Responses to student group presentations on May 24 2012

GROUP 21

The group project that I enjoyed the most of the Gulliver’s Travels presentations was group 21 and their rendition of an episode of “House Hunters.” The group created a movie film with voice overs that presented the four different key places Gulliver traveled. By having each one of these separate places being represented of the campus of Cal Poly itself, I thought this was very clever and useful, especially since we have our horse unit, which was very helpful in the film. Not only was it comical and witty, keeping the audience entertained, the film displayed the parts of the actual novel very clearly. Tying in the television show “House Hunters” into the places Gulliver traveled throughout the novel, the group was able to place a humorous aspect on their film. The first place the film visited was Lilliput, where the group filmed a small figuring in a playground to represent the people of this land. Their humor including the line, “a big heart comes in small packages”, fed off the audiences emotions furthering crediting the wit of their film. Next was Brobingnag, where the group filmed the small figuring, now representing Gulliver himself, in ‘ his natural habitat’, inside of a house and tying these parts back into the novel. The group next traveled to the land of the Houyhnhnms, located in the horse unit on our campus. This was my favorite part of the presentation because the group really stepped outside of the box and used their resources. The energy was fluid and kept the audience entertained, and I overall enjoyed their product.

I really enjoyed group 21's project. I tend to like videos, and their's was really well done. I really thought the way they depicted the different lands was easily understandable and was funny how they depicted them in just an every day kitchen or bedroom. They made good use of props and and used a lot humor by changing their voices to fit each character. It seemed like the group had a lot of fun doing the project together which made it even better. What made the video the best was that it was edited well and overall came off entertaining and well done.

This presentation definitely got my attention because it started out with a high pitched theme song, followed by a close up family portrait of a family with crazy mullets. On this episode of house hunters they were looking for a new place to live and their options were Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the Country of the Houyhnhnms. First they went to Lilliput and saw all the land and people there. They explained that it was a beautiful place to live with trees that are as tall as seven feet! They then explained about how all the people there are only a few inches tall and this can be problematic. I thought the part where she was “tied down” was pretty funny. Also I enjoyed the use of that little old woman figure. I got a good laugh out of it. Next they went to Brobdingnag where they told us that it was the opposite of Lilliput and everyone there was gigantic. The little woman was back and she told us all about the peninsula. She explained that they made her a house there and that the only problem she encountered was that she had to be on the lookout for animals trying to attack her. The showdown with the cat was quite enjoyable. In Laputa they went to Architecture Graveyard and showed us a tour of the “houses” they had there. That was a very creative idea, especially since the people from Laputa are very creative and seem like they would make houses that don’t look like the typical house you would see here. Lastly they went to the Houyhnhnms and basically said this is the place to live because of the healthy diet, no crime and no lust. It seemed like a very relaxing place and I have a feeling the family is going to pick that one! I thought the footage

Although I thought that every group was very creative and successful with their presentations for this class period, I thought that Group 21, the first presentation of the day, did an excellent job.  This group chose to give an overview of three of the different areas that Gulliver visited during his travels in an innovative way. This group did a fantastic job describing the different settings of Gulliver’s Travels with their video.  By doing a spoof on the television show House Hunters, they were able to give an accurate summary of Lilliput, Brobdingnag and the Houyhnhnm’s country.  I thought that the description of Lilliput was very funny.  It was smart to use a Barbie to represent the tininess of the inhabitants of this land.  I also like how the group mentioned that upon arriving you might get tied up and your weapons will be taken away from you.  Brobdingnag was also very well described. I liked the small prison-like room that was created for this part of the video, and the house you used worked out quite well for the description of Brobdingnag.  Gulliver did not enjoy his stay at Brobdingnag and the messy house, when compared to the pretty park featured for Lilliput, made it less desirable.  The Houyhnhnm’s countryside video footage was very well done as well.  Using the Cal Poly equine unit was a great idea for this last part of the video. Overall, this group’s presentation was an excellent representation of all of the different locations described in Gulliver’s Travels.

The project that was the most meaningful to me was the first group project (group 21) entitled "House Hunters." I enjoyed this project the most because I thought it was interesting to see the way they portrayed each kingdom that Gulliver traveled to. In this project the Joe family visited the four nations Gulliver lived in and weighed the pros and cons of each. The first kingdom they visited was Lilliput. I enjoyed the way they used figurines to represent the tiny people of this land. The pros were that the land was beautiful and amusing. The cons were that if the Joe's were to live there, they would be much bigger than their neighbors. The next place they visited was Brobdingnag. In this kingdom they used the figurines to portray the visitors. The pros of Brobdingnag were that the natives were curious and welcoming. However, the cons were that the natives were much larger than the Joe's. Next, the Joes visit Laputa. The pros were the variety of houses and the intelligence of the natives. However, the cons were that there are no right angles in Laputa. The last place they visited was the kingdom of the Houyhnhnms. This kingdom was peaceful, safe, and run by intelligent horses. However, the Joe's might not want to live here because the closest thing they would resemble would be Yahoos. Yahoos are looked down upon in this kingdom. 

I felt that Group 21’s project and presentation was very creative.  It allowed us as the class to view the story in a realistic and personal setting.  It had its comedic relief while still portraying the classic critical views that the Gulliver’s Travels tries to get across.  The house hunters’ idea was original and I feel like it kept the class interested in the project, which makes it easier to present I think.  The girls had many accurate quotes and scenes from the book.  Probably my favorite scene from the presentation was the face off with the cat to the western music.  It really showed the challenges that Gulliver was forced to face when staying in Brobdingnag.  Being a small person would be quite difficult and living with giant cats would just make it more chaotic.  By comparing all of the lands in Gulliver’s Travels to locations on Cal Poly and throughout San Luis Obispo it allowed the class to be familiar with the presentation.  The presentation was very well put together and seemed to take quite a bit of time to produce.  Going to the locations, recording the voices over the scenes and putting it all together surely took a while and a good amount of knowledge and hard work.

After watching yesterday's presentations I was overall very impressed with all of the groups projects. It was clear to me that a great deal of time and effort was spent both creating their powerpoints/movies and practicing their individual roles. The project that really caught my attention was group 21, the House Hunter movie. This group was, in my opinion, extremely creative and witty when it came to the format they presented their information in. Another aspect that made their project interesting was that the videos were actually from around Cal Poly. They used the odd and unique structures in Poly Canyon, these buildings really related to the mental picture I had created in my head for the houses in the story. They turned the different lands Gulliver travelled to into potential places to move and live. Each land had its own unique flair, for example, they described the luscious landscape of Lilliput and how you would substantially taller then the locals. They brought into the project how the family that was on the show would be treated by the people living in each area. Overall, this project was very well executed and really kept my attention. They clearly spent a great deal of time planning and preparing for their presentation. I felt that I had a greater understanding of the lands in Gulliver's Travels after watching this wonderful movie. 

Although all the projects that were presented today were successful, the group project that was most interesting to me was Group 21. This was the group who did the House Hunters video. They created a House Hunters episode, showing and describing four different locations to a family debating where their next home will be. The first location was Lilliput, “where big hearts come in small packages.” They acted out different scenes from Gulliver’s Travels. The second location was Brobdingnag where they showed how small you would be compared to everyone else. The third location was Laputa. It was clever how they showed a building lacking right angles, reflecting the town of Laputa in Gulliver’s Travels.  Finally they displayed the land of the Houyhnhnms. Here they showed a Yahoo and then showed various horses in a field to symbolize the Houyhnhnms. This group created the video so that it was informative and reflected the various locations in Gulliver’s Travels. I liked how this video was in the form of an episode. At the end they said to tune in next time to see which location the family chooses. I thought that was a good thing to add. Not only was this project educational, it was funny and creative which was why I chose this presentation as most meaningful. I was engaged in the video for its entirety, which shows that it was a success. It is very clear that the members in this group spent a sufficient amount of time in creating this video.

GROUP 22

The project that I enjoyed the most was done by Group 22, which was titled “The World of Gulliver’s Travels”. I found this project to be really exciting and interesting because it captured my attention right away. This project was based on the book Gulliver’s Travels, and gave a very accurate representation of the events that occurred in the book. The group proposed a new Disneyland ride based on Gulliver’s journeys in the book. The design of the ride was a boat that traveled through four main sections or in other words, the four stops on Gulliver’s journey. The first stop was in Lilliput where the setting is very stormy. The boat travels around a huge Gulliver body that is tied to the ground by string. The boat then goes through Gulliver’s giant legs, meanwhile these events are narrated in order to help the rider follow along with the story. The boat then travels to Brobdingnag where the boat is surrounded by the faces of giants. The boat also travels through the city of Brobdingnag where the rider can see the royal palace and King and Queen. Next the boat goes to Laputa, Gulliver’s third stop. The ride will make the rider feel as if they are high up in the sky just like being on a flying island. The ride will finish all of the destinations on Gulliver’s list, and by the end the rider will have a great experience and understanding of Gulliver’s Travels. I really loved this project and even pictured myself riding this ride at Disneyland. This was definitely my favorite presentation and it really increased my understanding of the book.

I greatly enjoyed all of the projects that were presented today on the story of Gulliver’s Travels.  The project that meant the most to me was group 22’s creation of a Disney Land or Disney World ride that depicted the overall story of Gulliver’s travels.  Being a huge fan of Disney myself, I was immediately captured by their Disney themed project.  I am also very familiar with many of the rides in Disney Land today and was able to appreciate the similarities and ideas from those rides that they used to create their own ride.  This project has been different than any other project we have had before, there was a lot of creativity involved and I could tell the group put a lot of time and effort into making this ride.  The different parts of their ride clearly illustrated the various places that Gulliver travels to in the book.  Their ideas that they incorporated into the ride greatly increased my understanding of the book and the events that took place.  They included Liiliput, Brobdingnag, Laptua with Balnibarbi, and Houyhnhms.  They even included many of the interesting characters seen in Gulliver’s travels such as the King and Queen form Brodbingnag and the yahoos from Houyhnhnms.  The best part about this presentation was that this ride that they created was so realistic and could very much be an actual ride.  If I saw this attraction at Disney Land, or any other park for that matter, I would definitely ride!

