During the first ten minutes of class, write your final summary of the semester on Miller’s Digital Storytelling, Chapter 25, “Creating Your Own Showcase.” As a part of your summary, write briefly and provide a link to where you showcase your work now. For example, do you have an ePortfolio on OpenLab or elsewhere? We will discuss this before moving ahead with the remainder of class for work on your collaborative project.
4 thoughts on “Beginning of Class Writing: Miller, Digital Storytelling, Chapter 25”
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To: Professor Ellis
From: Mariah Rajah
Date: 05/09/2016
Re: Chapter 25 Summary
Millers’ Chapter 25 nullified what I have been hearing about a portfolio from my professors for the past few months. The chapter was able to highlight ways in which to approach a portfolio presentation, ways in which to distribute the portfolio, as well ways in which to approach and what exactly you want to present. With this new digital age, many students are moving their portfolios online into spaces which makes it easier to be distributed and presented to a wider audience. However, the hardest part is choosing what exactly goes into a portfolio. For instance, I have done a lot of work but what makes it difficult is choosing what exactly I want to put into my portfolio. The decision becomes increasingly difficult because I have yet to learn what potential employers are looking for specifically. However, after reading this chapter it is clear to me that I will need to stick to a few things in order for my work to be understood, appreciated, and remembered in times of an interview. First, according to Miller it is important to be original and stay true to yourself. Present work that best reflects you and yourself. Next, before approaching the creation of your portfolio is it important to sculpt ultimate objectives that go along with the goals of the company in which you are applying to, or make them universal so in that case they can be applied to more general setting. Also, remember to actually show your work, it becomes easy to get lost in the bluff of design but make sure to make your work is the highlight of the portfolio. With these simple steps your portfolio becomes a representation of who you are and what you are capable of.
TO: Professor Ellis
FROM: Samantha
DATE: 5/9
SUBJECT: CH25
Creating your own showcase is the binding of all the concepts we’ve learned this far. Putting together a showcase of my work at the end of the semester is a great way to show the variety in my skills, it’s also a way to show progress. She lists a variety of reasons, one being freelance and trying to bring in new clients. I think this idea applies to students looking for new opportunities and ways to gain experience or even internships. I think a lot of her concepts and approaches also apply to self promotion when you’re trying to get your brand out there. All semester as a blogger for the buzz I promoted my work, my genre and my brand as a writer. Collaborative projects or communities like the buzz are a way to add in missing pieces or experience working with things, like miller suggests on page 482. The other valuable thing Miller offers in this chapter is the list on page 488, which starts with her saying be original, imitation doesn’t make it very far. If there is one thing I’ve learned blogging is that people like a fresh perspective on things. Also making things easy to read is another huge plus because when people are reading for leisure it shouldn’t be hard to get through. Essentially making your work functional enjoyable and concise is the key to moving it to the next level.
To: Professor Ellis
From: Jodieann J. Stephenson
Date: 05/09/2016
Re: Chapter 25 Summary
In Miller’s chapter 25, she elaborated on many aspects of presenting a portfolio and gave various tips on how to present. A majority of what she talked about was able to tie into all of the different advice I got from my professors. After reading the chapter, I began to consider housing my portfolio online, on a site like Square Space. At the moment, my portfolio can be accessed through a shared Dropbox link where viewers can access its content. I am interested in eventually moving over to a site where I can house my work but for the moment, this is suffice. My current portfolio is mixed with pieces from higher education, financial services as well as past published poems and clips from a student run newsletter. Also, in reading this chapter I realized how important it is to have a well thought-out and presentable portfolio with pieces that articulate that I can do the job. I hope the work in my portfolio reflects my best abilities to do the task at hand and go beyond expected. Presenting work and ideas is something that I still struggle with; there should be a class on how to present. The mini presentations that we do in class are nice but the department needs to take a thoughtful approach to teaching students how to present their work. Sometimes when people ask me what was my inspiration on the idea I came up with sometimes I have a difficult time explaining what inspired me and sometimes I find myself stumbling on my own idea.
To: Professor Ellis
Form: Pamela Drake
Subject: Digital Storytelling – Summary of Chapter 25
Creating Your Own Showcase
Date: May 9, 2016
Chapter 25 of Digital Storytelling by Carolyn Handler Miller describes the steps in creating your own showcase. She explains that it is good to create a way to showcase your work but consideration has to be given to how to build it and what it should include. The showcase should be professional and include several examples of your work. The method to be used is very important such as the Internet, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. Also important is the content. Miller states that knowing how to create a showcase is a hurdle that has to be tackled and teaching yourself is vital to its production. It is really a do-it-yourself situation because only we know how what is the best way to highlight our skills and abilities and what we can bring as deliverables. The main takeaways are don’t imitate, define your objectives, don’t overdo it by making it vain, make sure it works, teach yourself what you need to know, make it clear and concise with text that is easy to read, showcase a variety of pieces, and get feedback from others.