After writing my own and reading the other fun submissions for the 7/15/13 DS106 Daily Create: “Write a tabloid headline for ds106 and the opening sensational paragraph” I was inspired to take the assignment a step further and layout the sensational front page of The DS106 Daily Create Tabloid. Which then led to submitting today’s daily create tdc575.
First Things First:
Not wanting to fall into the same attribution trap that I found myself in with my last project (TalkyTina – Sweet As Tupelo Honey) I immediately documented my tracks as I gathered my media and placed the important information and links into a draft blog post. Boy did that save time and reduce the tedium of going back and trying to figure out exactly where I found things – much better plan of action this time around.
Creating the Front Page:
I started with a Google search to locate a tabloid template that I liked. I found this one at CLEO – Cumbria & Lancashire Education. Then came the quandary over which of the 7/15/13 DS106 Daily Create submissions should I use? The template allowed space for 2 stories and 3 images. And of course I wanted to use my own submission “Headless DS106 Mysteriously Runs Itself“. Story 1, Image 1. And the talk of the day had been all about @IamTalkyTina ending her ds106 role and being placed back into her cardboard box. [Read the headline story here.] So that would be Story 2, Image 2. That left the 3rd image to be filled from the remaining tabloid entries. I had a few I could choose from, but the image of ruby red lips with a snappy headline would be entertaining, eye catching, match the color scheme – and most importantly, the easiest to produce.
Story 1: “Headless DS106 Mysteriously Runs Itself“
Amidst a culture of cost-cutting and outsourcing of education to corporate massive open online courses (MOOCs) a small yet determined group of passionate educators have “organized” a digital storytelling course that can run itself. There is no official leader, although there is a syllabus that can be followed. No one is in charge, but there are plenty of opportunities for any of the global on-line participants to step-up and volunteer to facilitate the focus material of the week during the 15-week course. There are no deadlines or grades, instead suggested assignments and opportunities provided to collaboratively work and learn from others, share their work, and receive feedback to help improve their digital story telling skills.
Some suspect the Illuminati to be supporting this small underground group – encouraging the DS106 group’s subversive tactics with the intent to overthrow the big MOOCs. A secret source was heard to say…“The education system is and has always been ours. The MOOCs have gotten out of control and we need to clip their wings. It’s time to unleash the headless DS106!”
My creative inclusion of a suspected involvement of the Illuminati was to help fulfill the sensationalism and tabloid aspect of the assignment and was serendipitously supported by a statement from @PuppetMaster106 in his guest post on @IamTalkyTina’s blog.
This talk of a ‘headless ds106′ this fall is all well and good, but you know that someone, somewhere, needs to be always at work behind the scenes, keeping things ticking, poking and prodding, feeding the unicorns, and all. And since I’m experienced with webs and scenes, and strings and such, there’s certainly a role for me in the coming months — whether it’s visible to the ds106 community, or not so visible, and rather behind the scenes.
@PuppetMaster106 pulling the strings
Wikipedia Reference for Illuminati:
“…refers to various organizations…alleged to conspire to control world affairs by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations to establish a New World Order and gain further political power and influence. Central to some of the most widely known and elaborate conspiracy theories,
the Illuminati have been depicted as lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings and levers of power in dozens of novels, movies, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos.”
Image 1: As is usually the case in ds106, I wasn’t the only one riffing on the work of others, and I was more than pleased to use a great image created by Todd Conaway to perfectly complement my story as well as tie-in to the Talky Tina saga. Todd just couldn’t get the thought of Alan Levine’s proposed “headless” DS106 course for the Fall of 2013 out of his head either.
@IamTalkyTina is “Back in The Box” Three Layers Deep
Story 2 & Image 2: The talk of the day had been all about @IamTalkyTina ending her ds106 role and being placed back into her cardboard box. [Read the headline story here.] The guest blog post created by @PuppetMaster106 [Read full story here.] included a wonderful GIF of @IamTalkyTina in her cardboard box being encased in ice and finally Carbonite.
It appears now that Talky Tina has acquired a new PsychicSiri App for her iPhone and is once again interacting with DS106 with animated GIF challenges in preparation for the August 26th, 2013 start of the “Headless” DS106 course. Although the original post was drafted back in July, my “psychic” inclusion of the GIF fits right in. This all begs for another news breaking tabloid front-page.
Image 3 Attributions:
- Ruby Red Lips photo link http://www.wallpaperpimper.com/wallpaper/download-wallpaper-Ruby_Red_Lips-size-1024×768-id-14087.htm
- Racy New Assignment Link Sandy Brown Jensen (@sandramardene) http://tdc.ds106.us/writings/ds-106-adds-racy-new-assignment/
