Category Archives: revisitgoals

Revisiting Goals

M. Marshall 2.23

Let’s go back to a time that was a little simpler, week one. It was much less clear as to what any courses for this semester would be about and taking seventeen credits didn’t seem like such a bad idea at the time. I have had some highs and lows in this course, getting to experiment with video editing and creating my own website has been both fun and challenging.

Goals!

I gave myself a bunch of small goals, so let’s see how I’m doing.

→It is true that I have become (slightly) more digitally adept. Perhaps not significantly, but I have a way better handle on the WordPress aspect of this. I was even taught how to embed links into a screenshot so that the daily creates wouldn’t look so ugly!

Before:

Weekly Summary #3: Getting the hang of it

After:

Weekly Summary #5: Fifth Time is the Charm?

As ridiculously small as this seems, this was a big win for me. I value sleekness in a website and so I was very frustrated by the way it looked. Now, it’s beautiful!

→ “Ideally, by the time this is finished I will have a whole blog that looks like nothing I could have ever imagined being able to create before starting this class, maybe that I can show off to friends.” Honestly, I think I am well on my way there right now. I like to show my girlfriend the website sometimes, so I think that counts! Obviously this is still a work in progress, so I don’t feel that it’s anything to write home about just yet. But, I think it will be.

If I was going to show anyone any post, it would probably be this one:

Guess the song

Mostly because it’s hilarious (to me).

→”Maybe a goal would be to have the little widgets leading to a real link/page that isn’t just my main page?” Honestly, not quite there yet. I think I’d need another stop by the DKC before I could say I can do this. But, that’s okay! We are not even halfway through the semester, not everything has to be ready.

→”I can feel a reflection on this post coming at the end of the semester” Try just a few weeks from now!

→”Maybe to be able to somehow incorporate my cat, Daisy into this blog?” I checked and I’ve only mentioned her 2-3 times, the goals post being one of them. To my credit: I based my character off of her, so there is a few more posts than just that related to her. Let’s fix that with this post!

Here she is enjoying the outdoor air a little while ago. I don’t take her outside anymore because the avian flu is becoming more problematic for house cats and I am overprotective.

Something else I’m proud of, one of my favorite daily creates:

My next (short-term-ish) goal is to have some new features on the website the next time goals are being re-evaluated!

Revisiting my Goals!

“My goals for this class is to learn more about digital media and learn how to be more proficient with technology. For example, Im still learning how to use WordPress and this blog post is still taking me a while to set up because I have no idea how to use this program, but I’m learning! My goal is also to stay on top of the weekly assignments and to not fall behind.”

Above were my goals from the first week of classes. I became so overwhelmed with the new programs we had to use but now that we are 6 weeks in I’m getting the hang of learning new programs and working with them.

With Design and photography week I used a lot of programs I was familiar with but used my creativity in ways I had not before, so that was a great thing to learn.

Audio Week is where I think I started learning how to use new programs and working with them creatively. I had a great time that week with the audio assignments and learned a lot.

In terms of time management, its still a work in progress. I have started getting into the thick of it for my other classes and senior projects so I have to re adjust my schedule from when we started and its taking more time than I want it to. I don’t think I will fall behind too much but Im keeping an eye on it. I would also like to continue with my commenting on three posts per week and hopefully more when I have the time.

The Journey So Far

When I first started this class I had simple goals like just becoming more experienced with using digital content since I am not very tech savvy, but I am very impressed by how much I have learned in only a few weeks. I was very surprised when I realized I have published 29 posts so far and almost each one includes a completely new skill I discovered from this class! I also want to include the knowledge I’ve gotten about the creative process like the use of cinematography, sound effects, and even the choices that go into the principles of design.

Throughout every assignment I was challenged to push myself and learn something new. So far I have learned how to use apps like Canva for creating and editing photos like in my post Wanted Dead or Alive; I made audio edits by layering sound effects to tell a story with Audacity like in my post Dysfunctional Family; and I learned how to edit videos using iMovie like in my post called Looking into Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Not to mention how to also use hyperlinks and create a website. Each one of these new discoveries took me about an hour or so just to figure out how to even use many of the apps but I think all my effort was worth it in the end because I think they show pretty well how much I have grown in experience.

