Reflective Narrative
My Website
I have had to create a website through Weebly for the purposes of another class, but I can confidently say that website was nothing like this one. That website was more of a display of a final research project rather than a semester long commitment where I had to write blogs, link pages, create assignments and tabs that all work together to give a reader, who does not know a thing about me, a crash course in what I am capable of producing as a writer and a researcher. I feel that my previous experiences with Weebly was a fly by night overview compared to the things I was required to do for this course. While it was a struggle to complete blogs consistently on time I felt that it was a great experience that can only bolster my resume as a future teacher and it can do me nothing but good moving forward. I enjoyed being able to get instant feedback from people in my class and my professor, but what I enjoyed most was the followers and comments I got from people like you, those not associated with my class. It was kind of weird at first to know that there is someone half way across the country, or even the world who is reading my blog posts and looking at my twitterive. But I have since grown used to it and have come to appreciate the instant gratification that comes from someone who doesn't have to read my posts as an assignment and who actually enjoys what I am putting out and feels the need to comment on it to let me know how they feel. So kudos to you out there who have commented me and let me know your thoughts and for those of you out there who haven't, what are you waiting for? The only bad comment is no comment.
I feel that my website is something that speaks to the evolution of technology and writing in general. We often don't think of writing as a form of a technology, but before writings creation there was no way to recall information except for the spoken word. I feel that personal websites like mine are the evolution of a resume and will one day take over and be the new way to present yourself during a job interview. My website presents me as a whole person, not just a scholar and student, but it also gives me an opportunity to express my personality and who I truly am as an individual. I am now thankful that I completed this website and kept up with my meaningful blog posts, because now that I have them I have a static way of showing someone how well rounded I am with the click of a mouse.
While the blogs weren't always my favorite part of the course, they did allow me to speak my mind and make meaningful. real world, connections to contemporary articles on contemporary topics that show my intellectual side as well as another aspect of my personality. Without these blog posts my site would be made up of assignments with no process to explain them, they would be like a video game without a cheat code book, or a novel that starts in scene and provides no backstory.
I feel that my website is something that speaks to the evolution of technology and writing in general. We often don't think of writing as a form of a technology, but before writings creation there was no way to recall information except for the spoken word. I feel that personal websites like mine are the evolution of a resume and will one day take over and be the new way to present yourself during a job interview. My website presents me as a whole person, not just a scholar and student, but it also gives me an opportunity to express my personality and who I truly am as an individual. I am now thankful that I completed this website and kept up with my meaningful blog posts, because now that I have them I have a static way of showing someone how well rounded I am with the click of a mouse.
While the blogs weren't always my favorite part of the course, they did allow me to speak my mind and make meaningful. real world, connections to contemporary articles on contemporary topics that show my intellectual side as well as another aspect of my personality. Without these blog posts my site would be made up of assignments with no process to explain them, they would be like a video game without a cheat code book, or a novel that starts in scene and provides no backstory.
Twitterive
At the time of it's creation, my twitterive was my favorite assignment to date that I think I have ever completed in my educational career. And I am not just saying that because I know my professor will be reading this, I truly mean it. I had worked on some multi-modal assignments in other writing classes before, but compared to this assignment they were only the tip of the iceberg and the twitterive was the titanic. If you have not noticed it by now I am not afraid of taking risks and therefore I jumped head first into this assignment with so many ideas that they made my head spin. The idea I came up with, could someone relive their childhood and it be the same, I know that doesn't sound like a "place" to create a story from, but that is the best way I can describe it, was something that I often thought about but never imagined would become a assignment that would semi-consume me for the majority of a semester.
But after screwing my head back on straight and finding a little bit of focus, I noticed that the multi-modality that made this project so different and special was the thing that made this project so difficult in the same breathe. Anyone can construct a story using solely words, but it truly takes an outside the box thinker, for a lack of a better term, to do something like I was attempting to do with this assignment. After some tweets back and forth with my professor and a couple of drafts of the assignment I feel that it truly is something that is different than most people have seen before, but that might just be me tooting my own horn. Even though this assignment forced me to think differently and through a different scope, I feel that it was the process that was most beneficial to me in all aspects of writing research and technology.
This particular piece made me write in a way that I was unfamiliar with doing in this capacity. I was forced to write small scenes that could not be too long, for fear that they would bore the reader, but could not be too short that they did not serve the purpose I needed them to serve, all while trying to artfully write in a way that made the reader immerse themselves in the character of my story and go on the journey of waking up one morning and being a child again while maintaining his adult state of mind. If that sounds like a mouthful it was, and it was even more difficult to write. To help me do so I was sort of forced to find some technologies, aside from Weebly, to help me do all this in a artful way that is not strictly text based. I discovered how to shoot short videos, edit them, and even add my own voice over to them, which I feel set the tone in some spots. Also I toyed with the use of some creative technologies that didn't quite make the final version like; Wordle, fake text message generators, fake facebook post generators, and some other creative applications available. This assignment also forced me to do some research, believe it or not. I work at a daycare center, and have worked in these kind of facilities for nearly 4 years now, but even when I tried as hard as I could I wasn't able to get a true child's perspective on things that I felt were adult issues and vice versa. To do this for one of my short videos I interviewed a small group of children at my work, with their parents, and the centers permission and asked them questioned I felt most would categorize as "adult" subject ,matter questions. During one of my revision conferences I discovered that a look at this concept as applied to the 7 stages of grief would lead to something powerful. But after some frustration and a little web surfing I found a set of 4 stages of grief that I feel fit this project better. My Professor thought I should tell you this so that it did not appear that I took the easy way out.
