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Schedule | Spring 2016

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Today and the Next Meeting

     
FINALS WEEK
T 5/3		  

Online Final Exam
Tuesday 5/3
Start Times: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In a time window today between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., you will spend 2 hours writing responses to two of the three questions on the Final Exam.

To give yourself the entire two-hour period, you should start the exam no later than 3 p.m.

We will use the couse Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

You have a choice of when and where you write the Final Exam, but you will need to plan to complete it within one 2 hour block of time, which you complete no later than 5 p.m.

Directions for the Online Final Exam

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Final Exam."

You will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three questions.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.

 

 

January

     

WEEK 1
W 1/13

  

Day 1:
New Media/Writing

Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnhoff"

Roll and Introductions

Assignment for Friday

See the assignment below and in the left column

Active Reading

I will give you a copy of the handout

New Media / Writing

Not a discipline, but a war

 

F 1/15

 

Homework: Birkerts

Readings

Printout, read, mark, and bring in Sven Birkerts'

  • Introduction, and
  • Chapter 1: "MahVuhHuhPuh"

from his book The Gutenberg Elegies, both available as PDFs via the course Moodle site.

Follow the "Moodle" link in the menu above, and then open the PDF files under the section heading "Readings").

Practice Active Reading

As you read these assignments, try practicing the techniques of Active Reading as you look for responses to the following questions. Be sure to mark your printouts to show where and how Birkerts speaks to these issues:

Thought Questions

1. In what particular ways does Birkerts define writing and reading?

2. How do these styles of writing and reading represent not just literary practices but social and personal values and ways of living?

3. How does "New Media" or networked life threaten these ways of writing, reading, and living?  What values, experiences, or abilities does New Media make obsolete?

4. In what ways is Birkerts' writing an example of the kind of writing he is defining and describing?

Do not come to class without these printouts! You can printout a PDF with two pages per sheet if you wish.

Advice

Note that the first paragraph of Chapter 1 is something of a false start: dense and vague.

Start with the second paragraph. Come back and read the first paragraph after you've finished the chapter.

Photocopy One Page to Turn In

After you have read and marked the two chapters, choose one page to photocopy or scan/print and bring to class to turn in to show an example of your reading actively. Be sure to write your name in the upper right corner of the page.

Syllabus

Read over the syllabus carefully and come in with any questions.

 

Day 2

Birkerts' Reading and Writing

Detail from cover art to an edition of Birkerts' Gutenberg Elegies.

Before Class Starts

Log into your lab computer and open up Word.

Also open a browser and view this page.

Define "New Media"

Birkerts

Choose one of the homework questions and answer it in a paragraph.

Sandwich a quotation from Birkerts in the middle of your paragraph (including a page number indicated in parentheses after the quotation).

Be sure the focus of your paragraph is on what Birkerts says or thinks, rather than generically on writing or reading.

WEEK 2
M 1/18		  

MLK Day: No Class
W 1/20

Homework

Readings

Printout, read, mark, and bring in

Janet Murray's Chapter 3, "From Additive to Expressive Forms," from her book Hamlet on the Holodeck

available as a PDF via the course Moodle site

Do

1. Come in having memorized Murray's Four Principles of New Media, which you can remember by the acronym "PEPS."

2. Using the techniques of Active Reading, identify passages that you think might speak to some of the concerns and issues from Birkerts, indicating where Murray is either agreeing or disagreeing with Birkerts.

3. moodle In the Moodle forum "Murray's PEPS: Illustrations of Each," relate each of Murray's four principles of New Media to details of a particular example of New Media (of your own choosing). In a couple of sentences for each, explain how that example illustrates Murray's idea.

You can use the same piece of New Media for all four principles.

If possible, provide a clickable URL for the example of New Media, or for a page or video that shows or explains what it's like.

Day 3

Principles of New Media (Murray and Birkerts)

pepsDiscussion of New Media/Writing (Murray/Bikerts)

Handout: Birkerts, Murray, Manovich

Discussion of Janet Murray's Four Principles of New Media (PEPS)

 

Additive v. Expressive Forms in History

  • "motion picture" as a movie
  • "a comic epic poem in prose" as a novel (Henry Fielding, Preface to Joseph Andrews (1742):

Set Up Homework

Dialogue of Birkerts and Murray about Traditional and New Media.

 
F 1/22

Homework

Write Online

In a message to the Moodle forum "Birkerts and Murray," pair up quotations from these two writers as described on the handout and then write a short paragraph of your own commenting on the degree to which Birkerts challenges Murray, or that Murray answers Birkerts.

Create on your USB Drive

On your USB drive, create the following set of nested folders:

new media writing

www

4250

exercises

social

assets

was

assets

Read and Come in with Questions

Read the assignment for The Social-Creativity Project, which will be due on Thursday, February 4.

Be sure to look at some of the sample sites.

Note that most of these samples are not student projects, but examples from public media on the web. This means that they can serve as conceptual models but not structural models of what the assignment calls for.

 

Day 4

Birkerts and Murray
Social Creativity


Sample contribution to the social-creativity example, Make Your Franklin.

Birkerts and Murray

See the Handout: Birkerts, Murray, Manovich

Questions about the Social Creativity Project

See the assignment page. The project will be due on Thursday, February 4.

 
M 1/25

Homework

An Example of Social Creativity (Moodle)

After looking at the samples of social creativity on the assignment page, find your own online example of a site, thread, hashtag, etc. which enables people to practice social creativity.

Note: Like the "Sad Chairs" example from the assignment page, yours might be a stand-alone creative work that you believe could serve as a social creativity opportunity.

In a reply to the Moodle forum "Social Creativity Example and Explanation," post the name and URL of what you found.

In a paragraph, describe the concept of your example and explain how your example provides a replicable model of creativity: that is,

  • a specific and purposeful enough idea or technique to ensure unity of many attempts, and yet
  • an open and suggestive enough realm of possibilities to offer contributors an opporunity to be creative and indvidual.

Say what you like about your example (or how you wish it was different).

Comment on the possibile meanings of the example: what it says or suggests--what imitating it would enable others to say or suggest.

 

Day 5

Examples of Social Creativity

sad chair

Detail from a Bill Keaggy photograph from 50 Sad Chairs.

Creativity in Writing

Consider what Janet Murray says in Hamlet on the Holodeck (91.6) in the sentence starting, "Nelson's vision of hypertext...."

See the handout "Creativity As Compression."

