Monthly Archives: January 2024

Student Journey: Gabe Eastridge

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“There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts.”

About Gabe

Gabe Eastridge graduated from the University of Indianapolis in May of 2023. He started EMDD in the fall of 2023. A creative designer, he went to school for Graphic Design and hopes to pursue that in sports. He enjoys art and visual media, which inspired him to pick up a camera and join the yearbook during high school. He loves taking documentary/street-style photos and enjoys shooting sports. He hopes to keep learning new software and using the projects in EMDD to grow his design skills, along with the understanding of storytelling to enhance his photography and video skills. Visit his portfolio here: eastridgephotoz.myportfolio.com

Thoughts on the EMMD Spring Workshop

I just attended my second set of EMDD low-res in-person classes. The first semester in the fall was a bit daunting as I had recently graduated that previous spring and decided to start my master’s, and I wasn’t sure what would be required of this higher program.

I quickly found out that the professors, Drs. Moloney and Fisher were very outgoing and excited to teach the classes. With a lot of banter back and forth and everyone getting to know one another, I was eased into this new adventure of education. I found I had similar interests and knowledge of areas that piqued the two different professors’ interest, and when brought up, it was noticeable that I had piqued their interest. They were quick to open up and start discussing the topics of AI, photography, design, varying media platforms, etc. Seeing their excitement, wealth of knowledge, and desire for discourse, I was drawn in. It’s hard to explain, but I haven’t had anything like this before in my undergrad classes. There isn’t just knowledge but a visual and physical atmosphere of excitement to learn challenging technology and concepts. They do excellent jobs pulling you in and continuously engaging. 

I say all that because those ideas remain true and are why I enjoy the EMDD program. We took an exciting trip to an escape room during this last in-person session. We were briefed on what to consider during this experience. It was also super interesting because, in the previous session, we visited the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis and spent a day exploring and analyzing the exhibits. This was a whole new story of engagement, and instead of just watching, you were a major piece in solving the puzzle. It was a great way to engage ideas of gamification concepts, storytelling, critical thinking, and overall design concepts. With this experience under our belt, we dove quickly into lectures and content that we will be working on for the rest of the semester.

Of course, just like the professors, the lectures are engaging and filled with funny moments, clips/imagery from real-world media, and concepts that help tell the narrative of the concepts. It was always enjoyable to see tidbits of fun during lectures as an undergrad, but these take a whole new level. They keep your attention, and I take mental notes because the content sticks with me. I am very visual and hands-on, and the way they teach works well for me. In one class, we focused more on jumping into software and starting the development process. We faced various challenges, and both professors were ready to add their problem-solving methods. They had broken us into two groups for the escape room and this short project. The two teams were the same for both events, which helped in the bonding process and the complexities of software. Having multiple minds on the topics helps solve the problems much quicker. I enjoy these short moments when we all meet in person. I love the professors and look forward to seeing them next time we meet.

Would you like to join Gabe on his journey? Follow EMDD on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Visit our Ball State University webpage for more information or to join our program.

Student Journey: Jo Beth Bootz

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“The right stories can open our hearts and change who we are.”

Janet Murray

About Jo Beth

Jo Beth Bootz is the Media Communications and Broadcasting Program Instructor at the Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center in Evansville. She embarked on her media journey during high school with a focus on radio broadcasting during her senior year as part of the Career and Technical Education program through the EVSC. Building on this foundation, Jo Beth pursued her passion at Indiana University, earning a degree in Telecommunications and Communication and Culture.

Throughout her college years, Jo Beth demonstrated her dedication to media by collaborating with the IU Office of Communications and Marketing. She produced a syndicated program for high school radio stations in Indiana and gained valuable experience through a summer internship in video production with KSTN in Seattle, Washington. Jo Beth earned a prestigious summer fellowship from the International Radio and Television Society after graduation. This opportunity led her to New York, where she interned with the Sesame Workshop, contributing to home video production for Sesame Street.

In her professional career, Jo Beth worked in marketing communications with Windstream Communications, Youth Resources of Southwestern Indiana, Habitat for Humanity of Evansville, and Macaroni Kid National. In 2020, Jo Beth transitioned to education, channeling her passion for media to inspire the next generation. Despite her diverse experiences, she circled back to the program and radio station where she started as a high school student. In addition to her full-time role, Jo Beth engages in freelance projects focusing on marketing communications and provides voice-over services to clients regionally and nationally. Her work can be heard on iHeartRadio’s iRead2Know literacy station.

