Networked Stories

In this week in the Net Mirror (#NetNarr) Professor Levine is encouraging the use of audio to capture our thoughts.  Here I'm playing with audio and using the screen capture feature on Android (Samsung 10) that allows for multiple things: capturing my voice, capturing system sounds, screen annotation, video thumbnail.  This would be a very cool way to tell a story using a multimodal approach. This is a cross posting for #WalkMyWorld where I came across the " I Miss My Bar " website which allows customisation of ambient noise. This is becoming a fine art in the recording space. Today I'm watching the Australian Open Tennis match, played from Melbourne, Australia. Melbourne is in a snap lockdown for covid reasons and no audience is allowed at the stadiums but the matches can go ahead. As I watch the telecast, there is fake ambiance added in, crowds clapping, murmuring and talking. 

 In Week 1 (and a bit) of Network Narratives there have been two questions for me: 1. How can education be subverted? 2. What do I think about this course theme: Post Pandemic University (PPU) These are extracted from the facilitators introduction and not asked directly. With another open participant, Terry Elliott ( @telliowkuwp ), we have been discussing these questions via the margins using hypothes.is. Terry suggested that the answer to question one might be GameStop. I'll leave that right there! Terry suggested The Boss, aka Bruce Springsteen in this performance of the Chuck Berry song: You Never Can Tell (Leipzig 7/7/13) (Official Video) might be the past predicting the future and what a PPU might look like. Martin Weller suggests in his recent blog that stories and metaphors are two main ways that people make sense of the world. I'm going to use this performance as a metaphor for a PPU. Bruce has over 50,000 students and he starts with a key. He frames this around his ...

NetNarr kicks off again and Alan Levine writes this introduction  and Mia Zamora adds her launch thoughts . The theme this year is Imagining a Post Pandemic University. Working with students who are not-post but in-pandemic, it will be interesting what will be written in this environment. Mia talks about envisaging a 'way out' and all the paths that might move forward in the education sector. Play and fun is a prime focus and discovery with opportunities to express ourselves in different media. I'm participating as an open participant. This is an ongoing invitation and Alan reinforces  that dipping in and out is perfectly acceptable. You can see from the history of this blog that I've had such great adventures from the Alchemist Lab to the Other Bus Tour . My plans for the 2021 iteration is to participate in the activities that interest me. I would also like to support students by reading their blogs and interacting on twitter. Maybe I'll use tools I'm familiar...

' When we look closely at our screens,  what do we see,  both in ourselves and in our society?  And are the screens  and networks behind it  seeing us back?  What do our reflections behold,  and what stories still need to be told?'  from  http://netmirror.arganee.world/ In this empty classroom I pose I want a selfie - but not so I turn the camera towards its own black mirror. In this empty classroom the whiteboard is white the tables are clear and the screen, (the promise of the screen) is partially rolled down. In this empty classroom the chairs wait poised for some instruction - trees shift outside a view screened from the heat. In this empty classroom the screen waits connection with something or someone - power-save mode holds. In this empty classroom the light is harsh. by Wendy Taleo CC BY SA for Net Mirror 2020.

What a great way to finish up 2018 #NetNarr with a 'green-screen-faking-it' video from Mia Zamora and Alan Levine. I just want them to shake hands so I know it's real! Two wonderful academics that have guided us through this maze we call Network Narratives. I'm wrapping up another #NetNarr event. The Final Final checklist suggested a few ways to curate what has been happening and I think this would be valuable for me now and as a way of reflection. Blog Posts http://netnarr.arganee.world/author/wendy-taleo/ Daily Digital Alchemies http://daily.arganee.world/hashtags/wentale/ From the 20 creations or interactions, one of my favourites was: From the Inside Out  that resulted in this video . Trees, crochet and cats! This also echoes an ongoing theme for me in Network Narratives: ~ The ability to see things in a different light ~ Twitter TAGS explorer  - Twitter, once again, provided a rich ground for interaction and connection in this course. The Summary doe...