I thought the second group to go, group 22 I believe, did a truly incredible job. Their idea of creating a Gulliver's Travels themed Disney ride was original and extremely intriguing.  At first I didn't see how they were going to portray the events of the story as a ride, but as they described it I could actually see Disney making a similar ride.  Each part of the ride displayed an emotion that Gulliver's would have felt along his travels.  I thought that the group do a great job of picking out which parts of the story would make good aspects of a ride.  Yet had obviously put a lot o thought into the layout of the ride including the scenery on the side, the motion of the cart/boat, and the narration that would occur throughout.  Narration during the Lilliputian debates, as well as "Farewell Yahoos!" at the end help involve those on the ride into the story.  Finally, the drawings on the power point were very well done, props to the author, and helped bring the ride to life for me. Overall, it was a very successful presentation.  Great job group 22!

I really loved this idea. This is the first group presentation this year that I believe has real world application. Since I am an Entrepreneur student at Cal Poly I really do see a possible chance of this working. The group said that it would be at disneyland or disney world, however I would say it could go to Universal Studios or any other theme park because Disney never did a Gulliver's Travels rendition. As to the actual presentation I thought they did a very good job, they had sketches of what the ride would be like and incorporated all 4 of the islands Gulliver visits and they had attractions that you would go through on the ride in each one. Also I like that they made it not just a slow ride but they mixed in a roller coaster type feel, as well as a water ride similar to Pirates of the Caribbean. They did a good job at incorporating the important plot lines from each of the 4 islands into the ride layout the created. Overall I think this group was phenomenal in their approach to this project. 

Today’s presentations were fantastic! However I still have to pick one of them to be my favorite, in which case, I choose Group 22’s proposal for a Gulliver’s Travels themed Disney ride. I’ve always enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for its spectacle, and after seeing this proposal, think that should this idea come to fruition, this “story ride” would be a favorite as well.  The ride starting off in the middle of the storm reminds me of the beginning of the Pirates ride, where the boat goes through the Davy Jones mist and boat-in-storm scene. The signature scene of Gulliver’s Travels, the scene of the Lilliputians tying Gulliver down, would in particular need a lot of attention to detail to show the passengers the scope of the Lilliputians’ society; the x hundreds of people doing one thing, the x hundreds of people doing whatever else, and the machines they used, because the usual picture of the scene doesn’t do the sheer numbers of Lilliputians justice. I would like to make a list of all the scenes that (you’ve) picked that I would most like to see, except that I want to see all of them. One scene that is particularly interesting that (you’ve) picked is that of the Laputan women jumping island into the riders’ boat. How would that work out? How would the part with the riders in a box moving with them work? And how can a boat be made to go through a track through both water and air? It would probably have to be a rail ride, although engineered to be water resistant. Either way, I would love a chance to see this ride in actuality, for both its faithfulness to the text (and its length) and its detail.

Group 22’s presentation was my favorite this week. They had the most original idea of turning the story of Gulliver’s travels into a Disney amusement ride. I found this idea so creative and really captured the spirit of the story. I could almost picture myself going through the different parts of the ride as they explained it. Pirates of the Caribbean is my favorite ride in Disneyland so creating something similar to that sounds really fun.  Each section of the ride was very well planned out, from Lilliput to the land of the Houyhnhnms  I really liked the idea of passing by all the projects doing their crazy experiments at the Academy of Lagado. I also liked part where we meet the yahoos as they try to through things at the boat. The ride sounds like it should be part of Disneyland and should be included in the contest to design a ride that we heard about in class. Although it was sometimes hard to follow parts of the idea because the sketches were not exact, the presenters explaining each part more than made up for any lack of visual reference. Hopefully, Disney will get the rights to this wonderful tale and create something as fun as this ride sounds like it has the potential to be. Great job to the presenters of this group for creating such a unique and well done presentation.

I found all the presentations delivered on Thursday, May 24, to be enjoyable, however it is my opinion that Group 22 surpassed the rest with their creativity, inventiveness, and faithful contemporizing of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. The group presented a slideshow proposal for a fictional Gulliver-ride to be put into a Disneyland park, in the same vein as the Pirates of the Caribbean or Tom Sawyer Island attractions. What I found most worthy of commendation had to be the degree in which the students adhered to Swift's original source material. The Gulliver-related attraction had the park-goers travel to many of the well known islands and countries familiar to readers of the popular classic, such as: the land of Lilliput, the gargantuan Brobdingnag, the fair Laputa, the ever inquisitive Balnibari, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. On the way the lucky park-goer received a brief education into the world of Gulliver's Travels and the plight of the ignorant and insensible Yahoos that are, of course, close-minded humans. The brilliance of this project is not just the educational standpoint the group presented by revitalizing a literary classic, but also in their stunning creativity. The ingenuity of the ride itself is worth mentioning. The PowerPoint presentation included preliminary sketches of the ride itself, the track and some of the setting surrounding the physical ride itself. I found it did not adhere only to Swift's vision but also the vision of the Disneyland parks. It was loaded with a sense of mysticism and fun characteristic of the park. Overall, well-done group 22 it was a delight to watch your performance. Bravo!

The project that caught my attention the most was group number 22. I love the idea of a new ride at Disneyland and Disney World. This presentation was very well thought out in my opinion. The sketches of the images along with the digital images made the ride come to life. They represented each of the places Gulliver traveled to in a very appropriate manner. I would choose to go on this ride for sure.

Group 22 had the best project presentation of the day. Their ride presentation for “The World of Gulliver's Travels” was a good interpretation of a ride for either Disney World or Disneyland. I think the reason their ride was the best idea was because it was very original. No one has thought to do a theme park ride, and especially not one that sounds like something Disney would actually build. The combination of the roller coaster aspects as well as the slow moving rides went along with the very tumultuous story of Gulliver and his travels. This group succeeded in taking every detail from the book and bringing it to life in the ride. I wasn't bored during their project presentation because not only were they summarizing the story, they were also bringing an artistic level and interpretation to the story. I think Lynn's sketches were excellent and showed the attention to detail they put in to the assignment. All of the group members presented their portion with equal attention to detail, which showed equal participation and enthusiasm for their idea. I think their ride brought insight to the book that I might have missed in the reading. What I may have skipped over, the group members saw special murals, sounds, and mist. This group focused the ride on what any amusement park attender would want to see in a ride: a real story that could be enjoyed by all ages. I think the audience reacted well to it because there are actually competitions to create a ride such as this going on right now. They succeeded in bringing the story to life in a way that is enjoyable to all crowds.

The presentation that stood out the most to me during this round of presentations was group 24. They did the Late Afternoon Show with David Letterman which was a spoof of the Late Show. Gulliver was invited as a guest onto the talk show to promote his new movie documenting his travels. I thought that this was an interesting approach to the material and I appreciate that they tried to do something unique with their presentation considering that a lot of the other presentations played it on the safe side, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Instead of having all the characters just standing around waiting to deliver their lines, they had characters come onstage at different times during the presentation which I thought was a good idea. Another nice touch was that they showed a clip of the Gulliver’s Travels movie with Jack Black and played it off as if it was from the movie that this Gulliver was promoting which mimicked what usually happens on these talk shows. The actors themselves were seemed well practiced and played their parts convincingly. One other presentation that really managed to grab my attention was the one that came up with a Disneyland ride with a Gulliver’s Travels theme. I think that this caught my attention because it might actually have some real potential for an actual ride. Each part of the ride was modeled after the different locations Gulliver visited during his travels. When the group was describing it they managed to really paint a vivid picture of what they wanted the ride to be.

Group 22’s presentation was the most meaningful to me. Most of the presentations that have been most enjoyable have been the ones that are really funny and outrageous, but this one kept my attention the entire time without trying to be really outrageous. I thought their idea was really creative and executed very well. I like that each group member spoke, it showed that they were all involved in the project. I like that they went chronologically, island by island, because that kept the ride very close to Gulliver’s travels. It was great how they explained the story in detail while explaining the ride in detail. It was correlated very well. I really liked the allusions to Pirates of the Caribbean, because us as audience members were able to visualize their ride. The sketches that were included in the power point were a very nice touch because it showed that the group members really took time to think out the ride logically. Also, all of the pictures in the power point aided in visualization as well. The group members really worked hard to make sure that the audience could understand what they wanted to do, and I think it paid off. I really liked the idea of a boat going through Gulliver’s legs; it was really funny. The one thing I think they could have improved on was speaking a little louder. Otherwise I thought it was great and Disney should definitely take them up on this ride! I commend them for doing something creative and keeping our attention the whole time.

All of the projects were done well this week, but the one that sticks out in my mind is the Disneyland or Disneyworld concept.  My favorite place in the entire world is Disneyland, so this really idea really perked my enthusiasm.  However, I do not know if Disney would ever accept a ride that was in the form of Gulliver’s Travels, because Gulliver’s Travels is definitely not Disney.  This ride seemed like it would be very creative though.  I liked how the group incorporated all four lands into the layout of their project.   I thought it was very creative how they incorporated aspects of the book into the ride for the people on the attraction to see, such as the water sprit-zing to make it feel like the were at sea with Gulliver in the crazy storms, or such as the massive sized-Gulliver being picked up by all of the Lilliputins.  It would have been nice if the group had not read entirely from their cards so that the audience would be a little more intrigued, and it would have also been nice if they had focused more on the whole of the ride and what it should overall portray to the viewers rather than all of the little details, but it was nice to see that they did put thought into the movement of the boat, the sprinkles of water that would occur in the beginning, and such.  Overall, great job group 22! A Disneyland ride was a very creative, and fun idea!

I really enjoyed how Group 22 depicted Gulliver’s Travels through a Disneyland boat ride/rollercoaster. The visuals which they included in their PowerPoint allowed the audience to get a really good sense of how the boat ride might look. They portrayed how childish and fairytale the story is. The description the members used was detailed and made imagination easier. They even explained turns in the ride, the type of music that will be played, and different scenarios. One thing I might have included if I was a member in this group was playing actual music. This would have made this presentation more animated and put the ride to life. This idea was also original and unlike any other presentations given. The hand drawn pictures were very impressive and added a great personal element too. Overall, I thought this group did a great representation of Gulliver’s Travels.

I thought the project about Disneyland was a brilliant idea. I really enjoyed listening to the ride about Gulliver’s Travel. I would definitely want to ride this ride. Also making the ride into the four worlds was an innovated aspect to add to the ride. The group did an excellent job summarizing and highlighting the main points in the four stories. Their project bettered my understanding of Gulliver’s adventures and the significant points in each different adventure. Gulliver’s Travels are very interesting and unique stories in which are generally told to children about. They are tales for children books and making a Disneyland ride for children is a great idea to bridge the relevance in the basics of the story and the idea that it is told to children. Disneyland is a place for adults and children just like how Gulliver’s Tales are for adults and children as well. Great job on this project, I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of having a new ride at Disneyland based of Gulliver’s Travels!

