The Use of Reflective Journals

1)
-to record experience
-to develop learning in ways that enhance other learning
-to deepen quality of learning in the form of critical thinking or developing a questioning attitude
-to enable the learner to understand their own learning process

2)
-to facilitate learning from experience
-to increase active involvement in learning and personal ownership of learning
-to increase ability to relfect and improve quality of learning
-to enhance problem solving skills
-as a means of assessment in formal education
-to enhance professional practise or the professional in self practice

3)
-to explore the self, personal constructs of meaning and understand one's view of the world
-to enhance the personal valving for the self towards self-empowerment
-for therapeutic purposes or as a means of supporting behavior change.
-as a means of slowing down learning, taking more thorough account of a situation

4)
-to enhance creativity by making better use of intuitive understanding
-to free up writing and the representation of learning
-to provide an alternative voice for those not good at expressing themselves
-to foster reflective and creative interaction in a group

Reflection

Definition: A set of abilities and skills to indicate the taking of a critical stance, an orientation to problem solving or state of mind.

Why name reflection; why not just let it happen?
All adults reflect to some degree, and everyone hypothesizes and draws conclusions from the data of their experience.
-this is known as narrative sense-making
-for many practicioners, doing swallows up learning
-learning is a purposeful activity, although not a complicated one
-knowledge is embedded in the experience of the work

Reflection Type 1
Donald Schoen found that when effective practicioners were faced with a problem in their practice, they worked through it instinctively and, drawing on previous similar experiences, they tried and tested out various possible solutions until they've resolved the issue.

Whiteboard Animation

This is a video of the collective work of our second class in our multimedia course. We had to create our own whiteboard animation. Our only objective was to have a box go over a tree. You were allowed to have fun and do basically whatever came to mind as long as the box got to the other side of the tree.

Using a frame rate of 25 pictures per second, we completed the task in one lesson. My groups work comes in from minute 2:05 to minute 2:19. You can see that we started over after the first couple frames simply because we had some better ideas and wanted a fresh start.

For being our first project using this still animation technique, I think it turned out quite well. There were a lot of mistakes, such as me being in the frame when the picture was taken, as well as too large of a frame, and also sloppy drawing. However, the main point of this project was to introduce us to the technique and the camera. If we had more practice and time, we could have definitely done a better job. Overall it was a fun project and I learned a lot about how to use the camera and what to look for in the frame to make sure you get a smoothe shot.

Flash Narrative

VIDEO SOON TO COME!

This is the final narratives project of the first term. We were to create an interactive flash narrative using at least seven still pictures. The interactive part comes into play by allowing the user to follow a story using their choices. Each frame consists of two possible answers or reactions to a question or situation.

The timeline template was provided for us, so the only thing that was required was basically coming up with an idea for the narrative and finding the corresponding pictures. I wanted to do something fun but also meaningful. I am a very spiritual person and am very interested in Buddhism and Chinese philosphy. One of the great Chinese thinkers is the famous, Confucius. I wanted to create a narrative which applied to my interestes and also something relevent to my life.

There are two general stories which happen in a narrative. Man falls in love, and man goes on a journey. I decided to use man goes on a journey to apply to my narrative. The final outcome of the narrative is finding the meaning of life. Each choice is symbollic. For instance, the first choice of whether to travel to China or Iraq is symbollic for contrast of ideals between the East and West. The war in Iraq is compared to the spiritual, inner journey side of China.

Again, I am very happy with the outcome of this project. I feel I chose a good narrative, and one that would be interesting to many people. I wanted to shy away from the typical bar scene and student life narratives and I think it is quite effective in conveying my interests.

What I could have done better, given the time, would have been to take my own pictures. However, the pictures which apply to my narrative would have been difficult to obtain considering my time and cost restraints.

"Happenings" - Pixilation

This is the first project of my multimedia course. The technique is called pixilation, whereby you take numerous still shots in a sequence so that when played fast, makes a movie. This is the same principle of animation, which contains a certain number of frames per second. By having 25 frames (pictures) per second, the playback of these pictures will look like real movement.

The first step in this project was first to become familiar with the camera and also to come up with an idea. On the first day, my group and I simply played with the camera and tried to get our bearings on what we needed to pay attention to. The biggest problem seemed to be getting a smoothe-looking playback of the shots. This is because if the frame position is not the exact same for each shot, then you receive a very jumpy movie.