William Faulkner: "My ambition is to put everything into one sentence—not only the present but the whole past on which it depends and which keeps overtaking the present, second by second….  I’m still trying to put all mankind’s history in one sentence”

Two sentences from Henry James:

"....It was the first time in her life that this had happened; somebody, everybody appeared to have known before, at every instant of it, where she was; so that she was now suddenly able to put it to herself that that hadn't been a life" (Wings of the Dove I 221).

"....We share this world, none the less, for the hour, with Mr. Verver; the very fact of his striking as he would have said, for solitude, the fact of his quiet flight, almost on tiptoe, through tortuous corridors, investing him with an interest that makes our attention--tender indeed almost to compassion--qualify his achieved isolation" (The Golden Bowl I 111)

Samples and Examples of Social Creativity (SC)

See the assignment page of the Social Creativity Project for examples and at the Moodle forum "Social Creativity Example and Explanation."

 

 
W 1/27

Homework

Complete Online Prospectus

By the beginning of class today, complete and submit a Social-Creativity Project Prospectus Form.

The form contains the following questions:

  1. Your Name
  2. Your Email address
  3. Title of the project
  4. Brief description project
  5. Rules and formal guidelines for the contributions
  6. How the rules and guidelines will unify the contributions to the project so they share a common vision, tone, idea, form, etc.?
  7. What about the project offers contributors the possibilities for creative expression and individual meaning within that vision?  
  8. In this project, the creativity should happen in the making of the contributions--in their production, construction, or performance--rather than in the subject matter itself.  In the contributions to your project, how does creativity appear in their execution?  
  9. How does your project allow your contributors to say something about a topic that matters to them and to the project's audience?
  10. What was your inspiration for the project?

Write your answers in a file on your USB drive, and then paste them into the online form.

 

 

Day 6

Social Creativity
Banners
Photoshop

lighthouse

Additions to the Assignment

See the bolded text under "Elements" on the Social Creativity 16 assignment page.

Discuss Homework for Friday (No Class Meeting)

"The Genius of Rules." We'll consider the 50 Sad Chairs idea as an example.

Exercise: Banners

We will do together in class the exercises Beginning and Intermediate Banner Techniques (Photoshop).

  • We will create a banner that goes on a page like this, which has a banner that is 760 pixels by 80 pixels
  • Save the working .psd file to your "new media writing" folder
  • Save the finished product (.jpg file) to a folder called "www/4250/exercises/banner"

 
F 1/29

Homework

The Genius of Rules (Moodle Posting)

Beethoven

 

Explanation

The stereotype of the genius is traditionally a solitary, difficult, and misunderstood individual.

In a participatory environment like New Media, however, a creative individual (also known as a "creative") produces not just finished products, but models and rules by which others can be creative together.  

Writing a set of rules and guidelines for others to follow creatively is itself an act of genius in the networked age.  

In a social-creativity project, rules provide not only practical how-to steps for contributing, but guidelines to realize the creative potential of the project's format and vision.  

Together with models and examples, rules inspire rather than just limit.  

The Moodle Post

For your Social Creativity Project idea, write a set of rules and guidlelines that 

  1. are simple and clear
  2. progress chronologically
  3. describe a contribution's format
  4. combine practicality with inspiration
  5. offer insights into the creative technique of the sample contributions
  6. suggest the intended goals, possibilities, and meaning of the project

By class time on today, post the rules in a reply to the Moodle forum "The Genius of Rules"

Above the list of rules in your post, include

  • the title of your project
  • a short paragraph of explanation (which may be part of your rationale or "set up" paragraph).

 

No Class Meeting


February

>
   

 
WEEK 4
M 2/1

Homework

Reply to "Genius" (Moodle Post)

Read over your classmate's posts to the Moodle forum "The Genius of Rules."

Based on the title, explanation, and set of rules, choose one that interests or intrugues you--one that potentially engages your creative imagination.

In a reply to that message (so it will appear nested under it in the forum), explain why you chose that project, and what you would find "creative" about trying to follow these rules to create a contribution to that project.

Post your reply by 8 a.m. today.

Day 7

Dreamweaver and Photoshop

To Get Ready for Class Today

  1. Plug your USB Drive into your desktop
  2. Open Dreamweaver
  3. Open Photoshop
  4. Find the handout "Beginning Banner Techniques"

Questions?

Sample Social Creativity: Implementation

We will briefly discuss Nick Montfort's and Scott Rettberg's project Implementation.

Moving Your Beginning Banner File (.jpg)

At the end of last meeting, we saved a .jpg version of the banner to your "new media writing" folder.

  1. Create a new folder called "banner" inside of "exercises" inside of "4250" in your "www" folder.

    The location of the new folder could be expressed more succinctly as www/4250/execises/banner.

  2. Copy the .jpg version of your banner (NOT the .psd version) from your "new media writing" folder to the "banner" folder you just created.

Exercise: Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver

I will give you a copy of the handout "Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver and Using It to Upload Files and Folders."
W 2/3

Homework

Create a Banner for Your Project

Create a banner for your project in Photoshop, and save a .jpg version to a new folder called "project_banner" (no spaces, no capitals) inside of the folder "exercises" in your "4250" folder.

The banner will eventually appear at the top of a page like this. The color scheme of this page can be changed, but I will ask you to use the size and layout of this page for your project.

Suggestion

You can use the Photoshop document you created in the exercise "Banner Technique" as a template for this homework. See the brief tutorial of steps to follow, "New Banner from Old (.psd file)."

Criteria

Your banner should attempt to fulfill all the following criteria:

  • is the right size and shape for the intended page: in this case, a .jpg image 760 pixels by 80 pixels (you could make the banner a little taller—perhaps as much as 125 pixels—if your design requires it)

  • gives the page a visual anchor at the top of the web page: somewhere for the eye to land

  • announces the title of the project

  • perhaps uses an optional tag line in the banner (for example, a tag line for a Sad Chairs project might read, "The Cruel World of America's Abandoned Chairs"

  • visually and verbally suggests something essential about the subject matter and creative aspects of the project

  • sets the tone for the project using deliberate choices of font, color contrasts, layout, framing, visual point of view, etc.: for example, edgy, somber, lighthearted, satirical, consoling, campy, bitter, ironic, or so on.

  • appeals to the tastes and styles of the intended audience

  • works well as a banner: not too busy or overloaded with detail

  • saved as a .jpg in the correct folder on your USB drive.

