Reflections from Week Six of the #WALKMYWORLD Project

We’re drawing to the end of week six, or learning event six, of the first iteration of the #WALKMYWORLD project. As we continue on in this project I’m amazed by the serendipity of experiences and “shares” that we collaboratively share. As I’m typing this blog post I received a ping from Kate Booth and I’m quickly learning that is a great thing. At the blog post below you’ll find an incredible collection of student blog posts, and shares. You’ll also find the further adventures of Inanimate Alice. This makes it all worthwhile. 🙂

#walkmyworld with #roberthass and @InanimateAlice http://t.co/FM3msNhcEI @wiobyrne @ShieldsMolly #transmedia

— Kate Booth (@SCU006) February 22, 2014

We’ve seen a bit more of playing with poetry and the content that we share. I “scolded” our class on tuesday night and challenged them to play, and share new content. Play, and share with some…God-forbid…poetry writing. We’ve seen this same push come from Kevin Hodgson, and Molly Shields, but I’d love to see it from more people. Yes, I do love seeing your new picture of ice from a different angle. But, life is short people. Let’s explore, let’s create, let’s play. (I feel like a Home Depot commercial now 😉) Let’s take risks. Let’s all get a bit creative, a bit crazy. Take some risks and play with poetry, photography, video, audio, etc. You don’t know if you can do it or not until you try. You have to be willing to go down that path, unaware of what you’ll create when you get there. I mentioned in a tweet last week that I if I tried to plan and sketch out my poem, or digital creation before doing it…I’d fail. You need to just jump in and test your gut. Let all trust ourselves and create.

I’m glad to see that it’s beginning to have an effect on some people. Here’s a tweet, and brief play with figurative language by Josh Horwitz as we left Tuesday night.

Steve stands sentry while we learn to teach. He’s always the last to leave so he can put out the stars.#WALKMYWORLD pic.twitter.com/G2Qc0TEyoo

— Josh Horwitz (@joshorwitz) February 22, 2014

In slightly different news…

The spreadsheet of data that we’re collecting from what you share is incredible. You can view it here. I’ve been intrigued by the “dashboard” link at the bottom. I’m playing with various analytics software to find better ways to make this data tell me a story.
The people from PoetryGenius reached out this week and said…”exactly what are you doing?” In all seriousness, they’re really excited about our work. We’ll have more on that later.
For those of you that use Android phones, or tablets, I’ve been loving the Muzei Live Wallpaper app for your phone or tablet. Roman Nurik is an incredible developer that creates some awesome tools. Muzei rotates your wallpaper once a day using photos from online sources. You can select from some awesome extensions to this. My favorite ones have been the Astronomy Photo of the Day, or Muzei Hash. With Muzei Hash I am able to have photos that you all share for #WALKMYWORLD show up as my wallpaper on my phone and Nexus 7. For now it works only from Google+, but Twitter searches are on their way.

Once again, thanks for all of the sharing. Be sure to go to Twitter, or use Tweetdeck/Hootsuite to see what people are sharing. Connect with others. Also be sure to open up and express yourself.