Creativity and New Media

Using our creativity gives us the opportunity to try new ideas, and new ways of thinking and problem-solving. My creativity and problem-solving kicked in when I decided to have an ugly Christmas sweater party for my birthday. I wanted to send out creative invitations to all my friends and family but when I finally decide to have a party, there wasn't enough time to send out invitation by mail and people to receive them in time for the party.

When figuring out how to best send out invitation without using E-invites, I came across a graphic design platform called Canva. This platform allowed me to be creative while using a new media that was easy for me to use, especially for someone that didn't know much of graphic design. Below you will see the invitation I created with my personal touch and uniqueness. I sent the invitation poster to my friends and family via text message (new media), the easiest and fastest way to reach someone nowadays. 

Creativity

Creativity is something we are born with, and how we develop it while growing up is up to us. Throughout these past years, we have been learning to foster our creativity through new media. Technology and social media have changed our creative industry, an example of this is how brands use social media. 

Many companies use social media because it's a great way to distribute their brand in a creative way.  Even though, there are so many ways that social media is used to show someones creativity that many think that the two things may not relate. Like in the article, Disney Tolerates a Rap parody of its Critters. But Why? by Brooks Barnes. Disney is tolerating people who are using their creativity with Disney characters to create a "mash-ups", which are snippets of their Disney movie characters in which the characters look like they are singing in a music rap video. Disney views these videos as a copy right. Nickelodeon in the other hand views it the opposite, "Our audiences can creatively mash videos from our content as much and often as they like".

Overall, it's safe to say that Nickelodeon and other companies understand that new media plays a vital role in creativity when used right. Just like technology and social media continues to evolve, creativity will continue to do the same. 

Reference:
Disney Tolerates a Rap Parody of its Critters. But Why? | By Brooks Barnes | Sep 24, 2007

   

Modeling Reality with Virtual Worlds

 

Virtual worlds are three-dimensional environments, where everyone can interact with others. There is a variety of virtual worlds to choose from like, fantasy, sport, historical and Science. You can communicate with another person using text, sounds, graphical images, gestures, and voice. 

Virtual worlds are being used in many ways such as virtual games, businesses/virtual meetings and education. In the article, Going to the Virtual Office in second life, by Mark Tutton. He explains that "about 350 of its technical leaders from around the world met for 72 hours via Second Life to brainstorm about new technologies". This makes it easier for everyone to participate without interfering with any schedule conflict due to travel time. Virtual worlds have also helped education with hands-on learning and active role-play that go beyond the traditional classroom setting. In the article, The Virtual World moves into the classroom, by Joe Earle. The teacher Marie Graham says, "her class attracts students of various types, from techies to filmmakers. She saw the importance of bringing VR technology into schools when she experienced it herself." 

Even though, virtual reality is a great asset for many that use it for their field of activity. It can also be a disadvantage, for example students can become addicted to their virtual world, like the virtual video games, they play and this can become very destructive. However, using it in classrooms can change that since it's being used for good. Lastly, virtual worlds is consistently evolving and with modernization of virtual reality through the use of games, education, and business. This can cause a productive accomplishment for all fields. 

Reference:

1. Going to the Virtual Office in Second Life | By Mark Tutton | Nov 9, 2009

2. The Virtual World Moves into the classroom | By Joe Earle | Sep 14, 2018

 

Blog about Twitter

 In Twitter, discussions are happening all the time because they can happen instantly, by simply replying to a tweet. Replying to another tweet, is one of the easiest ways to join in on a conversation/discussion as it's happening. Twitter allows its users to discover topics regarding the biggest news, this can happen because you're either following people or companies that post content you're interested in or things your friends post. Tweets can be up to 280 character long and within the tweet you can provide links or photos to back up your tweets as well. After you tweet, it's out there for the world to see and reply to it, if they like. It's the fastest way to communicate with everyone at the same time. It's also the fastest way to get notified about the things that are happening around the world. Compared to Twitter discussions, blackboard discussion can contain one or more forums. It's a discussion board where a topic is discussed among college students, depending on weekly assignments assigned to students. Students can agree or disagree with one another via blackboard discussion without the concern of being limited to the 280 character. Blackboard discussions is a way to encourage students to think critically about a certain topic and on the structure of their discussion.     

Social Networking Sites

 

We're living in a time where there are so many social networking sites at our fingertips. Some of the popular ones are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. 

My first impression of Facebook was good because it has a user-friendly interface. Everyone can sign up and posting on facebook is very easy, hardly any problems. Facebook users are able to keep in touch with friends and family, as well as reconnect with long-lost friends. Facebook makes it simple to share photos, videos, status posts and feelings on Facebook. As for  Twitter, I was intrigued by the 'microblogging' system that twitter has, which makes it easier for you to send and receive short posts which are referred to as tweets. Tweets can be up to 280 character long and you can include links, photos or videos if you like. I don't use twitter that much but I have come to realized that it's the fastest and best way to get notified about anything that is going on in the world. Instagram is very easy to use and I like that, it's more of a visual platform. Where you are able to post pictures, like pictures, browse through some hashtags and get lost through negativing people's pictures. However, recently instagram has been changing its platform and you don't just see content of people you follow, you also get other feeds that you may not be interested in, that can cause many to shy away form the site. Lastly, my impression of Pinterest was therapeutic like, because Pinterest is an image sharing social network, where you save and discover images that can be informational, creative or inspirational in the form of pinboards. You don't have to have any dialogue with anyone, through images you can become your own curator.  

Overall, social networking sites are beneficial to business owners because it allows them to reach out to their customers in any part of the world as well as gain the attention of potential customers.