 

Day 8

Dreamweaver and Photoshop

lighthouse

Getting Ready for Class Today

  1. Insert your USB drive into your computer
  2. Open Photoshop and Dreamweaver
  3. In Photoshop, open "banner.psd" (the file we created together in class last Wednesday)
  4. In Dreamweaver, import your site information (saved on your USB drive in a file called "www.ste" (see the final step in the tutorial "Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver and Using It to Upload Files and Folders."

Questions?

...concerning the homework? the Social Creativity Project?

Homework for Next Time

As an example of steps, rules, and guidelines, consider this attempt at writing rules for a Sad Chairs project.

Two Banners: Exercise Banner vs. Project Banner

You should now have two banners on your USB drive in two Photoshop files (.psd):

  1. A file called "banner.psd" (or whatever you named the file when you saved it last Wednesday), which features the lighthouse,
  2. A file titled "project_banner.psd" which you completed for today's homework.

Exercise: Banners (Continued)

I will give you a copy of the tutorial handout, "Intermediate Banner Techniques."

  • We will continue working on the same "banner.psd" file as before, which will go on a page like this with a banner that is 760 pixels by 80 pixels
  • Edit and save the working .psd file to your "new media writing" folder
  • Save the finished product (.jpg file) to the folder "www/4250/exercises/banner," which will replace the version of the .jpg we saved there before.
F 2/5

Homework

Write, Revise, and Bring

On your USB drive, write, revise, and bring in drafts of these three elements of your Social Creativity Project:

  1. Two sample contributions to your project, of the kind that you are asking others to create and submit to you.
    It is important to work on these first so you will have an opportunity to explore the creative possibilities and challenges of the form that you're asking others to produce. As you work on these, take note of both the practical steps your following, and the cereative considerations you're thinking about.

  2. Having tried the format yourself, write a set of steps, rules, and guidelines, which provides how-to instructions, techniques, and guidelines, as well as insight into the creative possibilities of the form. These rules should inspire as well as instruct.

  3. The rationale or "set up" paragraph.
    Address this paragraph to your audience of potential collaborators. Here, you're attempting not just to explain the project to the audience, but to engage, inspire, and intrigue them. Look at some of the sample projects from the assignment page to see good and poor examples of rationale.

 

Day 9

Dreamweaver: The Social Creativity Page

sad chair

Getting Ready for Class Today

  1. Insert your USB drive into your computer
  2. Open Photoshop and Dreamweaver
  3. If you had trouble with saving or uploading your banner (or sending its URL to the Moodle forum), open all files and web pages necessary to troubleshoot your problem.

Troubleshooting Banner Exercise

Including uploading to the server and sending a URL to the Moodle forum "Banners."

Exercise: Page from Prototype (Your Social Creativity Page)

Today we will work on the exercise "Web Page From Prototype." I will give you a copy of the handout.

  • To start this exercise, download the compressed .zip file "social_prototype"
  • The finished page for this exercise--and for your Social Creativity Project--will look something like this.

Using the "Page from Prototype" for Your Project

You will use this exercise page as the platform for presenting all the elements of the Social Creativity Project (except for the Commentary, which you will turn by Tuesday at 4:00 to my mailbox in Humanities 420.)

 
WEEK 5
M 2/8

Homework

Complete all Exercises to Date

Especially try to work through the end of the tutorial "Page from Prototype," which enables you to produce the web page required for the online aspects of the Social Creativity Project.

Bring What You Need to Work

Bring in all materials necessary to work on your Social Creativity Project in class.

Though you will be working individually on this Studio Day, this is still a class meeting, and you will be expected to be on time and to stay till the end working productively and helping others.

 

Day 10

Studio Day: The Social Creativity Project

Sample contribution to the social-creativity example, Make Your Franklin.

Next Meeing in MonH 208

We will meet in MonH 208 until further notice.

MonH 208 to Be a Device-Free Zone

We will treat this new classroom as a device-free zone. Please bring readings and your responses on paper, and plan on taking notes by hand.

Using or checking a device in class will result in an absence for the day, and a zero for participation.

Index to Skills and Tutorials

Evaluation Checklist for the Project

I will give you a hard copy of the checilist that I will use to evaluate your project.

T 2/9

Social Creativity Project Due

Online Aspects Due by Noon

The online aspects of the project are due by noon. These include:

  • Uploading a fully functioning web page to the server
  • Posting a clickable URL to that page in a reply to the Moodle forum "Social Creativity Project URLs"

Printed Commentary Due by 4:00 p.m.

The Social Creativity Commentary is due to my mailbox in Humanities 420.

 

[ Tuesday: Not a Class Day ]
W 2/10

Homework

Read

Tom Bissell's Extra Lives:

  • Author's Note xi-xiv
  • Chapter 1 "Fallout" 3-14

Three Quotations: Tensions

Bissell is, by profession, a fiction writer and critic--though a writer/critic who also loves video games. In essence, Bissell is half Birkerts, half Murray.

  • What signs of tension, contradiction, or conflict do you see between Bissell's writerly, narrative self and his digital, "procedural" self?
  • In what ways does Bissell attempt to solve or understand these cultural, aesthetic, or political tensions?

Come in with three quotations identified--with page numbers--that provide clues that might help answer the questions above.

Be prepared to discuss your choices and explain their implications.

Resource

A Play-Through of Fallout 3, Part 1 from YouTube

Day 11

[ Meet in MonH 208 ]

Bissell's Extra Lives 1

Detail Detail from the opening, cinametic sequence of Fallout 3

Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams

I will give you a copy of the handout, "Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams."

Keeping Track of Your Page Numbers

I'd like to keep track of the page numbers we read together in class each day so we can have a list when it comes time for the exams.

When you call our attention to a quotation or term in class, please remember to send me a brief email after class with the page number(s)--including tenths to indicate how far down the page, such as 54.5 or 83.8-9--and a couple of key words to identify the quotation(s).

Also, this will better enable me to give you credit for participation!

I will keep track of the quotaitons that I bring up.

Bissell and Video Games

 

Passages to Remember

  • “Because of the freedom they grant gamers, the narrative-and mission-generating illusion of endlessness, the best open-world games tend to become leisure-time-eating viruses.” (4.9) JP
  • “For a long time my rationalization was that, provided a game was fun to play, certain failures could be overlooked. I came to accept that games were generally incompetent with almost every aspect of what I would call traditional narrative.” (11.7) JP
  • “Traps, after all, need bait. In a narrative , story and world combine to create an experience.” (12.2) JP
  • “stubbornly attached" 11.1, 11.4, 11.7

Resources:

 
F 2/12

Homework

Read Bissell

Read Tom Bissell's Extra Lives, pages 15-65.

