Punxsutawney Phil says Spring!

View Assignment Details
0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5

The last two days of daily shoots have made me incredibly anxious for spring.  On Wednesday, it was almost 60 degrees and all the daily shoots were outside minus jackets.  Then today, the daily shoot photo was about taking sky/horizon pictures.  All my pictures were just so colorless since the sky was gray and the trees are bare.  I am just waiting for it to be spring.

So this is why I decided to do Assignment 11 newspaper blackout poetry by Tim Owens.  I took a Bullet article about farms and a groundhog day clip and put them together.  I then blacked out all the words except those that are for spring.  They go nicely with the groundhog who predicted spring to come soon.  I also drew a few pictures to brighten up a very black picture.

Also, the picture may look blurry, but if you click it will pull it up bigger.  I had to scan it so it may not be super clear.

View Assignment Details

The Hero’s Journey Part One: Leaving home

View Assignment Details
0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5

"Hidden Home" Ithaca, NY, designed by Helen Binkerd Young, graduate of Cornell's architecture program ...

I left home when I was 16. My mother had fallen grievously ill and one night my father was out smoking his pipe and he saw a silver bird alight in the holly tree above him.

It told him the only cure was to find the Root of Life, located on the other side of the world.

He called the four of us into the kitchen and said, “My children, you being young and healthy, the lights of my waning years, I bear a heavy weight in my chest for I fear I have to send you out into the world. You well know that your mother is ill, that the pall of death is cast over her. This night I have received a message from on high that her salvation may be found on the other side of the earth.”

He took my brother aside and spoke to him first. I did not hear what he said, or what he handed to my brother.

After their conversation, my father sent him to the North.

I, the second child, spoke with my father next. He bequeathed to me a knife, given to him by his uncle. He told me it had properties that would help me on my journey. He sent me to the South.

Looking back at the house from the bottom on the hill, I saw him speak to the second youngest and send her to the West. The youngest he sent to the East.

This is the beginning of the story. Write the next part and post the link to this post with it, then post the link to your part as a comment and we’ll keep this going. Or you can follow whatever links already exist and add onto those threads of narration! Rules: Post a picture with your part of the story (Creative Commons, plz) and please narrate in first person.

View Assignment Details

Stranger Portrait

View Assignment Details
0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5

Clerk

I often see people and think that I’d like to take their portrait. It sounds creepy in my head as I write that but I promise it’s a fairly widespread idea. I just happen to think certain people look interesting but I don’t ever do anything about it. I worry my social skills are not up to it. I’m not a good first impression kind of guy in a lot of ways. There are many reasons. My neutral face frightens people. I tend to be reserved. As a kid who moved a lot, I had two choices become outgoing and gregarious or do the opposite. I chose the latter.

But you see a photo at the top of this post. A photo I took- of a stranger. That may not seem like a big deal to many of you but it took some serious psyching up for me to do that. It’s not the best picture but it does represent something I’m proud to have done.

That’s the interesting thing here. The #ds106 course gave me the structure to make some assignments and one I put up there was the stranger portrait photography assignment (visualassignment29). I had been thinking about it for a while. Once I wrote it down, it kept coming back to me. I couldn’t make an assignment for someone else that I was too scared to do. It took some time, but I finally decided to do it this morning. I wouldn’t have gotten an F had I not done. I mean, I created the assignment AND I gave it to myself. There was no force compelling me to step into a place where I wasn’t comfortable.

The course gave me the support of a community of people trying new things and pushing themselves- putting themselves out there. I couldn’t be talk about learning in the open and trying new things if I didn’t do something I was truly scared to do.

If #ds106 only got me to do this one thing I’d be happy. So thanks people.

View Assignment Details

1 Story – 4 Icons

View Assignment Details
0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5

Assignment: Reduce a movie, story, or event into its basic elements, then take those visuals and reduce them further to simple icons.

That’s my attempt above. I tried to stick to a three color scheme. The first image is supposed to be a parking meter. My wife was unable to ID it. It needs work. Hopefully the other three are at least identifiable.

I don’t use vector drawing tools very often. I clearly need to spend some more time with them to get some skills but that was half the reason I attempted this. My learning is now public, fairly messy, but most of all not really what I want. That is ok. It’s fun. It isn’t a contest. I’m enjoying it. I do not fear Jim Groom’s red pen.

You might also notice that I’m doing assignments in and around the #ds106 course but not necessarily all the ones that are assigned, nor am I necessarily doing them in the order they are given. I’m doing extra “work” with the interest and energy moves me1. I may go back and do some. I may not.

I like the MOOC idea. I find it valuable to have a group of people moving through the roughly same ideas at roughly the same time. I like the freedom I find in the structure. What worries me is how just calling something a course seems to bring a ton of baggage with it. People worry about not completing every assignment, being compared to others/graded and, most depressingly, being found wanting. I’ve seen this in the blog posts of participants and the comments of people I know in “real life” who’ve opted not to participate.

I see this mentality as a direct result of our educational system – adults, scared to try new things, as a learned response. I don’t blame the people. I think I see how this point is reached systemically. It’s just a pretty depressing legacy for a system that claims to produce life-long learners. It’s going to take an enormous amount of time and work to fix something buried this deep.

So, I’m inviting you to take part. If you’ve wanted to play along but haven’t because of lingering fears or doubts, come on in. The water is fine. The people couldn’t be nicer2. Jim couldn’t grade you if he wanted to3. Hey, there’s even a rather bizarre participant-run and -created streaming internet radio station.

Inspired by Colt Rane who ought to be making a huge number of English teachers happy with this image. He’s got one for the Great Gatsby as well but I don’t remember the book well enough to know if it’s good or not.

1 Clearly animated gifs got under my skin for some reason.

2 Even an odd Nazi photoshopping (by a non-class member) incident seems to have been settled fairly amicably.

3 Grades are for paying customers. All you might get is helpful feedback or compliments.

View Assignment Details