Creating Digital Poetry of My Own: An Experience with Powerpoint, iSpring, and the Wonders of Technology

So far this semester, we have been reading and interacting with a cornucopia of digital poetry that has been informative, inspiring, and simply amazing to encounter. When we were first told of our assignment (creating our own digital poetry), I felt it would be an impossible task; I’m familiar with tools like flash and java, but I have a very hard time creating poetry itself and seeing it to completion. While most of my classmates were put at ease upon learning we would be using Powerpoint and ispring to create our digital pieces, I started getting nervous—Powerpoint and I have had a long, very rough relationship over the years, and most experiences with it have left me frustrated and ready for a fight. But, I determined that I would do my best, and be proud of the digital poetry I created.

My personal journey into digital poetry began with the use of a poem I had started working on a few weeks ago about my aunt. I decided that for this project I would alter my poem and make it include other immediate family members as well. I began setting up my poem in Powerpoint, with the intent of having the finished piece appear like readers were flipping through a scrapbook about my family. I inserted family photos, and described members of my family, using different tools in Powerpoint (like making text and photos fade on and off the screen, fly in, ease out, etc.). [see fig. 1.1]
Figure1.1

Of course, the ease of my experience with Powerpoint could last for only so long. Over the weekend, I went back to finish my piece, and found that all my work from the last in-class workshop had miraculously disappeared, even though I still had screenshots of my latest progress. [see fig. 1.2, 1.3, 1.4] Determined not to be defeated by Powerpoint, I decided to change my course of action and instead use a poem that I had already finished, rather than work on finishing a poem and a project.
Figure 1.2
Figure1.3
Figure 1.4

The poem I chose to work with, “Love My Mother Cooks,” is one I wrote last semester while I had some free time on my hands. I reconciled myself with Powerpoint, and started my project over from scratch. While Powerpoint and I are still in a business-only relationship, I must acknowledge the impressive formatting tools Powerpoint is best known for—being able to change the backgrounds, fonts, and animations from slide to slide is absolutely incredible. Throughout this project, I started each slide as a blank page; this way, I could enter text in any way I wanted using text boxes, found under the insert tab. [see fig. 1.5] Because I could enter any amount of text in separate boxes, I could then make each box of text enter the screen in different ways, like fading in or descending onto the screen. Additionally, I could insert sound bytes to accompany my slides, which I found on a website for free sound effects. [see fig. 1.1 and 1.6] Using the “custom animation” tool, I was able to make each of my slides unique and complimentary to the text. Another great feature of Powerpoint, is that if a user finds a piece of clip art that does not work well as a picture on the slide, it can be saved and then re-inserted as the background; this way, if the picture is too large, it can be set behind the text as a background, and both the text and photo can be seen. [see fig.1.7, 1.8, 1.9] Though my initial experience with Powerpoint was a little frustrating (imagine working on a paper for hours, saving it to a flash drive, and later opening the file to discover it’s not there!) my overall experience has been very rewarding. I truly feel that with Powerpoint, I was able to effectively display my poetry, and use technology to give it much more meaning. As aforementioned, each slide is unique and compliments the text in a way that draws and keeps a reader’s attention so that he or she can better understand the poem.
Figure 1.5
Figure 1.6
Figure 1.7
Figure 1.8
Figure 1.9

To upload this poem, I used to program iSpring; I never realized converting a Powerpoint file to flash could be so easy! My Powerpoint had an iSpring tab loaded, and all I had to do was click on the “Publish” key; this opened a window that gave me options as to how I wanted to Powerpoint to upload (whether I wanted a minimum amount of seconds per slide, automatic transition from slide to slide, etc.) [see fig. 1.10]

Figure 1.10

What is really cool about iSpring is that anyone can use it! Their website has a free version that anyone can download for personal use, and once a user is registered, they can access forums about any questions or comments they may have. I personally look forward to using iSpring again in the future; it has opened up a new “window” into digital poetry for me, one that I will enjoy interacting with.

My Finished Product!