Last Blog From Shanin

This was an interesting class! I enjoyed it! I think that a lot of what we have learned about informational projects and building websites in this class will help me build my own business.

Ch. 26

Last but not least, learning to become a professional interactive writer.

I didn't realize the many different types of jobs available to an interactive writer. Ch. 26 showcases four-
Wwriter vs. Editor: where the book explains that you have to work up to being an editor.
Contract vs. Permanent: where you work on a case by case contract or you are employed by one company.
Agency vs. Single Company: varying from a variety of projects to one specific product.
Entertainment vs. Information: While some types of programs are made just for entertainment there are others that are primarily informational. Our first project was informational and our second project was that for entertainment.

Ch. 23

I don't think many people know about this game, Dust. Where the Pandora Directive was involved with developing a complex interactive story and Dust's major challenges were to create an inhabitable, believable world that gives the user the opportunity to explore this world and interact with its citizens and develops a story within thie highly interactive world through establishing plot points, characterization, and other story functions.

Ch. 22

The Pandora Directive:

My favorite show growing up was The Twilight Zone so reading about this Pandora Directive that tried to encapsulate the elements of these sci-fi classics was rather interesting.

One thing that I need to remember is that in every narrative there will be some challenges. As long as we develop a not so complex interactive story and characters, make sure to create smooth realistic interactivity at the shot of dialogye level and the scene and sequence level, and lastly to make the story and the interactivity work together in an engaging and coherent fashion. (pg. 359)

Flowcharts are the enemy! But like all interactive media they seem to be necessary.
They do help with organization and create a hierarchy.

Goodbye for now . . .

It was fun.

Not Interested

I am not interested in an interactive writing career. I think I could do it adequately, but I would never be super good at it, so what would be the point? I am just so excited to graduate and start graduate school . . . Anyways . . . mostly I don't think I am creative enough to really be an interactive writer. Like working on our narrative scripts, even though I know what my idea is I just can't think up the dialogue to make my story do what I want it to. I also don't have the patience to think of every little thing that needs to be part of it. I might be better at informative stuff because whoever hires you gives you the information/ideas and you just put it together. But . . .still. . . it seems boring to me. You would have to be really good to be able to get a job anywhere, and like I said, I don't think I would be really good.

Well . . . this is the last blog post forever! Maybe I'll just post on this randomly for fun. =)

Interactive Career

I think that in order to better develop the brainchildren I fathered in this class i would need to take a few classes in flash and programming to, at the very least, expand my understanding of the gamut of multimedia i would incorporate within my narrative. I think i could take a few more classes here at DSC and then maybe look for a technical trade school to further my education on interactive subjects. I especially want to develop my ability to create websites and i would like to become more proficient in editing images and creating basic flash illustrations as well. So much to do and so little time! I think that the best way for me to increase my skills is to just keep on writing and try to get all the education i can while i do it.

Personal Musings on an Interactive Writing Career

I guess I am a little bit of both: interested and not intersted.

I think that I am interested in interactive writing as more of a hobby than as a career! I don't really want to involve too much of myself into interactive games but I do want to use what I have learned in this class to enhance my future business and the informational aspect. I think that knowing how to design a website is kind of necessary in this day and age because everyone seems to be on the internet.

I am not interested in an interactive career because one: I am creative but am afraid that I would mess up the client's vision, put too much of me in the project or something like that. I am fairly good with technology as I have made myself use and make it work for me. I think there are more productive things that I can do with my degree.

I hope this makes sense!

Chapter 26

I'm glad we finally had a chapter that is useful (not that our other chapters weren't useful, but they were starting to get a bit repetitive). I don't really want a job or internship with this line of work since really I'm just getting the degree so I can move on to my masters and do something I actually like. But, it's still nice to have resources in case I ever change my mind. Also, I think that the idea of a website portfolio is pretty cool and a good idea.

Chapter 26

Good and succinct overview of steps needed to land a job: portfolio, internships, expertise. I appreciated the advice to land a full time internship if possible (so you can do real hands-on work instead of fetching coffee or answering phones). I also liked the list of resources for job sites or freelance writing jobs. It was also helpful to hear that it's a good idea to create a website portfolio with links to short pieces of work that showcase your range.