I thought all of the groups did an excellent job on their presentations yesterday. Out of the five groups who presented the group that stood out the most in my eyes was Group 22.  I though there idea was not only creative but also practical.  Disney has always centered its rides on themes.  Some of their most popular attractions are rides like Pirates of the Caribbean or Indiana Jones.  This is why I really enjoyed this group’s presentation.  There idea centered on a practical application.  Not only was the idea creative but they also came up with how they felt the ride should be structured.  In explaining how they felt the ride should be made they were also able to relate main points about the story to the rest of the audience which I appreciated.  Each ride that they described center around one of the four worlds, which Gulliver travels to in the story.  I felt that they could have put a bit more enthusiasm into their presentation but besides this point I believe they did an excellent job.  They even took aspects of rides that Disney already has and incorporated them into their own plans for the rides.  The presentation caught my attention because their idea was applicable to the real world.  It is not hard to believe that Disney may in fact build a ride based on Gulliver’s Travels. I applaud Group 22’s overall ability to come up with an original idea, which was modern and relatable in today’s society. 

The group presentations keep getting better as the quarter goes on. All of the presenters did a really good job, but group 22 stood out the most to me. The part I liked most about the presentation was that it included Disney. While watching this group presentation, I felt as if I were in Disney Land, experiencing new rides for the first time. The way they connected Gulliver's Travels with Disney stories, made their presentation magical. Like the last presentation I discussed, it took me down memory lane again and had my complete attention the whole time. The sound affects filled the presentation with life and made me feel like I was riding It's A Small World at Disney Land. Group 22 gave the story Gulliver's Travels a new spin and helped me better understand the actual story line. I really appreciate all of the presentations because they help me put together any misconceptions I may have had while reading the stories. The chosen images in the slides were detailed and showed that the group put a lot of thought and work into their presentation. I really enjoyed watching all of the groups present, but group 22 brought a whole new perspective that was entertaining and enchanting! 

There were several great presentations on Thursday, but I thought that the most meaningful and interesting one was the new Disneyland Ride for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.  I thought that this group presented and very clever and creative way to explain the story in a fun and fanciful manner.  The presentation looked well planned out and clearly took a lot of work to coordinate the entire ride in a quality manner from the entire group.  The ride was an authentic and believe proposal for a Disneyland attraction and well integrated the plot of the book.  I like how they mixed the new and old style roller coaster rides to present an unusual approach to the theme ride.  The presentation well documented Gulliver’s adventures which begun in Liliput, where he found himself amongst a race of tiny people.  Next Gulliver sails to a land called Brobdingnag, where he finds himself with the situation flipped, as he is tiny in a land of giants.  Gulliver sets sail once again and land up in Laputa, a floating island of academics who discuss only theoretical matters.  Afterwards, Gulliver finds himself in a land ruled by intelligent horses called Houyhnhnms, who control human like savages called yahoos. Here Gulliver finds himself classified as a Yahoo and is eventually banished from the land.  Gulliver is finally picked up by a Portuguese ship, which brings him back.  I appreciated the creativity and artistic effort that went into designing a ride that closely followed the narrative of Gulliver’s Travels, with all the excitement of Disneyland.

Personally I liked the presentation by group 22. The idea of presenting Gulliver’s travels as a Disney Land ride was very creative.  The group wanted to make the ride a boat based roller coaster. I really liked the concept of a boat ride, because that is the mode of transportation that Gulliver actually used to go to all of the places in his story. The group was very thorough and paid a lot of attention to detail as they made their proposal. Each stage of the ride was based exactly on the events that happened in the story. The ride first started in Lilliput, complete with little people running everywhere and the fire in the emperor’s wife’s palace. When the ride reaches Brobdingnag the people on the ride will feel like they are in the land of giants. The ride concludes with the riders flying past Laputa the floating island and in the country of the Hoyhnhnms. The group did a very good job of taking the main events of the story and incorporating them into the ride. It would be neat if actually became a ride at Disney Land, I would be one to ride it for sure.

My favorite presentation of the day was Group 22, who based several Disney Rides off of each of Gulliver's distinctly different adventures in far off fantasy lands.  Their idea was a very interesting and new, and extremely appropriate and fitting to the events of the book.  The story of Gulliver's Travels is fantastic, magical, intriguing, funny, and would be an excellently entertaining ride for children and adults alike, as long as some of the more, well let's say vulgar, material was taken out. The way that they translated each of the adventures into an actually functioning idea for a ride was very interesting.  I really enjoyed the hand rendered sketch of island of Laputa, floating miles above the ground, and the tracks of the roller coaster wrapping around the form of the landmass.  It was provocative and enticing, and I would really love to experience that ride.  Another great moment was when Gulliver gets picked up by the giants of Brobdingnag, and the ride lurches up on the tracks suddenly, and all the passengers can see is the giant's eye. As I said in class, there is a Disney Imagineering competition going on where the applicants design a ride for Disney, and their idea seems like it would be a perfect fit.  It has whimsy, fun, excitement, and a great concept imagined by Group 22 that Disney would love. I really enjoyed watching their presentation, and it would make a great addition to the Disney Parks.  And what better way to end the ride (and the presentation) than with the line "Farewell Gentle Yahoos!"

I liked the second group’s idea of making Gulliver’s Travels into a Disneyland ride. When reading the story, it did feel like a sort of fairytale, so relating this to a Disney tale was a great idea. I appreciated the detail that the group put in to the design of the ride. They used specific scenes from each land to create attractions for the ride. I thought that this idea was a great way to apply their knowledge of the readings into a concept that everyone can relate to. Even if someone hasn’t been on a Disneyland ride, they can most likely imagine what it would be like, and the descriptions of the scenes that the ride will show were accurate to the book. Having Gulliver peeing on the capitol building – a great theme for a water ride. Also, having a balloon and stick to grab the people’s attention on the ride could be thrilling. The depiction of the Yahoos would be entertaining. Rocks coming close to you when you’re on a ride is exciting. Most of all, I liked the ending, how the ride will say “Farewell Yahoos.” I thought that this was creative in that it leaves people with the idea that they are Yahoos themselves. After seeing how primitive Yahoos are, maybe the people on the ride will look at their peers and their society a little differently, just as Swift did.

The performance that stood out the most to me was Group 22’s “The World of Gulliver’s Travels”, with the Disneyland boat ride rollercoaster. It was very creative to relate a fantasy book like “Gulliver’s Travels” into a medium and brand known for its over the top, fantastical worlds. Although I don’t think Disney has the rights to Jonathan Swifts novel or storyline, it does fit Disney’s image very well. Gulliver goes through journeys that grab the attention of children with their jaw dropping obstacles and terrifying enemies while also supplying the mature subtle messages that Disney is believed to slip into stories. The ride was said to start out with raging storms; a harsh wind whipping across the ship. A burning palace glares nearby as you travel through Lilliput. Having animatronics as giants from Brobdingnag surround a moving vehicle or surrounding the riders with fog to simulate the sky-borne Laputa would be breath-taking. Hearing the weird themes created to go with Laputa would be interesting and it would only be too easy for the Disney Architects to construct a house from the roof upwards (upside down), at least in appearance. The ending here would be a steep drop from the sky into a giant pool of water below. They also brought the Yahoos into their idea as people who robotically throw things at you. Visitors watch as they narrowly miss their target, a la Indiana Jones style. In general, their idea put a whole new twist on an old tale and has me thinking even deeper into the story and how it could be adapted into a thrilling rollercoaster. Imagining the scenes as real life machines brings out the details more vividly then simply reading and their explanations were very entertaining.

Group 22 did a great job in their presentation.  Their idea for a new Disneyland is both creative and fun.  They went above and beyond when they described the entire ride in detail.  I like how each section of the ride took you to one land to the next, and in detailed fashion.  They showed comprehensive knowledge of the reading in the presentation when creating their ride.  A lot of people when they think of Gulliver’s Travels, they only think of Gulliver being trapped by tiny people, and what happened in that land.  However, Gulliver’s Travels are much more than that.  The presentation did an excellent job at incorporating each land, and explaining some of the intricacies of the each place.  I like the pictures on the slides as they were a very good accompaniment to the presentation.  It was clear that the group put in a lot of time to find pictures that pertained to the project and the reading.  My favorite part was of the Yahoos.  The picture was very good at explaining what they were, and their description of that part of the ride was funny and well thought out.  It included a lot of detail, which I think is very important when presenting a project such as this.  Something that might have helped the group would have been a mock up of what the rollercoaster ride could have looked like.  This would have added a cool design feature that would have made the presentation that much better.

GROUP 23

All of the presentations were very engaging and fun to watch today! My favorite was Group #23, the Gulliver's Travel Agency presentation. I feel like they did a really great job mixing the reading content with a creative idea. It turned out really well and I feel like the way each of them presented the different parts of the vacation was great. I could picture each different land in my head while I was reading the story of Gulliver's Travels. I feel like this group did a really good job capturing what I had pictured. I also think that they were very prepared and the added bit of humor made their presentation that much more engaging and fun to watch. I always feel like powerpoints are a very boring way to present material, but the way this group incorporated the powerpoint into their presentation made it easier to pay attention and enjoy. Overall, this was my favorite group of the day because the mix of humor, powerpoint, and preparedness all worked really well together to make one great presentation. 

Out of todays presentations I thought that group 23’s presentation was the most meaningful. Group 23’s presentation on Gulliver’s travel agency brought together all the lands that Gulliver traveled to and offered a travel adventure/expedition to all these lands. This presentation meant the most to me because of the way that the group brought together all of the aspects of each place and turned them into different perks that the vacation expedition could offer. For example, the Lilliput people would give you a free back massage/adjustment by tying you to a wooden board and carrying you to their capital, much like what happened to Gulliver. Another example is how the giants of Brobdingnag would carry you around and you in turn would be their entertainment. This is exactly how Gulliver traveled around and you would get to experience the land of the giants much like he did. Each of these lands offered a different theme and like wise different perks while always staying true to the story. I thought this was very cleaver and thus was interested in the presentation. The humor that the group used while making the different aspects of the trip, especially in the trip portion to Lilliput, kept me intrigued during the entire presentation as well. After hearing group 23’s presentation on the lands of Gulliver that people could travel too, I myself would think about taking this trip, if avalible too see and experience all the new and different worlds that Gulliver saw.

