There And Back Again... A Digiciv Tale

"If I take one more step, it'll be the furthest from [my] home[screen] I've ever been."          - Samwise Gamgee
 
Wow! I am in constant amazement. The entire semester has flown by already. Looking back, I feel like I have learned a ton!

The overarching lesson I feel like I have learned this semester is how to be a contributing digital citizen. For so many years now, I have been just a passive “taker” of information and have not really done anything substantial to contribute to the online discussion and culture. I feel like this class has empowered with the skill set and the confidence necessary to become a contributing digital citizen.

Why I Chose To Make A Mormon Messages Video

The reason I wanted to do this project is fairly simple. I wanted to create media that would help people to feel the Spirit. In our digital age, with decreased attention spans, people are less likely to read an entire conference talk, especially if they are not members of the church. The reason I am so excited about this project it provides a way to us help people consume and connect in the way they might not have otherwise been able to.

I felt like this project would be a great opportunity to become a digital member missionary.

Mormon Messages – Connecting With Others

One of things I enjoyed about making our Mormon Messages Video is the chance that it has allowed us to connect with others.

First of all, we were able to meet a ton of fantastic families and kids that provided us with great material to use. By the time we were finished interviewing the kids, we had built a great friendship and connections with the families. Those families are now more interested in Mormon Messages videos and are excited to see our final product.

Documenting Our Adventures - The Making of the Film

This is our quest. Here are some photos of us doing the editing for our video!

Consume - Google Documents

So I realized I had one Consume digital civ lab left to do, so I thought I'd do some research on Google Documents (Docs). Google Documents are an efficient way of collaborating and consuming information. Google Docs use the principle of cloud computing. Instead of saving data locally on your hard drive, Google Docs saves the information on Google servers.

There are several advantages to cloud computing. Here are just a few:

1) You can access your information anywhere in the world providing that you have internet access
2) Cloud computing allows several people to make edits to the document in real-time.

The following are screenshots of how to create a Google Doc:

Lessons learned from making a Mormon Messages video - Filming

This is the first time I have ever made a documentary style film. Throughout the course of making the video I have learned ton of lessons in filming. I thought I ‘d share a few of those lessons, coupled with some funny experiences with our film shoots.

Photo from Jing Qu (Flickr)

Try to film as much as you can – Always be filming! Some of the best comments and/or shots we filmed were from kids during unplanned and unscripted moments. The little girl saying, “Can I take a break?” and my niece stretching and then playing with tongue both came during unexpected moments. By filming as much as you can, you are more likely to capture the best moments, the moments that truly capture the personality and character of the kids.

CONSUME - Searching!

So I was looking through my blog posts and I saw that I had done multiple digital literacy labs on Create and Connect, however, to my horror, I realized I had neglected to fully cover Consume. So without adieu, here are two of digital literacy Consume labs focused two subjects which I discovered
to be pretty insightful and fascinating.

Searching!

Using a search engine is by the far the most popular and, can be, one of the most effective means of finding and accessing information on the internet. With unbelievable amounts of information available to us, it’s important for all us budding digital citizens to know how to search efficiently and effectively.

For this digital literacy lab I took at look at searching in general. The following are a few methods of searching that, when used properly, can save the searcher tons of time:  

The Final Event – A Special Thanks

A special thanks to all those who came to support us in our final project showcase!! It was a blast and I felt like it was a huge success. Thank you for all your love and support!

I want to thank my group for all the hard work and effort they put into the project. They have been a fantastic group, and making this video has been a great experience!

Also, I would like to thank my sisters. It turns out that four of my seven sisters helped in some way in our project. Whether it being interviewing their kids or kids in their ward, helping play with kids, or helping give advice in editing, they have all been there patiently and lovingly helping us.

Lastly, I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Burton and Dr. Zappala for all their efforts in organizing, planning, and doing substantial amounts of heavy lifting in order to get the class and event going! This class has been a great learning and growing experience for me! I feel much more equipped and enabled to become a contributing digital citizen.

Final Project Showcase!

For our Digital Civilization class, our culminating activity isn't the final examination; it's a public showcase, a special event for which we are now all anxiously preparing. We call it "Digital Revolution: Upgrading Education for Digital Civilization. See event preview

It should be super exciting! Our group just finished our Mormon Messages Video and we are really happy with how it turned out. It'll be both fun and educational! I hope to see you there!

Here are the details:

Mormon Messages – A Real-time Adventure

So I am excited to share my adventure and journey that has been designing, filming, and editing a Mormon Messages video for our class final project. I am going to provide a further narrative of the process and I thought it’d be good to start off with some numbers for our group project:

One of the little boys we interviewed

220 – miles driven to perform all interviews

15 – number of kids interviewed

19 – numbers of spent filming and traveling to film

25 – number of hours spent editing

6 – average hours of sleep (David) last week

It’s been an awesome, yet challenging experience at the same time. We have been mountains of technical and hardware glitches which have slowed down our progress. However, we are determined and will succeed! (We also feel like there has been quite a bit of Divine help helping us to overcome the numerous obstacles we have confronted).

We are in the process of doing the final edit right now and it has been an adventure. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going!

Blog Nominations!