Chapter 24

Chapter 24 is on the New England Economic Adventure. It is part of an education program for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Each of the stories has 3 types of interactivty. I think it was really fun for them to present information with stories rather than just presenting the facts because it makes the information more interesting and fun to learn.
I really don't think that there is anything new that we learned from this chapter since it is yet another case study.

CH 24

Chapter 24 is yet another case study.  This one deals with the challenges and goals of writing an extremely complex educational exhibit for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.  The exhibit is designed to present the maximum amount of information in the most effective way possible.  The program used a script of two time travelers to "travel to the past" and reenact/visit key points in economic history.  The program incorporates slides, video, audio, lights, and more to ensure that the audience is both captivated and educated.  This chapter provided a nice example of a very plausible outlet for our multimedia writing talent.  I could see myself doing something like this in the future....maybe not that big, but something similar.

Chapter 13 CD

This chapter got me thinking about all of the advertisements on the web. I had never really thought about why certain ads popped up while I've been web surfing. Online marketing really is sophisticated in its approach, presenting ads similar to the topics/interests you are searching for or the sites you are on. An example that comes to mind is about the ads on MySpace. I guess advertisers look at people's profiles and show products/services that follow the myspacers' interests (so if someone likes martial arts, different ads for martial arts or singles who practice martial arts are shown).

Chapter 23

The most interesting aspect of Chapter 23, at least for me, was reading how the designers created Diamondback to resemble a real town. Unlike 3D animation, users are presented with more believable character sb/c real people are synthesized with fictional characters through DreamFactory. I like how Garrand describes that the authors created personal histories for each of the characters in order for them to seem more authentic. It was also a cool thought that the characters were moving about Diamondback in real time, even if the user was not interacting with them.

CH 23

Another case study, this one is on an older game called Dust developed by CyberFlix Inc. and written by Andrew Nelson. The game is similar to the Pandora Directive in make--except the graphics are much worse and the budget must have been considerably smaller. One of the main differences between the two games is the way that Dust approaches character dialogue. Pandora used attitude choices to allow players to pick the way they wanted to respond but not the exact words they'd use. Dust makes users pick a specific text based response and then has the other character respond to it.

Chapter 23

Seriously, what's with the case studies!? I'm sick of them!
This case study did have good examples of dialogue interactivity though. I think this game would be really hard to write because it is a very complex, interactive story. The players are given so much freedom to roam this world so the writers have to write for every possible storyline that the player might follow.
It is nice to learn about new programs, such as DreamFactory, even if we don't have a chance to actually use them ourselves. I wish we could learn how to use more programs like this.

Chapter 22

I am catching up since I keep forgetting to blog. Actually, I lost my syllabus, and since no one else has blogged yet for today, I don't know what I should be blogging about. So, I'm doing last week.

I am really tired of reading case studies. Although, I am glad we are doing narratives now because these seem more like games I would play. I don't think I really learned anything that new from this case study though. Although, it was a good example of a narrative walkthrough. I think maybe I did mine wrong. Or at least it isn't that clear . . .

CH 22

CH 22 was another case study, this one about the pandora directive. It was rather interesting, and i enjoyed reading about the game. The only real term i learned was parrallel structure, which is basically just a game (or web page i suppose) where a gamer can pick different paths in a story that can give a variety of endings. The parrellel structure is different from a linear one in that the operator has a say in where the story is going, in fact, the story's ending is governed by the choices the operator makes.

Chapter 20

Chapter 20!
Good ol' Nancy Drew! I really enjoyed the movie! In order to get a better idea of what this chapter was talking about I decided to play the game myself!

This whole narrative thing is exactly like writing a story and making it come to life so to speak! It is also refreshing to see examples that we can emulate. This chapter is very detailed and extensive.

