Kyle Ramey
Welcome to my portfolio page for WRTC 332! This has easily been one of my most challenging courses in my time at James Madison, but not for the reasons you might expect. While I initially struggled to keep up with the workflow, I was ultimately able to turn my obstacles into building blocks towards my development as a writer in the modern age. I hope to demonstrate that to you with my breakdown of the course below!
Course Objectives
Of course, in order to better understand how I made use of my time in this course, we’ll need to go over the overarching objectives for the course itself.
Designing Multimodal Stories
Before taking this course, my experience in accounting for audiences only extended to those willing to read full articles or business memorandums, which has resulted in me using such audiences/strategies as a baseline for most of my work. However, my time in 332 has helped me to recognize that if I plan on appealing to audiences in fields with a stronger focus on visuals (such as Instagram, product design, etc), I need to be capable of breaking my ideas down into smaller, more digestible components without sacrificing the overarching meaning. Even writing pieces I would have considered impossible to translate into a multimedia format wound up being manageable.
The prime example in this regard would have to be my Academic Remix project. The original paper I decided to remix was just under 20 pages long, so I was uncertain at first whether I’d actually be capable of breaking it down into something digestible for your average audience. However, through creative use of images, videos, and other such visual items, I found that a surprising amount of the original text content could be replaced with imagery in order to break up the monotony inherent in an academic paper format.
“Design multimodal stories using a variety of methods (such as design thinking, critique, and peer review) and technologies (such as mobile and desktop apps) for a variety of audiences”
“Demonstrate your ability to work with clients and collaborators on digital storytelling projects”
Key Issue #1 - Unable to Record Desired ICAD Footage
Key Issue #2 - Scheduling Conflicts For Interview
Client/Co-Worker Coordination
One of the key points when designing a piece on someone else’s behalf is ensuring that you don’t allow your ideas on communicating the message properly to overtake your client’s wishes for the project. This task can become even harder to carry out when you’re balancing your own views against those of your collaborators, as you don’t want to devalue their input either. Thankfully, the projects we worked on in this class gave me plenty of opportunities to figure out how to keep all these factors in harmony while still keeping up with overarching guidelines.
In this regard, I’d have to say my Instastory project focusing on a WRTC/SCOM faculty member is the ideal example of that harmony in action. Unlike the rest of our classmates, my partner and I had a special task for this project: our subject, Dr. Lori Britt, wanted to use the Instastory as a way of promoting her organization, ICAD, which is dedicated to constructive dialogue and outreach between the university and the community around it. As a result, our Instastory had to take a unique approach compared to our classmates, forcing us to take extra care to ensure that our client’s wishes weren’t forgotten in the creative process.
Of course, the challenges with this project didn’t end there, and I’ve covered the primary hurdles we faced in the accordion to the left. Flexibility is a vital skill in any field, and WRTC is no different. My partner was subject to an unfortunate series of scheduling conflicts that left her unable to attend our interview meetings with Dr. Britt. Thankfully, I was able to perform the interview solo, then go out and acquire the necessary pictures and video footage from associated organizations in order to supplement the answers Dr. Britt provided. From here, my partner was able to take my source material and put together the above video, all on a relatively tight schedule. While I’m glad we were able to make our situation work, at the end, I found myself frustrated that I couldn’t do more in the video editing department in order to assist her. However, I’ll touch on that further in the last section.
Dimensions of Learning
While clear objectives are a vital aspect of the learning process, they can only cover so much of how my classroom experience impacted me as a writer. That’s why we have the Dimensions of Learning to fill in those blanks!
Creativity, Originality, & Imagination: Breaking the Comfort Zone
After spending so much time working on papers and other such writing projects, I’ve largely settled into my own particular style of writing and problem-solving. However, through the wide variety of assignments provided in this course, I was forced to recognize that such methods won’t always work for every scenario, especially in this modern age of web-based writing. Even if the text content is engaging, it’s all too easy to lose your audience’s interest due to a lack of accompanying visual content or style to make the piece stand out. While I certainly still have room for improvement in this regard, my time here has been invaluable in starting me off on the right foot.
The two standout examples for me would have to be the Snapseed progymnasmata, and our first Shorthand assignment. The former had us take pictures of everyday objects, then make use of the Snapseed app’s photo editing options to evoke a new sense of meaning from them. This assignment helped not only in developing my general understanding of what makes an effective photo, but also in showing me that even the most seemingly-trivial items can be turned into a great supplement for storytelling purposes.
