Digital Story: My perspective

Without prior knowledge of digital story writing before this class I was sort of worried about this project. I knew not what to expect or even who my group members were. At first, I thought that I should make an elaborate storyline in my page and really put a ton of effort into it. But then these two classes called Chemistry and Biology decided that they were going to hold my life hostage, so less effort was put into it. Going in, I did the impromptu strategy and just tried to think of things from the top of my head. I was also happy to see that my partner also had the same idea going into the project which was impromptu writing. What made this project easy was that there was a prior story to build off of but it was also almost too much because there was too much going on. By the end of my group’s page, I felt like we just threw in another loop in the story that doesn’t really go towards an ending. But after reading the end of the story I see that the final group tied the story in well.

I don’t know the intentions of the first group but I’m pretty sure they didn’t intend on it to be this weird mystery. It started off with a generic adventure theme then morphed into a mystery type story. The way it formed into a mystery was because the second group brought up topics that weren’t answered which gave the story a “to be continued...” feel. Then I started to notice that students began to follow that path or pattern of the “to be continued…” feel. Even the characters in the story gradually began to get even more mysterious, especially the main character Duke. He started off as like a normal kid going to school and then turned into the keeper of the box (I believe).

What I enjoy most about the story was that people inserted pictures and hyperlinks that went with some of the objects and situations. Like a normal short story, the digital story had normal pictures insert into the text which gave it that story book feel. The digital story also included hyperlink to words that pertained the most to the story, which in my opinion kept its integrity of being a blog type project. The hyperlinks is what made the story distinctly electronic because without it, it might as well have been a picture book, but just online.

So in conclusion, I believe the digital story project was very interesting to do. Even though I didn’t put as much effort in as I could have put in the project it still turned out pretty decent. It started off as an adventure then slipped into a mystery that randomly tied its self-back together at the end of the digital story project. It would have been better if we would have work on a page individually so it could be even more creative but it would probably have been a really long story.

Digital storytelling

In class, i learned that Digital Storytelling is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips and/or music. 

The biggest differences between traditional  storytelling and digital storytelling are you can see the images and you can hear the sounds. This is the best way to understand what narrator trying to tell you. In another hand, this is the best to telling stories and explaining stories.

Our project was amazing, this group project is the best group project i have ever did. we need to create a story after prior group's work. This is a fantastic idea for help students practice their creative thinking skills and creative writing skills. If you compared digital writing group project with my high school writing project, it has so many differences. In our high school writing class, I never did such a work like this. Teacher only let us to write different kinds of stories. It is vapidity. This group project made writing much more interesting to me. This project makes me love writing. Follow the prior writing, we can create much more plot. You can add link, picture, map, video, even sound in there. It was incredible. 

When I work with my group member, we think together and add different idea into our writing.  First, we read prior group's work. According to their work we need to create what is going to happen next. We create the secret map in there and we create the meeting point in the story too. We tried our best to made this story interesting. Both of us did well in this group project. We did a great job. We learned and we had a great time.

now, I actually want to talk about the debate too. It is awesome that some group have the topic which is related to the digital story telling. Debate is another thing that I think is awesome in this class. student get together debating about some hot topic. I was in the positive group for give international student green card after they graduated. All of us did a great job. I think instructor torsa's let us debate is because debate can actually help us growing speech ability and English speaking skills. It also practicing our thinking skills, explore our potential. 

in this class, we learned a lot of things. how to be a good writer, how to be a good reader, how to be a good thinker, and how to be a good narrator. I learned all of those in this class. In this class, i figured out that if you  work hard enough you will get the pay back. i will never forget this class and instructor Torsa. God bless everyone in this class.

Relaying Ideas through Writing

Relaying Ideas through Writing

             In high school the type of writing that we did included research papers and creative writing. I have never been a fan of writing; it always feels like a battle. I would much rather discuses a topic with someone than type a paper and have them read it. Through the years I have come to respect writing. Writing allows you to relay ideas and look at subjects in more complex ways. Relaying an idea in a research paper feels otherworldly compared to relaying an idea through creative writing. Both forms give me an outlet to express how I like to look at things.

