Tag Archives: timeline

Reflections

This is my Timeline. You can find it by following the link.

Leave a comment

Making this timeline was like cooking in the middle of the night. You wake up at 2 am and want some pizza, throw a frozen one you got at CVS 3 days ago, accidentally fall asleep, wake up an hour later in a panic because you remember the pizza, and then you realize you never turned on the oven. The reason I say this is because going through my day I would just remember super important stuff that I forgot to put in there. Stuff that clearly had an impact on me that I just sort of forgot. Like the fact that I have to relate everything to frozen pizza.

Like with all presentations, I had to make it fun. Not necessarily while working on it, but for the future when I’m presenting it. Everyone in class is required to listen to me talk for 5 minutes, so I may as well make it fun. I realized through this timeline that everything I have done prepares me for delivering information in an entertaining way. My brother and dad both have ADHD, and are also the most hilarious people I know. So I had to keep their attention, through jokes and being interesting. An uninteresting person can only fake being interesting for so long. I’ve grown up in an environment where being entertaining is a survival skill. I don’t really have the physique of someone who can afford to not have a personality. I hope the presentation reflects that.

Here is a link. I bet it will take you somewhere, preferably on the interenet: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/336105/This-Is-a-Good-Timeline-Worthy-of-an-A/

Reflections

Timeline Reflection

1 Comment

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/336106/Digital-Literacy-Narrative/

 

My experience in reading and writing could best be described as minimal. Growing up I was never too fond of reading anything. The books that I enjoyed the most were the ones filled with pictures instead of text. This is especially embarrassing because my older sister was a bookworm. She was the one reading the Harry Potter series as early as elementary school. I, of course, still read classic children’s books ranging from The Very Hungry Caterpillar  to The Berenstain Bears, but those books were nothing to write home about. 8611956520_65fa21be0a_z

 

Reading is always easier when you are interested in the content of the book. As a child I loved dinosaurs. I would always spend my time drawing and learning more about the reptilian giants. This lead to me buying a number of dinosaur-related books. Most of them were written in a factual, informative and formal manner.

6930048891_d5c506a462_z

I did not have much exposure to storytelling until Bionicle was released. This was a story-driven toy line that released story serials in an episodic manner on their website. Eventually broadening my horizons, I began to try and read for fun during middle school. I enjoyed the Alex Rider series as well as And Then There Were None. Having been bogged down by the boring school-required novels, it was refreshing to read something suspenseful. 6929939578_6328691eea

I was exposed to the internet early in my childhood. Even before getting my own I was allowed to use my father’s computer. My time on the machine was only limited by when he had to use it. As you can imagine, once I received my own I was using it non-stop. Despite being slow to pick up on social media websites I can say that I have been on Youtube ever since its conception. Bouncing back and forth between a multitude of websites, I not only enjoyed the content but also the comments people made. Behind all of the stupidity, there were some insightful and hilarious remarks to be made. YouTube-logo-seit-Dezember-2013

Wanting to challenge myself, I decided to take a number of AP English courses in high school. Dozens of books and essays later, I had to take the ultimate writing test: my common application. Writing this essay took away my entire summer. I went through five different rough drafts as well as editing the final one several times.  Looking back at my reading and writing history it is easy to see why I was so worried about applying to college. I cannot say with complete honesty that reading and writing are my best friends, but what has changed is that I am excited to build upon those very skills. Months after my submission, I now sit here writing about my experience thinking of what literary challenges lie ahead of me.

