Category Archives: DPERS
Podcast Wrap Up Post
Quotes
“Mentally tough artists, writers, and employees deliver on a more consistent basis than most. They work on a schedule, not just when they feel motivated. They approach their work like a pro, not an amateur. They do the most important thing first and don’t shirk responsibilities.”
This quote relates to this project for me, the most out of all the other quotes. I think that the direct concept of being mentally tough in the form of responsibility and consistency relates more to this project than anything else, and being able to remember and remind one another in our group was crucial in the outcome we had. We did not shake off responsibilities that we knew we had, and we also made sure to let one another know of responsibilities that the other may have.
“Mental toughness is like a muscle. It needs to be worked to grow and develop.If you haven’t pushed yourself in thousands of small ways, of course you’ll wilt when things get really difficult.”
The way that this quote most relates to our project is in the idea of pushing ourselves; we needed to constantly be able to motivate one another and be behind one another to contribute equally to the final product; we were able to push ourselves in numerous ways, be it through reminding ourselves of what the consequences would be and how much work we would have to catch up with if we did not do what we needed to, or if it was about reminding ourselves through other little things such as alerts and calendar reminders that gave us that little extra push into the sort of motivation mindset we needed.
“Mental toughness isn’t about getting an incredible dose of inspiration or courage. It’s about building the daily habits that allow you to stick to a schedule and overcome challenges and distractions over and over and over again.”
This would be the final quote that I would choose, that relates to our project. I say so because distractions and overcoming them were a big part of this project. Since we were on YouTube for our challenge, the number of distractions poising themselves towards us were numerous. Over time, by building the habits that we did to constantly remind ourselves that we needed to stick to our tasks, we were able to overcome the difficulty of succumbing to distractions.
Partner Agreement Reflection
I think that in terms of collaboration, we could have thought more about the collaborating process for the final podcast and the collection of the different audio tapes. I think it got a bit confusing towards the end as we did not have that efficient of a system to organise all our files, but I think that it is a good lesson to take away for the next project, in terms of organization.
I think the advice that we could have looked at more scrutinisingly would have been day to day reminding of when to do the challenges; we were able to remind one another of when to do what, but I think that it could have been much better organised. For example, we could have chosen a specific time at which we could both have messaged one another to make sure that we did what was required at a time most suitable for both of us. One mistake was messaging each other either much too early or too late, and ending up forgetting again.
Now that I’ve worked with different partners, the thing that I most need from a partner is the ability to be open minded, yet teh confidence to criticise at the same time. If there is something about my idea that my partner does not like, I want them to feel comfortable in bringing it up and us working out a solution more suited to both of our thinking styles. At the same time, I want a partner who is open to hearing my ideas and providing their own ideas, so I do not feel one sided.
Tool
I think the part of the tool that was the sharpest for me in this project was the tool that was for cutting out distractions; using a medium like YouTube leaves me vulnerable to many forms of distractions online, and I think that finding methods to combat this distraction were very important in this project. I was able to devise ways to ensure that I did not fall prey to the distractions I saw online and stuck to my task, reminding myself of what needed to be done constantly with support from my partner as well. We ensured that we would both stay focused and cut out all distractions, constantly reminding one another of this fact as well.
Final Podcast and Show Notes
This is our final podcast and our show notes. Our challenge was to create a podcast based on recordings we made for a 5 day challenge, which was to watch debates from a YouTube channel called Middle Ground.
Intro and Outro Post
Here is the link to the intro and outro post that I compiled after creating my samples for the intro and outro music for the podcast. We ended up using my outro music for the final podcast.
Audio Partner Agreement
Here is the audio partner agreement that my partner and I recorded before starting the process of creating the recordings for the final podcast and before choosing what challenge we were going to use. This was a really helpful tool as it helped us identify certain conflicts we may come across through the progression of this project.
Podcast Review Post
Here is the link to the very first podcast review post I did before we started this project. My podcast was called “Kids These Days”, by the channel IRL.
Tech Challenge
Podcast Project Planning
Here is the link to the recording planner me and my group partner, Tanuj, are using.
Below are some screenshots of the calendar reminders we set on Google Calendars, to remind ourselves when to record content for the final podcast.
Intro Music that I created for our final podcast
Outro music that I created for our final podcast
Stop Motion Animation
In class, we have been working on a stop motion animation piece designed after a vignette written by one of our classmates for our English assignment. My partner was Megna, and we chose to do Ady’s vignette about his home being Mumbai.
Here are our slides that we created during the preparation and planning stages of the video:
This is the link to the final video.
I think that my partner and I met our partner agreements to a high extent; we agreed that if one of us was not making an equal contribution to the work, that we would let each other know. By keeping this mind, we continued to remind each other during the process that we had different and equal responsibilities and our collected efforts would give us the best work possible. We had those lines of communication open with one another. We also agreed that putting ideas on the table and paying attention to self and others were the two collaborative norms that we should focus on the most, and we did pay attention to these the most; we realised that we were equally contributing ideas and we effectively listened to and accepted other ideas as well. This was, to me, the most important factor in why we worked well together. Looking back now, I think that we could have also added presuming positive intentions to our list of collaborative norms; this is especially important when working in groups, and although we had this at the back of our mind I think there were instances where we could have provided more constructive criticism to one another’s ideas, but overall it was a respectful environment. This could help future collaborations by making sure that we are staying respectful of one another, and that there is no conflict so that we can work together as effectively as possible.