I have always loved debating a topic with someone. When discussing a topic with someone, you make a claim and support it with facts and knowledge. After listening to the claims and support someone else puts forward you are required to defend your view. During these discussions it is possible to see flaws in your own claims, this allows you to revise and change your claim. If you constantly pick apart a subject and think about it from different perspectives you can form a well-educated argument that can hold up under scrutiny. Research papers allow me to have a debate without the need for a second person to be present. I start by picking a topic and researching it. Next, I make an argument/claim about the information. After that, I research other people’s opinions on the subject. I take those opinions and mine and debate them in the form of a paper. When I use the opinions and cross analyze them I support them with research. At the end of the paper I can form a stronger claim that is supported with facts and has answers to opposing view point. Research papers allow me to learn while I wright by dissecting a subject and looking at it in a multitude of mays.

Research and debating can get tiring though. Sometimes, I do not want to support a claim with fact or learn from a new perspective. Creative writing provides me with a way to let loose and branch out with writing. Research papers are more in reality and creative writing can be anything that you make it. I can be realistic and write about something that is non-fiction or I can write fictitious stories. Fiction is a way for me to relax because there are not rules. I can relay ideas that need no support and build an idea with no research. Creative writing is, in my opinion, the fun side of writing.

Something about Digital Medium

It is my first time to write a digital story with so many people. I sometimes enjoying writing about my feelings on my blog and I've write some fictions on my writing class. However, that is my first time to write a digital story. The digital finished by the whole class is better than my imagination. Everyone have a different story, no matter where we start to write the story, we have a entire story in our mind, some details we give might be the most important clues we expect. Also, in this project, we can publish the digital by the medium. The illustration that we got on the Internet can also make the story more vivid.

The appearance digital medium has a significant influence on our daily life. In the past, the medium we use most must be print. People read printed books instead of electronic books. Also, we now can use some website like Google to find more information. The pictures we have in our digital story can make us be more interested in the story.

As for research, they are similar when you think of how to write them. Both of the digital project and the research paper need to have a theme at first. The next step is to have a draft and plan for the organization. They are similar because they both have to go through the few steps that every article have. However, they are different because the research paper has to be more academic, you may use some slangs in the digital story to make fun but it is not supposed to appear in the research paper.

I think the readers for the digital might be teenagers. Because it is short and we the writers are not that old and knowledgeable so that it might be a little bit simple for the old. I think some books I read about adventure have influences how I think of the development if this digital stories. As the first few group mentioned the box and the map, I actually think it might be an adventure to the treasure at last. This makes me think of the books and the movies, even movies can make the audience see what is happening on the book, many people still think that it is better to read book. It is true, because in the movie, many details are changed. Also, you can imagine more and understand more about the theme of the books.

Differences of Research Papers and Creative Writing

Throughout all my years of schooling I was never asked to write anything creative. It always seemed to be a response to a book in an English class or a research paper on something scientific or controversial. This has always been fine with me because I can definitely say that I tend to not be as much of a creative of a thinker as one need to be to be able to write a decent creative story. I have always stuck to the facts and given my two cents on them. For example the most creative I had to go in high school was deciding which controversial topic I wanted to write a research paper on, which obviously is not creative at all. I have always have had a tendency to prefer writing research papers due to the way I think about things and the general characteristics of each of these types of papers.

When writing a research paper it seems easier because all that is required is to get the facts on each side of a topic and decide which one you support more. Once this is decided it is easy to give the supporting evidence you find and even give your own input on this evidence. Through doing this you can even challenge you with the opposing evidence and refute what is said. This has always been the one type of writing I have been able to be decent at. This is definitely a more logical type of paper and is something that is much easier for someone with my mindset to do.

In a creative writing project it is necessary to basically go from scratch and tell a story with no set end or beginning. I prefer to be able to rely on facts that are either already given or that can be made and not have to create a brand new story out of scratch. I have never been to just come up with stories off the top of my head and that is definitely something that is useful to be able to do if you are going to write a creative story. The mindset needed to write a creative paper is one where you must be able to think “outside of the box,” and be able to just come up with twists and turns in a plot in a story unlike just having cold hard facts and deciding if you agree or disagree on them.

