On Saturday, April 21 2012, the campus of Central Michigan University was transformed into something unexpected. On a typical Saturday at CMU, one may find a few studious learners studying quietly in the library and a handful of people roaming the quiet campus sidewalks. However, on Saturday, this serene scene was replaced with what couldn’t be more different. Loud, colorful, and extremely lively visitors filled almost every building with excitement and energy. The CMU campus was alive with the passion and vigor of the Destination ImagiNation (DI) affiliate finals competition.
What is Destination ImagiNation? “Its fun!” exclaimed 3rd grader and DI competitor Joey Davison. “Its creative problem solving,” said Trent Clay, a DI competitor at the high school level, “and its all about teamwork.” In fact, Destination ImagiNation is something that cannot easily be described.
DI, in its most simple explanation, is a creative problem solving competition for imaginative youths. But, more accurately, Destination ImagiNation is an incredibly elaborate and multi-dimensional program that, among other things, encourages young people to:
– be creative
– solve problems
– think on their feet
– work as a team
– push boundaries
Destination ImagiNation is a lot of work for everyone involved, but as Davison said, “Its Fun!”
This Saturday, Central Michigan University was host to DI’s annual affiliate finals competition. Affiliate finals is the second competition in a series of three elimination style contests. The first stage of the competition, regionals, is held in hundreds of different locations globally. There seven regional competitions in Michigan alone. The top four teams in each category for each Michigan region advanced to the next stage at CMU. This year affiliate finals hosted over two-hundred teams from all across the state.
The state of Michigan is split into seven different regions, as demonstrated by The Michigan Creativity Association’s map.
Region 1- Oakland and Genesee Counties
Region 2- Lower central Michigan
Region 3- East coast and “Thumb” area
Region 4- Lower west coast
Region 5- Southern Michigan
Region 6- Upper part of Lower Peninsula
Region 7- Upper Peninsula (no teams in 2012)
This chart demonstrates the number of teams that participated in the affiliate finals tournament and where in the state they came from.
The program is largely performance based, but also requires a great deal of technical skills. Students work in teams with other students from their respective schools to find a solution to a challenge that was given to them. Students work for several months to perfect their solution to the challenge. DI challenges can involve anything from mechanical engineering to improvisational elements. On the day of the competition, each team must present their solution to their challenge in the form of an eight-minute skit.
Challenging as this may seem, this is not the only part of the competition. In addition to their central performance-based challenge, teams are also required to do an Instant Challenge (IC). On the day of the competition, the Instant Challenge is shrouded in mystery. Only the participating team members are allowed to know what happens in the IC room, and they may not discuss it with others. However, it seems that an Instant Challenge involves a unique task that a team must fulfill on the spot, utilizing improvisational and thinking-on-your-feet skills.
“It’s a really special thing to see the kids working together and having fun at the same time.” said Madison Laramie, team manager for Troy Creative Minds. And indeed, the kids were having fun. Teams ranged from young elementary school students to high school seniors, competing at different levels. Regardless of their age, each and every participant seemed to be full of spirit and excitement. All the while, participating in a highly competitive organization.
Even the youngest members of Destination ImagiNation teams understood the benefits of the program. Andrea Taylor, an elementary level competitor, explained how DI helps kids learn teamwork. “Teamwork is when we work together and do something good.” she said. “You couldn’t do [DI] if you couldn’t do teamwork.”
Teamwork, in essence, is the bottom line of Destination ImagiNation. That fact really showed all across the campus of Central Michigan University on Saturday. Teams knew that not all of them could make it to the next stage of the competition, global finals. Yet, everyone seemed to give it their all, not only for themselves, but for their teammates as well.
The Michigan affiliate finals event is funded by a not-for-profit organization called The Michigan Creativity Association (MICA). According to MICA, “[DI] participants gain more than just basic knowledge and skills—they learn to unleash their imaginations and take unique approaches to problem solving.” This philosophy and unique approach to learning is part of what helped The Michigan Creativity Association and Destination ImagiNation become such an important part of fostering creative minds.
http://genflux.chartle.net/embed?index=54292&content
This pie chart shows the ingredients and their relative amounts in a mixed berry smoothie. Pie charts are useful in helping the viewer compare a piece of data in relationship to other related data. Smoothies are useful in being delicious.
This word cloud shows the most frequently used words in Dr. Seuss’s classic story Fox in Socks. Word clouds help readers visualize the general ideas of an article, speech, or story.
Big Brothers Big Sister’s Central Michigan University chapter puts on a fun filled Easter themed fundraiser. On Sunday April first, BBBS held a fantastic egg-toss fundraiser where participants were encouraged to have fun and enjoy the spirit of competition. In an egg-toss, participants buy plastic eggs and toss them at the target. The closest egg to the target gets one of many exciting prizes.
