Starting out the mini-project 2 in the class, I came across many different software programs online that could be used for audio/video editing. I went ahead and read about Audacity, iMovie, and Adobe Premier that were listed at the industry’s top 3 softwares in the editing domain. As a Mac user, I found iMovie to be very accessibly ready and went ahead with utilizing the tool. As I started using it, I noticed that the functionalities were very limited in the tool involving the freedom to merge videos and audio files. The users were not able to overlay a video and background music together, something that was crucial in the audio-visual mini-project 3. This is when I went ahead and downloaded a 7 day trial for Adobe Premier – a tool that was highly commended online and recommended by industry-leading artists. Premier opened my eyes to a whole new world of editing video and sound. Not only do you have the freedom to overlay as many videos and audios that you as the editor need to, it gives you the freedom to add title screens to the video series as well. There are pre-defined title and closing screens, with templates even involving the industry standard practices. Along with the screens, Premier gives you the freedom to augment the audio with a lot of different effects, as well as, create different effects onto the video(s) itself. While iMovie is very easy to begin with for starters, Premier does involve one to go online and read documentation regarding the ever-so abundant features that it has to offer to its users. The beauty of Premier is that once you understand what all the features encompass, there are ever-lasting options for each of those features that are very interactive and creative to every editor’s liking. For me, I would just real-time play around with all the options within a feature, seeing which one fit my art piece the best. For future WAM students, I would strongly recommend taking the time to learn Adobe Premier, because the power and offering that this specific tool will provide to you throughout the course of the semester is truly substantial. Take the initial time to understand the specifics, the results and offerings are truly wondrous!

‘A no is a not yet’. This is the motto that I live by every day specifically when fighting for change, obviously in reasonability, and encountered with a denial. This learning of mine in high school came as a result of a situation that taught me the power of listening, connecting, and ultimately putting oneself in the other person’s shoes before making any judgement. These three components bring together the concept of empathy and an emotional connection with the party involved.

After deciding that I wanted to express a high school story and lesson of mine for this discourse project, I was brought upon the question as to how I wanted to deliver this message across to the listener(s) through the most accurate means. I looked into the option of a video essay, setting a visual scene of all the events as well as vocally expressing the journey of my experience. However, I realized that delivering my message and learning through a visual setting did not allow the listener/viewer to gain that emotional touch with the storyline as it did with just the voice setting. The listener in a podcast setting is able to vividly create the scenes in his/her head and develop a deeper meaning and understanding of the plot being expressed. I gained this feedback from the peer review session that we had in class, as well as by visiting and consulting with the Writers Workshop individuals. Initially, I had developed a video essay with cartoon-like images to set the scenes of the board meeting and struggling members on my team, however, the visual representations did not allow for the listener’s creativity to kick in. The listener was presented with a very directed approach to analyzing the media piece.

In the manner that I deliver my podcast, I truly employ the power of storytelling – taking the listener through the conflict/problem, the journey of struggles, and then showing the measures taken for the successful outcome to result. This delivery of mine was inspired through the article “Discourse, small-d, Big D” by James Paul Gee. James explained how, “When we speak or write we simultaneously say something (“inform”), do something (act), and are something (be). When we listen or read we have to know what the speaker or writer is saying, doing, and being in order to fully understand” (Gee 1999). This is the same type of ideology that I went ahead and employed in my podcast – one that just does not tell a story, but one that takes the listener through the journey of the protagonist (me in this case) and allows the listener to develop an emotional connection with the storyteller.

The idea of putting oneself in the other persons’ shoes or having been through that position in the past is expressed greatly through John Torrez in his article, “Personal Discourse”. Torez claims, “The ability to help two difference discourses come together gives me a great feeling of satisfaction because I can help ease tensions between them and help those different discourse see eye-to-eye without conflict through my newly acquired metaknowledge” (Torrez 80-81). Torrez’s once struggle(s) now gives him the power to facilitate to the individuals who are going through similar situations, for Torrez has been in their position before and is furthermore able to connect to them. While there are instances where the experienced individuals in a certain matter are truly critical, there are those odd situations where no one has gone through the same instance you are currently in. Its times like those where the power of listening really boldens up and allows the other party to ultimately connect with you better than they could/would have before.

