Tag Archives: #digiwrimo

Digital Writing Month: A Code-Poem Experiment

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I saw a challenge over at Digital Writing Month: create a html code poem. Eh? Why not?
Here, first is the poem in raw text:

<body>
<p>Yes, I see you. Do you see me?</p>
</body>

I’m <strong>
perhaps but not so </strong>
as to <img src=http://badg.us/media/uploads/badge/image_poetic-thinker_1350505650_0891.png> imagine
how you might be <em> listening </em> to my <i>words</i>
and yet so often fail to <a href=http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2012/04/25/the-7-pillars-of-connecting-with-absolutely-anyone/> connect </a> with me</a>
in these shared experiences
in a space that gets <small>smaller all the time</small>.

You may <break> my meaning into <p>aragraphs</p> and then
into words, and then into <small>bytes</small>, and then slowly reduce me <ins> the hidden me</ins> into
<ul>
<li>emotion</li>
<li>thought</li>
<li>memory</li>
<li>echoes of the pst</li>
</ul>
<sub>while down here</sub>, where I watch you
<sup>towering over me </sup> in my dreams,
I fade
and fall <break> apart.

You leave me <font size=”8″> feeling <font color=”blue”>blue.

And here is the poem, when converted:

Yes, I see you. Do you see me?

I’m
perhaps but not so
as to imagine
how you might be listening to my words
and yet so often fail to connect with me
in these shared experiences
in a space that gets smaller all the time.

You maymy meaning into

aragraphs

and then
into words, and then into bytes, and then slowly reduce me the hidden me into

  • emotion
  • thought
  • memory
  • echoes of the pst

while down here, where I watch you
towering over me in my dreams,
I fade
and fall apart.

You leave me feeling blue.

The difficult part was trying to think through what would be invisible and what would be visible in both formats, and how the code commands might inform the poem itself. I’m not sure I completely captured that, to be honest. It’s difficult to toggle meaning between two languages like that. I like it better as raw html. You?

Peace (in the code, in the poem),
Kevin

Digital Writing Month: A Text Message Story

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A number of years ago, I remember reading an odd story told entirely in cancelled bank checks. I was inspired and created my own version of it at one time (need to find it) and this week, as part of Digital Writing Month, I thought about how we might use the format of text messaging to tell a story. I had this idea of a girl texting her parents about “losing it” – a phrase that brings up a few different connotations — and letting the message unfold until the meaning becomes clear.

Honestly, I don’t know how successful the story is. I had to add something later to the beginning, which may have ruined the flow of the story as I first told it. I am hoping the late addition added to it. But I did like how I had to think in terms of character, and medium, and the nuance of conversation in this format. It made for a tricky tale, told quickly with lots of narrative gaps. And the text message generator gave me a chance to write and kick out images that look like it really did unfold on a cell phone.
txtmessagestory
txtmessagestory2
txtmessagestory3
txtmessagestory4
txtmessagestory5
txtmessagestory6

 

Peace (in the story),
Kevin

 

Digital Writing Month: Compose the Web

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Using Thimble

I really enjoyed a session at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting called Composing the Web, which began with a neat “toy hacking” activity and then moved into exploring the Mozilla Foundation’s suite of tools for remixing and creating content on the web. Using one of the activities on Thimble (a webpage creator of sorts), I created this quick “shout out” project using a claymation video my son and I had made.

What I like about these tools is that it puts more agency and understanding into the hands and fingertips of users (ie, our students) and can make clear the underlying code structure of our media-saturated world. Use Hackasaurus Xray Goggles, for example, and you can make visible the coding strategies of a website designer, AND then remix it for yourself. Thimble allows you to create and publish a website in minutes, and the new Popcorn video system is a robust video editor that opens the doors for all sorts of remixing content.

Which brought up a long discussion about copyright, ownership of content, and more in our session. In the end, there was some agreement (I think) that these tools are part of what digital literacy is about, and that we do a disservice to our young people if we don’t find ways for them to understand and use the web for creation. I don’t think we all agreed on all points, though, and that points to continued confusion over the remixing/hacking world in educational circles.  (I am not clear, either).

But I am going to be bringing these tools into my class as part of a unit I am starting around media criticism — using Xray Goggles to hack a news site and then maybe Thimble to create an alternative news site, and then maybe even Popcorn video editor to annotate a news video. The ideas are still unfolding here ….

Anyway, here is a link to my Thimble-created site: Yo! I’m Creating Claymation!

Peace (in the hack),
Kevin

Digital Writing Month: The Masters are Messing with my Flow

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The other day, I shared out a Google tool that allows you to have “characters” in a Google Doc “write” with each other. This video is from a related tool, in which you can collaborate with “masters” of literature – Shakespeare, Poe, Dickens, etc. Google captures the real-time writing in the document and kicks out a link. I did a videoshot of my writing with the tool and then layered in some audio reflections of the experience.

You can “view” my live document here.

Give the Google Docs Demo: Masters Edition a try

Peace (in the digital experience),
Kevin

And Two Final Zombie Vs. Twitter Comics

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We’re nearing the end of the Twitter Vs. Zombies virtual game that has been unfolding all weekend. I’m a little tired of being a zombie, to be honest, so I am sharing out the last two comics that I created as part of Digital Writing Month. Tomorrow, I am back to a regular ol’ human being with a regular appetite, and fairly normal tweets (although that is a judgement call on the part of my followers, who must be wondering what the heck is up with all the zombified tweets this weekend)

Digital Writing Comic14

Digital Writing comic15

 

Peace (in the comics),