So the question is this: can I get through an entire blog post without it being ALL ABOUT ME? Because even I recognize that, in my own head, everything–the iSchool, library science, anything to do with dance and libraries–is ALL ABOUT ME. But this time, I’m going to tell YOU why YOU should be signing up for Digital iCreation: In the Context of Community. Because it’s TOTALLY AMAZING, that’s why. Here’s a picture of our class from the celebration yesterday. (We had a celebration! With cake! Who needs finals?!)
No, seriously, you wouldn’t believe how much we did in one semester. Not only did we learn the basics of video production (see my
last post, and then look at the comments, where Dean Liddy talks about being at the party and how impressed she was with it all, because I’m PLOTZING! Wait … that’s about me again), but we also worked with some really excellent nonprofits in the area. We took a bunch of different approaches to solving their information needs. Like, I got to think like a library student and create online galleries for images and videos, a resources page for archived news articles, learned a brand new content management system developed by our professor, Marilyn Arnone, and Datamomentum, and got an intro to Photoshop thanks to my awesome partner in the website development thing, Quawan. Here’s a picture of me and Q standing in front of a monitor with the 15th Ward website we created … I’m the one on the left. The one with the white hair. YES, I’M GROWING OUT MY WHITE HAIR. And if you tell me that not only am I more beautiful now, but that I look younger than ever, I’ll buy you a drink of your choice. Wait … it’s back to me again … but the drink offer stands …
Our class was made up of undergrads and grad students from the iSchool, VPA, and the School of Education, and everyone brought something to to the table. It was uber-collaborative! And what we learned will be uber-useful for pretty much anything we decide to do with our lives, because all y’all know that everything is about the effective and timely dissemination of information through digital media, right?! Here are links to all the websites we created for our community partners, and let me tell you: it feels really good to get out there and help out a worthy cause. The clients all came to the party and talked about how they had these needs for websites and promotional materials and stuff, and how the students came in and made all their dreams come true and now they have everything they could possibly want in the whole entire world … not exactly that, but they were SERIOUSLY grateful. I kinda got all choked up….
Cafe Plus
Reformed Church of Syracuse
The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
The Jail Ministry of Syracuse
The Brady Faith Center
The Alzheimer’s Association, CNY Chapter
The 15th Ward
And finally, this class is an AWESOME resume builder, because in addition to doing all we did for the community, we created our own e-portfolios. All in ONE SEMESTER. Can you believe it?! I’m very impressed with us, and I think every student should reap the benefits. Obviously. Because I devoted an entire post to advertising this class, instead of my usual drivel, so you know it must be good. Here’s a link to my e-portfolio, where you can check out other videos from Digital iCreation, plus some extras.
Because it is still, I have to confess, ALL ABOUT ME.
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