This was a great week! Although it was challenging, I appreciated the task of finding time to sit, watch, and listen to this week’s DS106 content. It’s not often we take time to really reflect on what it means to practice listening and to think about how we listen. Evelyn Glennie’s TED Talk was a great way to start the week reflecting on how we listen. I also enjoyed the course content on layering media. I’m sure it will come in handy over the next few weeks.
I was pretty excited about this week’s first assignment, to listen to a radio program. I love listening to NPR programs but I usually listen to them while I’m cleaning the house, getting ready in the morning, or basically anything I can do while listening. While efficient, that’s certainly not the best way to really experience a radio program. This week I hunkered down and really listened to an episode of This American Life. I actually pulled up the transcript from the website, pasted into a word document, and took copious notes so I could remember what I was thinking/feeling/hearing. The transcript helped me stay focused on the program and my notes helped me remember what to write in my blog post.
Our second assignment for the week was quite fun. I blogged about the 2014 Kia Soul commercial as a short film. Not only is the commercial fun and entertaining, but I totally got a kick out of spending an evening writing about hamsters. Through watching the commercial several times and dissecting it, I was able to pull out a lot of really interesting qualities that contribute to it being such a great commercial. Looking at it in :5 sec. increments certainly gave me a greater appreciation for the work of the people who put together 1:30 commercials. There were many layers – no small task!
I also spent some time commenting on the work of my classmates/colleagues. It’s really interesting to see how others are interpreting our assignments and what stories they are infusing into their work. I get the sense that this class, in both content and delivery, is very much outside everyone’s comfort zone (myself included). It will be interesting to compare our early work with our later work as I’m sure everyone will learn a lot.
Lastly, I came up with a new idea for storification; taxes! Don’t worry, I’m cringing too.
bcodelson 
I hope your taxes go as well as your blogging; this si exactly the type of summary I am hoping to read. I can see what you have done, how you feel about it, and a sense of your approach (e.g. using the This American Life transcript, that is a tip worth sharing).
The ironic thing I noticed this week is that at least 3 students did an analysis of a commercial that was created by an automobile maker (all were different). Does this say the indiustry better understands the story approach?
Oh, one more! I liked that you are creating categories for each week’s work, that is clever.