find myself taking a more conversational tone in my writing because I know that my audience is my peers and I like when I read their conversational posts. It adds to the “classroom dynamic” that Ithink we are kind of missing in taking an online course.
Random Posting #2 November 15, 2009
How in the world is this semester almost over?!?! I’ve been waiting for this semester, my last!, for so long and now that it’s almost over I have no idea where it went, how I got so far behind on everything, and I’ve somehow forgotten to enjoy these last days of school. I look at the date and realize that there are only a few weeks left and I start to panic. I just keep telling myself to breathe. Just breathe.
Blog Fodder-Voice November 15, 2009
In regards to the group project, I actually do feel that my voice is being heard, which is surprising to me as I tend to loathe group projects because while I understand they are to prep us for the business world and what not, they generally tend to be more difficult than projects I’ve experienced in the “real world” because at a school like IUPUI, no one is on the same schedule and no one has the same designated business hours to complete a project or meet for a project, thus resulting in generally one or two people doing all the real work. At least in this group so far, while my group members are spread across the globe, for the most part we are all contributing and all seem very open to each other’s ideas and are supportive of each other’s voices. Of course, to make the project fluid as it comes together we will definitely lose some of that originality between pieces of the project for coherency sake, but as is thus far, I do feel that my voice is being adequately represented.
Blog Fodder-Games November 15, 2009
I really don’t have much experience with the sorts of games mentioned in Chapter 18. Other than the bit of experience I have in Second Life, as a result of this course, I haven’t played many games. We did play Sims and DinoPark Tycoon in middle school a bit, but I don’t recall much about either. I know that my brother and his friends play a lot of first person shooter games, as well as Grand Theft Auto. As mentioned in the chapter, Grand Theft Auto is a game in which a sense of urgency creates the pace for the player, as if the player is stagnant too long, they risk being killed. Not to mention that if the player is not continuously moving, the game has no meaning.
Blog Fodder-Tell a Story November 2, 2009
I’ve never been good with directions. If it were not for mapquest, I’m not sure I’d ever venture out of my home. In the past week, I have gone through a lot, including a trial separation with my boyfriend of more than five years and a temporary relocation with a family member that has taken me under her wing as I find my way. This past Saturday evening I decided to head out and find some dinner before prepping myself to attend a Halloween party. I pulled out for the housing addition and within ten minutes had located a place to pick up a sandwich. On my way back to my new abode, the sun began to set. Daylight is my friend when I am driving. Night sets in and every road looks the same, regardless of the name defining it. I pulled in to what I believed to be the correct addition. Twenty minutes later, I still had not found the street I was looking for. I noticed houses getting bigger and bigger. Children shrieked and ran in front of my car as they gripped their candy bags tightly and peered into my windows. I didn’t know one house from the next. I turned left. I turned right. I couldn’t remember if I had just turned left or right. I pulled into a driveway and backed up. Which way had I pulled in? This road led to that road and I just kept turning. I’d now been driving for almost a half hour. I was due back at my aunt’s house in forty minutes and still needed to get ready for my party. I turned again. This road looked a little familiar. Maybe if I turned here? The houses were now getting smaller. The neighborhood was getting darker. Fewer kids roamed the streets and yet I still turned, sure that this street would be the street to save me.
I spotted two women walking from their home to a car parked on the street. They hurried to their vehicle as I pulled up slowly and finally stopped. I rolled down my window. They did not roll down their own.
I sat for a few minutes, trying to make myself look as friendly as possible. Please just recognize me as a lost female. Please don’t be afraid. And please, please don’t drive away.
The women looked at me and seemed to talk me over. Slowly, the driver’s side window rolled down.
“Hi!” I exclaimed.
The women looked at me like I was crazy. I probably was. How does someone get lost in a housing addition?
“Would you by chance be able to tell me how to get to a main road? I seem to be a little lost,” I shouted over the noise of my rumbling engine.
“Sure. You just take a right at the next stop sign and then another right at the first road you come to. Keep following that and it will take you to such and such road.”
I sighed, wondering how many lefts I’d taken when I should have taken rights.
“Thank you!”
