This is due by Tuesday, November 23 11:00am otherwise it will be considered late.
Guidelines: well...you know what to do. ;-)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Good, the bad, the ugly
For your second to last journal (yah!), please provide a detailed update of your portfolio dealings...that includes what is going well, what isn't, what needs to be done, what you like, what you don't like, how the revision process is going, feelings towards creating a space which showcases your work as a composer, etc. Basically, I'm looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly. 
This is due by Tuesday, November 23 11:00am otherwise it will be considered late.
Guidelines: well...you know what to do. ;-)
This is due by Tuesday, November 23 11:00am otherwise it will be considered late.
Guidelines: well...you know what to do. ;-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
So far, I am pretty happy with where my digital portfolio is going. I have the website layout and color scheme of course, complete with thoughtful organization including tabs for the main projects, mini projects, and reflection. The front page shows my bio; short and sweet so far, but I might add to it later. I think the details are sufficient, but maybe a little more about what I do and why I do it. I also have a Scribd embedded for my resume, a suggestion by Stephen in the digital studio, and a contact box where interested employers could hypothetically email me. I was also suggested, by Ms. Kara, to include my own images for the layout, something else I am currently working on.
ReplyDeleteAside from the visuals, the revisions are coming along progressively. I chose to use my newsletter, remediation and editing projects for the main project revisions, and the ‘born digital,’ ‘cool rhetoric,’ ‘fractured fairy tale,’ and the second online class day mini projects. I thought it would be an easier place to start with the mini projects, but even so I found it not so easy. I basically need to get in touch with my inner perfectionist in order to get exactly what I want for these revisions, something that can take a lot out of a person.
The good news is, some of the revisions are easier than others, and as for those others, I will probably save those for the end of this project, the Digital Portfolio. Incorporating the scholarly sources is something else I am going to be particularly adamant about because I feel like a possible employer would want some idea of how much education a writer/editor has on the subject matter, just seemed like something important for me to thoroughly include. I am going to focus on Bitzer a lot in my reflection, as well as some other scholars on rhetoric. Making an effort to relate this to what I’ve done this semester in WEPO.
With the blog revisions, I am making an effort to make the language sound a little less casual, seeing as how this digital portfolio is supposed to come off more professional showing that I can work in a particular medium that way. For the reflection, very important, I am still in the process of putting together my final theory of composing. I am trying to put it together in a way that sounds consistent, because I feel this is something that a possible employer would want to know; is this person consistent? So, for the most part, this is where I already am with this portfolio, I’m hoping it will all come together nicely.
Well I can safely say that after today, I have a lot to say about this portfolio. First of all, while I love working with the wix.com program, life without a computer is harder than I thought it would be (my roommate crashed my computer for me, so nice of her). I take what I can, when a friend will let me borrow theirs or I can get in at the library. So within the massive amount of computer switches, wix.com has proven to be a strong holder for my portfolio (knock on wood).
ReplyDeleteThe good? Yes! There is good! As far as progress goes, I’d say I am moving rather quickly. As of today, I have completed every mini assignment’s revision, and I have 2 of the 3 on display on the portfolio. As for the main assignments, I have completed one in full that is posted on the portfolio, and am working on revising the other two. For completing one of the main assignments, the keyword newsletter, I am continuing to edit and revise what I have already done. I am making sure the empty space is filled, as well as adding additional information. For the letter though, I am keeping it the same. The other main assignment I am working to complete is the poster project. I have the idea in mind, and I have completed the new cover letter for the poster, but for the actual poster itself, the concept involves picture, and the subjects of these pictures are back home…so the progress will have to continue over thanksgiving break when I can photograph my subjects accordingly. However, I have created all the pages I wanted, and the website is working the way I liked it to.
The ugly? Well, to tell the truth, there is quite a bit of ugly. Two times within the computer switch, I have lost a revision. The first time it was my fractured fairy tale, and the second it was my Huffington Press. While both of these are mini assignments, I worked very hard on them and by the time I realized they were gone, I was furious. A few hours ( and a nervous breakdown or two) later, I had the revised revision of the original of both assignments.
More ugly? More ugly would consist of computers dying while working on a website, and not having saved anything recently. You could say I am irresponsible because of the lack of my saving work, or you could say computers don’t like me. I’d like to go with the second. Although I have been able to fix what I have “messed up” so to speak, it really does get annoying when I have to revise revisions.
