Let me preface this portfolio and reflection: I am not a tech-guy. I am not tech savvy, like at all. In fact, if there were such a thing as a technology literacy test, three months ago I would have likely scored in the same percentile as someone three times my age. In the realms of technology and digital communication, I was extremely traditional. I derived significant pleasure from outlining an argument and then proving it over the course of an essay. I am aware this is weird and maybe this is the reason why I was digitally illiterate. However, I realized how much communication had changed over the last decade and could imagine the extent to which it would transform in the coming decades, so three months ago, I took a leap of faith and signed up English 149 with Professor Anderson. Three months and many projects later, I am certainly in a great place for reflection.
With each project, there were new platforms that required new techniques to mold my media into a masterpiece. I tried to convince myself that I was a contemporary Leonardo da Vinci wielding Audacity, Adobe Rush, and Photoshop to create modern versions of the Mona Lisa and Vitruvian Man. However, despite high hopes, my projects likely will never reside in the Museum of Modern Art. That said, my consistent failure and limited success granted me perspective with which to gauge my progress throughout the semester, both technically and personally. As you scroll through this portfolio, you should easily track my improvement in communicating through media; however, the development of my soft skills will be harder to gauge. For this reason, my written reflections will primarily concern personal development, focusing on critical thinking, persistence and adaptability, and inspiration behind individual projects. I hope you enjoy!
Video Poem
When assigned our first project, I totally thought I was in over my head. With limited instruction, I was tasked to turn a complex, nuanced work of poetry into a video. Choosing a poem was easy, but I really struggled over what I wanted my poem to emphasize. After much deliberation, I decided I would amplify the fighter theme in the poem Invictus and then apply it to both soldiers and normal people to draw parallels between war and everyday-battles. Unfortunately, this was the easiest part.
Draft: Invictus Video Poem
As a digitally illiterate individual, it took a LONG time to become comfortable with the Adobe Rush platform. After many, many failures, I eventually developed a series of work-arounds. Though I am sure there are hundreds of ways to work Adobe Rush more efficiently, I found methods that worked for me. That is the beauty of critical thinking! Though there might be a million ways to get to a finished product, as long as you figure out a way, you can be successful.
Final: Invictus Video Poem
My most vivid memory of critical thinking at work comes from my pre-teen years up in the mountains. My brother and I were working on making a path through the woods to our campfire. It was a fairly strenuous process of clearing brush, clipping back bushes, and then outlining the path with long, relatively thick wooden branches. Walking down from our cabin, I saw my brother wailing away at a stump with an axe, making very little progress. Rather than him working for another hour and eventually removing the stump, I recommended that he simply place the wooden branch on the other side of the stump. Though the path was not as straight and wide had the stump been removed, it served its purpose nonetheless.
Video Poem Reflection
See my storyboard and script for my Invictus Video Poem reflection
Takeaways
The example of creating a path through the woods is representative of how I dealt with Adobe Rush. I would run into a roadblock and instead of stubbornly trying to work through it, I would create some sort of work around. For example, for some reason, the Rush platform would automatically link my external audio clips to a specific spot on a video clip. Rather than figuring out how to undo this function, I simply started over and uploaded my audio files before the clips, so the position of the audio clips did not depend on the location of the videos. As a result, my project certainly was not flawless but was effective, nonetheless. The act of creating those workarounds in Adobe Rush displayed and developed my critical thinking skills. With each revision I made, I became more comfortable and efficient with the program. Towards the end, I was confronted by very few issues that could not be solved within seconds. That is the beauty of critical thinking! The ability to evaluate a complex set of problems and then maneuver to produce an intended result is necessary in every part of life. This project sharpened my critical thinking ability and reminded me of its importance in life. Regardless of where I end up five, ten, even fifty years from now, I will need properly developed critical thinking skills to succeed in personal, academic, and business related areas of my life.
Social Media Postings
Meme 1
The memes themselves proved challenging to make because I had to grow accustomed to using another platform, this time Photoshop. This application was difficult to use because it was extremely tedious. I felt the learning curve for Photoshop was particularly steep, but once I figured out how to layer images, I really enjoyed making these memes.
