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Preparation Before Class

What We Will Do in Class

T Aug 25

Bring your

  • Energy

  • Excitement

  • Creativity

  • Commitment

  • Curiosity

  • Critical  thinking, reading, and writing skills

Introduction and overview  of class and goals

Review  Technology Autobiography assignment and  Syllabus Response  assignment.

Establish birdnest account and make sure e-mail is working; subscribe to the  listserv from the e-mail address of your choice. Design, set up, and  subscribe to the Ning class social network.

Wish The Wizard of Oz a happy 70th birthday. 

T Sept 1

Christine Rosen, " People of the Screen," The New Atlantis Fall  2008)
Nicholas Carr,
"Is  Google Making Us Stupid," The Atlantic (July/August  2008)
James Bowman,
"Is Stupid Making Us Google?" The New Atlantis (Summer 2008)
Pew Educational Trust,
"Writing, Technology, and Teens" (2008)
Bronwyn Williams, "Tomorrow  will not be like today: Literacy and identity in a world of  multiliteracies,"
J. Adolescent & Adult Literacy 51.8 (2008) (Academic  Search Premier)
Kouider Mokhtari et al., "Assessing the New Literacies  of Online Reading Comprehension...," The Reading Teacher  62.4 (2008): 354-57. (Academic Search Premier)
Anne Mangen,
"Hypertext fiction reading: haptics and immersion," J. Research in Reading 31.4 (2008): 404-419.

Discuss the evolving rhetorical  principles of new media.

Discuss
syllabus response assignment.
Preview
rhetorical analysis assignment.
Ensure that everyone has set  up a
http://www.birdnest.org/  account to be operative by next week.

T Sept  8

Lynch & Horton, introduction & chs. 1-4
Review and reflect on (but  for heaven's sakes, don't print out) William Power's essay
"
Hamlet's Blackberry," Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics  and Public Policy Discussion Paper #39, John F. Kennedy School of Government,  Harvard University (2007).

From print to pixel: Moving from paper to  electronic texts
Discuss
technology autobiographies (blog entries should be posted by the  evening of Sept. 7 so that people have time to look at them. Feel free to  comment online).

T Sept 15

Finish Lynch and Horton.
Read:

Bring list of potential websites for the rhetorical analysis to class.

Discuss the affordances of digital vs. print presentation for different kinds of texts and readers. Focus will be on how readers read a page, what they are looking for/expect, and what the creator/designer of the text may want to do to react to the readers' desires. Think about the rhetorical impact of layout, font, arrangement, illustration, etc.

Think about the five canons of rhetoric and how web design relates to them.

Choose five of the potential websites that will be the subject of the rhetorical analysis assignment.

Discuss
creating and evaluating web pages.

T Sept 22

Link to your rhetorical analysis should be posted by noon.

Read Jakob Neilsen's seminal article, "How Users Read on the Web," http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html.

Readings on usability:

 

Discuss rhetorical analyses and emerging sense of expectations for online rhetorical presentation.

Continue consideration of rhetorical affordances of new media vs. traditional media.

Usability: revising for the  reader.

Expression web practice time.
T Sept 29 Work on afffordances/website design experiments.
Discuss copyright and new media.
We will visit
visit IUPUI's Copyright Management Center (http://www.indiana.edu/~tltc/fair_use.html), the Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org/.  One EFF section to look at closely is the one on "Teaching Copyright."

Professor Justin Brown (MCOM), an authority on electronic copyright, will join us in the Ning chat room about 8 PM. Make sure you have at least three questions prepared to ask him!

I want to talk about Google Sidewiki as a tool for commenting on the web pages you're designing; it would require that you install the Google toolbar and have a G-mail account, and I don't know if we can install it in the labs.
T Oct  6

Social Networking:

Discuss afffordances/website design experiments. Make sure you post your links to the Ning site in time for people to surf your redesigned pages before class meets!

