Mirror Mirror On the Wall (Course Reflection)

What an interesting start to the semester! INTE5340 is my current graduate school course which is a creative, multi-platform, public (which is why I'm posting here) course about digital storytelling. I embarked on this new course journey by dusting off my old Twitter account that I never use other than when required. Call me old school, but it's just not my preferred means of communication; I suppose I'm more long-winded than it allows for. But, I've stretched my perspective and have learned that brevity can be quite powerful, plus it forces me to get to the point.

I learned a new (to me) platform called hypothes.is this week and have annotated and interacted with classmates quite a bit. This platform allows for either public or private collaboration and thought-building around an article, syllabus, or anything on the web.

I learned about an experimental course out of University of Mary Washington called ds106 and have created a few Daily Creates which remind me of digital versions of wuzzles as well as photography challenges which are right up my alley. I created these two using canva.com and my own photography.

I decided to jump in feet first and start on one of the challenges on Social Fiction. Not being a Twitter user, I found this challenge unique and exciting after reading a captivating story in small snippets about a homeless man in DC (site shut down after publication). Reading this brought home the lesson that brevity can be impacting and engaging. I decided to write a story about my recent fitness and nutrition lifestyle changes. I used photos, videos, and GIFs from my Instagram account and published them on storify.com. [Editor's Note: this service was shut down after publication and cannot be linked to.]

My favorite interactions were on hypothes.is when discussing this article concerning pedagogy and lifelong learning, both of which resonate with me. But, what stays with me the most about the past two weeks is this fascinating article on Princess Diana that a classmate randomly shared on Twitter. It analyzes how we as a culture consume drama which has to have both personal drama and impersonal spectacle, the tension between our personal selves and our public (or digital) selves, and the spectacle of performance especially for women. As a previous English major with a minor in women's studies I find this very fascinating and relevant today.