Don't judge me for the title, I've had that song stuck in my head all day.
There's only one week of classes left so now it's time to look back on my semester in Digital Media and discuss its different aspects.
What Worked Well?
I really enjoyed all the creative energy that was put into Lori's lectures. You could tell she was interested in the material and didn't want to present it in a monotone boring way. Having all the tutorials for the labs online was handy in case we were expanding on a previous week's lesson and forget a step or two. It also came in handy when I was working on my flash since I was able to work ahead and learn stuff before we did it in class. It was neat in the labs when Jeff would go beyond the tutorial and show us how to do some other cool things with the programs that we might not have learned otherwise. It added more to the experience.
What Needs To Be Changed Or Improved?
For me, it's more the structure of the classes that needs to be changed. To me it always seemed like we were stretching it to make it to the full two hours in the labs, and the class was organized in a way to fill time rather than to get the most work done. Since the class is arranged in a way that when you're sitting at computers you can see the projector screen, I would have rather worked along in the tutorials at the same time as Jeff was doing them on the screen. It always seemed like the demonstrations went on way too long and had most of us shifting in our seats. Giving us more time in class to actually work on them could have provided us with more time to do our assignments if we completed the tutorials in good time.
Also in terms of communication between the lectures and the labs, I think each teacher emphasizes things differently. Which wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't more than one teacher for the class. I think the Web Test took so many of us by surprise because all the Web 2.0 information was getting emphasized in lecture and the different lab teachers were emphasizing different things about (X)HTML, CSS and Dreamweaver. Also I heard from more than one lab teacher that they didn't see the test until after we'd all taken it, so maybe having the lab teachers see what's going to be on the test say a week ahead of time so they could give a sort of sum up to the students about what they should be studying.
How Has The Course Changed Me?
This course has opened my eyes to a lot of different concepts and technologies that I might not have thought about or had the patience to try on my own. I always thought using programs like Fireworks (Photoshop) and Flash would be insanely difficult for someone like me (not so visual artistically inclined) but having the basic beginner tutorials really helped me branch out and try new things with these programs. I was really excited to get to do a Flash animation because I never thought I'd be able to do that, and I got to do kinetic typography, which I've always wanted to do.
I've been told I have a "Designer's Eye" but now it's even more honed than before. I can spot things and say "Hey - there's a CRAP theory at work!" and be able to explain why something visual works or doesn't in my mind. It's also given me a greater appreciation for the work my boyfriend does as a Graphic Designer, knowing what kind of things you have to think about to do that. I don't envy him but I am impressed by his skill and abilities since I know how much work he has to do.
What's The Most Important Thing I'm Taking Away From This Course?
I would have to say awareness. Awareness of design, motion graphics, animation, the web, everything. Now when I look at things I'm analysizing just what kind of font they might have used, why they picked that colour scheme, how they might have designed it, what their concept was. It really adds to your experience of life to be able to break things down and think about how they were made or how they work. The fact that it satisfied even a tiny bit of my insatiable curiosity has left me feeling pretty good about this course.
Thanks Jeff and Lori for all your enthusiasm and passion, I'm really glad I had you as my profs.
It's been a good semester.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Week Eleven: Internet Heaven? Or Hell?
There's no assigned topic for this week so I'm gonna write to you about what types of things I like and dislike about any given webpage. Figured since we've been talking about the web in class and what features make it *THE* web, I'd talk about what works for personally and what doesn't. (ETA: So I actually ended up ranting quite a bit, but I do sort of briefly mention things I like!)
Like: Social networking profiles.
Dislike: Aspects of or applications added to user-profiles for no apparent purpose.
Hey I'm a slave to social networking just as much as the next person who grew up in the 90s, but that doesn't mean I want to see all these fake internet gifts somebody gave you or have my retinas burned out upon visiting your flashy neon profile of DOOM. If a site is going to give people the option to modify the layout/colours/design etc, why is it always the most design-deficient people who decide to utilize this opportunity far beyond the grasp of human decency? I like being able to go on a social networking site, find someone I haven't talked to in a while and see what they're doing now, what school they're at, where they're working, who they're dating, maybe connect with other friends through that. Do I really need to know your favourite colour is hot pink and you looooove unicorns by plastering them all over your site? No. I didn't.
Like: Comments.
Dislike: That most sites do not have a filtering system on them.
