Reflection

So here comes the obligatory, end-of-semester "what did I learn" mumbo jumbo.

I honestly don't even know where to begin.

First of all, I will just say one valuable lesson I learned is that time flies when your having fun! There are so many things I did not have time to do this semester but I'm not mad or bummed out that I didn't do those things because I really did accomplish a lot of other great things. But in the future I need to take note of how fast only a few months can fly by.

The best "thing" or "concept" or "lesson" or whatever you want to call that I learned this semester is not something I read out of a book or learned from a class discussion. In fact it was something I found within myself.

That thing I found was confidence.

Don't get me wrong. I did have some confidence when coming in to this project; however, it really blossomed during my time at the Virginia B. Ball Center. I wish I could pin down a direct cause for this discovery; however, I think it was a mix of things. Definitely, one significant factor was my professor Beth Dalton. She was always there to support me when my writing was less than satisfactory and always had encouraging words to help keep my head up. Also, my teammates proved to be an amazing support system for me. They were constantly praising my work and helping me out when my confidence was faltering.

No matter how I obtained this confidence, it feels pretty darn good. I feel like I am actually ready to go out into the real world and knock-em dead!

Other things I learned this semester:

1. I learned about photography. I not only practiced framing shots but I also developed more knowledge about camera settings and how to edit those pictures in photoshop.

2. I learned about design elements. When I designed the invitation for the showcase, I knew it had to serve several purposes: bring people to the showcase, reflect the look and feel of the website, and be the base for the whole "campaign." I had other print materials to design and the invitations is where it all started.

3. I learned about collaboration. Working so closely with other students proved to be trying at times; however, I learned some coping strategies. I know that getting over-heated and angry accomplishes nothing. I also learned that at some point decisions need to be made and sometimes there has to be one person that will stand up and be perceived as the not-so-nice teammate. On top of all that, I learned how to be a better leader.

4. I learned about art and art museums. I learned about American and European Art and how it was affected by the changing times. I also learned that art museums are set up completely with the audience in mind. From the temperature of the rooms to the layout of rooms to the architecture, every little detail is meticulously thought out and planned.

5. I learned about interpersonal communications. I was able to practice my interpersonal communications on a daily basis. Wether it be communication with "outsiders" or my classmates or Beth, I was constantly practicing my comm skills.

6. I learned the importance of revising. After completing seven drafts of the audio tour scripts, I learned that no matter how many times you rewrite, reread, and edit your writing, it can still always be better.

As I begin to wrap up this list, I know I will close my computer and immediately think of something else important. But I think I pretty much covered the bases.

O! Here's one:

As I sat down and brainstormed this list. I learned that I have no regrets from this semester. It was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my college education.

Appreciation to my fellow teammates

So this semester would not have been possible without the help of every single one of my classmates. For this reason, I want to take a few moments to recognize the hard work of my fellow classmates:

David: He worked really hard in putting our website in dreamweaver. Before this semester, he knew nothing about dreamweaver and I appreciate the fact that he not only taught himself the program but was also able to build a beautiful site completely from scratch--Not an easy thing to do.

Sarah: Here writing skills really came in handy throughout the semester. She wrote a few tour scripts as well as part of the instructor materials section. She also helped put up the tour section of the website. She is an amazing writer and I think she will go on to do great things.

Cara: She saved my butt when it came time to put the tour packets together. I was supposed to put the tour packet together and was still struggling with my scripts. Being the awesome teammate that she is, she offered to take a load off my shoulders even though she had a lot on her plate. I will never forget this amazing act of kindness.

Rick: He was so amazing in the implementation of the mp3 players. Without Rick, those mp3 players would not even exist for the museum. He not only researched players to buy, but he also loaded the tours onto them (several times) and wrote directions for using the players.

Michelle: Without her the audio tours would still be in a word document floating somewhere in cyberspace. Not only did she gladly record the audio tour but she also edited all the tracks. On top of all that, she produced an impressive documentary about our project and class.

Maddy: She created a killer timeline! The English Literature major of the team, learned how to use Adobe Flash and produced an interactive timeline that can not be rivaled. I admire her willingness to learn and her dedication.

Anna: Without Maddy, the timeline would not have been organized in an awesome fashion; however, without Anna there would BE no timeline. Anna worked really hard on the timeline section and never complained once.

Amy: She did an awesome job with the showcase. She put together a play-by-play schedule that would make a wedding planner blush. I was thoroughly impressed.

Loretta: Loretta and I worked closely together this semester. She taught me SOOOOOO much and I owe her a great debt of gratitude. She's a fantastic photographer and I am lucky to learn from her. She also did a great job when we were working together on the program.

Katie: She was very helpful when it came to anything art (this makes sense, considering she is the only art major on our team). It's amazing how much this girl knows about art. She put a lot of effort into the art exploration part of the website.

Laura: What a diplomat little miss Laura is! She is very articulate and a good leader. She worked a lot on the design elements of the web site. When there was drama within the tech team she helped calm down the tempers and get us back on track.