Digitial storytelling: reunion

In the first place, I was so nervous about writing this digital story telling because I didn’t think that I truly understood what is that means. Also, I thought the topic maybe the problem. That is the first time I wrote English story and posted it on public space. I never wrote something in English and posted on the Facebook to tell a story or something else. Fortunately, I have an American teammate that he helped a lot to help me correct grammar and edit structure of sentences. Generally speaking, we got the job done and did it ok. Our story is trying to express a simple idea: a simple moment could be significant, and a moved story will occur any time on any one in our daily life. Life is that simple and magnificant.

We didn’t have too much time to get this project done, because our due time was right on the midterms week, all the spare time we had was night. We contacted each other couple times to coordinate an available schedule to do this. We had some debate about what was our story topic. Also, we had different ideas about the story telling. I think that the most difficult part in doing the project is how to come to an agreement with our teammates. We decided to write this short story because it was simple and ordinary. This story is not completely frictional; we just edited some scenes and their names. It didn’t have a significant thesis in this story, like those heroes created legacy in ancient time, or an innovation changed the whole world. We picked this story because it just like something could happen around us in daily life. Troy picked name for the two characters to make it sounds more native. We discussed a lot about the whole story structure, emphasizing that the start should be smooth and natural. I thought up that Duke knocked on the door because when we wrote this story I just thought up that a mailman knocked our door at that afternoon. We all agreed that it was very daily; it just made the process of the story went smooth. Dialogues between two people was simple, we wanted that simple. “I am your uncle, Duke” seems like sudden, but that was the best we can do… We definitely cannot write an awesome drama script! But still our story is definitely a good material for movie. 

Searching good pictures was not a piece of cake. Actually, this was Troy’s idea, insert some pictures and let those pictures talks for us. What is the most charming in novel or story is words let people imagine, inserting pictures will help readers create more imagination in mind, just like watching a movie. We got that green-eye picture from Internet and edited it a little bit with photo shop; just made it looks greener. The best picture we found is that two people carrying the huge heart, it explains that love maybe the responsibility that two people share. We thought that this story started from two people’s absence of responsibility. And I suggested that we should use that last picture as a cartoon one, it just made the whole story warm. Family should be relative to warmth, and this relationship between people seems like more precious in this world. This is what we want to express in this short story.

     

New Writing Perspectives and Exploration of Different Mediums

A medium is the platform on which your art is created on. Writing has many different types of mediums from print, to digital. In this project, it was the art of story telling and the medium was the Internet. More specifically the medium was Google Plus. This project, being my first fictional writing assignment online, introduced to me different mediums that writing has to offer such as Internet, print, and additions of audio/visual props to enhance the effect of story telling and to help allow myself to become a better and stronger writer.

I had mentioned earlier that this assignment had been my first-ever online fictional writing. In all actuality, I really enjoyed doing this. I really liked building the story off of the other stories. Being the last group to write also was also pretty cool. I was able to gather and absorb the information from the past stories and tie them all together with a few twists of my own. I really liked having total control of the outcome to the whole story. This, however, was a little bit of a challenge compared to the first group to write. The first group gets to choose whatever they want to write about. I was fairly limited because I had to stick to what the story had already given me. It was a good experience though and I would not be upset if I were assigned another project like this in a future class.

The different mediums of writing were things that I had never really thought about before this class. The medium I had only experienced was print. Research papers, essays, and everything else were all written on a print medium. The Internet and blog mediums that were introduced to me in this class changed my perspective on writing. Writing online for an audience was the biggest change to me. The medium of Internet blogging and Google Plus includes an audience to read.  This was a bit of adjustment for me because I had to alter the style of writing I used. I tried to make it so that the audience could feel more engaged and to fully understand the points of the story I was trying to get across. To do this I included visuals including hyperlinks and pictures. This was also a first for me. Never had I ever before integrated these other medias to show further understanding of the story.  

The new mediums have taught me how to enhance the effect of story telling. Through Google Plus and Internet blogging, I have learned how to use these new mediums effectively through audio/visual aids and directing writing to the audience. This project has also taught me how to adjust the adversity of having never done something before. This writing technique was new to me. So, going though it has taught me a whole new style of writing. Due to this, I have become an all around stronger writer. This was one of my goals for this course and this project has allowed me to achieve this.