CNN’s news video “Unhealthy Health Foods” is a piece about the foods that people buy in the grocery store. This video gives insight into the realities of health food products. As the video demonstrates, not all products that are labeled as healthy, are necessarily as good as they seem. The story is very brief and to the point. It does not go into great depth about the subject, but it does give the viewer enough information that it is worth their time.
The video is set up in a way that it is narrative driven, rather than character driven. The point of the story is to present facts, and it is effective in doing so. The beginning informs the viewer of the video’s topic. The middle presents the facts, with common examples found in most supermarkets. The end is a very brief reminder to keep this information in mind when buying food.
The narrative begins with a shot of shoppers in a super market along with a narrator introducing the subject of the video. The audio and video go hand in hand to give the viewer a clear idea of what the story will be about. This makes the intention of the story clear, and viewers can then decide weather or not they will watch the whole piece. The story then moves from voice over narration to an interview with an expert on the subject, a nutritionist who’s name and title appears in the lower third of the screen. The nutritionist then shapes the rest of the narrative an the voice over reporter provides additional information.
The camera work is appropriate in the way that the story is shot. There are a variety of shots and sequences that tell the story fluently. These shots are compiled together with appropriate cuts and crossfades. B-roll is used often. Images of shoppers bridges the gaps between sequences. Natural sound is only used briefly in the opening shot, and music is absent form this piece.
This video is very successful in its overall effect. The pacing is appropriate, and the video is put together in a sensible way. This piece is a good example of the way video journalism should be used. It has visual appeal, shows human character, and provides news value (class notes 3/15). This story is told successfully and effectively.
One of the blog’s that I follow is called TED. Their tagline is “Ideas Worth Spreading”. The tagline sums up the TED blog very accurately, in fact. There is no common theme among the blog posts, but rather, the posts each reflect a new and unique topic. Each post, written by the TED staff, generally features an “expert” and their views on the respective subject.
The expert commentary is part of what makes TED a unique and interesting blog. The topics are all intended to be out of the ordinary and intellectually stimulating. There is a wide array of topics that range anywhere from Extreme Swimming to Math’s relationship to Music. This allows the blog to feature a wide array of outside commentators to weigh in on the topics.
The blog is effective in reaching a wide audience because of the range of stories it covers. However, the TED staff is not as great at interacting with their audience as I would have expected. It seems that each post has very few user comments. Many articles are shared across social media, but it does seem like users are encouraged to participate in the conversation. On top of that, the TED staff hardly ever follows up with posts in the comment sections. But other than that small drawback, I really enjoy the content and structure of the TED blogs.
Another blog I follow is called Techland. This blog is similar to TED in the way that there is a staff of contributing bloggers. Techland covers a wide range of stories about technology like Twitter and censorship and new self-guiding bullets.
The blog is actually a part of Time Magazine’s presence on the Internet, and it is very well produced. Articles are shared from other sources and frequently link to relevant information. The high production value of this blog is part of what makes it a place worth looking for information.
Techland shares another quality with TED, too: the lack of comments in the comment section. I am surprised that neither of these major blogs seem to generate many user comments. As a result, online interaction is not a big part of these blogs. Techland focuses more on producing information than following up with it.
These blogs have their flaws, but for the most part, they are good examples of the way I think blogs should look. I wouldn’t change much about the things that Techland and TED are doing, and I will continue to look to them for examples of good blogging practices.
Example 1- Reviving Ground Zero produced by The New York Times.
This piece is a good example of multimedia journalism in the way that it hardly relies on text to tell a story. This piece’s primary multimedia element is audio. The writer of the story, David W Dunlap, acts as the stories narrator, and is more of a reporter than an author. As he is telling the story, an interactive video/image is seen on the screen. This part uses changing images in the fashion of a slideshow. However, on each slide, there are clickable interactive elements such as pictures, text captions, and “virtual tour” videos. All of these elements contribute to the full understanding of the story that Dunlap is narrating.
Example 2- Getting a Grip on Government Debt produced by USA Today.
This article shows multimedia journalism through its use of both text and graphics. Before the article displays text, it displays a very detailed graph. This graph contains information that can be viewed either in pieces or as a whole. The graph has clickable areas that alter the information that can be seen. Further when mousing over an area on the graph, more detailed information is displayed. Beneath the graph is a small article that reiterates the information seen on the graph, but in paragraph form.
Example 3- The Dragon Children produced by SBS (Seven Billion Stories).
This story is very multimedia heavy. The entire story if fully interactive for the audience. Within this site, the viewer navigates around the page to get different pieces of information. There is text that explains the information at its most basic level along with links to related articles. There is also video that gives a more in depth discussion of the story. The site features large pictures that enhance the visual ascetic as well as provide information. There are also audio slideshows that show pictures relating to the story while a personal narrative plays.
I am a student a Central Michigan University.
THIS IS NOT A BLOG 