Lee’s Portfolio

Digital Learning Record

About this page/me

Hello! My name is Lee Spinosa, and I am a Technical Communicator currently enrolled in JMU’s Digital Storytelling course. This page has been created as a way to demonstrate my understanding and growth in several of areas of my courses objectives. As you scroll, you will see examples that pertain to each specific course objective or dimension. Directly below, you can see a brief description about what I have learned according to each dimension.



Confidence and Independence

With this dimension, I learned that confidence pushes you to make the best work you can produce. I have also learned that it is okay to admit to being overconfident and scrapping previous ideas for the sake of your work. Independence encourages you to take your work into your own hands. Without too much guidance you are forced to use more of your own creativity.



Skills and Strategies

With this dimension, I have learned that it is never too late to learn new skills or strategies for creating the best product. With every new skill you learn you also have to adapt the strategies you use. I have also learned that there a number of ways you can adapt tools for each specific project.



Designing Multimodal Stories

According to this objective, I have learned so many new ways to design. This course has introduced me to many things that I was previously unfamiliar with, such as story maps, shorthand, and even the ‘I like I wish I wonder’ format of critique. These new platforms and methods have widened my scope of creativity and grasp on storytelling.

N

Demonstrate Ability

According to this objective, I have learned a lot about different ways to collaborate. I have worked with teams before with things like presentations, but something about creating something with someone else is a different experience. I have learned a lot about how to work together and combine ideas rather than fight for your own to come out on top. I have also learned how to work with people who have many different styles.



Creativity, Originality, and Imagination

With this dimension, I have learned that there is no cap on creativity. Whatever you are trying to do you can always push it further if you work your creative muscles. Original ideas are always better because they seem fresh, so if you see something you like it is important to adapt it rather than copy it.

Confidence and Independence

The best example of Confidence and Independence I have is the Academic Remix project. This project called for a past paper to be remixed into a digital story. With this project, I was confident that I started out with a solid idea. Although, as I started to begin the process and learned more about what it is I would be doing, I scrapped the whole idea and started over. This taught me that it is important to not be so overconfident you marry yourself to an idea that may lead to a lesser end project. You have to allow yourself to admit when you are wrong and be open to all new ideas.

C

Academic Remix

Here you can see a some screenshots of a few element in the Shorthand site. Also linked here: http://preview.shorthand.com/hvSMhsViYaB6wRN4

Academic Remix

The content of my original essay – graffiti – paired very well with the visual aspects of Shorthand. As I explored what the site had to offer I realized many ways I could enhance the writing of my work as well.

Academic Remix

My original idea for this project was a proposal. I thought it would be interesting to see how I could make it visual, but realized that while it would be a challenge, no matter what the end project would not be that exciting. The graffiti essay was abundant with exciting possibilities and ultimately a much better direction to go in.

Skills and Strategies

The best example I have of my use of skills and strategies is my Midterm Learning Record. Skills and strategies garnered from an academic career are tools that help lead a student to success, and the Learning Record is a whole document that describes how I used various dimensions to achieve the different leaning objectives. All these dimensions are arguable skills that have helped me achieve my goals in the course. As I work my way through the course I pick up and add more skills and strategies to my repertoire. To the right of this text is a link to the document.

View the Midterm Learning Record

Creativity, Originality, and Imagination

Below is a slideshow of images that I feel represent my creativity, originality, and imagination. The first two are examples of before’s and after editing. I learned how to edit my photos to better evoke the sense I was trying to create with the image. The images following are original photos taken to practice using good photography techniques (rule of 3’s, perspective, etc.). These photos helped me use my imagination to discover the most creative ways to incorporate these techniques. The last image is a collage of photos taken from the Progymnasmata that are supposed to describe my “places of peace”. I used my newly learned editing techniques to enhance the photos, as well as originality to search and really figure out what a place of peace means to me specifically.

Design Multimodal Stories

Below you will see a StoryMap that I created. This is my best example of designing multimodal stories. This map was created to be an element in my Academic Remix project, so its purpose is to enhance the way my story was being told on a digital platform. Designing multimodal stories is all about enriching stories to make them appealing for a variety of audiences. Rather than simply tell that Banksy created a 31 day scavenger hunt around the city of New York, this map goes through each day with a location, image, and description of the work that was released that day. This element provided almost an alternative way to read my work.

Demonstrate Ability

Demonstrating my ability to work with clients and collaborators on digital storytelling projects is an integral component of this course. When creating insta stories I collaborated not only with the subject of the story, but also a partner in some cases. Below are the examples of my three insta stories, the first being one I created alone, the second one created with a partner and subject, and the third created with only a subject. In my opinion, the best story is the one that was created with a partner and subject. The ability to incorporate the ideas of three people into one project made for a better end result, with elements that would not have been there had it just been me working on it. When one can effectively work well with others it almost always makes for a richer, more original end result.

Contact

If you wish to contact me please fill out the information to the right.