Response to Gaming Systems

My family received our first gaming system ever three years ago for Christmas. It was a PlayStation 2. Yes. A PS2. In 2009. We were a little out of the loop. And in those three years we've owned that PS2, my whole family (my younger sister, my parents and I, combined) have probably turned the machine on forty times. If I'm being generous. So needless to say, I don't have too much of a back-history with the concept  of video-gaming.  But before we owned our PS2, I spent a great deal of time at my cousin's house, and my cousin owned every gaming system ever made to date, and nearly every game and expansion pack to go along with those systems. When I was there, I loved to waste my time creating outfits and houses for my Sims characters (I couldn't care about the characters lives, I just liked designing.) And my Zoo Tycoon amusement parks were always the most architectural and creative I could make them given the allotted budget (which was always unlimited ;)  My favorite computer game was (and still is) Diner Dash and its related spin offs. And every year for Christmas, my grandma's gift to the grandkids was a years subscription to the Disney themed role playing computer game, ToonTown. (I was a duck named Daisy and I had leveled  up to a level 130 and had defeated all the Cogs!) And, when I get the chance, I still love to play Animal Crossing on my sister's Nintendo DS.

So, clearly, my favorite games (or aspect of games) have always been the open-ended, non-stressful and non-combative games (well, except for beating those Cogs...)  for me to 1) express a need to create/invent and to 2) ultimately be myself/explore the virtual worlds/ create my digital identity!

I had never thought of gaming as a new way of teaching creativity to children, but upon reading the articles, it totally makes perfect sense, and I've noticed it play out perfectly in my life, in retrospect. 

I can't say much for the combative games, but the other kinds are an absolutely wonderful way to slowly/secretly implant a free-thinking, problem-solving, creative and expressive mind into children, all while they think they're "wasting time." 

HTML5 vs Apps

So I know literally nothing about HTML5 (or HTML at all, really) but I saw this article on Business Insider about HTML vs Apps, the future creation of those platforms, and which will be more successful, while browsing the web and recognized the concepts from class yesterday, so hopefully by next week, I'll be able to read the article and understand it!

Response to Web 2.0

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged!

Today's articles were all pretty interesting (I especially liked "Streams of Content, Limited Attention: The Flow of Information through Social Media" and "Why Participatory Culture Is Not Web 2.0: Some Basic Distinctions.") and they seemed to wrap up what we've been talking about all semester into one concept (which is fitting, as the semester comes to a close.) Here are my notes I took while reading:

The way we view/receive news and information is switching from a model of attention to a model of distribution. Now, instead of being fed little bits of information that we were assumed to pay attention to, because there was no alternative, we have the ability to access virtually any information about any subject at any time, and it is up to us what we can pay attention to/what we ignore. Also, with this vast stockpile of information, the readers are invited and encouraged to add to the information/discussion, share the information and ultimately attract new viewers.

Within this "model of distribution" are four concepts that look at why certain people take in the information they do:
1. Democratization - how is content distributed among all viewers? (people are attracted to things in their language, therefor Chinese written e-documents will eventually be the most viewed - theoretically.)
2. Stimulation - attention to educational/informational info isn't always as attractive as "pointless", fun, mindless information. (Note: Can be addictive and harmful to a person's well-being if not allotted for in moderation. A balance is needed.)
3. Homophily- people naturally want to connect with people similar to them. This can be great for the furthering of knowledge on topics among people with similar interests. This can become dangerous when used in a bigoted, prejudiced way of segregation on the web. It can be easy to ignore the facts/opinions we don't want to hear and the fact that the web allows for both opinions to be voiced and yet ignored can enforce social divides and leave little room for open-minded discussion
4. Power - access alone is power. The view holds the power to command attention to himself, influence other's opinions, and to traffic information. We also give power to companies/people when we give our attention to them (marking them as worthy)

Within this Web 2.0 model of information distribution, the viewer is invited to take part in the making and sharing process of information. As quoted in Why Participatory Culture Is Not Web 2.0..., 

“The latest evolution of the Internet, the so-called Web 2.0, has blurred the line between producers and consumers of content and has shifted attention from access to information toward access to other people. New kinds of online resources– such as social networking sites, blogs, wikis, and virtual communities– have allowed people with common interests to meet, share ideas, and collaborate in innovative ways. Indeed, the Web 2.0 is creating a new kind of participatory medium that is ideal for supporting multiple modes of learning.”