One of the main reason I visit some sites is to read the comments in reply to a post and hear what different people have to say about any given topic. My one problem is people who spam, troll or just post inane pointless replies like "I agree" or "thats dumb". I don't want to advocate censorship, but what's the harm in having a moderator screen comments on a post that might generate more pointless or rude replies? There are tons of people on the internet at any given time so I know there can't be a shortage of moderators out there. Besides, how many people would love to watch a youtube video and actually discuss the content of it in the comment? Because I know that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything on-topic in a youtube comment these days.
Like: Being able to do things online that I would normally have to actually leave the house or call someone for (ex. banking, pay my phone bill, submit an assignment).
Dislike: When sites try this avenue and it JUST. DOESN'T. WORK.
I'm looking at you Rogers! Every time I visit this site to pay my bill or change my five unlimited numbers it's like playing the slots to see if I can even get to the right page! They advertise the site as more convenient for customers but I'd almost rather sit through the banality that is the Rogers Customer Service phone line than put up with this nonsense. This is in conjunction with sites not being accesible on every browser, or at LEAST the more popular ones. For the most part I think the entire world knows that Internet Explorer is on it's way out, or just that less and less people appreciate being asked permission before you can even load a site. (Can you imagine?) But time and time again I'll find myself on a site that isn't Firefox compatible or my friends with Macs won't be able to submit an assignment because they're using Safari. Even I, a lowly undergraduate student know that these three browsers are the most commonly used. So what is it? Does Bill Gates have a stranglehold on the web as we know it? Why is IE god on the net? I don't mind Windows as an operating system, but for the internet... just admit defeat!
Like: Sites that will give you something for free that you would normally have to pay for. (I'm a pirate, I know)
Dislike: WHEN THIS IS A LIE!
I cannot tell you how many times I've clicked on something while researching on Google Scholar , excited that I'm going to get a really good article to cite for my assignment only to find... an abstract and a link saying "To see the rest of this article, pay $xx.xx"... wut? Some sites will blatantly advertise "free soandso software!" then when you get to the site you are met with the fateful words "Please enter your credit card information". I know you want to draw in people, but is there not some kind of internet law of decency (since I know it's against the law to actually give it to us for free) that states you shouldn't advertise stuff for free if it's not? If I want to download WinZip and you say it's free, why do you then go and say AFTER I downloaded it that it's only a 30-day free TRIAL? Is there some fine-print clause I'm not aware of? I cannot tell you how many times I've been disappointed by this. I'm a poor student, I like free stuff! Give me free stuff!
Like: When sites will offer you a preview, recap, special feature or full feature of their product (think TV network sites like NBC offering full episodes online).
Dislike: That the fact that I don't live in the states means I'm not allowed to have access to any of this.
I like webisodes from my favourite TV shows like The Office, they add a little extra something to my experience of the show. It's too bad when I miss an episode I can't catch up because I don't live in the states and my IP address is giving NBC.com a hate-on for me. Then the webisodes aren't so fun anymore because I have no frame of reference cause I missed an episode. It's not like these are heavil guarded government secrets guys, it's just a TV show! If you can broadcast it in Canada, why can't you offer me the same privileges of watching it online? I really don't understand what difference it makes. I'm sure there's some kind of magical law behind this one, but it truly baffles me to be honest.
Like: Tags.
Dislike: People abusing them.
A tag is a very useful tool, it's like when you're researching, putting a little sticky-note on each page related to your thesis (I've been writing a lot of essays, sue me!) only it's on the internet and it's for wasting time purposes rather than actual work. Problem is, some people don't know what to put in their tags, or don't really grasp the purpose of them. Say if I was tagging entries in this blog and I put "school" as one. Well that would be pretty pointless right? Because every entry is related to school in some way. So that wouldn't help the filtering process for my readers anyway. It's like highlighting all the text in a book - the point, you missed it. Again, gotta go back to YouTube being one of the worst offenders. Some people will put "cool" or "awesome" as tags. Why? I'm almost positive we will not entirely agree on what we think is cool or awesome, and therefore no one will search through tags based on those perameters. I could put up a video of my boyfriend clipping his toenails and write "COOL" as a tag because hey, that nail clipper is effing huge, but would anybody really think that's cool? No. They wouldn't. It's gross.
I think that's a good little ramble for a no-topic week, don't you? Out of curiosity, what would you tag this entry with?
Like: Social networking profiles.
