Class Reflection

Writing 105M was quite the experience for me.

I thought this class was going to be a breeze- a blog post here and there and a few edits on some simple images. Definitely not the case! I quickly realized that multimedia design takes a lot more effort and thought than I had originally assumed.

I also realized I'm not as computer savvy as I would have liked to think. The webbing programs were a lot harder to use than I thought they were going to be.

When we started out the class and started to use Gliffy, I thought it was such a cool new program and was excited that I knew how to use it. I was so proud of my end product and thought I was going to do so great in this class. However, my progress in this course became apparent when I looked back at the basic flow chart that I made and was initially so proud of.  I really like the fact that we started this project at the beginning of the course and finished the course with our final draft because I was able to compare my work and see how far I have come in Writing 105M.

The hardest project for me was the Photoshop project. I could definitely use some more practice with the program. I wasn't extremely happy with my final images. I need some more practice and hours watching YouTube tutorials in order to improve my skills. Photoshop is an amazing program and there are endless possibilities when someone knows how to use it.

My favorite project was the Prezi project! I loved the freedom we got when picking topics. Puppy mills are something that don't get much attention and I love to spread the word and hopefully stop people from shopping at pet stores. I got some really positive comments on my Prezi blog- so I feel really happy and flattered that people liked my project. I'm glad that my passion for the topic and Prezi skills were shown.

Overall, I loved the course. I learned web programming skills that I would have never learned elsewhere. I also learned great tips on how to put together interesting presentations, how to cater to your audience, and how to properly put together multimedia pieces. The readings taught me about how visual images and writing compliment each other in ways I had never thought about. I will always remember the importance of font and images.

Prezi Screencast

Relevant Article

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php?forcedownload=1&file=//141358/block_peachmail/attachment/1392239976/Jenkins-spreadable-vs-viral.pdf

The article I read for this blog assignment was one that Professor Dean suggested for my honors assignment. I thought this article would be cool to share because it has a lot of interesting points. The article is called "Why spreadable doesn't equal viral: A conversation with Henry Jenkins" and is written by Nikki Usher.

Henry Jenkins shares his catchphrase in this article: "If it doesn't spread, it's dead. For things to live online, people have to share it socially. They also have to make it their own- which can be as participatory as just passing a YouTube clip on as a link or making copycat videos themselves."

Spreadable media is described as "media which travels across media platforms at least in part because the people take it in their own hands and share it with their social networks."

I thought this was an interesting statement because it points how everything we do today is spreadable. We all share our pictures, stories and information through social media sites. We made quick decisions to share things on the internet that could potentially be there forever--even when we delete them. We share them through every available media platform.

We share all of these things without thinking how incriminating they could potentially be. You can post things of a crazy night out, alcohol or maybe even drugs, or other things. These things could be found by employers and can cost you your job. At the moment it seems like there can be no harm done, but they could be found later.

However, when used properly, this spreadable media can be good for news. There's constant access to news content which we are able to share through Twitter or blogs. Many people count on peoples participation is the distribution process. Readers are now encouraged to circulate the content.

It's interesting to read about this concept. Social media doesn't seem like such a big deal because we have access to it at all times. I never really stop to think about how amazing it really is (spoiled-I know). It's amazing to see the information spreads and all the different ways social media can actually be used.

Photoshop Screencast-O-Matic

 

I'm sick so I apologize for my voice!

Maryland Media Study

The Maryland Media Study was a fun little experiment for the day. 

I go to Mexico a lot, and I don't have service or internet. My longest visited has been over a month. So for one month I am with basic television (mostly shows that are in Spanish), no phone and no internet. So I have gone days without my phone and it is quite the struggle. I usually have my phone on anyway and I check it even when I know I won't have any new messages or internet. One month without these really does take its toll on you. ITS MISERABLE! I never noticed how dependent I was on these things, until I had no access to any of it. I get so bored without them.

