Writing For Multimedia And The Web - Reflection Week 14

Finally,


 


After 14 long weeks, we've finally reached the end of our journey. This week is the last week of class, which can only mean that this will be the last reflection for Writing for Multimedia And the Web.

This week, we resumed and finished the presentations for our digital storytelling. Up first is Hasnol's, Syarafuddin's, Shahril's and Lachvini's group. Their story, titled "Revenge" is a pretty typical story, however, with a very dark, unexpected twist. Basically, it's about a delinquent and how he changed to the better. I don't want to spoil too much, or rather I don't know I don't know how to convey the story to you because the plot is really complicated full of twists and turns, but the ending was really unexpected! unfortunately, they have not made the video available for the public but here are some screenshots from their video:

Next was Puteri, Insyirah, Syazwani and Umil's group's turn to present their video. Their video was titled "Froggy Tales". They really thought out of the box for their story. They made an animation and their style was very fun, colorful and whimsical. It is apparent that this video was made with appealing to children in mind, with animals as main charcaters. They also have not made their video public and this one image was the only image I managed to find of the video, courtesy of Puteri's blog.

And finally, it was my group's turn. There is a certain expectancy of being the last group to present. We are after all, not just the closing act for the day, but also for the whole course for the semester. To tell you the truth, I was worried that our video wouldn't be up to everyone's liking, since we had a lot of trouble for the particular project and had to rush a bit to finish it in time. The feedback was rather surprising, since everyone responded rather positively to our video. It was relief to say the least, especially so when Ms Amreet herself applauded our attempt. Here's a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHPWGPZwRJg&list=UUqv_vV5BQ4ZCVHWUkU7sFBg

And that is it for the presentations. After all that, Ms Amreet gave a talk on how she felt teaching us this whole 14 weeks. I would like her to know that we generally feel the same way, this class has been fun and informative, and it was possible because we had her as our lecturer. I''ve really gained a lot from these past 14 weeks, and all the assignments I've done so far under this course has really improved my knowledge and ability to use multimedia and the web as a medium for writing.

We had a good run, let's hope one day we will be able to relieve moments like this. Untill then, farewell.

Writing For Multimedia And The Web - Reflection Week 13

So it's week 13!

" Wait a minute, wasn't the last post from week 11, where's week 12's reflection? I knew it! I knew you were a lazy, lackadaisical blogger who carelessly think's his readers won't notice such shiftless attitude!"

Now let me explain, imaginary, emotionally-turbulent loyal fan of my blog from week 9's reflection, there was no class for week 12 to make way for Malaysia's 57th Independence Day. And thus to everyone I would like to wish Happy Independence Day!

Forever proud to be Malaysian

 And so, class resumed on week 13, only one more week left to go. This week was again, presentation week, However this time, we will be presenting on our digital stories. The first group to present was Calvin, Wafa, Jayson and Sue Chin's group. They did a story about friendship, and they're video was very interesting. They made an animation using Powtoon if I'm not mistaken (maybe it was not Powtoon, I'm not good at identifying these animations software. *Update: They actually used GoAnimate). I myself wanted to make an animation for my group's story, but it was too hard for us, so I really applaud them for making a well-produced video on that medium. Here's an embedded video of their story:

The next video was by Geeta, Yarminee, Sharveena and Wardah. It was titled " I too can survive". It was about a girl who was not doing well in her studies and was rather indifferent towards it at first, prompting her mother to confiscate her belongings to urge her to study. But with the help of a friend, she managed to turn a new leaf and be successful. It was your typical heart-warming, underdog story, and I must say I was blown away by some of their acting performance. Below is their video:

The next group, made up by Musliha, Amira, Aidawate and Fatin Syamimi presented a story titled " A Secret Place".

Their story was quite similar to the first group's story. Basically, four friends got into a conflict which resulted in one of them being ostracized by the others. Later, that friend died, and it was found out that she always had a heart of gold and was planning something nice for her friends before she died. I guess the lesson to be learned is that you won't appreciate something precious until it's gone, and for me, that lesson cuts deep. Anyways, good job for everyone, your stories were very entertaining and full of valuable lessons to be taken in.