I turned right and right again. I saw cars zooming by on what could only be a main road. I smiled to myself, confident I could find my way from here. I looked at the clock on my dash and shook my head. I’d been driving for over forty five minutes. All I wanted was a sandwich.
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I don’t know that I really used character development much, as I was basically the only character in my story, save for the lovely women that came to my rescue. I think pace, conflict, point of view and resolution all played a huge part in the story though. Any other point of view wouldn’t really work, I don’t think. There needed to be a quickened pace in some cases as no one wanted to know play by play every turn I took in that ridiculous adventure. The conflict was minimal, but I find it interesting the stories we can pull from the smallest happenings in our own lives.
Blog Fodder-Communication October 27, 2009
In our group, we have two members that live outside of Indiana. One lives in California and the other currently resides in Japan. Because of these issues, we initally decided to conduct all our communication via email. We thought it would be easiest for everyone and would work best around our schedules. Unfortunately, within the first week of coming up with this idea, it was evident that it wasn’t going to work as no emails were really being sent back and forth, or if they were, they all seemed to be asking the same questions and no one was providing any answers.
We all agree the email is a great form of communication, but we came to the realization that it needed to be supplemented by using the designated chat room for our group. We decided to meet on Sunday nights at 8pm to chat for a bit. Only three of us were able to make it to the chat room meeting, but it was a great way to get ideas out there and get immediate response. We honestly got more done in just under an hour than we had through email all week. Also, because the chat room conversations are saved, those who were not able to make it can review the conversation and then use email to add anything they so choose to the conversation.
Thus, we have decided to utilize the weekly chat room meeting and continue using email. I think we definitely had some kinks to work out, but all seems to be more managable now.
Blog Fodder-Project 2 Teams October 27, 2009
Looking over what my groupmates listed as their skills or knowledgable areas, it seems that we are all very confident with Microsoft Office. Specifically within Office, we are confident with PowerPoint, which will definitely come in handy for this project. A few group members have listed uploading photos to their skills sets, and I think this will be useful when we start to work on slides in Power Point, as we will know how to upload information.
I suppose my only worry is that we will need to do something beyond basic Microsoft Office skills. It seems that we all have the same basic sets of skills, which means that if we do need to do something beyond these basic skills, one of us will have to take it upon ourselves to not only learn a new program, but then to teach it to the rest of the group, or be responsible for that portion of the project.
Blog Fodder-Peer Review October 13, 2009
I think that peer review is always a little tricky, because we are reviewing based on what we believe the assignment to be, not sure if we really know what the instructor is looking for. In this particular case, I feel like I actually did get some pretty good feedback because the places that I recognized my own faults were the items most represented in the “what i need to fix” portion of the peer review.
I could have done a few things differently to get even better feedback. The way my schedule works now, I usually don’t submit anything until Sunday afternoon or evening. I could have rearranged my schedule and submitted my draft for an earlier review. I also could have asked directed questions to allow my reviewers to focus on the areas in which I had my own concerns.
Maybe two questions that I would have added for my peer reviewers would have been “how does this piece reflect or not reflect my Second Life voice” and ” what sense of my online persona do you get after reading this piece” because I want to know how I come across. I have a sense of who I am, but how am I portraying it?
I found it interesting to read my classmates analyses. I think that we were all very concerned with our appearance and what it said about us, but I think that was a given because we are all new to Second Life and as we become more experienced, I think that we will focus less on our appearances and more on what we can do within our new characters. I thought it was interesting to see how one classmate has used this medium as a connection with his wife and how another created her own fantasy land within Second Life. I think I originally looked at it just as a fancy chat room, but now see that it has a number of possibilities.
Blog Fodder-Experience October 5, 2009
I feel as though my experience is fairly limited. I took an online writing class a couple of semesters ago, “Writing for the Web,” and learned about keeping audience in mind and the importance of text and graphics in the development of a webpage. In high school, I was involved in my school’s radio station and learned a lot about writing for audio development in the forms of PSA’s and even just in determining what to say between songs and how to target an audience with news stories. I think that writing for the web in general will be similar to what I learned in W315, but I think that there will obviously be differences regarding audience and content. I don’t have experience in video at all and think that would be an interesting genre to explore. I have a tendency to be wordy when I write though, and know I need to develop other skill sets in writing to be successful in multimedia writing.