Jo Beth is in her second semester of the Emerging Media Design and Development program.

Thoughts on the EMMD Spring Workshop

As a low-res student, the journey to Indianapolis combines excitement, anticipation, and genuine education alongside fellow professionals. In online learning, our weeks are often consumed by work, family, friends, and extracurricular activities. However, Ball State’s four-day workshop for EMDD at the beginning of each semester, where professionals convene, serves as a welcoming gateway, fostering connections with the curriculum and peers in the cohort.

The workshop became an immediate hub for bonding, featuring Dr. Maloney’s engaging stoke activities, an escape room challenge set to the backdrop of 80’s music and cars, and Dr. Fisher’s commitment to teaching a new system for crafting interactive digital experiences. Discussions traversed diverse topics, from Star Wars to Westworld, exploring storytelling models from Freytag, Kishotenketsu, and Vonnegut, and embracing Janet Murray as our personal Godmother of IDN. The exchange of knowledge and ideas during these sessions was unparalleled.

The workshop concluded with a creative challenge amid discussions, lectures, and group activities. Teams drew on their love and understanding of impactful storytelling, combining it with the structure of digital narrative using Unity for the first time. And boy, was that a challenge! Drawing inspiration from our escape room experience, two teams “competed,” weaving narratives featuring a casino mob boss to a spooky treasure hunt complete with a haunted mansion—all constructed within a text-based experience, challenging our storytelling and programming skills. Undoubtedly, each of us embarked on a Hero’s journey from Wednesday through Saturday, initiating or continuing our education journey with the EMDD family.

Would you like to join Jo Beth on her journey? Follow EMDD on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Visit our Ball State University webpage for more information or to join our program.

The Center for EMDD Presents: The Great Escape

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“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

– Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Last week, the Center for Emerging Media Design and Development launched its spring low-residency workshop at the Ball State Fishers Center. This immersive four-day event provided team building, networking, educational components for EMDD 630: Nonlinear & Interactive Storytelling and EMMD 640: Transmedia Storytelling & Publishing, and fun!

The week began with a pit stop at EscapeUSA Fishers’ The Race escape room, which is best described in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle via ChatGPT:

“In the dimly lit Vintage Race League garage, motor oil and adrenaline thick in the air, a mysterious veil cloaked the season’s final race. High stakes, higher tension – you and your rival teetered on victory’s edge. A clandestine caller, night-shrouded, delivered an ominous message – both race cars sabotaged, carburetors damaged. Fate’s gears took a sinister turn.

“Race rules demanded inspection two hours before engines roared. Within 60 minutes, navigate the labyrinth, find a spare carburetor, or face a penalty. The Parts Department key was left at the track; a security code guarded the crucial bastion. Unravel the mystery, find the code, secure the carburetor – destiny’s race against time: triumph or bitter defeat, the final race hung in the balance, a spectacle of cunning deduction. The game was afoot!“

At the workshop, Dr.’s Kevin Moloney and Joshua Fisher created a novel experience for their classes. Competing against one another in two identical escape rooms, the students created narratives that will inform the stories they tell via their coursework in the upcoming semester. Dr. Fisher said, “the escape room allowed students to gather story data to put theory into practice in the emerging discipline of interactive and digital storytelling.”

Students used a series of user personas to select their escape room type and sorted into two teams of five: The Perfect Mix and The Wrecking Balls. These teams raced against the clock and each other to see who could escape first. The Wrecking Balls crushed The Perfect Mix’s hopes of winning with a well-timed, if accidental, bit of sabotage, but in the end, both teams escaped with the spare carburetor!

After receiving the checkered flags, students took a pace lap and met with faculty and alums of the EMDD program at a dinner mixer at the Fishers Test Kitchen before heading to their respective homes and hotels.

The rest of the week featured morning sessions of storytelling theory and afternoons of story creation. Dr. Moloney’s course focused on how to build stories, “we used the escape room experience to seed discussions of how to structure a story. The students chatted with me as they developed nonlinear stories about how the points on a variety of story arcs could work in nonlinear form.” Dr. Fisher worked on fleshing these stories into an interactive form via Unity and Twine.

Would you like EMDD to be part of your story? Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Visit our Ball State University webpage for more information or to join our program.