Okay so today I am super excited because of the progress I made on my blog.  I added three new pages and two widgets!!!! 

I finished my “About Me” page, added a “Contact Me” page, and added a little something extra.  My extra page actually leads readers to another online blog (soon-to-be E-Zine!) that I currently write for.  I think it adds a little extra depth to who I am and what I’m like without over-doing it on my About Me page. 

I also added a calendar widget because I think it’s important to always know what day it is, and some people don’t always wear watches to tell them.  I then added a contact-me widget which had my “hours” and gave readers my phone number.  Now that I’m typing this out, I am actually not sure if that was a good idea or not but I can’t find that widget anyway so I guess no one will see it.  

That’s all for today folks! 

Today, I worked on writing information for my About page and my Site Information page. I also added a contact form to my site and started brainstorming ways to make it more unique.

I plan on making a “Connect with Me” page, where I have links to my social media accounts as well as my personal webpage. I think this could be a good way to post a lot of information in a streamlined way, because my personal website includes information such as my resume and a portfolio of work.

 

What I did

Today, I added pages to my site. I added all of the projects pages, which will only be used as placeholders for now, and the site information pages. I also played around with various widgets including putting a menu in the footer. 

Why I did it

I was playing around with putting a menu in the footer because I thought it would be nice for visitors to have a way to navigate through my site without having to scroll up to the top every time they wanted to go to a new page. However, I couldn’t get the menu in the footer to be horizontal so it is a stacked menu. This may detract from the overall visual appeal of the site so I haven’t decided whether or not I will keep it. In terms of functionality, it works great. But in terms of visual appeal, it’s not so great. 

Yes, I’m a few days late, but I’m actually more capable of doing this dig now than I would have been on Friday, since I bring NOTHING with me on Fridays.

The List

Comm Law textbook (L, limited V)

Planner (S, L)

Random Folder from a random event (L, V, S)

Ipod Touch (V, S, A)

Laptop! (V, S, A)

Phone (Which is NOT a smartphone) (A, L, G)

I saw someone include their ring, so I’m going to copy that. My class ring (V)

Backpack (V, S)

Reflection

I admit that I did this very quickly, but I can’t say that I found anything that used all five modes. However, all five modes are represented in my and around my backpack, which is the quintessential symbol of the student, which, when I’m here at school, is all I really am. Or at least, all I really try to be.

 

• Wrist bands (V, L)
• Hat (V, L)
• Gift Certificate (V, L)
• Wallet (V, L, S)
• Water bottle (V, L)
• Ribbon (V, L)
• Pocket knife (V, L, S)
• Laptop – iTunes (V, L, S, G, A)
• iPhone – ESPN ScoreCenter App (V, L, S, G, A)
• Composition notebook (V, L, S)

The 2 most different texts are the water bottle and the app for the iPhone. The water bottle has a Kroger label on it and is intended to.There are 2 texts that use all 5 modes of communication, which are the ScoreCenter app for the iPhone and the iTunes app for the MacBook. The most obvious pattern in the texts is that they all use the visual and linguistic modes of communication. For the most part, the texts are very different. They all serve their own purpose. Some texts come from the same time period, such as the app for the iPhone and the app for the MacBook.

The 2 most different texts are the water bottle and the app for the iPhone. The water bottle has a Kroger label on it complete with visual and linguistic details. The iPhone app also has sound (aural), photos of players (gestural) and an organized menu (spatial).

 

I never realized all the different random things I carried with me in my bookbag until today. When I went to look for multimodal texts, I found some interesting items. Last spring, I went to Italy and realized that I never cleaned out my book bag after that trip. I found maps, train tickets, plane tickets, museum passes, and other items that are multimodal in my bag. These are some of the items I found with indicators of which modes they utilize:

• novel: Life after Life – L, V, S
• informational booklet – L, V
• planner – L, V, S
• Starbucks cup – V, S, L
• hotel/museum passes – V, L,
• coupon book – V, S, G, L
• train tickets – V, S, L
• plane tickets – V, S, L
• punch card – V, S, G, L
• promotional button – V, S
• map – V, S
• playing cards – V, S
• youtube video – L, V, S, A, G

The one text that I have that uses all five modes is the Youtube video pulled up on my laptop. Since two of the modes are gestural and aural, some form of digital technology is necessary to utilize all five modes. The music video uses linguistic, visual, spatial, gestural, and aural modes to create the overall effect.

Since most of my items are not digital, they mainly use the linguistic, visual, and spatial modes. They use color, language, white space, and design for each item’s individual purpose.

The novel and the map are probably the most different from each other. While the novel is simple in its design and mainly utilizes language, the map is more visual based with minimal text.

The plane tickets, train tickets, and museum passes have the most in common because they all utilize similar modes for similar purposes.

Multimodal text are forms of media that communicate multiple of the five modes of communication.  To review, the five modes of communication are linguistic, aural, spatial, gestural, and visual.

Today, I was challenged to find 12 text I have with me and identify different modes each has.

1. Luggage Tag (S, V)
2. Coffee Mug (L, S, V)
3. Computer Charger (L, S)
4. iClicker (L, A, S, V)
5. Nike+ App (L, A, S, G, V)
6. Pink Highlighter (L, S, V)
7. Backpack (L, S, G, V)
8. Necklace (S, V)
9. Watch (L, A, S, G, V)
10. Wallet (S, V)
11. Sunglasses (S, V)
12. Advanced Financial Accounting textbook (L, S, G, V)

 

I was surprised by the success I had finding unique texts with multimodal characteristics.

• I noticed that 2 of the 12 text I listed displayed all 5 modes.  The Nike+ App on my phone displays text, responds to gestures, and speaks.  Ali’s watch also encompasses all 5 modes.  It has displays text, the hands move making gestures, and makes a ticking noises.
• Across all of the texts I found that most included visual and spatial modes.  Most of the text I listed included words to communicate. Some text, for example my wallet and sunglasses, communicated differently brands without words.
• All of the text that I located I found in my backpack during the beginning of class today.
• The two text I found that are the most different are my necklace and my Advanced Financial Accounting textbooks.  The different texts are sharing very different types of information which contribute to how they are different.