umwsp13 – Assignment Bank

Where in the World?**

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Google Map Trip, worth 2 stars, called for me to tell a story of a trip I’d taken using Google Maps. I chose this web assignment to increase the challenge on web storytelling and because I had just taken a trip today!

My team at UMW traveled to Poolesville, MD today to play American University. We left the University (A) at 8am and stopped at WaWa (B) to get breakfast (tradition). Once we got food and drinks, we got on 95 N and drove for 1.5 hours until we reached Poolesville (C). Unfortunately, once we got there, we discovered there were no toilets at the field (WHAT), so we quickly piled back into the vans and found the closest place with a bathroom…A church (D)…AWKWARD!! We then went back to the pitch (E) and played our games. On a side note, both our A & B sides won! On our way back home, we zipped to a McDonald’s (F) before sitting in traffic on 95 before we got back to Uni (G).

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Lost in Translation*

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To dabble in some web storytelling, I completed the web assignment Google Translate Fail, worth 1 star, from the ds106 assignment bank. I chose this assignment because as a French minor, I know how google translate can interpret another language into English. First, I went to the website for the Le Monde newspaper, a famous paper in France, and then found the sports section. I thought sports would be an interesting topic to translate. There was a cool article on The X Games (ou Les X Games) that I took the summary of and translated it in Google Translate.

“the Winter X Games Europe Tignes is open” actually translates to “the European Winter X Games opened Wed. in Tignes.” Then “Story in pictures” is more closely translated to “the images depict/show”. Finally, the last part is better meant as “which leaves those extreme skiing junkies very hungry.”

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Way back when

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For my final assignment this week, I decided to do one called the Way Back Time Machine.

Using the Way Back Time Machine website on Internet Archive, take screen shots of a favorite website overtime. Then, look at how the website has changed for better and worse.

I’ve done this before, just for fun, on sites like Facebook and Reddit, so I thought it would be interesting to see the progression of a different website. I chose to work with YouTube mostly because no one else had done so yet, and also because the site has changed so much recently I figured that there must have been changes over time that I didn’t notice.

I stuck with one month throughout the years–October. I don’t really know why I chose October, but I just went with it.

YouTube began in 2005, so my first screenshot is from that October 1st of that year.

After looking at all these different snapshots of YouTube, I have to say that they still haven’t gotten it right.

The first two years, 2005 and 2006 were the worst, of course. So many tabs and links, I don’t even know what I’m looking at. Then, 2007, 2008, 2009 all have this really strange “Videos being watched right now.” I never understood that. I don’t think I ever saw one video that was in English when I would go onto YouTube during those years. At least the developers reduced the number of tabs at the top of the page. They also introduced “community” into the mix. I wonder if this was in an attempt to draw in the MySpace/Facebook crowd?

I say this because in 2010, this tab disappears. Also, thankfully, the “Being watched right now” section disappears. Trending videos were added as well as a section for “recommended videos.” Big brother begins. In 2011, the developers changed pace and made the homepage about different categories for videos. Completely ineffective. Who really looks up videos under “Music”? I have a feeling that most people know what they are searching.

In 2012, the developers must have been upset with somebody. I remember looking at this homepage and going, “Where is everything?” The site began to look a lot like social networking sites that updated you on what your subscribers and people you have subscribed to are doing. I don’t want to know who liked what video.

Finally, we end here in 2013. Probably the MOST effective website layout so far, but definitely not the most efficient. I wasn’t sure what was on this homepage for a long time. Are these just random videos? Are they the most favorited? Most liked? Most viewed? In addition, the sign in button is up in the upper right-hand corner. For someone like me who goes through multiple gmail accounts in a day, this has become the most frustrating aspect of this layout. I can never easily get to it unless Google Chrome takes up my entire screen.

Overall this was an interesting exercise in frustrating website layouts…

October 1, 2005

October 7, 2006

October 1, 2007

October 2, 2008

October 2,2009

October 2, 2010

October 2, 2011

October 2, 2012

March 23, 2013

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Henry VIII’s got SWAG – ???

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As a History major, I just had to do this web assignment from the assignment bank called “What They Might Have Done In Social Media.” Now, I was disappointed that the example was Lincoln, mostly because I know a lot about him now that I’m taking Civil War in American Memory. But oh well!

I went out of my history comfort zone for this one: I went all the way back into European history for Henry VIII. I figured he would have a VERY interesting Twitter/Facebook if he had access to it back then. He, of all people, would have cared very little about his status as a political leader and would have posted whatever he wanted–or that’s how my limited knowledge of him portrays him.

