Literature and Media

Once you have created a poetry screencast, compose a second screencast that will become an element of your portfolio.

Rework your portfolio materials, and then identify one project you would like to discuss in a screencast. Use the screencasting software to put together a video discussing the project.

When finished, upload the screencast to YouTube, and then embed the video into your portfolio and incorporate it into your reflections on your work.

This is an open-ended assignment designed to accomplish two things: 1.) increase your ability to read and discuss poetry, and 2.) learn to make your computer a performing/composing space using screencasting software.

Because these are the key outcomes for the assignment, what you create can be quite flexible. You might

Create a playlist of eight or more songs that represent a character from a work of literature (could be a poem, story, movie, comic book, etc.). Begin with the work of literature and the character you hope to represent. Think of the qualities that make up the character, use adjectives to get started--strong, dweeby, weasely, etc. Think also of any development that the character experiences in the work.

To collect items from the Net and then add your explanations and text, you will need to know a few things: Making links. You can find song samples in iTunes using their LinkMaker Web site To learn how to make links and insert images into a blog posting, experiment with variations of these tags:

<a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/linkmaker/">LinkMaker</a>

<img src="http://images.villagevoice.com/issues/0035/winter.jpg"></img>

This seemingly simple screencast caused me more problems than any other aspect of this course. Despite my frustration, anxiety about speaking into a microphone in a very public Media Resource Center, and exhaustion with various web programs, I finally created this screencast. I literally showed a step by step process of getting clips into iMovie and arranging them to line up with the sound. I then showed how to find my project on youtube. Enjoy, even though I'd love to have a chance to redo this section with my best efforts!

I spent the whole book wishing that I could know why they were in the situation they were. How on earth did all of that destruction happen, and what lead them to be one of the few survivors. I dont think Im alone in thinking that parts of the book would be incredibly slow if we werent desperate to get to the end to find out what happened. I think the idea behind the book is very creative and the writing is amazing. I also think the symbolism and literary qualities of the work are what made it such a famous novel today, however the plot can be dry at times. 

After reading the book, Im glad that I did because there are definitely points that make you think about life and consider the manor in which you live it. The novel even forces you to consider how other people lead their lives and is certainly a great conversation starter, but sometimes the end result is more valuable than the actual experience of reading the book and I think that is the case here.