Created for the Instruction, Research Support, & Digital Literacy Librarian Search Committee at Warren Wilson College
Digital Literacy Examples
The digital artifacts in this sample portfolio demonstrate my facility with many aspects of digital literacy, including all aspects of audio and video production, photographic composition and processing, digital storytelling, and basic graphic design. Additionally, I hope the portfolio itself serves as a demonstration of how student portfolios might augment a solid institutional digital repository in a way that directly benefits the students at Warren Wilson College.
About St. Pete Sessions
St. Pete Sessions is a skateboarding video I created to show my facility and genuine interest with several skillsets under the digital literacy umbrella including: audio recording and mixing, video recording and editing, and digital storytelling. Details below.
Audio Recording & Mixing
The background song in this video–Out of Town Man by Machines of Revolution–came out of a collaboration with my cousin’s band in 2009. I made this multi-track recording using inexpensive gear and without the benefit of a sound studio. The band wanted a live feel for the song, and to try to capture this we recorded the entire song live for use as a track for the musicians to listen and play along to as they individually recorded clean tracks of their respective instruments. I used GarageBand to mix and refine all tracks.
Video Capture
I filmed all parts in this video with the exception of two of the clips of my own skating. I captured all video with both a Sony a6000 camera–using a few different lenses–and an iPhone.
Video Editing
I edited and made all adjustments for St. Pete Sessions using DaVinci Resolve 16, a standard in the film industry. While my usage of this tool was basic for this video, it did require use of some interesting and important features. Filming in the bright Florida sun is challenging at best, and the a6000 does not have image stabilization in the body. This meant that for many of the clips I needed to perform minor color correction as well as image stabilization in post-processing. Additionally, I was able to add camera motion to a very static shot that did not quite fit well with the flow of the video. Finally, I adjusted audio levels so each individual clip would be heard beneath, but not overwhelm, the music track.
The style of editing mainly follows a style popularized by skateboarder Jamie Thomas in the mid-’90s, who prioritized editing scene cuts to fall on the beat of the music over what had been a more traditional approach of editing only the smack of the trick landing to fall on the beat. St. Pete Sessions has a bit of both.
Digital Storytelling
Time and place can make all the difference in how an audience views a film. While not intended for an audience beyond the Warren Wilson Instruction, Research Support, & Digital Literacy Librarian Search Committee, to any of the skaters featured in this project the film would hold a special meaning. But because this was filmed entirely in 2020 and 2021 any viewer might begin to understand the importance skateboarding holds for these individuals. During a difficult year by any standards, skateboarding provided us with a relatively safe outdoor and socially-distant activity, served as a conduit for forming friendships and connections in a time of isolation, and helped keep our bodies and minds healthy.
Additionally, skateboarding is always the story of perseverance in both the long and short-terms. All of the tricks in this video–from the very basic to the most amazing–are hard-won. The sequence at 1:45 of a skater falling while attempting a trick down the stairs, then successfully landing the trick, illustrates this point quickly and effectively.
Photography
Maximo Sunrise; St. Petersburg, FL 16mm f/11 .2 sec ISO 100 
S.S. Sapona; Bimini, Bahamas 16mm f/10 1/160 sec ISO 100 
Boat-tailed Grackle; St. Petersburg, FL 210mm f/6.3 1/2000 sec ISO 800
I enjoy outdoor photography, and am working towards better compositions, as well as improving my technical skill behind the camera and in post-processing. I shot the images above in RAW format on a Sony a6000 and used either Luminar 4 (Boat and Sunrise) or Darktable (Bird) for my post-processing. I am familiar with common processing techniques and seek to tell a story with my photos while replicating what I remember–both visually and emotionally–from each location.
Workshop Creativity and Design
I designed the draft below as part of a collaborative, active-learning workshop proposal for The Collective annual conference. While ultimately not selected for the conference, the “guide,” which I created in Canva was to be handed out to participants. The premise of the workshop is that we would have several mini sessions within the workshop, and that participants could choose which path they wanted. At the conclusion, we would all reconvene so participants could discuss what they had learned. In this way, if a participant wished to be at two concurrent mini sessions, they could still learn from what others’ had taken away. While this will be an impossibility in the near future, we look forward to a time this workshop might find a home.