Dislike: Aspects of or applications added to user-profiles for no apparent purpose.
Hey I'm a slave to social networking just as much as the next person who grew up in the 90s, but that doesn't mean I want to see all these fake internet gifts somebody gave you or have my retinas burned out upon visiting your flashy neon profile of DOOM. If a site is going to give people the option to modify the layout/colours/design etc, why is it always the most design-deficient people who decide to utilize this opportunity far beyond the grasp of human decency? I like being able to go on a social networking site, find someone I haven't talked to in a while and see what they're doing now, what school they're at, where they're working, who they're dating, maybe connect with other friends through that. Do I really need to know your favourite colour is hot pink and you looooove unicorns by plastering them all over your site? No. I didn't.
Like: Comments.
Dislike: That most sites do not have a filtering system on them.
One of the main reason I visit some sites is to read the comments in reply to a post and hear what different people have to say about any given topic. My one problem is people who spam, troll or just post inane pointless replies like "I agree" or "thats dumb". I don't want to advocate censorship, but what's the harm in having a moderator screen comments on a post that might generate more pointless or rude replies? There are tons of people on the internet at any given time so I know there can't be a shortage of moderators out there. Besides, how many people would love to watch a youtube video and actually discuss the content of it in the comment? Because I know that you'd be hard-pressed to find anything on-topic in a youtube comment these days.
Like: Being able to do things online that I would normally have to actually leave the house or call someone for (ex. banking, pay my phone bill, submit an assignment).
Dislike: When sites try this avenue and it JUST. DOESN'T. WORK.
I'm looking at you Rogers! Every time I visit this site to pay my bill or change my five unlimited numbers it's like playing the slots to see if I can even get to the right page! They advertise the site as more convenient for customers but I'd almost rather sit through the banality that is the Rogers Customer Service phone line than put up with this nonsense. This is in conjunction with sites not being accesible on every browser, or at LEAST the more popular ones. For the most part I think the entire world knows that Internet Explorer is on it's way out, or just that less and less people appreciate being asked permission before you can even load a site. (Can you imagine?) But time and time again I'll find myself on a site that isn't Firefox compatible or my friends with Macs won't be able to submit an assignment because they're using Safari. Even I, a lowly undergraduate student know that these three browsers are the most commonly used. So what is it? Does Bill Gates have a stranglehold on the web as we know it? Why is IE god on the net? I don't mind Windows as an operating system, but for the internet... just admit defeat!
Like: Sites that will give you something for free that you would normally have to pay for. (I'm a pirate, I know)
Dislike: WHEN THIS IS A LIE!
I cannot tell you how many times I've clicked on something while researching on Google Scholar , excited that I'm going to get a really good article to cite for my assignment only to find... an abstract and a link saying "To see the rest of this article, pay $xx.xx"... wut? Some sites will blatantly advertise "free soandso software!" then when you get to the site you are met with the fateful words "Please enter your credit card information". I know you want to draw in people, but is there not some kind of internet law of decency (since I know it's against the law to actually give it to us for free) that states you shouldn't advertise stuff for free if it's not? If I want to download WinZip and you say it's free, why do you then go and say AFTER I downloaded it that it's only a 30-day free TRIAL? Is there some fine-print clause I'm not aware of? I cannot tell you how many times I've been disappointed by this. I'm a poor student, I like free stuff! Give me free stuff!
Like: When sites will offer you a preview, recap, special feature or full feature of their product (think TV network sites like NBC offering full episodes online).
Dislike: That the fact that I don't live in the states means I'm not allowed to have access to any of this.
I like webisodes from my favourite TV shows like The Office, they add a little extra something to my experience of the show. It's too bad when I miss an episode I can't catch up because I don't live in the states and my IP address is giving NBC.com a hate-on for me. Then the webisodes aren't so fun anymore because I have no frame of reference cause I missed an episode. It's not like these are heavil guarded government secrets guys, it's just a TV show! If you can broadcast it in Canada, why can't you offer me the same privileges of watching it online? I really don't understand what difference it makes. I'm sure there's some kind of magical law behind this one, but it truly baffles me to be honest.
Like: Tags.
Dislike: People abusing them.
