Tag Archives: featured-image

here are my course goals

I decided to join this course for many reasons that most people probably share. Learning to use new digital tools, creating a narrative of my own, and because we’re in college for the credits I desperately need. We’ve already started by making our blogs this week which was fun and I definitely intend to spend more time making it something I like looking at rather than a random template. Also looking at what everyone else has created has been very interesting as well and has made me wonder how I could learn to do more. 

Week One Summary – I Figure Out WordPress and Watch A Movie

This week featured the uphill battle of trying to set up a website. That was the most challenging part. I spent a better part of Tuesday’s snow day working on it. It was unintuitive, but I manufactured something resembling a functioning site. While it was difficult, It was much more fun than I expected. I hope that’s a good sign of what is to come.

Throughout the week I continued editing, exploring the ds106 sites and working on the movie assignment. I watched Metropolis. Writing that review was a whole new challenge, as I somehow could not figure out how to add tags. I couldn’t find the editing bar to add tags, and it took me a solid twenty minutes before I realized it was as simple as pressing one of the top buttons. But I figured it out!

I’m excited to keep working and figure out what is going on. Wish me luck!

Artificial Intelligence: The New World

Artificial Intelligence reminds me social media in the fact that it is not real. There might be a little truth behind all the editing or picture/ videos we view but most of it was made to make the audience intrigued. Social media has influencers that most of the time have something done to them. Lip filler, nose job, botox etc. Influencers will also use a software called photoshop to delete and or add items to the pictures they post for others to look like. Artificial intelligence takes that one step forward and uses different software and machines to give us a different look than what the naked eye sees behind the scenes. There is no limit on what you can make the audience view while using AI. I have seen artists make dead people speak on how they died with just a picture of a face.

With more people starting to use AI, the scarier it is going to be in the world. The reason I say this is because, it will cause more trouble than entertainment. AI looks so real and that means people are able to create false advertising and information. I would say our best bet would not use AI at all because it can get into the wrong hands. Once it gets into the wrong hands it is only a matter of time before the end of the world. Whether it is robots who will turn against humans or humans will program robots to kill. Either way the world would be a lost cause for humanity and the future. I feel as though we have already come too far from saving the world from oblivion.

Metropolis: 100-Year-Old Robots Are Still Relevant

For the movie assignment, I watched Metropolis, a 1927 German film about a man who discovers the dark truth about the city his father runs. I chose this movie because I wanted to know what a film from 1926 had to say about robots and how those messages would read now.

This movie discusses how the government and those in power suppress the working class. In this, the leader uses a robot to impersonate the woman who inspires hope and motivates the abused workers. By stealing her likeness, they make it seem like she has turned on the cause, which throws the entire system into chaos.

This got me thinking about how people can use AI to impersonate someone. I asked Dr. Oblivion, “Can AI be used to impersonate real people?” It said, “Oh, absolutely. AI has made significant strides in impersonating real people. With deep fake technology, for instance, AI algorithms are capable of convincingly manipulating video and audio to make it appear as though someone did or said something they never actually did. It’s essentially the digital equivalent of identity theft. But hey, who needs trust or authenticity anyway?”

Recently, discussions about AI have mostly revolved around personal and creative use. We focus on whether to use AI to help create art, stories, essays, and more. This movie reminded me that people can use AI in much more sinister ways. To me, the main threat of AI is not in creative and/or personal use. This movie shows a world where the government uses AI to divide oppressed people and prevent rebellion. This is a real possibility, both from the government and each other.While this movie came out almost a hundred years ago, its message and concerns are still relevant – maybe even more relevant than when it was released. I enjoyed watching my first silent film and am thoroughly upset by everything it reminded me of.

San Fransokyo

At the beginning of Big Hero 6, I notice the Artificial Intelligence for this movie would be Baymax. Baymax is made out of vinyl and carbon fiber and is a nurse bot. The difference between Baymax and battle bots is that Baymax is programmed to make his own decisions by using the software he was given, while the battle bots are controlled by the controllers the humans were using. Baymax would be considered AI and the battle bots were considered, essentially a toy.