But after screwing my head back on straight and finding a little bit of focus, I noticed that the multi-modality that made this project so different and special was the thing that made this project so difficult in the same breathe. Anyone can construct a story using solely words, but it truly takes an outside the box thinker, for a lack of a better term, to do something like I was attempting to do with this assignment. After some tweets back and forth with my professor and a couple of drafts of the assignment I feel that it truly is something that is different than most people have seen before, but that might just be me tooting my own horn. Even though this assignment forced me to think differently and through a different scope, I feel that it was the process that was most beneficial to me in all aspects of writing research and technology.
This particular piece made me write in a way that I was unfamiliar with doing in this capacity. I was forced to write small scenes that could not be too long, for fear that they would bore the reader, but could not be too short that they did not serve the purpose I needed them to serve, all while trying to artfully write in a way that made the reader immerse themselves in the character of my story and go on the journey of waking up one morning and being a child again while maintaining his adult state of mind. If that sounds like a mouthful it was, and it was even more difficult to write. To help me do so I was sort of forced to find some technologies, aside from Weebly, to help me do all this in a artful way that is not strictly text based. I discovered how to shoot short videos, edit them, and even add my own voice over to them, which I feel set the tone in some spots. Also I toyed with the use of some creative technologies that didn't quite make the final version like; Wordle, fake text message generators, fake facebook post generators, and some other creative applications available. This assignment also forced me to do some research, believe it or not. I work at a daycare center, and have worked in these kind of facilities for nearly 4 years now, but even when I tried as hard as I could I wasn't able to get a true child's perspective on things that I felt were adult issues and vice versa. To do this for one of my short videos I interviewed a small group of children at my work, with their parents, and the centers permission and asked them questioned I felt most would categorize as "adult" subject ,matter questions. During one of my revision conferences I discovered that a look at this concept as applied to the 7 stages of grief would lead to something powerful. But after some frustration and a little web surfing I found a set of 4 stages of grief that I feel fit this project better. My Professor thought I should tell you this so that it did not appear that I took the easy way out.
Oral History Project and Collaborative Research Project
In this section I will talk a little about some of the struggles that I faced whn completing the two coordinate assignments of the Oral History Project and Collaborative Research Project. These two projects were highly different then the other required projects and assignments we faced this semester. The main difference was that it required a heavy deal of collaboration, as both of these were group projects. Don't get me wrong, I love my group members and we all worked extremely well together, but the initial thought of working with a partner or group usually brings a sour feeling to my stomach. But this time it turned out to be completely different, I can honestly say that I have never been in a group that worked so well together and was as "on the same page" as this group was. There were some technology difficulties that did put some stress on our group however. One member of my group who has an expertise in video editing and filming thought we should take on a documentary for our final project.
The only problem with this is that he is the only one of us that has worked extensively with video editing. Also we faced some challenges with getting in touch with eachother and getting necessary information to eachother. We often used twitter as a means to share information with each other and just check up with each other and see where we each were progressing and having difficulties. Also we used a lot of text messaging to keep in touch. We would even use our site blog that we created on our site for our final project to communicate with eachother. Additionally we used google docs to send and view information for the project.
We did not do much formal writing for this project, but we did do a lot of informal writing in the form of the communications listed above. I feel it is safe to say that our writing for this project happened through the means of video. We constructed a documentary that does all the "writing' we need. Also we did extensive group research through form of interviews that you can check out in our video on our site. so thank you for reading my reflective letter and please keep in touch with me through this site and my twitter account.
Remember- Peace out and stay safe,
Darren Gaunt
The only problem with this is that he is the only one of us that has worked extensively with video editing. Also we faced some challenges with getting in touch with eachother and getting necessary information to eachother. We often used twitter as a means to share information with each other and just check up with each other and see where we each were progressing and having difficulties. Also we used a lot of text messaging to keep in touch. We would even use our site blog that we created on our site for our final project to communicate with eachother. Additionally we used google docs to send and view information for the project.
We did not do much formal writing for this project, but we did do a lot of informal writing in the form of the communications listed above. I feel it is safe to say that our writing for this project happened through the means of video. We constructed a documentary that does all the "writing' we need. Also we did extensive group research through form of interviews that you can check out in our video on our site. so thank you for reading my reflective letter and please keep in touch with me through this site and my twitter account.
Remember- Peace out and stay safe,
Darren Gaunt