As for the parts of multimodality, I utilized the features of linguistic and sonic to convey my story across to the listener. Linguistic is solely due to the statement structures I employ in my delivery – from bold claims to detailed sentences that express a list of events in order. As for sonic, I use the combination of sound effects and toned delivery to create an emotional connection between the listener and the speaker. The moment I introduce the “use-cases” (parents and students expressing their stories to the board), the swelling strings play in to demonstrate the emotional connection the board members (as parents of children) are now able to have with the speakers and our platform as a whole. As Professor Lafond explains in John’s article, “The opening paragraph of John’s essay had me hooked; in fact, I think his essay provides a fantastic example of the right way to create a “hook” (Torrez 77), I utilize a bold attention grabber to gain the traction of my listeners as well.

The development and production of this podcast was very straightforward. I used an online recording tool to record the narration of my podcast. The website allowed me to download my recording as an MP3 file, which I then ingested into iMovie. I also downloaded a swelling string audio file from Bensound, a royalty free music website. I tied the swelling strings sound during the section where parents and students express their real life stories/experiences to the board – ultimately creating a scene of how board members are able to emotionally connect to their use case stories. I also used Bensound to gain a winning sound effect, added towards the end of the podcast. This effect was used to help the listener gauge that our determination and processed approach allowed for the desired result we were hoping. I exported the final file as an MP3 and uploaded it to the Google Drive folder.

As a whole, this project was truly my first experience into a production. From working the logistics of recording, to thinking about the specifics of adding effects and emotions to the final production, this project really allowed me to exploit my creativity while also gave me the opportunity to share one of my closest discourses. The peer review sessions aided in mastering my delivery.

Senior year of high school, I had the utter opportunity to serve as the President of my school’s DECA chapter. DECA is an organization that prepares emerging leaders in the fields of Marketing, Finance, Business Administration, Entrepreneurship, and others. Seen as a Career Technical Education (CTE) club, the California Board of Education required that members of such clubs now take a CTE course in sync with the appropriate club’s values. That meant that the 300 so members of my chapter now all had to take a business or marketing course in school, courses that did not exist. Students were not inclined to substitute their core courses for such courses as well. district wasn’t willing to allocate funding to hire credentialed teachers for the courses. As the president, I brought together other 4 high schools in my district and at a board meeting, advocated for and proved where and how the funding can be allocated. The district was very reluctant in bringing for such a courses for the further success of students. After 6 months of back and forth, the district finally allocated the funding and allowed us to hold 0 or 7th period sections of these courses. But, the situation goes much more than just the final result, we all learnt a strong lesson through it. It was about an initial no or denial being perceived as a not yet, giving us hope in the future that change is possible, if tackled the right way and in reasonability. My delegation and the district board members were on different in the sense that the district did not understand the significance value add from this club on the students. For them, this was just an ordinary club, and investing money into hiring teachers just so this club can run did not seem justifiable to them. The real win did not come for us until we brought students and parents onto our delegation side, for students were able to critically prove the board members the impact this club makes on their student and personal life. Parents of current and alumni members expressed the professionalism, exposure to business segments, and transformation they see their students go through as a result of this organization. It was not until the board members connected to those stories did they realize the significance and impact of this club. For me, this conflict has truly taught me the power of listening, connecting, and putting oneself in the shoes of the other party. The other group has to understand your side and perspective in order for you to achieve the directed resolution. In my daily life now, whenever there is an issue, I try to understand the other side’s perspective and though process to feel what I would if I were in their situation, this better helps me boost my empathy and make the ultimate reasonable (and just) decision.

