It’s tough to write a Twitter story in less than 140 characters!
@ds106dc #tdc1521 #ILT5340 Earl looked over his snowy land and realized he needed nothing more in life… except maybe a pair of long johns.
Category: INTE 5340
Scholarly Response: “Why Your Department Needs Social Media”
Every now and then, I like to check out educational “trade” publications for articles on the pros and cons of new technology in the classroom. On The Chronicle of Higher Education, I found a piece by Rachel Herrmann entitled “Why Your Department Needs Social Media.” Herrmann, a Ph.D. lecturer at the University of Southampton in England, gives a faculty member’s perspective on the best ways for instructors to utilize applications such as Facebook and Twitter to better communicate with students.
Herrmann gives some very concrete first-hand examples of how using social media enables her to post information about upcoming events, announce details regarding grants and share photos of faculty-student social functions. Likewise, she mentions how students give her feedback about their accomplishments and receive live-Tweets of major lectures and recruitment-day information sessions. Herrmann does admit that there are a number of university policies and administrative oversights that slow down the process of establishing a faculty social media presence. She goes on to offer several suggestions (fewer rules, a department social media manager, etc) to make the overall process more efficient.
After reading this article, I thought about what many of the students I have talked to in the Student Success Center at the Community College of Denver have mentioned regarding communicating with their instructors. Few to none of these students mention their instructors connecting with them on any social media platform whatsoever. In addition, many of the students say they have, at times, a difficult time getting a simple email response from their instructors regarding an assignment question. I realize many of the instructors are temporary/part-time adjuncts who can only commit so much of their time for the amount of money they receive for their efforts. Plus, both instructors and students are entitled to a certain amount of privacy.
Social media can be an effective tool of group communication, but that effectiveness is dependent on the pro-active engagement of all the people in the group. Maybe things are different in England, but I’m sure here in the United States, educators want to find the best ways to reach their students. Just not 24/7.
DS106 Design Assignment: Motivational Poster
Made this DS106 Design Assignment and added a Coen brothers twist. If you’ve ever seen The Big Lebowski, you’ll understand the context. Very simple design using (gasp!) Microsoft Power Point.
Weekly Reflection: Getting Farther Away From the Campfire
(Photo by Emeldil at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)
In chapter 3 of Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community, author Joe Lambert discusses a live stage project of one of his collaborators, Dana Atchley. In 1990, Atchley began performing a one-person show in his San Fransisco studio called Next Exit, a guided tour of his life traveling across the United States. Part of his performance involved a campfire, or more specifically, the image of a campfire on a video monitor. Atchley would tell stories about meeting “offbeat Americans” and interact with video segments projected on a backdrop. This metaphor made me think of the times I would be with fellow campers, camp councilors or friends and there would be an exchange of stories near the fire.
In recent years, however, I feel that I am getting farther and farther away from that friendly circle of warmth. I’ve worked a variety of temporary, seasonal, and part-time jobs since getting laid off from my full-time employer in 2010. What’s worse, that was the third layoff from a full-time job I’ve had to endure since 2003. During this time of economic uncertainly, my relationships with work colleagues and friends have weakened. The shame of not having a steady job makes a person withdraw. I have two part-time jobs now, but there are semester-dependent positions through higher education institutions. Come mid-May, I may have to find some other steady work as a source of income. This employment instability, constant job-searching and feeling of embarrassment has kept me from coming closer to the campfire.
To a certain extent, being enrolled in graduate school has improved my self-esteem and given me a better idea of a possible career track. The total online nature (and dramatic lack interpersonal engagement) of the Information and Learning Technologies program, however, is giving me some off-campus blues. WordPress blogging, Twitter exchanges and Zoom meetings are useful, but there’s still a great distance between the “camper” and the “campfire”. Plus, it seems I am not the only person in my INTE5340 class that has succumbed to disengagement.
Truly, I do want to get closer to the campfire and engage again with my friends, former coworkers and current students. My fear is that even if I talk, will anyone really listen? I hope so.
Digital Story Critique: “It Takes a Crisis”
Often times, an instance of adversity can have long-lasting effects. In searching for digital stories that give a short glimpse into how people adjust to sudden changes in their lives, I found another story from the Charlestown Digital Story Project entitled “It Takes a Crisis.” The narrator, Charlotte Valentine, talks about how the psychological adjustments she had to make before and after she decided to divorce after 13 years of marriage. For this critique, I chose to critique the story using the following assessment traits:
- Originality/Voice/Creativity – From her time as a shy child to her success as a confident Certified Public Accountant, Valentine narrates her own story. She discusses how growing up, she always was tough to “please others” and then later on, she learned how to “please herself.” Although the narration sounds a bit scripted, it feels genuine. The story collaborator, Daniel Rodriguez, gives Valentine “room” to tell her story through her voice and her archived photographs.
- Flow/Organization/Pacing – Rodriguez wisely presents the story in chronological order. He organizes the still photos making it easy for the viewer to absorb. There’s a nice variety of image movement (some story creators rely too much on bring the photos in and out, which was popularized by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns). The pacing of the images is accompanied by cuts of light and playful piano music.
- Media Grammar – Overall, the media elements are put together well, but their is a moment where it looks like a photo of Valentine in her flooded basement, after surviving a hurricane, appears to be Photoshopped. This moment seems to interrupt the genuine nature of the archived images.
I highly recommend anyone to view either this story or the many other stories on this site.
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