Finishing production of the group project

 Hello, in todays blog post I am going to be going over the work that me and my group have been doing for our group project on the topic of  play, agency, and interactive narrative. At this stage in the project we are confident and excited to finish the project so we can see what the end product looks like. Each of us in the group have our strengths in certain areas in the project which helps us benefit off one another.

So far each of us have done extensive research into our topics and are able to confidently speak about them. We have been script writing our sections in the project that each of us are going to speak on and had to make sure that our scripts remain in the maximum that the video length can be.

Prior to this project most of us have had limited to no experience in video editing but through learning with tutorial videos and also through someone in our group who is experienced with video editing we have been able to learn the basics in order to make the video. We planned that our video wouldn't be too complicated to avoid us getting stuck or confused. We are using stock videos and also footage that we have captured ourselves in videogames to show examples while explaining them. We noticed the importance of having subtitles in our videos and have made sure to pick a font and colour that is easy to read. We also planned on adding copyright free music at a low volume in the background of our video that suits the topic that we are discussing.

To add more information on the topics that we discussed, we made a survey to compile information from people and what their opinions are on topics. The survey was a big success because we had so many different opinions and views on topics and unexpected majority votes we didn't expect.

This whole project has been a great learning process for everyone in our group as we all learned something new like for example someone in our group didn't have much experience with gaming but was able to learn about the topics quickly. Another example would be that we have been learning off one of our group members on editing. We also learned how critical it is to keep communicating with our group members often so that we can help and update each other on the progress that we have been doing in order to work more effectively. Group chats and voice calls were very effective for this.

Sources

- image by Canva studio - creative commons zero license - (link to image)

Peer review #2

Hello, for todays blog post I am going to be discussing my second peer review work. In this I will talk about the experience as a whole and what I have learned throughout the process and on the topic of peer feedback. Firstly I am going to discuss my thoughts before doing feedback and what my attitude is towards it now.

Prior to participating in peer feedback I always experienced it from getting feedback from my teachers. This kind of feedback can range from being very positive saying you did very well all the way to giving heavy criticism like telling you that your work is unacceptable which can give you low esteem.

When I heard that we were doing peer feedback in IDM I was initially worried because I thought that I would have to give in some cases negative criticism towards someone which I dont like doing because I have experienced  negative forms of criticism before and know that it can be a punch in the stomach sometimes. Luckily when I actually learned the process of giving peer feedback and making our own feedback comments on blogs I learned that criticism doesn't have to be condescending it can be constructive and used to help you build and improve on your current and future work.

When I give criticism I make sure that it is constructive so that people can build off their mistakes rather than receiving criticism that only offers criticism without ways of improving on it. 

Something that I really enjoyed about giving peer feedback is that when you look at multiple blogs on the same topics you can see the many approaches that people take and the techniques that they use. Another part that I enjoyed about peer feedback was getting feedback from others about my blog.  The feedback that I got back from my peers were constructive helping me to improve on my work.

When I am giving my peer feedback for blogs I try to put myself in the person that receives its shoes and think what I would like to hear for feedback. For myself I like to know what parts that I did well, parts I didn't do so well and what I can do to improve my work in future. I use this as a framework to make my feedback as useful as I can.

- Source

- The Power of Giving Feedback and Receiving Feedback in Peer Assessment, Volume 11, Number 2 Page1 by Lan Li and Valentina Grion.

Peer review 1

Peer review 2

The technological evolution of media

Hello, for todays blog I am going to be discussing the technological evolution of media that I have learned from watching some videos related to the topic. I will also be giving my own thoughts and opinions on the information that I learned.

The first video I watched was a  video called 'Technology Evolution | 100,000 BC - 2020' by WatchMedia showing various advances in technology and inventions from the very beginning of human existence, all the way up to the modern era. What I found interesting about this video is how quickly humans create and advance already existing technologies. For example in 1827 the first picture ever was taken and less than 100 years later the first television was invented which could broadcast live footage.

The second and third videos that I watched broke down the history of media itself from its invention, all the way up to the modern forms of media. These 2 videos were done by Crashcourse. As far back as ancient Greece philosophers like Plato gave his opinion on people writing things down they need to remember saying “If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls; they will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks. What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder." Plato (c. 429-347 B.C.E). I find this quote very fascinating because in the modern era this still applies for social media where  people can post something on the internet and can be found years later and can be used against you out of context. 

Another topic I found interesting is how the printing press and in the United States the Penny press had a big influence on the populace of the nation. An example would be when the USS Maine sank in 1898 outside Cuba which was a Spanish colony at the time. When this incident occurred an investigation was going to be carried out to find the reason the Maine sank but 2 days later the press made dramatic headlines suggesting that the Spanish were behind its sinking and showed illustrated images of men sinking with the ship. This caused tensions to rise to the point where war broke out between America and Spain. It is later thought that the probable cause of the sinking was ammunition catching fire onboard by mistake. This shows how powerful the influence of the press was at the time and how they rose tensions between 2 countries in order to get more papers sold. 

In the third video types of defensiveness's were discussed including cultural, political and moral. Cultural defensiveness is when certain media doesn't effect people from different cultures. Political defensiveness is when people need to be protected from false beliefs and ideologies. Moral defensiveness is where the effects of sex, violence and consumerism in media are the biggest concern.  

  

An interesting topic brought up is how famous people in media influence their followers. For example if a famous person smokes, maybe their followers will or if a famous person votes for a political party will their followers do the same?  Influence by media personalities in my opinion can be most seen in kids as they can be looked up to as role models.

Sources:

 - WatchMedia - Technology Evolution | 100,000 BC - 2020 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJM3yuIDDPQ

- CrashCourse - History of Media Literacy, Part 1: Crash Course Media Literacy #2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXf0F4GYzWQ&t=95s

- CrashCourse - History of Media Literacy, Part 2: Crash Course Media Literacy #3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iUjvNtgWAs&t=152s

- Image by Ola Dapo - Creative commons zero license - https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-wearing-black-headset-3345882/