Peer Reviews - Day 2

Julia

Argument: Astrology is disproved by science

Strength: Background/color setup is nice and fits subject ; pages appear to be easy to navigate

Improve: Looks like a lot of paraphrasing of a scientific article, is there other info that you can add that people not interesting in facts may want to read? Perhaps quick bullet points instead of paragraphs? Pictures?

Some headers are center-aligned, some are left-aligned

(Is the production meant to show a bias of why its harmful, to show both sides of the story, or to be un-biased entirely and just show introductory facts?) -- I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, I'm not sure. Just make your point clear.

Olive

Argument: To show scenic/historical landmarks worth seeing in each state? To encourage travel

Strength: Very interesting, so much to look at!

Improve: Add border, maybe make California/Florida pictures not tilted -- I feel like Disney castles could be straight up (not angled) and would still be grand enough to take up the whole state and be recognizable, Give UP a different picture than Lower Michigan

Kim

Argument: For people to buy UP Unique Creation goods

Strength: well put together website

Improve: Like the links at the top of the page for navigation (strength), but with that, is the same necessary at the bottom of the page as well?

subheader "Local loves, now available to the public" could be worded better to be explicit

I think "about us" and "contact" tabs should be together, so the order of tabs reads "home, products, ordering, about us, contact" - seems to emphasize products and gives the tabs a better flow

Caitlin 

Argument: Politicians portray themselves in a specific physical manner as well as socially; body language/how presented is a subconscious of how we perceive people

Strength: Interesting insights, is non-biased to a political party. Like the "did you know..." under each subheader, very uniform. Organized

Improve: Where are these quotes from? Sources? (are they all from the same source?)
 Don't know the necessity of the "shoulds..."  are these your opinions?
hard to tell the difference between your opinions and the facts, break that up
why the circles around the faces?
flags need to be moved (also need to be made uniform size with each other)

Courtney

Argument: For people to take part in NaNoWriMo

Strength: For a writing activity, I love the use of whitespace/short sentences! The "incomplete-ness" has a certain appeal to it. Very nice mix of fonts,  typogoraphy is very well put together/appealing. Posters build on each other.

Improve: In the blue fonts, either use all lower-caps, or use proper capitalization, keep it uniform

Devin

Argument: To show how the truth behind how much money we spend on a dining hall meal compared to what we get for that money ; its better to eat off campus if you want to save money ; do we pay for convenience

Strength: nice comparative format, explains how to get the most of your food, survey was a beneficial addition, tumblr reaches  college-age demographic

Improve: for the pictures of food from tech, explain them like you did the culvers pics, don't know what that link is in your second posting ; don't know how tumblr works, but could you take off the timestamp on the posts?

Next

Argument: Create blog for sister?

Strength: Black is nice contrast from green, shows personality,

Improve: Change font, make side "about me" section wider or move to a different spot. What is the point of the blog? White title is hard to read

Also, the background is calming and relaxing, and so are the descriptions in the "about me", but the word "effervescence" is bubbly and exciting - don't know if those two descriptors match up with each other

Jane

Argument: we as a tech-savvy generation have a different mentality about ourselves/others/our relationships with others and we need to be aware of that when we interact with other generations

Strength: nice layout, nice background/text, text had enough time to read, good idea for a video, text movement was nice/moved movie along, easily relatable

Improve: Maybe add image to break up text towards end

Jana

Argument: for people to go to that landscaping service

Strength: love the handmade touches

Improve: "premier in lawn and garden care" text doesn't fit the organic flow of the image ; is there color in the grass? add color elsewhere for color advertisement or keep black and white for newspaper

