Experimentation

The great thing about graduate school - and academia in general - is the ability it provides for experimentation.

Currently, I am hard at work experimenting with a bevy of new skills and websites for my professional project.

Just last week I joined Issuu, an online publishing site where it's easy to upload a PDF file and create an eBook. I'm writing a children's book with a classmate and surely this will be a great place to publish it for download.

Speaking of which, I've never written a children's book before, nor tried my hand at illustration. So these are new skills for me, and while I'm a bit afraid of the challenge, I'm excited to stretch myself and see what I can do.

My professional project entails telling stories in written and multimedia formats. Weebly, an online web design site, helped me build my site. Since my focus is on the content and not the design, I figured why spend my time in Dreamweaver when I can simply drag and drop?

Speaking of content, so far I'm working on stories that will utilize a variety of skills that I am excited to develop...again, stretching myself through the fear of a challenge.

I'm thinking of producing a story in public radio's This American Life format, and might check out Transom for tips and feedback. I'm beginning to enjoy radio more and more as I get older (read: mature), and Jay Allison has some insight as to why that may be.

Another discovery I've made is Prezi, which is a new software developed in Hungary that is taking presentation to a new level. I've found it's fantastic for the interactive teaching of dull, dry research models. I'm definitely looking forward to experimenting more with it's possibilities.

One other site I've discovered is Ning. It's a place to create your own social network online. While I haven't yet begun to explore this possibility to its fullest, I'm hoping it will take my project to a whole new level. That, or it will be a shameful, empty space and a black mark on my Master's project.

*gulp*

Let's hope not.

The web has much to offer and many hidden treasures to discover. This is what I love about my future career - though keeping abreast of the latest trends takes a bit of work, I love the possibilities for growth and education.