Over all though, I do feel the project is going smoothly. I have incorporated extra bits and pieces that I felt were necessary to the portfolio, and I am having a lot of fun through the tedious work. I enjoy putting my own opinion of color scheme, style, and background into the website: I really am making it my own.
So far things are actually going really well with my digital portfolio. I’ve been working on it on and off for about a week and a half now—mostly on the Wix site and getting the layout exactly how I want it. So far it’s pretty simple looking because all I’ve done is adding in and working on the text part and not the pictures.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest things that I want to avoid with my portfolio is adding a Word document that a reader needs to open in order to read it. I feel like if I was the one going through that kind of a portfolio, I wouldn’t bother looking through anything. All of the clicking would just kind of annoy me. In order to avoid this I added in scrolling text boxes so that the reader can read everything on the one page.
Some of the pages I’m kind of trying to figure out what else to incorporate. My contact page in particular has a whole section of white space and I’m not completely sure what else to add. I’m thinking about adding some “About Me” type of thing but maybe pictures would be a better idea.
That’s probably where I’m having the most problems: visuals and pictures. I’ve got the one picture on my home page but other than that I’m not too sure what to add. I guess I’m trying to figure out what kinds of pictures I want to put on the digital portfolio: pictures of just me, pictures of family or pictures just of things I like. I’m pretty sure I just think too much, though. Once all the text has been incorporated I’ll be able to figure out what kinds of visuals I want to fit in.
Another quirk that I’m trying to fix is that whenever I put the website in “preview” mode is I can’t click on the “projects” button. I can click and activate every other button except for that one. I don’t know why the link does that, because it works when I’m editing. Probably something that I will need to go back to the Digital Studio and get help figuring out.
As far as what’s left, I have quite a bit of the revisions left to do but I’m not daunted by the task by any means. The main project revisions are more or less finished, I just need to re-do the colors for my remediation project. The parts that I’ve done the least amount of work on are the in class assignments and blog posts page and the reflection page. I’ve picked what assignments that I want to revise and post, it’s just a matter of sitting down and doing it. The reflection…that’s going to take some more time and it will probably be the last part that I do. It seems kind of appropriate that way.
I think my portfolio is going well, though not entirely according to plan. I have most of my website formatted and I have begun working on my revisions for my main assignments (mini assignments will be started shortly). All of the work that is being posted has been chosen, so now it’s just a matter of revising and uploading.
ReplyDeleteThe layout of my site has changed somewhat from what I described in my Design Concept Paper, though I’m still working with the basic idea of a cover-flow design for the mini assignments. For the main assignments, I have put them on a general page with a sub-menu to direct the visitor through the mini pages within the Main Assignments tab. I’ve also change the color scheme of my site. Instead of a black/white/gray scheme (which, let’s be real, was rather drab and boring), I have a softer blue/gray scheme, with the colors flowing with each other in soft curves. I feel these colors are a better representation of me as a person and a write/composer/editor, and I think they look more professional than what I had used previously.
I’ve been having serious problems uploading my work from my own computer, so I’ll be spending plenty of time either in the Digital Studio or at Strozier. I’m having some concerns about how to revise my remediation project so that it doesn’t look like a mess on the website, though I have some ideas that I’m going to work with to see which works out the best.
As for what needs to be done, that would be a lot… I still need to revise pretty much all of the work which I plan to put on the site, though I have started revising a few of the assignments already. I think there are also some little things on the website itself that I need to fix/improve, but that won’t be too difficult.
I really like how my portfolio is turning out, at least in these beginning stages. I’ve gotten past the not-liking-it phase and have already changed the aspects of the site that were not working for me.
The revision process is a slow one, to be sure. I’ve started revising my book poster (editing the text, re-coloring the image), and I will continue to work on that this weekend. Other revisions are soon to follow. I’m trying this new thing where I focus on one thing at a time, so I don’t go crazy. I have some ideas for my other revisions, and I’m excited about carrying some of them out. Others, well, we’ll see how those go.
At first, I thought creating this portfolio was going to be an absolute nightmare, especially when I heard that our options were a website or a blog, two things I’m usually afraid of. After working with Wix, I feel pretty comfortable with design websites (only if I don’t have to write the code, of course). I think this is an exciting new genre for me, and I can’t wait to see how my final product turns out.
My portfolio is going swimmingly, most of the time. I'm getting used to using Wix so it's making it easier to play around with the different aspects of making a website, like formatting, colors, style, and overall appearance.