From there, the Shorthand assignment had us take what we’d learned from the progymnasmata and take a stab at telling our own story using that knowledge; namely, a story about our everyday lives. While I had some struggles at first in regards to deciding what exactly I should cover, I was ultimately able to come up with a presentation that I felt accurately depicted a typical Tuesday or Thursday in my life. There are certainly a number of areas I could have displayed more effectively, looking back on it, but I feel my work with the Remix demonstrated my development in that regard.
“Among other things, this dimension recognizes the value of creative experimentation even when the final result of the work may not succeed as the student may hope. If we hope to foster this quality in students’ thinking and development, it is important to encourage it, to document it, and to explicitly make it a value.“
“Ultimately, all of these changes helped me to turn a passing thought I had about a ribbon tied around a tree trunk into a stark visual metaphor for a variety of ideas”
“I… eliminated enough of the reflection for me to feel confident that what little remained would not distract from the image I was attempting to bring out.”
“When we speak of reflection as a crucial component of learning… we are referring to the development of the learner’s ability to step back and consider a situation critically and analytically, with growing insight into his or her own patterns and learning processes, a kind of metacognition.“
An Outside Perspective
Any and all assignments that forced me to consider a perspective outside of my own were a great exercise in the reflective process. Progymnasmatas in particular helped immensely in that regard; whether by turning a trip that has become more or less second nature for me into a visual experience for readers, or by making me come to terms with the ramifications of a sedentary lifestyle through a ‘selfie’, every assignment gave me an opportunity to view some aspect of my life in a new light.
The Humbling Experience
Up until now, one of my greatest issues as a student (and a person) has been my overconfidence when it comes to planning for projects/assignments; I have a bad tendency to assume that once I actually get started on an assignment, I’ll be able to knock it all out in one fell swoop, more or less. This in turn leads to me pushing off work on said assignment over and over again, believing that I already know how to handle it before I’ve even given the process an actual try. As a result, once I start on something and it turns out to be more demanding than expected, I find that I have almost no time to deal with the resulting issues that crop up. In fact, during my midterm report, I ended up giving myself a D because I came to realize just how poorly I’d been handling myself. After meeting with my teacher, I decided that I needed to make some serious changes.
One of the first steps in that process was forcing myself to commit to some form of regularity. For most of my time at college, I’ve been content to simply deal with issues as they crop up. However, this semester (particularly, this class) has shown me that such a strategy simply isn’t viable. Therefore, I came up with the schedule found on the right in order to ensure that I wouldn’t fall victim to the usual issue of last-minute panic. Once I managed to commit to pre-planning, everything started to feel significantly easier to handle, and my work quality improved significantly as a result.
Few courses have forced me to come face-to-face with this issue to the same degree as this one, but now that I’ve finally gazed into that abyss, I’ve developed a new, healthier sort of confidence: that even if something looks like crap when I start out, I can make it into something truly worthwhile if I just keep at it.
“We see growth and development when learners’ confidence and independence become congruent with their actual abilities and skills, content knowledge, use of experience, and reflectiveness about their own learning. It is not a simple case of ‘more (confidence and independence) is better.'”
"These issues only hinder me because I allow them to. If I lack experience with visual design, that's all the more reason to put my nose to the grindstone and root out the cause"
"I keep forgetting that the reason I'm taking this course in the first place is to learn how to make use of computers' benefits in writing... The fact that it's challenging me to this extent only shows that I have a lot to gain from succeeding in the course. I just need to get that through my head and actually make use of this opportunity while it's here."
Both of the above quotations are from my observation analyses made throughout the course. These serve as key examples of how I came to develop my current mentality for this course, and subsequently, the rest.
Recognizing My Struggles with Scheduling
While I’ve kept up with the smaller-scale assignments such as progymnasmata and observations relatively consistently, my failure to follow the reading as requested… has demonstrated a severe lack of consideration for the requisites of this course.
As shown by the above quote from my midterm reflection, I was extremely disconcerted by my own failure to adhere to the requisite course material. Something needed to be done in order to fix this.
Starting My Quest to Fix This Hindrance
My main issue right now is my failure to properly consider this course with the same urgency as my Tuesday/Thursday classes, as we only meet once a week here.
The primary issue with getting my priorities in check was making sure every subject received adequate attention. This initial draft of a schedule, while rudimentary, ultimately served to provide me with a baseline.
Fine-Tuning the Stopgap to a More Definitive Solution
Simply providing an hour count isn’t enough to break old habits. I need to set up definitive periods at set times in the day for each subject, otherwise I’ll struggle to follow through
While the initial schedule served for a time, I eventually ran up against the same issues. A more definitive time for each action helped to better shape my workload. The weekends were relatively unaltered in order to provide me with some relative breathing room.