I really liked the group (not exactly sure the number!) that did the gulliver's travel agency. The idea was very unique and clever as well. One thing that really separated this group from the rest, is how they made the island's negativities into positives. This was done in a clever way that made the entire class engaged and made us laugh. This presentation also really understood the islands differences and similarities. They also really captured the main motto and purpose for each island. The groups humor made the presentation very easy to pay attention, something that is very hard to do in a class of 150 students. One last thing that I enjoyed about this presentation was how they assigned a "destination characteristic," like the spa trip. It made the four different islands more unique and easier to tell the difference. As a whole, this presentation was very affective in its presentation of the different islands and it did a great job expressing the positives and negatives.

My favorite presentation from today was Group 23 who did Gulliver’s Travel Agency. I really enjoyed this one because the group was humorous. They pretended that they were a travel agency and they put a twist on all of the places Gulliver traveled into a positive, vacation type theme. Through all of the events that Gulliver went through, he had to overcome an obstacle or get through confusing times. He had to work through his issues and accept the different cultures to accept them in a positive way.  In this presentation, they made the places like a spa and vacation destinations. They used celebrities and the media to engage people into thinking it was the best option. I enjoyed this presentation the most because they helped me understand the story to a better perspective. This group didn’t just rely on the power point but they read off of their slides and notes. They seemed like they practiced a lot and it was very entertaining. Group 23 was extraordinary compared to the others. The book was full of adventures and this group was successful in making them seem appealing to the general audience. The overall presentation was the best of all and I appreciate the time and effort these classmates put into the presentation. This presentation expressed the background of the story. They were able to incorporate the story as a whole and make the presentation entertaining to the general audience, The stories can seem long at time and this presentation helped me to realize appreciation for this story. The presentation was impeccable and this was definitely a project I would watch again.

All of the presentations yesterday showed amazing amounts of creativity and imagination. This was the hardest days out of all of them to pick the group that stood out the most because they all did such a good job. The roller coaster concept ride was a fantastic idea, and the same can be said for the "Late Afternoon Show with David Letterman." If i had to pick, I would say Group #23 was the best in both its' ideas and presentation. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that they made Gulliver's destinations into a family travel expedition through what they called "Gulliver's Travel Agency." They were very clever with wording and in describing each of the places Gulliver went to in the story. For example, with Lilliput, he described them as "very hospitable" with "cozy homes," both clever descriptive phrases that truthfully described the Lilliputians lifestyle. They also added on to this however, to make it relevant to Gulliver's Travel Agency, with making it the spa destination where you can rejuvenate the mind and soul. One of the spa treatments was something that resembled acupuncture, but instead of needles, the Lilliputians would aim arrows all over your body. That was hilarious. Overall, this presentation did a great job!

All of the group presentations today were very interesting but the group I felt had the best project was the one that did the David Letterman sketch. I enjoyed the way they related a story that was written so long ago to modern day. They were able to relate each part of the story to the segments of the David Letterman show and it was an interesting idea. This group also cleverly used various forms of media and language from the story and portraying it comedically which kept us as viewer entertained. I could tell that this group clearly put in the effort that the project required to make a good presentation. Gulliver’s Travels can be a difficult text to understand but after seeing all the group presentation I feel I have a better understanding. The group was able to make clear the key points the author was trying to convey without loosing too much of the integrity of the play in translation. Overall the presentation was very well put together and when coupled with the other presentation of the day they had the best. Overall I enjoyed the fact that this group didn’t just play a video or just read from a piece of paper. Their presentation was something different from the lectures we get everyday in class, unlike many of the other groups who just read at the audience. Presentations are a lot more meaningful when the audience is actually engaged. This is the main reason I chose the David Letterman group as the best presentation.

The presentation that I enjoyed the most was Group 23's pitch as a traveler's agency titled "Gulliver's Travels". When sharing the vacation locations at Lilliput and Brobdingnag, the activities highlighting the stays at these aforementioned locations indirectly mirrored the themes that Gulliver likely wanted to communicate in his stories.  At Lilliput, the ability to be several times larger than the native people was stressed to attract potential vacationers to this extravagant location. I felt that this was an important attention grabber to possible vacationer's because power inevitably accompanies the physical size difference. As a vacationer, it has to be a priority to be relaxed and without any anxiety, and what better way to achieve this than by acquiring as much power as possible. The presentation showed that the millions of tiny Lilliputians would be at your every need making sure every cell (exaggeration) of your body would be at perfect ease by performing acupuncture with their arrows. Furthermore, I believe Gulliver intended to highlight the power difference between European countries and less developed countries at the time, as well as the resulting interaction between these countries. Similarly, the traveler's agency included a vacation location where the vacationer would be several times smaller than the native people, Brobdingnag. Although this wouldn't be my ideal vacation spot, sometimes people find vacation to be a place where they get to be a form of entertainment for others. More importantly, the presentation brought to the table the opposing perspective to the vacationer in Lilliput, where, rather than being in supreme power and having control over those around you, the vacationer gets to experience being exploited for its entertainment to others. For Gulliver, he was able to share the perspective of the less developed countries I alluded to earlier.

I found group 23’s presentation to be the most effective presentation today. The idea of a travel agency providing a travel package lent itself well to the story of Gulliver’s Travels. The group members all contributed to creating a travel experience that covered all the lands discussed in the plot of Gulliver’s Travels. I liked that they were able to take aspects of each of the lands and adapt them to comedic takes of activities one might experience on a luxury vacation. Two particular examples that stuck out to me were their interpretation of Gulliver being tied to the ground and making that a part of the “spa” package in Lilliput, as well as the small animals being compared to the way children eat chicken nuggets. They really showed that they understood the different aspects of the story and were able to translate it into a unique presentation. It seemed like each member was assigned a different land, and came up with what they thought to be the most important aspects of that part of the story. I was impressed with their creativity, both in coming up with the idea to do a presentation about a travel agency’s travel package and in adapting the ideas written about into plausible activities that might occur on a unique vacation. Overall, I thought group 23 did a wonderful job coming up with a creative way to share the stories in Gulliver’s Travels with the class. 

 All groups did a great job on their presentations yesterday!  Each was creative in their own way, but the presentation that stood out to me the most was group twenty-threes project, Gulliver’s Travel Agency.  I thought that this idea was very original because they were able to show each different land portrayed in Gulliver’s Travels in a unique way.  I like that they tried to sell us each land by telling us, the audience, the benefits to each place and why some people would like certain lands more than others.  I like that the project was informative while still being humorous and entertaining.  For example in the Lilliput section, I thought it was witty because they said there was a spa package and that you can get acupuncture from the Lilliputians arrows that they will shoot at you.  It was also comical that the group said there were egg cracking workshops because that caused a lot of controversy within the book in Lilliput.  Each land the agency showed us captured the essence of that land from the book very well.  Laputa’s “brain-cation” is a great example of this.  I thought they sold this land very well because we would get to spend a week with our “head in the clouds” and could also participate in the experiments at the Academy of Logado.  This land stood out to me the most because I feel like it would be very interesting to see the floating island and to see all of the experiments that they run at Logado.  I took a lot away from this presentation and thought they incorporated a lot of useful information throughout!

Gulliver's Travel Agency was most realistic and creative in my opinion. The spa package would be my ideal place to relieve the stresses of life. All of the little details and one liners that characterized each place, like the egg cracking classes for the kids, showed the groups knowledge of the story; they did not just read the summaries, but paid close attention to the most intimate activities throughout the lands Gulliver actually visited. My favorite part was when the group announced their acupuncture special in the spa package. After reading many times how the Lilliputians shot Gulliver with arrows at his arms and face, it was so amusing how group 23 used that to there advantage and turned it all into a positive. I would also be super excited if I saw celebrities on my vacation as well. Doing underwater Zumba with Jack Black would be a dream day on a vacation that only Gulliver's Travel Agency could provide me. In general, I think all of the travel packages sound wonderful, and group 23 did the best job at capturing all the details of Gulliver's travels as well as the broad summary of his journey all over the world. And if I could not get an appointment to go to Lilliput, I would love to do that Brain-cation after such a stressful year at school. It all was just very innovative and a lot of effort was put into this project. Great job guys!!

“Gulliver’s Travels” was definitely my favorite story we have read this quarter. The experiences Gulliver underwent during his journey were engrossing and exciting; which is why I believe that the idea that group twenty-three had about making a roller coaster ride that captured his endeavors, was by far ingenious. The ride “Pirates of the Caribbean” that is currently at Disneyland, from which the group members most likely developed their idea from, gives the rider the sensation as if they were a part of the story; a character alongside Gulliver as he visits each land and meets various characters. Because each of the lands were so different from one another, the transition from each one of them would create a different experience for the rider, so by the end of the ride they would have felt a variety of emotions and sensations. For example, if I were to create the scene when Gulliver visits the town of Brobdingnag, I would want to create fear for the rider and the feeling of being uncomfortable by making them feel tiny in their surroundings. I think that the idea of building a ride for “Gulliver’s Travels” really captivated me because I am a landscape architect major and design spaces for individuals; which is why I instinctively began thinking of additional design elements for the ride as the group was presenting.

I enjoyed all of the presentations and thought they were all put together very well.  The one that had the greatest influence on me was the Gulliver’s Travel Agency.  The group came up with a great representation of all of the places Gulliver traveled to.  They used the theme of an exotic vacation package with a summer special of four destinations to describe the story.  Each person participated in the presentation and it looked like they had all done research on the project.  The first part of the trip was to Lilliput and it was the spa and relaxation package.  I found this to be funny and creative because they said the Lilliputians would use their arrows like acupuncture to help you relax.  You would be the biggest person there and have all of them waiting on you.  Unlike Lilliput, in Brobignab, you would be the smallest person and it would feel like you lost a lot of weight!  In Laputa, you would get a “braincation” and enjoy your time in the castle in the sky.  The creativity the group used to make each destination seem like you would really want to go there while still feeling the purpose of the story was what made the project so successful.  After the description of the vacation, I would definitely want to take this trip and visit all the places that Gulliver did.  The transitions helped to keep the audience entertained and aware of what was going on and still get a great sense of what Gulliver’s Travels meant to them.