Chapter 17 & 18

Chapter 17
I am so excited to do the narrative! Like Rosie said we get to use our creativity. I really like how in the first couple of pages the textbook tries to explain different interactive multimedia narratives by genre. I had no idea that some computer games, even though they seemed storylike to me, weren't considered narratives. It is quite interesting that it is the character who grabs our attetion and whose situation we are drawn into. Though the "classical linear structure" is familiar there are a couple of things that are new and interesting to note. Scenes and sequences, Jeopardy, and Pace. It is amazing that these small things add so much to the overall story.


Chapter 18
With interactive narratives, the character is ultimately the person playing the game so I think that it is probably very difficult to design around the audience. I personally hate Grand Theft Auto just so everyone knows. Flow charts or Linear Structure with Branching will haunt me till I die!! (jk) I didn't know there would be so many flow chart like things involved with writing for interactive media! Guess I learned something new! It does help organize. Again it's amazing how much goes into interactive media!

Chapter 20

I like how Chapter 20 breaks down the Nancy Drew website to show how things like nudges and conversations with other characters push the user toward the ultimate goal, which is solving the question of who will recieve the uncle's money. I think it is cool how users solve different puzzles to build toward this goal. I also like how different different story lines are recycled and reused in bottleneck areas. Chapter 20 has reconfirmed the need preplan the different elements and storylines before actually producing the website.

Chapters 17 & 18

I'm a little late on the last post but I though I'd put my two cents in anyway. I think that the narrative project is going to be a lot more fun than the informational-based one. It'll be cool to use our English creative writing skills to provide story lines to users. I guess the biggest challenge will be to try and predict what the users will want to do with the character/story and plan it accordingly in the game.

Chapters 17 & 18

Although the simple fact that we're English majors pretty much assures we know what narrative means, it was nice to see it defined in the context of mulitmedia.  Since i'm a pretty big nerd, i think i've played or seen every video game the author has listed in the book (at the very least i've heard of them) there wasn't a lot of knew things the book presented in these chapters to learn.  Even still, it was nice to read about something i'm particularly intrested in and how it relates to English.  

p.s. lia World scripts like World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars, etc., are not narratives because they allow the reader to create their own story.  They're not linear =)

Chapters 20 & 21

I was reading this chapter on the Nancy Drew Game, and was wondering if and how they would be able to capture an audience that already exists for this game, such as my mother who used to read these books when she was younger. I know that it’s for ages 10 and up, but if they already have a market out there, why not take advantage of it. I do see how it has two difficulty levels, but I think if they are going to accomplish this by selecting different difficulty levels, then there should be more than just two. For the game Amped 3, I think it is awesome that they put the availability of changing the attitude of the character, as I have played Amped 1 and 2 and love that game. However, I think they should have kept many of the mountains from the previous games and integrated them with the new snowboarding resorts in this game. They did that in the last 2 games and I enjoyed it. I do like how there is a story play, but I think that that should be optional as sometimes you just want to go down a certain mountain against your friends.

Chapters 17 & 18

I think that it is stupid that some writers think of video games as just applying to consoles that are played via the TV. Most video games that come out for consoles also come out for use on the computer as well. And on top of that, many and most video games that come out now use a connection to the internet to play against others online, so if anything video games are more like computer games. I think that the player control of the character in the game is very important. I personally think that this should include the ability to control the view of the character. I like to either be able to see the full body of the character or be able to see through the eyes of the character in first person, but the author of the book barely even touches on this subject.

Chapters 17 and 18

I'm so glad that we are finally done with all the case studies! I think that narrative multimedia seems like a lot of fun. But, I think that probably it is a lot harder to write a script for a narrative. There are so many different factors you have to take into consideration. And I also don't really see why simulations and worlds are not considered narratives. It also seems like it would be hard to present the exposition well in a narrative. 

Chapter 12 & Chapter 15

Chapter 12
I really like the fact that this chapter broke down the Preproduction process, because like some of us, we need a little bit of help to be organized. The five tips are: Research the topic; create a master list of articles on the topic; divide articles into categories; identify and locate images; finalize the navigation and interface. Many of us underestimate the challenge of writing and developing an interactive media website and many other things. Because this case study is focused on the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to create a navigation that is in chronological order and to have a hierarchy.

