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Book Talk:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hcq5RSZ_JqrP-KncBefp-JXYJrlRdcfj/view?usp=sharing

I think for the book talk, I managed to make the best of a less than ideal situation. I had to find a few workarounds because first of all, I was unable to find a physical copy of the book, which I know was a requirement, and I was filming myself (something I'm already not huge on) under a bit of pressure as I thought I had turned it in at the due date only to find out it didn't go through correctly, so this was filmed just before the sort of "last chance" deadline, using programs other than what we were instructed to use because Padlet's video software was not being cooperative. All that being said, I guess I would say I'm satisfied with how it turned out. The feedback I received on it was mostly positive but recommended that in the future, I find some sort of visual to show and that I make more eye contact with the camera. The visual is an easy fix for future assignments and as far as eye contact goes, I'll keep it in mind though I also feel that things like that will come naturally the more I film myself and the more comfortable with that process I become.

Digital Poetry Analysis:

https://www.wevideo.com/view/3576493422

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, all things considered. I did sort of unintentionally make it harder on myself than it had to be by choosing a poem that was all about the stillness of a single moment. You told me I could change which poem I chose, but I refused because I was interested in the challenge, and I'm very happy with that decision. To make this video, not only did I use a video editing software for the first time, I also got to try my hand at photoshop for the first time using an app called PhotoLayers and I even tracked down a reputable mp4 to mp3 converter to use the audio from a youtube video as my voiceover. Overall I appreciated the challenge and am happy with the result.

Digital Narrative:

https://www.wevideo.com/view/3655774217

This ended up being a lot of fun. First of all, I got to take a second try at using video editing software and I feel I'm getting better at it and I got to try out a couple new tricks, even though not all of them ended up working out. The first thing I needed to do was transfer 18 pictures from my phone to my computer to be able to insert them to the program. Normally, I would just email them to myself, but Gmail was trying to force me to do that one at a time and I didn't want to take the time to do that. What I ended up doing was creating a google slide using the slides app on my phone and then just opening it on my laptop to get to all the pictures within. I used that same slide to create the credits at the end.

Also, at the time of recording this, I had a cold, so I was worried about recording my own voice and looked into other options. One of the things I looked into before just deciding to record my real voice anyway was creating an AI model of my voice using one of our tech tools: Descript. Even though that ultimately didn't end up working out, I think it was cool to try and fun to mess around with. Here is the link to the AI reading of my script, if you're interested.

https://web.descript.com/716c7bbe-a2d4-42b8-bfc2-6bb6f372eff1

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Tech Demo:

Plan:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IwReMU0xpsKp7PXn0cwFY_ukPTLLYlkPARFX7EtvvBg/edit?usp=sharing

Demo Flyer:

https://infograph.venngage.com/ps/zqHrvDuGqUE

I was really nervous about my tech demo at first. For starters, I didn't really include much of an interactive element in my lesson even though that was a requirement and the second and maybe bigger point is that I was highly (maybe overly) critical of my assigned Tech Tool: Venngage which was unprofessional and probably something I should try to avoid as an educator.

I was, however, relieved to find that all the feedback I received from my classmates was largely positive. The only real feedback I got beyond "no notes" were about the two things I already recognized as mistakes and mentioned above.

My biggest issue with Venngage was the paywall that blocked off the majority of it's features which in and of themselves could all be replicated using the free application, Google Slides. I was already pretty well versed in Google Slides as I use it for my to create things like:

Ninth Life, the first One Page RPG I ever wrote, which was used to promote our Writing for RPGs course at last year's Literary Festival

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VsNGX3OVQOKt5rOUcW9j-n9Z7umy1iIjl_CnVQJRbwE/edit?usp=sharing

The Pact Collector Warlock subclass outline, a pitch I made to some of the other writers at my TTRPG Startup, Roilstone Press

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_McNWFspbrORcxvYpIJyj4l3_zdejpoFwtk9e-J2oyM/edit?usp=sharing

And even some assignments for other classes like my Foundations in Journalism course this semester

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gBDtC-7Eh2XO_qFSSj9LjNKP-f8By0cidP18p45ItVI/edit?usp=sharing

Copied below is my reflection from right after the tech demo as well as a final Google Slides link demonstrating how Venngage's infographic templates could be replicated with relative ease.