First, I created a Tweet from him.

Then I moved onto Facebook.

This one took a lot longer to finish. I did a project once on Anne Boleyn, but I don’t really remember an enormous amount about Henry VIII. So I used his Wikipedia article to find some events, especially about his marriages.

You can check out the full Facebook page here.

Teaching Tool

This is a teaching tool I’ve used before in classrooms, and I love it. It requires thought and evaluation of all the information that is out there on a particular historical figure–but it’s also a lot of fun. Most students have at least heard of Facebook and Twitter so having them utilize a tool that they know so well for something educational? Sounds like a good idea to me!

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Why We Need to Have A Kiki… SongTag Story Style

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I really liked the SongTag assignment that I found but when I started crafting mine, I realized that I was creating a story basically, so I decided to make a new assignment, based off of the StoryTag assignment.

For my SongTag Story, I used some of my favorite guilty pleasure music to craft a story about a man whose boyfriend has cheated on him while being flirtatious at the clubs and how his friends help him deal with getting over his now ex.

When I first saw the assignment I thought about doing a Sondheim songtag but I do not have a ton of Sondheim in my iTunes library and while flipping through my music collection I found I Don’t Wanna Know by Cheyenne Jackson, one of my favorite songs which I wanted to use. I then decided on Lets Have A Kiki by The Scissor Sisters but then needed to figure out a way to link the two. I then picked McArthur Park from the Priscilla Queen Of The Desert Original Broadway Cast Recording, one of my favorite Broadway cast recordings which features some of my favorite actors prortaying Australian drag queens. When I was unable to encorperate it, I chose I Will Survive from the same CD and added it to the end. I then decided to start my track with Don’t Be Jealous Of My Boogie by RuPaul to help set up the story. Wanting to roundout my guilty pleasure mix, I chose Shady by Adam Lambert.

I had all of my songs in my iTunes library so I imported them into Garage Band where I edited them together into one track.

Here are the lyrics for the entire mashup.

It’s Time To Have A Kiki

Jealous of My Boogie- RuPaul

Hey DJ
Love the way
I lose my inhibitions when you spin
And I don’t care if people stare
I’d rather boogie than try to fit in

Turn it up, let ‘em scrutinize (I know you’re watching)
Way up, ’cause the night is mine (i know you’re watching)
Turn it up, lemme scandalize (I know you’re watching)
Yeah, up under flashing lights

(No–don’t–be)Don’t be jealous of my boogie, don’t be jealous of my boogie
You can say that you are not, but I always see you lookin’
Don’t be jealous of my boogie, don’t be jealous of my boogie
You can say that you are not, but I always see you

Shady-Adam Lambert

you.

Sorry I’m kinda drunk
But did you just say your game was brand new?

No I ain’t broken but I, I need a fix
That satisfaction when I, I get my kicks
I’m up all night
I’m out of sight
Don’t turn on the light
Cause I’m feeling so shady lately

Come on and take me underground
Deep under the street
Come on and take me, take me down
The freaks like us can meet
Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, turn it way up
Don’t stop the beat

Come on and turn me, turn me on
Cause I’m feeling so shady lately

Ah! Ah!
Gonna go and get me a shot
Gonna knock it back forget all my blues
Yeah that really hits the spot
I’m feeling pretty fierce in my dancin’ shoes (yeah)

No I ain’t broken but I, I need a fix
That satisfaction when I

I Don’t Wanna Know- Cheyenne Jackson

I know that’s true

No matter what, can’t stop loving you
Careless with me, baby, from the start
Pushing me, breaking my world apart
Deep in my heart there’s a scar now, telling a story of us
I keep coming back to you, planning attack on you, love

I dont wanna know, I don’t wanna know
If you slept in your bed for a week
No, I don’t wanna know, I don’t wanna know
Why the scent on your neck isn’t me
It’s not fair, why should I care
‘Cause I made it clear that you’re not what I need
I don’t wanna know, but I can’t let it go
I give up had enough wasn’t me for you and me

Straight to my guts there you go again

You’re killing me don’t even know it when

Casting a spell with the lick of your lips

You pretend you’re completely oblivious
Deep in my heart there’s a scar now, telling a story of us.

