The Visual Storytelling Unit made me think back to high school when I took photojournalism all four years. I have learned many of the techniques and methods that were explained throughout this unit, but have not thought about or implemented them since then. I worked on all four of my high school yearbooks and was editor on the last two, so it felt nice to get back into that creative mindset for this unit.
What Did I learn?
During this unit I learned a lot about how WordPress works and all of it’s different features. It is super simple to embed links, images, and videos into each post. I also learned, and am still learning, how to use these embeds of all forms of media to make my posts better and have them tell a better visual story. I also learned how to use Flickr and YouTube and all of the other socials that we are required to integrate. I have never had a reason to post to anything before this class so figuring all of this stuff out is new to me.
What Was Harder Than Expected?
Getting back into the creative mindset had proven to be the most challenging thing for me so far. I have not had to do anything creative since the yearbooks in high school. Since then my life has mostly consisted of making a product to specific requirements, no. There is no room for creativity. Having to take the requirements of these assignments and interpret them to be able to make something creative that still follows those requirements has been the most difficult thing about the assignment. Coming up with the ideas for the photo blitz assignment was challenging because I had trouble finding things that would fit the requirements.
What Was Easier Than Expected?
Learning how to use WordPress was actually quite simple after figuring out where all of the features were and how they worked. They make it easy to create, edit, and organize all of the posts and features within the posts themselves. I also found it easier to integrate all of the socials and media from them into the posts than I was originally expecting. I was thinking that I was going to have a difficult time with that.
What Was Frustrating?
Really the only frustrating thing about this unit was that the instructions were somewhat all over the place. I had trouble finding specific instructions on the Draw-It assignment in particular. In the canvas assignment, the instruction says, “At least one piece of supporting media you did not create (image, video, sound”, but then under it says, “do not need to create”, which makes it seem like it could be something that I made or something someone else made. There is also a link to other instructions for the Draw-It assignment that are different that what is on canvas. The instructions for part 3 in general were confusing to me. The star system, the instructions on the assignment website, and the canvas instructions combined made part 3 frustrating. The Rubric for the assignment is also confusing because it is worded as only one blog post with one set of requirements is being grated, when There are over 6 posts that were a part of this unit.
What Did I Enjoy?
I enjoyed being able to make all of these different forms of visual media and put them in a place where I can go back and look at any time. I am trying to find things that I enjoy doing while also completing the assignment requirements. I enjoy how I can make this class personalized and focus the content on topics that I actually like while still learning and implementing the core concepts of the course.
Leave a Reply