Bissell and Murray: Games as New Media

We learned Murray's four characteristics of digital environments (or what we're calling "New Media"), which we memorized using the acronym P.E.P.S.

For each of Murray's four principles, find a passage in Extra Lives that illustrates or seems to comment on Murray's idea.

For each principle/quotation pairing, make notes to yourself addressing one of the following questions.

  • What does Bissell help realize about each of Murray's PEPS?
  • What does Murray help you understand about what Bissell is saying and describing?
  • Can you tell differences in viewpoint, belief, or assumptions between Murray and Bissell concerning issues related to video games: for example, narrative, gameplay, meaning, violence, character, etc.

Come in with page numbes from Bissell and talking points for each of Murray's principles.

Be prepared to turn in your notes.

Find and Bring

Find and bring the Handout: Birkerts, Murray, Manovich from Day 4 (1/22).

 

 

Day 12

[ Meet in MonH 208 ]

Bissell: Extra Lives 2, Manovich's 5 Principles

Review: Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams

Anyone need a copy of the handout, "Kinds of Things to Know How to Do for the Exams?"

Send Me Your Page Numbers to Remember

Remember that I'm trying to keep track of the page numbers (and a few key words) we have read together in class each day so we can have a list when it comes time for the exams.

Send me page numbers and key words only for quotations that you suggest in class.

1. Bissell and Murray's PEPS

We'll hear the connections you found in the homework

2. Lev Manovich's "5 Principles of New Media"

Detail from the cover of Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media

From Manovich's book The Language of New Media.

You can remember the first letters of the Five Principles with the mnemonic phrase "New Media's Always Very Tricky."

Numerical Representation
Modularity (as in layers)
Automation
Variability
Transcoding

Examples of New Media Writing

Passages to Remember

  • Framed Narrative and Ludonarrative 36.9-37
  • Jesse Schell: "the game is not the experience..." 12.3
  • Jesse Schell: "...mechanics that make a game a game" (58.2) NA

 

W 2/17

Homework

Read

Extra Lives, page 128-183

Write, Print, and Bring In

A. Choose a passage from today's reading in Bissell which sums up a critical idea that could be used in an analysis of a piece of New Media or a video game.

B. Find two other quotations that connect and add to that essential idea in the first quotation:

  1. Under a heading "Quotations," transcribe the three quotations from Bissell's book with page numbers (including 10ths)

  2. Under a heading "Theory," write a paragraph that explains how a student or scholar could use the idea developed in these three quotations to analyze a particular example of New Media/video games. Essentially, how do these three quotations constitute a "critical vision" of New Media/video games. What are the key words or distictions?

  3. Under a heading "Example," use the idea developed from your theory paragraph to analyze (pick apart, interpret, read closely, critique) a particular scene, view, page, or aspect of a work of new Media or a video game. Paste a screen shot into your document if that helps.

C. Print the document and bring to class.

 

Day 13

Bissell's Extra Lives 4

Bissell

Passages to Remember

  • true art/comprehensive intelligence 35.4 - 35.8
  • crack of the narrative whip 39-40
  • honor the frame narrative, but... 174-75 (vs. backstory 167)

 

W 2/17

Homework

Read

Extra Lives, page 128-183

Write, Print, and Bring In

A. Choose a passage from today's reading in Bissell which sums up a critical idea that could be used in an analysis of a piece of New Media or a video game.

B. Find two other quotations that connect and add to that essential idea in the first quotation:

  1. Under a heading "Quotations," transcribe the three quotations from Bissell's book with page numbers (including 10ths)

  2. Under a heading "Theory," write a paragraph that explains how a student or scholar could use the idea developed in these three quotations to analyze a particular example of New Media/video games. Essentially, how do these three quotations constitute a "critical vision" of New Media/video games. What are the key words or distictions?

  3. Under a heading "Example," use the idea developed from your theory paragraph to analyze (pick apart, interpret, read closely, critique) a particular scene, view, page, or aspect of a work of new Media or a video game. Paste a screen shot into your document if that helps.

C. Print the document and bring to class.

Day 14

Bissell's Extra Lives 4

Housekeeping

  • Leftover from Monday: Pick up printouts of Moodle posts from Monday

  • Page Numbers: Send me your page numbers sometime after class each day.

  • Return of Notes from last Friday.

Review Manovich's 5 Characterstics of New Media

Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnoff"

 

Mnemonic phrase: "New Media's Always Very Tricky." (NMAVT)

Examples of New Media Writing

Bissell Pages 127-183

Chapters: "Far Cries," "Grand Thefts"

Passages to Remember

  • true art/stupidity 35.4 - 35.8
  • surrender/freedom, presiding intelligence, to be entertained is to be manipulated, crack of the narrative whip vs. freedom of game 39-40

 

 

F 2/19

Homework

Read

Read the Introduction to Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 1-51

Find Quotations and Write Talking Points

As you read, note down page numbers of passages that help to answer the following questions (including tenths).

For each question, also write down some talking points for yourself to use in class discussion, which will help you explain and elaborate your choices of quotation. (Talking points do not need to be complete sentences.)

  1. What is "software," according to Manovich?
  2. In Manovich's view, what role does software play in the history of media?
  3. Manovich frequently uses the word culture or cultural in this chapter. Beyond the dictionary definition of the words, what can you infer he means, based on how and where he uses the words?
  4. What is Manovich's argument for the necessity of "Software Studies" as the focus of an approach to understanding New Media?

Though you are taking notes for yourself, be prepared to turn in your note sheet at the end of class. I will return them the following class meeting.

Your Page Numbers from Last Class

As explained in class last time, we will now be using Moodle to collect the page numbers and other informaiton on the passages you offered (orally) in the last class meeting.

Before today, please post your contributions to the last class to the appropriate forum.

 

Day 15

Manovich's Software Takes Command: Introduction

Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnoff"

Resources

 
WEEK 7
M 2/22

Homework

Read

Read the Chapter 1 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, "Alan Key's Universal Media Machine," pages 55-106.

Cluster Map of 8 Quotations

As you read, note down the page numbers of passages that help to answer the following questions (including tenths).