Lets Have A Kiki- Scissor Sisters

I know exactly what we need

Let’s have a kiki, I wanna have a kiki
Lock the doors, tight
Let’s have a kiki, motherfucker
I’m gonna let you have it
Let’s have a kiki
I wanna have a kiki
Dive, turn, work
Let’s have a kiki
We’re gonna serve, and work and turn
And h-h-honey

A kiki is a party, for calming all your nerves
We’re spilling tea, and dishing just desserts one may deserve
And though the sun is rising, few may choose to leave
So shade that lid and we’ll all bid adieu to your ennui

Oh,

I Will Survive- Priscilla Queen of The Desert OBC

Oh no, not I, I will survive
As long as I know how to love
I know I’ll stay alive

I’ve got all my life to live
I’ve got all my love to give
And I’ll survive, I will survive, I will survive

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Horrible Burger King Website Translation (*)

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For the Google Translate Fail assignment, I stumbled upon a Japanese Burger King website and translated the only parts of the site that werent images (since Google Chrome cant translate those.) This is a screenshot of the bottom of the home page.

For most of these statements, I honestly had no clue what they were trying to say were trying to say. I laughed hysterically hard at “With meat sauce, delicious addition, the popular American cheese fly!” Some pages are just not meant to be translated! Hahaha!

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I’m Lovin’ It

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I’m Lovin’ It – Justin Timberlake

My last web assignment that I chose was Hidden Stories in a Page {**}. In this assignment, you had to take a web page and insert a hidden story, or commentary from the author.

I started off by thinking of what website I could insert a hidden story. I wanted to do a funny one so I thought for a while. And then, it hit me like a ton of bricks: The McDonald’s Nutrition Page. Oh boy, I had too much fun with this.

There is one main hidden story and a bunch of tid-bits here and there. See if you can find them all when you visit my new McDonald’s Nutrition Page.

I created this with the help of the Hackasaurus tool – which is wonderful and I definitely recommend using it!! It was very simple once I planned out what direction I was going to go in. I wanted to make it seem like the website was talking. Almost as if the website was trying to warn people that all of this information was b.s. and not to fall into the trap!

Web designing is sneaky stuff. I hope Micky Dees never finds this blog post.

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Youtube It Your Way!(****)

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Ever thought about what it would be like if birds were the superior race on Earth?

For the “Youtube It Your Way” assignment, where we had to pick out a youtube video and change some aspects to give it a totally new meaning, I chose a video of a human and a parrot yelling at each other…for no reason. I then used Hackasaurus to change the title, comments, commenters’ images, the video views, the amount of likes/dislikes, and a few linked video titles in the sidebar. The main topic here is Political Birds, so I made the arguing parrot, originally named Oscar, a governor debating with a journalist on recent issues in the bird world. All of the commenters seem to support Oscar’s rise to the top.

Here’s a screenshot from the original video

And here’s the Oscar Debates With Media version

At the end, the bird thanks his contender for the debate with a kiss! What a good Governor!!

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It’s Tricky

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It’s Tricky – Run DMC

There was one web design assignment that all of us DS106ers had to do. It was called Storytelling within the Web. For this assignment, we had to recreate an already existing web page.

First, I had to download Mozilla Firefox because I didn’t have it and the Hackasaurus didn’t want to work without it. Unlike my previous downloads in this class, this download was very easy and fast. {That was a nice change!! I feel like I always have a problem with the downloads in this class}. This goggle tool made it super easy to complete this assignment! I had way too much fun doing it, so much so that I thought “there’s no way this is an actual assignment…like for a grade?!”

Here is a picture of the original page:

Here is the TRUTH to the DS106 website:

You can see it on it’s own site too.

For this assignment, I went for “the truth”. What people would want to see when signing up to take this class. Like I said before, I had a lot of fun doing this assignment. I can see myself using this tool again later to trick people. Hmm April Fool’s Day is coming up…. {muahahahaha <– evil laugh}

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Who Let The Dogs Out?

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My blog title/song title will make sense once you are done reading this blog post, trust me!

For my first web assignment, I chose to do the What they might have done in social media {***} one. When I was looking through the Web Assignment Bank, this one was the first one to spark my interest.

Because I’m a psychology major, it seems appropriate to chose Ivan Pavlov to create social media pages for. If you don’t already know, Pavlov is famous for classical conditioning. He found out that dogs can be classically conditioned to salivate when they hear a bell by simply teaching them that the sound of a bell means food is coming.

Here is his Fakebook:

And here is his Twister:

I had a lot of fun creating these pages and finding the right “friends” to go on Pavlov’s Fakebook. These are neat websites that I will definitely use in my classroom when I am a teacher. Students could use these websites to create Fakebooks and Twisters for historical figures and I can assess their knowledge by reading these fake pages. I love when I can connect DS106 work to my future classroom!

Now does it make sense that my blog title is the song, Who Let The Dogs Out – Baha Men?? :)