Favorite Post

This is from the post called Wanted Dead or Alive where I made a high-tech inspired wanted poster and it was when I started getting more comfortable with creating and editing pictures with Canva. I personally love all the detail I put into it and it is what made me realize I was getting more comfortable with projects like this because I was becoming more experienced with them.

Hardest Post

This is from my post called Eye of the Hurricane which was supposed to tell a story of my character humming while walking past people battling unbothered. This was one of my hardest because it was my first time audio editing and I had to find and layer many sound effects to help tell the story which was a lot of work since I had no prior experience with Audacity. But I think it is a good example of when I challenged myself and thought the outcome was still good.

New Goals

Now that I have a lot more experience with using digital media like photo, video, and audio editing, I think my main goal now is becoming more comfortable and confident while doing it. I feel like I have many fun and cool ideas, but I am quick to doubt my capabilities of bringing my creations to life in a good enough way that it matches how I imagined it. But I do want to point out that I surprised myself each week at the sight of my finished creations, so if I learn to trust myself more then I think I will take bigger risks.

Self-Evaluation 2/21

We are a third of the way through this Digital Storytelling course and it’s time to reflect on the journey that we only just began a little over a month ago. The goals that I set for myself going into this class seemed fairly reasonable and optimistic: develop a new personal creative passion and learn a few new skillsets that will make me a higher valued asset in a future career. Seemed simple enough, although maybe too broad.

 

Discipline is something that I am always looking to improve. Although I have been able to apply discipline in other areas of my life such as exercising, waking up early, limiting social media, doing a daily sudoku, and reading more, creativity is something that I feel needs more discipline and care in order to become good at. A new specific goal I’d like to set for myself in this class is starting weekly assignments earlier than the day it’s due. Sometimes I feel like I work better creatively when I put pressure on myself, sometimes that means I start later. I’m not sure where I developed this mindset, but I’d like to reprogram that and focus more on taking time to make a little progress on assignments every day rather than feeling rushed to complete something in one sitting. Rather than reviewing the weekly assignment and waiting the whole week for inspiration to strike, I will begin working on assignments a little bit every day.

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I’ve enjoyed the creative projects we have worked on so far. My favorite activities so far were when we were assigned with creating a Sound Effect Story and doing a PhotoBlitzer! My favorite lesson was reading articles and watching videos about the art of editing. I feel as though I haven’t been able to find a way to really connect with my assignments so far which is why I feel as if they could all have been done better instead of being done a rushed sort of way. I think I will enjoy the output of my work more as I tune my creative discipline going into the next weekly units.

Goals Revisited

I revisited my goals this week and I have conflicting thoughts. On one hand, I’m meeting the goals I set for myself of learning new forms of media and figuring out ways to utilize them outside of this class, but on the other, I have been truly unable to keep up with the rigors especially as of late due to health crisis after health crisis with my disabilities. I had two massive flare ups, a cold, and a horrible infection in the last three weeks alone and it has been physically incredibly challenging some days to even sit up to use my laptop without my heart rate spiking. While I haven’t been able to complete as much that is expected, I’ve been very happy with what I have created and I feel that I am much more digitally adept because of them. I’ve gotten to use my analytical skills to look into some of my favorite media like the colors in The Corpse Bride and the plot of Dear Evan Hansen, I’ve gotten to shine a light on who I am through playlists of music and videos, and I’ve learned a lot about an aesthetic that I’ve normally avoided due to it being very sensory overwhelming (I still find it overwhelming, I just know more information about it now). I’m hoping my health struggles ease up in the near future, so I can begin to effectively complete the assignments for this class and continue to work towards those goals.

Have I Been Doing What I Set Out to Do?

I think the biggest thing that I neglected to mention when writing about my goals at the beginning of the semester was time management and being able to parse out work throughout the week. I think this caught up to me quite quickly, but it’s been tough for me to get in to a flow and find a good work schedule. Looking to the rest of the semester, I hope to set aside dedicated “ds106 time” where I’ll actually work through the week instead of doing everything on Thursday and Friday. I think some of this shows in my Weekly Summaries, which I alway feel end up rushed and not the best representation of my work.