For each quotation, also write down 1-5 key words from that quotation to serve as a "tag" to help you recall what that quotation said.

I will ask you to make a cluster of these ideas to attempt to map relationships between them. (See my web page on clustering for details of this brainstorming technique).

For each node in this cluster, write down your tag and page number.

The Questions

1. History, the Present, the Future
Manovich claims that his book is concerned "with the present and the future." How does he justify, then, his focus in this chapter on the past? What does knowing the history of New Media offer us today, according to Manovich?

2. Alan Kay
 Why does Manovich make Alan Kay the "key protagonist" of this history (43)?

3. Modernism and New Media
 Manovich contrasts New Media with 20-century styles of modernism and modernist culture. What do these comparisons/contrasts reveal about the nature of New Media?

4. Extendibility
What does Manovich mean by the "extendability" of New Media?

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 16

Manovich C1: "Alan Kay's Universal Media Machine"

Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnoff"

Resources

 

 
W 2/24

Homework

Read

Read Chapter 2 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 107-157

Annotate the "Metamedium" Diagrapm

In class, I gave you a copy of the handout, "Lev Manovich's 'Metamedium.'"

What This Is

This handout gives you a "semiotic square" composed of two opposing terms (dichotomies, binaries) that are at the core of Manovich's Chapter Two:

  • Simulation of Old Media vs. Development of New Properties in Media
  • Media-Specific Media Techniques vs. Media-Indepedent Techniques

A semiotic square is a format that enables you to take two sets of opposing terms like these and lay them across one another, creating a two-dimensional field of possibilities for analysis.

What To Do

As you read Chapter 2, note down page numbers (with tenths) and key words that help you understand each of the four terms around the outside (in black: New Properties, etc) and the oppositions among them.

Also note down pages number and key words for the hybrid terms inside the lines (in gray: for example "New Media Specific")

What You're Reading For

Manovich argues that software is a "metamedium" composed of these four characteristics (that is, these two pairs of opposing terms).

These sets of distinctions on this chart are the beginning of his chapter, rather than its end or conclusion. He spends the chapter stress-testing, questioning, and problematizing the truth and usefulness of these oppositions.

Is there a problem, for instance, in distinguging just what is old and new? Does what is new come from the old? Does that happen through some kind of process? Or does the new come from new conditions that make the old obsolete?

  • Why does it matter, according to Manovich, whether or not these oppositions hold up as a definiton of the "metamedium" of software?

  • What does Manovich say that suggests what is at stake?

Consider an Optional Revision

Consider an option revision of your Social-Creativity Project for a new grade on the project (based on figuring 1/3 of the original grade and 2/3 of a new grade).

This revision would not be a simple fixing up of the project, but a substantial revision that we would work on collaboratively.

See the page "Collaborative Revision Process," for more details, and the Revision Contract that governs the process.

Deadline for meeting with me about a revision of the Social Creativity Project is Thursday, March 3.

The final revision itself would be due several weeks after our first meeting about it, on a date we would agree to.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 17

Manovich's C2: Understanding Metamedia


How the avant-garde sees mainstream media and its audience (art by Gary Larson, with caption "Oh, boy. it's dog food AGAIN!"

Resources

 
F 2/26

Homework

Read

Read the Chapter 3 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 161-198

Cluster of 12 Quotation Tags

1. Before you start reading, get a blank sheet of paper to make a cluster out of 12 "quotation tags" that you will choose from the chapter.

Remember a quotation tag is a page number (with tenths) and 1-5 key words from the quotation which help you remember it.

2. Open and read through again this page of steps for productive clustering techniques.

3. At the center of the page, write "Hybrid Media is Not Multimedia"

4. With your choice of tags, try to show why Manovich believes the statement is true. You might also explore:

  • How does Manovich recommend we tell the difference between hybridity and multimedia?
  • What difference does it make to Manovich if we use one term or the other when we’re talking about what computers do, and what “media after software” looks and feels like?  
  • For Manovich, what is at stake in the distinction between “hybrid media” and “multimedia”?  
  • How does this distinction (and Manovich’s argument for “hybridity") build on anything you remember from the Introduction or Chapter One?  

5. When you finish, remember to write at the bottom or on the back of the page a phrase or sentence that captures some idea in your head about what you've been clustering on.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the pages numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 18

Manovich's C3: Hybridization


How the avant-garde sees mainstream media and its audience (art by Gary Larson, with caption "Oh, boy. it's dog food AGAIN!"

 
WEEK 8
 M 2/28

Homework

Read

Read the Chapter 4 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command: "Soft Evolution," pages 199-239, using the techniques of Active Reading.

Write a Summary of the Chapter's Analytical Plot

What to Write

Write up to a page (2 or 3 substantial paragraphs) that summarizes the "analytical plot" of Chapter 4. Talk about the chapter's sections as chapters or episodes in that plot.

What is an Analytical Plot?

In your sentences, make Manovich the subject. Your verbs should characterize what he's doing, step by step, through the chapter. Sharper, more descriptive verbs like "distinguishes," or "questions," or "argues against," are better than generic ones like "says," or "gives."

Try to show in your sentences what Manovich does in each section, and how he makes one section lead to the next.

See the Sample

See this sample of a plot summary of Chapter Five from Manovich's The Language of New Media.

Quotations

Be sure to quote key words and phrases (including page numbers cited parenthetically) to make it possible for you to find what you think are significant or memorable quotaitons from the sections.

Documentation

Document the Manovich book in a "Work Cited" entry at the bottom in MLA citation and documentation format.

Print and bring your paragraph(s).

Suggestion: Try a Cluster First

To help you get a handle of content and flow of chapter, try taking 10 minutes after you read the chapter to make a "chain cluster" on the section titles.

Rather than starting a cluster with a single word or phrase at the center (as we've done before), start with a chain of items from left to right that represent the sections. For instance, here are abbreviated versios of the section headings:

  • Algorithms and Data Structures
  • Medium?
  • File Formats
  • Parameters
  • Meta or monomedium?
  • Evolution

Then scan through the chapter, looking for what you marked and noted, fleshing out the cluster with phrases and passages from the reading that suggest the flow and development of Manovich's chapter.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the page numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 19

Manovich C4: Soft Evolution

Sharper Verbs

  • argues for (vs says)
  • defines (vs calls)
  • distinguishes (vs discusses the difference between)
  • critiques (vs. talks about)
  • defends
  • attacks
  • connects

Resources


March

   

 

WEEK 8
W 3/2

Homework

Before You Read

In Chapter 5, Manovich briefly considers the title sequence from the AMC series Mad Men as an example of "motion graphics," the subject of this chapter.