Liz: Although she is not an art major, she was very helpful when our group had questions about art because she is a docent. She was so patient with me when I was trying to understand the different movements in art and I really commend her for that. She worked very hard on the timeline section.

My Professor, Beth: I could not have chosen a better professor to work with this semester. I know what is needed out of a professor that is leading an immersive learning project and Beth hit the nail on the head. She never lead us too much but also never let us get lost for lack of guidance. As I look back on this project, I realize just how big it really was. The only thing I have to say is: THANK GOD Beth was our professor. I would have been a very sour person by the end of the semester if anyone else would have lead this project.

And last but not least, ME: It's always very hard to brag about myself but it doesn't hurt to do it every once in awhile. I worked really hard on my tour scripts, the invitations, programs and other miscellaneous printed items. I tried to be a good leader as well throughout the semester because this is my third immersive learning experience.

All things VBC

So VBC stands for The Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry and in this blog I will tell you a few reasons why I love the VBC.

First of all, I got to work at the Kitselman Mansion. To say the least, it was AMAZING.

Who could deny that this place is anything less than marvelous.

Not only was I afforded the opportunity to work at the mansion but I was also fortunate enough to work with the dedicated staff at the VBC. Aside from everything I learned this semester, Joe and Donna really rounded out the experience for me.

Joe Trimmer, the director of the VBC, taught me to love life, be dedicated and to never give up. When I first met Joe he told us the story about how Virginia Ball wanted him and him only to head up the program. After completing my semester at the VBC, I now understand her decision. I have never seen someone so devoted to their job. He loves to show us off to other people and anytime we talk about the project he gets this huge smirk on his face that simply says "you guys did it and I could not be more proud." I feel like the luckiest person in the world for having the opportunity to get to know Joe Trimmer this semester.

The other VBC staff member that I had the privilege of hanging out with was Donna Ferguson, Associate Director of the VBC. Now this is a woman who knows how to get things done. She was so fun and cool but at the same time everyone respected her. Donna is just one of those people you just don't cross. And I have so much respect for her because of that. I hope that someday I can be as good a businesswoman as her.

Other random things I love and will miss at the VBC:

*The comfy couches in the living room

*The fire place

*The fact that food always seems to appear when I least expect it to

*The beautiful Christmas tree

*The drive up to the mansion

*The beautiful staircase that welcomes me every morning

*The cave where so many times we had group bonding time

*The attic

*The classroom [If the Kitselman mansion was our home then our classroom was our bedroom].

*And most of all, the people.

I will undoubtedly be back to visit.

Picture time!

So throughout the semester I have been taking a lot of pictures and editing them. Not only is this because I am getting two photography credits, but also, I just LOVE to take pictures. You have already seen some throughout my blog and now I will show you a small sample of other pictures I have taken throughout the semester.

This is a noteworthy picture because it features Loretta. She is VERY hard to snap a picture of because she is always the photographer.

A common trend this semester was eating. Here the group is pictured during a pizza party.

We were ALWAYS on our laptops so Maddy working diligently on her laptop is not a rare scene.

Likely this is Maddy going on about Virginia Woolf.

At the Virginia B. Ball Center students have to work in a strict collaborative setting. Maddy and Sarah are likely collaborating about the website.

Loretta in her most common state: behind a camera.

Loretta and I put together a makeshift photography studio in the basement of the Kitselman Mansion. Here, Loretta and Katie take a break from the studio shots to explore more creative shots.

Who can pass up a good detail of leaves in the fall?

I just really like the leaves.

I bought these cute key covers at the Dayton Art Institute and decided to take a break to take a picture of them.

Although this is by no means the majority of my pictures, it gives you an idea of some of the pictures that I took throughout the semester.

Also, keep in mind that I practiced and enhanced my photoshop skills tremendously this semester. Often overlooked by viewers, it takes a lot of hard work and manipulation to maximize the quality of a photo.

Tech 4 U

So back in October Beth asked Loretta and I to present at this Tech 4 U conference. Here is the URL to further explain what the event was about: http://cms.bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/EmergingMedia/FacilitiesandTech/Tech4UEvents.aspx

Of course we agreed and I was actually really excited. Then we got busy with the Web site and the showcase... and we forgot about it for a long time.....

The day before the presentation rolled around we realized that we had no idea what to talk about, who the audience was or how the speech would be structured.

Nevertheless, Loretta and I sucked it up, sat down and pounded out an awesome presentation that was going to blow the other presentations at the event out of the water. We decided that I would talk about blogs and she would talk about Flickr and Facebook.

[It's quite ironic that I was chosen to speak about blogs considering I'm such an expert at keeping mine up-to-date; however, people do seem to enjoy reading my blogs.]

Being the good presenters that we are, we showed up 35 minutes early to practice and do a technology run-through. However, what we found was the lonely speaker that was scheduled to present in the time-slot before us. My immediate thought? "Great. That audience that I so diligently analyzed was actually non-existent."