It's great to have access to all of this technology and be able to use it whenever we want. The gadgets we have now are so advanced and you can do pretty much anything. I can spend my entire day on my phone or using my computer and time goes by so fast- yet when I do homework time can go by so slow. When I don't have these things though, I feel a sense of relief. No constant checking of my social media sites, no one to text or answer to and no internet. I have the worst eye sight and constantly checking all these screens often makes my eyes feel dry and tired. When I'm without my electronics, I feel like my eyes rest and the pain goes away.

So for this experiment I tried to go a whole day without any networked media. I turned my phone off and actually went out with my mom. We went shopping so honestly I didn't really feel that empty because I stayed occupied. When my phone was off, I noticed that I would still check it --only to find a dark screen with no new notifications or messages. It's nice to leave everything aside and just spend a nice day out and enjoy the world and your family with no distractions. 

It is a relief to not use these every once in a while; it helps break your dependence and urge to be on them 24/7. However, going every day without them would not be so great. Since I don't live with my family, my cell phone is a great way to stay in contact with them and for them to make sure I am safe. My Mac is also something I don't think I can live without. I use it to do anything school related and also for entertainment. 

I hope I can learn to take breaks from all this technology under my own will more often.

Composing Process

Finding a letter around campus was a fun assignment. I found letters in things I didn't even know existed. I started finding letters from gum on the ground to plants and buildings. I'm not much of a photographer (though I would like to be) so my pictures didn't turn out as great as I thought they would. When I looked at my pictures and tried to edit them on Photoshop, I wasn't very happy with them. I tend to look down on my work (I give myself a hard time) - especially when I look at my classmates work!

However, I tried editing them to the best of my ability. I messed around with a few tools on a letter W that was formed by the roof of one of the buildings. I rotated it and added a few filters on another layer. I was fascinated with the amount of filters and sharpening tools that are on Photoshop.

After speaking with Professor Dean, I realized that I hadn't come up with a theme. My meme is about UCSB registration and pass times, while my letter is a random W. I tried thinking of ways to tie the two together, but since I didn't like how my edited picture of the W even came out, I decided to change it all up.

I think my meme is pretty funny so I wanted to keep it and just try and find another letter picture that I could use. After class, I took a walk around school to see if I could find more letters. I decided that my theme could be UCSB life. I'm a transfer student so UCSB is still new to me. I walk around every day and still admire the campus' beauty and think about how lucky I am to attend such a beautiful school.

I live in IV, across from the dorms that are by the lagoon. So as I was walking home one day, I took a few pictures.

It's a little bit of a stretch, but I see a another "W" in the leaves. I plan to Photoshop the picture to make the W pop out. I'm not sure how I'm going to use the W and add it into the project, but I plan to tie it into UCSB life. I love the picture so I definitely plan on using it no matter what. 

Visual Design

This week has been really hectic for me so I think that the assignments in this particular class were like a breath of fresh air. I found the assignments entertaining and fun.

Going outside to find the letters of the alphabet on campus was interesting. I noticed that I began to observe things like I had never done before and even noticed some new things around campus that had never caught my eye before. I started to make "something out of nothing", like a gum stain into the letter O. After listening to some classmates talk about what they were finding, I felt a little embarrassed because my ideas weren't nearly as good as theirs. All the things we are learning are new to me so I hope to learn things from others in the class that seem to be way ahead of my thinking and abilities.

After reading the McCloud comics and his notions about icons, I started to think about his ideas. Icons really don't mean anything, we assign the meaning to them. Also, with the font exercise in class, I noticed that I began comparing the shoes to the font. I found it funny that the fonts did go well with the shoes- two things that I never thought of comparing before!

I have realized that design requires thinking outside of the box. You need to be able to see beyond the big picture and notice the little features or need to examine things from multiple different points of view. Mastering this would be great because then maybe I could step up my photography skills. Though I have none besides the basic, I have always looked at other artistic photographs and wished that I was able to take great pictures and learn how to edit them and incorporate them into different types of work.

