All posts by trolston01

Student Blogs

The Freedom to Do…

Second Blog Final Thesis

So much has happened this week.  My final hearing happened.  I am finally free.  There is nothing the school district can do to harm me or my reputation any further.  I mention this because it is relevant to my final thesis project.  I know what it feels like to have your freedom torn from you.  I spent five days locked up with drug addicts and sex offenders and I don’t even have a parking ticket on my record.  I know what it feels like to have former friends lie in order to cover up for larger crimes.  I know what it feels like to come really close to losing everything.

            I mention this because it’s what drives each of my stories.  I will eviscerate all of the evil I have endured in countless pages of fiction.  I will bring images to life right off the written page. I will undo all the bad with something I hope will be truly wonderful.  I would like this to be a mix of old meets new.  I was again thinking about my own work in that three-screened room.  But then I thought about simple story telling.  Imagine teaching young minds the Three Little Pigs in that room.  The class could individually explore the lives on each pig up close and in any order.  The screens could fill with other lessons as the main focus goes on. Group work could be accomplished together, up close and in one location.  Groups working in front of interactive screens.  The groups don’t move the education does.  This would advance classroom management techniques.

            I want this for my thesis.  I want readers to enjoy my stories but then take a ride into the universe.  I want readers to be able to see beyond the tale.  I have collected additional lessons and websites that link to the sites that correspond to each story of my thesis.  I was also able to separate my Literary Review into categories I think will be managed as well as potentially interactive.  It’s looking something along these lines:

Historical:

  • First Fleet
  • Colonization in film and the media
  • History of Japan

Biblical/Religious:

  • Book of Enoch
  • King James Version of The Bible: Book of Revelations

Mythological:

  • Tengu
  • Kali
  • Baphomet

Electronic Media and Digital References:

  • Hunt for the Gay Planet, ZORK, others
  • Portrayal of colonization in the media
  • Portrayal of colonization in video games and graphic novels

I believe that once I have all of my items sited correctly I am hoping, with Dr. Zamora’s approval, to write about the works listed under each title collectively in one statement.  This idea might give way to making the Literary review Interactive.  Readers will look over the collective statement then journey outward from the review to the Internet where they can view the source material in full.  Some of the works sited are quite interactive in and of themselves.  I think this idea might give my work, from beginning to end, a “perpetualness” that keeps all of the works moving and growing.    

Student Blogs

Where I’m At

After spending my first day at Kean, I was completely inspired by what I had found.  That audio visual room changed my perspective on a million different things.  My thesis project will not change – only the way in which I wish to deliver it.

            I have lost sleep over my idea and how I can pull it off.  My goals have to reasonable, achievable and remarkable – all at the same time.  So here is the run down on what I have accomplished thus far:

            The first thing is that I have completed three out of the four novellas.  Those first three are currently undergoing rewrites, edits and I will incorporate feedback from the friends and family I have enlisted as “test subjects.” The fourth novella is half finished with the second half fleshed out in storyboards and notes.  The final novella is driven by the first three.  My schedule for completion on all four novellas is around the middle of October.  This is both reasonable and achievable.  The schedule will also allow me to make the results on the tales remarkable.  My time over the summer at the Writer’s Retreat was more than beneficial.  The one comment about readers having to care about characters at all times during the story was the one piece of feedback that has helped me the most.  I now crave that type of feedback.

            In order to sell my work, firstly to myself and then to others I had to give my audience a starting point.  That point came to me when I was cleaning out some old boxes.  I found a really old copy of Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man. As a kid I loved that book (STILL DO!!!).  As an adult, I taught that book to students and aspects from the book a great many times.  The book is a collection of short stories that center around a man who is scarred for life by the tales his numerous tattoos conjure up each night as he sleeps.  Mine is a world where one man, scarred and scared by the world after a global pandemic and a world-changing meteor storm that alters the course of mankind.  The stories show that man as he travels that history witnessing and taking part in events that happen well after the world has rebuilt during humanity’s Modern Age of Technological of Enlightenment.  These written stories and the subsequent tales that appear and will appear on the corresponding websites come close to 500 pages.

            There will be four corresponding interactive websites that go along with each story.  I have two completed (I of course will want, need desire and ultimately add more.).  Each of the websites contain and will contain for those in the making, backstories of the characters as well as images of everyone. The websites that have been completed also contain links to other websites that offer educational lesson ideas and some scientific support for the many crazy ideas I offer in my tales. 

            By November I intend to be in full editing mode.  I need and will need to have all novellas completed with only finishing touches to go.  It is also during this month that completion of the two remaining websites will be done.  I already have images and storyboard ideas for the look and feel.  During this time I hope to have already spent some time in the audio/visual lab where we had our first class.  The room with the movie screens…I can turn my thesis from Electronic Literature into Emmersive Literature.  I have already begun to collect images and video clips that would work in bringing my stories to life across those big screens.  This goal is also achievable and reasonable – it just takes some time and availability and protocol and a lot of begging, which I am prepared to do. 

            This idea of mine, as I ponder it more and more has so many different educational applications.  Image reading to an entire class of young minds and all around them the story comes to life.  Perhaps even acting out a play with the audience around you.  Better yet, settings and backgrounds for any type of story-telling are there – right there. This just might be a way to advance Differentiated Learning or helping young minds with extra needs.

That’s where I’m at…