CONSUME!!! BOOLEAN SEARCHES - Jeffrey did an excellent digital literacy post on Boolean Searching post because he explains very simply, verbally, and visually how Boolean searches work and how they can help you to better consume information. I liked this post because I feel like it can help you to significantly improve the way you consume material and can help you to become a more effective self-directed learner.

Master (Almost) Any Software with Lynda.com – In this Alex’s post, he does a great job of explaining what is and how to use Lynda.com. Alex does a screenshot-by-screenshot tutorial to show you how to use Lynda.com. I feel like this post is extremely useful as it can help increase your skillset in all of the self-directed learning digital literacy areas (Consume, Create, Connect).

Hindsight – 20/20 Foresight – This is a powerful, yet commical, post by Kristi about the Digital Revolution. She talks about how, what were normal days to the people of the time, now stand as history-changing days for us (e.g., Germany invading Poland, the invention of the cell phone). I feel like this post does a good job explain the impact of digital culture and the digital revolution.

Web 2.0 and User Generated Content

I loved the quote,  'I have always imagined the information space as something to which everyone has immediate and intuitive access, and not just to browse, but to create.' Tim Berners-Lee, 1999, from our readings.

The process of doing our group's final project of a Mormon Messages video has definately been a process of creation.

A screen shot taken in Final Cut pro of an interview with my niece

Additionally, in the readings, I loved the quote,  "Today’s generation are pressing ‘record’ on their video cameras and hitting their mouse keys. With a few clicks of the mouse a user can upload a video or photo from their digital camera and into their own media space, tag it with suitable keywords and make the content available to their friends or the world in general." This is exactly what our group is doing.

It has been exciting. We have been able to create near professional-quality video with the digital tools that are available to us. We have used an HD camera to conduct several interviews with different kids. Later we used Final Cut Pro in the Multi Media Lab in the campus library to begin editing the video.

The ease of the creating of video (e.g., the developement of cheap hardware and software) is similar to the development of the laser office printer and a desktop word processor that Paul Anderson mentions. Both series of developments have allowed former spectators to now be part of the creative process and conversation. I love it!

CREATE - Darwin's Adventures

For this digital literacy lab I learned how to create and created an online comic book. It was fun! I found that there are several websites available to do this. I used one called Pixton.com. I think Pixton was the most advanced (you could do the most things on it) comic book website I found.  

Final Project - Our Plan of Attack

For our group’s final project we are creating a Mormon Messages video. After much thought, planning, and discussion we have decided to create a video in which we interview little kids (ages 3-8) about their families.

We want to do interviews similar to the style of Out of the Mouth of Babes, however we want to ask them questions like,

• Why do you love your family?
• How does your family show that they love you?
• How does your mom/dad show that they love you?

A Logic Named Joe

Source: Hackaday.com

I really enjoyed “A Logic Named Joe” by Murray Leinster. It is a short story written by Murray Leinster in 1946. The story is based in the future about a “logic” (i.e., computer) that changed the world very quickly. In Leinster’s futuristic tale, Leinster correct predicts many of the technological advances that would come in the future.

I found a blog post by Mark Bernstein, who is the chief scientist Eastgate Systems, Inc.  Bernstein lists out several of the things that Leinster got right:

The Medium is the Message, Mess Age, Massage, Mass Age?

I found a great blog post on Marshall McLuhan by Maki, a senior studying psychology at Lawerence University. She provides a great summary of McLuhan and of his famous paradox, “The Medium of the Message.” She does a great job explaining what that means.

On her blog I found a link to a review of The Medium is the Message by Mark Federman entitled, “What is the Meaning of The Medium is the Message?” Federman in his essay review (which p.s. has a creative commons license which I thought was cool) makes some really interesting points. These are some of the points that I enjoyed:

Member Missionary Work

As I have been doing research for our Mormon Messages final project, I been exploring different videos that members of the church have made. I came across this video that I actually saw for first time while on my mission.

The video shows and talks about what it means to be a member missionary. I think it's really well done. It's called, "Small and Simple Things"



Continued below...

The 'Wheat of Nations'

I think by far, innovations the occurred in the 20th century are among my favorites. I think that’s because it’s easier to quantify their impact and typically their results are seen on a global scale in a relatively short amount of time. One such example of 20th century innovation that changed the world occurred in agriculture.

In 1900 farmers made up 38 percent of the U.S. labor force; by the end of the century they represented less than 3 percent. With machines doing most of the work, millions of farmers and farm laborers had to look elsewhere for a living—a displacement that helped fuel booms in the manufacturing and service industries, especially after World War II. It also fueled a dramatic shift in the entire culture, as metropolitan and suburban America began to replace the rural way of life. Source.

Social Media and Rants

I think social media is one of the premier places we experience rants. I think this is due, in part, to the fact that in social media your audience typically consists of people who understand well your humor, background, and personality.

This was a rant from one of my friends last week on Facebook that I thought was funny, as well as making a good point.
 

Review of “Blogging is for lovers”

I really enjoyed this assignment. I found that reviewing Jake’s blog was a very fun and entertaining experience. He has done a great job and I feel like he was done well at meeting the learning objectives. Probably the thing that stuck out to me the most while reviewing his blog is the fact that Jake has done a great job of including interesting experiences from his own personal life into the subjects and analysis of his blog posts (My favorites examples of are his posts on sharing the gospel and evolution).