Tuesday, May 20, 2014

DMAC captioning

Notes from DMACINSTITUTE Monday, May 19, 2014

Harley:
Referred to mike wesch the machine is us/ing us

The icons on the computer are all from older technologies. People have since tried to think of new icons that are less literal.

Websites have a noted design. The interface tells people how to use it because we have become accustomed to it. Referred to Scott McCloud's book and how it teaches us how the lead the reader's eye. We might have really cool ideas and metaphors that we want to translate to a website, but then it would be impossible to code, the reader wouldn't know how to read it, and it would not work with certain platforms since they are so set in how they are created.

Think about how you will get the reader to go where you want them to go. The user always needs to know where the next step is. Think in terms of groupings. Need to think categorically so we can have better control of the main screen's real estate.

To make the website accessible to everyone, we need to think about metadata and tagging.


Brenda Jo Brueggemann. (Guest speaker)

Access should be woven into the fabric of the project. The captioning helps deaf and hard of hearing
people and multilingual viewers. It can also translate if the transcript has been provided. The transcript also helps as a means for search index.

Showed "why I mind" on YouTube with her own captions and then with the youutube supplied captions. Rhett and link's caption fail lady gaga putt putt was a hilarious example of what happens














Monday, May 19, 2014

DMAC notes: digital publishing

Notes for the day:
Finish concept in 90 on Sunday and then turn attention to the final project. Cindy said that it's no different than what we need to do in other venues. Keep a couple of ideas cooking simultaneously. One might be an omelette on the front burner that needs immediate attention while another might be soup that just needs an occasional stirring.

Send an annotated bibliography entry to Trey for compilation.

We will load to Soundcloud or YouTube first in order to maintain the quality of the file and not exhaust the file storage capacity on the blog site. This will also help if multiple people are trying to stream the clip at the same time.

How to receive credit for creating and publishing multimedia projects:
Start three years before you want do publish multimedia scholarship because most departments do not have a framework in place and will need time to discuss and revise the tenure process. Lanette reminded us to remain vigilant becauSe future revisions may eliminate the work you've done. Also examine the process for sabbaticals.

My thoughts: it is so strange to me to have all of this talk about tenure programs and publications. My tenure at a two year college was built on teaching and service. It is not surprising that Liberal Arts profs and digital humanities folks are rocking the boat and making changes to the definition of scholarship.

Cooking in iMovie
It is called cooking because we are turning our video into something that can be consumed via other places.
Share/export via QuickTime
Save as/ use the little triangle near the name
Name it lastname90
Save it to the external hard drive
Change the export option from movie to QuickTime movie tooooo....movie to iPhone
Leave everything else as is
Click save
Will take about 5 minutes for the 90 second video

Double check the hard drive to make sure the file is there and saved as m4v

Upload it to Box. Folder invite shared with us via email.
If it works correctly, it should show as an icon with a preview window.





Friday, May 16, 2014

DMAC notes

Readings discussion:
Nicholas Carr does Google make us stupid
Dan Keller chasing literacy
Scott Dewitt optimistic reciprocities

Arguments that suggest online reading diminishes learning/cognition/comprehension
Can students retain info when passively reading?
Consistent attention
Does this affect being able to sustain long thoughts in writing because of online writing
Students will be. Lulled into thinking they will only get response if they write short texts
Online space is commercial space



Arguments that suggest online reading supports the same
Conventions in online texts actually work to signal how to read
Commercial presses are thriving because of revenue stream
Online reading provides access that might otherwise not be available
Change is happening, and younger people are conscious and nimble about what is going on around them.
We make choices when and how to pay attention and what to attend to. We have different abilities and needs for paying attention.

Optimistic reciprocities
We need to tap into students desire to write for social media that has a very real audience instead of writing things that only go directly to a teacher audience.


Cs: says ask what if students know something I don't about what reading and writing will be like in the coming years?

Melanie Yergeau
First born digital dissertation
Accessibility is important work but very difficult but very necessary




Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Notes from DMAC...intellectual property and getting ready for the concept in 90

Crystal Van Kooten leading discussion today.

Lots of discussion about protection of intellectual property. As always, there is a fine line between needing to protect the creator's expression of an idea and also allow for other creators to create.

Notes for concept in 90
This is the first year they are trying 90 instead of 60, and giving us several days to work on it. This will allow for more time for invention and production.

The assignment has constraints with a purpose. It must illustrate the concept and power of multimodality. It may be about multimodality or may be about something else but show what can be done with multimodality.