GROUP 24

In my opinion, Group 24 had the most creative presentation on May 24. While the other groups did a wonderful job at portraying the reading, this group was extremely original and fun. They captured my attention the whole time and made me appreciate the text even better than when I read it. Their interpretation of the text through the Late Afternoon Show with David Lettermen of Gulliver's Travels was very entertaining to watch and quite easy to follow. The characters’ responses to David Lettermen depicted their personality, especially because their public speaking was so effective and enthusiastic. I enjoyed watching the clip they presented of Gulliver urinating over the village which was on fire. Also, their discussion of the five things to avoid when journeying through various strange lands was a good idea to explain some of the main events that happened in this story. This solidified my memories of the story, as when I think of the story line of Gulliver’s Travels I will now recall Group 24‘s wonderfully entertaining presentation. The guests that were chosen to appear at the talk show were perfectly chosen. Each character's response to David Lettermen was funny and represented the story well. The interactions between the members of the group was very realistic and natural. They presented themselves with confidence and great poise. The various other groups also did a fantastic job at presenting the information effectively, but Group 24 did so with the most enthusiasm and energy. This group was most memorable and entertaining.

Out of all the groups today I enjoyed group 24’s presentation the most today. They did Late Afternoon Show with David Lettermen which was a small but nice twist on the title. They had Gulliver as the first guest and the played a clip of his travels which was a clip from the recent movie with Jack black when he puts out a fire by urinating on it and they played it off as a documentary movie which was also a good choice. I think they captured the essence of David Letterman very well by him keeping the show interesting by bypassing Gulliver’s background and jumping strait in to his travels. He was also just a little bit snarky which was a nice touch because I feel that is very much like Letterman. When the Emperor of Lilliputian’s wife and the King of Brobdingnagians came in as a guest were good choices to bring into the skit. The way the group handled the height differences was a funny but very clear way of differentiating height. With the Lilliputian, they had the actress hide behind the desk and begin talking from there to represent that she was very short, than they had her “stand” on something after which you could see her. When the Brobdingnagian came all the actors looked up at the ceiling to make it seem like they were all look up at her. Then the two started cracking jokes at each other’s height and referencing being intimate with the different heights. This helped keep the allusion of the height differences and different races. And at the end of the interviews Letterman said something about being sorry there weren’t any Yahoos on the show and Gulliver cracked a joke saying he was so sure about it referring to “Letterman’s” hair and beard which I thought was clever of them to add and showing that “Letterman” is good sport. Finally having the “Top Five” was great because it is a part of the actual show and was a great way to sum up the presentation and remind us the Gulliver basically abandoned his pregnant wife. I thought the group did a great job with this clever presentation.

I liked the presentation done by group 24, which was the Mid Afternoon show hosted by David Letterman. I thought it was a clever spin on the late night show. They were able to introduce a lot of material from the story by interviewing Gulliver and various other main characters from the story. They had a lot of humor and jokes from the student playing the host and Gulliver. This kept the presentation interesting and engaging which I think is important for a presentation. I specifically enjoyed the part where they talked about the top five things Gulliver learned in his travels including “don’t pee on the Empress’s apartment” and also “don’t leave your pregnant wife alone for extended periods of time indefinitely”. They also included clips from a movie interpretation of Gulliver’s Travels that was very funny. They even made a joke about how the main character in the movie has lost weight since the movie was shot. The acting done by the people representing the Liliputians and Giants was also funny and they made many references to the events that took place between them and Gulliver during his travels. Overall the presentation was complete and thorough. They covered all the important plot points of the story and gave a brief overview of each of the places that Gulliver visited. All the people in their group got pretty equal talking time and all performed very well. I thought they had solid content and good organization. Their presentations were clear and concise not to mention humorous and entertaining.

The group project that stood out the most to me was Group 24, “The Late Afternoon Show”. I thought it was a refreshing and unique idea, and even without props (other than the “Late Afternoon Show”/ video clips on the projector screen) they managed to make me feel like I was actually in the audience of a talk show. They had funny and witty commentary throughout the skit, and they managed to interject plenty of important storyline facts while keeping the feel of a talk show. The clip of the movie “Gulliver’s Travels” they chose to show I felt was a good selection. Although somewhat crass, it was entertaining and shocking enough to get your attention. They had good representation of characters as well. I was surprised when the first girl started talking and popped out from behind the desk because I didn’t even see her come in the class room! It was a clever idea to have her hidden at first and then have her pop up after “standing on something”. This helped to give the audience the illusion that she was tiny- which was hard to do without props. Their top 5 list was also a brilliant idea, and pretty hilarious as well. Some parts seemed a little bit clunky and they relied on reading off of their papers a little much... I think this was something that probably could have been improved by a few more rehearsals before hand. Over all I thought that they were successful in their execution.

Although I enjoyed watching all of the presentation from yesterday, the one that stood out to me was the presentation done by group 24. This group did a skit on their show, "The Late Afternoon Show".  The first reason this project was because they did not vaguely go over all four of the exotic locations in "Gulliver's Travels" but instead they went more in depth into the first two locations.  This group emphasized the struggle between Gulliver and the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians.  One of the points this group made that I thought was creative was talking about the magnetized defects of Gulliver to the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians to Gulliver.  This group mentioned how the characters who were much larger appeared to look and smell much worse relative to the smaller characters.  One more reason I liked this presentation was because they did a good job incorporating the humorous aspects of the book. For instance, when the girl playing the King of Brobdingnag walked into the room all the other characters looked up toward the roof to see the giant. I found this novel to be numerous and was glad to be laughing during the presentation. Another reason I enjoyed this presentation was because they were able to take a rather old story and turn it into something most people in the class could relate to, a talk show.  The story in "Gulliver's Travels" had some parts that were confusing and hard to understand. Seeing the confusing aspects in a talk show environment helped me understand them better.  The last reason I liked this presentation was because they incorporated the movie that recently came out based on this story. I found that watching the scene from the movie where Gulliver put out the fire in Lilliput was very entertaining. This group did a very good job presenting "Gulliver's Travels" to the class.

The project that had the biggest impact on me was Group 24's rendition of the Late Afternoon Show. I thought that this project was the most creative and gave me a different perspective on Gulliver's Travels. The presentation began with an introduction from "Jay Leno" and the first guest was Gulliver. Seeing Gulliver portrayed as a swanky young adult was an interesting twist on the story. I like how they tied in this portrayal with a clip from the movie starring Jack Black. He had a bit of snark and attitude, especially with the wife of the Emperor of Lilliput. It was interesting seeing the humor in urinating on the Emperor’s wife’s room portrayed in a more modern way. When I was reading the story, it was easy to forget that the story was meant to be ridiculous and funny. This may have been due to the difference in time period and writing styles. I thought that this presentation brought me back to realizing the humor in the story. This continued with the other guests, and the “Top 5” at the end of the presentation. I thought that the “Top 5” was a good way to highlight other parts of the story that weren’t covered in the guest appearances, like the lands of the Houyhnhnms and Laputa. The last joke really stood out to me as well- why was Gulliver always leaving his wife and children? Overall, I thought that the creativity and enthusiasm from this presentation was great and really a joy to watch.

My favorite group project from May 24 was group 24 who presented The Late Afternoon Show, which spoofed The Late Night Show with David Letterman. It was a very apt fit and a very witty script. I have not watched The Late Night Show very many times but of the times I have watched it was very typical of how the show has gone. It is a chummy dialogue back and forth between David Letterman and his guest. I also thought it was clever how they interweaved the original story of Gulliver’s Travels with the modern movie with Jack Black. The progression of the presentation started with David Letterman interviewing Gulliver who just returned from his travel to foreign lands. He begins explaining his travels and is interrupted by the new guest to the show the emperor of Lilliput who says she vowed revenge against him and now she has come to claim it. The dialogue then turns to how Gulliver behaved while he was visiting Lilliput. Gulliver did not really fit in, in a world of little people and the emperor was not happy with how Gulliver acted. Then out of nowhere the King of Brobdingnag walks on stage and makes a snide remark to the emperor of Lilliput. The emperor says a smart remark back and David has to restore peace back to the conversation. It is reveled that Gulliver didn’t really fit in, in the land of the giants either. The show wraps up with David saying that since this is the shorter afternoon version of the late show the “top 10” list has been reduced down to the “top 5” list.

GROUP 25

I thought The Academy of Lagado project by group 25 was the most meaningful. I like the format of the Lagado representatives coming to Cal Poly to explain what their Academy is all about, similar to a company coming for a job fair. I thought the "Think by Learning" motto was a clever parody of Cal Poly's "Learn by Doing" motto. Abstract vs Concrete. It was an interesting take on Lagado's differences from Poly in the departments of Agriculture, Life Sciences, Art, Math, and Architecture - all very abstract fields. As an electrical engineering major, the cucumber project to capture the sunlight to use as a renewable source of energy interested me. Regarding the Math Department's knowledge wafer crackers project, the phrase "you are what you eat" comes to mind. I guess the consumers become pure knowledge after they lose all of the weight. Speaking of eating, the Bio and Chem schools' project to turn human excrement back into food seems as futile as the alchemists' attempts to turn other metals into gold. The Art department's method of creating paintings reminds me of the way The Who's Tommy plays pinball. And the Architecture's method of top down, no doors design reminds me of some of the architecture projects I see on Dexter Lawn from time to time. The unicorn mascot is a good parallel to our mustang mascot. All in all, I think group 25 presented a creative outline of the different projects Gulliver discovered while at The Academy of Lagado.

Out of all the presentations today, I enjoyed the presentation of group #25 the most. This group made a presentation on the Academy of Lagado. They reflected on different areas of study within the school and research going on within certain departments. For the College of Agriculture, group 25 discussed their research with hogs and plowing fields. For the College of Arts and Sciences, they talked about teaching the blind how to paint using scented paints. In the department of biology and chemistry, the Academy was conducting research on converting cucumbers into solar power. The architecture department was attempting to build buildings from the top down. This all related to the stories in Gulliver’s Travels about the Academy of Lagado that Gulliver visited. I especially enjoyed the element of humor that the group incorporated into their presentation. At the end, the group announced the mascot of the Academy: a unicorn because it is both a majestic and theoretical creature. This project was not only true to the novel, but also comical and creative. 