Overall I feel I really drew the short straw as far as which website I chose to demonstrate. Venngage seemed pretty cool for the few minutes I got to play around with it in class, but upon further exploration of the tool, I've come to see it as a shameless cashgrab of a site that exists only because there are people who are unaware that there are better and cheaper options. (Professor Cole mentioned that Venngage's infographic templates may not be so easily replicated, with its competitors, and while I can't speak to Canva, I have attached a google slides link to this review. The attached slide has two pages; the first page is a recreated infografic that took me about five minutes to make using the Shapes tool, and the second page is a similar infographic made in 30 seconds using the Diagram tool. Both would need a little sprucing up before presenting to anyone but they are there simply to show that you absolutely can replace Venngage with its free and easy to use counterparts.)

I felt, going into this project, that ethically I couldn't really recommend the site to my classmates or waste their time by teaching them to use it, so my demo looked a little different than most. That being said I still don't think I did a bad job. Given the circumstances, I can only think of three things I could have done better.

Namely, the first thing is that I could have been better prepared. I had a full demo of Slides's functionality planned and loaded on my laptop, only to find that I was unable to connect my laptop to the projector, which caused me to have to remake my plans on the fly and I ended up not filling as much time as I should have.

The second thing I could have done better is maintain professionalism. I think truthfully, I was a little harsh on Venngage. Not to say I think Venngage deserves better (The site is worse than useless, as it is both useless and demands money for it), but to say I think my classmates deserved a little more professionalism than what I showed during my demonstration.

The third and final thing I don't have a good solution for. I didn't really have much in the way of an activity for my classmates to work on. This is because I couldn't figure out how to work it in. Both slides and Venngage require more time than I was able to provide to make anything of substance. Perhaps it could've been done If I had assigned some homework but to make any headway towards solving the time problem, it would've had to be much more homework than my peers were assigning and I didn't feel comfortable doing that especially coming in the day after Halloween.

All in all, given the choices I made and the circumstances I was dealt, I think I did pretty well, there are just a few things I'll need to keep in mind for next time.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1b74XpfaR0aCU9aou-6KZHsYuL0cfJDCZhS_wduhzFQ8/edit?usp=sharing

I do recall though, that one of my classmates mentioned Canva might be a better alternative to both slides and Venngage and while I have started looking into that, unfortunately, I don't yet have anything to show for it.

Professional Development Seminar:

Group Work Document:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ldV2kS1s4Xduj4VMaZykTVZm2f_6_TAiPaY8aCU6mnM/edit?usp=sharing

Presentation:

https://prezi.com/view/UiJ9Et2WdNVU6B9Yfq71/

My Contribution:

https://www.mentimeter.com/app/presentation/alqny3qffxwto3wkva2rq7awyafthr4k/edit?source=share-invite-modal

Overall, I was very happy with both my group and our chosen topic for this assignment. I feel we did a really good job.

We did experience some technical difficulties on my end which I feel somewhat responsible for. I foresaw almost exactly the issue we ended up having (We couldn't get my version of the Mentimeter, the administrator's screen, to show up on the board because the computer was signed in under Jay's name and wouldn't let anyone else's google account through, so I wasn't able to get into my Mentimeter account.) but figured I was just being anxious.

In retrospect, I wish I had stepped up beforehand and taken that extra 20 minutes to voice my concerns to the group and ensure that we were good to go.

In light of those difficulties, I still think we were able to adapt and make do and the rest of the presentation continued on as planned.

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Tech Tools Inventory and Evaluation:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1orECfpqMfDuWiM0Ggm3uU21bFMFwg_QWbVZh4jYzvQ8/edit?usp=sharing

To be honest, I'd never really used Google Sheets much before this. If we had been able to use any application, I probably would have created a bulleted list on Google Docs or a Google Slide with one slide per Tech Tool. That being said, I'm glad I got the opportunity to test out Sheets and I'm happy with how this turned out.

This is maybe a silly thing to be proud of but I'm very happy with how it looks. In my opinion, its very professional and database-y which should make it easy for me to return to in the future and to add to it as I go along and find more useful tools.

Course Content Library:

https://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/407568cf51fd432eb6807dcf44c9c592

This one maybe takes some explaining. About halfway through the semester, when I first started realizing just how far behind I was on certain assignments, I sort of panicked and decided I needed to take matters into my own hands to ensure I was up to date on and engaged with the different learning objectives listed for the class. To that end I began curating my own sort of small digital library with summaries and reflections on each.

I kept it up because I actually found it really fun and refreshing to do. Not only did it help reassure me, it also gave me a chance to play around with Mindomo which felt rewarding in its own right.

Ultimately when it came down to compiling this portfolio, I couldn't think of a better way to demonstrate engagement so it ended up helping me even more than I originally planned.

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Attached is a copy of the rubric for this course with my own self-reflections listed in column E for each criterion.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13VB2G95Ru-Mw0Jch6dcH8qo7mlEGOR3ss5i_gZvHDY0/edit?usp=sharing