Going along with this, I’m also going to work to better organize the work for the week, as I feel like I have a tendency to let some things slip between the cracks. For the last few weeks I’ve gone through and pre-made all the posts for each assignment and properly tagged them before actually starting on the work, which has been helpful.

Looking at my actual goals, I do think that I’ve learned how to tell stories in different ways. I’ve really never used photography or audio before, and we’ve worked with both of those. The tech noir theme has been difficult on occasion, as I feel like its hard to engage with without being stereotypical or basic. However, I’ve enjoyed the character building and creative writing involved and this again fits with my previous goal of wanting to engage with new storytelling methods.

So to summarize:

  1. Set specific work times and WORK.
  2. Organize the week and engage with material in different ways.
  3. Continue to be creative and try new things!

Revisiting Goals from Week 1!

My original goals are posted here and posted below:

Three goals I wanted to achieve:

  • Effectively tell a story through my work.
  • Use new techniques that will make my content engaging.
  • I want to learn more about my creative side. Most courses that I’ve been taking are business related. Some possible skills I’d like to work on: Selecting imagery and music, feeling more comfortable with recording myself, and familiarizing myself with these new online publishing formats.

So far, I feel like I have achieved these current goals. I effectively told a story in my sound effect story creation. Also, when creating my character, Sapphria Mae.

Each week, I try to come up with an engaging Title/Headline for my posts, create content that goes along with the class themes, and using themes in my work. I really try to do this in the Daily Creates as well, here is one of my daily create posts with my week 3 creations and posts.

Learning how to use audacity, using iMovie to create a scene analysis, and getting more comfortable with Canva. I’ve used Canva for a good portion of the assignments. I think I’ve definitely found more creativity in myself and have gotten much more comfortable and confident with using these platforms and formats. For example, on week 2 I put all of my “posts” in one post because I thought it would look better. So, each day I would add to that one post. I then received feedback on the post and saw other students work and I see that it’s much better to format the post individually because I can share them easier and receive comments on the individual posts. I’m also not hording them all week and then blasting everyone with my work all at one.

Revised/Refine Goals

  • Effectively tell a story through my character. I’ve gave little bits and pieces of my character throughout each week’s assignments, but I can’t wait to actually put together many pieces and elements of my character that I’ve built up in different ways and put it all together. Especially in the group assignment. While also incorporating the class themes.
  • Use new techniques that will make my content engaging, such as; Adding music to my work from now on, adding in extra details, designs, and images to enhance my work. Learning all of the new material has been a little challenging in itself but now that I’ve had some practice with the basics, I would like to take it up a notch each week.
  • I’ve loved getting to be creative in my own way in this class. I haven’t recorded myself yet in a video but eventually I’d like to challenge myself to do that. Getting more comfortable with recording myself and hearing myself in audio recordings is a big goal that I would like to accomplish.

Review your assignment posts and weekly summaries. How do they make the case for your efforts to challenge yourself? Do they do a good job of showing and explaining the evidence?

I’ve reviewed my work, and I believe that I have put in a lot of effort to challenge myself. At least one assignment per week from the assignment bank I try to pick a higher rated or starred assignment. I try not to only do the one or two starred ones. Working on the new platforms and learning how to use different tools has been challenging for me in itself because I’m very unfamiliar with them. I think some of the greatest work that I did was during the week that we worked on with and sounds. I put in the effort to create a cool ds106 radio bumper, made a new beat, and created a sound effect story which was very rewarding when hearing the final outcome. Also hearing the bumper live on the DS106 radio station with my fellow peers. Creating and forming the outline for my character was also a big accomplishment of mine in this class. A couple assignments that I’m proud of making that incorporated my character are: Missing Person’s Alert – Where Did Sapphria Mae Go?, Let’s Get Some Dinner where I created a Sapphria Mae Menu, and this week I created a video on Tips from Sapphria Mae and Her Local Femme Fatal Friends. I can’t wait to introduce her even more to the class.

Are there areas where you feel you need help?

I think I need help with video editing. This has been the main thing that I’ve struggled with in this class, was creating and editing video content. Although, this week has shed some light on how I can improve. I have some ideas for future assignments. I also have been looking at my peers work for tips and ideas on what I could in the future.