Group 25 did a great job of presenting the Academy of Lagado.  I really enjoyed all of the ways they related their presentation and the Academy of Lagado to Cal Poly.  All of the department and major descriptions were very interesting and humorous.  The agricultural programs were most interesting because of the large influence of agriculture here at Cal Poly.  Incorporating the use of cucumbers and sunbeams was explained in a very realistic way.  The unrealistic descriptions of the Academy of Lagado, including a 100% guarantee of job after graduation, gave the presentation humor.  This humor kept the audience interested and wanting to hear more.  This group also did a very good job with their presentation layout.  Their slides and pictures matched exactly what they were talking about and were very easy to follow along with.  Their information was clear and understandable.  As seen today, Gulliver’s Travels can be presented in so many different ways.  The groups were able to relate it to modern day college students and their lives surrounding college, especially here at Cal Poly.  Group 25 was able to get to the point and explain Gulliver’s Travels in a fun and unique way.  They worked well together, splitting up the presentation and representing different characters, or better yet, faculty members of the Academy of Lagado.  They were the only group to really show this part of the story and it turned out nicely.  I really enjoyed this presentation today and think this group 25 did a great job overall.

My favorite presentation this week was “The Academy of Lagado” which was presented by group 25.  I enjoyed this particular performance because it was relatable and very entertainingly portrayed the city of Lagado from Gulliver’s travels.  The group introduced each dean of each department that the academy has to offer and presented what the school head to offer, much like the presentations sponsored by colleges that try to attract more students.  Each department and their curriculum was very unorthodox and eccentric, a trait that is very projected in the Lagado society.  The presentation was overall very entertaining and gave me a slight feeling of nostalgia for two reasons, I was a bit reminded of when I was choosing a college to attend, and they included a picture of Ms. Frizzle from the “Magic School Bus.”  It was interesting to see that they used icons in popular culture known for their eccentricity to represent each department head.

Out of all the presentations today, I enjoyed the presentation of group #25 the most. This group made a presentation on the Academy of Lagado. They reflected on different areas of study within the school and research going on within certain departments. For the College of Agriculture, group 25 discussed their research with hogs and plowing fields. For the College of Arts and Sciences, they talked about teaching the blind how to paint using scented paints. In the department of biology and chemistry, the Academy was conducting research on converting cucumbers into solar power. The architecture department was attempting to build buildings from the top down. This all related to the stories in Gulliver’s Travels about the Academy of Lagado that Gulliver visited. I especially enjoyed the element of humor that the group incorporated into their presentation. At the end, the group announced the mascot of the Academy: a unicorn because it is both a majestic and theoretical creature. This project was not only true to the novel, but also comical and creative. 

Although all of the groups today did an amazing job, the presentation the caught my attention most was group number 25.  The theme for this speech was very innovative and creative.  All of the speakers had the lines memorized and had great stage presence.  One of the most difficult objectives of this project is to keep the audience interested and engaged throughout the duration of the speech. This group did an impeccable job at this by inputing funny picture and lines.  The comparisons between the cal poly and harvard I thought were a very creative.  The part that astonished me the most was when they said they were going to use cucumbers for energy.  I am not quite sure how they decided this would be a good idea, but I am all for improving air quality through innovative techniques such as this.  They described in detail the different departments and how their applicants would learn the information provided.  Students are forced to fast for 2-3 days, they take pills to learn the material.  With a 100% pass rate and no need to sit through lectures all day, I would be all for this type of system.  I also thought it was comical when they said they still needed approval for their proposals.  Even though every group nailed the Gulliver's Travel project, group number 25 did an amazing job keeping it interesting for their viewers.

All of the presentations were very diverse today. However, Group 25’s efforts really stood out to me. They were representatives of the Academy of Lagado, a school that housed several projectors attempting to make practical uses out of impractical methods, as seen in the story of Gulliver’s Travels. It was very clever to take an approach that involved finding students from Cal Poly to join the ranks in the academy and help make their experiments a reality. This is actually a very big possibility as the Department of Agriculture on our campus has actually done interesting and innovative experiments as well, making such students likely candidates for the Academy of Lagado. The presenters played professors from various departments within the academy, each pitching their specific area of expertise and sharing the extent of experimentation within their department. Potential students had the opportunity to hear these diverse techniques and determine which area was of utmost interest to them. Such experiments included agriculture, architecture, and learning techniques, just to name a few. The agriculture department attempted to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, while the architecture department wanted to build buildings from the roof down. A new learning technique they tried to employ was eating a wafer with mathematical proofs and topics, which would hopefully embed itself in the brain of the person who ate it. While the projectors did not yet have success in any of these, I think Group 25 made it clear that even the most ridiculous ideas have the potential to be successful. All progress we have made in technology today had to start from a seemingly impossible idea.

Of the projects presented today, the one that meant the most to me was from group 25.  The members of this team acted as if they were scholars from the Academy of Lagado and came to Cal Poly to recruit new members.  The academy was set up to improve the lives of the people by using science for practical purposes, however it actually uses up many resources and leaves the surrounding people in ruin. This is consistent with Swift’s views on science at the time, for only producing war technology without improving lives of the people.  I thought this group’s presentation was the most creative and funny presentation that I saw today.  The presenters noted many of the experiments described in the book.  The scene that I thought was the funniest was the artist teaching to the blind to paint by feel and smell, then the blind artists “painted” a very detailed Cal Poly.  Another funny act was the architect who removed doors from his house because it is statistically possible to phase through a door so obviously they aren’t necessary.  I think that showing these very smart people using science to come up with stupid ideas is Swifts way of showing us his opinion that science cant produce any practical ways of making life easier at a reasonable cost to society.  The group did a very good job of presenting the material from the book in a manner that was comical and true to the story.

The class project that was most meaningful to me was group number 25.  The audience was attentive due to the creativity of the idea.  It was able to captivate the audience with glimpses of humor, but still relaying good information that related with the book.  The idea was that there was an Academy of Lagado.  Lagado was the Harvard of the Universe.  They wanted Cal Poly because of Lagado’s prestigious.  Their motto was extremely witty and played off the Cal Poly motto of “learn by doing” with the Lagado motto being “think by learning” which relates to the book.  I really liked how they then went deep into each department.  I remember from the presentation that the Department of Art had all blind students which helped them create masterpieces.  During this section they showed a heinous photo that was supposed to resemble Cal Poly, and that was hysterical.  I really liked the humor that they threw in the presentation to give it more of a fun feel.  I also remember them going into the specifics of the School of Biology and Chemistry saying the research team would convert human excrement into previously consumed food.  This, despite how gross it sounds, added more humor and was very relevant to the portion of the book where Gulliver produced excrement.  They also said that it would be a Nobel Prize winner.  They also talked about how they would build from the top down and that employment was 100%.  Overall it was a great presentation and was a very entertaining idea that got you to think deeper about the books.

Responses to Student Presentations May 17 2012

Group 16

I thought that the most meaningful group presentation was the one presented by Group 16. It was very clever of them to have used a comic video as their approach to drawing in the audience. I thought that in this way, their presentation did a great job in presenting the conflict that occurs in the story. Even more, they included little details that covered the characters of the story—especially Eve—extremely well. I like how their group touched on the theme of inequality, which greatly mirrors that of the story of Adam and Eve. The characters in the story also had a likeness to the characters portrayed in their comic, so I thought that this deserved praise. For instance, I thought they were able to stay true to characters, such as Eve’s naïveté, and Satan’s cunning and tricky ways. I also liked how they kept true to the plot, rather than just mainly emphasizing one point in the book. This also added to how thorough and detailed they were in their descriptions in their presentation. In this way, they were able to give background to their presentation. They also added spice to their presentation by incorporating humor. Their presentation included a picture of God surveying Earth, and the caption that they had incorporated with that photo also made me laugh. I’d have to say that overall, their presentation was very entertaining and helped reinforce my knowledge of Paradise Lost.

I thought Group 16 had the best project presentation. Their comic video was extremely effective in displaying the conflicts of the story and the representation of women portrayed through Eve. The comic had a childhood story element to it, which made it both entertaining and educational. The story was difficult for me to read, and this presentation portrayed it in a light that made is more comprehensible. The pictures accurately added emotions to the characters and made their characters more understandable. Also, the music made the story more dramatic, so the seriousness of the events was amplified. When reading, it was difficult for me to grasp the level of intensity throughout the story, especially between Adam and Eve. This interpretation made me understand the inequality portrayed between males and females. This was intensified after learning about Mary Woolstonecraft’s interpretation of female inferiority. She believes that women are deemed inferior by males because they are not given the same educational opportunities as males and are therefore kept naive about things men understand. This is portrayed in Paradise Lost, as Eve did not know why she was forbidden to eat the apple. While the story seems to blame Eve for man’s sinning, realistically she should not be completely responsible, as she did not understand the reason the fruit was banned. The group did a wonderful job at portraying this, and me think more about Mary Woolstonecraft’s values and beliefs. Overall, the presentation was entertaining and enlightening, and got me thinking about how the themes from Paradise Lost are applied to real life.

Group 16's project was the most meaningful to me. Their project was a comic book version of Paradise Lost, telling the tale of Adam and Eve's fall from grace. They found an artful collection of comic illustrations and created a script to go along with each one. Well, I guess it is more of a video comic book since the script was not written on each pane, but read aloud in the video. They started off with God creating the world, then creating Adam. They quickly moved into describing Adam's longing for a companion, which prompted God to remove a rib while he slept and use it to create Eve. Adam told Eve about the tree of life and not to eat its fruit. Eve suggested they split up to get more work done, but this provided Satan an opportunity to enter the picture as a speaking snake. In the comic, he used vanity to tempt Eve to eat the forbidden fruit "You'll look SO much better afterward." I appreciated the group's portrayal of Satan playing off Eve's weaknesses and tempting her, and then later on, her tempting Adam to partake, almost like temptation mutating and spreading like a virus. They end the comic with Adam and Eve feeling guilty and ashamed of their actions, hiding from God, and then God banishing them from paradise. Overall, I think they did a good job of taking a long work of literature and boiling it down to important events which fit nicely into a comic book medium.

