Week 4 Response to Bianca

Week 4 - Post 1 - Getting past the wall

Posted by Bianca at 10:51 PM 

*sigh*

I had the worst problem getting started on my media project. Well, to be more specific, I had the worst problem getting started on themedia portion of my media project. I'd had my idea, a branching dialogue customer service simulation in Udutu, solidified since our first week. I had the whole idea all mapped out, but when it came to actually creating it in Udutu I had the most terrible time getting started. I hummed and hawed and vaguely poked in its general direction until just finally getting it properly rolling and working today (status update: got a great chunk of it in order and I feel confident about having it more than 75% done by the time I do my presentation).

It's not that I wasn't excited about the media project; in fact, I was kind of elated to be putting my thesis materials into practice finally. It's more that I'm starting to just get TIRED.

I've been pushing myself in both my school and work life for the past 11 months and it turns out pushing myself past exhaustion is finally starting to catch up with me. I just want to crawl into a fetal ball and sleep for a month or so to recover. Alas, there's still 5 more weeks to go, so no recovery hibernation for me just yet.

I thankfully hit a second wind (or, well, maybe eightieth wind to be more accurate) today and getting the project to work finally will definitely get me through this week at the very least (although I'm hoping the delight of finally getting a breakthrough will boost my energy for longer).

I'm hoping this will all work out like the exercise class I took the other week. It was my first yoga/pilates/tai chi-style class in a long time and around the middle I honestly thought I couldn't go any further. Not long after that, though, I caught a second wind and by the end of the class I felt fabulous.

So here's to us ALL catching that second wind, making it through the rest of the program, and coming out the other end feeling amazing and refreshed... or, at least surviving the next 5 weeks. Yes, just surviving would suffice ;)

(Anime self portrait made with the help of the Anime Face Maker v1.0 by ~geN8hedgehog, which is an excellent stress reliever, might I add)

Week 4 - Media Project and Thesis

One more month!  I can’t believe it.  I am putting some finishing touches on my media project that my group recommended.  Thank you so much if you were at the Friday night session.  You all were so helpful.  Sharing my class work with other students has always been nerve-wracking   for me.  Even though I know everyone will be professional and nice I still get all worked up.  I am thankful for the input, though.  I just got my thesis back, and Laura says I’m done.  I can’t believe it.  It doesn’t seem real.  If anyone wants to see my media project here is the URL.  You check out my thesis at the same place.

Click here for my media project

Week 4 - YouTube and Censorship

When I first started teaching at my school YouTube was blocked.  For three years I tried to get used it but I never did.  After numerous debates I finally got our Network Admin (my supervisor) to unblock YouTube for the school at the beginning of the year.  This week at school YouTube became blocked again; I was devastated.  We had a teacher’s meeting on why it was blocked.  The reasoning was that there were too many distractions and some inappropriate material so it had to be blocked.  I couldn’t believe we were going to block the entire site, again.  Fortunately, my supervisor thought about it, and decided that the good outweighed the bad and unblocked YouTube.  He said that YouTube was a tool, and just like any tool it could be used in a positive or negative way.  Our school has a welding class, and we let the students use torches.  I post this because I know my school is not the only one that thinks YouTube is an evil time-wasting devil.  If your school blocks YouTube, try to persuade them to change.  YouTube is a tool and it is up to the teachers to help the students use the tool properly.  

Wk 3 The Education Arcade

At this point, I can't remember if this is something I learned about in a class at Full Sail, or just while doing research for my thesis.  Anyway, The Education Arcade (TEA) is all about 'games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play' according to the website.  TEA researches commercial games that can be educational as well as games made specifically for educating.  Aside from writing some research papers, TEA also has created some games themselves.  One project is called Labyrinth.  This game is focused at middle school students and teaches math and literacy.  I haven't explored the games as much as their white papers, but feel free to explore yourself.

image source:  http://www.educationarcade.org/

Wk 3 Response to Bianca

Week 3 - Post 3 - Personal 20-Percent Time

Posted by Bianca at 7:40 PM 

Lifehacker did another posting on Google's 20-percent time. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, at Google employees are given one day a week to work on whatever projects they feel like. It's basically structured experimentation time and it's worked exceptionally well for Google. Some of Google's best-loved offerings (including Gmail) came initially from the experimentation done in this 20-percent time. In the Lifehacker article today they discussed creating your own personal 20-percent time so as to increase creativity and innovation.

Now that we're coming closer to the end of our program I'm starting to think about what I'm going to use all my spare time for, and some 20-percent time style personal development sounds just about right. The last few years I've been in and out of classes both for my Canadian teaching certification (my original Florida certification didn't transfer over completely) and now for training for my new career in instructional design. I love learning, but I'm getting a bit tired of taking classes mostly for career growth. I'm also a bit sick of grades altogether. I'm thinking of following up Full Sail with some fun non-graded classes just for me. I'm also thinking of working on some fun projects on my own. 