Coming into the University as a Computer Engineering major, I very quickly realized that first, Electrical Engineering principles were just not for me and I did not see myself doing anything with them in the future, and second, I did not just want to surround myself with the technical functions. By heart, I have been a very big strategy and execution guy, someone who can take the technical tasks, work the business specifics, lead folks through the journey, and ultimately successfully deliver the deliverable(s). That being said, I quickly started looking for a medium between the technical and somewhat of a business segment. I came across Computer Science and Economics dual program, it allows me not only to hone my technical CS skills, but also understand the mathematical and not so mathematical market/economic specifics. Alongside that, I am also doing a minor in Business and Informatics. Business Administration classes have opened my eyes to how uniquely and creatively management within the sector(s) is executed, something I strongly can see myself using and being in a role to use down the line. I have already started to intern in roles involving Project Manager and Product Manager, roles I very well see myself starting out in the industry with. With my strong technical foundation, and with my results-driven approach, I bring forth to these roles a very critical mindset. This discourse community has been growing significantly in the last couple years, these folks are the ones that bridge the conversation and understanding cap between the technologists and business individuals. My educational path at this university is very much an enculturation into a discourse, a discourse that is not as much technical as other students like to take their academics to. For me, its about grasping the technical knowledge to the extent that I am comfortable with, I do not need to be a master at all. That is specifically because I do not see myself doing the nitty-gritty specifics later on, rather providing the overarching vision and direction to allow those technical folks to do what they do best. Furthering on to that, currently in school I am just not an academics guy. I have involved myself in clubs that I can gain knowledge from or provide my expertise to, in line with what I love doing. Additionally, I have been working at Research Park for a company as a Data Scientist, and now as a Project Manager. To me, education is provided to everyone and anyone can adapt to it. The ones who take on the other challenges are the ones that set themselves apart from the norm and bring to the world that tipping favoring factor. My metaphor of education is very well different and sometimes conflicting to what a usual student forms as their own. To me, while education is important, there are many other supplemental components into making a student an industry leader – being good at the education segment alone does not suffice to me!

Coming into this university, I came with a background in programming and one that was solely self taught to me. Due to it being self taught, there was only so much I had learnt technically as well as my diversification in the languages I know. My first computer science course was about Java, an object oriented programming language. Having had experience in Python, SQL, and R, Java was a big learning curve for me. A language that even today I do not find myself happily ever working with. It is something about the logicality that just doesn’t seem to go well with me. Taking the course, I was joining a Discourse that would open my doors to the world of software engineering. As for anyone in the industry, Java is the stepping stone for software engineering, one that is crucial for core development. As for group study, there were folks who had been involved with this language for a while and then there were people like me for whom this for their first time. One of the biggest things for me was behavior, I had to keep my ego down, knowing that even though I had been programming in the industry way before starting at the university, this was a segment that was completely new to me. So, I had to have an open mind, the willingness to learn and approach these individuals with an interest of learning. As far as the language goes, surely there was a whole new syntax style that I had to learn. Not only that, but some of the technical terms that I was familiar with in Python were named and operated completely different in Java. A lot of what I had to do was explain the experienced individuals the exact technical function that I was referring, then have them provide me the correct name and approach of it for Java. At the end of such back and forth discussion, I was able to speak the same language as them – in technical terms. The ideologies between the 2 programming languages were quite different, yet similar as well. It was really about using real connection points and ways that I was able to adapt the language of Java quickly. When in class or with friends I would discuss something, I would always first think of it in the Python terms (something I was proficient at), then translate it into the terms of Java to be able to speak their lingo. In terms, this was very much like when I travel internationally. When talking to local citizens, they often expressed how to talk in English, they first brainstorm the idea in their own language and then translate that idea over to English. This seems to bring forth much more systematic and well-thought answers.

For this audio-visual project, I chose to bring upon the idea that speaking up when one is stuck, unsure, or in trouble should be encouraged amongst our society, solely due to the reasoning that someone is always out there who can either help you or put you on the path to success. However, the urge of speaking up has to come from the person who is in the struggling state at the time being. Having worked in the technology field for few years now, I always noticed how men overpowered women in the field, ultimately making women feel less welcome and authoritative to speak up when something was not right. Due to this experience, I chose to make this project solely addressing this issue. The video portrays an office-like setting, where everyone is working and two women are specially working on some programming assignment. Both of the females endure struggles in the assignment, however, only one of them chooses to step up and ask others for guidance. The female that does not embrace this as an opportunity to step up becomes frustrated and just stared out the window, showing a sign of her day-dreaming and being clueless of what to do. The other female, however, goes to another female and male co-workers to ask for guidance. The co-workers happily sit down with her to discuss the situation, show her the path to success, and ultimately allow the struggling worker to succeed in their work. This type of a silent film connects very much with the video we watched in class, the small snippet from the movie “They Live! (1988).” While there is directly an intended meaning from the producer’s stance of what the piece of media is trying to convey, the silent concept allows the viewer(s) to create their own meaning from the video piece as well. And that is truly magical. The scenes involving the negativity as a result of putting the sunglasses on verses the positivity in life without anything covering one’s ideas, there are so many meaningful lessons once can understand from those series of event. Similarly, in my audio-visual piece, one can find other important characteristics and items present in the piece to put together a much deeper or different meaning that what my intention was. That is truly the amazing part of art, its abstract and no voice/text explanations allow for a natural understanding, rather than someone commentating each step of the way. In my case, the slogans presented in the end can help the viewer understand the true meaning of the piece.