The above meme is particularly dear to me because I absolutely despise Coach K. Growing up, whenever dook would lose a basketball game, my parents would take me and my two brothers to get ice cream. I guess they conditioned us to hate dook. Nevertheless, going through middle school I very vividly remember Mercer and Lehigh upsetting dook in the NCAA tournament and the joy I experienced because of it. This first meme I made was relatively simple, but ended up taking a long time given my experience with Photoshop. Regardless, I am proud of it due to the fond personal memories it represents.
Meme 2
My second meme was my take on a more popular topic. When I was tasked to complete this project, memes ridiculing parents' decisions to not vaccinate their kids were popular. This is my take on the popular idea, and I think it is super successful. This meme took me a lot of time given the layering involved, but I think it is absolutely hilarious.
Animated GIF 1
So many of the memes that I came across during research or pleasure searching were just plain dumb. Their topics were extremely basic and the picture/GIF sometimes did not even make sense with the caption. This GIF represents my take on this.
Animated GIF 2
Keeping with the American theme from some of the scenes of my video poem, my serious GIF emphasized the "stars and stripes" while the fireworks and wording highlight patriotic themes.
Instagram Story 1
Though I have an Instagram account, I have never used the story feature, so this project was something new, once again. It was not very difficult to navigate, and I made my two stories without much trouble. After reflecting on my first Instagram story, I think I should buy a lottery a ticket! Past morality and actions aside, Tiger Woods has long been someone I have admired on the golf course. It has been incredible following his comeback in professional golf and witnessing his grit overcoming challenge after challenge. If I were to pick a fourth soft skill that this class taught me, grit or determination might be it. There were so many instances when I would be tired or frustrated working on a given project, but I never gave up, and my projects are stamped with the quality only determination lends.
Instagram Story 2
My second Instagram story was inspired by something that has drastically changed my approach to life. After each of my travels, upon reflecting on my trip, my mind always returns to one theme: perspective. No matter whether it was spending a month backpacking in the Alaskan Wilderness or spending time with Ugandan micro-loan recipients, I always left with a new perspective on my life as well as that of others. I have come to believe that perspective directly affects my attitude each day, and no other factor has as much an impact on my daily life. Thus, I took an artistic twist on the idea of perspective and produced this slightly more thoughtful Instagram story.
Takeaways
My main takeaway from this unit is the importance of persistence. So often with these projects, usually with Photoshop, I could not figure out how to accomplish a task. Maybe I did not pay well enough attention in class, but I often found myself so incredibly frustrated that I was unable to layer something or make the necessary frame by frame changes for the GIFs. I am 90% sure that the baristas at Open Eye coffee shop in Carrboro would recognize me as the perpetually frustrated college student. There were times when I struggled to hide my obvious irritation. However, I did not give up. I would like to say there was some lofty reason that I kept working, but honestly, the threat of a bad grade spurred me onward. Regardless, the act of breaking through obstacle after obstacle to develop a high-quality social media post was very gratifying. In fact, I think my persistence in the face of challenge is what made these projects so rewarding. If I had an extensive background in Photoshop prior to this semester and coasted through these projects, while my projects may have been of higher quality, I cannot imagine being prouder of the result. This unit of social media postings has taught me that something is rewarding not because of the quality of the end-result but rather the challenges overcome in getting to the end-result.
Audio Projects
The final group of projects, and personally the most difficult, were the audio based projects. As a highly visual person, I found it very easy to effectively communicate to others through our video poems and social media postings. The audio compositions were difficult because I did not have any imagery to reinforce what I was saying. Thus, I had to be very deliberate with the information I was delivering and how I delivered it.
Audio Essay Draft
Prior to this class, I had never heard of audio essays, and the format certainly makes it an interesting way to convey information. All throughout my composition of the work, I had to consider the audience's preferences. I realized that my audience would not be extremely captivated by my topic of multitasking, so I made my audio essay as short as possible. Moreover, if my essay was too dense with academic research, the audience would be turned off. I had to walk a tight-rope balancing both the need to convey legitimate information and the understanding that my audience would be easily bored. To counter this issue, I adopted a casual tone and tried to weave information in seamlessly in layman's terms without too many long quotations.
