“I wish I had known about this project four months in advance so I could have gotten addicted to social media.”

– is a sentence I never thought would leave my mouth. However, if PLP has taught me anything, it’s that there is a first for everything.

🎨How do I make effective personal design choices?🎨

Our first Maker 10 project of the year took place during the preparation and happening of the Power of Imagination Field School. This was a field school to Disney World that I did not go on. Due to such, my videos for this project were filmed at school instead. I found that although this greatly changed the context of my videos in comparison to my classmates – who were doing Disney themed videos – the process and planning stages were still very much similar.

✅Investigation 1: Building a Personal Productivity System

We have been learning a lot about creating a personal productivity system using project management tools such as Things and our iPad Calendar.

This system can be built through following three steps:

• Capture
• Clarify
• Organize

Once we reviewed those steps in class, and created both weekly and daily reminders for ourselves in Things, I submitted photos of my personal productivity system in my Craft link.

✅Investigation 2: Design Challenge Research

This investigation was the brainstorming process of our project. I found this part very difficult because I don’t tend to use TikTok or most other social media apps because I personally very easily get stuck in a loop of endless scrolling, and having the discipline not to is a struggle for me. Having not used social media as frequently as some of my other peers was something that I believe was detrimental towards the planning process for myself personally, and contributed to what became final products I was not necessarily proud of. I needed to know what trends were in order to create trend videos, which meant I had to spend time on social media to learn what some trends are.

It was also weird spending time scrolling Tiktok or Youtube shorts for this investigation, after just previously learning about productivity and trying to implement it in my life. (I am not proud of the amount of time I spent on Tiktok for this project.)

I admittedly had no idea what direction I was going into during this planning stage, especially since I was one of the few learners that did not go on the Power of Imagination field school, we were given very little instruction about what we were meant to do differently, which seemed to be a common theme in each of my PLP classes at the time. I managed to hand something in at the end of the day, though if you look at my Craft document, you can tell my ideas weren’t fully fleshed out, especially the ones made with my peers, and I only had somewhat of an understanding of what I wanted to accomplish at the time.

✅Investigation 3: Personal Design Pathway

“Storyboarding,

prototypes, and revisions.

What a nightmare.”

– a Haiku by me

During this investigation, after having completed research on trends and productivity, we had to create drafts to visualize and prepare for our final trend videos.

Here are my storyboards:

Here are storyboards made by my peers on videos I collaborated on with them (Fraser and Nolan):

Made by Nolan

Made by Fraser

Then, after making revisions to some of my plans, I created my final 5 trend videos.

So… you’re gonna suffer:

I almost lit the wall on fire while creating this one. Don’t try this at home, kids!

Drawing Reveal Challenge:

I like geese.

…Can we skip to the good part?
I REALLY like geese.

It’s Corn!

Made with Fraser and Nolan. (This one took a long while to coordinate.)

Rating School Cafeteria Food

Made with Fraser and Nolan.

✍️My Thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about this project and the final products I managed to create. I initially had a strong start to the beginning of the year in PLP 10, but this semester has proven to be significantly harder on me not only academically but also mentally. Oftentimes during class, I would feel stressed or overwhelmed or confused, especially due to the lack of attention and direction kids who were not going on the field school were given. I understand that since kids who did not go on the trip were the minority it makes sense that others would be given more priority in the classroom, but it really felt like a punch in the gut.

It felt like just because I could not afford to go on the trip, my education was not as much of a priority or of as importance as other kids. I didn’t expect to feel as though there was this financial barrier that came with being in PLP, though I guess that is to be expected, since I have the feeling many of the teachers at my school presume we’re all “Deep Cove Rich Kids™”. I guess I never really realized it until this year, when trips began to go into motion once more. Don’t get me wrong, I believe I am really privileged to be able to access the education and opportunities I currently have, especially the trip to Capilano Suspension Bridge that was organized for us instead. I just also believe I’m not as privileged as some of the rest of my peers – but also that that should not mean my education is of any less importance.

I have never felt so disappointed in the quality of instruction and support I received as I was during this project (and other projects happening at the same time), and I’m not surprised that I feel even more disappointed in what I managed to create. I don’t think my videos were by any means bad, but they do not meet the standards I set for myself and I felt I was making do with what I could feasibly accomplish due to my mental health during this point of the project. I can only sum up my experience as bizzarely underwhelming and most likely my greatest, trainwreck, failure of a project this year. But hey, at least it was certainly a learning experience?

TLDR; Being a ✨social media influencer✨ and creating trend videos wasn’t everything I thought it would be, but my trend videos felt authentic to my personality and opinions, with intentional design choices that fit both the trends and my artistic integrity.

#fyp (lol)