I really liked group 16, their idea of doing a comic book was quite original. The overall production quality of their video was excellent as well. The part that was most meaningful was the representation of Adam and Eve. The presentation did an excellent job of staying true to their representation in the text and fitting in as many subtleties as possible. In the text, Milton presents Adam and Eve as having certain qualities that could be viewed as imperfections in the Garden of Eden. Before eating the apple Adam is very curious when talking to Raphael and Eve is already concerned with her beauty. With the Garden of Eden being a perfect paradise, it is hard to believe that Eve might be remotely vain. It makes you think that Adam and Eve never stood a chance at staying in the garden. Even if Eve was not tempted, surly Adam’s curiosity would have got the better of him. It is as if Milton is suggesting that the characteristics that make us human are innately flawed, but our rational capability and freewill given to us by God allows us to act how God wants us to act. When Michael comes down to show Adam what will happen to future generations he shows the bad, but he also includes what happens when people chose to follow God. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and it had me thinking about Paradise Lost.

The paradise lost comic book presentation I feel was a very welcome manner in which to present the story, as the movie, titled "The Avengers" based on numerous Marvel comics heroes recently came to the big screen. I found that the illustrations and the dialogue the group crafted worked well with what is going on in entertainment now, and it was put together very well. There was a good mix of humor, accuracy and nostalgia in medium, for a book far older than comic books. It was interesting, as far as how freedom is involved with comic books, usually the heroes try to protect their freedom in comics, but instead, the characters lose their freedom by acting upon it. I suppose they were always free to do what they chose, but by choosing to break God's direct instructions, they lost their freedom to stay in the garden of Eden. There is a typical style of comic plot formation where the hero protects freedom above all else. This didn't really happen, or, it didn't happen until a lot later when Jesus came to fight all that is sinful. I don't wish to point out that they compared the many religious figures of the Christian faith to superheros, but I find it humorous that it seemed to fit very well as a comic, and just as entertaining.

Group 16 had a good movie that captured the essence of the Adam and Eve story. The comic strips and the voice overs worked well with the somewhat humerus pictures. The comic followed the Bible well in that they had a narrator who would be the disciple writing the book, while he would quote the people. They did well in capturing the personalities of the characters from Satan's greed and cunning ways, to Eve's naivety. Eve sounded very naive throughout the whole movie which was accurate to the actual story as she believed anything. Group 18 as well showed the true colors of the characters as they did the Heaven's Next Top Angel. It was a smart way to give the description  of each angel without it being boring. They threw humor in with their presentation which kept the audience engaged with the presentation. They also did a good job in relating to the audience when they made it with more modern language like "SWAG and BLING". They did an excellent job with Satan's character when they show his evil ways through his ridiculous commands. It was funny but it showed the audience what the bible is trying to show about him which is that he is ridiculous in his ways. Nobody should be as evil and if you are you can see how ridiculous you look to other people and especially God.

Out of all the group presentations yesterday, I felt the most meaningful presentation had to be the first group. Their group had a very entertaining video in which they presented various scenes from Paradise Lost and dubbed over the characters with their own voices. This project was entertaining and creative. I thought the use of the video was a good choice because it made sure that nobody in the group’s presentation was stumbling over words or forgetting lines. By using the video, the audience simply had to sit back and enjoy the show. Whether intended or not, the video was actually fairly humorous. The fact that the girls’ voices were dubbing over Adam’s character made for a funny scenario. This, with various jokes sprinkled in made for an appealing performance. I enjoyed the use of the cartoons they used for the characters in the story. I am not sure if they made these themselves, but if they did, it was very well done. The use of transitions in the video was also appealing. Many times students can go overboard with transitions and editing when making videos, but this was done just right, not too much, but just enough to make the presentation professional looking. I commend the group for their effort in making the video. It seemed that they really put forth a great effort into their project and had fun doing it. Those kinds of projects usually come out the best in my opinion. Overall, it was a very thorough and entertaining project as a whole. The use of the cartoons and voice dubbing made their project unique and fun to watch, as well as providing all the necessary information that we covered from the book. The group definitely had a meaningful presentation and I commend their hard work and enthusiasm.

The group that had the most meaningful presentation to me was group 16. I think they summed up Paradise Lost really well. They didn't just retell the story. They were able to do so while still keeping the overall message. Adam and Eve were expressed in terms of the relationship as told Milton in Paradise Lost. This reading was very complex and and was hard to understand. It was nice having a simplified version described in a way that was easier to understand. My family is very religious so it is interesting to see the bible taken in this context. It was brave of Milton to try to explain the story of the bible. I never really thought of the 'why' behind it all and it makes sense that he would want to explain that. Everything has a backstory. 

Out of all the projects, I really enjoyed the first group's comic book. It first sparked my attention merely due to the fact that there is already a DC comic of the same title written by Phil Jimenez and based on the Wonder Woman series. Although the two share the same name, they follow completely different plots. Group one's presentation did an amazing job of portraying the essential themes and plot-driving actions of Milton's Paradise Lost in a succinct and colorful way. Surely it is a long story line to present in ten minutes, however even a young child could easily understand the idea behind the book from their presentation. And that's one of the things I enjoyed most about the presentation – it's universal compatibility with such a wide range of audiences allows for greater recognition and enjoyment of Milton's wonderful piece of work. And there was probably a picture for every major turning point in the book, such as the war between heaven and hell, the devil's plotting and rebel angels chained to a lake of fire, and Eve's fall from grace. The pictures were so colorful and detailed that they really left you with a vivid image of how amazing paradise was. This combined with truncated narration in the form of digital audio, made the presentation feel like a fluid movie. The audio also added some humor to the comic compared to Milton's tone. Group one described the actions of Adam and Eve in a very lighthearted and playful fashion that synced well with the cartoon drawings and really tied the piece together.

The Paradise Lost Comic book group was my favorite. I felt like they successfully blended in humor with their presentation, which kept the audience’s attention the whole time. The best part about this presentation was that they made their own script of the entire tale, and it was very well done. I felt like this script made Milton’s story much easier to understand and was very well adjusted to the comics that they showed. The comics themselves were humorous cartoons that kept the whole presentation upbeat. The one cartoon panel in which God was removing Adam’s rib in the style of the classic board game “Operation!” really made me laugh, because in “Paradise Lost” it seems like they kind of gloss over exactly how that procedure really happened. There was another cartoon panel that was very memorable. It showed one of the forbidden apples with a nutrition facts label on the backside of it. This label had a few funny comments on it foreshadowing the sin that would come down upon Eve after Satan convinced her to take a bite from the forbidden fruit. After watching this video, I truly felt as if I understood the basics of the story better, even though it was not as in depth as the true text itself. The video was not short in length, and it covered all aspects of the story. The voice acting over the video was very realistic and flowed well with the light-hearted nature of the video. Overall I think this was the best presentation because it covered the content well and kept people laughing.

The groups that presented this week on Paradise Lost and The Beggar’s Opera did a wonderful job thinking outside the box. Group number sixteen took the story of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and transformed it into an enjoyable book. The fact that they utilized images that were cohesive throughout the entire video really made it entertaining and easy to follow along, which I think made it very successful. The background music and the different voice tones the group members spoke was like listening to an adult read a story to a child, making me almost feel like I was a kid again. Watching the video made me think of the picture book my parents gave me as a child to teach me about the Bible and the story of Adam and Eve, which was very successful. The purpose of reading a book is for the reader to imagine the story in their heads. The images that group sixteen used were not only funny but they also appealed to the older and more mature crowd. When I was reading Paradise Lost all I could imagine in my head were the same images as the ones I had seen as a child. I enjoyed reliving a memory as I watched this comic-like video done by the group.

The Paradise Lost project that was the most meaningful to me was the project done by group 1. This group turned the story of Paradise Lost into a comic book. I liked this project because it was very entertaining. I didn’t feel bored at all. The comic book started out with God creating the earth, and then creating Adam to enjoy it. However, Adam then asked for a companion and God gave him Eve. The comic accurately depicted the story of Adam leaving Eve, and Eve being tempted by Satan in the form of a serpent. The serpent convinced Eve to eat the fruit that Adam had warned her not to eat. After Eve ate from the tree of life, she and Adam were banished from the Garden of Eden and from that day forth humans were faced with harder lives. This project was meaningful to me because I remember loving to read comics as a kid. This project made Paradise Lost fun. I felt that a child could have watched this presentation and learned what Paradise Lost was about. I also liked this project because I personally love the story of Adam and Eve. The story is very relatable to all people, because we have all been

My favorite presentation of the day was the one done by Group 16. Being familiar with iMovie, I can understand and appreciate the time and effort that it takes to put something like this together. It takes more time than you would expect. In addition to this, group 16 had to find a great deal of images to go along with their narration. I was impressed with the number of images they managed to find. I can only imagine how intricate of a process it must have been to time the images to go along perfectly with the narration. I think that group 16 was able to cover so much detail in paradise lost in the timeframe we were allowed. I think that a comic strip was a good idea, and it was a very entertaining video. The music was a little bit distracting as it didn't seem to flow as nicely as it could, but considering the amount of time we had to prepare these projects, I’m not sure it could have been executed any better. The captions at the base of some of the cartoons were a little confusing seeing as they didn’t match up to the narration. I think that with the exception of the captions, all of the images went along with the narration well. It would have been nice to have all of the images in a uniform animation style, but again, it was an excellent effort given the time that they had to work on it.

Of yesterday’s presentations, I appreciated Group 16’s Paradise Lost Comic Book video the most. After reading the whole epic, the first piece of fan art that I wanted to see for it was a complete graphic novel. The Comic Book wasn’t the complete graphic novel I was looking for, but it was a good start. The pictures used in the comic were well chosen (ReverendFun comics!) to match the narration, and included enough amusing elements (the slick Satan-serpent with a tie, Eden’s population size, God playing Operation on Adam, etc.) to keep the material lively. The paraphrasing of the main story was also efficient, seamlessly summarizing the important Adam/Eve parts using material pulled from separate Books. However, while I enjoyed the presentation, I also noticed some inconsistencies between the Comic Book and the epic. First and foremost, Adam and Eve were never forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life; the forbidden apple tree is the Tree of Knowledge, which grows next to the Tree of Life. Second, Eve actually feels a sense of empowerment after eating the apple, and wants Adam to eat the apple too so that if she dies from eating the apple, Adam doesn’t get an Eve #2 made from his rib to live with. My last point of contention is, what happened to Satan-serpent’s whole grabbing-Eve’s-attention scene? I admit that I was looking forward to Eve’s initial brushing off of that smarmy snake. Otherwise, the video and narration together was very smooth, with no hiccups during the delivery.