Watch this video before you read. Imagine that you are going to write a 20-page essay analyzing this title sequence as an example of what Manovich calls a "new hybrid visual aesthetics" (244) which is characteristic of "'media' after software" (Manovich 4).

Read

Actively read the Chapter 5 of Lev Manovich's Software Takes Command, pages 243-296, 307-327.

Read both for

  1. how this chapter brings together everything Manovich has argued in Software Takes Command, and
  2. specific quotations that would help you in writing about the Mad Men title sequence as an example not just of animation or television title sequences, but of the new "metalanguage" created by the softwarization of culture (Manoivch 244).

Watch the Title Sequence Again

After you have read and taken notes on the chapter, watch the Mad Men title sequence again.

Five Revealing Quotations and Minute:Second Marks

On paper, copy over at least five quotations from Chapter 5 in their entirety (with page and tenths numbers) that describe and illuminate details of the title sequence.

For each quotation, note down the minute and second mark of shots in the video where you would be able to show us the details that illustrate Manovich's point in the quotation.

Try to make your quotation/shot pairings as revealing and "transformative" as possible

  • in understanding Manovich's argument, and
  • in seeing the title sequence as a genuinely new "species" of media (Manovich 235).

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the page numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 20

Manovich C5: Media Design (Motion Graphics)

Resources

 
F 3/4

Homework

Context for Reading Alan Liu: Knowledge Work and the Aesthetic of Cool

Since we're reading only a tiny portion of Liu's The Laws of Cool, let me give you some context for what he's saying:

If Sven Birkerts' book is about reading, Janet Murray's about narrative, Tom Bissell's about play, and Manovich's about media "creation" (323), Liu's is about work.

Liu critiques the nature and conditions of "knowldge work" done in a networked, digitalized, globalized world. Liu sums up the culture, style, and politics of this work with the word "cool."

He asks whether "humanistic knowledge"--epitomized by literature and literary study--has any relevance in the 'postindustrial" lives of "knowledge workers" and in a world defined by their aesthetic of cool.

Print and Read

1. Print the handout "Alan Liu's Thesis" and read it carefully.

Let's begin on the basis that this passsage from Chapter 9 is an expression of Liu's central point (his "thesis") in the entirety of The Laws of Cool.

2. Download, printout, and read the Introduction and Chapter 9 ("The Tribe of Cool") from Alan Liu's book The Laws of Cool, available as PDFs from the Moodle forums under "Readings."

As you read, try to make connections between particular passages in the reading and specific words and phrases on the handout.

Show these connections on the handout by drawing a line out from the word or phrase into the wide margin, and writing a quotation tag (2-5-word phrases to represent longer quotations in the reading with page numbers and tenths) at the end of that line.

In this way, connect at least 8 quotations to words and phrases on the handout.

In particular, look for connections that help you explain what Liu is saying about:

  • literature or "the literary" (or the humanities)
  • postindustrialism
  • knowledge work
  • cool
  • slack
  • another topic you think is important or interesting in Liu

Day 21

Alan Liu's The Laws of Cool: NMMREC

Questions

  • What did you notice in the chapters because you had the thesis as a kind of guide or index? 
  • What did you understand a little better in the thesis because of something you found in the chapters? 

Resources

M 3/7		  

Spring Break
W 3/9  

Spring Break
F 3/11  

Spring Break
WEEK 9
 M 3/14

Homework

Download, Print, and Read

"The Poetics of Augmented Space" (Manovich). Pages 1-15. The PDF is available from the course Moodle site under "Readings."

Watch, Write, Post to Moodle

  1. After reading the Manovich article, watch the video Alter Bahnhof Video Walk (Cardiff/Bures Miller)
  2. In the Moodle forum "Alter Bahnhof," type in three quotations from the Manovich article on augmented space that seem best to explain or describe the style and effects of the video. Be sure to cite pages and tenths.
  3. Take a screen shot from a particular moment from the Alter Bahnoff video that serves to illustrate or illuminate the aspect(s) of augmented space you've been discussing

    (Don't worry if you screen shot has the play button in the middle of the screen.)
  4. Insert the image file of your screen shot into your Moodle post:

    Scroll down in the "Your Reply" screen of Moodle (after you click "Reply" to my message at the of the forum), and find the "Attachment" section with an window labeled "Drop Files Here to Upload."

    Drag your screen-shot image file from your desktop into this box.

  5. In a paragraph under the quotations, explain how the quotations relate to the "video walk" generally (and your screen shot specifically). Be sure to describe the words and sounds involved in the moment of your screen shot, and perhaps what the audience is physically doing.

    How does the video (and your screen shot) explain, illustrate, and illuminate the article? or the article the video walk?

    Feel free to mention another example of augmented space if one occurs to you.

  6. Before posting your message, type at the top a title or heading that sums up the aspect of the video or of augmented space that you wound up focusing on. The title shoud be 1-5 words.
  7. After posting your message to the forum, print your Moodle post to bring to class on paper.

    (If you have problems or doubts about printing from Moodle, simply copy text and image from Moodle and paste them into a Word document and print that.)

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the page numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 22

Manovich: Augmented Space

Screenshot from Janet Cardiff's and George Bures Miller's "Alter Bahnhoff"

Midterm Resources

Augmented Space Resources
W 3/16

Homework

Write 5 Questions for the Exam

Write an exam question for each of capacities covered on the exam. You can use any of the three question formats for any of the capacities.

See the handout "Capacities Expected for the Exams" for details.

The capacities are:

  • Identify who said/thought/represents what
  • Explain transformative terms and statements
  • Remember components of important ideas and how they relate
  • Distinguish key distinctions
  • Make connections and elaborate narratives or relationships

The Format of the Questions

Write each of those questions in your choice of three formats:

  1. Matching
  2. Fill in the Blank
  3. Essay

See the handout "Format for the Exam" for details.

By 8 a.m. today, post your questions to the appropriate forums in Moodle in the section "Midterm Exam"

Bring to Class

Bring to class all books, handouts, and notes from the first half of the class.

Quotations You Offered Last Class

Before class today, please post to Moodle the page numbers and key words of any quotations you offered (out loud) in the last class meeting.

