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Monday, June 27, 2011
Neil Gaiman: blogging, tweeting, possible projects and his writing process
Ok, so I'm on a bit of a Neil Gaiman kick right now. I'm enjoying his writing and love how involved he can get online with fans. The other day he did an interview as part of a tour celebrating and promoting the 10th anniversary of American Gods. This interview is great because he talks about how he uses the internet to promote and connect with fans and how it influences his writing.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Learning Outcomes
How fast time has gone by. I almost can't believe that the semester is over, but let me tell you that I am ready for a break. Next semester is my last semester of classes at BYU and in the winter I'll be doing my student teaching. I think that this class has been a great preparation for using tech when I'm teaching, and I've learned a lot about writing and research. So, as the semester ends, it's time to look at the learning objectives and see how I did. Our learning objectives were centered around three important aspects of writing in the digital age.
1. Consume. 2. Create. 3. Connect.
Consume: I've learned how to use the internet in conjuction with traditional libraries and databases to find what others are saying about the work I am studying. During the semester I've searched for information with Google, Twitter, Goodreads forums, fansites, and Diigo bookmarks just to name a few sources. The value to this is that we can filter our information by finding people who are invested in our research and have already done some of the work on their own. They can be great sources for finding information about a topic of research. This enhances the research we can do in the library with its databases of scholarly journals.
Create: I've learned that creating can be part of the process of discovery, but it also gives our research a valid outlet. Authentic projects have been the name of the game, and that is what we have done with our eBook. I've created content with my blogging and with my Diigo account that has helped me and could also be of use to other people who are trying to learn more about Douglas Adams or making eBooks or even using digital tools and media. By creating we add our part to a massive conversation and exchange of knowledge that is the nature of both the internet and scholarly writing. I didn't only consume information about my book either. I spent hours consuming information and learning about InDesign in preparation for the eBook we would be making. Blogs and youtube videos and social bookmarks were a great help with finding and consuming that information.
Connect: I've connected with many people this semester. First, I've never worked more closely nor been more involved with my classmates work as I have this semester. It has been great to see their blogs and learn about Borges or Comics or pig farming as the semester has gone by. Also, the level of collaboration that has taken place has had me emailing, chatting and pestering almost every one of my fellow students in the course as we tried to get this eBook done. It has been a great experience and I have learned a lot. Connecting with others? Well, as a class we have been connecting with others to share our work with them. I had several friends on facebook tell me they were interested in the book we've written and I also sent out a recommendation to some of my friends on Goodreads. Hopefully they will read it and love it and share it with others who are interested. This is the point of connecting. This is the way that all of our research and writing and hard work pays off in the end. Someone will find it useful and share it with others who will also find value in it. It's so exciting.
I think that I've done pretty well this semester. I've worked hard at getting my writing done and writing often. I did a lot of research and learned more than just writing skills. I think that the things I've taken from this class with be assets in my future career.
1. Consume. 2. Create. 3. Connect.
Consume: I've learned how to use the internet in conjuction with traditional libraries and databases to find what others are saying about the work I am studying. During the semester I've searched for information with Google, Twitter, Goodreads forums, fansites, and Diigo bookmarks just to name a few sources. The value to this is that we can filter our information by finding people who are invested in our research and have already done some of the work on their own. They can be great sources for finding information about a topic of research. This enhances the research we can do in the library with its databases of scholarly journals.
Create: I've learned that creating can be part of the process of discovery, but it also gives our research a valid outlet. Authentic projects have been the name of the game, and that is what we have done with our eBook. I've created content with my blogging and with my Diigo account that has helped me and could also be of use to other people who are trying to learn more about Douglas Adams or making eBooks or even using digital tools and media. By creating we add our part to a massive conversation and exchange of knowledge that is the nature of both the internet and scholarly writing. I didn't only consume information about my book either. I spent hours consuming information and learning about InDesign in preparation for the eBook we would be making. Blogs and youtube videos and social bookmarks were a great help with finding and consuming that information.
