Week one wrap up

Week one of ds106 went quite well, with just a few hiccups. A few people had issues with embedding Instagram, so I made a quick screen capture video of the process:

Embedding IG in WP

If a site gives you an embed code, you can copy that code and paste it into the code view of a blog post. You don’t really need to be able to understand the code, just copy and paste it.

Thinking further on the theme

There are a couple different ways of interpreting the expression my story. It could mean the story of me, my life and experiences. Or it could mean the story I have, the one I know and want to tell. The same goes for our story to an extent. Both interpretations are equally valid. A number of good thoughts on the theme came up this past week.

I like the idea of a “personal canon”. I think this could even be a ds106 assignment, if anyone wants to make it so, like, “What is your personal canon and what does it mean to you?” It extends the “my story” concept to include the stories that are important to each of us.

Star Wars is an interesting example. It’s a good story, especially if you’re into that sort of thing. But we could also consider why it resonates and has persisted for over 40 years and the whole Joe Campbell monomyth thing.

Quarantine stories certainly have possibilities. Some people did these back in the spring when the lockdown started. They could be cathartic, and that may very well be something many of us need at this point. I saw news of a larger Covid-19 story project, Leaving Our Fingerprints On History, earlier today. Stories are a way of connecting, and that can, hopefully, alleviate some of the isolation we’re experiencing. This could easily work into the “our story” half of the theme.

Pop culture, art, and fashion is another idea that came up. We’ve used pop culture and related themes in the past. There are many stories to be found there, ones that we’re familiar with, ones that we can build upon, and ones that we can connect to.

All of these ideas, and many that I didn’t mention, will work with the your story/our story theme. Something I think we should ask, particularly with personal and autobiographical stories, is what is the larger story? The idea of food as a theme came up, and that certainly has many possibilities. Many people will post pictures of their dinners. While that has meaning to the person about to eat it, the rest of us may well ask, “what is the story here?” But on the other hand, pursuit of reliable sources of food could be seen as the story of human civilization. While that story may be too big for what we’re trying to do, there’s a lot of middle ground, and that’s where we’ll find ways to make our stories compelling to others.