For this audio mini-project, I chose to bring in a vibe of suspense and horror to the audience. The audio piece is about a girl walking through a haunted house, with various different sounds surrounding her. As she walks through the house, she hears water leaking from certain places, alarms going off in the abandoned location, and scary howls from the area around. Throughout the audio you head random voice add-ons to keep the surprise and ‘flight or fight’ style feeling with a person going. At the end, you hear the girl scream, primarily due to a jump scare that comes in her way as she navigates through the house. In the book, “The Principles of Sonic Branding”, Joel Beckerman expresses the true meaning and effectiveness of sonic surprises on the audience. However, with sonic surprises come the internal feel part, of how you make that person actually make meaning of that surprise. For that, Joel explains, “Effective sonic branding often involves creating or facilitating sonic triggers that break expected patterns, get the listener’s attention, and then using that attention to call to mind positive experiences with the brand or story” (Beckeman 69-70). While usually brands try to create a positive experience and vibe for the users, in this specific case of a haunted house, the experience is really created by the scariness of the house. These sound effects allow the user to understand what type of a horror-involving experience they are going to face, something a person going to haunted house is looking for. For this specific case, it entails all segments of a haunted house the audience may be potentially looking for, with the water effects, alarms, and scary noises. Additionally, it creates that vibe within a person of the scariness, through the yelling the does in the end of the audio piece. The audience understands what feeling they can expect when present at the haunted house, as well as builds a message that them screaming at that place is totally expected and encouraged knowing the scary circumstance in mind. Additionally, Beckerman brings on the idea of how “As listeners, we tend to hear music in moments” (Beckerman 69). The audio piece brings forth the scary howls in a very systematic approach, allowing the user to grasp the first howl and sound, thinking through it, gain the intended effect of it, and then move on to the next scary sound.

For the visual mini-project assignment, I chose to express the lyrics of a song in terms of emoji texts. I chose the song “Don’t Stop Believin'” from Journey for the purposes of this project. When introduced to the idea of being able to transform song lyrics into emojis, this specific song sparked right to me due to its ability of creating a visualizing effect in the listener’s mind. The song entails the story of a boy who wants to pursue his dreams of becoming a singer in Hollywood. The boy’s father gives him the encouragement to go to Hollywood and pursue his dream. Once the boy reaches Hollywood, he meets someone who expresses to him that everyone looking to become an actor or or anything all stand on Sunset Boulevard on Friday nights as street artists. He reflects back on his experience of living in Detroit, always dreaming about going to Los Angeles. In a hotel in Detroit, he could never sleep due to this curiosity of his. He would stare out the window all night, looking at down-facing street lights and homeless people walking from pitch dark to under the light to sleep. That is where he established the “streetlight people” – a motion to show how for the homeless that was their emotion, sitting under the light and hoping someone would see them. I specifically chose this song because it expresses the journey of a couple who are from two different backgrounds with a goal of making it into the industry. The song lyrics and presentation allow the listeners to create an imagine in their head, as the song played, I was able to picture the boy and girl taking the train (being lonely), people sitting under the street poles, and seeing the boy and girl’s first meeting on the train. I chose to create this project using my iPhone’s notes app. The application allows me to enter text and see the corresponding emoji that Apple has predefined for it. If I agreed with the emoji, I would choose it. If I did not see the emoji fit for the context, I would scroll through all the emojis in the Apple keyboard to see which one suit the context the best. For lyrics involving “on and on and on”, there was no direct way to express the gesture, I found it fitting to use the emoji involving a person continuously just talking, referring to how we sometimes feel when people talk endlessly without letting other pitch in. Similarly, for the lyric involving “born and raised in…”, there was no way to express the “raising” of a child – I, however, saw an emoji of a mom cradling her baby in her arms, I deemed it fit to be a reference of raising a child. The translation from text to emoji was very subjective at times, I had to make decisions like the ones mentioned above and choose emojis that I personally best thought fit. Those emojis, however, may not be the same emojis someone else may use to reflect the specific textual section of the song. As a result, not everyone may be able to read my emoji translation to the intended meaning I instinctively created it to be. In the reading, “NCTE Position Statement on Multimodal Literacies”, the NCTE Executive Committee expresses how “Certain conventions of design are more effective than others for visual, aural, or multimodal texts. English/Language Arts teachers will need to become more informed about these conventions because they will influence the rhetorical and aesthetic impact of all multimodal texts.” This is very much true for today’s generation and future ahead, with the advent of text being slanged and converted into pictorial modes, there stands a huge issue of how the readers perceive the message on the other hand. Every person analyzes the different media platforms differently, ultimately gaining a different understanding. In my case transforming text to emoji, I only used the emoji to my best understanding – there may have been another emoji to better express what the actual context of the lyric was, however I did not see it or perceive it in that manner. Going forward, there definitely needs to be an emphasize on various media outlets (visual, audio, etc) and educational standards should be established such a uniform media understanding is taught to students – this will aid in people starting to understand how better to perceive media rather than doing it on their instinct.