Peer Reviews

Sarah

Major Argument: Provide publicity for Vocal Achord

Strength: Logos says name of group and both logos imply musical interest (clef signs and bar staffs) ; fonts imply whimsy

Develop: Perhaps give a sub-header under the logo saying "Michigan Tech A Capella" or something ; color for contrast

Charlie

Major Argument: Provide publicity/history/advertisement for Club Indigo - Why you should go

Strength: PP can hold its own, provides all the answers to questions people may have, is persuasive/informative ; I like that the font/background portray a 1920's feel, similar to the Calumet Theater.

Develop: Still needs photos, slides broken up

Steven

Major Argument: Don't pirate music

Strength: Very aesthetically attractive infographic, use of color emphasizes stats

Develop: only three statistics, maybe add more (i'm assuming you will because there's empty space at the bottom)

Where it says "the cost: 12.5 billion - annually to the us economy" does that mean money taken from the us economy? that line isn't clear

I'm not sure of the staggered lines in the "when caught pirating", I'd consider making those all aligned (or at least staggered at an even rate)

Cassandra

Major Argument: Join Greek Life at Tech for their leadership roles

Strength: Presentation has a nice flow, color gives contrast is easy to read

Develop: Some slides are too long to read in the time given ; the font is very "childish" (not in a demeaning way, but because it's handwritten) and I'm not sure if it implies the leadership position you're arguing for. Perhaps there's a different "fun" font that shows the lighthearted side of Greek Life without compromising your respectability of professionalism/leadership?

Challenges

My project is coming along really nicely, and I'm learning more about photo manipulation as I go along, but here are some challenges I've come across during my project so far:

The editing is taking longer than I expected. I had hopes of creating three different photo before/after series, I'm putting the final touches on the first one when I'm in the lab today, and then I'll begin my second one. Depending on how long my second series takes, I might have to cut it down and leave it with the two.

I'm not really sure how I want to host my presentation. The photo series' are either going to be displayed as well, a series (with one photo at a time), and I'm also contemplating turning them GIF's, so after my presentation, they can be housed as a picture family together. But, since my digital media artifacts are pictures, I'm not sure how I want to present them. Most people are putting together websites, and I thought about making a tumblr with my photos, but I feel that if I made a webpage, it would need a lot more substance than what I have. Maybe a solid powerpoint is all I need.

(Just kidding, as I was writing that paragraph, I decided I'm going to make a tumblr page as planned, but then just make one really long essay-like entry. I had previously worried about the fact that I was going to need to create several, if not dozens, of tumblr entries, and I was struggling with how to present my info in any particular order in that fashion, but if I just put it as one long post, It'll be a great host for my argument.)

Design Plan

Statement of Purpose: I would like to show how skewed photos can become from when they were originally taken, through forms of editing and manipulation, and to show how these altered photos can create a "hyerreality" for people (namely young women) to base their realities in and around.

Audience: Anyone who doesn't know what drastic edits can be placed onto a photo to alter it, especially high school/ college age women who value personal beauty as self-worth.

Exigency: There exists this notion that the only way to be beautiful is to be skinny and flawless, as seen in celebrity photographs and magazines. In reality, there isn't a person who actually looks like the photos, those photos have been doctored and altered to the point where the model can sometimes become unrecognizable. However, people who take in these doctored photographs don't know they are altered and base their own beauty on the altered, unrealistic and often unattainable appearances of the models.

Audience's "fitting response"/ Potential Change: I would like to see the audience realize how "fake" these photos are; and to be able to recognize and separate the hyperreality of doctored images from our actual reality.

Strategies: Right now, through finding before/after pictures of celebrities, finding statistics on alteration, and showing some before/after photos that I will be creating.

Medium: I will be setting up a blog that I can post onto in a "timeline" like manner, with my postings in order of my arrangement.