DIGITAL STORY Richard M. Cano

CARTOON ANIMATION Richard M. Cano

The New and The Old

https://plotagon.com/6146

VISUALIZING DATA FOR FOCUS Richard M. Cano

Download from Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3_617gZc8z9MFB1ejJ0QTgxczA/edit?usp=sharing

Information Graphic

I think that the best way to go about creating information graphics that show people technological convergence is to shock them by showing old media being used as if it were new media. Having old media used as new media is an instant eye-catcher. In addition, this concept depicts how far digital media has come in changing old media into what it has come to be now in the present. There are many examples that can be converted into this type of information graphic. One idea that comes to mind is of a digital native swiping an old tube television and switching channels as if it were a tablet viewing video. Another idea can be a picture of an adult lounging on a sofa and texting on an old rotary phone. I believe that these images can both show technological convergence while at the same time shock its viewers into realizing how far this convergence has come.

Animated Graphic

There are various types of animated graphics, but I’d like to think of a commercial that can show how fast technological convergence is happening. I believe that a commercial will show that there is a convergence happening and that it has been happening for some time. A commercial is also something that people can relate to, and a commercial is a good way to show people that they need to buy into something. Commercials come in many forms, including comedy, popularity, shock, etc.; I think that comedy can best describe how fast technology is converging. One possibility is to show a person receiving the latest cell phone only to find out moments later that another person has just received a discount on a cell phone that about which there has been rumors. Furthermore, this sort of commercial will make people realize that there are certain products that get upgraded periodically by companies and, therefore, people will realize that convergence is not only for profit by companies but a thing that is furthering technology. I think that showing a commercial is the best way to show technological convergence through an animated graphic to get individuals to think about how fast technological convergence is happening and to get individuals to relate to such changes.

Interactive Graphic

As a web designer, I am an advocate for websites and their power in conveying information. Websites have the ability to show a concept and categorize its aspects in an organized manner. They can also include video, images, animation, and sound. I would use a website to convey a message about technological convergence and its rapid maturity. This website could possibly contain the commercial as well as some information graphic images. It could also contain an interactive timeline of some of the major events in technological convergence. Websites can be an interactive way to portray a message by using video, images, animation, and sound, especially when delivering a message about technological convergence.

VIDEO CLIP AND LEARNING CONTEXT Richard M. Cano

Technological Convergence

According to wiseGEEK, “Technological convergence is the process by which existing technologies merge into new forms that bring together different types of media and applications.” This video can be used to show how technology has changed things like communication, hardware, and entertainment. Some questions could be asked about technological convergence such as, “What are the driving forces that push technology to advance itself and converge into different forms of technology? What other technological convergence do you see on a daily basis that was not shown in the video?”

This video on technology convergence shows how technology is changing our world and advancing our capabilities. It also shows how people and organizations are changing the way they accomplish things such as advertising. There is, however, an underlying message of which we should be aware, if not wary. This video begins with this message in mind by asking “Are you ready for the future?”

This video forces a discussion about how much convergence is too much convergence. In the video, many niceties are depicted as to technological convergence to the point that the year 2025 doesn’t seem like an impossibility to have nanotechnology implanted within our blood cells. However, this may be pushing it too far. I believe that a great conversation over technological convergence would be to enlighten ourselves as to whether or not this is convergence or simply technology taking over so to speak.

wiseGEEK. What is technological convergence? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-technological-convergence.htm

DIGITAL STORYTELLING OUTLINE Richard M. Cano

Digital Storyline One: Convergence and the Digital Immigrant

The traditional and the digital are coming together in a convergence that impacts everyone. Technology has found a way to make our lives easier by converging itself into traditional forms of accomplishing tasks. Even though technology has made our lives easier, there are still some who struggle with the newer forms of digital media. It is important that we understand this fact and try to realize where we fall short as a society.

One way to depict this convergence is to show how it is happening in the here-and-now. Many people don’t notice how this is happening, and go about their lives using digital media in place of more traditional approaches. Showing these against the more traditional approaches can create a dynamic that will enlighten if not stun viewers. Some examples are traditional phones against cell phones, a billboard versus the new electronic signs, and watching television versus watching online movies.

