What I Did

I will confess that I have no idea what I had done at this point. I think I was starting to work on my Writer/Designer Analysis.

Why I Did It

Mostly because I was told to, however, I recognize that using something like the Writer/Designer questions really makes it easier to put the whole thing into perspective. Throughout this project, I’ve had an issue figuring out exactly how to state what I think about Sumopaint, my interface of choice. While I’m still somewhat at a loss, I feel much better about my knowledge about the site.

What I Did:

I began to screenshot different images for my project. I wanted to make sure that there were lots of images to pick from to make the project stand out. While taking photos I also got to see even more features of the website that I had not seen before.

Why I Did It:

In some of the other blog posts I noticed that they did not have many images to view along side of their descriptions, so I wanted to make sure that images were a main aspect of my posts. I also looked into previous example projects so that I could get a better feel for the layout of the project.

Today I made my PowerPoint Presentation. I used the Writer/Designer Analysis Questions form that I completed last time to guide me in my slides. I created a slide for each category and took screenshots. I edited screenshots to highlight specific parts of the website that demonstrate a particular category of analysis. In order to display the full features of this website, I had to create multiple videos to show how to site responds when media is added, which is the purpose of this site. I made sure to use the 1/1/5 rule in my presentation and left mostly just the title of the topic that I am demonstrating and the screenshot I chose for each category. I have a total of 19 slides, and the time limit is  five minutes, so I will spend roughly 15 seconds explaining each slide. I have more information than that for each category, so I will make sure to narrow down my talking points to the major themes of each section. My next step is to create index cards with talking points for each slide and rehearse my presentation on 10/17. I have included a draft of my presentation.

Interrogating an Interface

What I Did

Today, I finished creating my first story using “Storify.” The story features the late Redskins safety Sean Taylor and the premiere of his documentary on the NFL Network.

By finishing my first story on “Storify,” I can now begin to dissect and interrogate the interface of the website.

I also began preparing to write the web essay for Project 2. While creating my first story, I took notes detailing where it was easy to edit/create content, as well as other aspects of the website. I will expand on these notes to create the bulk of the web essay for this project.

Why I Did It

It was necessary to create an account with “Storify” in order to best understand how the site works. My findings during the creation of my first article were encouraging and I look forward to writing more about the site as I continue to work on Project 2.

What I did:

Today I wrote more on the Writer Designer/Analysis questions and played around with the tool. I began to take screenshots and organize them in my notes.

Why I did it:

I think that filling this out as I go will help me as I write the essay. It will be a resource to go back to while I write. I fill out the questions as I figure out the tool so the information will stay fresh in my mind. I took screenshots as I played around with the tool so that I can use them in my essay.

What I Did

Today I worked on transferring what I’ve written about Canva to my website. I created different pages for the project – Affordances, Constraints, Rhetorical Situation, Design Choices, Modes of Communication, and My Work with Canva. I added to the affordances section of the site, putting in pictures and videos that I took screenshots in.

 

Why I Did It

I set up the different pages on my website to make my report fit the Web essay format. I added in pictures and videos in my affordances section to make my website more multimodal. Before peer review on Wednesday, I would like to get more of my first draft done so I can get some good feedback on my project.

What I Did

I finished my infographic. I added statistics on female and corps enrollment. I used two kinds of charts.

Why I Did It

I think that letting females into the school and lifting the corps requirement is a lot of what allowed Virginia Tech to expand so greatly, and I think that women and corps members are two important parts of the student body. I used two different kinds of charts to show what the site is able to do.

What I did

Today, I focused on starting my web essay. To start, I made subpages on my blog for each section of my project. I made pages for First Impressions, Interrogate the Basics, Affordances, Constraints, and My Slipp. After deciding on the organization of my web essay, I started arranging my thoughts and filling out each page. Rather than writing out every thought in full sentence form, I made brief bullet points that I will expand upon later. Today I also worked on the Slipp that I am creating. Finally, I made the basic frame for my presentation on Google Docs.

Why I did it

After exploring Slipp over the past few days, I now feel comfortable arranging my thoughts into a web essay. I wanted to make my subpages first because that is the best way for me to arrange my thoughts. Now that I have these subpages, I can work on filling each page out and organizing my thoughts. I also prefer working with bullet points first because it allows my to get my thoughts arranged before expounding on each point more thoroughly in the final web essay. I use bullet points to organize my ideas then write them out once I have finished brainstorming and organizing. I worked on my Slipp to find the affordances and constraints of the tool. I started my presentation to get my ideas organized.

What I Did:

Today I worked a lot on my powerpoint presentation for Project 2. I cropped all of my screenshots and started adding them to my slides in order of relevance. I also edited my Writer/Designer Analysis questions and created a word document to write all of the information I’ve collected thus far in a paragraph form. So basically, I’ve laid all the groundwork for the project and am now staring to flesh it out.

Why I Did it:

I wanted to do my analysis questions first so I would pretty much have all the information gathered. From there, it’s all a matter of collecting the screenshots I need and putting the information into a powerpoint and paragraph from. I also wanted to lay the groundwork for everything I need to do for the project first so that it isn’t so overwhelming doing each step at once, but rather collecting and filling in information as I come to it along the way.