Journal yuting yang

JOUR NAL

CREATIVE PROJECT DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Y U T I N G YA N G - 8 1 3 1 5 1

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t is the first week of having Creative Project - Digital Technologies. Hence, the question should be asked that what is creativity?

According to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999, retrieved from Scoffham, 2003), creativity involves using imagination, pursuing purposes, being original and judging value. First of all, since each individual is influenced by countless factors including gene, cultural background, geographic surroundings and so on, the way of thinking of each people is distinctive and unique. Meanwhile, as everyone possesses more or less knowledge about various aspects, such as literature, physics or survival methods, the focus of thinking is also multifarious. Consequently, a person should be able to look at a thing from the own perspective

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JOURNAL 1 and generate some original ideas. With respect to pursuing purposes, there are so many problems whatever tough or soft, complicated or simple, waiting humans to solve. As a result, even merely taking real life problems into account, there are unending motivations forcing us to be creative.

Lastly, with continues attempts and obtaining experience though this process, the practicability of our ideas could be enhanced so that the value of our creativity could be achieved. In general, everyone has the ability to think creatively, as long as we master certain knowledge, keep self uniqueness, have a nose for troubles and gain experiences through constant practices.

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n order to generate creative ideas, the process of creativity is necessary to know. According to researcher Graham Wallis (1926, retrieved from Popova, 2016), the creative process comprises four stages, preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. To deep understand and apply the process, the one of the artefact, Dumb Ways to die is used as a convictive instance. In the first stage, preparation, the team of the Victoria railway found out that nowadays, there are many stupid and dangerous actions around trains. Especially, today’s teenagers are indicted into digital devices and therefore accidents may happen due to the less concentration on surroundings. As a result,

it is critical to send a safety message to the public.

Head to the incubation stage, it is the most timeconsuming and tough stage. As conventional ads have little impact on people, including teenagers, an innovative way should be come up with to draw the attention from teenagers and make them absorb the message spontaneously and pleasantly. At the same time, the way should be without offending or blaming. In a moment, an excellent idea popped into one of the team’s head that making a cute animation with a catchy song. This is the illumination stage, the significant moment. Finally, the idea was put into conduction and the result verified the success of it. In conclusion, I deem that there must be such a process behind each creative idea and understanding the process is necessary for us to reach such an idea.

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he new generation, named as “digital natives” by Prensky (2001), have immersed with information and communication technology in their daily lives. There is a wide argument about whether the new generation is distinctive from the previous generations.

Firstly, it can be sure that the new generation has grown up in a completely different circumstance where the digital technologies are easily to be accessed. Under such context, the learning style has transformed. According to Prensky (2001), today’s generation prefers the highspeed learning, making irregular connections, learning with visual and dynamic messages. As Brown (2000) claimed, they are accustomed to being multiprocessing and discovery-based learning. Gradually, for most people around the world, digital technologies have become an integral part of their lives. Mobile phones

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JOURNAL 3 are always in the hands busying with texting messages and checking emails. Surfing online has turned into the most popular way to kill the time. Watching televisions and playing video games have been the major entertainments. It is unimaginable how the contemporary world would be without electricity and internet. Even in school, especially in developed countries, tablet is held by each student as the primary study equipment and the projector is an indispensable device in each classroom. An unprecedented technology environment has come and brought so many influence on today’s generations. The transformation can not be ignored and modifications or alternations of the educational system should be made.

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ith the change of both the technology environment and the new generation, there is an unpredictable opportunity for the education development. There are some stereotypes about learning that studying is about receiving information and it can not be fun.

Thus, the definition and method of education should be rethought. According to Resnick (2016), learning is a dynamic process about how to transform information into knowledge and manage that knowledge. It involves exploration, experimentation, discussion and reflection. The aim of education is to be capable of thinking and acting creatively (2016). Fortunately, the digital technologies, especially computers contribute a lot to such a process. From music even to scientific

simulations, computers provide a universal construction material for the contemporary humans to learn and create the world. For example, garageband allows everyone to play with music. It is the chance for amateurs who possess little knowledge to enjoy music, explore little or many ideas about music or even discover their unbeknown talent for music. For musicians, it is a much more handy and portable band to create masterpieces whenever and wherever the inspiration shows. With respect to architecture, amazing softwares such as Photoshop, Rhino, AutoCad are essential tools for today’s students to apply the knowledge they learn and turn it into extraordinary works. To conclude, digital technologies have provided an unparalleled circumstance for the generation to explore and create the new world and the key point is to maximise the advantages of the techniques.