A good way to demonstrate how this convergence is taking place is to interview a digital immigrant, one who still struggles with the adaptation of digital media. Portraying the struggles that a digital immigrant has with these types of technology will help us to understand how digital media has evolved. It will also help in understanding how digital media looks and feels to a digital immigrant, furthering our understanding of the struggles with the convergence.

Portraying the dynamic between traditional and newer media is a good way to enlighten the audience as to the convergence of these two forms of media; furthermore, interviewing a digital immigrant can help us understand the trouble that comes with this convergence.

Digital Storyline 2: Digital Media and its Significant History

Digital media, since its emergence, has had many significant events that have transformed it into what it has now become. Email was part of a government project that evolved into an everyday use for everybody. The Internet helped email and propelled information into a giant resource of vast knowledge. Google and other search engines found a way to quickly query this information for us to have at their fingertips. Social media has evolved to extend our communities past physical bounds. Digital media has become something grand and needs to be shown as an evolution, with certain events happening in linear time.

Images of technology pertaining to certain historical events can be shown in a linear passage of time, from when media was more separated to the present day, in an attempt to describe the progression of technology against traditional media and their convergence. I believe that email is a great way to start this progression; in addition, showing how the Internet evolved from the basic structure of the Intranet would be a great secondary position. Other developments might include the cell phone that propelled pads, readers, and eventually the computer/pad. Showing technology this way will set up an interview processes with questions developed from the interviewee.

Interviewing a digital native, who might not know of this progression, would decipher areas that need to be explained further so that other digital natives can know how the newer technology has matured. For instance, many digital natives may not know about car phones and how prior to cell phones they would literally be plugged into cars with a cord. They may not know that search engines had not been developed at some point; the web URL had to be entered into the address bar directly in order to reach a website. Similar developments may be unknown to a digital native, and it is important for them to understand that digital technology is every-changing, that what they know today may be completely different in the future.

Showing the developmental progression of digital technology can have an impact on digital natives; digital natives may in turn have questions about its history that they did not know. It is important for these digital natives to understand that, even the technology used today, technology is every-changing and will probably change in the future.

VIDEO SLIDESHOW Richard M. Cano

SCREEN STRUCTURE IMAGES Richard M. Cano

RSS HOMEPAGE AND ALERTS Richard M. Cano: Protopage

http://www.protopage.com/socmultimedia

Protopage is an online RSS Reader that allows you to keep all of your RSS  feeds in one place. It is hosted on the cloud, so you can access all of these feeds from different mobile devices. The link above is an example of a Protopage Homepage; this is my homepage. In addition, I have created Google Alerts for similar interests as those in my Protopage Homepage.

Here is a list of those alerts:

Communication Social Media Research	Only the best results	Once a day
Media Design Tutorials	Only the best results	Once a week
Photoshop Photography Design Tutorials	Only the best results	Once a day
Social Media Boundary Management	Only the best results	Once a day
Web Design Tutorials	Only the best results	Once a week

 

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING Richard M. Cano: Delicious

https://delicious.com/rmcutsa

Delicious is a social bookmarking website that allows you to save all the links that interest you in one place. You have a home page with all the links listed. You can search through your links or filter them by keywords that you assign to them. You can even discover links and create relationships with other people. You can use their links as your own or you can search their links.There is even a feature that allows you to connect to your other social media profiles and even share your links through them. Perhaps the most fascinating feature is that it is hosted on the cloud, meaning, you will always have access to them via all of you Internet enabled multimedia devices.

Exploring Online Content of Sociological Relevance

The topics in the list of sociology topics range from the basic concepts of sociology to particular and very specific topics such as racism and family inequality. The topics varied into feminist argument for women in the family to racist ads that portray Harriet Tubman on a Google Doodle. There was a Native American ad that was to run during the Super Bowl that was criticized. This ad symbolized what many of my Native American friends (who prefer to be called indigenous) fight against in search of respect of their identity. So, I do believe that the study of sociology reaches many areas of life, if not all. I did, however, see a lot of topics in the list that had to do with culture and finding identity, another one of the topics that I am very interested in my research area.

I was particularly interested in Teaching with Data. I found it fascinating how the issues that were portrayed on this Facebook page are closely related to the issues that we find in offline life: Right-wing politics and argumentation, Obama’s State of the Union address, Economics, and inequality. The subject matter was very vast, but I did see it all relevant to teaching with and through digital media. I’m glad that I stumbled on this page that is essentially a support group for learning how to teach through multimedia.