Chapter 15
This chapter brings back many memories as I am a Certified Nursing Assistant. I was taken back by the many types of e-learning. I guess I didn't really know about these. I think it was kind of funny that the writer, Fred Bauer suggested that humor be included in the overall design because it can be effective. The case studies help us relate these issues and topics to our lives and what we know.

Chapters 12 & 15

I especially like the chapter on the Harlem Renaissance and the ways that Brittanica online had focus topics alongside broader ones. It was also cool how the website created a database of different essays, audio, and videos of a particual person or topic. I like how on the Harlem Renaissance site, users could click on anything from an image to a text hyperlink and find out more about the time period. Both chapters were very clear and interesting.

Chapters 13 & 14

Chapter 13 was very insightful! I really like how the "Script Animation Page" was laid out because without that I think I would have gotten lost if they had tried explaining it. Plus I think that this will help when we have to do a story board and script animation page. There are a lot of good examples but not really great examples.

Chapter 14 could have been a lot more helpful to us before we had submitted our proposals because I think that the example of the proposal for the shipbuilding company breaks it down to a different level plus gives us another insight of a different company. I just don't want to deal with budgets or project schedules. I really like looking at the final script, I am looking forward to doing one later in the semester.

Chapters 13 and 14

Since Chapters 13 and 14 were just case studies, we didn't really learn anything new. So, they were kind of boring and I admit I just skimmed through them. It was useful to see all the hard work that goes into making a program. And I do love museum kiosks with all my heart so I liked seeing how those are made and what you need to think about when designing a kiosk for a museum. It seems like with all the different choices that a museum visitor could make it would be very hard to write the script for that and implement that program.

Chapter 13 &14

Chapter 13 and 14 were interesting because they really didn't present any new information, but rather showed us how all of what we've learned so far applies in real world applications. The chapters discuss two major programs: a mathmatical statistics program, and an instructional simulator that allows viewers to create ships and complete certain missions. The chapters show readers how much actually goes into a well designed product and the different layers necessary in the design process for a complete and successful product. The chapter helped me visualize what a large job would consists of, but seemed more like a recap of previous chapters.

Chapters 10 & 11

I'm with lia, all the talk about tags and stuff is kinda making my head spin. There are so many new words we're learning it almost seems like a different language sometimes. It's kinda hard to keep track of all the meanings, but i suppose it only gets better with practice. The biggest thing i got out of all these chapters was how our sites and programs must be designed not specifically for the products offered so that the user should pick which content he wants or what he/she's going to do, but rather designed for the user and is taylored to his/her specific needs. This system is obviously more difficult to compose, but because of it's specificity it also has the potential of reaching the viewers most likely to become potential customers.

Chapters 10 and 11

I don't really see a difference between a proposal and the design outline, but I guess I should since I'm supposed to have that ready for today. The section on writing the website was useful though. I guess I didn't really think that you needed to go into that much detail though. Although, I guess that an employer would want to be able to visualize exactly what they are going to get before they start paying you for doing it. I think everything we are learning is starting to all blend together in my mind and I'm not really getting anything. So . . . hopefully things clear up in class today!

Chapters 10 & 11

Chapter 10 confused me when it discussed meta tags and alt tags. Maybe we can discuss it some more in class? It takes my brain time to wrap around technical jargon.

Chapter 11 interested me the most when it discussed how to make websites more user centric than content centric. Allowing visitors to cusomize their own webpages on the site is pretty cool. Keeping the audience in mind while creating the website is the biggest things I got out of this chapter.

Chapter 5

Chapter five, just like many of the other chapters that proceed it, explains how multimedia has so many different facets that without a good description, or work plan, it is near impossible to construct an effective web page, game, etc. I also didn't realize that there were differences between flowcharts and outlines. I considrered them to be basically the same thing, but, there are differences, and chapter five explores that. I think as we read the differences between all these terms will become more apparent.

My new sweet baby - Gracie!