In the video, “David Lynch: The Treachery of Language”, Lee expresses the various examples of David Lynch to demonstrate what the danger of words is. The addition of words and text to a visual piece often changes its meaning, a concept Lynch says as being very hostile. Lee uses great examples like the word “soar” to show how in a pictorial form a soar can be of beauty, but when you put a word or title to it, it takes on the negative connotation instantly. A lot of this takes place due to the pre-defined phenomenons humans have for certain words in society. Companies in the U.S. have been targeted for racially discriminating certain ethnic groups from hiring. To answer back to these accusations, some companies now review job applications without ever reading the applicant’s name until a final decision has been made from their end. This helps the recruiters look for an applicant’s merit and experience, and not create any racial bias or hate by looking at their name and understanding their ethnicity. Lee presents Lynch’s argument very expressively and with direct supporting arguments. She very well expresses a very defined and justifiable argument – how the words and texts put upon an image or picture do not provide the same level of abstraction and understanding from the reader’s perspective. This goes back to the notion of the pre-defined biases or hates that we as a society have for certain words. I found Lynch’s philosophy to be very interesting in the sense that he finally affirms us to not run away from words, rather for us to proactively decipher the meaning of the image and the meaning of what the word/title makes of it – ultimately, the silence in the image is far more meaningful than the word or title assigned to it.

Before joining this class, I never looked at writing as a means of technology. Growing up surrounded with technology and having understood the vital impact on our daily lives, never did I use the fundamental understanding of writing to perceive it as technology. That view, however, has been completed changed since joining the Informatics 303 class.

Technology, as we know it, is a scientific or knowledgable founding put into practical use to allows humans to enhance daily lives, solve problems, and/or invent useful tools. Keeping that in mind, the essay “From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology” by Dennis Barron, brings forth a new meaning of technology and how writing was originated with the invention of pencil. The pencil development process, as Barron exemplifies, “engineering process, hinging . . . . no simple matter” (Barron 2-3), is a scientific breakthrough that uses the cohesion between wood, graphite, and clay to produce the final product. In terms of a pencil, this invention has and continues to allow humans a means of communication – giving them full power in their hands to translate their thoughts into text. Through the activity in class, involving no verbal communication and using provided supplies for communication, it became eminent how tools like the pencil and crayon make communication more controllable for humans as compared to when using paint or magazine cut-outs. This is strictly because of the foundation that pencil makes writing more mobile, faster, and risk-free. With the complement of an eraser (“rubber”), one can freely correct his/her mistakes as compared to using paint, there is no going back. While the pencil does come with constraints like lead breaking, not having a sharpener, text easily being smudged or erased by someone, etc., it still serves to be one of the friendliest and easiest to adapt modes of textual communication.

As a kid, the exposure to pencils and crayons allowed me to demonstrate my abstract thoughts into hard copies. Throughout the educational career, pencils have allowed me to transform my ideas and thoughts into writings that are used in the years to come. The invention of writing has allowed for the preservation of sacred important documents, scientific findings, and other world-important texts to keep safe for the generations to come. Digital writing changed the way I interacted for school, now being connected remotely and having the privilege to communicate to anyone across the globe.

The non-traditional methods of writings are truly phenomenal. The podcast “How to listen to music in 4 easy steps” expresses the importance of symbols in music. Similarly, as a Computer Science major, I currently use a lot of formulated writing when programming. This type of writing is then decoded by the computer and made meaning of to perform certain action(s). Having the opportunity to reflect on writing, apart from just a basic practice in our daily lives, has now allowed me to understand the greater power of connectivity and communication that it has like the power of technology.