Week 10

Here are my final reflections on the course in video form!

Week 9

Week 8

I am not actually familiar with many multimedia tools. This class has been full of new and completely different modes for me. I decided to try an take a different approach for this blog post then since I don't have anything particularly helpful to add to the repertoire of multimedia methods. Instead, I tried to think of what I do in my life that represents multimedia. I started with the concept of photoshop since I work with images much more often then I work with audio. Something that I am constantly looking at and occasionally posting to is instagram. This is a form of social media that ties together images, text and even video sometimes.

Within instagram, what I like to do is create collages of multiple photos, possibly add a filter and mess around with the look of the image and then add a caption that captures the concept of the collage. Some people also choose to use hashtags to emphasize their feelings about the picture that they have just posted. Its a way of sharing photos with your friends though multimedia.

Week Seven

Here is my screencast! I was a little nervous about technical difficulties and stuff but it ended up working out really easily. Screencast-O-Matic is a very cool tool. 

http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c2nZD0no38

Week six

Our assignment this week was to take the challenge described in the Maryland Media Study. We were supposed to spend an entire day without networked media. That meant no phone, internet or other networked media device. Unfortunately for my job I have to use the phone and the internet and I work most nights of the week. The one day I don't work is reserved for homework and I am currently working on a research project. All this really did make me realize how consistently I am on networked media. So, with that said. It was absolutely impossible for me to complete this challenge. I did want to give it a try though so I set Wednesday as the day since I didn't have work until 4pm. I told myself that from the moment that I woke up in the morning to when I went to work I would stay off of networked media. It was definitely difficult. I had to hide my phone to keep myself from cheating and turn the internet off on my computer so that there was no way I could break down and do it. I had to stay very busy that day. I realized what a time filling just looking at my phone is. Anytime I am bored or not doing anything I go through my phone and do the same routine: check messages, check email, check instagram, look at Facebook for a little bit and then either check the weather or how my stocks are doing.

This challenge definitely made me more creative with my time. I cleaned my house and packed for a trip that still wasn't happening for two days. I took a walk down the beach, which is something that I should definitely strive to do more often since I will probably never get the chance to live this close again for a while if ever.

When I finally broke the media barrier I was at work so it actually wasn't very exciting and by the time I got back to my computer late that night, the shock from not going on the internet for so long had already worn off. It was a very interesting and enlightening experience that made it glaringly apparent how attached I am to all of the features that my smart phone has to offer.

Week Five

Right now we are working on the photoshop project. I have spent the week trying to think of what my theme will be to tie my photos together. It wasn't until I started working on my Tagxedo image that I figured out what my theme was. I lost my grandpa this year, just a couple months ago, and I was out of the country when it happened. I didn't get the chance to go to his memorial with the rest of my family since I was still in Argentina, so I never had a chance to celebrate him properly. I feel like this project gives me the perfect opportunity to finally celebrate him. I had already made a "c" with my letter photo completely randomly and luckily that will be easy to apply to this theme. His last name was "Casby" and that is my middle name so it represents how we are related. Then for my meme I can either do something about baseball or sailboats because those were his two passions. I decided on my theme when I realized that I could use taxgedo to turn all of the words that I think of when I think of my grandpa into the shape of a sailboat. I think that Tagxedo is such a cool program. I didn't even know that it existed before this class so it is another great example of a great tool that this class introduced me to. I am very excited to keep working on this project.

Week four

This week we moved away from using audio as tool for communication and shifted our focus to using imagery as a means for communicating. I am terrible when it comes to being creative with things like photoshop but I also am really excited to have this chance to get better. Photoshop seems like it could be a lot of fun. It will be especially fun since we are using it to make meme's and other entertaining images.

Our readings this week focused on considering the implications of the imagery that you choose to convert your message. Speikermann and Ginger's piece focused on front specifically. I had never though too much about my font choices. But, as the author's point out, you wouldn't use the same font for every word or pieces of writing just as you wouldn't wear the same pair of shoes for activities that range from dressing up, working out or go to the office. This seems reasonable enough to me. Some fonts are more appropriate to use then others in a given situation. I wouldn't want to use Comic Sans for my resume if I want to be taken seriously by an employer. They made a lot of good points as far as reflecting the meaning and tone of a word in the front used to write it out with.