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or my hurdle task, I chose Tokyo Reverse as the artefact to present. It filmed a man walking backwards around the Tokyo street. In terms of the technique, it is fairly simply, filming and playing it in reverse. However, the outcome is fabulous. This video gives viewers a mindboggling view to look at the world. Moreover, there is a visual impact that we can image that there is a bizarre man who can turn back the clock and walk through the world to look everything that used to be or everybody what was doing. He just has the power to reverse the time. Or, you might feel that the guy is so lonely, because he is the only contrarian against the whole world, or you may say, he is the only guy who the whole world is against with. What is worthy to be mentioned is that the full film was 9 hours long, as a slow TV programme aired by a French television station (BBC, 2014). Slow TV recently has become popular, especially in Europe. The point of slow TV is to make a memorable attempt at an essential concept: make reality TV real (BBC, 2014). Normally, the TV programs we see today are processed, it might be cut, speed up or low down. Whereas, the slow TV present the one hundred percents original recording of an event.

There is nothing lost or nothing extra added. All in all, a creative idea does not have to be complex or troublesome. Sometimes, a simple and pure attempt might bring up a great result.

Figure 1. Tokyo Reverse still 1.

Figure 2. Tokyo Reverse still 2.

Figure 3. Tokyo Reverse still 3.

Figure 4. Tokyo Reverse still 4.

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T Figure 5. Comments.

Figure 6. Online tutorial about trees.

Figure 7. Online tutorial about 3D drawing.

hesedays, in order to improve my drawing skills, I did some researches online, and I found that the online tutorial video is such a great resource. Firstly, it is a video which means it can be paused and played as many times as required. Some excellent videos explained the concepts in a vivid and intelligible way, which makes the process of learning not painful but pleasant. Also, for one subject, there may be various channels in diverse styles, so viewers could choose the one they are fond of.

Additionally, most of the online tutorials are free and propagated online. Consequently, the resource can be accessed by a great number of people around the whole world. Besides, it is exciting for viewers from the whole world to exchange their opinions through the comment boxes. With respect to the video makers, the Internet provides a platform to show their personality, share knowledges and actualise certain personal values. These advantages of online tutorials present the affordances of Information and Communication Technologies, including accessibility, variety, velocity of alternation, communication collaboration, reflection (Conole, 2012). As a result, each technology has the potential to benefit humans and perceiving the affordance of the technique is an essential step to make full use of it and archive the success.

Figure 8. Onlin tutorial about perspective drawing.

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his week, we watched some digital storytellings, which apply digital techniques and domenstrate a story or an idea to the public. In terms of technology, it combines images, graphics, music, and sound mixed together with the author’s own story voice (Porter, cited in Discovery Education, 2005). Various presenting elements enrich the traditional conventions of storytelling. For instance, the background music heightens a certain atmosphere and meanwhile images enhance the visual attraction. In general, digital storytelling enlarges the experience for both the author and the audience. Moreover, with the advent of the new tools and softwares, such as iMovie and Movie Maker, the process of creating a digital storytelling is rather simple and convenient for users. With respect to the affordance of digital storytelling, I feel it is fairly board. Firstly, for authors, it is a platform to share wonderful stories to double the joy or to talk about their predicaments releasing the pressure and asking for some help. While, as for audiences, it is an opportunity to be immersed in all kind of situations and acquire different inner experiences whatever pleasant or painful. In addition, a good storytelling would transmit something valuable such as a positive attitude or a practical piece of advice. Furthurmore, because of its great interactivity, digital storytelling is also an ideal tool to be put in classrooms (Davidson, cited in Discovery Education, 2005). In conclusion, digital storytelling is an efficient form to share ideas and stories and it has more potentialities waiting us to explore.

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am an environments student, and saving resource is always a big concern for me.

Nowadays, people buy many things from supermarket and most of them are packed with plastic or paper bags. Hence, loads of wastes are generated in daily life. For instance, Australia consumed 2,602,000 tonnes of paper or cardboard just for packaging in 2011 (Blue Environment, 2011). At my apartment, I collect many empty milk bottles, cardboard tubes, egg packagings and so on. One day, when staring at those wastes planning to send them into the recycling bins, I thought I can do something innovative with them.

