My first day of CT 101 was a delightful shock- from the classroom appearance and dynamic, to the fancy Apple computers, and the peaceful human ambiance of interactions with both the professor and other students. For me, it will be a combination of a passionate hobby of mine- wordy storytelling, and an unfamiliar territory that I would need to tackle in my adulthood- constantly new and improving technology in all of its intricate facets.

For this assignment, I will be using “Gifs”, an acronym that stands for Graphics Interchange Format, which is comprised of short video clips and small animations of memes and anything that conveys emotions or reactions through imagery. The websites I will be using are Giphy and Imgur.

https://giphy.com/gifs/spongebob-spongebob-squarepants-nickelodeon-oF5oUYTOhvFnO

“This is a GIF from Giphy of SpongeBob SquarePants dancing to represent excitement, which is how I felt at the beginning of the semester. The hyperlink is also included above”.

I enjoyed hearing about the course and its creative content because it was all topics that were new to me that I know would be beneficial in the future, such as being able to create WordPress blog posts with gifs, imagery, memes, domain names, and customizing websites to name a few. All of this made me feel nervous since I am not tech savvy, but willing to learn nonetheless.

So far compared to my other courses, CT is a fun and interactive course that defers from the typical written paper, powerpoint group presentation, or written calculus exam, which is a breath of fresh air. However, since it is completely unlike any course I am currently or previously taken, it is also quite daunting to keep up to par with, since I hardly have the previous knowledge to fully push through at the speed I would like in this course.

https://giphy.com/gifs/nervous-k-on-shy-19jcWuNGzaI5W

“This is a Gif from Giphy of an animated girl nervously rubbing her fingers together with inaudible chatter, which is how I currently feel and will continue to throughout the semester”.

The creative potentials of this course is that overall digital storytelling offers the creation of immersive and compelling narratives by combining several forms of communication such as text, photos, audio, and video. My classmates and I can experiment with various media combinations to improve our storytelling and successfully convey our ideas.

We get to combine many types of media, such as images, videos, and animation, to enrich our narratives and create a dynamic storytelling experience. It also demonstrates that digital storytelling can transcend a single platform. I can learn how to develop media narratives that transcend numerous channels, including websites, social media, blogs, podcasts, and others. This enables a seamless storytelling experience across several platforms, as well as future business or creative goals.

https://giphy.com/gifs/chelseashow-school-3og0INdmjMr8BIiIlG

“This is a Gif from Giphy of Chelsea Handler mid- talk on the positives of school education, stating that she is ‘learning'”.

In terms of the website platforms focusing on Gifs, I enjoy Giphy more over Imgur, because although both are free, Giphy is more known and easy to use for me. Imgur focuses more on images and editing of pictures, while Giphy has gifs, movable images and video clips. I feel that gifs hold more attention and has more creative options than still imagery.

Be sure to video search “Dancing Bear”

https://imgur.com/gallery/00ZWz

“This is an Imgur video clip of a dancing bear to represent the overall positivity that I am feeling for this semester”.

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