Group Final Project Rational

When deciding what to do with our group visual we had trouble coming up with an idea at first. We wanted to make some thing that would showcase what we learned this year, but we did not want to make a 3D replication of any of the maps we did this year because we did not feel it was original enough. As our group walked around the craft isle of the store, we decided to look at the kids games for inspiration. We saw an array of bright colors, characters, symbols,and numbers. We threw a few ideas in the air, including a dart board and 'the price is right' game, until one of us saw the game Yahtzee on the shelf. We then decided we would make a giant dice and turn our presentation into something fun rather than just a lecture. As we started to build the giant dice, we discussed how we would incorporate what we have learned into our presentation while rolling the dice and landing on numbers 1-6. We discussed dual coding, and how we should use symbols as well as words to explain to the class what we have learned. We finally came to the conclusion that we would make a colorful poster with the numbers 1-6 to go along with the dice, and as we roll the dice we will select whatever image is behind the corresponding number on our poster, and explain it to the class. When putting together our presentation we used color, symbols, and numbers, along with a little bit of talking aloud to help the class dig into their long term memories. We hope that with our presentation,the class will be able to recall what they learned about each of the maps that we select, and that we will decrease the cognitive load with our simple visual. By using "the least ink" possible, our message will come through clearly, and our fellow students brain's will not be cluttered with information and confusion during our presentation. In the end, we realized that our visual is pretty simple. However, we feel that being clear and to the point demonstrates everything we've learned this year.

Individual Evaluation

I thought we did a good job coming up with a unique presentation to present to the class. I enjoyed working with my team and I thought we worked really well together. The hardest part was coming up with the idea of the dice and game board. We all worked hard on putting everything together. I thought at first it was going to be more difficult working with my group but we came together and got it done. Meeting with each other a certain time worked out fine and sometimes in group projects this is the hardest part. Overall, I feel that this project was successful and I feel I learned a lot.

Reflection

I really enjoyed doing this blog and participating in this class. I learned a lot about visual thinking. I never thought that there was so much to know about that topic. I find it very important as a PR major to learn about this stuff. It makes think on a different level and being able to figure things out in a different way than others. It is just a whole other perspective on how to think things through and process them. It definitely makes you use your other part of your brain and as well as the part that your use to using. I feel that I am more educated in visual thinking than I ever was before. I am a very visual thinker and from being involved in arts my whole life I was really able to process this very clearly and get the point quickly. However this is very different than visual arts but kind of has the same mentally in a way. I over all would recommend this class to all communications majors.

Multivariate Display

I decided to my multivariate display on information that was easy get and that was interesting. I used the info of how many DUI arrest are made in Bristol RI from August to November. This is when we are in school and many college kids are driving around. It seemed that the months that we were here that there tends to be more arrests. The month of October was the highest. I am assuming that because of halloween and it being a full month of school that is why is had the highest percentage. November was the least amount I feel because we are not here almost a full week of school and with the Thanksgiving break people tend to be less focused on partying and just plan on going home. This information was really interesting for me to find. I thought by displaying it in a bar graph and a pie graph that we would be able to see the whole picture.

Story Board

Four young boys all grew up together and loved to play soccer. They were all best friends since they could remember and loved each other like brothers.

Soccer was their favorite thing to do and they have been on the same team al their lives. One day they were playing a rough game and when defending their team someone came on to the field and starting shooting all the players and their family. It was a very tragic day in their town.

One of the boys survived out of the four and every year on that same day he prays that they are safe in haven. He remembers that day like it was yesterday and can't believe that it ever happened.

He still plays soccer to remember his friends but will never return to that field again. He now goes to a peaceful place where he can play soccer on his own and think about the good times they had together.

Four boys leaving in there own house at college could be a lot of fun but also has its risks. They all love to cook and be active in the kitchen.

One day one of the boys left the oven as they finished cooking breakfast and the all went to class. It set the whole house on fire and burned it to pieces. Losing everything the had.

The boys came back from class and saw that their house was on fire and that their was nothing they could do. They tried running in and saving what they could but it was too late. They came out of the house with smoke in their eyes and chest. They walked away as four boys with no where to go.

After all the damage to their house, a couple weeks later the boys found an apartment with some friends and they all moved in together. The only thing was that all the boys had to be extra careful not to leave anything on again and look out for each other.

When doing the stories it was interesting to put all the pictures together and make a story out of it. The way your mind thinks and process it is different because you have to use your other side of your brain to be creative yet make the story flow together. I had fun picking out different pictures to go with the story. They images that you gave us were kind of hard to work with but it was a good challenge. I think both my stories made since and the one story was sad but I thought it was clever. When doing my slide transitions I used Scene to Scene and Subject to Subject in both stories. This made is flow better and made it have a better transition in between frames.

Being able to think on the spot and put stories together like this is good practice for being a goof PR writer. I felt that it was fun and kept my mind thinking at the same time.