My Website

I'm almost done my site! Yay!

I've gotten the Primary Research video all edited and put together, and I've analyzed it.  Now all that's left is the intro video.  Who knows, maybe I'll have it done by Monday.

Listening and watching some of the other presentations, I've gotten some great ideas on how to present my website better.  I like how one of the presenters wrote some notecards to help her.  What I didn't really like was the seemingly lackadaisical attitude some of them had, especially when talking about some emotional topics.  I'll be sure to present my site like a tour guide and write notecards to help me remember what to say.

I'll have to keep the presentation brief, since the interview video is almost 5 minutes long, and I don't know how long the intro video will be, probably rather short.

Other than that, I think I'm pretty pleased with my site, especially since I've never done one before.

Monday before class

It's funny that I'm just realizing how lost I am in this section. I really don't know what I'm doing or supposed to do. It really became apparent during the jeopardy game on Friday. I'm reading and rereading the rubric and unit 2 document, but nothing seems to be making sense to me. It may be the Monday morning, but I think I'm just at a loss. What did I need to bring to class today? I have no idea! Am I just supposed to be working on my website? I don't know! I wish someone would just explain exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't even know if my website is built right. Am I supposed to have it done today? Cause I can't finish it when my primary research interviewees won't respond! I've gotten a couple interviews in, but not with an expert! I'm really wishing there was something I could do.

Tuesday before class: March 8

Finally finished revising my paper.  I can print it out tomorrow, I guess.

As far as the website.  It seems like I'm just not getting enough answers from my interviews to make a video.... sad....

I'll put together what I have, but the odds of getting an interview within the next week are pretty slim.  I may have to try to interview some people I know, just to get their opinions of the Poseidon Undersea Resort or exploration or deep-sea diving.

We'll see how it turns out.

Update March 6

It's about time I updated some things.

My interview went really well.  I enjoyed it and got some great footage for my video.  It was just like having a conversation with someone.

Richard Strickland responded to a couple of my questions and told me to send more of them.

Peter Koetsier hasn't responded yet, so I'm going to email him again.

Allison Fundis responded to my first email, but hasn't responded to my first couple questions yet.

Amy helped me find another couple sources I could use.

And I'm building my website.  It's going pretty well, but I don't really know quite what to do with it.  I'll have to ask on Monday or something.

The writing center meeting was really great and helpful.  I got some great ideas for revision.  He said that this was very close to a final draft and needed a little tweaking to polish it.

TODAY!

It's my first interview today.  I'm charging my camera and reading over the questions.  Gotta be prepared, since I only have 1/2 an hour.

I'll probably try to ask everyone I interview, the first two questions:

"What does exploration mean?"  and "What, in your opinion, leads people to explore dangerous places, like the deep ocean?"

From there, I'll just try to have a conversation with them.  This will be lion-share of the video.

Wish me luck....

Resource Update: March 1

I've been emailing Mr. Strickland about deep-sea exploration, and he's referred me to the UW (University of Washington) website.  They have a whole department on deep-sea research.  They have a section on the underwater observatory they're designing.  It's exactly what I talked about in my paper, and now I have another source on it!  This is great!

The site address is:

http://www.ooi.washington.edu/

Continuing: Interview Questions

Anyway...

6. Who were William Beebe and Otis Barton?
7. What is your opinion of them?
8. What do you think of the Bathysphere?
9. Knowing the limitations of the Bathysphere, how do you view Beebe and Barton's bravery?
10. What lessons can we learn as a people from these two men?
11. What lessons have you personally learned from them?
12. Who was Auguste Piccard?
13. What contributions has Piccard made in Deep-sea research?
14. Were these two groups of explorers beyond their time as far as deep-sea technology is concerned?
15. Who is Robert Ballard?
16. What has Ballard contributed to deep-sea research as far as technology and exploration?
17. Would you consider the scientists and inventors involved to be the main reason for underwater technology's growth?
18. Do you believe these scientists were so wrapped up in discovery, that they never realized the capitol gain being made by their efforts.
(Here, I'd introduce the controversy.  The Poseidon Undersea Resort and others like it.)
19. Can the Poseidon Undersea Resort harm the coral reef on which it is built?
20. Do you believe as our technology increases, so will the number of underwater resorts?
21. How can we protect the fragile environment when people have been freely diving and exploring the underwater world, taking "souvenirs" along the way?
22. How do you think this should be regulated?
23. Will the ocean become overly regulated, making it difficult for scientists and researchers to explore easily?
24. After some thought, what is your opinion of the Poseidon Undersea Resort?
25. If the resources were readily available, would you stay in Poseidon?  Why or why not?

And those are 25 "jumping-off" questions I can begin with.  Where they will lead or which one's I will use, I haven't decided yet.  Really, I want the interview to be more like a conversation than anything formal.  The interviewee should feel like I'm just curious about deep-sea exploration and oceanography, not interrogating them on the subject.

Interview questions

I need to write like 20 questions to possibly ask my interviewee.  Since I have a lot of people I'm trying to interview, I can distribute them among the people according to their speciality.

Here are some of the questions I've come up with.

1. What does exploration mean?
2. What, in your opinion, leads people to explore dangerous places, like the deep-ocean?
3. What led you to a career in oceanography?
4. What intrigues you about the ocean?
5. Why are humans naturally curious?

I'll write more later....