Okay, where to begin…
Seth talked about how important it is to reflect because it basically processes your thoughts into a form of words so that myself and others can better understand what I did, and what other people and I thought could have gone better after conducting an activity. We’ll be doing a lot of reflecting in this course because it is actually a skill we must develop as future media practitioners (and it’s part of an assessment too). We’ll be doing what’s called “practice-based research” which is a process of doing and/or making something, then recording the results and thinking about it in all kinds of angles. I think it’s exactly like conducting science experiments (keyword here, EXPERIMENTS) and it’s becoming really obvious to me now seeing as the course is called “Online Video Experiments” *slaps forehead*.
…And I’m describing things.
I have two reflection models to follow – Gibbs and Driscoll – which I’ll be using alternately because it’s more fun that way.
I was and am still curious about what this course is all about. Right now we’re only scratching the surface in understanding what exactly is online video, which by itself is actually quite broad and difficult to define. Unlike traditional media where the first things that pop into my head are, “the news”, “discovery channel”, and “T.V. shows”, it’s hard to put into words what online videos are because there are so many different types and I think most don’t have their own categories or at least, ones that I know of. This also shows just how flexible online video is because you can basically put anything together and call it a video as long as you can watch it. But isn’t that what a video is, anyway? I think it’s also because there’s so much more freedom with the internet seeing as there aren’t any limitations besides copyright. I mean, you don’t have to pitch your idea to a bunch of executives to greenlight something, you just make it, then upload it on some video sharing website and wait for people to judge if they like it or not. Another reason why I think they’re distinctive from each other is because traditional media is more formal and new media, which online video is under, feels more informal. This is because some online videos, such as V-logs, are more personal by connecting and interacting directly with the audience. Some web series like “Honest Trailers” by Screen Junkies create their next trailer video based on what their viewers recommend in the comment section.
Seth also touched upon using a “polyvocal” approach in our essays. Breaking the word up, poly means “many” and vocal means “voices”. However, Google suggests that the term does not literally refer to “many voices talking at the same time” but rather, different interpretations of a certain text. This only brings up a question, how would I be able to do this with my essay? Unless it’s a group essay, I don’t see any other way other than to clone myself and hope each of them thinks differently (but cloning is actually pretty freaky so I hope I don’t have to resort to that). Joking aside, I can think of a few ways, but I’m not sure if they’re considered polyvocal. I guess I CAN research and use the opinions of other people/professionals but isn’t that more like referencing? Can I, or rather AM I supposed to use the opinions of my classmates and reference them in my essay? Perhaps I’ll learn more about it in the coming weeks so I’ll wait and see.
Overall, I learned a lot about what we’ll be doing in this course and what online video is about especially during that mindmap exercise. The one Seth put together with the class was really informative and I only wish there was more time so that it could be completed. If there’s anything I could do differently for the next class, it’s to ask questions. The only problem with that is, I can’t think of any during class.