Core Competency: Digital Literacy
Digital Literacy: The skills to locate, critically assess, develop, use, and accurately communicate information using multimedia or technologies that increase the impact of messaging, research, or other objectives.
Context
Course Information: DIGC1200: Digital Literacy & Cultural Change
Creation Date: July 6th, 2023
Description of Artifact:
My DIGC1200 meta-narrative capstone project is a multi-modal graphic video narrative which reflects upon a personal digital creative journey, inspired by a 1998 masters degree project where a virtual island was used to display digital work. The interactive project presents a two-part experience: a full version exploring and gathering materials produced during class around the themes of curiosity, critical analysis, and positive obsession. And an abridged version which distills the core ideas. It features an audio tour and self-reflection and culminates in a metaphorical voyage into space. The work integrates retrograde analysis and past digital languages to revisit and reinterpret the original project. Additionally, production notes and related materials provide insight into the creation process, blending nostalgia with modern digital practices.
https://www.academicmatt.com/individual-assignments/digc1200-capstone-metanarratives
Skills, Knowledge of Abilities Demonstrated
Specific Skills/Knowledge:
Digital Storytelling: Integration of diverse digital multimedia elements, such as an audio tour, animated videos and artificial intelligence generative aspects, which showcase the ability to create an immersive narrative which blends visual, textual, and auditory components.
Technical Competence: Knowledge of digital platforms, production tools, editing, recording and the use of various technologies to create and present a narrative across different media.
Creative and Critical Thinking: The ability to reflect upon and analyze past digital work through a modern lens, synthesizing old and new concepts.
Systemic Analysis: This project employs systemic thinking by analyzing the impact of the original project and its evolution over time, suggesting an understanding of one’s own historical and contemporary digital cultures.
Self-Reflection and Metacognition: The ability to reflect upon my own digital literacy, personal growth and transformation through career, and examine how past experiences shape current work while critically engaging with my own sense of creative process.
Connection to the Core Competency
Relevance:
Critically Assessing Information: Through reflective analysis, the digital artifact critically engages with the evolution of the project, evaluating both the technological strengths and limitations of the original work and reinterpreting it in a contemporary context for use in gathering the capstone elements of the class.
Locating Information: The project demonstrates the ability to gather and reference past digital work and combine it with the work produced in class, drawing on historical digital languages and practices to contextualize and build upon the original project.
Developing Information: The artifact creatively develops a new narrative through highly visual multimedia elements which reshape the original concept, showcasing the ability to transform information into fresh, engaging formats.
Using Technology: The project incorporates various digital tools and platforms (e.g., multimedia production, digital storytelling) to craft a cohesive, impactful message, highlighting a proficiency in using technologies to enhance the communication process.
Accurately Communicating Information: By integrating a variety of media formats and effectively blending them into a coherent narrative, my digital literacy artifact communicates a skill to convey complex ideas in a clear, organized, and engaging way to its audience.
Challenges and Solutions
Challenge: Integrating Multiple Media Formats
Solution: Balancing various elements such as text, audio, video and interactive visual content required careful planning. I ensured as much cohesion as possible by outlining the flow of the narrative and ensuring each medium supported the others.
Challenge: Balancing Nostalgia with Innovation
Solution: Blending the nostalgia of the original work with modern digital practices created in class was most definitely a challenge. I achieved this by focusing on the core themes of the past while introducing contemporary formats and perspectives to create a bridge between eras.
Challenge: Reflecting on Past Work
Solution: Revisiting an older project posed a challenge in understanding how it aligned with current goals and laddered to the work produced and collated in class. I approached this by comparing past digital languages with contemporary practices, identifying themes which still resonated today (for example the construction of virtual environments).
Challenge: Maintaining Technical Consistency
Solution: Ensuring consistency across different platforms and tools required detailed troubleshooting. I tested various editing and production software outcomes to ensure compatibility and streamlined the production process to keep technical elements aligned.
Challenge: Conveying Complex Ideas Clearly
Solution: Simplifying abstract concepts such as positive obsession and systemic analysis for a broader audience required a large degree of iterative editing. I leaned upon metaphor and narrative structure to make these ideas more accessible without losing their depth.
Impact on Professional and Academic Growth
Professional Growth:
Creating this artifact significantly contributed to my professional growth by deepening my ability to reflect critically on my past work while embracing new digital tools and techniques. It was a wonderful experience to revive an old project and put it to use for my digital work at Penn. The process of integrating multimedia elements helped hone my digital storytelling skills, teaching me how to convey numerous complex ideas clearly and creatively. It also sharpened my technical proficiency, particularly in balancing various digital platforms to produce cohesive narrative content. Moreover, the project improved my ability to assess and iterate on my digital history, fostering a mindset of continuous improvement. Overall, this experience was highly enjoyable, and reinforced my capacity to innovate while staying connected to foundational ideas and practices.
Academic Growth:
This artifact and the process of creating it have been pivotal in advancing my academic growth by strengthening my analytical and creative skills. I think this is one of my most compelling projects produced at Penn. It required me to engage deeply with both historical and contemporary digital practices, fostering a deeper, significantly more comprehensive understanding of digital literacy. The project pushed me technically, but also to critically assess my past work and reframe it within a current context, enhancing my ability to synthesize complex ideas. Additionally, balancing multiple media forms improved my research and communication skills, teaching me how to present information effectively in diverse formats. Overall, it deepened my academic inquiry and refined my approach to interdisciplinary projects, and approach I have been able to carry forward into my professional career.
Self-Evaluation
Rubric Score You Think You Earned For This Submission: 20
My reflections upon the production and competencies of the artifact effectively reflect the evolution and growth of my digital literacy by demonstrating an ability to critically assess past experiences, develop new ideas, and use multimedia tools to communicate complex concepts clearly. The connections to my own lived digital experience over the past thirty years reflect a thoughtful synthesis of academic and personal learning, which broadens the understanding of the subject matter. The content development, digital production and reflection show a firm grasp of digital storytelling and the integration of technology, while the control of syntax and mechanics shapes a necessary clarity and precision. Overall, I was able to extrapolate insights which connect past experiences to future growth, and leverage this compelling toolset in future academic projects.
Survey
This artifact helped me demonstrate growth within the competency of Digital Literacy by requiring me to engage with historical and contemporary digital practices, integrating them into a cohesive multi-modal narrative. Revisiting my past work while incorporating new tools and techniques strengthened my ability to critically assess and reframe information within a modern context. The process improved my technical proficiency across various platforms and refined my storytelling abilities, teaching me to communicate complex ideas through diverse media formats. This project reinforced my capacity to adapt, innovate, and connect digital tools with creative and analytical thinking, enriching both my academic and professional endeavors.