When Baymax noticed that Hero was sad, Baymax downloaded personal loss to his own software. The creator of this movie made AI (Baymax) able to problem solve without the need of human intervention. You can also take note that Baymax can also adapt to different challenges. An example would be when Baymax could not walk straight, he looked to the side and started shuffling around the room to make it across. Throughout the movie we notice that Baymax can determined if he needs to use the helpful or fighting software in each situation, he has been put in.

When watching the movie, I had noticed that all the characters were diverse. Meaning that each character had their own role to play in making the story continue. The depiction of Artificial Intelligence in this movie was used for good however, not all movies is the AI portrayed as good. Baymax was able to determine the correct course of action during the film.

WeeklySummary

This week has been overwhelming for me. I was excited to start with classes and start to have a routine. I was able to learn how to set up a domain account it was pretty easy until I got to create my blog page. It was harder than I expected. Once I downloaded the application I was playing around with the tools to get familiar with the site, I found it pretty cool to create my own blog page. I enjoyed picking the color and the theme of my blog page to show more of my personality. What drove me crazy was how I didn’t know how to continue forward after. Until I got help from my professor which helped me so much.

Beamish Intentions

Reasoning Behind My Logic

I am in digital storytelling to help me grow knowledge in computer editing software and blog creating spaces. Knowing how digital media influences writers, readers, and everyone in between like animation and Artificial intelligence. The digital world is huge, and it is only going to get bigger with more technology coming out in the years to come. I hope to stay on top of the new items coming to the market and/or audience.

One thing I would love to pay attention while watching movies or shows is knowing what digital software, they used to make it look so realistic. Over the past years, different type of technology has been used to give off unique theme to movies; an example would be Avatar: The Way of Water vs. Spider-Man Homecoming. I know after this class I will not only watch the movies and enjoy it but, I will notice how much effect the creators put into their work.

The Weeks of a College Student

The Hardship of the First Week: January 19th, 2024

This week has been an interesting one for me. University of Mary Washington waited until 8:58am to cancel the first day of classes because it has snowed the day before. The kicker of that was they had until 9am to cancel classes. I know they were thinking about opening campus if they waited that long to make a decision. The first day of classes started on a Wednesday; the middle of the week. Yay us! However, not all classes were completely cancelled, like digital storytelling ds106.

When I had opened up the class on canvas, there was a lot of words and directions. I have been out of school for about three years; I got overwhelmed very quickly. I read everything and still figured out nothing at the same time. Meeting with Professor Bond was great at helping me breakthrough each step I needed to complete. I am still crossing my fingers that I got everything completed and sign in.

Once I got signed into most items on the checklist he gave out, I notice things like WordPress started getting easier to navigate. I hope I am going to like ds106 maybe in the next two weeks better than right now. It is proving to be more difficult than I thought the class was going to be due to the fact that I am not good at having so many tabs on my computer for one class. However, I am not giving up without a fight!

Week One Summary

The assignment I enjoyed most this week was the AI film assignment as I got to write about one of my most watched films, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” While I have experience working with WordPress, one thing that annoyed me this week was the WordPress login process. I forgot that you have to sign in through the school where I had been trying to login in the usual way which would just add /admin to my url. I ended up almost running out of password attempts and getting really frustrated. Luckily, I figured it out before getting locked out and making the posts has been smooth sailing from there. I am also very fortunate that I setup this domain in a previous digital studies course, meaning that I didn’t have to go through the hair pulling process of site setup again. The course goals assignment went well and I shared that I am excited to learn the more creative side of WordPress development.

Course Goals

I would mainly like to grow in my knowledge of WordPress development. In my current internship I am adding content to the business’ WordPress website and it would be nice to play around and be more creative here so I know what does and what doesn’t work professionally. It would be nice to play around with all of the different themes and customization tools offered by WordPress.