Class-by-Class Schedule

Assignments are listed (as HW) on the day they are assigned, and are due at 9pm the night before[1] the following class meeting, unless otherwise specified. You should in general also have access to all your work in class, so we can discuss and/or revise. Possible methods include GitHub (recommended), Box (next best thing), Dropbox, or flash drive.

Contents:

Unit I: What Makes Digital Media New?

Lesson 1, Tuesday 8/27 – Introductions

HW for next time:

• Read syllabus and grading contract; return with questions or a signed contract.
• Read Madeline Sorapure’s interactive webtext, “Five Principles of New Media: or, Playing Lev Manovich”. After you’ve finished the Flash version, skim the pdf version.
• Watch Michael Wesch, “Information R/evolution”
• Respond to the Tech Comfort Survey if you haven’t done so in class
• Join GitHub if you haven’t yet, and post an introduction to yourself on the issue queue].

Lesson 2, Thursday 8/29 – What Can We Do With Digital?

HW for next time:

• Watch Git and GitHub for Poets, starting at least with the Introduction and going as far as your interest and time allow.
• Download any software you’ll need to use Git at the command line, possibly including Homebrew (on Mac) and GitBash (on Windows)
  • If you’re feeling intimidated by the command line, try out this Command Line Crash Course
• Optional Also download the GitHub Desktop application, available for MacOS or Windows.

Lesson 3, Tuesday 9/3 – Building a Repository

For next time:

• Listen to example sound narratives
• Write a short blog post: what do you notice? what do you wonder? Post this on the Issues page.
• Download the Audacity audio editor, or update to the latest version if you already have it.
• Optionally also download the separate FFmpeg import/export library

Unit II: Soundscapes and Soundwriting

Lesson 4, Thursday 9/5 – Sound, Space, and Audacity

For next time:

• Read Writer/Designer excerpt (scanned file)
• Read Stanford’s Fair Use overview (optional);
• Write a proposal for your sound narrative, including a prospective asset list (as per W/D); post to the Issues page.
• Skim the audio resources on the site, and read more deeply in anything that seems like it would help you.
• Begin recording the sounds you’ll need
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Lesson 5, Tuesday 9/10 – Hands On with Audacity

For next time:

• Fork the assignment repository on GitHub
• Work toward your soundscape narrative
• Push a soundscape preview, including
  • the layered Audacity file (.aup)
  • one screenshot of your work in progress (.png)
  • one exported playable sound file (.mp3)
  • a brief description of what you’ve included (.txt or .md)

Lesson 6, Thursday 9/12 – Sound criteria and stretch goals

For next time:

• Work to bring in a full draft of your soundscape narrative
• Continue taking screenshots and posting meaningful commits to GH
• Push a full draft, with the same four parts as the preview plus a SOURCES.md file crediting your sources and permissions/license to use them
• Bring headphones

Lesson 7, Tuesday 9/17 – Sound Workshop

For next time:

• Write a blog post of possible group projects for the end of term. What more might you want to explore?
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Lesson 8, Thursday 9/19 – Sound Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your soundscape narrative.
• By Tuesday’s class, write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your Audacity project.

Unit III: Visual Rhetorics and Argument

In this unit, you will make a claim through the juxtaposition of images and text. As with the sound project, the context for your argument is open: you could be making a social commentary, calling for action, constructing a parody, riffing on a pun, explaining a concept, and so on. Whatever you choose, you should consider your audience and what they would find persuasive or interesting, and how you therefore wish to attract and direct their attention.

