Rob Young. “Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek!” on Flickr

Thankfully, I had completed most of this assignment before I worked on the Canonical Text report with Camille, so the videos I had already watched gave me just enough confidence to begin our project. During the production process, though, I had to watch many more tutorials and research ways to work around problems I was having, but TechSmith’s tech support and blog pages are very helpful! Where I originally saw having to use this technology in-depth as a scary monster which was out to get me, I now view the technology as a harmless ball of fluff that just wants to be understood. What a relief!

Not only do  I feel relief at having finished one major assignment, I feel more confident and comfortable using the technology. I’m currently reading Susan Delagrange’s book The Technologies of Wonder, and I appreciate her stance on encouraging the non-linear use of images to enhance not only learning and “meaning-making,” but also the wonder of exploration. Often she uses the terms inquiry and discovery which so aptly describe how I felt as I was working on our project. The tutorials are organized using textual links, but they don’t require that the user go through each tutorial in order; I was able to click around and search for those things which would answer my questions in a timely manner. That sense of being “user-friendly” goes a long way in helping to foster a sense of wonder. Delagrange warns against making something too easy so that the user loses interest or making something so complicated that the user feels frustrated. The gang at TechSmith has found the right balance, at least for the way that I think.

Having to look for answers as I was creating the project assisted in my techne‘ or the act of meaning-making, which is consistent with most learning theories. Very few of us can learn something just to learn it; we must make associations in order for things to stick and in order for interest to remain high enough to generate genuine thought. Because I was creating my own questions during the process and finding my own answers to those questions, I was able to learn at a much higher rate than if I had just watched every video without actually playing with the product or if I had been forced to use the product without the support of the tutorials and blog pages. My sometimes-latent kinesthetic nature has blossomed with this requirement to utilize an unfamiliar technology, so that I was able to sit down for 13 hours with very few breaks and remain focused enough to work on the Canonical Text project. I haven’t devoted that much time to any one thing in years, and it really felt like an accomplishment more than a chore.

Now that I am more comfortable with the technology and know how it “thinks,” I have a better understanding of what design strategies I should keep in mind as I work toward my Individual Media Project. Now I just need to sit down for a few hours and devote some time to the planning process for that project. If I can view storyboarding the same way I viewed this project, I am more likely to remain engaged. Maybe that’s what I’ll do with my storyboard…