Friday 9 January 2015

Unit 3: What Mean Ye Digital Storytelling? Part 1

The first thing that comes into my mind when I hear the word 'Storytelling' is an adult, usually female, sitting down in a dark space, perhaps a classroom lit by a few candles or low level lights or by a campfire facing a group of around a dozen children around the age of 7 emphatically waving their hands about with wide gazing eyes beading around the small crowd with enthusiasm. The reason I have this image in my head is probably because of my childhood excitement for stories and the fact that all through my primary school days we would listen to the teachers telling us stories and this would be the highlight of the day/week.

I still remember sitting in class when I was 9 listening to my teacher read 'The Vampire Plagues' and being sad every time she would close the book, it always kept us eager to read the next chapter and for this we would be sure to behave in school.

Upon hearing the term 'Digital Storytelling' I think of a more modern form of this, for all I know children in schools ten years later now read these books on a kindle or online, so by this thought I am going to go with the guess that digital storytelling is telling a story through a medium that is transferable through digital devices, like a kindle or on the internet or maybe even on a phone; anything that allows transferable data to be used across a range of electronic platforms... Maybe this is a restrictive way of looking at it but that's my first perception of the term.

Unit 2:Getting Through Bootcamp/Personal Cyber Infrastructure

What an inspiring way to start off a course, Obvious to you, Amazing to others, it really opens up your mind to realise that in fact all of those 'crazy' random ideas that you have every now and then, those light bulb moments that you think people will laugh at because they are too simple are actually often actually well worth the try.

I find it really creative how this unit starts off with an animation about putting ideas out there, it inspired me to look into myself and realise that however things may seem normal to me they can seem abnormal and amazing to others. Some of the greatest inventions are the most simple ideas that many people overlook as being too obvious, simple or a waste of time when chances are if many people are thinking about it means the market will be very large for that particular service or product. A great example are rentable bikes, they are very handy but people do not necessarily want one clogging up their hallways at home. The are also the services many of us overlook like the fact that large companies use the services of other often smaller businesses to help them to achieve what they want, for example, somebody had to make Richard Branson's planes for Virgin, and even staff in many organisations are outsourced from an agency or another organisation. The moral is that there is always space for a good business idea as obvious as unbelievably simple as it may sound, and most important of all, do not be afraid to try and fail, every fall is a step closer to success. The importance of a 'Cyberinfrastructure' actually is not stressed enough out of the corporate world and it is easy not to see it until you read this unit.

I found the gif website GIFfight really interesting and creative and I enjoy seeing the creations of the contributors because you never know what is going to be done with the images.

I also totally agree with the last statement about blog writing that the way I blog will change because although I have written a fair amount of blogs previously this course engages the mind in a totally different way making me truly feel what I am blogging which was previously a very rare thing unless it was a blog I was writing totally off my own back.