ReplyDeleteI've gotten a lot done with formatting and the overall theme of my website. I stuck with my original idea of putting myself in the project by going with greens, pinks, and purples, but I used dim, muted shades of these colors to keep it professional. On the left hand side of my portfolio I created a table of contents that is always available. This way, no matter where you are on the site you can navigate back to wherever you want.
I divided my website by groups. I have 8 main tabs: Home, Overview, Main Projects, Mini Assignments, Reflection, Resume, Other Works, and Contact. The other works will be left invalid until after the digital portfolio is due. I have it there for now so that I can go back later and add other things that I have done to booster my portfolio.
Following my design concept, I'm featuring all of my main assignments, and tweaking them minutely. The hardest thing so far is editing my finished products. For now, I've inserted the unedited editions so that I have the formatting down and I can go back and insert the edited ones later. Most of the time I've spent has been on the formatting of the website. It has not been the easiest thing in the world. I think I just spent an hour undoing a fatal error that almost destroyed everything...luckily the undo button was my friend and I retrieved all my lost work.
Trying to pick out what colors and fonts to work with has been another challenge altogether. I find the subtle changes make the biggest difference when it comes to things like this and trying to make sure I have just the right shade, or just the right font, or spacing, or picture has been frustrating, but it has all worked out so far.
I've finished formatting most the Main Projects and Mini Assignments. For the most part I just need to finish a few sections and go back and revise/edit everything. I'm adding on to some of my projects so there are still a lot of things that need to be worked on.
For the most part, I'm really happy with the way my portfolio is turning out. I feel that it really reflects me as a composer and is a much easier way of expressing my artistic talents since I don't have to actually paint/draw/construct anything by hand. I've also found that I'm quite good at manipulating Wix to get it to do what I want which has been very satisfactory. If everything continues to go as planned, then this website should turn out to be absolutely glorious.
The good… I am really enjoying creating my own website! When completing projects for school it is almost always extremely difficult for me to buckle down and get it done because of the fact that all too often I feel that the project has NO carry-over into my “real life”. I enjoy markers and poster making, but generally I would rather do arts and crafts in my spare time and not have a project assigned involving coloring or creating a pet rock (yes, I had to do this once in my high school English class). So, since this website directly can be used in my chosen field, I am really excited to get to learn how to use Wix and make a web space that I will actually use. It has been fun decorating my site and using all of the cool HTML tricks available on Wix. The layout of my site is nearly finished and I am pretty proud of it!
ReplyDeleteThe bad… I haven’t done much revising of my projects, mini-assignments and blog posts yet. I’m a little nervous about this but today I outlined what I am going to change about each one and a list of when I can get things accomplished. I’m relieved because the main components of my main projects will not have to be re-done, my revision will be mostly in the details. For instance, in my remediation project I plan on adding slides to my Vuvox and making some of the fonts clearer, changing a few of the images, etc. I’m glad that my projects have been successful enough along the semester that I won’t have to do any drastic revamping. I also am almost done with my resume but still have some work to do on it. I’m thankful to be doing it, though, because I know it is something that I need to keep updated and use in my career! I head home to Orlando tomorrow and I haven’t been back since September so I know my family and friends will have a lot of fun things planned, but I know to stay on track I will need to work some on my portfolio while I’m at home. I’m hoping my family will understand, and I’m also hoping that I will have the motivation and diligence to be working over the break!
The ugly… Well, I still haven’t been to the Digital Studio! I did make an appointment for Monday, though, so I will be on the money come next week. I would like a tutor to help me to create something for my reflection. I’m thinking about creating a word art video and need some assistance with how to do that. Hopefully they will be able to help me and I will be well on my way!
Good luck to everyone! :-)
Well, I cannot say my portfolio is going just as I expected, but then again, it’s not going bad either. I guess the reason I’m having such a hard time with this (although this usually happens with all of my projects) is because I envision something in my head and then it never quite comes out that way. Particularly, working with a new genre (websites) it has become even more difficult to get the vision I have of my digital portfolio across, but I have been getting used to the program so that must be a good thing. So let me go ahead and break it down into the good, the bad, and the ugly of what I have so far.
ReplyDeleteThe good: Like I mentioned, I have been getting more familiar with the program, so I have been able to play around with the formatting and whatnot. I also have laid out (on paper, not on the actual site) where I want everything to appear and how I want it to show, so I have an organized idea of how I want the final product to look like. I have also written out the little blurbs for each section, kind of explaining what the assignments are, as well as written by ‘about me’ section. It’s also good that I am excited for the final outcome. I usually love taking on big tasks like these because I know that it gives me time to showcase a final product that will be great at the end. I also like the ability to use a digital medium to showcase everything I’ve done, I feel like it shows creativity and that it would definitely be more appealing to employers in the future than a mere resume would be.
