808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Stop Animation

Our second project for class was creating stop animation videos - Rebekah wanted us to know how to do this so that when our public library teen technology event rolls around, we have some choices of what to teach to teenagers.

For my stop animation video, I decided to use my miniature Dalek that I got as a Christmas gift my my husband, and since Valentine's day was quickly approaching, I decided to give the video a Valentine's Day flare. I set up my Canon Rebel T2i on a tripod pointed at my kitchen "island" with a very narrow focus and I used one of my "daylight" lamps from my cupcake photo rig for filler light, as my kitchen is a little dark.

The first time I shot the photos required, I only took about 200 pictures. I took those images to Windows Movie Maker and set each photo to last 0.1 seconds. I was absolutely dismayed at the jerking of my camera and the less than smooth "motion" provided by these pictures. I decided to scrap those photos and reshoot. My second take had a little over 300 pictures and I was far happier with the result. I added music from SoundzAbound (thanks ECB and Badgerlink for giving Wisconsin residents access!) and added a title screen and credits in Windows Movie Maker.

All said and done, the project took about 3 hours to complete, including the upload time to YouTube. The time probably could have been shortened to a little less than 2 hours if I hadn't taken the time to reshoot the photos. For future stop animation projects, I would definitely want to purchase a remote clicker for my camera - there is still more jerk in the images that I would like, but that is due to me having to physically touch the camera to take an image.

For your viewing pleasure, here's "A Dalek-table Valentine".

808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Week One

Okay, so we're technically in Week Five right now... I'm just really really behind in updating my blog. Things have been NUTS and they'll continue to be so for the next few weeks, as I have an interview next week Wednesday for an academic librarianship position. SCARY THINGS!

Week one's theme for Adolescent Literature was "Perspectives on Adolescence and Childhood" and we read two novels on this theme: Sarah Dessen's Just Listen and Jacqueline Woodson's Miracle's Boys.

Just Listen is a novel about Annabel, the youngest of three sisters and a model, who has a falling out with her best friend, Sophie, over the summer and returns to the school year to find herself isolated and friendless. In her aloneness, she meets Owen, a loner who is passionate about music and has a habit of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Owen strikes up a friendship with Annabel, one based on sharing music and time together. As they grow closer and Annabel becomes more comfortable with their friendship, Annabel tries to find the courage to open up about what really happened on the night when her friendship with Sophie ended.

Miracle's Boys follows the story of Layfaette and his older brothers, Ty'ree and Charlie, and the struggles the boys go through trying to grow up in New York after the death of both of their parents. Ty'ree, the eldest boy, tries to support the family as best he can, and Charlie has just returned home from a correctional facility. The story focuses on Lafayette's coming of age and how the boys need to make choices to be there for one another to overcome their struggles.

I enjoyed both books, which really surprised me, as I'm not normally a realistic fiction fan. Both books just seemed to have an excellent balance of tough stuff, teen angst, and humor. Both books were successful in their messages as well.

More to come about the other books read in class later this week and over the weekend, at least until I catch up.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Introduction

I'm in an adolescent literature class this semester, which started with us reading about game literacy and the integration of multimedia into teen programming. We were given an assignment to build a video game level with Sploder, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) builder that is entirely online and doesn't require any type of download. I am rather impressed with the platform overall, and was especially entertained when their introductory email was written as if a child had applied for the account; the email told the "parent" all about Sploder and included a link where they could see what "their child" was doing. I have to give the folks at Sploder props - they really wanted the parents to be involved.

The process of creating a level was entertaining and interesting, and I think that most of us in the class had a whole lot of fun. My level is playable below or at this link if you don't like the embedded play (I don't, personally).

Make a Free Flash Game

I'm going to be doing quite a few blog posts for this class. The posts will have with similar post titles, with each post getting a new chapter heading, or, where I can, the detailed Dewey number for specific types of adolescent lit. There will be quite a few book reviews (we're expected to read 2 or 3 books a week), as well as more multimedia projects. I'm excited to see where the class takes me!