Edge-u-cator

Letters to my digital media students to think big and then to think bigger

February 16, 2020

I read through your first journal entries today. Stories of family times, films with friends, and hearing songs that evoked particular memories. There was worry over school shootings and lockdowns. Time spent with the Super Bowl Sunday and sunsets.

These are your earliest writings in this class. And while some - but not all - of you took the blank pages of your journals and strayed slightly from the original assignment - to observe and share the details of what you see, smell, hear, touch, taste - your memories are special. Your memories are stories. And although different from the original intention of the assignment, I connected with your writings, the richness of the details you shared, your joy and your angst.

Through your own vulnerabilities there comes a humanity that connects to your reader. You are growing as storytellers.

What I have shared as we started this learning journey together is that I hope for you to embrace with the technology but more importantly to engage with the people receiving the messages and stories you will share. The richness of details gathered will deepen that experience for your audience as you become a more skilled observer.

So with your next round of writings, look around. What do you see? Colors. Shapes. Sizes. Detail it.

What do you hear? Dialog. Melodies. Harmonies. Quotable quips. Write about it. What do you touch? A friend's hand as you comfort her. A door opening to a new adventure. A soft cover that keeps you warm as the snowflakes fall outside your window. Describe it.

Use your senses this time not to draw from memories of the past but to take in images in the now. What is it before you at this moment? Capture it.

"Have you noticed how nobody ever looks up? Nobody looks at chimneys, or trees against the sky, or the tops of buildings. Everybody just looks down at the pavement or their shoes. The whole world could pass them by and most people wouldn't notice."

― Julie Andrews Edwards, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

Be the one who notices.