 

Day 23

Midterm Study Session

Meet for This Day Only in LIB 118

Resources

F 3/18

Homework: Take-Home Portion of the Midterm

Take-Home Portion of the Midterm
(8 a.m. Thursday - 9 a.m. Friday)

In a time window between 8 a.m. Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday, you will spend 90 minutes writing responses to two of the three questions on the take-home portion of the Midterm Exam.

We will use the couse Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

You have a choice of when and where you write the Take-Home Portion, but you will need to plan to complete it within one 90-minute block of time, which you complete no later than noon Wednesday.

Directions for the Take-Home Portion

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Midterm Exam Take Home Portion."

Your will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three questions.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.

Come Prepared

Come to class prepared to take the In-Class Portion of the Exam (composed of the Matching and Fill-in-the-Blank formats).

Bring two pens that you trust. There is no need to bring books or notes.

Day 24

Midterm Exam: In-Class Portion

Meet in MonH 208
WEEK 10
M 3/21

Homework

Re-Watch the Video and Take Notes

As you again watch Cardiff's and Miller's Alter Bahnhof Video Walk, take notes on details and moments that might help answer the following questions:

  1. What is this piece about (rather than just the train station itself). What themes or ideas are Cardiff and Miller interested in getting the audience to think about? What points are they making about those ideas?
  2. What emotions and moods do you think Cardiff and Miller intend to evoke in the audience?
  3. If this piece were translated into print (or for an online publication that still follows print conventions), what genre of writing would it most be like? (Examples of genres: sonnet, news report, personal essay, analytical essay, short story, editorial, novel, literary non-fiction, memoir, etc.)
  4. What kind of magazine or publication (or publication web site) would this piece appear in? For what kind of audience? If this piece appeared in a newspaper or on newspaper web site, what section would it be placed in? If not a newspaper, where would it appear? If it were (in) a book, what section of a bookstore?

Write Four Brief Answers and a Substantive Paragraph

Write brief answers to the four questions above. As much as possible use details from the video (either visual, verbal, or physical details) to support your answers. Label your answers with the corresponding question numbers.

Below your four answers, write a substantive paragraph that attempts to analyze the techniques of the walk to answer the following question:

What techniques do Cardiff and Miller use to make the place convey the themes, ideas, emotions, and moods they want the audience to experience?

How do they use words, visuals, sounds, directions for physical movements, etc. to make the old German train station into a medium for these intended ideas and feelings which unfies all these details?

Print out your answers and your paragraph and bring the page to class.

Day 25

Writing in Augmented Space 1:
Analysis of "Alter Bahnhof"

Meet in MonH 208
W 3/23

Homework

The Myth of Orpheus

A key to Cardiff's and Miller's audio walk "Her Long Black Hair" is the myth of Orpheus. We might say that the Orpheus myth provides the skeleton of the walk, and Cardiff and Miller flesh that structure out with themes and details of their own.

Before you virtually take the walk (below), read Edith Hamilton's classic retelling of the Orpheus myth. As you take the walk, be on the lookout not only for references to Orpheus or music, but for verbal, visual, or spatial dichotomies of up/down, above/below, forward/backward, looking/not looking, recovery/loss, etc.

Make a list of possible references. For each, note Track number and, if possible, minute/second mark.

Remember the Big Question

During the walk, also be thinking about the Big Question we asked today in class: How do we make a place speak of the ideas and feelings we hope to evoke in an audience?

Take the Walk

Visit the archive web page for Cardiff's and Miller's Her Long Black Hair. There you will find links to all files needed for the walk. (Note that this page is similar to the web page I will ask you to create for your own project.)

Open

  • the first audio track,
  • the map, and
  • Photo 1

Open these in multiple tabs in your browser so you are able to simultaneously listen to the audio track as you look at the map or photograph (when directed).

In another tab or window, try to follow the route visually using the following Google Street Views of the walkways in Central Park:

Google Street Views for Walk

Make a Cluster

1. Make a cluster of the possible references to Orpheus or Orpheus-related dichotomies (above/below, etc.)

2. Add to your cluster themes or details that you notice from Cardiff's and Miller's non-Orpheus materials. How does the Orpheus material unify and give shape to those themes and details? Do those themes and details add up to any broader meanings or effects worth mentioning?

3. Finally, add special notations--perhaps with squares rather than circles around the items, or marked in some other distinct way--instances of techniques we might learn from to make a place speak as a medium of writing.

Day 26
Writing in Augmented Space 2:
"Her Long Dark Hair"

Meet in MonH 208

Resources
F 3/25

Homework

Write a Paragraph

Write an Exploratory/Focusing Paragraph to invent a possible topic for the WAS assignment.

Read "Juggling"

Read the handout "Juggling" and think about opportunities in your imagined WAS project (above) where you might be able to practice this technique.

Juggling gives us a verbal means of moving a reader from the here-and-now to something else (the past, the future, an idea, a line of thought.etc.)

 

Day 27
Writing in Augmented Space 3:
Exploratory/Focusing Paragraph, Juggling

Resources

  • Iowa 80 Walcott Tour (sample conventional tour)
  • Excerpt from Bob Dylan's acceptance speech at the 1998 Grammy Awards:
    "...And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."
  • Google Steet View: "Duluth National Guard Amory"
WEEK 11
 M 3/28
W 3/31
F 4/1

Homework

Preparing for Required Conference

Prepare for your conference either today (Monday), Wednesday OR Friday.

See the Moodle Wiki for one of these days to sign up.

Bring to your conference:

  1. An expanded revision of your exploratory/focusing paragraph
  2. A map of your place with locations and a route marked.
  3. A list of the locations with notes on each concerning details of the location and what topics, themes, memories, sources you want to attach to those details.

For an example of what you should prepare and bring to the conference, see the sample project description "Borne Ceaselessly"

An Important Note about Attendance

Since we are canceling three class meetings for one 20-minute conference, skipping this required conference will count as three absences. Please do not fail to sign up for a conference.

If you have an emergency that causes you to miss your conference, contact me as soon as you can to reschedule.

Days 28, 29, and 30:
No Class Meetings
Cancelled for Required Conferences



April

     
WEEK 12
 M 4/4

 

Class Canceled
W 4/6

Homework

Narrative Passage for at Least Two Locations

Write a "narative passage" for at least two locations of your walk. Do more if you have time.