Maybe I'll be like this guy someday

Audacity

Audacity was so hard to learn for me! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I had to miss three classes due to medical reasons. This made me get so behind and it gave me anxiety about the project. I downloaded it and started messing around with some of the tools that I saw. I didn't have access to internet down in Mexico so I couldn't watch the tutorials until I got back.

Once I was back professor Dean helped me with some of the basic tools. He helped me with recording and with using the envelope tool. I found that the envelope tool was a little difficult to use. I'm not sure if it was just me because I know nothing about these softwares, but I found that using the tool with the Mac keypad was a little difficult. I wasn't able make it entirely even. I think this process would have been easier if I had a mouse to make it more precise.

Getting my song from the Creative Commons- Soundcloud link to Audacity was also a little challenging. When I finally got the New Girl theme song into my podcast, I was excited! I feel it went perfectly with what I was speaking about and emphasized my liking for the show and the "quirkyness" that is involved in it. Once I figured all the audio out, I started recording.

Luckily, my roommate was gone for the night so recording wasn't extremely awkward. I started recording, trying to show enthusiasm, and then listened to myself. I sounded so funny and weird! I had never done something like this so hearing my own voice over and over again was something that I'm not used to.

I had to record myself multiple times because I found myself sounding monotone. After a while, I did finish. I was proud of my final project, especially considering the amount of time I had to do it.

Response to Podcasting 101

After looking over the reading about Podcasts, I finally got more of an idea about what they even were. I had never even heard of such a thing so I was a little bewildered.

The reading says that podcasts give you the power to communicate and have an equal voice. While recording one, you are allowed to break all the rules.

I agree with the article in that the podcast was somewhat easy to record and it is useful because the podcast is available all the time, it’s portable, and usually free.

Getting started was difficult for me due to missing school and not being able to attend the lectures and tutorials. I wasn’t quite sure what kind of topics people were going to discuss. I didn’t really have an idea what everyone would be interested in listening to.

Then I stumbled upon one of my prized possessions- my New Girl DVDs. New Girl is an American television sitcom that is rising in popularity. I started watching the show on one of my medical trips to Mexico. At first I only watched it because it was the only show that was actually in English. I had heard of the show only because my brother has a crush on the main actress, Zooey Deschanel. After watching the show for a few minutes though, I realized it was great! It was really funny and a little bit weird- the perfect combination! I went straight to the store and bought both seasons on DVD to catch up.

Spreading the word about this show to the class seemed like a great idea. I feel like the show is underrated so hopefully I inspire someone to watch the show with my podcast.

The writing process for this project was different for me because I was working on things extremely last minute. Two days before the assignment was due I was scrambling and trying to catch up and learn everything on my own. The topic was the easy part. Then I wrote down my knowledge on the show just from watching it. I researched a few facts about the show including the rewards it has won and the real names of the actors so that I could also include that in my script.

The writing in this differed from other work because I improvised a lot while recording. I found this interesting because I then heard my thoughts in the recording. I realized some of what I said sounded like total nonsense while some other stuff ended up being better than what I had originally written down!

Melissa Gwynn Bio

My name is Melissa Gwynn and I am a junior transfer at UCSB. I am a psychology major and am hoping to get into the Multimedia Writing minor.

This is my second quarter here at UCSB and I love it so far. I live in Isla Vista, but I don't party and I actually haven't even gone out once. I'm not the type of person who likes to go out a lot. I would rather be at home in my PJ's. I'm a hermit.

I don't have any selfies at the moment so here is a picture of my beautiful poodle, Kelly. Kelly is 12 years old. She has become such a big part of our family.  I have a weird obsession with all animals, especially my own dog. I would like to one day incorporate animals in my work. I want to become an Animal Assisted Therapist.

My goal is to get my bachelors degree in psychology and go on to either get my masters in something like Occupational Therapy or possibly just get a certificate in Animal Assisted Therapy.

I want to open my own business one day, so hopefully everything goes as planned.

I don't have any experience with softwares like Photoshop, but I am very interested and excited to see what I will learn this quarter. I am not tech-savvy at all. So I hope that I don't struggle too much with all the new software and programs.