My presentation was intended to give the class a brief understanding of the design considerations I made through out the production of my project.  Here is a brief summary of my presentation.

• Topic Introduction – I remixed the children’s story A Very Hungry Catepillar bringing it to Virginia Tech and using Instagram to share the story.  To display my story I additionally used Visme.
• Purpose and Idea – I wanted to use this project to show my affection for Virginia Tech.  My sister, who recently applied to Virginia Tech, absolutely fell in love with the hot chocolate at Deet’s when she visited.  I though this project would be a good way for me to reflect on my time at the school as a Senior.  I wanted to share a story about how Virginia Tech helps you to blossom and grow, while highlighting the campus’s renowned dining service.
• Audience – I created an Instagram account @Very_Hungry_Hokie and encouraged my friends to follow.  The account is public and has gained followers interested in Virginia Tech and food.  Since I intended to reach my classmates as part of my audience, I didn’t want to restrict my project to just Instagram.  I brought the mobile app’s locations feature into a Prezi to share the Instagram account in a manner that reflects a story more clearly.  The prezi uses the gestural mode to move the audience’s attention from 1 picture to another.
• Design – I followed the “mold” or convention that has been establish by Instagram.  Instagram has an established spatial layout with a square image or visual directly above a short line of text.
• Rhetoric – For this project, I made conscious rhetorical choices.  I choose simple linguistic words, incorporated #hashtags, and @tags.  I consulted my younger sister for her advise on the “lingo” that encourages the most “likes.”
• Challenges – I was challenged to tell a story with a limited amount of words.  Additionally, my collection of images for this project was limited by my meal plan constraints.
• Achievements – When I first created the Instagram, I failed to tell a story.  My audience wasn’t making the connections between images that I hoped to relay.  I am satisfied with the presentation of my final project.
• Changes – I think it would be interesting to make this story convey more meaning.  I think drawing a moral conclusion at the end about blossoming into a better person because of your experience at Virginia Tech could have been interesting.  I tried to incorporate different organization to get involved in with this project, but think I could expand upon that thought.  Going in a different direction, I think that it would be interesting to make the account I created become an account that share the Virginia Tech dining experience from all student’s perspectives (and not necessarily as a story.)

Since our class last met, I have worked lots on my third project! I recruited my friends at Virginia Tech to share images of their food with me during the week of class before break.  I began editing the images for Instagram and uploaded about three dozen post while I was home.  Additionally, I took screen shots of the posts and uploaded them to a Prezi presentation.

I worked through the many challenges and the short comings of the various programs I was using.  Towards the end of the presentation, I realized that the captions for my Instagram posts did not tell my story as completely as I desired.  I had several of my peers review my Prezi and got similar responses.

I will be presenting on Wednesday, but I still have revisions to make before my project is complete.  First, I need to edit several captions for post on the @very_hungry_hokie Instagram.  Second, I need to take screenshots of the edited posts and upload them to the Prezi presentation.  Finally, I need to update my “Work Cited” and figure out how I want to credit my peers that assisted me in this project.  Additionally, I am continually documenting the challenges I have faced to explain in my project three memo.

Since our class last met, I have worked lots on my third project! I recruited my friends at Virginia Tech to share images of their food with me during the week of class before break.  I began editing the images for Instagram and uploaded about three dozen post while I was home.  Additionally, I took screen shots of the posts and uploaded them to a Prezi presentation.

I worked through the many challenges and the short comings of the various programs I was using.  Towards the end of the presentation, I realized that the captions for my Instagram posts did not tell my story as completely as I desired.  I had several of my peers review my Prezi and got similar responses.

I will be presenting on Wednesday, but I still have revisions to make before my project is complete.  First, I need to edit several captions for post on the @very_hungry_hokie Instagram.  Second, I need to take screenshots of the edited posts and upload them to the Prezi presentation.  Finally, I need to update my “Work Cited” and figure out how I want to credit my peers that assisted me in this project.  Additionally, I am continually documenting the challenges I have faced to explain in my project three memo.

I spent my Friday commuting home to Northern Virginia.  Though I often find it a constraint,  Instagram is primarily a phone application.  I spent some time in the car editing the pictures I have been collecting.  I also used the application Pic Stitch to compile multiple images into a single square.

My selfie is of just me because I was working on my phone.  Since I used my phone to both take this image and edit images for my project, I grabbed a pencil to make it look like I was being studious.

Have a great Thanksgiving Break!

After discussing my project with my peers, I have revised slightly the plan for my project.  I am planning to compile all of the Instagram images for my project over the Thanksgiving break.  I hope to create captions that tell the story and recruit more followers to the account.  Since I still have a lot of work to do on my project before it is complete,  my peers were only able to comment on the progress that I have made thus far.

1. Strengths to keep

The mapped version of the Instagram account was appreciated.

2. Design Problems

Both Instagram and Presi are limited in their abilities and are both weak social media platforms.  By combining the platforms, I am using Presi to display the map version of Instagram available only on the Instagram application not on the website.

3. Rhetorical Choices

Since the audience of my project is Virginia Tech college students (particularly Freshman), prospective students, and the associated social media community, I plan to use simple day to day language.  Since most of the rhetoric for this project will be in my Instagram captions, I plan to use a variety of @Tags and #Tags.

4. Multimodal elements

In consideration of the need for gestural mode on my Instagram account.  I have decided to try and capture some video footage.

5. Most Important Changes

I need to finish my project by uploading all my photos to Instagram.  I need to gather more followers on Instagram so that I can increase my likes.  Finally, I need to input the images to Presi.

6. Time Constraints

Due to my planned Thanksgiving vacation, I plan to have all of the images I need for the project before Friday, November 19, 2014.

Additionally, I signed up on Scholar for a time slot to present my project to the class.

I am also continuing my quest for quality sources.  So far the following have been gathered:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Very_Hungry_Caterpillar

2. http://www.businessinsider.com/virginia-tech-best-campus-dining-2014-10

3. http://www.princetonreview.com/schoollist.aspx?type=r&id=683#/

4. https://secure.hosting.vt.edu/www.hokiebucketlist.alumni.vt.edu/home.php

I created an Instagram account for @Very_Hungry_Catepillar and started following @VTAdmissions (VT Undergraduate Admissions), @VTPamplin (VT Pamplin), and @VirginiaTech.

On Twitter, I started following @HokieDining (VT Dining Services), @HungryHokie (Hungry Hokie), @FollowMeToVT (VT Admissions), and @VTPamplin (VT Pamplin).

My roommate wants to go on The Ellen Show for her 22nd Birthday wish!

Watch, Like, and Share the video here!

To organize my project, I have drafted a timeline to keep myself on track.

11/3:  Present topics to class; decide on topic

11/4:  Create Instagram Account and begin collecting images

11/5:  Outline timeline of project

11/7:  Research and gather information.

11/10:  Outline Story

11/12: Review Outline

11/14:  Work on gathering images and ensuring #tags and locations are optimal.

11/17: Presentation Sign Up; Decide if photo editing will be needed.

11/19: Rough draft of working on project

11/21: No Class, selfie of working on project

12/1: Have presentation complete and begin rehearsing.

12/3–12/10: In-class Presentations

12/10 at 11:55PM: Project Due