Writing For Multimedia And The Web - Reflection Week 11

To describe this week. It was..

Was it the same with anyone else? No, no one? Well, it was intense for me.

So, this week, Ms Amreet wanted to review everyone's blog in front of class. At the first mention of this I decided to react by being staggered on my seat and sweating profusely. I wasn't prepared to have this blog evaluated in front of everyone! Sure, basically anyone can open up this blog, but having people read your blog on their own time and space is very different than having everyone reviewing and nit-pick on your blog in your own presence.

I quickly logged in and review the blog dozens of time myself even though there was nothing wrong with it. Watching as she went through each link and getting closer and closer to the link to my blog was intense. Then finally...

I watched as she clicked on the link to my blog. Unfortunately, my blog decided to start off with a rather depressing song, even though there were many more other uplifting songs it could have played (my playlist was on random). And the song was 8 minutes long, so it played throughout the whole evaluation. Ms Amreet even noted on how the song was making her sad, and I was on my seat being all like..

As she peered through the content of my blog, she noticed how it was lacking any images and pictures. To be honest I did use pictures.... three pictures total for the whole blog. But I could see her point. My blog was too wordy and it was hard to maintain interest when there's a sea of words on your screen. She advised me to add more pictures to my blog and to change the soundtrack to a more uplifting track. And thus, she proceeded to review another person's blog, much to my relief.

me after the evaluation

In the end, the evaluation was actually very beneficial and gave me valuable input on how to improve this blog. I got rid of the sad song from my soundtrack and put in a whole lot more pictures and images in my posts. Though now looking back at this particular post, I think I might be abusing the need to put in more pictures in my blog.... But, oh well, the first failings are the beginnings of future successes.

Writing For Multimedia And The Web - Reflection Week 10

So, it's week 10

Another milestone reached! Who knew I'd have the persistence to keep on blogging for ten weeks. I certainly didn't.

So for this week's class, we learned about the " Best Practices for Writing in the Web ". Basically a guide for what to and what not to do when writing for the web. The topic touched on things like writing succinctly and not getting too creative when writing. I was rather shocked when the lecturer said to not use words from other languages in your writing, like French or Spanish since, well....

... * cough! cough!.....

I did consulted with Ms. Amreet, and apparently what i wrote was still appropriate for the assignment since it is a semi-casual blog. Though, I do wonder what I would have done if I was not aware of the limitations. Perhaps this whole blog would have been written in broken, butchered amateur French!

Aside from that, we learned how organize the content in our blogs into nice lists and bulletted paragraphs so it'll appear more kempt and clean-cut. It is important to do all of this so our readers would be more interested into reading our blogs and so that they can clearly identify the information and message we, as the blog writers are trying to convey.

As for the consultation session, I used the time to polish and fine-tune my homepage website. I was very satisfied with what me and my partner had achieved with our homepage. Others took the more flamboyant and extravagant route  to their web designs. I prefer minimalist and conservative design, and it's a good thing my partner share these traits. 

Writing For Multimedia And The Web - Reflection Week 9

It's week 9! I'm running out of ideas on how to start these reflections. Routine is the killer of ingenuity it seems.

 So, this week, we're focusing on the writing styles. "Wait!" you say, "Isn't this what you wrote last week? Oh, So you're rehashing things you've already said? I knew it! I knew you were a cheap, decrepit blogger.!"

Hold your horses now, imaginary loyal fan of my blog, this time is about writing styles in academic websites. Very different things. How you say? Well as you might know, when it comes to academic writing, you need to be more concise, it needs to be veritable. So you need references, you need to implement the various styles of citation like APA and MLA to name a few.

The style of writing itself needs to be more straight forward. You can not be rhetoric or allegoric. And of course, for an informal website, you'd want the writing to be clear, the delivery of the information needs to be clear as to reduce misinformation. It was a very good lecture actually, seeing as I have ambitions in journalism and writing. so this could serve me well in the future.

Other than that, my group and I consulted with Miss Amreet for our digital storytelling assignment. She green lighted the ideas that we have, basically the plot of the story, the theme and whatnot. I guess now, we'll be looking forward on making the actual story itself.

A little teaser