Revisiting My Goals

Now that we’re a third of the way through the class, I feel like I’ve made some real progress. I’ve had the chance to grow my creativity, and even though there were times I doubted my work, seeing my classmates vote for Finn’s Walk Home post gave me a confidence boost. It reminded me that we really are our own biggest critics.

Finn’s Walk Home

One of my original goals was to explore new tools, and I’ve definitely done that—especially with Canva, which I now use regularly for this class. I’ve embedded assignments I completed using Canva below.

Mango Sees All

Nature Always Wins… Or Does It?

Something I didn’t mention before but have also struggled with is finding time to work on my personal website. I’ve wanted to get more comfortable with WordPress and Domain of One’s Own, but it always felt like something I’d put off. Now that it’s required for class, I’ve finally had the time to use it more, and I’m getting the hang of it.

A big highlight for me was seeing my website get a shoutout in the Week 5 video by Jim—that definitely made me happy!

Looking ahead, I want to keep pushing myself creatively and take more risks with my work. I also hope to refine my storytelling skills and get even more comfortable with the tools I’ve been exploring. So far, ds106 has been a challenge in the best way, and I’m excited to see where the rest of the semester takes me!

Revisiting Goals

I looked over my goals for the semester and they can be boiled down to 3 simple sentences. 1. Improve my skills further than a basic understanding for some softwares 2. Utilize skills picked up from this class to make learning how to use new softwares easier 3. Better my time management

Improve My Skills Further Than a Basic Understanding For Some Softwares

    When I took Intro to Digital Studies, I used a lot of different creative softwares for my projects. I would learn how to use the software, make my project, submit it, and repeat the cycle. This semester is a second chance. I already have a basic understanding of those softwares and can now hone my skills. I improved the most in my audio editing. The software is easy to use, and I like being creative with it. The radio bumper, sound effect story, and Guess the Song assignments took me no longer than a few minutes. I also used it to edit my Video Essay. My voiceover was less than perfect, and using Adobe Premiere made editing the audio complex, but it was a breeze with Adobe Audition! I’m happy to say that I have met this goal and hope to improve more throughout the course.

    Utilize Skills Picked Up From This Class to Make Learning How to Use New Softwares Easier

    Unfortunately, I’m still mastering the softwares that I already knew and I haven’t had the time nor the patience to try out a new software. Therefore, I have not met this goal yet.

    Better My Time Management

    I felt overwhelmed by the hefty to-do lists when I started this class. I remember Week 2 especially was tough. I definitely have improved my time management by utilizing my to-do lists and learning how long an assignment usually takes me. For example, at the beginning of the week, I write down all my tasks on one to-do list, and then I make a second to-do list and decide what my tasks will be for that day. I normally decide what tasks I will do based on how much time I have that day. This strategy helps me stay organized and ahead of my assignments without feeling overwhelmed by the volume of tasks. Additionally, the workload has simply died down. Even on weeks where there’s a lot, it’s still not as much as the Digital Bootcamp Weeks. So, I did meet this goal, but the goal met me halfway.

    Revisiting goals

    Well, my goal was rather simple and to the point while remaining open ended to revise them would be to simply add more about what I am interested in. Currently I am still fascinated by the art of lighting in movie creation and then additions of sounds. So, I guess I am interested in more technical details about the creation process of many things. I have always loved breaking things apart and learning to put them back together.

    I have never been someone who challenges myself to be completely honest waking up and eating is hard much less pushing myself into an uncomfortable position to satisfy others. Regardless I do my best just like anyone else no matter how far back that starting line is I’m going to take a breath and just keep running. My work speaks to who I am, all over the place but happy to be here. No matter how much I hate the sound of my voice I will keep rerecording no matter how insecure I am I post my work feeling a sense of pride, and make sure to put my best foot forward.

    I started off confused and lost simply doing what I assumed was expected of me feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

    Worried if my work was too much or too little. Slowly I realized that I was stressing myself too much and needed to take a step back.

    First Week Summary

    Weekly Summary 2

    I stressed about the first two weeks till I got a fever

    I finally managed to relax after the fact and began to actually enjoy the work.

    Sound Effect Story

    Overall there’s always room for improvement