It remained me the crafts that I did when I was in primary school. It is a workable and wonderful idea to turn them into something pretty and valuable. Consequently, I decided to record the process of the conversions to encourage people reusing wastes. Basically, there are three major ways to save resources, reducing, reusing and recycling but reusing could be the most creative method. In doing so, people can possess a lovely or practical stuff, contribute to the global sustainability and meanwhile enhance their creativity. In the future, I wish I could create more exciting things from wastes such as cloth, furniture and architecture.

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his week, I started to prepare making the video. However, the first question is that how to appeal people to watch this video since the craft process could be tedious and uninteresting. Stop motion becomes a good choice, as a big feature of it is that stop motion could make something without lives seem like moving by themselves, so the whole process would be animated. In addition, an good video should involve a story, like one of the technique to make a good digital storytelling. As a result, the video is decided to record that a pile of wastes who are abundant by their master, start to move since their master left and become stylish. Next, I need to decide what crafts to make. I searched some recycling crafts online and considered the complexity of the process and whether the process is suitable or amusing to be shot as a stop motion. I also tought about the commonness of the material. Because some exquisite crafts require some special materials which people normally do not have at home so that they will stop thinking about making it. Eventually, I decided to use web, magazine, wrapping paper, bottle to make a decoration octopus, a coin container, a rose and a pencil container. The process of making will include cutting, tearing, rolling, folding, flipping, coloring, those active movements.

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Figure 9. Octopus made by web.

Figure 10. Container made by magazine.

Figure 11. Rose made by newspaper.

Figure 12. Pencil container made by bottle and lace.

JOURNAL 10 Figure 13. Tripod mount and holder for iPhone.

Figure 14. Iphone 6 camera.

Figure 15. All materials required for this video.

Figure 16. Thread used to cotrol the object.

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t is time to shoot, a super time-consuming and headache process. First of all, a big issue of making stop motion is to make sure the position of the camera keeps still, so the effect of object moving can turn out well. So I bought a tripod mount and holder for stabilising and supporting my iPhone. Another tricky point is that once start shooting, I can not go back to redo it, since in most cases, the objects have been changed their appearances. As a result, I used the spare objects and tested the outcomes for several times before the formal shooting. In addition, in order to control the object to fly into the screen or to stand up, I used threads tied with them. Thus, I could move them with my hand out of the screen and it will make my later processing much easier.

Furthurmore, due to the long time of shooting, the sunlight would change both the strength and the direction. So I closed the curtains and switched on the lamp to supply the consistant light. Finally, I started to shoot before checking everything is placed on the table. I moved objects little by little, took hundread of photos one after another. Even though the process is exhausting but the result is adoreble. After this shooting, I learned to prepare thoroughly before doing everything and to solve the issues by trying different methods.

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fter the shooting, some later post processes are required. Firstly, I used photoshop, the stamp tool to remove extra things such as the hand and scissors appeared accidentally in the photos as well as the black threads. Then, I used Stop Motion, an iPhone application to make photos a stop motion. Compared with iMoive, Stop Motion is handier to operate on the iPhone. When it comes to the background music, I planed to use garageband to create a corresponding music. But at the beginning, I found it is fairly hard for me, since I possessed little knowledge about music and garageband.

The difficulty is about how to select the proper loops and adjust them with my stop motion and how to make each loop coordinates

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JOURNAL 11 harmoniously with each other. Consequently, I watched many online tutorials that some of them are posted on the padlet provided by Andrew and some are searched according to my demands. At last, I finished the non professional but cute background music with some sound effects. During this process, I applied the knowledge about photoshop that I learned in class to solve the practical prblem. I also absorbed some knowledge about music from the Internet and transformed those information into the real useful skills required in my project and probably in the future projects.

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welve weeks have past, and I gained a great number of digital skills, learning experiences and new understandings, ideas about education and technologies. Firstly, I learned how to manipulate Indeign, Photoshop which will be beneficial to my future study in architecture with respect to presenting. I also obsorbed the knowledge about being creative and being artistic which are the critical skills required in the designing process. In addition, I had some experiences about music writing and graphics making through Garageband and Illustrator. Even through the work of the first attempt is far from good, I did discover my passion about music. Writing music will be my another hobby and more professional knowledge will be acquired through the online tutorials. Furthurmore, this subject gave me the distinctive and valuable view to look at the world. Especially the concept of affordance, taught me to explore the deep nature of each technology or other object, so I am capable to develop the strengths and avoid the weaknesses.