Fortunately for Loretta and I, we have the best classmates in the world and our entire team showed up along with Beth and Joe Trimmer (who is the director of the VBC- I love that guy and I might even write a blog just about him later this week). Also in attendance were 4 other poor souls who I'm thinking were professors.

In the end, we had a blast and it was good practice for my public speaking skills.

In case you are interested, here is a copy of my o-so organized outline for the presentation. [To make it easy for you I bolded the most important part]:

Loretta and I are doing an immersive learning project at the Virginia B. Ball Center this semester. It is located off campus at the Kitselman Mansion. We work in a seminar with 12 other students and are receiving 15 credit hours.

For our project we created a Web site in collaboration with the Ball State Museum of Art that encourages students to appreciate and learn about art. Before creating this Web site we did our homework. We researched similar Web sites and went directly to our audience: high school students. We visited Monroe Central High School to learn from and observe high school art students in action.

The result, as you can see, is this master piece.

The Web site features artwork from the Ball State Museum of Art in 4 sections:

The audio tour, which orients students and new museum patrons through the museum.

There is an Art Exploration section devoted to helping students look at art with confidence.

The Art Timeline to further help students understand art history, while using objects from the BSU Museum of Art to illustrate a variety of art styles.

And an Instructor Materials section to help educators maximize the educational value of the museum experience.

Behind the scenes of this beautiful Web site, was actually organized chaos. We built this site in a rather quick 10 weeks. Fortunately the ups and downs of those crazy 10 weeks have been documented on several blogs that were created by the students.

At the beginning of the semester, we were assigned to keep some sort of portfolio, whether it be a scrapbook or a blog, we had to have proof that we took part in the project at the end of the semester. Most of us chose blogs simply because it was easier.

This blog is one of the best things that could have happened to our group. We are constantly reflecting on what we’ve learned. We can read each other’s blogs to learn even more about the project.

My personal view of blogs in an educational setting:

I think it should be a college requirement that everyone write an educational blog throughout college. I really wish I could go back and know exactly what I was thinking when I walked into my first college course. I wish I could remember exactly what it was that I learned from that class….Unfortunately those thoughts were never recorded and I will not be able to remember exactly what I was thinking.

When this project is over, I will have an awesome Web site to show off to people and hopefully and awesome A+ to show off to people but also I will have the reflective blog that I can look back on and learn from for years to come. If I would have written a blog throughout college about what I have learned, I would have remembered things so much more.

The biggest challenge is having time to update the blog every semester.

It’s more conversational and laid back than typical papers.

Another social medium our class used was facebook. We used it to create a sense of community within our group. It worked out great because once you get to know someone on a personal level it is easier to work with them. You understand them better. At first we created a closed group but then later on we opened the group up to the public, which proved to be a huge success.

Scripts

So for the tour group we had to write these scripts (A.K.A. podcasts). In theory, the scripts sounded like a cinch; however, as fate would have it, the podcasts were a major undertaking. See below the evolution of our scripts. 

It must have been the third or fourth meeting where the tour group sat down and planned who would write each script. We decided there should be a script for each room in the museum and that each script should feature one object of art and then include a discussion about the room itself. Easy right? 

Being the nice person that I am, I volunteered to write three podcasts rather than two. Another fatal mistake was to pick my rooms based on my level of enthusiasm toward the works of art. I chose the Ethnographic Gallery, North Gallery: Bay 1 (A.K.A. American art) and North Gallery: Bay 2 (A.K.A. a hodge podge of American and European with a bit of impressionism).

Skip ahead four weeks. 

After several conversations with Beth and Tania and several classmates I finally made it to my 4th draft. That's right. You heard me correctly. FOUR DRAFTS. It gets better. After four drafts I decided that my object for the American Gallery would not work and I changed objects! 

Overall, I completed roughtly 7 drafts. I lost count by the end. 

I could have pouted and cried and complained, but instead I decided to brush it off my shoulder and use this as a learning experience. 

Somewhere around draft 5 or so, I realized that there never really is a FINAL draft of anything. Think about the books and newspapers you've read. I'm sure on several occasions you had to reread something because the syntax was confusing or you found those too words that the editors did not catch in there Sunday edition of the newspaper.

In reality, no one is perfect. It's great to strive for perfection but we all need to remember that perfection truly is impossible. This is something I need to work on now and into the future. I have problems accepting less than perfect work from myself. Unfortunately, tt oftentimes gets in the way of creating even mediocre work. I get so focused on how bad my writing or my pictures or my designs could be that I neglect how great they will be. 

(O.K. you got me, I did complain about the drafts. But not as much as you would have!) 

I'm sort of clueless about Timeline

So I know a lot about the Audio Tour section of the website; however, I do not know too much about the timeline. I was not on that team and I have not really been following their process. After spending some time playing with it, I've realized just how cool it is! I sat on it for an hour and a half just reading all the different things. They did a really good job and I love the fun fact by Darcy the Docent Dog. Not only is the content interesting and appealing but also the format is stellar. Maddy did an excellent job with it.

I'm just glad that I didn't have to be responsible for all that content. Phew! That must have been a heavy load to pull.