What do you think about my little new baby Gracie?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

Chapter 5

Most of the time these days, I just start writing!! Probably not the best habit to have. Having an outline is the foundation upon which you would build your story for a story board. Treatments are new to me. I still don't think I quite understand what they are. I have never heard of them before so it was interesting to learn a little bit about them. For example, using the third person and writing visually, using descriptions. I am excited to create a storyboard for one of my projects this semester.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was interesting because it showed me the next step necessary to create a website. It also cements in my mind the need for substantial planning when creating different web projects. Scripting seems pretty straightforward to me, as well as the flowcharting and outlines. Chapter 5 differentiated flowcharting and outlines for me b/c for a while, it was hard for me to tell the difference. Flowcharts seem to be used to spatially show how a project is set up, and outlines are more detail-oriented, I think.

Chapter Five

I think this was a useful chapter, because it is important that as a writer we are able to effectively communicate our ideas for websites or other interactive media so that others can visual our ideas. I think it is important to be familiar with the different formats for scripts and proposals so that we will be able to work with all of them. It is useful to have examples of all these in our book. However, it's most important whatever format that you use that is is simple and self-explanatory. 

Chapters 7 & 8

Audience is the most important aspect of any document. When creating an interactive program, goals and values have to be established as well as understood. As stated in the book, the Prudential Verani site set and incorporated six goals: 1. To persuade; 2. To entertain; 3. To enable transactions; 4. To create a sense of community; 5. To inform; and lastly 6. To teach. These simple goals give us an idea that a complicated document can be constructed with simple instructions. As in chapter 3, organization was key. So is using active or passive information to deliver your specific approach. When creating an interactive site, the creator really has to be organized and know their audience so that they can get the point across in a way that will help the reader/user relate it to themselves.

Chapters 7 & 8

I thought that these two chapters were useful for me when thinking about designing my own website. Knowing about the architecture of a website and different structures make designing my own a lot easier because I know what sort of structure I should be using. Chapter seven also helped me to define what my goal is.

Phillips Chapters 7 & 8

As suggested the professor suggested, i thought of how the information in chapters 7 and 8 could be applied to my own website and i found that like the previous chapters, the book enlightened me again as to how much actually goes into the planning of a good website.  The charting, programming and structure of a successful website is quite astounding.  The 6 goals listed in chapter seven helped me better understand what my website( an all websites ) should aim to do, and chapter 8's discussion on web architecture gave me a better idea of how to design my site and how i was going to approach the story line.

Chapters 7 & 8

I kept my informational website in mind as I read chapters 7 and 8. I found chapter 7 especially helpful with its emphasis on the need to know your project's business context, data, and users. I also liked how it broke the informational goals into 6 techniques--helped me keep things straight in my mind. I learned from the sections on search engines because I rely a lot on them to research and realized that tagging websites correctly helped them receive more traffic, something that can't help but make a website more successful.

Chapters 3&4

In this chapter I learned that one can move up to a project manager pretty easily, which is something that I was wondering about in the last 2 chapters because of all the interaction with the other people in the project. I like managing and to be able to use my technical skills as well. I didn't know that flowchart software exists. In chapter 4 it talks about all the people that are involved in multimedia and Web Site production and I guess I didn't realise it took that many people. Did anyone else realise that before reading this?

Chapters 1&2

I found that in chapters one and two that the Interactive Media Writer sounds like a fun job! This person interacts with lots of different people in the process of outputing the end result. That sounds like something that I may be interested in doing. With all the skills that the interactive writer has to have such as using the right text, audio and video, I would think that they would get paid a lot. The actual design of the layout of websites seems like a important task to undertake. One must make it so that it is visually appealing for the topic group of which it appeals to. Those chapters caught my attention as I thought the writer didn't do much.