I'm posting this so it turns up on the NetNarr Blog Aggregator! Such is the digital life! See the full post here http://wentalearn.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/a-museum-of-digital-life-art-and-other.html

Photo by  NASA  on  Unsplash Reading the ever-exciting  New Media Consortium 2017 report , it lists Next Generation Digital Learning Environments (NGDLE) on the 2-3 year timeframe for adoption.  I'm thinking about Network Narratives in this framework and realise that what we have in the various resources of this course, makes up a learning ' portal ' (pg 45). Whether this provides a deeper learning experience than signing up for a Learning Management System (LMS) experience is something that I am pondering. A portal that allows a different view from sea to sky, clear blue hard to summarise for others multi-faceted in tools not so many rules open in nature shareable is preferred remix is encouraged onwards we learn from this portal. While my formal, mega-paid-up, education is within an LMS (or VLE for the Northern European folk), it's a very flat file, non-agile experience. There are reports to read, discussion board items to writ...

In this segment of Netnarr we are being asked to think about games . Here is a short reflection on two of my fave games at the moment. Mahjong - the board game This is nothing like the 'match the pair' version that is popular on computers. The goal of the game is to be able to make a certain pattern of the tiles (like cards) in a throw out/pick up routine. I like the routine and process of this game which starts with shuffling the tiles, building a wall, throwing dice to determine East wind etc. While the challenge is to complete your own set of tiles, there is an added challenge of guessing what your oponents want (or discard). What I personnally get out of it is relaxation (providing I'm not trying to teach someone the game!), memory of the hands and the connection with the other 3 players. Sudoku Goal - to fill in all the boxes....according to the rules. It's a solo challenge and the satisfaction is finishing it. It's annoying to share with anyone else b...

Stats Pageviews 79....really? Ukraine (surely it's a bot) tracks did I have your permission? did you consent? DO I CARE?

Image: Wendy Taleo, 2018 I missed the #Netnarr Twitter chat this morning. Here is a composition of my safari. With six images created a seventh image, I narrate my safari across these landscapes. What I miss is the interaction, so leave a comment and show that you have trodden this track.

Photo by Mike Wilson on Unsplash These reflections are from the last iteration of Network Narratives . I feel that last years involvement was like being part of a SOC. SMALL   OPEN   CLASS (SOC) At any point in time, there was between 4-10 open participants active (or that I have interacted with) in the Network Narratives activities. Some people were consistent all the way through and other people came into the class through the porous class walls. During our Open Bus Tour   Alan Levine mentioned this aspect of having this 'open class' and that it was 'about the right size'. I'm not sure about the size factor but I do know that it was a comfortable space and allowed repeated connections and conversations over the 3 months. The typical MOOC timeframe is 4-6 weeks and even shorter if you only participate for some of the time. Travelling along on this journey for a full University Semester has been a different type of open study. I was always aware of the weekly...

In Week 1 of Network Narratives  we were pointed to the website Network Effect . The above capture shows the word categories that are options for filtering this information. The front page of this programme has this information and questions. The effect of this programme is nausea! A feeling of dread of the uselessness of it all, a sick feeling in the pit of one's stomach in the over dramatised but somehow ordered bits of information. The messy cultural messages. Did you try it? Leave a comment below on how you felt.

"Elsewhere the sky is the roof of the world; but here the earth was the floor of the sky." ~Willa Cather Networked Narratives Intercept 9 starts this way. The following poem is another interception constructed from this video of Mia Zamora and Alan Levine chatting. VISIONS OF ELSEWHERE Our sense of scale is corrected putting self into perspective when we view the sky or the view out another persons window we need this correction to see our relative unimportance in the world I feel the need of 'elsewhere' time open space and air to breathe it smells like desert rain when you crumble the leaves little things become precious keep them in your heart lupines are budding in your corner my envy echoes through frogs croak I anticipate the crunch of silence like steps in the snow sharing our enthusiasm of daily views seen anew opens the portal of knowing allowing us to feel more magical moments of seeing are the horizon of our time...

