The purpose of my final project is to examine, through personal firsthand experience, how the environment can be used as a medium for learning, and an impetus for teaching. I want to see how certain zones can alter one’s view of reality, and impact their actions within it. I understand this is pretty broad to begin with, so I’m going to focus more on coastal/oceanic regions, using my own experiences at Jones Beach as a springboard/primary medium for both the digital story as well as my final essay. It’s especially interesting to me being that it was a crucial part of my life, defining major components of both my personality and my ability to wield logic as an intellectual tool. As the professor mentioned in class, I AM a student of the environment (currently pursuing a Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies), so this project will be an excellent chance for me to explore my field in less of a scientific way and more in an emotionally analytical way.

          I’m going to use this project as a chance to reflect on my life thus far, and hopefully come out of it with more parts of my life connected than when I started, providing useful insight into my life, and hopefully into those who will read it.

My audience is going to be college students and professors; people who have ample opportunity to examine themselves and the way they think. While this project will aim to make my audience think about this, it should also compel them to examine the way they write, and how they translate what they feel onto the page.

          This project will be strongly based off of my “examination of a place” paper, and will utilize my digital story, serving as a starting point for my reflection, and a springboard for my discussion. My personal story detailed in the digital story will hopefully inspire the listener to consider their own experiences at the beach (the first time they saw the ocean, how their senses opened up, how they viewed their home or neighborhood after experiencing an all new natural area), and how it affected their perspective. At the end of the semester, I’ll present what I learned from my reflection for the class to view and listen to. I’ve already begun collecting images from Creative Commons to use in my slideshow, and have gotten my old oceanography professor’s video clip to use in the digital story.

           I need to start tinkering with Windows Movie Maker again to see if I have any technical issues with putting the images and video in. I have recorded my voice for a project in Windows Movie Maker before, using Audacity to record my voice in segments. I’m not sure if I have the proper software to edit the movie I’m inserting however. I’d like to cut out some of the movie to better fit my time frame, and maybe even cut out the audio of the video clip. I’m just planning on doing a voiceover (using the voice God gave me, not Morgan Freeman’s). I’m not planning on using too many other resources besides Creative Commons and the Pearson College video that professor Hardison gave me, but may elect to explore the internet to read about other students’ reactions to their own environments. I do not anticipate any issue with modern MLA citation, but will consult the professor if any questions arise.

For a current breakdown of my digital story, see the other tab.

For an update on the progress of my digital story and final project, click this link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zcMGF9E1-Af5P17VvJv7XKkBn4c16Rhrt78AvGJMNGc/edit#