Online Multimedia System

My primary reaction to collecting information online is to search key terms and remember what the website looks like so that I can search the exact terms and fins the information again. After reading through Miller (2011), I think that I will be using social bookmarking to keep websites at hand and on the cloud. I think the many tools available make it easier on student collaboration because everything is located on the cloud. It’s interesting how students are capable of engaging various types of media, but seldom do use them, utilizing only Facebook and texting. I believe that Miller had many good ideas as to coherently devise a system of information management.

It is important devise such a strategy to manage information gained online. In order for students to get the most out of multimedia, they need to be immersed in multimedia; they need to know how to use multimedia, and this only comes with using it. The old adage “Practice makes perfect” is applicable in this case. To devise a strategy, it is important to know media and especially how to use it in order to be effective. Social bookmarking is by far a good way of linking to websites where information has been found. Having all of the information in one location where all that needs to be done is click a link makes things faster and more efficient. Also, the links are located online, so there is no danger in losing them and they can be accessed through multiple media devices. I enjoyed the idea of concept-mapping; I’ve used similar software and these software help in decision making as well as thought stimulation. It is indeed essential to conceptualize how all of this raw information gathered through social bookmarking is to be used. Without this step, the information within the bookmarked URLs is essentially useless.

I would definitely use short videos from YouTube for demonstration purposes. These short videos are a great way to demonstrate how something works or, especially in my line of work, how something should proceed and the process associated with certain tasks. Documentaries are a great source of information about specialized topics. For instructional use, I would use something like having information on a topic socially bookmarked, show to students a video that is in the form of a documentary, and have the student’s view short videos out of class. This is indeed a rich-media mix. In addition, I might use interactive slide shows or a sophisticated digital story.

My Online Life

There are many ways that technology and the Internet have affected my life. One of these major ways is that I always have a sense of connectedness. I feel especially connected with my family and friends; at a moment’s notice, I can relay information to a number of people and gain information about what they are doing or feeling through the use of social media. I also feel more connected to the world, and this aids me in finding solutions to problems, in finding information that I need or want, and in finding anything and everything that is asked of me. I argue that digital technologies have changed who I am over the course of its existence with me. I do find myself checking multiple things on my phone. I also have multiple devices that I check at the same time. I learned these new forms of digital media as they were introduced into society. For these reasons, I would consider myself Marc Prensky’s digital native. I used to program on an apple computer possibly before the Macintosh was introduced. I learned how to use a typewriter simultaneously to learning how to write with a pencil. I still remember the day that computers were introduced to my fourth-grade class.

The two documentaries, Rachel Dretzin’s Growing Up Online and Douglas Rushkoff and Rachel Dretzin’s Digital Nation, raise a lot of questions, especially some pertaining to those growing up as a digital native. I especially liked the idea that, somewhere along the way, there was a shift in ownership of the Internet from adults to teenagers. Teenagers have changed digital media to something that is a part of our everyday lives. In today’s society, you need to have the Internet on to talk to friends or else you cease to be in the loop; Digital Nation alludes to this theme with the idea that we have to keep up or we get left behind.

The education system has to be interactive in order for these new “humans” to learn; I honestly don’t believe that the traditional method of teaching will work, especially if digital media is taken out of the classroom. Yes, the educators need to cut through media and get their students’ attention to be a successful educator. Even there are more students who struggle with the ability to focus than there were thirty years ago, these students can accomplish working tasks that would take workers with years of experience twice as long to accomplish; in this sense, teaching students to multitask is important for their future jobs. I can sympathize with the motion to teach children how to use digital media; then, may be instant gratification would not be seen as negative. Teachers need to know how to use digital media and navigate the attention span of the student towards that digital media.

Digital media sites are what we think of as adolescent’s identities. It is a place for them to try things out. It’s harder to get into their personal belongings online than they were to get them offline. Another idea that resonated with me was the fact that teenagers ask, “Why tell my parents when I have the whole world to talk to?” With teenagers thinking this way, I don’t believe that neuroscience is the best way to figure out what is going on with individuals who multitask and digital media users. Figuring this out would also require scholars to determine the definitions of both multitask and distraction. However, I do agree that we should all be asking, “What is technology doing to us?”