(S)howed my process - One of my learning goals for this semester was to "holistically explore the variety of mediums presented throughout the course with an open and inquisitive mind," and I believe that I have certainly accomplished this in the semester. I approached each medium expecting to either gain something for my personal art practice, or at the very least, learn enough about the medium to be able to incorporate it into a lesson plan sometime in the future. While there were certainly challenging units along the way, for every medium, I certainly gained one of these things. This process of total exploration was something that I took very seriously, and I believe that it paid dividends. When scrolling back through my blog, I couldn't help but be proud to witness the progression between what I knew about digital media, and what I know now.
(E)xplained my outcome - Another one of my learning goals for the semester was to "learn the ways in which technology and digital multimedia can be used to stimulate creativity and exploration, while also reinforcing learning," and I think this goal was also met through the extensive reflections that were demanded throughout the course. Not only were we challenged to create in entirely new ways, but we were also challenged to think critically about our outcomes, explain them, and articulate possible strengths and weaknesses. Exercises such as these helped to reinforce what we were learning, and expand our realms of knowledge into a more complete understanding of the mediums we were working with. One recent and fantastic example of this was the circuitry unit. For this project, not only were we asked to create a simple circuit, but were were also asked to make an instructable for it--meaning that we had to have a thorough understanding of precisely how a circuit is setup, and how it operates. While this is only one instance, it serves to illustrate how these projects stimulated our creative minds, while also supplementing our exploration with true learning.
(L)inked to vocabulary - Another goal of mine was to "to learn about the manner in which technology and digital multimedia are working to reshape the traditional landscape of art," and this goal was accomplished as well. One of the things that was handled amazingly in this course were the readings--the loads were light and not heavily emphasized, yet still important and impactful. Furthermore, it was in the readings that this goal was accomplished. The readings taught me all about the "maker movement" in society, the new and transformative curriculums of "tinkering," and even the manner in which the digital world serves as break in time. All of these things are drastically working to reshape the traditional landscape of art, and even society abroad, so having learned them will undoubtedly be of use to me in my future practice. It also doesn't hurt to have digital technology-based vocabulary in my repertoire.
(F)ound multiple possibilities - One of my more personal goals for the semester was to "refine my own personal vision for an 'Education Through Multimedia Creation' curriculum at the secondary level," and while my vision for this curriculum was indeed refined, I also found that there are more possibilities than I ever even considered. Coming into the course, I envisioned "Education Through Multimedia Creation" as a curriculum that would exclusively operate in the realms of my own expertise, i.e. video/film, animation, graphic design, etc. However, now I realize that perhaps "multimedia creation" should mean precisely what it suggests--the creation of multiple forms of media! This course taught me that there's so many types of digital multimedia that can be encompassed in the culture of art making and creation (forms that I wasn't even aware of). Of the many forms we explored, a few that I particularly enjoyed and would love to use in my future curriculum are sound, scanography, stop-motion animation, scratch, and tinkercad.
(I) persevered through the work - Of course, this semester had its fair share of challenges, but I ultimately believe that I handled each to the best of my ability. It has never been particularly difficult for me to persevere through adversity, however this semester I was tested in new and unimaginable ways. One of the roughest units for me was the laser cutting unit, and this is primarily because I hate working with mediums that are completely out of my control. The laser cutter is largely reliant on strict technicalities; there is a certain formula of inputs that must be properly entered into the system dialogue to produce the desired effect, and at a certain point this became very overwhelming for me. Regardless, I pushed myself to keep working at it because I had a vision for the project I wanted to create (the "Toon Cube" displayed in 10.1) and I was determined to see it through. Eventually, it turned out for the best and ended up being an extremely valuable lesson in patience, which helped to alleviate possible frustrations in later units (circuitry).
(E)liminated carelessness - Carelessness is typically not a concern of mine, especially in regard to my own art, however, the blogging format definitely helped to remove any lingering carelessness I may have otherwise exhibited in my work. With blogs, all of our classwork throughout the course is public and thus open to the scrutiny of our peers (and maybe even the general public, depending on blog restriction settings). For me, this meant that I would put extra effort into my work to ensure that it was of the best quality before going on the blog site. Though our blog sites were simply an innovative means of uploading our homework assignments, in a sense, I came to value my site as though it was an actual blog. Thus, I felt that only the best was worthy of an upload.
The potential of using technology-infused materials for art making and classrooms - As alluded to earlier, part of my vision for education is an "Education Through Multimedia Creation" curriculum that revolves around technology-infused materials such as the ones explored in New Media, New Forms. Thus, I believe that these materials have immense potential, for both art making and classrooms; in them lies the possibility to unlock new frontiers of creativity, innovation, and discovery. These mediums will challenge students in ways that they have never been challenged, and push them into territories previously unchartered!
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