Discuss social media and identity. We may look at some reports updating what you've read for tonight, including this one: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adults-and-Social-Network-Websites.aspx, tthis one http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/printer_friendly.cfm?articleid=2262,  and http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2007/Teens-Privacy-and-Online-Social-Networks.aspx.

Discuss social media short assignment.
T Oct 13

Adaptive Design:

Koster et al., "Wrenching Things Awry: From 'Explication de texte' to Cybertext in the  College Literature Classroom," J. Ubiquitous  Learning 1.3 (2009): 1-6.
Adaptive design issues. Guest speaker Gena Smith will join us for the last 45 minutes of class.

Discuss rhetorical principles of non-print  texts, including podcasts, videos, and Photostories.

Discuss scholarship possibilities.

Fill out midterm self-assessment to be turned in on October 27.

T Oct  20

Fall Break! Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.   

T Oct  27

Post analysis of social media site  by Monday October 26 so  people can surf it before class. I just found this article by Christophor Rick that you might want to look at: "Social Media--Sharing, Theft and the Fine Line," at http://www.reelseo.com/social-media-sharing-theft/. Something to think about. Midterm self-assessment due. E-mail the Word document as an attachment to Dr. K before class begins.
Discuss analysis of persona in social media.
Continue discussion  of rhetorical principles of nonprint texts. Mostly will be a Geeking  day to play with programs in the lab.
Sign up for conferences.
T Nov 3 No outside reading assignments for this week. Get caught up on everything you've skipped, skimped, or missed. Prepare for your conference. No class;  Dr. K has to be off campus. Post your audio or video assignment and discuss on the Ning site. I'll expect to see a substantive discussion in which everyone participates once you've looked at your classmates' postings. We will have individual conferences this week to discuss your work so far, your midterm assessments, and your plans for your portfolios; also, an opportunity to discuss potential abstracts for papers.

T Nov  10

Read The  9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.
Read Eisner, introduction and chs. 1-5; Pauline Uchmanowicz, "The Graphic Novel Decoded: Towards a Poetics of Comics."

Discuss graphic representations of  non-fiction texts. Preview graphic text analysis assignment and  creative/critical essay assignment.

 T Nov 17

Read Watchmen.
Finish Eisner.
Read Jamie Hughes,
"'Who Watches the Watchmen?': Ideology and 'Real-World'  Superheroes," J Popular Culture 39 (2006): 546-57 and Dubose, "Waiting for a Hero."
Discuss graphic novels as literary and  rhetorical form.  A good resource that was suggested by a friend and comics fan is The Annotated Watchmen, http://www.capnwacky.com/rj/watchmen/chapter1.html.

T Nov  24

Kai Mikkonen,  "Presenting Minds in Graphic Narratives," Partial Answers 6.2  (2008): 301-321. Continue discussing Watchmen and work more with ExpressionWeb. Continue discussion of graphic novels.  Graphic text analysis assignment due. Preparation for final exam.

W Nov  25

Enjoy Thanksgiving!

 turkey  links

T Dec  1

For future thought: Janet  Murray, "Interactive Design: A Profession in Search of  Professional Education" and "Humanistic Approaches for Digital Media Studies". Please read Jose Antonio Vargas' "Anatomy (and Meaning) of the 'Did You Know' Video Series", Huffington Post 11/24/09, and watch the "Did You Know" video (links in the Vargas article) before class. Good blog material.

Guess what's coming to class? Here's a hint.... Bring milk.

Creative/critical assignment posted.

List of comments posted as a blog entry.

M Dec 7

Last Day of Classes

I will be available on study day and sporadically throughout the  exam period for conferences and consultations. I will work out a  schedule to meet each of you to review your portfolios and assign the grade for  that portion of your final grade.

T Dec  8

Study Day. Portfolio must be  complete and its publication announced on the Ning site by 5 pm. Absolutely the last date to get me the list of your blog postings.

 

 F Dec 11
6:30 PM
KINARD 216

 

Final exam: Oral presentations (10 mins for undergraduates, 15 minutes for  graduates) on your portfolios. I will be inviting some visitors to this session,  so be prepared to do an excellent job.