Exactly 90 seconds in order to learn about craft. We will focus on editing is very small ways...a focus on the gutters. What can be conveyed in multiple ways or what combination of image and audio can convey multiple ideas. (Time added in exporting will not hurt)

Needs to be a critical and reflective approach.

Facility with literal and nonliteral video. Sometimes the audio and visual can match but not always. Need to do both techniques. More interesting videos use more nonliteral than literal. Need to add depth and layering to the project.

Need a title screen and end credits within the 90 seconds. They have to be readable.

Work included should be Public domain or all created by us. Must give credit for anything used.

May record with a partner and then work individually or together.

Compose soundtrack first. Then get the video to match audio. Or import short clips of audio into iMovie. First option seems much easier and like a better practice if nuances are important (which they are in such a short time span).

Experiment with meaningful repetition. Figure out how to maximize meaning by sandwiching meaning in various ways.

Storyboard in order to think of scenes and gutters and how many assets to assemble. Old school: index cards that can be rearranged in order. Digital: prezi or comic life.


Advanced iMovie techniques (notes)

Advanced iMovie techniques with Scott DeWitt.

*first off! make sure to record and archive thoughts and process as I go.

Creating a still image from a movie in iMovie is no longer an option, so we will need to use a different app. MPEG streamclip. Drag the video into the app...export as image. Everything is set ok already.

How do we add a VoiceOver in iMovie? Scott recommends using audacity., though it is possible to add a VoiceOver by clicking on the microphone. One reason to avoid it is that the internal mic on the computer is not as good as a handheld recording device. Mac microphones sometimes pick up fan and computer noise. Also cannot do anything about hitting the red zone on the mic. Once the red zone has been hit, data gets lost in the recording. May do infinite layers of audio in iMovie, but it should be finessed in audacity. Ducking can only be used if using two audio tracks.

Another type of transition is to fiddle with the opacity of the cutaway rather that inserting a cross fade transition.

Importing new transitions to iMovie does not seem to be possible, but if you know other video programs, you could do some work in it and then bring the new effect into iMovie as a video clip.

Anytime you think there is something in this project that is interesting and worthy of reflection, share the project in iMovie.  Share, export the move, (create new folder), name it something that will identify the version or why you saved it. If you saved the version correctly, then when you begin working again, you will receive a prompt asking if you definitely want to edit the work that has just been shared.

Never ever ever ever mess with the iMovie or iMovie project files. Always make sure the events are saved. Do not want broken code. Also when saving a backup, make sure to go back to click on (highlight) the drive you want to save the next version to. Then go back to the backup again at the end of the work.

Creating a new project: make sure to tell it to save in the external hard drive. For now, call someone over when I start to make sure I do not lose anything vital.

Screen capture.  Command shift 4

QuickTime player, not pro, new screen recording will allow you to record the screen.
If doing this method, record the video, then record the audio from a script while viewing the video. Then import them both into iMovie.

The PC version of iMovie is moviemaker. Lightworks and wevideo are cloud-based.


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

DMAC reflections

One of the best parts of DMAC is how pieces of what I have been doing in the classroom are coming together and colliding in fun ways during these two weeks.

Several years ago, when I went to Computers and Writing in Michigan, one of the sessions was about Remix culture; specifically, it featured a documentary called Rip!: A Remix Manifesto. Soon after, I incorporated this documentary into my music-themed ENG 101 class. A semester after that, I started assigning mashup-analysis papers. And I loved it! Students had to examine themes and transitions and balance and audience and purpose, etc etc by listening to remixed music.

Secretly, I wanted to make mash-ups of my own but never found the time. In the meantime, I have since experimented with multimodal assignments and ideas of remix in the classroom.

Thanks to DMAC, I now have the skills and tools to remix. Tomorrow's discussion will focus on copyright and Creative Commons and the public domain. Will we probably examine what should and could be remixed.

One of our readings is Lawrence Lessig's talk on NPR. He is introduced in Rip! As "the world's coolest lawyer." Lessig is admirable in many ways, but what I truly appreciate is that he is passionate about his cause (copyright reform), and when he is given the opportunity or need to speak passionately, he does so without raising his voice and speaks with great clarity and factual support, and, well, he rather puts the smack down.

Lessig is spot on about the lack of distinction between idea and expression in multimedia. Under the law, the idea may be built upon, while the expression is protected. Where do we draw the line between the two? The law told George Harrison that "My Sweet Lord" sounded too much like "He's So Fine." Obviously, Harrison had a different idea with his song, but in some way, the expression was too much the same. This was a case of accidental plagiarism. Who determines which expression is too closely related to an older expression?