A tag is a very useful tool, it's like when you're researching, putting a little sticky-note on each page related to your thesis (I've been writing a lot of essays, sue me!) only it's on the internet and it's for wasting time purposes rather than actual work. Problem is, some people don't know what to put in their tags, or don't really grasp the purpose of them. Say if I was tagging entries in this blog and I put "school" as one. Well that would be pretty pointless right? Because every entry is related to school in some way. So that wouldn't help the filtering process for my readers anyway. It's like highlighting all the text in a book - the point, you missed it. Again, gotta go back to YouTube being one of the worst offenders. Some people will put "cool" or "awesome" as tags. Why? I'm almost positive we will not entirely agree on what we think is cool or awesome, and therefore no one will search through tags based on those perameters. I could put up a video of my boyfriend clipping his toenails and write "COOL" as a tag because hey, that nail clipper is effing huge, but would anybody really think that's cool? No. They wouldn't. It's gross.
I think that's a good little ramble for a no-topic week, don't you? Out of curiosity, what would you tag this entry with?
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Week Ten: I Put The "Oh!" in Web 2.0
Lately in DM, we've been learning the nitty-gritty about how the interwebs works. The internet we're used to using, with more fancy stuff like social networking and applications is called Web 2.0. For my blog post this week I'm supposed to discuss featured of Web 2.0 and linkify you to examples of these features in action! I've compiled a little list of sites that don't necessarily reflect my taste in sites (unless I say otherwise) but do reflect the concepts well.
Web 2.0
Feature Numero Uno: Dynamic content viewable on multiple platforms. One type of website that demonstrates this is called a mashup, where features from different websites are combined into one to utilize both features for a particular goal. I actually went to a mashup database website to find an example and came across Early Miser. This site combines the databases of amazon, ebay, yahoo shopping and amazon marketplace to provide the user with price comparisons over a variety of websites as well as the feature of "price triggering" (setting a budget for a particular item so that they are notified when it becomes available for that price). This is the perfect example of a mashup because it is utilizing the services of many different shopping websites and combining them into one for more efficient searching. Rather than having to check the availability of a product on all these different websites individually, they are organized in one place. On top of that, the feature of "price triggering" is unique to Early Miser itself, making it so that a user doesn't have to continually check back for price changes and can instead be notified.
Feature Numero Dos: User contribution, user generated content and user generated value. Since the basis for this feature is that users are creating what is being put on the website and also offered the abilitiy to voice their opinions on what is being put up, there are endless amounts of websites to choose from. One of the more well-known ones is the animation version of YouTube: Newgrounds. The site's motto is "Everything, By Everyone" and is a spot-on advertisement for what the site is all about. Everything on the site is created by normal people who know how to animate, and there is the option to comment on and rate everything. There are many different forums (pardon the pun) for users to provide feedback such as.. well, forums, blogs, and an on-site chatroom. All the content of the site is free since it is created by normal people and some are more talented than others. It's a way for game-designers or animators to get their work out there, have fun, and be provided with feedback on how to improve.
Feature Numero Tres: Social Media. This is a pretty straight-forward definition since I'm sure anyone reading this has at least HEARD of sites like Myspace or Facebook. These sites were made primarily for social networking, but a site doesn't necessarily JUST have to be about finding and making friends to be considered Social Media. I offer I'mInLikeWithYou as an example of just such a site. While the primary focus of the site is on playing silly games, the idea behind it is that you can create a user profile and create games based on yourself that people have to bet on the answers to to win points. There's also little yes/no questions that pop up randomly while surfing the site for you to answer and add to your profile. You can also obtain points from adding pictures to your profile or making friends. So despite the fact that it's very game oriented, the games are about getting to know people and socializing.
Feature Numero Quatros: Online applications traditionally thought of as software bought and installed. For this one I opted to pick something related to RTA, Jam Studio. It's a very simplistic but still creative version of music creating software like Sony Vegas or Sound Forge. The application allows you to choose instruments and pick chords, keys and rhythms to create mini songs. Since it is online it can't be as complicated as a full sound editing program but it does offer basic features that can be entertaining for someone who just wants to play around with sounds and hear what they can create. Because software of this variety that is traditionally bought is SO expensive and SO complicated, offering a free online basic version can satisfy the curiosity of someone who may not necessarily be interested in all the complicated features, but still wants to be able to make music and have fun.