Here's a short list of the things I'm planning to work on and learn in the year or so after graduation:

• I promised myself I could take a glassblowing workshop after I finished grad school. I've wanted to do this for years but it's not cheap so I kept putting it off. I deserve a treat after finishing grad school though.
• Nate mentioned a PowerPoint alternative called Prezi that is ridiculously pretty. I'm going to play around with it a lot I think. I also picked up a spiffy program called Timeline 3D in a Mac software bundle I bought up this week. I don't have a need to create timelines for anything right now... but the program is just so spectacular I think I'm just going to have to make things with it anyway just for fun.
• I've been working on a home decorating project as part of my New Year's resolution (shameless plug: here's my blog for it) . I've done a few small projects for it, but once school finishes it's time for the big projects like refinishing a cool (but banged up) vintage vanity, drafting and sewing a slip cover for my currently boring black office chair, and finally matting and framing all the great prints I've bought in the last few years (most of them are from Imaginism Studios, whose work I adore).
• I've gotten a lot more into graphic design since I started at Full Sail. Because of this I just need to bite the bullet and become friends with Adobe Illustrator already.
• Language class time. Which will it be: Spanish (which would make my Abuelita delighted and be useful on Caribbean vacations) or Japanese (which would make reading manga and watching anime easier and would be useful for when I FINALLY go to Japan... and likely blow my life savings in Akihabara)

What I suppose I'm hoping is that these side projects will function to keep me creatively invigorated, which will lead to more innovation both in my personal life as well as my professional work. I'm also hoping some of the side projects I do might have parts that will transfer to other areas of my life as well. It's surprising how this can work sometimes. For example, back in one of our early classes at Full Sail I made a video that was an introduction to Twitter and blogging. Just recently I showed it to my boss as an example of what we could do on our company website, and she pitched the idea to a client of ours who has now contracted us to create a similar video to promote a training program she's leading. Who would have guessed that what I thought was a one-off class assignment would have turned into the opportunity for me to create a promotional video? If I do even more personal creative exploration, who knows what opportunities I'll be able to take advantage of in the future.

Wk 3 – Thesis Projects and Sunny Skies

What a crazy week.  I spent most of this week fine tuning my thesis.  There were a lot of small details that I hadn’t worked out yet.  I’m finished with my thesis now; overall I think it went well.  I feel pretty solid about the content, but it’s the little things like APA that I cannot stand.  At the beginning of this month I had so many unanswered questions about my thesis and my project.  I am finally starting to feel a little comfortable with my thesis and media project.  I’ve already turned my thesis in and it kind of seems weird.  The thesis has been a looming giant since day one of this program.  Not having to worry about it anymore feels strange.  It’s okay, because I still have the media project and the presentation to worry about.  This program has been really fun, but I’m feeling spread a little too thin.  Between work, Full Sail, Saturday school (to get my teaching certificate), and life in general I’m beginning to feel too stressed out.  These pictures are going to encourage me to stick it out just one more month.  I cannot wait for this summer.  I’m going to stay outside and play.  

image (right) source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayced/407689606/

image (left) source: me =)

Wk 3 Reading - Beware of Ice

I just read the story about skiing and trying to avoid ice.  I couldn’t help but relate completely.  I have learned to ski in on the East coast and there is definitely ice at times.  I have mentioned in an earlier post about my experiences when learning to snowboard, and how taking hard falls affected my snowboarding from a mental perspective.  Some of those hard falls were from trying to slow down on ice.  We all know that ice is slippery and can make us fall.  With this knowledge, our first reaction is so slow down; we try to fight the ice.  Only after a few relentless struggles, do you realize that simply gliding over the ice is WAY easier than trying to stop or slow down on it.  Zander (2000) says, “Mistakes can be like ice.  If we resist them, we may keep on slipping into a posture of defeat.” I think this is great advice.  It’s so easy to let failure keep us from achieving our goals.  The important lesson is to learn that mistakes and failure is a natural part of the learning process.  When I lived with my parents I was in charge of cutting the grass.  When I would use the weed eater, our dog, T-rex, would try and bite at the rotating wire on the end of the tool.  This frustrated me to great lengths because I kept stopping the weed eater knowing it would hurt the dog if he got close enough.  T-rex was persistent, though.    Every time I started it back up, the dog would attack again.  My dad saw the predicament and said, “Let him bite it; he’ll only do it once.”  This time I let him bite it.  T-rex let out a yelp, realized his mistake, and found something else to occupy his time.  My dad is a man of few words, but those words are usually nuggets of wisdom.

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/justinbaeder/177984894/

source: Source: Zander, R. S., & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.