Sunday, March 25, 2007

Extra Credit- Digital Document

Hi,

This is Jenna's mom and she just showed me her digital document video on skate boarding. It's nice to actually see some of her work she does at school. It looks like she's learning more skills on the computer that she can use as a future teacher. I really enjoyed watching this video of her leaning how to skate!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Reification of Digital Doc.

The digital document project is finally finished and turned in. And although a person watching the final product might not realize it, but the process took a lot of time and hard work. The first problem I encountered was picking a topic. I right away thought of doing the project on skating, however I was skeptical because of my lack of images and video footage. Since it had been raining nonstop, I didn't think I would be able to get enough pictures and video to create my digital document. That problem cleared up when the weather cleared up. I was able to get outside and do some filming. After starting my project, I ran into my first computer problem. My computer deleted the Windows Movie Maker program therefore deleting my project. I was on the phone with Dell for 2 hours trying to find a way to get the program back. Nothing worked. Finally I found a round about way to get the program back. And although I was excited to start working on the project, I was a little frustrated in having to start from scratch. After this ordeal, I went to the bookstore and bought a flash drive in order to keep from losing my project once again. The Windows Movie Maker program stopped working once again, and so i settled for finishing the project on campus. The next problem came when none of my pictures were showing up, and instead showing red X's. This was really frustrating because I had spent 5 hours in the library computer lab the day before finishing the entire assignment. After talking to others who were having the same problem, I learned a way to get the pictures back. Throughout much of the process I was stressed out. However, looking back on it, I learned a lot of valuable information, particularly about computers.
The process of creating this document was not all problematic. Surprisingly not everything went wrong. Throughout the process some of the Gee chapters became clearer. I tried to connect the book and my document together by adding slides stating important aspects of learning (great teacher, success, fun...). Some were similar to Gee's and some were my added own. Going through the process while reading Gee allowed me to relate it to my own learning experience. In doing this project I was also able to do what I love best: spending time with my friends. I didn't feel guilty putting off my homework to go skate with my boyfriend and friends. I just told myself "this is homework." :)
I complained a great deal throughout the make of this document. However, having the finished product is rewarding. In showing my boyfriend and friends the finished product I felt like I told them how much I like being apart of their affinity group and enjoy skating with them.