Maybe you thought I'd be talking about massive, open and online things.....but it's really just about a cow in a paddock eating grass. This is the 'outing' and closing of The Jolt project. Way back when, like December 2016, I was chomping at the bit (oh that is a horse reference and he will come into this story as well) to get started on Network Narratives course. I think it was being promoted as a MOOC and due to the well connected stars at the centre of stage Mia Zamora and Alan Levine, there was a lot of interest. It was suggested that alternative personas might be required to participate in the Course. I went ahead and created The Jolt.  This was not a random selection. I was bought up on a dairy farm and have lots of memory, knowledge and history with cows. I figured I'd have enough material to work with. I also decided to stay in-persona when posting so this would be a separate identity. However I did mention this to Kevin Hodgson when he started pos...

Golden Silk Orb-weaver spider Image: Wendy Taleo, 2017 Somewhere between the campus and the cloud my stories lie hidden until shared.  Clear and loud. This is a continuation of my poem "Somewhere between" that you can read here . This week in Network Narratives we are thinking about the Storied Places . What stories lie within the campus and how can you understand the student experience from these stories? There are 2 physical campuses and 1 virtual 'cloud' campus that are relevant to my learning journeys at the moment. The first campus is where I work. The second physical place is in Milton Keynes, UK which is just up the road from London. That is where the Open University, UK, is based and I'm an online student there again this year. The third space/location/cloud is the Internet. Various Learning Management Systems, social media platforms, shared blogging, synchronous connections and discussions boards. These spaces also impact my stories. ...

I wonder what you did on the bus tour today Did the kids fight up the back row Or tell naughty jokes? I wonder what you did on the bus tour today Did the shy kids sit behind the driver Or crowd together on row 2? I wonder what you did on the bus tour today Was there food flung from scungy lunchboxes Or cards played out of sight? I wonder what you did on the bus tour today Did your big sister ignore you Or protect you from the word barbs? I wonder what you did on the bus tour today Did you fall asleep half way home Or sing until your voice cracked? I wonder what you did on the bus tour today Did the driver have to wake you up Or were you first off the bus? I wonder what you did on the bus tour today. Wendy Taleo CC BY (memories of catching the bus to school)

The tale of the kangaroo and the fence. The kangaroo might have been Syrian children starved by their countrymen. Or maybe the indigenous kids at my son's school that I don't see because they don't come to school. The water might have been food trucks turned back at borders. Or a missed education. The fence could be a wall to block people joining their families. Or some crazy idea in the late 1800's to block rabbits  (an introduced species that came over on boats) crossing Australia. The students might have been the paparazzi, hounding a Princess after a late night supper. Or digital humanists that observe their life through a writer's lense. The devices might have been social media that tracks the truth and fake-ness of what might or might not have happened. Or VR/AR/3D/4D/other-ness kind of things. The awe may have been Jason Silver embodying this through his Shots of Awe videos. Or not. The sorrow, ahhhh, the sweet sorrow. Might ...

Story shapes, Glitch Art and Network Improvisation. What a time we are having along this NetNarr road. Story shapes are a way of visualising the narrative. NetNarr  TagsExplorer by Martin Hawksey is rather mesmerising to watch. If you want to see where you sit in the 'eye', press Ctrl F and type your Twitter tag in there. This does not present any emotion between the nodes. In this article "The emotional arcs of stories are dominated by six basic shapes", Reagan et al  (2016) talk about measuring the popularity of emotional arcs in different stories and about 'shared emotional experiences'. I find this interesting to apply to the Networked Narrative that is happening between students that see each other face-to-face and those that have never met in that way. How much emotion do we share that could even allow us to match our experiences? Could this impact how we interact with Twitter bots, teacher bots or Twitter accounts of 'other' sort (like ow...

Click the picture to view the verse OnUniverse I created my first verse in this  digital Universe . Shadows under my fingertips of possibilities. I continue to play the various examples that are given in this beta app  (I love the 'b' word) and see how many different ways you can use it. This blog post may grow as I try different aspects. My ideas for future verses are these: poetry with moving word blocks add music to play in the background pop out photos that lead the reader through a series choose your own adventure colour blocks in minnimalist style multiple movie blocks 

Intercepts. I view the world through my little window yet I am in the room I am here on the screen I am here on the journey I know real things glimpses across the room warmth, giggles, no carnage. Rendering. Extruding. Done.