#CLMOOC Begins!

And we're off! 

#CLMOOC 2015 has begun! 

Technically we were off last week with the CLMOOC webinar on Thursday, but the first prompt came out today. Now it feels real. 

To me, CLMOOC means summer. The encouragement from other teachers, administrators, makers, and thinkers helps me both relax and revive at the same time. This, to me, is the fun stuff. 

So of course I jumped into making  almost as soon as I had a minute to read the prompt. Our prompt is to Unmake an Introduction. 

You can read the prompt here at on the CLMOOC website... while you're there, sign up for the CLMOOC newsletter, so you too can get the prompts emailed to you for the next five glorious Mondays. :) 

Anyway, I've been thinking about my introductions a lot lately, since summer term is just beginning. I'm meeting dozens of first year students each day, and each one of them gets a little bit of an introduction from me. In addition, my wife is in law school at Mercer Law... so I bet you can imagine how many times I get to introduce myself to her classmates, colleagues, professors, and so on. Spoiler alert: I get to introduce myself a lot. 

Finally, I just finished a semester-long job application and interview process for a job I really, really wanted. The materials I submitted totaled up to 63 pages of... you guessed it... really detailed introduction. I think I can say that going into this make, I had a lot of words to work with. 

My first stab at an unmade introduction took word cloud form. I pulled from those application materials I mentioned, and I think they turned out pretty neat!

I made these word clouds in Tagul, my current favorite word cloud generator. It lets me pick shapes, colors, and even upload my own silhouettes. These are all the Tagul shapes, but I did play with coloring. That hand in the top row is my attempt at GSU school colors. 

What I like about these word clouds is that they have all the words I'd use in an introduction of myself, but they are out of my control. The words, colors, shapes, and even your approach to reading all of them changes things. I like that. 
As I told a class of students today, I'm a bit of a control freak. Having that control yanked out of my hands, even for just a simple introduction, is pretty awesome. 

Great first prompt, Lacy Manship and Stephanie West-Puckett! I'm looking forward to making, remixing, and reflecting on this prompt this week. Can't wait to see what others dream up for fracturing their introductions. 

And you, yes YOU! Have you signed up for #CLMOOC? You should! There's no deadline, and lurkers and makers alike are welcome and appreciated. 

See you around the makerspaces!