In remix culture, it is not unusual to  have bits of expression remain the same and get spliced or mutated to create a new idea. In creating the new idea while building on an old expression, a new expression is made. Copyright law currently protects the rights of the old expression more than the right of the new expression to exist. This is truly backwards when you think of how many notions (and expressions of those notions) are scaffolded on top of old ideas and the expressions of those ideas. I am looking forward to the discussion about remix, rhetoric, and digital media and composition tomorrow.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Twilight: Eclipse and Breaking Dawn (or Twilight: Redemption for Making Me Read New Moon)

If curious, see previous entries for thoughts about the first two Twilight books.
There will probably be plot spoilers.

Whew! I am so glad that the books improved. The relationship drama of the first two books drove me batty; there is still relationship drama in these books, but it is entertaining relationship drama. I actually laughed out loud while reading these two, and it wasn't in a "ha! the vampires sparkle!" sort of way. It was genuine "haha! Good one, [insert character's name here]!"

The main difference between the first two books and the last two books is that there are multiple plot lines happening at once, so the relationship plots happen alongside other action. This takes it away from the tailspin moments of narcissistic romantic problems that made me continually think, "Maybe I am too old to read this book."

Another thing that helps: Meyer got out of Bella's head for a while and into another character's mind. This broke up the monotony of Bella's thoughts (Oooh, vampires are so awesome! They are the only thing that makes me happy...except Jakob. He makes me happy. Ooooh, Edward. He's the best person, er, vampire, ever to exist. Except for Carlisle. He's so benevolent. But Edward is like marble. And he has topaz eyes. I love him irrevocably.)

The last two books were good because they were delightfully complicated with a couple of possible outcomes. It didn't seem like everything was driven by inevitability or teenage love/lust.

Some random thoughts:
Wolf packs have some pretty serious relationship drama of their own. And it must get very tiring trying to feed and clothe wolf boys.

I don't get Jasper's character at all. I feel like there is supposed to be something more to him, but when his back-story is given, it was like, "meh, okay...I guess that explains him a little...I guess." I felt like his story was given just to make the possibility of Bella becoming a vampire seem more dangerous, but the loose ends just didn't come together for me.

Is it supernatural canon that every character who receives a superpower must receive the superpower that their personality craves or life circumstances demand?  I first noticed this when watching the show Heroes. Characters that are prone to receiving superpowers for whatever reason (spiderbites, lab accidents, genetic mutations, etc) get the ones that most fit them or that they most need. In Heroes, when she was a small child, Claire was in a house-fire and her body became impervious to lasting injury. Peter was a nurse and could heal people. In Twilight, Alice was born into vampirism without a past, so she is able to see the future. Jasper apparently was around a whole bunch of volatile newborn vampires, so he can control the emotional vibe and get them to chill out. (This theory is especially entertaining when applied to the characters in The Incredibles.)

Victoria has to be the most two-dimensional character ever. "Edward kill my vampire love. Must make Edward hurt. Have nothing else to do. Must swim through the ocean with my hair flaming red like Merida's unruly mane in Brave." I don't know why Victoria sounds like a cave woman in my head. I don't think she had many real lines.

Is the vampire house all white and glass because Carlisle likes being a doctor?

What the heck is up with the golden king-sized bed? Fantasize much, Stephenie Meyer? Were there mirrors on the top? Was there a champagne-glass-shaped-bathtub nearby? The cheese factor just went up too high there for me. Don't get me started on the bed-breaking sex scene. Because, of course, vampires have to have super sex too. Enough with all of the hyperbole!!!! (There was enough hyperbole to merit those 4 exclamation points, trust me)

Supposedly, everyone thought Renesmee was the most wonderful child ever, but I'm thinking creepy. That may just be me still trying to get over her birth scene, though. Ick.

I like that Bella gets her own kind of strength in the final book, but it was too little too late to reverse all of the codependency throughout the rest of the three books. And it only took its true shape after she gave her life completely over to the Cullen family.

Jakob's imprinting= gross. (PLOT SPOILER-- hover over the next part with your cursor to read it)
It seems a little incestuous too...not that that is the right word for this. He was in love with Bella, so he imprints on her newborn daughter. Does this mean he was in love with part of Bella's essence that carried through completely to Renesmee? Or does that mean he was in love with one of Bella's eggs? And Edward didn't want to kill him?

I think Charlie and Carlisle were the only characters that I liked completely. But what tragic last names. An author can create any name combinations in the world and she chooses Charlie Swan and Carlisle Cullen?

And one last thought: referring to classic literature like Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights does not give a story literary heft unless the story has been imbibed with that heft. It seemed like a cheap move, especially after all of the hyperbole.