Connect: I've connected with many people this semester. First, I've never worked more closely nor been more involved with my classmates work as I have this semester. It has been great to see their blogs and learn about Borges or Comics or pig farming as the semester has gone by. Also, the level of collaboration that has taken place has had me emailing, chatting and pestering almost every one of my fellow students in the course as we tried to get this eBook done. It has been a great experience and I have learned a lot. Connecting with others? Well, as a class we have been connecting with others to share our work with them. I had several friends on facebook tell me they were interested in the book we've written and I also sent out a recommendation to some of my friends on Goodreads. Hopefully they will read it and love it and share it with others who are interested. This is the point of connecting. This is the way that all of our research and writing and hard work pays off in the end. Someone will find it useful and share it with others who will also find value in it. It's so exciting.
I think that I've done pretty well this semester. I've worked hard at getting my writing done and writing often. I did a lot of research and learned more than just writing skills. I think that the things I've taken from this class with be assets in my future career.
Our eBook has arrived
We decided to use Adobe's InDesign CS5 to compile and format our eBook into the ePUB and PDF formats. From the ePUB we converted to a MOBI format for Kindle and I have to say all three formats came out quite nice. Several different versions of our free eBook can be downloaded here. Also, if you are on Goodreads, you can download the book here. If you like it, please remember to give us a good rating.
So, what goes in to making an eBook with InDesign? It's not as simple as you think. I'll talk a little about our process.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Works Cited page
I decided to get a jump on the work cited page, although we still haven't finished all of the regular chapters. I put this together based on what sources where in your final drafts. We are still waiting on a few chapters to be approved and sent back to the editing team. Other than that, the work cited on one or two chapters didn't have enough information to cite the pic used. If this is the case I sent you an email asking for more. I appreciate comments and collaborations. The work cited isn't set it stone, and if you can give it an edit, Nyssa, and help make it more uniform I would appreciate it..
Take a look at the work cited list for our eBook here.
Take a look at the work cited list for our eBook here.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
URGENT: read and respond ASAP
The design team will be working hard this weekend to try to have the eBook ready to launch on Monday by class time. Right now we are working and designing each individual chapter for the eBook. I believe that we have gotten past the few minor problems we were having and everything is looking good.
Now, the reason for the post is to show you all the Table of Contents I am making. This is the annotated Table of Contents that will be at the beginning of the eBook. It will look like this barring any changes, but the section and chapter names will have internal links to its proper place in the book. I had to take liberties with a few thesis statements, especially if you didn't provide the "tweethis," so look this over and find your annotation. If you don't like it or want to change it I need to know. Just make a comment on this post and include the changes or new thesis you would like me to put in the final version. Any other input is also appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to look at this.
Download the PDF here
Now, the reason for the post is to show you all the Table of Contents I am making. This is the annotated Table of Contents that will be at the beginning of the eBook. It will look like this barring any changes, but the section and chapter names will have internal links to its proper place in the book. I had to take liberties with a few thesis statements, especially if you didn't provide the "tweethis," so look this over and find your annotation. If you don't like it or want to change it I need to know. Just make a comment on this post and include the changes or new thesis you would like me to put in the final version. Any other input is also appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to look at this.
Download the PDF here
Friday, June 10, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
New chapter image
After talking with Annie Ostler and Ashley Nelson, we decided that my image probably wasn't going to work because of some small text the image contained. So, I decided to get a new image. I wanted something similar, but with less words or small text in it. I couldn't find anything I loved, so I took an image I liked and changed it a little for my purposes. I still have to figure out the right way to credit the original creator and acknolwedge that I changed it. Anyway, I thought I would put the image out here to see what everyone thinks about it.
The original was done by Imooty and can be found on her flickr account here. It has a creative commons license and only requires attribution. So unless I get negative feedback this will be the picture.
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