Lesson 9, Tuesday 9/24 – Can You Picture It? Visual Rhetorics and Argument

For next time:

• Read a quick introduction to graphic design principles
• Find an example of a rhetorical visual design
• Write a blog post about your example, using the analytical language from the reading

Lesson 10, Thursday 9/26 – Intro to GIMP and Visual Design

For next time:

• Read about fonts, optionally playing a font-matching game

Lesson 11, Thursday 10/3 - Generating Visual Ideas

For next time:

• Write a visual rhetoric proposal, including a prospective asset list; post to the issue queue

Lesson 12, Tuesday 10/8 – Visual Unit Studio

For next time:

• Compose and push a visual rhetoric preview

Lesson 13, Thursday 10/10 – Visual Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

• Compose and push a visual rhetoric draft

Lesson 14, Tuesday 10/15 – Visual Unit Workshop

For next time:

• Write a blog post with more ideas toward weeks 12-13 (collaborative creative unit)
• Bring headphones

Lesson 15, Thursday 10/17 – Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your visual argument.
• By Tuesday’s class, write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your GIMP project.

Unit IV: Webslinging (HTML + CSS markup)

In this unit, you will build a multi-page website from scratch, beginning with html and css files.

Lesson 16, Tuesday 10/22 – Midterm Reflections and Intro to Markup

For next time:

• Do as much of the Interneting is Hard (but it doesn’t have to be) tutorial as you can – at least parts 1-4 (from “Introduction” through “Hello, CSS”)
• Show your work by pushing your tutorial code to a repository
• Bring headphones for sonic isolation during studio time

Lesson 17, Thursday 10/24 – Intro to Web Design and Generative Sketching

For next time:

• View/Read documentation on using GitHub Pages
• Do more of the tutorial, including at least The Box Model (5) and CSS Selectors (6), if you haven’t yet.
• Read more about how CSS selectors work
• Write a website proposal, including at least one hand-drawn design sketch, types of pages, and a prospective asset list. Post to the issue queue.

Lesson 18, Tuesday 10/29 – Web Unit Studio / Deployment

For next time:

• Do more of the tutorial, including at least Flexbox (8) and Responsive Design (10), if you haven’t yet.
• Compose and push a website preview: a beginning.

Lesson 19, Thursday 10/31 – Web Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

• Compose and push a full draft of your website project

Lesson 20, Tuesday 11/5 – Web Unit Workshop

Election Day

For next time:

• Read/View collaborative unit examples/intros (see detailed hw in lesson plan)
• Write one more blog post about what to do in weeks 12-13 (collaborative creative unit), which starts next week! Post this to the issue queue, as usual
• Bring headphones

Lesson 21, Thursday 11/7 – Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your portfolio website project.
• By Tuesday’s class write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress.

Unit V: Collaborative Composing

The deadlines and assignments here will vary… unless we all agree to just make interactive stories in Twine, in which case I’ll follow a similar deadline pattern to the previous three units.

Lesson 22, Tuesday 11/12 – Intro to Final Unit: Charting a Course Forward

For next time:

Lesson 23, Thursday 11/14 – Grouping Up and Setting Out

For next time:

• Make shared repository (GH, Box, or Drive), task list.
• Push a collaborative project preview (get something started)

Lesson 24, Tuesday 11/19 – Studio / Minilessons / TBD

For next time:

• Keep documenting your progress with screenshots, commit messages, and/or reflective notes

Lesson 25, Thursday 11/21 – Studio / Minilessons / TBD

For next time:

• Keep documenting your progress with screenshots, commit messages, and/or reflective notes

Unit VI: Reflection and Revision

Lesson 26, Tuesday 12/3 – Looking Backward to Look Forward (plus Studio time)

For next time:

• Read Paul Ford’s “Letter of Recommendation: Bug Fixes” from The New York Times Magazine (June 11, 2019).
• Ford writes, “I read the change logs, and I think: Humans can do things.” Read back through your own change logs, i.e. the commit histories of your projects; skim through the lesson plans. What things have you done this semester?
• Choose something from the course that you want to remember beyond this semester: a thing you or someone else made, or said, that struck a chord with you. We’ll briefly share these next time.

Lesson 27, Thursday 12/5 – Parting Gifts; in-class writing and revising time

Last day of class!

For next time:

• Work to complete your final portfolio