The bad: Although I know what I want to do/use for the portfolio, I guess it’s pretty bad that I actually haven’t edited anything yet. I have been really sick, so I guess that gives me a bit of leeway, but it really stresses me out knowing I have not gotten to this yet! Aside from not doing the revision, I also have had a few instances where I’ve been a little frustrated with the actual program. Like I said, I have a vision for the final product, and some of the actual tools on Wix have been a little difficult for me to work with when it comes to this.
The ugly: It hurts to say this…but I have yet to go to the Digital Studio. I know I am in dire need of going since I really want them to help me out with a particular feature I had in mind but have been unable to create (even after watching the Wix tutorial videos.) I am trying to create a link within one of my pages so that it will have a snapshot of the project/mini assignment, and then have that be a link to another page where it will actually open up the assignment to be viewed, but of course, being that I am not a tech wiz, I have absolutely no idea how (or even if this can be done) to do this. I have emailed them to make an appointment with them once I get back from the break, so that’s something to look forward to. For now, I will just keep working on what I do know how to do, and actually get started on the revision process!
The Digital Portfolio is more of a challenge than I anticipated, but things are coming along quite swimmingly. I was recently overcome by a wave of inspiration for my theme and inner workings of the formatting on Wix. I decided to completely discard my theme from before and create a new layout. Previously, I had a natural feel going with a woods motif and accompanying animations of creates that inhabit said environment. Now, however, I feel that a more nautical and beach theme accompanied by edited images of simple beauty and correlating color scheme and mood.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I have finally finished formatting the color schemes and images on my Wix. I found editing the images so they had more of a matte finish to them was appropriate for the muted blues and neutrals of the page. Affixed to the left of the page I have a creative image that alludes to Alice in Wonderland, but the position in which it exists leaves room for interpretation as to what is to come by clicking on the properly named tabs. On top of the page I placed directional links to each section of the site that remain there even when navigating. I have six navigational tabs: Home, About, Images, Writing, Reflection, and Contact.
Other than the general layout of the page, I have started work on the actual material. While I have not yet been to the Digital Studio, I fully anticipate going tomorrow to explore what they have to offer. From what Sarah and Katie told me, the digital studio assisted in their understandings of how Wix functions and the capabilities it has to offer. I look forward to exploring the facets digital communication available.
As to my assignments, I have adhered to the original plans in my Design Concept. Like Sarah, I have inserted my unedited projects into the pages as to get down formatting. I have edited three fourths of the main assignments and I plan on going over them again to make sure that they are as close to perfect as humanly possible. The most irritating part of the project so far is my editing of the ads we used in the mini assignment. I have all of them saved and thrice edited, but I have not solidified them into what I believe are concrete and acceptable projects. My edited blog is coming along nicely and I have added tweaks and creative additives to my fractured fairytale to show diversity in my work.
So far, I have found that, even though the project is a challenge, I enjoy creating and manipulating portions of a website interface to create a cohesive product. Even though I am sure that my Thanksgiving break, during which I will be reporting to my job, I will spend many of the late night hours on the computer with my digital portfolio. If all ends well, as I foresee, the levels of astonishment contained in my project will be extremely satisfying.
I’d have to say I am quite pleased with the progress of my digital portfolio. I have decided to use WIX to create my website. My homepage is simple, yet inviting by displaying a slideshow of some of my photos. The next page is then labeled as my portfolio, which is where you will be able to find all my work. One you click onto the portfolio page, it is separated into three different sections. Since I am making this website so that it is beneficial to me after this class, I will be incorporating some of my other work. Not to worry this will be quite clear in the display of my portfolio, it isn’t even necessary to click on the other pages if you do not wish to do so. The three sections are up to being changed but for now they are labeled WEPO, Video, and Photography. This way it is clear-cut which projects I have done in the WEPO class. Once you click onto each link it was direct you into further detail about each project. In the WEPO section, it will display each of my projects, mini and main assignments, and do the same for both the video and photography.
ReplyDeleteThe next section of the website there is a tab for my biography. Here is where I’ll have a short description of myself accompanied with a photo and an explanation of my work and theory as a composer. I will also include my reflection and resume in this section as well. There will be another tab with contact information, such as my phone number, email, facebook, and possibly a blog.