The other reading written by McCloud focused on the concept of icons. His piece was made especially interesting as he explained his point using comics. It was appropriate though because he used the idea of cartoons as the examples for his explanations of icons. The article definitely made me stop and think a couple times. His point mostly seemed to revolve around perception. Perception of both the visual presented and the message represented by a visual. It was pretty interesting. I especially loved it because I am a closet comic book nerd who grew up on marvel and calvin and hobbes so it was fun to read a piece in comic book form.

Looking back on all the things that we have learned so far in this class, it is making me realize how many more components there are to communicating outside of the actual words themselves. I guess that focusing on the elements outside of the basic narrative is the whole point of multimedia writing. Multimedia writing allows you to pull together every kind of medium and combine them in the most effective way.

Week 3

This past week, working with audacity had been an interesting experience for me. For some reason I was "that person" who kept having all kinds of technical difficulties with the program. I figured it was because it was on a school server that was outdated but then I still had difficulties when I brought in my own computer, so maybe it is just me. Audacity seems like a very easy to learn program despite all the obstacles I encountered. It favors the basics and I can appreciate that. I felt good once I started feeling more confident in playing around with the program and manipulating sound and audio with it.

The part that I am having the most trouble with is actually just coming to terms with the fact that I have to record myself. I HATE the sound of my voice in recordings. I can't stand even just making the voicemail greeting on my phone. That always takes a few tries to get right simply because I am so insecure of the way that my voice sounds in recordings. I definitely think that sound effects are going to be my buffer as I try to distract people from the sound of my voice.

Considering the question: how is, or isn't, audio tied to text in terms of podcasting? Audio in this instance is giving life and personality to the text. The audio is what sets the tone for the text and helps to define the audience that the text is geared towards. The way someone reads the text and the type of music that they choose to accompany it is what helps to determine the way that the text is received by the intended audience.

Week 2

This class is a first for me. First of all, I still am not quite prepared for 21st century technology. Learning how to use it and apply it to my advantage seems very prudent these days, however, so I am excited for the skills that this class has the potential to offer.

The readings that we have had for this class so far have already started to demonstrate the wide range of knowledge and skill that this class encourages. Not only that, but it is all extremely relevant not just to the class but to the outside world as well. This is more than I can say for many of my other classes. Also, it isn't just the material that we are learning but the mode by which we learn it.

Some of the "reading" for this week was actually just to watch a video tutorial. Not only were we learning about how to produce an audio file, we were learning about it through a video file. This is something that classes in previous decades would never have had the opportunity to experience. In this case, youtube was the portal for education and our "reading" assignment was a recording. This really is a new age of education.

This week were learning how to use a program called "audacity" through youtube tutorials. The tutorial approach of learning was definitely effective and very appropriate for this type of program. Audacity seems like an excellent tool for people like me who aren't incredibly tech savvy. Other than podcasts, however, I don't really know when/where I would require an audio file. I am interested to learn though in the interest of staying relevant.

Intro

Hello, my name is Lucia Nichols.

I am a fourth year environmental studies major from Davis, CA.

I was born in San Diego, CA in 1992 before moving to Eugene, OR with my mom and dad. I lived there for 4 years and after my brother, Otto, was born we moved to the bay area. Eventually we ended up in Davis, CA and that is where we have lived for the past 14 years.

I don't have too much to say about myself...i love soccer, hiking, swimming, hiking to swimming holes, and traveling. Most recently I traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina with the UC study abroad program. While I was there I participated in the intensive spanish language program in an attempt to learn spanish in a 14 week period. I wish I could say that I am fluent now, but that is not the case. The only time I demonstrated any kind of fluency was when I was drunk and chattering away with the taxi cab driver taking me home. Since I don't maintain a constant buzz in my day to day life, my spanish is pretty minimal.

I am graduating this quarter and so everyone is always asking me what my plan is. Unfortunately for them, I don't have a very satisfying answer. I know that I want to live in a few different places before one sticks and I know that I want to start in San Luis Obispo. Beyond that, I will just have to see what happens.