Our first idea was a simple bar scene. In this scene, the main character would simply meet a few friends, count his money, buy a drink, and finish the drink. This does not sound like much, however, after doing just this we had take something around 600 pictures. We were pretty happy with our idea in the end, but not so much with the pictures, so we decided to do it over.

Throughout the process, the hardest task seemed to be getting everyone together to actually do the work together. There would always be someone late, not turning up, or not able to commit enough time because of prior engagements. It finally came to the point where I simply decided to take my own pictures for the project. I needed to change the idea considering i would be the only photographer available and this project cannot be done by taking pictures of yourself. Instead I decided to take this project as an opportunity to experiment with the technique.

My inspiration came from the work of The Brothers Quay. They use pixilation to create their own sort of gothic world of characters and events. Each scene holds a deeper, symbollic meaning. Here is an example of some of The Brothers Quay work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KHf3RqmvE&feature=related

The only thing I wanted to do different was to create a brighter, more psychedelic world for my pixilation project. I like the gothic feel of their work, but I like to think of myself as an outgoing, vibrant person, and wanted to reflect that through my work. This is why I chose to use the bright pink and purple colors in my video. The music is also happy, energetic, and uplifting. These together make the mood of my video pleasant and upbeat.

I am really happy with my final piece and enjoyed doing it very much. I feel that the colors and the ideas work really well together. The ciggarette and the knife are both symbols of death. I tried to contrast that with the choice of color and also the music.

I do also feel I could have done some things differently. I would have liked to take more pictures and make the movements more elaborate. Also, there are moments, or pictures, where the frame or the object is out of place and makes the motion look to jumpy. To fix this next time, I will think more about the time constraints so I will be sure to obtain as much material as I intended and also I need more practice in controling the frame and the object in the frame. Simply being a bit more time conscious and careful with my procedure, will definitely reduce these drawbacks.

"Apologies" - One Shot Film

This is the final cut of the one shot film we have produced for our second project as part of the narratives module.

During this part of the narratives module. We were assigned groupwork to shoot a one shot film, which cannot be cut or edited. This means that once you press record, you don't stop shooting until the scene is done. The other condition is that the camera can only move once. This greatly limits what you can do with a shot but more importantly is shows the importance of being precise with what is in the frame, where everything is positioned in the frame, and also what the frame does. This is something I had not quite realized before. I alsways knew there was a lot of thought which went into each scene, but it is incredible when you begin to notice that every minute detail has a deeper value of meaning.

The first and most important part of this project is the planning. Considering you only have the one chance to get everything right. It is essential to make everything count for the most. The location, script, music, and situation have to all be linked in so that they are playing different roles but giving the same narrative.

The location we chose is a monument by the Aburetum, a park which is right outside the center of the city. We chose this location for a few reasons. First of all, the monument on which the main character is waiting gives the feeling of importance. Both of the past and of the present. Also, it conveys that it is a meeting point. Most cities have landmarks such as this where people meet because of the convenience of location and also because of the way it is easy to spot and ask for directions to. Additionally, the monument is at the top of a hill. In the shot, the man who comes and meets the main character continues down the hill after giving her the note and flower, while she walks uphill after he walks away. This is meant to symbolize both a parting of ways and also represents the struggle for the girl. Walking uphill is much harder than walking downhill; this is why the man continues easily downhill, while she must struggle uphill. Finally, the monument serves as a physical barrier where it cuts the two in half and provides a visual separater of the two.

We decided to have no script and to leave it as more of an interpretive piece. There is the presence of dialogue as you see the man whisper to her. But the fact that you can't hear what is said leaves the audience wondering. In place of dialogue, we let the song tell the story. The song is called "Apologies" by Timbaland. It is obvious that the girl is disappointed and that the man is showing his apologies or respects to her. Who the apology is for, or what the respects are given for can be interpreted in many ways.

I am very pleased with how the shot turned out. Everything seemed to work as we had planned. I feel the strongest parts of the shot are the song and the location. However, there are still a few things I would have done differently. First of all and most importantly, we waited a little too long to shoot the shot. We were waiting for twilight to convey a kind of romantic, but uncertain feeling. Twilight seems to make it feel as though there is something in the air, or that there is something about to happen. Because we waited too long, the shot is much darker than we had intended. Also, I would have liked to create a more exciting scene with more movement. However, the main intention was to convey emotions, and I feel that was accomplished.