Reflection

I first learned to use a computer with the old apples in elementary school playing number munchers. Later I became more interested in computers and decided to save up my own money and build my computer from scratch. My Uncle helped me do that and I was in sixth grade. It was a K6-2 300mgh computer! I used it for for a good amount of years. I also learned to use the Internet in sixth grade. I learned how to do this via school but used it more on my stepfather's computer until I built my own. The online service networks that I have used are Bebo, Myspace and Facebook. I now basically only use Facebook as there are less advertisements and more people on it that I know. I started using Bebo in high school but not really that much. I used to be against Myspace as I worked with middle school students as a substitute teacher and when not substituting, I helped out with security of the school. We had a lot of incidents that involved Myspace and so I was always hesitant to get into that. I finally got a Myspace account in 2007 and only a few months ago I created a Facebook account and have pretty much given up Myspace.
Supplementary online support can help me in this course by answering any questions that I may have that the book doesn't answer or set very clear answers to what I have in question. The advantages of online support are that it gives me another resource to go to when I need help. The disadvantages are that it may not have all the information I need and I may have to go back to the book to look for that information. To limit the disadvantages and maximize on the advantages, one must use both sources of information and combine them for maximum efficiency.

Chapters 3 & 4

I find it interesting that they focus on flowcharts as one of the main technical skills. I didn't know that the flowcharts would be one of the essentials for the interactive writer. To be a good designer, I would think that you would definitely have to be organized. It is amazing to me how many people are and get involved with design. Each person has such an intricate part that will pull the final piece together. It's like a puzzle.

Chapters 3 & 4

I felt that chapter 3 was really useful in showing flowcharting and the other techniques that we can use to organize content. Structuring multimedia seems to be very important because there are a lot of different aspects and you need to be able to have a clear picture of what you are creating. It was kind of crazy to see how many different team members there can be on a production team for a project. Obviously, that also makes it very important to have a clear outline of what you want so that everyone knows what is happening to be able to work together.

Chapters 3 & 4

I'm most fascinated by the intricacy of and the creativity required for webpage creation. It seems like an exciting process to visualize a project, flowchart your ideas, and then see the end result on the webpage. It also seems like it could become a complete mess if the different team members aren't on the same page in regards to the project. So, I appreciate the sections in these chapters dealing with the writer's relationship to different project members. I guess one huge difference between a successful and an awful project is how well the team members cooperate with each other.

Week 3 readings

Chapters 3 and 4 helped solidify in my mind the importance of planning and design in the production process. The explanations of the roles involved in the successful development of a webpage, database, game, etc., expounded my vision of the complexity of interactive media. Seeing all the different facets of the design process, including flowcharts and review web pages, aided in assuring that any interactive media that I try and create will definitely be planned out and organized. I’ve always been a “wing it” kind of guy, but I realize now that “winging it” is really not an option when it comes to products as intricate and complicated as the ones we will be making. Planning, preparing and purpose are essential.

Chapters 1 & 2

I had no idea that creating a website would be so complicated and at the same time very fascinating. I haven't taken a class that went into detail about websites, but this book seems to define terms that make it easier for those who aren't familiar with the technical jargon to understand it. I will admit that I was a bit baffled by the amount of information in just two chapters.

Reflection

I learned to use the computer at school in the third grade or fourth grade. We would play the "Oregon Trail" and "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?". The internet however didn't happen until I was in high school. My freshman year, there was a lot of hype about chat rooms and such. Of course I had to try it out and met some interesting people though I was too afraid to meet them in person. (before police identified there were online predators luring little girls to their death.) I didn't get a MySpace page until 04' or 05'.

I think that if you are taking online courses that online support/information is crucial but if you are taking face to face lecture type classes online support isn't as necessary though it is becoming more of a regular thing. I have had a couple of online classes but the online support/information was not helpful nor useful.

I think if people actually knew that it was there to use they would use it more often.

Chapters 1&2 Readings

I think that these two chapters were a good introduction into what writing for interactive media is. Most of the terms and such seem like things that I've learned before or the words just explain what they are themselves. But, it is probably good to learn the actual definitions instead of just blundering through it. Even though we had already talked about it in class, it made clearer for me the differences between multimedia and interactive media. It was also nice to see different examples of writing for text, audio, and video to see what the differences are.

Week 2 Reading

So i'm not sure exactly what i'm supposed to be writing here...this is my first blog post. I read the chapters and found that most of the things the chapters dealt with, i'd already learned in the past from personal study and other college classes. Most of the terms are pretty straight forward anyway. The title "interactive media architect" congers a pretty accurate image of what the job entails. But, as the idiom says, "repitition is the mother of learning", and i suppose it was good to acquaint myself with the terms again.

