Friday, November 13, 2015

Week 12 E-Books || Gifs|| Digital Storytelling/Poetry || Online Comics

Well, after my daughter (20 years old) died laughing when I asked her what G-I-F-S were, and she corrected me, and told me, it was not pronounced in separate letters, I too had to laugh too.  The gap between those in-the-know and those not-in-the know regarding the latest modes of expressions and cultural understandings is widening faster than I feel I can catch up at times.  Although I have seen more Gifs than I can count on her text messages, I didn’t know there was a special term for them.  Go figure…this is part of our new world of communication and expressions. Jacqueline, you had it pegged correctly when you said that Gifs are one of the most popular trends for those in their 20’s to use to communicate.  But, I’m slowly getting it…



DIY E-Books-Bridget Dalton

This article is another representation of how our world is changing in how we share information, learning, and modes of communication.  This article discusses how inexpensive technology is enabling more and more people to create Do It Yourself (DIY) projects.  One of the do-it-yourself projects they discuss in detail is the Book Builder Project.  It is an e-book authoring tool that allows the author to embed multimedia aides for fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension within the digital text.
Avatars annotate and give tips to readers from the sidelines, and book pages are animated to reflect the meaning and colorful images set forth by the author.  The author of books is no longer a spot reserved for the professional writers that must yield to an editor or publisher.  Books can be written and circulated free of charge through the Book Builder Project where many would-be professional writers have the ability and tools to express their knowledge, and use their creativity to produce e-books for many to share and enjoy.
New and exciting for readers, are digital e-books that bring life to the characters bringing a different dimension to the art of storytelling as shown in the new digital Harry Potter books soon to be released.


Now, here is a cool site! 

Hello Poetry  is a site that Jacqueline suggested I look at.  As I was reading the poems posted, I notice one was posted 1 minute ago, 6 minutes ago, 16 minutes ago.  As the reader I am reading one’s heart felt words in real time.  For someone that has experience poetry from pages of print, it is so wonderful to read all the different constructions of people’s expressions.  Somehow knowing that they have just posted their “work” makes me have a stronger connection with their poetry.  Does that make sense to anyone else? 


Let’s breathe every day
In hopes to truncate the
Unpleasantries of every single day,
Whimsical dramas that sprinkle
Dramatic petty bulls
Let’s close our eyes
And cool away from all the fools
And release the hidden tension
And give our minds a touch of yoga's cool 

Yoga for a third eye
The invisible light only we can find
Stretch the spirit for clarity 
And bring the yoga mind to a sheep animation
Like soft infinite clouds
To achieve the yoga dream 
Align synchronicity with the body, heart and mind
Like long, curious roots to the deepest earth
Activate the yoga limbs
And bring ourselves to a spiritual world we haven't been

Hum in yoga silence
And dance as a pair with the yoga light
Let the yoga invigoration takeover
And allow ourselves to laugh at life
Let the yoga spirit rise
Tomorrow, we start clean and anew
Today, we can let light and clarity become our finest tool


Last, but certainly not least—the graphic comic books and graphic books that have become so incredibly popular amongst young readers.  I remember reading Archie as a young person.  I used to think Veronica was so pretty, and couldn’t wait to buy the new comic book when it came out.  























Today, like yesterday or yesteryear---it seems to be the comic heroes that bring in the big bucks in comic books, such as, X-Men, Batman, Spiderman, among others.


Wherever our new literacy journey takes us, it seems it will include, color, lots of images, audio, and a lot of personal expression to communicate messages.  Thanks Jacqueline for having us stretch a bit out of our comfort zone. 

13 comments:

  1. First of all, contrasts on the success of putting the moving GIF! :) You leveled up indeed Barbara. Actually, we all did level up lol. I'm really glad you made it by getting through all the efforts. :)

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  2. Thanks to you my friend! I learned a lot in this week's posting. My head hurts so much right now (in a good way) I can't articulate all of it, but thanks to my blog group for challenging me and supporting me through my trials with embedding technology into my practices.

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    1. As Dr. Beach said yesterday, we all deserve a BIG glass of an adult beverage and the rest of the weekend away from schoolwork!

      Love the moving GIF! Thank goodness we can google "How to... in Blogger" at any time of day or night! (although I get the feeling from previous correspondence that the three of you have similar hours as I do... as in the "wee hours of the night")

      We had an interesting conversation about graphic novels and comics in ProSem when Dr. Hill came in to talk to us. He does a lot of work with Young Adult literature, and much of what he said opened my eyes (and brain) to the value of graphic novels and comics. He suggested that I check out “Mouse,” a comic book that tells the story of the narrator’s fathers’ experience in Auschwitz. So it's on my list of things to do over Christmas break.

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  3. Oh, so here's a shortcut on all the new terms. GIF is actually the file type, as I'm sure you saw: e.g., dance.gif. So when someone says a jpeg or a ping or an mp3, they're actually saying the file type extension as the name of the medium -- and considering gifs are so unique as far as all of this goes, jpegs and pings are usually just called images, and mp3s are called music files; but gifs are gifs.

    I'm so glad you liked Hello Poetry. I've had fun going through it all myself. (Try checking out some spoken word poetry on YouTube sometime. Very powerful.)

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    1. What makes this type of communication so unique is the experiences you have interacting with people that have varied interests and talents. I have learned a lot this semester from the latest acronyms that exist in "digital land", and the many sites that exist out in cyber space that reflect many types of personal expressions.

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    2. So I'm letting all of that sink in Jacqueline... It may take a while. lol

      Hello Poetry is very cool. I have had a few outstanding poets in my classes over the years. It makes me wonder if there are any sites like HP that are exclusive to kids, where I wouldn't need to be concerned about what content they might see in other people's poems or comments. If not, there should be...

      When I taught in Hawaii (many moons ago), there was a big "Slam Poetry" movement. We had guest poets come in to our school and help the kids work through a unit. It was so awesome to see some of our more reserved kids find their voice through that process. It didn't necessarily transfer outside of the poetry for all of them, but it gave them an outlet, a place where they could speak confidently about whatever they wanted. It was, without a doubt, one of the BEST units I've ever experienced in a ll my years of teaching.

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    3. "...but it gave them an outlet, a place where they could speak confidently whatever they wanted." I really like this phrase. Yeah, which might be one of the meaningful points of "creating." Outlet means also "inlet" because at the moment they pour out their works - the works become public to receive others' ideas on them. I may introduce Hello Poetry to my students for that purpose as well.

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  4. Great info, thanks Jackie! :) BTW, I love Hello Poetry as well. I was writing a poem in my brain right after visiting the site. I will give my poem to them so that they will review mine and give me the access. Have you posted any poems there? I strongly think so, but just curious. (Would you like to share yours here??) :)

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    1. You should post! It works like social media for poets so you can follow your favorites and see other similar work you may like and get inspired.

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    2. I have posted there. I post under Phoenexx. I post rarely because I'm so picky about my work but I would prefer to post them publicly for free like that rather than publish. Poetry is meant to be shared, not sold, IMHO.

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  6. Cool! I want to see you poems later. I wrote a poem about my son a year ago in my language, I will translate it and post there. Btw, I really like your comment about the sharing concept, rather than selling, in terms of poetry. Love it.

    And thanks for letting me know the IMHO. I learn every day. This is one of the big advantages of blogging IMHO. :)

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