As far as the revisions, I believe they are going quite well. After getting a bunch of feedback from you and my peers, I find it much easier to revise than to create from scratch. I now feel that I have a better understanding for what is being asked. For the main projects, I chose to use the newsletter, the keyword remediation, and the poster projects for my main projects. For my mini projects I thought that I would use the “born digital,” “cool rhetoric,” and the last blog post that we did. I really enjoyed doing these blogs the best, and I know that if I had more time I could make them a lot better.
I’ve stopped by the digital studio and they were very helpful on helping me connect a few dots. After I get a few more things started I plan on going back in for a follow-up and to clear up any last questions. There still is a lot of time that needs to be dedicated to this portfolio, but I think I have some great ideas. I think that trial and error is going to be what works best for this particular project. It’s hard to see what is really going to work without actually trying it.
For the most part I’d have to say that I am really excited and happy that I’ve been given this opportunity to create this digital portfolio. I have wanted to create something similar for quite some time but kept putting it off because of schoolwork, or maybe just laziness. I need, and could benefit from having and online source that shows all my work so that I can display it to the public. I have been shooting photography for quite some time now, and this will be a good way for my customers to see my work. What is also great about a website is that I can consistently be making changes so that it is up to date with my latest work. I am excited to see how it turns out!
Alright, so I’m definitely not as far along with the project as I should be. But fear not, I’m a major procrastinator so it will all be done on time! So far I’ve completed one of my major revisions – for the poster project – and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Going to the digital studio for help with Photoshop definitely was something that I should have done the first time around, but better late than never.
ReplyDeleteI’ve also been working extensively on my wix site. I’ve got the layout complete and I’m really happy with the look of it. I feel that it’s professional and would be great to show employers, but it’s also creative and shows a lot of my personality. I used only photos that I’ve taken so I think that gives it a really personal feel. I’m trying to embed all of my projects so that when someone views it they don’t have to keep downloading files, but that’s proving much more difficult than I thought. I’ve had to take screen shots of my poster projects and upload them as photos, so if anyone knows how to actually embed things on wix please let me know!! I will most likely be heading back to the digital studio for help with this and maybe for help making my site and photos a bit more cohesive color-wise.
In terms of what needs to be done. A lot. I’ve brainstormed ways to revise my edited newsletter – editing my letter as an editor and going back over my revisions to the newsletter again - and was thinking of doing another audience switch for my own keyword newsletter or maybe just finding another source and adding information. As for the mini projects, I haven’t begun to deal with them yet, except for choosing the ones I want to revise, my embedded genre post, ReMediation blog, our “Simply Meet the Press” blog and our in class individual magazine article for Huffington Press. I may choose to drop one of them if time gets down to the wire but I am confident that I will be able to revise them all.
My revision process so far has been simple and smooth. It’s definitely been a little challenging to work with wix since I’ve never created my own website before and I had to become familiar with all of the aspects of the site editor. Overall, I really like this project because I feel like it has real-life value. Most of the projects and major assignments I’ve done in classes have been helpful in building my knowledge base but it’s nice to finally have something to show for a class other than a final paper that no one is going to take the time to read. I guess that’s why I’m really excited about the final product. It will definitely show who I am as a composer and my potential. Sure, it’s difficult to pull all of this together in a limited time, especially with other classes and assignments, but the benefits from this project outweigh the costs exponentially.
What I find good and really like about this project is that it’s letting me be completely creative and let the juices flow. I like the freedom this portfolio has given me and of course what its ultimate purpose is. I’ve been working on it with my audience in mind (future employers/internships), and I must say although I can be as creative as I want, my audience is somewhat hindering. After viewing a couple samples in class, I had to completely veer off the road I was going on. I definitely can’t have a portfolio with an array of colors and crazy fonts and graphics. That kind of upset me considering that that’s what I love to create, but in the end it’s for the best.
ReplyDeleteI really like playing with the blog. In other words I like all the “fun” work and creations, because of course it’s my forte. Aside from that the actual “work” part is coming along, slowly, but surely. I’ve kind of been pushing it back while I perfect the site. I’ll get it done though.
As far as visiting the digital studio, that is where the “fail” lies. Every time I set aside time to go, something pops up last minute or I just don’t have enough time to spend. Things should be a lot calmer when I get back in town though, and that’s when I shall ambush the Digital Studio and it’s tutors.
