k-films are coming up and i’v been enjoying the sketch tasks everyone has been uploading. one of my favourite this week was Tiana’s very cute video about her dog. i believe the constraint was something from the point of view of a pet. this video completely nails that. you don’t see the dog at all but from the moment the video begins you understand what is happening. this is because not only does tiana have the camera on the ground and move like it was a dog but you can hear her dog barking in the background. i was actually convinced that the camera was the dog. then i stopped myself and realised it was just a camera. good work tiana. you had me going there. but it’s a really well shot clip and i really liked it 😀
Tag Archives: blogs
A new start – week 3
here we are again, new year, new semester, new subjects. same blog. I’m back!!! did you all miss me? i probably should have done this post before my previous ones but oh well, we all know hind sight is a bitch (especially when it comes to captain hindsight – please enjoy that video) . but i’m here now so let’s talk!!! how have you been? good holiday? ok who am i kidding, i know no-one is reading this.
so what else is there to discuss? not really sure. we could do the lectures… although not much really happened in the first one except a nice little introduction to the course. at least now we know what we’ll be up to this semester (a lot of interactive video stuff from what i can gather, which is exciting to get to do). and then of course the lovely labor day meant we didn’t have a lecture this week so there’s nothing really to talk about there either. but i’ve been doing my best to stay up to date with the subject blog, checking out what adrian is discussing/blogging (i liked the feather video) and seeing what all the other students are up to on their blogs. not many have started posting yet (at least from what i could see) but i did really like Tiana’s post about the reading and it had a link to this really awesome site about the scales of everything within the universe. i’d 
really recommend it, it’s a cool scroll through. although, that japanese spider crab is terrifying, especially how big it is compared to humans. if i ever saw that, i would die of fright before it would even have the chance to attack me.
anyhow, stay tuned… there’ll be more to come!
links make the world go round
we all know how the internet works (ok, no-one really knows) but i do know that it involves links!! linking out, linking in, linking back and forth and to and fro and back again. so, to keep the links going and to expand our little online universe, here’s the link to this pretty awesome blog. it’s a good read and i hope you enjoy and spread the links and share the love around 😀
discussions driven by ideas, not opinions
i feel as though i’ve hit a slump in my blog. two weeks left of semester and i’m just not feeling as networky as i used to.
so, i headed over to the subject blog for some inspiration. after getting caught in the dangerous territitroy of the “faces of facebook” post and losing another shameful 20 minutes trying to find myself, i came upon the post, “blogs, opinion, knowledge” which took me back to a lot of the discussion from the start of the semester about why, when and how we blog. you can’t just tell someone to blog or how to do it, they need to start for themselves and have a reason for starting it, to get their voice out there.
what was interesting about this new post and which gave me something to think about was the idea that we can get lost listening to our own voice. that soon it can move into just voicing opinions with no real grounding in reason. it’s ok to have an opinion, and everyone should. but, as adrian said in the post, there needs to be some sort of idea behind the opinion, evidence to give it legitamability (woo! new word). for example, i can’t just go around posting on my blog that Justin bieber sucks. there has to be some form of logical reasoning behind this. i could say he sucks because… and that would be better because i would be giving my readers a chance to understand my point of view or my ideas without just having a hoard of opinions shoved in their faces that have no real purpose or use. it’s given me a new way to think about what i post in my blog and i apologise if my previous posts have seemed too opinion-y and not enough idea-y.
oh, and if you’re wondering “whats with the turtle?”, i felt as though my recent posts have been pretty bland and imageless so i thought this friendly turtle would be a nice way to liven things up again.
Blogging success!
since we started doing these blogs, i’ve been keeping up to date with adrian’s posts on the subject blog and my one aim was to get a mention in one of his posts. after a week and a half of random rants, success! i have made it in. granted, my mention was just about me liking the course but not the recent lecture so much, rather than me actually having something useful or intelligent to contribute in regards to like, the subject or readings or anything (my blog posts tend to be more along the lines of random and unintelligible rantings, most of which involve pokemon) , but a mention is a mention!
how to have a class discussion
so, the second networked media class has come and gone and what have i learnt?
that i’m not a very good listener. and i have a very short attention span. i was always a better reader anyway.
but when we’re asked to sit down in pairs or threes and discuss the answer to a given question, it shouldn’t be so hard…right? i guess not if you know the question. but i seem to have the terrible trait of tuning out at precisely the wrong moments. i have to get that fixed. so the majority of what i learnt in class discussions was that my discussion buddy and i share vary similar tastes in television shows. (who else here misses lost? anyone?)
but, despite my inherent lack of listening skills, i did manage to pick up on some stuff during the class (thankfully because i typed down anything elliot or my other peeps said because it was a lot more useful than what i was saying) but the main point i have is… i still don’t actually know what “networked media” is! so far the last two classes and “unlectures” have predominantly been about the blogs. “what is a blog?”, “what can we put in our blog?”, “why do we blog”, but thats just an assignment (yes, i know it’s important in the whole scheme of everything) and i still want to know… what actually is this subject?
all i got in class was “networked media is not necessarily social media”. ok, so now i know what it’s not. can someone please tell me what it is? i guess i’m single loop learning again here, just waiting for someone to give me an answer. ok, lets double loop it up. to be honest, i’m still not even sure that i get the looped learning thing. elliot explained that “Double loop learning involves questioning the assumptions that you make about the process and in doing, so renegotiate the task based on what you’ve renegotiated about the process.”.