Uncategorized

Digital Literacy Assignment

2 Comments

According to my mother, when I was not even two years old she caught me “reading” a book. It was a book she read to me all the time and I was mimicking the sounds as I followed along with the words. Even though I was not technically sounding out words, she claims that moment was when she saw my love of reading begin. When I was three I began actually reading. The first book I read was a Sesame Street book I found in the reading corner at preschool. I clearly remember how excited I was that I could now read myself books and would not have to rely on adults. As time went on I continued reading any book I could get my hands on (except the Magic Treehouse series, I hated those). Second grade came along and it was time to learn how to type. I was excited until we actually started learning and I realized how difficult it was for me. While all of the other students were on levels five and six, I was stuck on level two trying to type the alphabet in two minutes. Fortunately, in the next few years my parents allowed me to have an email account. I communicated with friends this way and it let me practice my typing skills. Around this time I was still reading a ton, but I was reading the same books over and over again. My parents wanted me to explore more than a few books, so I was bribed. I had to read one new book every week for a year and I would receive a laptop. After struggling for a year, I received my first macbook and created an iChat account. iChat improved my typing speed immensely because I felt bad that people had to wait so long for me to respond. Middle school arrived and I decided to join the book club my favorite english teacher was starting. A few months in, we read a book entitled A Mango Shaped Space. The entire story is centered around a girl with synesthesia, a neurological condition in which the senses are cross wired. This was when I realized that to an average human “A” was not red and my name did not look like cotton candy. To this day, a book meant for 12 year olds is one of the books I find most relatable. I began researching synesthesia and trying to find any information I could on it, however it is rather uncommon and there has been very few studies done. After experimenting with research for my own personal use, I was assigned a research paper on Hollywood in the 1920s. This was the first time I used the internet for proper research and when I realized I may be interested in working in the entertainment/media industry. 7134RcBdj5L In 2011 I was at a high school where I was extremely unhappy, so I turned to blogging as an outlet. I wrote about fashion, beauty, makeup, and sometimes baking. I loved having writing as a creative outlet but I also wanted the blog to be more personal, so I created a YouTube channel. YouTube brought more writing into the equation through comments and other interactions, like tweeting, with viewers. This sort of writing was much quicker and less formal than blog posts, but just as enjoyable. Even though I stopped blogging and making videos after a couple of years, the experience made me realize what a great advertising platform the internet can be. Screen Shot 2014-09-18 at 5.01.09 PM In my junior year AP Literature class, we read The Great Gatsby. I had never actually looked forward to reading a novel in high school so I was incredibly excited by this. I wrote multiple papers on the novel and kept finding new things to discuss as I kept rereading it. It is the only book I have ever had fun writing a paper on and continually enjoy rereading without getting bored. As junior year came to a close I was nominated to apply for National Art Honor Society. This was a huge deal because only a few students were nominated each year and even fewer were accepted. I spent many hours perfecting my application so that my photography could be displayed in the coveted NAHS show and after all my hard work, I got accepted into the prestigious society. Also at the end of my junior year, I was assigned a final project in my AP US History course. We had to make a short film of any sort as long as it pertained to US history. My friends and I worked together on writing the script for what we called “The Real Housewives of United States History.” The writing process was interesting because we were taking history as far back as the 15th century and modernizing it with today’s media. Screen Shot 2014-09-17 at 5.07.43 PM My final high school assignment completely encapsulated everything I had learned about media since the beginning of high school. I wrote a research paper explaining how social media has changed advertising and marketing by making the consumer more central to the process. I focused on three industries: new media, sports, and fashion. Months after turning the paper in, I received it in the mail with feedback from my teacher. His feedback said that of all of my writing he had read in the past two years, the portion of my paper on social media marketing in the fashion industry was the strongest. Because I want to work in this field, his comments assured me that all of the media trends I have paid attention to and all of the ways I personally have used media are stepping stones to get me there. Before creating this timeline, I believed that my focus on media had only come about in the past few years, however now I see my entire life has lead up to my still growing interest in new media.

Reflections

Timeline Reflection

4 Comments

https://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/336097/Digital-Literacy/

The year 2000 was an emerging time for the technological world. As I was growing into myself, I had the opportunity to grow with the media surrounding me. At the beginning of my life I was unknown to the wonders that technology would bring me, but I was surprised at the large sense of independence I found.

 

At the beginning of my life my intake of technology was minimal. The most important stepping-stone into the technological world was my learning to read in junior kindergarten. My increasing confidence in my ability to read books was the basis for an interest in furthering my education as well as fostering a creative mindset from an early age.

IMac_Bondi_Blue

As time progressed, modern day technology was incorporated with educational activities in school. I was exposed to Macintosh computers with educational math games. Similar to the confidence I gained by my increasing ability to read, my skills with math and with this Macintosh desktop enabled me to engage with media giving me a greater confidence and thirst for knowledge.

 

Phones

My next major stepping stone in my soon-to-be media filled life was my first cell phone. My world had opened up due to this extra mode of communication. Suddenly, from talking to my friends first hand, I was able to talk to them without actually being with them.  What followed was the world of MSN, and iChat where the functions of my cell phone were matched and my methods of communication doubled. My cell phone usage has changed over the years but its core use of communicating with those I am not with still remains. This revolutionized the way I communicated from a very early age and is a constant form of communication I use on a daily basis.

 

Lastly, and perhaps the most notable of my media advancements, was my confidence with additional computer programs on my laptop. In 2012 and 2013 I was taught how to use Photoshop and Final Cut Pro to edit my pictures and movies. I was able to reach a previously inaccessible part of technology which enabled my to have more control over my media. I had wanted to learn something so when I had accomplished this I felt comfortable with advanced technology, thus making me feel more in tune with my technological world around me. I used all of my new media knowledge to make a small web series that spoofed the popular reality show The Hills. I created these short videos over a few years and I was extremely proud of the final product. I was able to write, produce, and edit these episodes. This project was a true culmination of my confidence and skills in new media.

