Andrea Loves Memphis

Andrea Loves Memphis
Originally uploaded by ilovememphis

Thanks to Kerry at ilovememphis.com--if you are a Memphian, and want your picture made, contact her. I feel famous.

Did you Know 4.0?

Updated version of "Shift Happens."

SLED Meetup

After looking at the SLED calendar, I decided to join the ISTE Island social. After finding Cheryl and Julie, I was told that the event was cancelled--so we had our own social hour! We were joined by Elizabeth, and we had some help by a moderator due to our audio problems--some of us echoed, or we couldn't hear each other. It was fun! We talked about our project, Second Life, and got to know each other better.  I hope to join a "real" SLED event in the future. 

Audio Embed/Embed Thoughts

I finally got my .mp3 example uploaded to Soundboard, and here it is:

Push Play! I created this Podcast in the fall of 2006 when I taught Computer Applications to freshman, and this was my example on making a podcast...I wish I had a theme or concept with all three media files, but due to time constraints, and what I had already, these three will have to do!

I found that embedding the video and photo were the easiest to do--YouTube and Flickr are very embed friendly:) I used Flickrslidr to help generate the photo embed code. My audio problems were that I have many Quicktime files(.mov) that I had to convert to .mp3's by a leapfrogging process--upload the .mov file through Quicktime Pro, convert it to a .wav, import to Audacity(another audio file maker app), and then export it as a .mp3...ugh. A lovely 15 minutes spent. Inserting all three files into Blogger was a piece of cake, and surprisingly, so was to my CMSimple site.

About Me Video

Example of Video embedding...

Flickr Photostream

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

After watching the video below, I am again impressed with Michael Wesch and his students. I can actually remember sitting at my desk at my campus job in college on April 3rd, 2005 and reading on CNN about this new website launch called YouTube--funny the things you remember, yet I can't find my keys daily. I liked hearing his points regarding YouTube-how it creates a new type of platform of creativity and communication(everyone can now join and participate); that the "Numa Numa" video craze wasn't about mocking a guy in his basement, but venerating him, by documenting your own version of the song, copying him, and sending it to your friends, and they join in; and that anyone has a voice, a presence, and an opportunity for new possibilities. He discusses the variety of videos--from home videos(Charlie Bit Me!), to Soulja Boy's user created dance moves that became a Billboard hit and played at every school dance or radio station, to how YouTubers are using the site for their own personal blog or "vlog." It was impressive to hear the stats on his "Machine is Us/ing Us" video, and amount of buzz it generated over that Superbowl weekend-a slim 250 viewers grew to millions by that Sunday.

Yet, YouTube has created a culture of disconnect, and a desire to communicate. We see this in almost every web 2.0 application, especially with Twitter and Facebook. Not to digress from the topic, but people follow others on Twitter that I can guarantee will never meet in real life(unless it truly is a friend or family member), and honestly, I "friend" many folks on Facebook these days just to keep tabs(as opposed to four years ago when I signed up as a way to stay connected...well, I still have those feelings, too. It's a mix!). YouTube, as Michael Wesch said "is an integrated mediascape." It increases the individuality, yet we long for a community. 

For our class, I think this rings true--we all live scattered either across North Carolina, or like me, I live in Tennessee-not close at all. Many of the professors in this grad program live on a completely different continent. I probably will never meet them in real life, unless they journey to Boone for graduation. Yet, we create content to be viewed by classmates, have online chat sessions(either via a chat program, like Skype), use Skype to have verbal conversations, meet in Second Life, post questions and comments in a forum, design a website to be viewed and critiqued, or just email back and forth. We want the communication gap to be smaller, too.  This class is chipping away at this user generated organization/distribution/commentary block just nicely:)