Chapters 1 & 2

One of the most interesting sections for me dealt with direct/indirect linking. I'm fascinated by the amount of detail that has to go into creating a website. Not only does the creator have to know basic information about her/his focus group, but she/he also has to anticipate how the audience will navigate through the website. I thought that Garrand's examples of direct and indirect linking (T. Rowe Price investment company and The Pandora Directive respectively) helped me visualize the different components that creating interactive media would entail.

Reflection Questions

I first learned how to use the computer when my uncle gave us an old Macintosh, he was always riding the technilogical wave we were drowning in and would periodically reach down and help us distance ourselves from that torrentually techy sea. A few years later he gave us an imac for christmas. It was an amazing gift, and the whole family was really excited to try it out. The internet was just stating to become affordable/usable at that time, and about a week after christmas, when we got the imac, we got internet and that was the first time i'd ever used it. Years later i tried myspace.....and for the most part, i hated it, but used it because i wanted to feel connected to friends. Three years later i started using facebook and I don't love it, but it's the best way i know to keep in touch with everyone....so, i'm kinda stuck. Supplementary online support, well, I can see it as a nice way to have all the material you need as long as you're next to a computer with the internet. But the disidvantage I see is that you obviously can't take a computer with you everywhere and have one on you in every situation so sometimes it will be necessary to have hard text.

I first learned to use the computer when I was in second or third grade. In school I learned how to type, and at home I learned the basics of playing computer games. All of my knowledge about computers was gained so gradually from there that I cannot pinpoint exactly when I learned anything else. I do know that I was using the internet by the time I was in fifth grade after seeing my sisters use "Web Crawler". Although information found on the internet my not always be reliable, the amount of information that can be found can be helpful.

Reflection Questions

I first learned how to use a computer in a computer class in elementary school. I don't remember when, but I know we had a computer in our house in 2nd grade, so it must have been around then. I used it every day to play Where in Time is Carmen San Diego? My mom taught a computer science class when I was in 6th grade, and I took her class and learned to type properly.
I didn't start using the internet until 4th grade. That's when I got my first email address since we moved to Taiwan and I wanted to stay in touch with my friends. Unfortunately, none of them had computers or used the internet, so that didn't work out too well. So, I just used it for "homework" since I was homeschooled. All I did was read and play on the computer every day.
I started using Myspace sometime in early high school, and then facebook my first year of college. I don't know why since none of my best friends ever did. They still don't. But, my whole family does (even my grandma), so it's nice in that way. My friends in Taiwan all use Hi5, so I also have an account there, but I don't use it as much.
Supplementary online support for classes is good and bad. It's nice to be able to interact with classmates and teachers outside of class. It's also nice to be able to do assignments in bed with your laptop on your lap. However, a lot of times I forget that there are assignments on blackboard and then miss out on important things I should have done, when if there was just a paper in my notebook about it I would remember. I think the only disadvantage really is that students aren't used to it, but I think that as students get used to it, it will be a great advantage in classrooms.

Questions

1) I first learned to use a computer about 15 years ago when the summer program I attended had the Oregon trail software and we were able to use it.

2) My knowledge of the internet came about when I first attended Dixie in 1999 and had to research for my classes.

3) I have lots of friends who are either on facebook or MySpace, so I check out their sites.

4) Pros: online support helps because it's easy access; Cons: Technical difficulties, like the webpage is down.

A space where interconnectivity is valued

Greetings, one and all!

The educational movement towards participatory/collaborative learning via numerous Web 2.0 tools has come to fruition. Indeed, "the old has passed away, behold all things are becoming new!"

As we continue to trek down the academic landscape of the 21st century, we hope this journey will take us deeper into the world of interconnectivity and digital communication.

Use this space to 'rant and rave' about our various readings on writing for interactive media, its theories and applications, and watch yourself grow in your understanding of the rhetoric of the computer, multimedia, and interactivity!

Have a great semester!!!