I felt that Group 16 had the most informative and cohesive presentation.  They represented Paradise Lost very well and demonstrated that their knowledge of Creation and how it came about according to Milton, and Genesis.  First of all, the video they made was very well done.  The narration was clear and easy to understand.  The comic strips were hilariously funny.  They covered what the narrator was talking about just at the right times.  When she began telling us of Satan's possession of the snake and his guile as he convinced Eve to take a bite from the Tree of Knowledge, an amusing picture slide by of Eve getting accosted by an evil looking reptile.  I noticed that most of the comics were from the same series.  I'd like to know where they all were from, because they were great.  I especially liked the picture of God surveying Earth with a blue color covered trowel with the caption of "I've been working on this project twenty four-six."  Classic religious humor.  Another great aspect of the group's presentation was that their narration was very thorough.  It covered everything from the Creation of the world, to the plants, animals, up to Adam and Eve.  They continued their description of Paradise Lost with detailing the events of the Fall, and Eve's temptation at the hands of Satan.  Again, it was very concise and covered almost every detail.  I really enjoyed listening to the story of Eden, and they depicted it in great detail.  Overall, it was a great, entertaining, and informative project.

In my opinion group 16 had an incredible presentation.  Not only did it portray the story of Adam and Eve very well but it also kept the class entertained and paying attention.  The comic book idea was very creative and original.  It had to have taken a lot of time to get the voiceovers, animations, and background music to match and be in sync with each other.  The animations fairly accurately depicted the story of Paradise Lost as well as adding a few comedic moments and laughs to the presentation as well.  The group picked music appropriate for the mood and emotion of the scene, especially at the climax of the story when Eve takes a bite out of the apple.  As Eve was taking the bite from the apple the music was very dramatic and caught the urgency of the situation.  The music also caught my attention when Adam found out that Eve had eaten the apple, he felt betrayed by her and was upset by her actions.  Adams reactions and sacrifice was demonstrated very well by this presentation.  He didn’t have to eat the apple but he did so that he could stay with Eve, and I think that this group put in a lot of work and their presentation demonstrated this very well.

All five of the groups that presented yesterday did an excellent job

relating the text to their projects. Out of the groups that presented,

I thought group sixteen did a great job with their comic book

interpretation of Paradise Lost.  They decided to make a comic book

that showed the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.  The

video was a creative way to get the storyline of Paradise Lost across

to the audience.  I was impressed with how the well the video turned

out.  It looked as though it was an online comic book that we, the

audience, were viewing.  Paradise Lost is a hard read for any person

and their comic book story helped to simplify the complexities of the

book.  I was impressed by their ability to take this story written by

John Milton and relate it to a present day audience.  I felt that I

gained a much better understanding of the reading, Paradise Lost, by

watching and listening to their presentation.  The pictures, as well

as the audio, captured my attention allowing me to pay attention to

their interpretation of the fall from the Garden.  When I had first

read the assigned readings of Milton I had a hard time deciphering the

text and grasping what was and wasn’t important.  After seeing many of

the presentations on the text, especially group sixteen’s I gained a

better understanding for the assigned reading.  To present the text in

the form of a comic book was creative and easy to follow

I thought the first presentation of the day, group sixteen, was incredibly creative and intuitive to the story Paradise Lost. The way they presented their information was an awesome way to show the comic book they made. It wasn't just a small book that didn't have passion. Doing this whole movie electronically takes a great skill that could not be done half-ass. I did notice some pieces of information that did not seem correct, and should be fixed, but if this was a comic book, I think I would buy it. I really like all the graphics and their vibrancy and satire toward the true story; great artwork and very cute depictions of Adam, Eve, and the animals. It seems as though the girls focused more on the graphics and layout, turning everything into the movie, than focusing on the actual information, making sure everything is valid and organized properly. However, overall, it

All of the presentations were very good yesterday, but the one that was the most meaningful to me was Group 16’s comic book. It seemed like a lot of time and effort went into that presentation.  You could tell by looking at it that they spent a lot of time picking pictures, recording the narration, and editing the video. The pictures accurately represented the parts of the story they were supposed to portray.  Where did all the matching pictures come from? It would have been nice if there were some talking parts during the presentation, and the video could have been introduced. The narration really made the hard language of Paradise Lost a lot easier to understand. I didn’t really understand what was going on while reading the book, but this presentation made it clearer for me. There were a lot of funny pictures in the video. The apple with the nutrition facts was really funny. The story was very easy to follow and held my attention. The comic book idea was very unique and an effective way to portray the plot of the book. The only thing that could have made it better is if they had shown a deeper understanding than just the plot. I like it when the presentations go to the next level and show something that is not in the book, such as talking about

 As usual, all of the presentations had a tasteful and creative new take on the stories we were assigned to read. The one I enjoyed most, was group 16. I really enjoyed the comic book theme of their presentation. It reminded me of being young again and looking at comic Bible cartoons that are easier for children to understand. The presentation was also funny and had adult humor in it when dealing with Adam and Eve and their banishment from the garden of Eden. Another aspect of the presentation that stood out to me was how the group had their whole project automated. It made their project professional and a lot easier to pay attention to because it was like a movie. Their voices also amplified each character in the story and gave the viewer a new idea of how the story was illustrated to other classmates. It was enjoyable receiving another outlook and allowed for me to compare my own opinion on Paradise Lost with their presentation. Paradise Lost was hard to read and understand, but this presentation cleared up any confusion for me. The manner it was presented in helped me a lot because I am more of a visual learner and the comic book theme added to the clear message that the group got across to me. Overall, group 16's presentation was very informative, while also maintaing a fun message, which made it easier for me to relate to

  I thought many of the presentations delivered on May 15 were well done, however, the one I favored a little more than the others was Group 16. The group essentially presented a motion-comic video of some of the events depicted in John Milton's Paradise Lost. The motion-comic was staged as a Comic-con premiere piece.I thought this was a brilliant idea for a project because it moved to contemporize the source material in a way that was engaging and visually provocative for the audience. The group had astounding attention to detail, the scenes the video depicted were well-preserved and gave the audience a familiarity with Milton's text.Not only was this project inspiringly creative, it was well put together. The video quality was clear, fluid, and virtually seamless. The presentation appeared very professional, I was in disbelief that it was merely a student production to be frank. The video editing, voice acting, and transitioning between scenes was astounding and just very well-done. It made me care about Milton's work in a way I didn't anticipate. I think the motion-comic approach felt refreshing more than anything, breathing a new life into what some may consider a rather stuffy text, albeit beautifully written. I can not underscore enough how impacting your project was, in my humble opinion. Overall, well done group 16; I truly hope your grade will reflect what it undoubtedly deserves. The bar for video projects has been raised by your efforts and

The presentation that I enjoyed the most was that titled, Paradise Lost Comic Book, presented by Group 16. I really enjoyed this presentation because I thought it gave a very accurate yet humorous representation of the epic and characters presented in Paradise Lost. I really enjoyed the style of the presentation because the group used a comic book styled video in combination with the voice overs to keep the audience engaged throughout the presentation. I liked how they presented the story in chronological order because this allowed them to create an easy way for everyone to understand what the story was all about in a very interesting and seemingly accurate way. I also found the actual appearance and fluidity of the movie to be very helpful towards the project because it made it relate to the overall theme of their project. The group’s project really captured my attention right off the bat. The overall group presentation was very straight forward and I feel that this added to the clarity of the presentation, nothing was overdone. The group spent a significant amount of time studying the original text in order to make the script accurate and relatable; this really helped the audience get a better understanding of the major features that each character was known for. It appeared that this group put a lot of time and effort into this presentation because of how thorough and well put together their presentation was. Overall I really enjoyed this project and I believe that it really increased my understanding of Paradise Lost.

I thought all the groups did a good job presenting, but I liked the presentation by group number 16 the best; they did a very good job presenting their Paradise Lost comic book. The project was very creative and the video was very well done. It must have taken the group a long time to come up with the graphics and edit/set up the slideshow part of the video in order to fit it in the allotted presentation time. I thought the cartoon drawings were appropriate, yet also funny and creative, making the idea of Paradise Lost as a comic book very believable. The presentation managed to stay true to the story line while also incorporating all of the characters (both conversationally and visually) into the comic book story. I also thought the presentation was funny; the images in the comic book were humorous, like the made up nutrition facts on the apple on the tree of good and evil. The narrations done by the group were funny, especially when the group tried to have deep voices for the male characters in the story. Overall the group did a very good job, and it was clear that the group spent a lot of time editing and creating

This was the first week where I thought it was honestly difficult to decide who's project was the most effective. I thought every group did an outstanding job presenting and was amazed at the level of detail each project entailed. Similarly, each project was hilarious and extremely entertaining. I wish I could say that each group was my favorite. However, there was one group in particular that really stood out to me, Group 16. Group 16's video was amazing. There were great transitions that were very smooth. The video was entertaining and interesting and did a great job at following the timeline of the novel. I enjoyed the background music that was triumphant and dramatic depending on the mood of the story. I loved the pictures used; they were simple and very cute. My two favorite pictures were from the creation of Eve: the picture of Adam on the operation table and the picture of Adam with a scar where his rib is located. Overall, the presentation was captivating, entertaining and very comical, but appropriate at the same time. The one critique I have is for the ending slide. I think the "and they lived happily ever after..." ending should have made apparent how it was be ironic. Other than that, amazing job Group 16 and all groups that presented yesterday! I hope all the material covered by the groups continues to be on par with every group that presented on Tuesday.

Group 16’s idea of coming up with their own Comic Con comic book of Paradise Lost was an interesting idea. They did a slideshow/comic book presentation for the class, showing pictures like a comic book while the dialogue was narrated. They did a good job having different people voice different characters. It was an abridged version of the story by John Milton with easier language to understand. They improvised on the story as well by adding character to some of the people in the story making them say what they were probably thinking in the actual story. I liked the part where Eve decided she wanted to work by herself a certain day when she found out about the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They alluded from the way Eve asked the question that she was suggesting this so that she could be by herself with the tree. Adam then debated with himself deciding whether or not it was a good idea. He kept going back and forth until they had Eve say that it would mean that Adam did not trust her if he did not let her go by herself that day. Eventually he gave in and as we all know, Eve ate the fruit from the tree. I also liked the way that they had Adam ask God for someone to live with, and He explained how He was going to create Eve from Adam’s rib. Overall they did a great job presenting the book in a short amount of time and getting the main points from the book.

It was a good idea, very creative and nicely put together on the video. You can tell it took a lot of time and though. Although, they got parts of the story wrong. Adam was not gods