Wednesday Wrap up

I am bad at live blogging. Sue me.


Today my phone doesn't work, which has sent me into a dimension of confused isolation I can barely relate in text. I think it might have been the electrical storm last night. Ohio has sought out to make my existence a fit of bizarre oddity of weather including tornado watches, flood warnings and soon, 95 degree weather.

I have become exhausted. I tried to learn flash today. It was very frustrating but I am committed to it. I love animating in keynote and flash seems like the natural extension. I spent 4 hours trying to make it work today. It was going fine, but then nothing started to make sense and I ended up just trying to get something that resembled a finished product. I'll see about posting it tomorrow.

Morning Session

OK, I have been slacking here but I am a) tired, seriously and b) it has been HOT. It cooled down some today but now I'm all geared up to go out and make a new media piece. This morning, lots of stuff was about assessment. I think cheryl does a much better job of describing that discussion than I could. I am not so gracious, such things are mind numbingly postmodernly simple: Grades = Values structure of group. Group = class. Value/writing/media are socially constructed therefore grades = what the group thinks is good. Build a tool to measure what value looks/sounds/feels like to you AND your students. Make sure it works and do it with them. There is no stable idea of good work. Ever. About anything. Act like it. Grade like it.

Instructors think they are the lone arbiter of taste is how oppression and exclusion happen.

"Break president" - Victor Villanueva

Afternoon Tuesday

So I'll place some more stuff about this morning but right now I want to talk about the panel with some students who had taken some digital media classes in the English department here. Actually talked about how much fun it is to work with people but that you can't force folks to learn.
. . .
This kid, at 21, gets it better than some colleagues I have had.

Drugstore chain CVS to launch first-ever disposable video camera

I forgot to mention this, I saw some of these yesterday and I thought it might be a good idea for some "guerrilla" multimodal student work. Anyway, here is the CNN link on disposable video cameras.

Monday Morning and Afternoon

Spent the morning talking about theory and new media in some classrooms. Debra Journet talked about the article she did with some of her grad students and showed Truman's piece from that. Interesting stuff. Especially seeing similarities in medial environments. Then we worked with Sophie, which is an interactive book work. Later, I'll place some links up. We saw some beautiful stuff with it but I will be damned if I can do anything with it. Really, I think as a compiling environment for a project, it might be awesome but right now, as a composing environment it is a nightmare. Which, of course, makes me think of students who try and compose/think/draft in a language that is unfamiliar to them never getting the idea down because the language itself is getting in the way. Me, I'd rather draft in keynote and Pages then move to Sophie.

Sunday Evening

Well, I went to see Ohio State's Black Student Theatre Network performance of The Colored Museum. Lousy space for theatre but, man, that cast pulled it together. I've caught a little too much sun walking around and I think I am beginning to feel it. Ran into some folks from DMAC just bumbing around. Came home and started finishing up my one minute video. Took about four hours to finish because I had to redo all the audio tracks to get rid of the crew (us) laughing. *sigh*
"Quiet on the set" isn't just irony. Anyway, here it is. There is an explanation for the piece that I am going to post as a comment so you can have some time to think to yourself just what the mop is doing.

*SPOILER WARNING IN THE COMMENTS SECTION*

Sunday Morning

No coffee. No CBS Sunday Morning. No neverending prescription medication commercials during Sunday Morning. No potato-ie/arándano pancakes/huevos with bacon. No Sunday afternoon Lord of the Rings Online. No calling the folks. No Doctor Who.
And worst of all, no Leslie.
I am a little homesick right now.