Welcome to MODULE #2: Your Personal Media Inventory

MODULE #2: A Personal Media Inventory
Monday, January 2 – Sunday, February 15

Welcome back to DOTCOM, colleagues, and here is our next challenge!

Now that you’ve had a chance to share a bit about yourself with your Knowledge Tree, let’s explore your personal media world for this two-week module. (Some of you have begun to talk about this at your blog already - consider this module your formal opportunity and invitation to discuss your media world, and to share your media world with the rest of us.)

Begin by making a descriptive list, at your blog, of the following kinds of media you enjoy, and describe, in 4-5 sentences for each, WHY you enjoy these media, along with some specific examples of each kind of game, book, program, or band.

And add photographs, video, hyperlinks to other web sites, or other links to illustrate each written description. Show us what you can do with the Web technology!

For example, here's my descriptive response to the MUSIC media question.

MUSIC – Do you listen to or play music? What kinds of music do you like to listen to? How do you listen to music – via cassettes, MP3 files, radio, or live performances? Who is a musician you currently are listening to?

I am a musician, and I enjoy listening to a wide variety of music. I grew up in the age of vinyl records, studied the violin and trained as a classical musician from age 4 through high school, and then picked up the guitar in college and never looked back.

And I love to sing - solo, and in groups. As a college professor, journalist, and writer, much of my work is very intellectual and "cerebral." Music is a wonderful release for me. Here's a photo of me with my guitar.



I am currently playing in a band called Phineas Gage, named after a famous Vermont railroad engineer who got a spike through his head and lived to tell the tale.



We do different kinds of music - I like to call our style of music "folkgospel grassicana" (A combination of folk, gospel, bluegrass, and Americana music.) I buy CDs from time to time, and download music from iTunes, as well, and I have just discovered Pandora.com, a wonderful free Internet music service that allows anyone to listen to their favorite bands and other musicians with a similar style.

While I listen to a wide variety of music, I am currently into the band "Great Big Sea," from Newfoundland. I first heard them several years ago at an outdoor concert here in Burlington on the shores of Lake Champlain, and was hooked. My wife and two children like them, too - here's some video I shot while dancing in the balcony at their Halloween 2008 concert a few months ago. Fun stuff!



THE END

My response to the music question, above, is intended to serve as a guide for how you should answer each of these questions at your blog.

So here's your assignment: a list of different kinds of media, with some questions to respond to for each.

1. BOOKS - Do you read books? What kinds of books do you like to read? What’s a book you are currently reading that you are enjoying?

2. NEWSPAPERS/MAGAZINES – Do you read newspapers or magazines? What kinds of newspapers and magazines do you enjoy and why?

3. MUSIC – Do you listen to or play music? What kinds of music do you like to listen to? How do you listen to music – via cassettes, MP3 files, radio, or live performances? Who is a musician you currently are listening to?

4. TELEVISION – Do you watch television? (I have not watched TV for 20 years, but I used to watch hours of TV a day as a kid). What kinds of TV do you like to watch and why?

5. VIDEO GAMES – Do you play video games? Which games do you play and why? What is your favorite video game experience right now?

6. COMPUTERS – Do you use computers much? What kinds of things do you do on your computer?

7. INTERNET – Do you spend much time on the Internet? What kinds of activities do you most enjoy pursuing on the Internet?

Now, rank your MEDIA PREFERENCES from 1 – 7, with 1 being your FAVORITE kind of media, and 7 being your last favorite.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6,
7.