Till then, everything else will be getting done. I planned what I’d get done over the break while eating turkey and sipping Malta. My Digital Portfolio shall be epic. (:
Good: My portfolio is off to a great start. I have already revised a couple of the projects, like the editing obituary and the newsletter. I have also worked on the blog map. I still need to create a new piece for my remediation project (a pencil pouch) and collect more images for some of the mini assignments. Also, I’m planning on using the assignment we did in class this Thursday, so I need to alter it a bit.
ReplyDeleteI really want to include music in my portfolio, but I don’t know what song to pick. I have two in mind but I don’t know if they would be appropriate (they’re not bad- they are actually instrumental- but a little depressing sounding). Obviously I don’t want to make a potential employer feel suicidal, so I’ll have to pick the happier melody of the two.
I haven’t done much on the website yet, but I’m happy with the template that I chose. I especially like the contact page, which allows me to program my email into it so anyone on the site can email me directly from there. So far, so good.
Bad: One problem I’ve come across is what to do for the editing of some projects, like the one where we edited someone’s newsletter. I spent a lot of time working on that so I don’t know how much more I can actually do to it. Another issue is that some of the revisions I’ve been doing have turned into rewriting. I pretty much redid my fractured fairytale, only keeping the general idea/storyline. This definitely makes for a better project, but it was also really time consuming.
Ugly: Creating the actual website is going to be quite a task. Like Alissa said, I want to make sure that my website is accessible-I don’t want the viewer to have to open word documents either. I’ll address this problem at the digital studio-I have an appointment in there next week, so I’ll have help building the website if I need it at that point (which I will). I’m trying to figure out everything I’ll need help on before I go to my appointment so I can get the most work possible done in there. I think this is going to be the most difficult part of the project for me- I can edit and revise, come up with new ideas, and add on to creative projects, but I’ve never made a website. S c a r y.
Hopeful: I’m especially happy with the list of things that I decided to include. I think the projects will show me as a composer in a few different lights, like writing, editing, and creativity. In fact, putting the portfolio together is actually showing me who I am as a composer in the different genres I have worked in. The website template I chose allows me to organize my website using those categories (like Sarah’s, mine has tabs).
There is definitely still work to be done, but I’m not worried. I’m feeling so relaxed about the project because I’ve already gotten a good amount of it done and I have a good plan for how and when to do the rest.
My portfolio is coming along at this point. I have visited the digital studio which really got the ball rolling more so than me trying to edit my projects. It actually made me excited about my project when I learned all about WIX. There are many steps I am taking to make this portfolio good. The excitement and the drive to do it is there, but there are some difficulties I am facing.
ReplyDeleteThe revision for some of the mini projects is easy. Those are actually almost complete, but the larger projects are a little more difficult! I cannot decide what to change! Its not that they are perfect or I am happy with them, but there are just so many things that I could do differently. Do I change the audience of my newsletter? What kind of genre should I do my newsletter revision for? What projects should I even do?
As for my actual website, I don’t really know what I want the layout to be. I want to do something with loud vivid colors, but this is something that cannot be presented to someone in a real world setting. I want to make it a neutral and sophisticated web page, but I still and struggling to make that reflect my personality in a way that is appropriate to the project.
Overall, I am very excited to complete my portfolio. What I come up with in the end will hopefully reflect my work and myself in a positive way if all goes as planned. The thing I have been brainstorming most over Thanksgiving break was the home page. This is something that needs to be great, since first impressions are everything!
So to break this portfolio down…
The good: I am excited about the project! I am ready and willing to work to redeem some of the projects I have done this semester. I am also very excited that I have been given the opportunity to do this kind of portfolio for my future and because some of my projects weren’t so great, and its like a second chance to show everybody what I can do on a revision.
The bad: This is not that bad, but its not great either. My struggles with what projects to revise could just simply turn into revising all of my projects! Why not, I do not have any finals so why not do this final project big? Another thing I am concerned about is that I am unsure whether to revise Blogs. The thing about this that I am a bad blogger, mainly because I cant live up to the 500 words, so I add in fillers and it becomes junky instead of simple and to the point. I am just leaning towards the projects I have had the most fun with and not what needs to be improved the most. Hopefully I can get past that factor and have enough discipline to do the projects that need more work, or the ones that aren’t as fun to me!
The ugly: I have to idea what I want my website to look like. This could be because when I saw the example webpage with the Apple iPad I have convinced myself that this was the ultimate project since I am highly obsessed with Apple products. I keep brainstorming and I keep seeing the iPad in my head! What an ugly thought!