Feature Numero Cinqo: harnessing collective intelligence using a system like tagging. To exemplify this it was no question to talk about one of my favourite sites/applications on the web: StumbleUpon. Because the web is so vast and harder and harder to explore without having to make very specific (and filtered) google searches, having a site like Stumble is a godsend for people like me. All you have to do to explore random sites is sign up and specify sort of general interests, then once you're ready, hit the stumble button and go all across the internet. You are sent to sites that have been given thumbs-up from users who have similar interests to you and you can decide whether to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down after you've looked around. Once you rate the site your interests become more specified, making it easier for the searches to come up with pages you'll like. You can also send pages to friends with Stumble and specify your channels so only certain types of sites will come up when you search (like video, image or news sites). It's a great resource for getting to know the net and for when you're really bored!
You better check out all these websites to see what I mean. Cheers!
Web 2.0
Feature Numero Uno: Dynamic content viewable on multiple platforms. One type of website that demonstrates this is called a mashup, where features from different websites are combined into one to utilize both features for a particular goal. I actually went to a mashup database website to find an example and came across Early Miser. This site combines the databases of amazon, ebay, yahoo shopping and amazon marketplace to provide the user with price comparisons over a variety of websites as well as the feature of "price triggering" (setting a budget for a particular item so that they are notified when it becomes available for that price). This is the perfect example of a mashup because it is utilizing the services of many different shopping websites and combining them into one for more efficient searching. Rather than having to check the availability of a product on all these different websites individually, they are organized in one place. On top of that, the feature of "price triggering" is unique to Early Miser itself, making it so that a user doesn't have to continually check back for price changes and can instead be notified.
Feature Numero Dos: User contribution, user generated content and user generated value. Since the basis for this feature is that users are creating what is being put on the website and also offered the abilitiy to voice their opinions on what is being put up, there are endless amounts of websites to choose from. One of the more well-known ones is the animation version of YouTube: Newgrounds. The site's motto is "Everything, By Everyone" and is a spot-on advertisement for what the site is all about. Everything on the site is created by normal people who know how to animate, and there is the option to comment on and rate everything. There are many different forums (pardon the pun) for users to provide feedback such as.. well, forums, blogs, and an on-site chatroom. All the content of the site is free since it is created by normal people and some are more talented than others. It's a way for game-designers or animators to get their work out there, have fun, and be provided with feedback on how to improve.
Feature Numero Tres: Social Media. This is a pretty straight-forward definition since I'm sure anyone reading this has at least HEARD of sites like Myspace or Facebook. These sites were made primarily for social networking, but a site doesn't necessarily JUST have to be about finding and making friends to be considered Social Media. I offer I'mInLikeWithYou as an example of just such a site. While the primary focus of the site is on playing silly games, the idea behind it is that you can create a user profile and create games based on yourself that people have to bet on the answers to to win points. There's also little yes/no questions that pop up randomly while surfing the site for you to answer and add to your profile. You can also obtain points from adding pictures to your profile or making friends. So despite the fact that it's very game oriented, the games are about getting to know people and socializing.
Feature Numero Quatros: Online applications traditionally thought of as software bought and installed. For this one I opted to pick something related to RTA, Jam Studio. It's a very simplistic but still creative version of music creating software like Sony Vegas or Sound Forge. The application allows you to choose instruments and pick chords, keys and rhythms to create mini songs. Since it is online it can't be as complicated as a full sound editing program but it does offer basic features that can be entertaining for someone who just wants to play around with sounds and hear what they can create. Because software of this variety that is traditionally bought is SO expensive and SO complicated, offering a free online basic version can satisfy the curiosity of someone who may not necessarily be interested in all the complicated features, but still wants to be able to make music and have fun.
Feature Numero Cinqo: harnessing collective intelligence using a system like tagging. To exemplify this it was no question to talk about one of my favourite sites/applications on the web: StumbleUpon. Because the web is so vast and harder and harder to explore without having to make very specific (and filtered) google searches, having a site like Stumble is a godsend for people like me. All you have to do to explore random sites is sign up and specify sort of general interests, then once you're ready, hit the stumble button and go all across the internet. You are sent to sites that have been given thumbs-up from users who have similar interests to you and you can decide whether to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down after you've looked around. Once you rate the site your interests become more specified, making it easier for the searches to come up with pages you'll like. You can also send pages to friends with Stumble and specify your channels so only certain types of sites will come up when you search (like video, image or news sites). It's a great resource for getting to know the net and for when you're really bored!
You better check out all these websites to see what I mean. Cheers!
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