Finally, through completing my final project, I had experienced the process of problem solving that problem finding, problem analysis, doing researches, coming up with solutions and acting. In conclusion, Creative Project Digital Technologies not only brought me kowledges but also the approach of gaining and applying kowledges.

The link of the final project: https://youtu.be/e8l3PQQU1oo 13

References BBC (2016). France: Nine-hour show of man walking backwards airs on TV. Retrieved from http:// www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-26820572.

Blue Environment (2011). Waste generation and resource recovery in Australia. Retrieved from https://www.environment.gov.au/protection/national-waste-policy/publications/waste-generation-and-resource-recovery-australia-report-and-data-workbooks Conole, G. (2012). Affordances. Explorations in the Learning Sciences, Instructional Systems and Performance Technologies, Vol. 4. Chapter 7. 1st Edition. Retrieved from https:// app.lms.unimelb. edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5167570-dt-content-rid-18906128_2/courses/EDUC10049_2016_SM2/ Chapter%207%20%28ICT%29%20affordances.pdf.

Discovery Education (2005). The Art of Digital Storytelling. Retrieved from http://www.unitedstreaming.com/.

Popova, M. (2016). The Art of Thought: A Pioneering 1926 Model of the Four Stages of Creativity.

Retrieved from https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/08/28/the-art-of-thought-graham-wallas-stages/.

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon 9, no. 5, 2001. Retrieved from https://app.lms.unimelb.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5167603-dt-contentrid-18906869_2/courses/ EDUC10049_2016_SM2/Prensky%20%20Digital%20Natives%2C%20Digital%20Immigrants%20 -%20Part1.pdf.

Resnick, M. (2016). Rethinking learning in the digital age. Retrieved from https://app.lms.unimelb. edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-5167595-dt-content-rid-2719515_2/courses/460674/Week%202/Re-%20 thinking%20learning%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age.pdf.

Scoffham, S. (2003). Thinking Creatively. Primary Geographer January 2003. Retrieved from

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Reference for Images Figure 1. Tokyo Reverse still 1. Retrieved from http://www.trippapparel.com/page/26?attachment_ id Figure 2. Tokyo Reverse still 2. Retrieved from http://www.liligo.fr/magazine-voyage/video-tokyoreverse-le-japon-en-sens-inverse-23812.html Figure 3. Tokyo Reverse still 3. Retrieved from http://www.wired.it/tv/camminare-per-le-vie-tokyomentre-tokyo-va-al-contrario/ Figure 4. Tokyo Reverse still 4. Retrieved from https://noisegoods.com/blogs/underthesun/92207553-life-on-road-tokyo-reverse Figure 5. Comments. Sreenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw0EwL3SXWQ Figure 6. Online tutorial about trees. Sreenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw0EwL3SXWQ Figure 7. Online tutorial about 3D drawing. Sreenshot from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOjK_5eSbks Figure 8. Onlin tutorial about perspective drawing. Sreenshot from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AfyqG21aydM Figure 9. Octopus made by web. Retrieved from http://m.pcbaby.com.cn/x/259/2599137.html Figure 10. Container made by magazine. Retrieved from https://au.pinterest.com/ pin/347340189984393167/ Figure 11. Rose made by newspaper. Retrieved from http://www.100layercake.com/ blog/2011/07/22/diy-storybook-paper-roses/ Figure 12. Pencil container made by bottle and lace. Retrieved from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/dc/bd/43/dcbd43c86120473f696239fdd5ad028b.jpg Figure 13. Tripod mount and holder for iPhone. Retrieved from http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ like/371556005195?lpid=107&chn=ps Figure 14. Iphone 6 camera. Retrieved from http://www.thetechgadgeteer.com/wp-content/uploads/ sites/65/2014/09/wpid-iphone-6-camera.jpgw1024h682.jpg Figure 15. All materials required for this video. Shot by Yuting Yang.

Figure 16. Thread used to cotrol the object. Shot by Yuting Yang.

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