The Good: I love how limitless this project is. While we have guidelines and it is a project worth a decent percentage of our grade it allows for such creative liberty. The projects I have done the best at in this class are those that allow me show off those artistic skills. Designing the layout and picking fonts and different color scheme has been going well. I just need to make sure that the design layout and structure does not get in the way of show casing the work and take away from the whole purpose of a portfolio. I am definitely going to need to cut back on some of the design elements.
ReplyDeleteThe Not So Good: I don’t want to call it bad because the issues will be addressed. But since I have been so focused on creating the layout and design aspects of the projects I can admit that I haven’t been doing the revision work as much. At first when I couldn’t get the creative juices flowing on what exactly I wanted to do for the project I worked on the revisions. However, since working on the design of the project I have neglected my revisions. So during the turkey day break I will pulling it together and getting the revision work out the way. Another thing I’m having trouble with is deciding on which pieces I actually want to use for the portfolio. In my design concept I pretty clear on which pieces I wanted to use but I’ve having difficulty narrowing the last piece down but hopefully when I finish revision I can determine that.
The Ugly: I need to go to the Digital Studio! Every time I tell myself I will make a trip to the Digital Studio something or some excuse comes up and I end up not going. I do think once I go it will help a lot with questions that I spend time Google-ing for answers. However I am worried that the Digital Studio may give me more creative ideas and then I’ll be over whelmed with what direction my final portfolio will take. I’ve posted reminders for my self to make a trip there so after the turkey day break it will one of the first things I do!
All in all with revision work over the break and a visit to the Digital Studio my portfolio should come be able to come together really nicely.
So far there haven’t been any major problems with the portfolio. I think the hardest thing for me so far has been deciding the theme, how it would look and the set up. I keep changing it trying to find the most professional yet eye catching way for it to look. I haven’t published the site yet because not everything has been fully edited and put on there. I had a lot of trouble with the website at first not being particularly computer savvy but as I have gone along and worked more with it and visited the digital studio for advice I have worked through most of those problems. None of the pages of the website are done but all of them have had some work done on them and some of them are only a picture or downloaded file away from being completed. I think that the part of this project I will have the most trouble with is the really long reflection. I’m used to short ones that state pretty straightforwardly what I am reflecting on, but this is a pretty big project so I guess it would have a long reflection. I have a few things present on my site that I am pretty sure are unique to it. I have one long work cited page at the end of the website where I’m placing all of the works cited for the projects together and divided by name of project. I also have a table of contents page that lists the name of each page, the project on that page and a brief description of the project on that page so that people can better navigate the website.
ReplyDeleteI’m finding it difficult to work with some of the text portions of the site. I can’t seem to get all of the fonts on one page to be the same size and sometimes the text accidentally erases itself when I click on it but I’m working through these problems.
For the major projects I have to finish scanning the remediated poster in and for the others I have to finish the improvement edits. The edits are proving especially difficult to do on project one. I’m finding it difficult to improve on parts of it in paint without ruining the whole picture but I should be posting it soon.
I’ve started rewriting the journal entries for the portfolio. I just want to get my friend to read them and get their opinion before I post them.
Some of the work that I will be posting I’m going to post as a downloadable file. A few of the files like the newsletter just don’t look right as a picture file on the page. They look more professional and have a better overall format as .pdf file.
Some of the stuff that I am revising, when I first look at it I don’t really see what needs to be revised or how I should go about improving it. It usually takes a while of thinking about it and looking at it a couple times to come up with ways to make it better.
I’m a little nervous about putting my work up in a public website. I have never taken criticism very well and I’m nervous about what people will think of my work. Will they like it? Will they only criticize it? Those and other questions like them are constantly running through my mind.
Well anyway, I have a lot of work to do but I think that so far my site is turning out ok.
Over the past few weeks since we have been given the our last project, the portfolio, i have really enjoyed what i have worked on. My trip to the digital studio was really successful and enjoyable and really set me up well in understanding a lot of the conditionals of a web page, which is what i am working on making. i decided to use wix.com, which is surprisingly a lot easier to use than i thought when i first read we were making websites. i thought that making a website would include doing things that were going to challenge me technology wise, whereas it really is pretty simple so that was a great surprise.