Mz6RTOzsfwGMv3kdwuntuHdAV_Ko5vAdZ3N0b8Au21k

Overall, my journey to discovering new media has helped me gain confidence. Not only in the world of media but creatively, academically, and socially. The creation of this timeline was the method of helping me realize this. I had thought the media I used was because I had enjoyed it, but it was much more. I had started to use a cell phone, laptop, Facebook, social media etc. because it was the ‘norm’ around me but each method of communication and technology had helped me develop in a different way. The world of developing media still excites me today, as I am eager to see what each new piece of technology will teach me.

Assignments, Uncategorized

Digital Literacy Narrative

Leave a comment

Starting from the first book I ever read to the first social media platform I managed, my life has been greatly affected by technological advancements. After I read my first book, Frog and Toad, I went on to write a book about my travels as a horseback rider in Kindergarten. I remember being extremely proud of my book because it was the first time I had ever conveyed an idea through writing.  Improving my use of language, I took to spelling in order to increase my vocabulary and grammatical abilities. I took delight whenever I spelled a difficult word correctly because it represented a concrete challenge that I could overcome.  With my newfound appreciate for the English language, I started to create more in-depth stories and in second grade one story, Disaster Girl, won an award. Using words like “pandemonium,” “catastrophe,” “calamity,” and “cataclysm,” I channeled my love for words into a more succinct end product- a story.

Once I could express my thoughts on paper, I moved into a more digital world. From learning to type, creating a PowerPoint, and making my first e-mail address I brought in an array of digital tools to convey my ideas through technology. Finally my parents had enough confidence in my technological skills that they allowed me to get my own laptop in seventh grade. The silver shine of the apple brought with it the promise of so much; the world was at my fingertips. Catalyzing the use of online media, my computer superseded everything that came before it. Then came Facebook and Twitter, revolutionizing the way I communicated with the world around me. Once I learned the impact that an online presence could have, I began to question the limits of what one could do with this presence.

Following my Bat Mitzvah in 2009 where I read from the Torah for the first time, I began to feel more connected to the Jewish community around me. Through this connection, I volunteered to work at my temple café on Sundays.  Yael, who, at the time, owned an online bakery, was selling the baked goods at the café. We began chatting and she realized the need for an increased online presence for her business. In February of 2013 I began to work with Baked By Yael on a revitalized social media initiative and by June of 2013 we had raised $74,000 through a social media and public relations campaign that I spearheaded.  I think that my work with Yael taught me the importance of new digital technologies and how they can impact the everyday person.

Through the creation of my digital literacy timeline, I learned how to use another digital tool to convey a point. Much like Facebook, Twitter, or a PowerPoint, my digital literacy timeline conveys a message through a digital platform.

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/336099/My-life-in-words/

Assignments, Resources

Digital Literacy Assignment

1 Comment

Each of us learned to read and write using a variety of tools which have transformed the way we interact with the world. Using tiki-toki as your platform (advanced users may try TimelineJS), create a timeline that showcases your digital literacy journey. To do this:

  1. On paper, list all of the moments in your life where reading and/or writing played an important role. Then list the tools you used, and describe how you were introduced and learned to use those tools.
  2. Select the 15-20 most significant moments and arrange them chronologically. Fill in the details of those moments, giving your audience a clear sense of why they are important in your personal journey.
  3. Research the dates associated with the tools you are highlighting – when where they invented, by whom, what date were they released to the public, at what price, etc.
  4. Set up a free account on tiki-toki and experiment placing your events on the timeline. Include pictures, videos, and quotes when appropriate.
  5. Create a blog post that showcases your timeline and includes the text of your digital literacy narrative.
  6. Prepare a 5 minute presentation of your digital literacy narrative. Time yourself! Practice! You will be evaluated by me, your classmates, and your special guest.

Remember:

  • This text should be aimed to a general audience of your peers, but please edit carefully and think of this as an academic presentation.
  • I would not expect this to be longer than 5 paragraphs. The writing is a chance to expand and explain the timeline itself.
  • Please reflect on what you learned through the process of creating the timeline, and include this in your post.
  • Categorize this as “Reflections” and tag it as “timeline.”

Post the draft by Friday, September 19th (by 11:59pm), and comment on at least 3 of your classmates projects by Sunday night. You will present the finished projects on Monday the 22nd.