To this contribution, I helped develop the storyboard and worked on the slides, while my partner handled the creative side as in collecting the resources and creating the set. I also used my computer to take and organise the shots that we used for the video. My partner was able to rely on me, as we completed most of our work in class since we were working quite well and effectively together. To be more reliable in future projects, I think that I can take the responsibility to make sure that I do not get as easily distracted, and improve the way that I work in class even though I feel that we worked well in class during this project; there is always room for improvement.
This was our rationale. From our list, I think that we were able to evoke a sense of longing for home for an Indian, but not really through emotion. I think that through the sound effects and the images that we used, we were able to create some resonance for an Indian, especially since my partner and I are Indians ourselves. I do not think we were really able to hit the “emotional touch” of the piece, since our editing and audio quality could have been improved, but I definitely think that we were able to create the feeling of home, for an Indian.
We didn’t really see the final product as something that communicated that you should never forget how your roots will always be a part of you, rather I think that we were able to help instill the feeling of remembering your roots, and the place that you come from (specifically for Indians, this could be a bit hard to do for other cultures as they may have significantly different factors in their communities).
We used heavy sound effects and music, as we mentioned in our rationale, considering what a dense environment the city of Mumbai is. To make it as realistic as possible, a cacophony of sound effects such as dogs barking and engines revving truly make it what it is.
We chose the words vivid, resonant and emotional because as we read the passage, my partner and I suddenly felt a longing for our home back in India; we were able to fully relate to what we had read in the passage as we are so used to that environment and consider it the place that we are from. We were not very effectively able to communicate this in the video, but I think that this is what we felt when we read the passage, so some of this was also evident when we watched the video as we were visually reminded of what home looked like.
One question that we want our audience to always remember is: how does the place that you call home always draw you back no matter what? We wanted to communicate this to our viewers, but we realize that this video could only really resonate with the Indian community. We also felt that we were able to show why certain factors of an environment shape the way that we feel about that place, or how we come to call it home; for India, it is the familiar sound of the dogs barking, the auto rickshaws honking their horns, the ladies gossiping as they walk down the street and the men playing card games in the litle cafes and tea stalls near the side of the road.
Social WEdia Project: Slides and Movie
These slides document the information that I had to collect prior to creating the movie about social media; my partner and I formulated five statements, and we were then able to, using the required shot types, create the different storyboards that communicated each scene/statement of the video.
These slides document the process of creating the movie in iMovie; I took screenshots in intervals of 5 minutes to show the progress and how fast I was working, as well as how my level of comfort with iMovie was increasing as time was passing by.
Link to draft video here
The rough draft was my first attempt at creating this video, and in my opinion I feel that it was effective in communicating its message but there was room for improvement.
Link to final video here
For my final product, I decided to make the communicating of the messages more clear using text and speech.
The most important thing I need to work on to improve my film during next lesson is the transitions between the different scenes and making sure that each scene correlates with its corresponding statement.
My final film is meant to be 2-3 minutes, this means I need to collect more footage to create more time, and talk about our five statements more in depth.
Of my FIVE statements about social media, the one that is the trickiest to communicate in the video is the statement about social media addiction being classified as a mental disorder. I say this because it is hard to represent a “mental disorder” in a sense, without seeming offensive so it will take some effort to think of alternative methods to represent this statement in the video.
Click here to see my ATL round up, and read about how I believe I met the ATL skills of self management, collaboration and communication.
Will the ‘rules of social media today’ be the same rules in 5 years time? Why or why not?
Here are the audio files that I listened to, along with my group’s:
Will the ‘rules of social media today’ be the same rules in 5 years time? Why or why not?
I believe that the rules of social media will still be the same rules in 5 years’ time. I do not think anyone can come up with a valid enough argument as to why these rules should change because they effectively protect everyone online and create a safer cyber environment.
What’s been the most influential meme for your generation and what does that say about your generation?
I used this resource:
I think that the most influential meme of my generation has been the Rick Roll meme.
This is because when I asked a lot of my friends what they think about this question, quite a few of them said that the most memorable meme that they could possibly think of is the Rick Roll meme. Taken from the music video for “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley, it became a huge way for people to “troll” each other and has been an integral part of the meme universe ever since. It has happened to me a countless number of times before, and it can be seen in viral videos as well; for example, when a teacher posted a link to his students that said “Test Answers”, but when clicked on it started playing the music video for “Never Gonna Give You Up”; thus, the phrase You’ve Been Rickrolled!
I think that this says a lot about our generation; quite honestly, it does show us the lengths that some people will go to just to annoy their friends and the kind of things that become a worldwide hit overnight. The spread of technology has definitely aided this. I think that it shows that my generation is one that likes to have fun and one that is rather creative as well. People find such interesting and new ways to entertain people, and the Rick Roll meme is a good example of that to me. I think that memes are a huge part of our world today and are good for whenever we just need a good laugh or snicker; the world keeps changing every day, and I am proud to be able to say that my generation is the one that introduced the meme and the GIF to the world. With the help of technology, one laugh can slowly become into a million.