ReplyDeletei am currently finishing up revising my projects. i have been finding it a lot easier to revise the main projects we have done, because i have tended to have specific things that need to be amended, for example in the newspaper article, i didn't include a works cited page so that was the first thing i revised. the smaller projects that i have chosen, for example the mini assignment day where we had to write a newspaper article, have been more challenging as i didn't know what exactly i was going to revise, so they took a lot more work to revise well. all in all, however, the revising process is going well, and because i have learnt more about the conventions of different genres as the class has progressed, i am finding it easier to meet the criteria needed.
in terms of what i am finding hard, i think knowing what outlook to use for my website is one of the hardest things. knowing what is going to look the most professional, yet hit the right audience is really tricky. i know that the color scheme and layout that i use is going to be key, however out of so many layouts on wix.com, narrowing it down to just one that i think is perfect is really hard. i still haven't decided which one i am going to use, however will be doing this over the next few days. i have narrowed it down to four, but knowing which one to choose is really hard.
right now, i have most of the revision done, and what i need to do is put it all together into the website, choose the backgrounds, pictures etc. this is the hard part though. figuring out what it is my audience really wants to see and what could appeal to my future employers is really hard. i have played around with a lot of pictures, backgrounds, but none have really stood out to me yet, therefore i really need to buckle down and decide on something that i like.
I am pretty happy with how the project is going. like i said i really need to choose the layout/colors etc, so i can then put it all together. i have an image in my head that i just need to achieve!
Everything is coming along quite well with my digital portfolio. I’ve been working on it for about two weeks and have learned my way around the Weebly site. It took some time to decide which layout to go with – I wanted something edgy, minimalistic and professional. After a bit of searching I found a great layout and I’ve decided on a color scheme that is similarly edgy and minimalistic.
ReplyDeleteI liked the examples in class – they helped me decide on thing I want to include (an about me section and a contact page) and some thing I want to avoid with my portfolio (word documents that a reader needs to open and excessive graphics). I want to include engaging yet professional pictures. My internal dilemma has been about whether it would be more beneficial to take original pictures or to find stock photos that work. I’m planning on waiting until the text has been finished and then I’ll be able to figure out what visuals will work best.
Editing the main projects has been easy because I had specific ideas on what needed to be changed. I chose to go with revising my poster, newsletter and editing project. I really liked my remediation project, but I didn’t see how I could make any significant revisions because of the medium I chose to work with.
So what’s left? I still have to do revisions on the mini assignments. I’ve selected the ones I want to include it’s just a matter of sitting down and revising them. My main project revisions are pretty much finished, now I just need to focus on the in class assignments and blog posts. The last thing I’ll do is the reflection. The reflection will require more time – I’m still trying to decide how best to present my final theory of composing.
The good, the bad, and the ugly - let's start with my laptop. It died, and I JUST got it back. (yay!) Apparently my motherboard and hard drive both crashed; along with some other technical doo-dad I have no clue what it's called. So for the past like 2 weeks I've been borrowing my roomies computer and designing my portfolio, but had none of the work to put in it. But now! I am back in action baby!!
ReplyDeleteI went to the digital studio Tuesday and tried to get some help with including my vuvox slideshow but the girl (I want to say Roselyn?) was extremely nice and helpful, she admitted Wix was not her forte, and her only advice was to just post a link to it on my portfolio. Noooot what I want. But here's the good again, Joseph is going to help me Thursday (thank you Kara!) and hopefully we will figure this sucker out. I really want to somehow have the slideshow embedded in my portfolio, fingers crossed.
One of the things that has been driving me absolutely bonkers with this portfolio is the color scheme... is it too dark? too light? just right? - The goldilocks gig is getting old lol. I just want it to work. Aside from that though I am absolutely loving the Wix platform. There's a lot of different tools to work with and really make a unique portfolio, I was worried it would be limited and my portfolio would look original, just like everyone else’s. Especially with me not having my computer until now, like Kimmi, I’ve found Wix to be my life saver. It saves the pictures I upload to a file I can access from anywhere, saves all my changes effortlessly, I just can’t say enough about the wonder that is Wix.
I'm a little iffy on the reflection because I'd like to do something more than just a 3-4 page paper format. However, for now that is admittedly on the side burner until the portfolio comes to fruition. If I'm lucky I'll be struck by a moment of brilliance and it will just come to me. (Hey, a girl can dream)
The editing has turned out to be a lot easier then I originally thought it would be. The only thing that still is giving me issues is my poster project, but I guess this will serve as a lesson in not getting so attached to the original that you aren’t open to making changes. When my laptop died I lost all the sound blurbs I did so rather than editing the audio for my vuvox I am having to redo it, but surprisingly it seems to be working out better this way.
All in all I am extremely excited for the finished product and can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with as well :)