A narrative passage is not your script--not yet--but is a descriptive speculation and rehearsal of what your script for that location would contain, and a possible order of presentation.

Think of this passage as a container where you combine and elaborate details from your exploratory paragraph, your sources, your observations of the location.

In each passage, attempt to combine and coordinate the following kinds of material:

  • Describe what your audience will do or see in the location.
  • Try writing some language that will be spoken by your narrator. In my sample below, I put this language in quotations.
  • If you're using quotations from sources, include those in quotation marks.
  • [Set in brackets any notes to yourself about decisions you have yet to make, problems to solve, or opportunities to think about].

Print out the passages and bring them to class.

Sample

See this sample "Narrative Passage for Location 1 of 'Borne Ceasslessly'"

Note that this sample passage may be longer than yours because it contains extensive quotations, which your project might not.

 

Day 31: Narrative Passages of 2 Locations (Workshop)

Reminder:
Script and Map Due Monday

The script and map for the Writing in Augmented Space Project is due at the beginning of class Monday.

F 4/8

Homework

Revision of the Narrative Passages for the First Two Locations

Based on the feedback you got in class last time and the development of your own ideas, revise your first two passages.

Narrative Passages for Remaining Locations

Write the narrative passages for the remaining locations of your Writing in Augmented Space project. Revise again your first two passages to make them work with the final ones.

 

Day 32: Narrative Passages of Locations
Final Script Format

Resources

 
WEEK 13
M 4/11

Writing in Augmented Space Script and Map Due Monday

1. Script and Map

Compose and print your script and map for the Writing in Augmented Space Project.

Treat this script as if you were turning it over to a crew of actors and technicians to be produced.

Be sure your script closely follows the format modeled in the handout: Writing in Augmented Space script format.

2. Narrative Passages of Locations

Turn in with your script and map a printout of your Narrative Passages of all locations.

I will not read these passages as finished products, but merely as supplemental notes on the imagined experience of the walk at a certain stage of your process.

In writing your script, feel free to deviate from the narratives of these passages as you see necessary.

 

Day 33: Audio Recording and Editing

Meet in LIB 118

Resources

Free, Copyright-Free Sound Content

 
W 4/13

Homework

Writing in Augmented Space

Work on recording the sound files and editing your web page for your Writing in Augmented Space Project.

Day 34: Writing in Augmented Space Web Site Prototype

Meet in LIB 118

When You Get to Class

  1. On a computer in our classroom, open Audacity and then open, from your USB drive, the Audacity sound file (.aup) that you created during our exercise last class meeting.
  2. Open Dreamweaver and import your "www.ste" file from your USB Drive. (To do this, choose Site > Manage Sites > Import Site, etc.)
    If you no longer have access that file, recreate your "www" site in Dreamweaver using this tutorial: "Setting Up a "www" Site in Dreamweaver and Using It to Upload Files and Folders."

Resources
F 4/15

Homework

Writing in Augmented Space

Work on recording the sound files and editing your web page for your Writing in Augmented Space Project.

Email Me About the Live Demo by Monday

See my email of Wednesday, April 13 for details about this contacting me regarding the live demo.

No Class Meeting

You May Attend the Motion + Media Conference
for Extra Credit

We will cancel our class meeting today to give you the (optional) opportunity to attend the Motion + Media Conference at UMD's MMAD Lab (24 Bohannon).

I will have give you extra credit for attending, but be sure I have seen you by saying hello or otherwise catching my eye.

For that extra credit, I will also ask you to be prepared on Monday to share something you saw or heard at the conference that might relate to the kinds of things we've done or talked about in New Media Writing this semester.

Registration is free but required. Use this form to register.

WEEK 14
M 4/18

Homework

Writing in Augmented Space

Work on recording the sound files and editing your web page for your Writing in Augmented Space Project.

Email Me About the Live Demo by Today

See my email of Wednesday, April 13 for details about this contacting me regarding the live demo.

Day 35: Audacity, Dreamweaver, Photoshop

Meet in LIB 118
W 4/20

Homework

Bring all materials needed to work on your Writing in Augmented Space audio files and/or web page.

 

Day 36: Studio Day, WAS Web Site and Recordings

 
R 4/21

Writing in Augmented Space Web Page and Audio Files Due by Noon

 

  
F 4/22

Homework

Bring to class your script both on paper and as a file on your USB drive.

Day 37: Augmented Space, Planning the Live Demo

Troubleshooting the Web Site, Audio Files

If you need to troubleshoot any aspect of your web site or audio files, insert your USB drive in your computer, open up the file(s) in the appropriate software.

In order to upload revised files to the web, you will need to

  1. Open Dreamweaver
  2. Import your "www" site settings (Choose Sites > Manage Sites, and then click "Import Site" and navigate to where you saved the settings file "www.ste")

Resources

 
WEEK 15
M 4/25/16

Homework

Sign Up for a Live Demo Time

Visit the course Moodle site, and open the Wiki "Live Demo Sign Up." Follow directions at the top of the Wiki.

Prepare for Your Live Demo

Re-read the portion of the assignment describing the live demo

Come and Support Your Classmates

Please remember that your attendance at all live demos is required for full credit on the live demo portion of the project (15% of the grade).

 

Day 38: Augmented Space Live Demos

[ Meet in MonH 208 ]

 

 
W 4/27/16

Homework

Prepare for Your Live Demo

Re-read the portion of the assignment describing the live demo

Come and Support Your Classmates

Please remember that your attendance at all live demos is required for full credit on the live demo portion of the project (15% of the grade).

 

Day 39: Augmented Space Live Demos

[ Meet in MonH 208 ]

 

 
F 4/29/16

Homework

Prepare for Your Live Demo

Re-read the portion of the assignment describing the live demo

Come and Support Your Classmates

Please remember that your attendance at all live demos is required for full credit on the live demo portion of the project (15% of the grade).

 

Augmented Space Live Demos

[ Meet in MonH 208 ]

 

 

May
     
FINALS WEEK
T 5/3		  

Online Final Exam
Tuesday 5/3
Start Times: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In a time window today between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., you will spend 2 hours writing responses to two of the three questions on the Final Exam.

To give yourself the entire two-hour period, you should start the exam no later than 3 p.m.

We will use the couse Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

You have a choice of when and where you write the Final Exam, but you will need to plan to complete it within one 2 hour block of time, which you complete no later than 5 p.m.

Directions for the Online Final Exam

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Final Exam."

You will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three questions.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.