we did have some interesting discussions on the blogs though in class. what i really liked was how elliot described the blogs as “cataloguing our thinking”. its similar to what was discussed in the previous unlecture about our blogs being ours. we are creating an online persona/identity, something which is vital in todays technological society. also interesting was when someone (sorry, i don’t remember who!) brought up the concept of consumption vs. production – our blogs are a way of us contributing to the online world, putting our voices out there to be heard.
this is going too long again. i’m still not getting the hang of short posts. i tend to write a lot, as i’m sure all those millions of people probably not even aware that my blog exists have now figured out. so one final thing from class that i liked.
i don’t really remember how we got onto the topic (me tuning out again!) but i think it was around the time when someone asked what is the network? elliot responded with this cool little bit of info about “web 1.0, web 2.0 and web 3.0” as elliot explained:
“Web 1.0 – any kind of technology that allows any user to post any kind of info (early internet)
Web 2.0 – info getting pumped in to online space – info must be categorised and organised eg. Google (analyse amount of links to a page and quality of content within that page)
Web 3.0 – streamlining content towards specific users. Adapts its content in a way that is specific towards a user – advertising. Eg. Amazon will recommend products based on previous purchases.”
i don’t know what this info really had to do with networks except, like, online info and stuff, but it was really interesting so i do hope to use it someday.
Why do we blog?
now that i have a couple of posts under my belt (metaphorically, i don’t actually have any belts), i can start to try and decipher what actually is a blog and why do we use it?
one point that i found really interesting is when adrian mentioned in the first “unlecture” that essay writing becomes so commonplace in secondary and tertiary school that no one ever questions why they have to write another essay but will always question why they have to keep another blog. especially because, as adrian said, after university, we will never write another essay. but chances are we will keep a blog of some sort. even the journals we used last semester we didn’t question. i did like the journals because, as i’ve mentioned before, i love print. but having started this blog i am loving it. its just so much easier and simpler and a far more productive way of getting my thoughts and ideas out. with my journal i would think carefully about everything i would write or stick in. but on a blog you can write so much more freely. and of course there’s the option of going back and editing something. there’s really only so much white out can do.
the freedom as well as a huge factor to the success of blogs. we can write about anything. of course, some stuff must and should be about the course and various readings but aside from that we have a free reign to discuss anything. and i can guarantee all of you that there will be a post from me about Pokemon in the future. but just try and compare keeping a blog to writing an essay. even the language is different. no need to worry about grammar or spelling (which is lucky because my spelling is pretty atrocious) or academic references. and in the end, we’ve written so much more than we will in a couple of essays spread throughout a semester. but it doesn’t feel like it, and thats the beauty of it!
but the bigger picture of the blog, as adrian discussed in the reading and the second “unlecture” is that once it’s posted, it’s out there. for good. anyone can read and someone will. the internet is forever. which, in a sense, is kinda scary. but what i really liked is how our content is truly ours. i have written this post and published it and it is mine. its that sense of ownership that makes the blog so important and valuable.
the internet has changed everything. how people go about their lives. how information is communicated. the list could go on for ages. and now we are out there. adrian said in the lecture that within a couple of weeks of having started this blog, we should be able to google ourselves and we would be hit number one. now for me i never thought this would happen. my last name being Midler, whenever i searched my name, the top 50 posts at least would be about Bette Midler and some random woman she knows called lauren. i tried earlier this year and same result. but tonight i hit up the google once again and was very pleasantly surprised to see myself as hits 1-6. granted, none of them were about this blog but just to see myself up there on google is something i had always dreamed of as a little girl who thought it would never be possible because of famous bette midler. the internet is growing and i’m excited to see where it takes us next.
The “Unlecture”
well, guess i’d better start somewhere.
yes, i left this until ridiculously late. so late in fact that most stuff from our first unlecture has been pushed out of my brain by the second one that we just had today. But, there is a reason for the delay (even though it is a bit silly) and that is that blogging scares me.
i don’t know why. i live in a world were i post random crap (pardon my language) online all the time about trivial things in my life. so why should blogging scare me? i guess for me it’s just new. and in the unlecture where we were told just a lot about blogging and unorthodox learning and “unlecutres” i guess i just freaked out a little bit, crawled up into my squirtle shell and hid away for a week.
but now i’m here! and its not so scary. granted, it is almost midnight and my desktop background is threatening to change over once the clock strikes 12 (who knows what it’ll be next?!?!), but i’m writing and it doesn’t seem too hard.
so, what was the unlecture?
nothing i was ever prepared for or thought about when i had planned for uni. i guess we get so used to the learning methods in high school – “here is all the info you need to know, now go and memorise”. and lucky for me i have a very good memory. that system worked for me. so getting thrown into this whole new way of learning – “active learning” – is new and exciting. and it’s what we need. as adrian said we need the “know-how” not the “know-what”. i came to the first “unlecture with my laptop open on a blank page, ready to write down all that important info we would be told but left with an empty page but all new ideas. the empty pages are for the “know-what” but anyone can find the “know-what”. that’s what the internet is for. i really liked that idea of the “know-how”, it’s opened a whole new door for me. i guess i was looking at uni the wrong way so thank you networked media. time for a new semester
omg, can’t believe i just wrote a blog post. feeling so proud right now 😀