Audio Essay Revision
My audio essay draft was somewhat successful, but based on peer feedback, I could make it more effective if I added intro/outro music and sound effects to capture the audience's attention from the get-go and retain it throughout the podcast. I wanted to retain the serious feel to the audio essay, so rather than adding up-tempo, techno music, I added a melodic, peaceful piano piece as intro/outro and background music to underscore the importance of multitasking. One of my favorite parts of my audio essay is what seems like the back and forth I have with Tim Harford. The short clips are actually spliced from his Ted Talk on multitasking, but in conjunction with my voice, it simulates a conversation. I desperately tried to retain the audience's attention over the span of the essay.
Podcast
The podcast was a nice change from the audio essay. Rather than having to cram a lot of dense information into a short audio clip, the podcast allowed me to carry on a conversation about the topic of multitasking, which seemed much more natural. The conversational element and personal examples in the podcast made it much more attractive to an audience, with less effort on my part. The entire process of creating the podcast was a blast. I felt like someone far above my pay grade when I sat in the podcast recording studio and began talking into a high-tech microphone. Regardless, the experience itself was great. In my audio project reflection video, I talk in depth about the podcast versus the audio essay and certain challenges overcome in the production process of each.
Audio Project Reflection
Storyboard and Script
Takeaways
Much of my reflection on the podcast and audio essay is found in my Audio Project Reflection video. However, it is worth writing about my thoughts on adaptability in this project. Adaptability is important in a team scenario. On any team, you cannot control what your teammate does to an extent. For the audio essay, I was in complete control. I could talk about exactly what I wanted to, when I wanted to. I did not have to worry about anyone other than myself. For the podcast, however, another variable was thrown into the equation. Now, all of a sudden, I had to worry about Will Gollnick's thoughts and actions. While I had a rough outline of how I wanted the discussion to go and we conducted a condensed practice run, once the live podcast started, the conversation totally deviated from the course I had desired. At that point, I was following Will's thoughts and trying to add my own perspective, all while attempting to casually inject academic research into the conversation. In a conversation on the problems of multitasking, I was multitasking in its most refined form. Adaptability was huge for this project. I could not control where Will's thoughts were going, nor did I really want to. His personality and interjections added so much to our conversation. However, I had points I had to cover. When I reflect on our conversation, I see two sculptors both attempting to carve something out of a marble block, the only issue being they cannot communicate. We each had an idea of where we wanted the conversation to go, but once we went live on the microphone, we could not discuss it. In the end, had we practiced an additional time or two, our conversation may have been more refined and to the point, but I am content and pleased with the jagged edges and unrefined lines of our sculpture. The spontaneity of our conversation added natural variation to our work that ultimately appealed to our audience. I thoroughly enjoyed these two projects and the lessons it taught about adaptability.
Final Thoughts
I am so incredibly thankful that I chose to take English-149. Who knows if I will ever use my Adobe Rush or Audacity skillset in my future career, but the lessons I learned about communicating effectively will translate to everything I do. The projects and reflections in this class allowed me to determine the importance of and develop soft skills like critical thinking, persistence, and adaptability that will inevitably lead to future success, relationally, academically, and in my future career. Finally, I hesitate to admit this because I am not a very creative person, but on many Friday and Saturday nights, I posted up in various Carrboro coffee shops and tinkered around on these projects, just for fun. I really enjoyed this class!
Miscellaneous Activity
- Reading Comments
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From Print to Audio, A Tale of Two Soundscapes, Reflection Videos, Word Play, Animated GIFs, Photoshop and Memes, Visual Strategies, RIP: A Remix Manifesto, E-Poetry Readings
- Peer Feedback
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Peer Review, Audio Essay Draft, Audio Essay Draft 2, Audio Essay Draft 3, Video Poem, Video Poem 2, Video Poem 3