Digital Media for Change Spring 2010

I created a digital portfolio for my intersection project. As someone who is not very visible online, I thought this would be an innovative way to showcase my inspiration for development work as well as my academic projects. It is of course a work in progress as I plan to update it throughout my professional career.

I wanted to use a platform that would allow for the body of my work to be visible from one page. I did not want to just post links to my work nor did I want the viewer to be redirected to another page or tab. Some platforms that I initially considered (wordpress, as well as other website creation site like weebly, yolasite, google pages etc) didn’t allow much flexibility in that regard. I therefore chose to use ahead.com and spent a considerable amount of time tinkering with the site and configuring my space into what I believe to be aesthetically pleasing and not too overwhelming. I was very pleased with the result. I was able to embed papers that I had written and projects that I have worked on, in a way that the viewer can scroll through each page without leaving the main site. I was also able to set the settings so that visitors would not be able to download my documents.

As someone who is relatively new to the tech world, I am very proud of myself for establishing a space of my own on the net. The class and this project have also emboldened me to try out new tools and experiment with ideas that I would have easily dismissed in the past.

I am looking forward to adding to this portfolio. Next on the list: making videos!!!

Here’s a link to my portfolio:  www.bit.ly/RZportfolio

For the best viewing experience, click on full screen mode.

The blog (http://linglingzou.wordpress.com/) is an experiment of establishing digital visibility. Of course, it’s an ongoing process. But so far it has created a platform to put myself out there, digitally, and opened doors for collecting dots as well as moving to a future of connection. I’ll keep working on it. But I’m still thinking where exactly I want it to go.

OK, here is what I’m talking about being a platform—I got the gut and a place to put a documentary movie I made several years ago, exploring if a university should start its own football team.

Plus, in honoring Mother’s Day last Sunday, here is a video I posted in my blog, which is based on a true story—a Taiwanese mother, who has never been abroad without any knowledge of English or Spanish, traveled to central America alone for 3 days via 4 transfer flights with a piece of paper full of Chinese, English and Spanish notes. You may wonder, at this point, what’s it for? To take care of her daughter who just gave birth to a baby. I can’t stop crying every time I watch it. So this is a tribute to everyone’s Mom.

For those of you who were able to attend my Capstone Presentation last Friday you were able to gain more information about my intersection project. I decided to create an intersection project that I could connect to my “baby”, my capstone project. The main idea behind the intersection project was to create a tool that could help international students prepare themselves for success through pre-departure orientation tools. I think that kinda gives you an idea of my project.
So, what is the future of the project? Well, I will continue working on it over the summer, and the Office of International Services will take over the project and use it as a tool to inform new international students.

Here is the link to my intersection project:
Http://blogs.miis.edu/fellowship

The mock up website edits continue, but in the meantime here’s a copy of my presentation from the DM4Change project showcase!