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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.

Follow the links to individual class days for more information, including class notes and more complete homework instructions. NB: This schedule is subject to revision based on our needs.

Contents:

Unit I What Makes Digital Media New? (weeks 1-2)
Unit II Soundscapes and Soundwriting (weeks 2-5)
Unit III Visual Rhetorics and Argument (weeks 5-8)
Unit IV Webslinging with Markup (weeks 8-11)
Unit V Putting it Together (weeks 11-13)

Unit I: What Makes Digital Media New?

Lesson 1, Thursday 8/20 – Introductions

HW for next time:

Lesson 2, Tuesday 8/25 – 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.
  • Practice following the steps in the video
  • Download any software you’ll need to use Git at the command line, possibly including Homebrew (on Mac) and GitBash (on Windows)
  • Optional but highly recommended: Also download the GitHub Desktop application, available for MacOS or Windows.

Lesson 3, Thursday 8/27 – 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 if you haven’t yet, 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, Tuesday 9/1 – Audacity; Sound On, Sound Off

For next time:

  • Read and listen to the audio recording advice (Fowkes and MacAdam) if you haven’t yet
  • Skim the audio resources on the site, and read more deeply in anything that seems like it would help you.
  • Listen and record your local soundscape
  • Bring headphones so you can work in class

Lesson 5, Thursday 9/3 – Sound, Space, Generative Writing

For next time:

  • Read the excerpt from Writer/Designer on assets and fair use, if you haven’t yet, plus (optionally) Stanford’s Fair Use overview
  • Write a proposal for your sound narrative, including a prospective asset list (as per W/D); post to the Issues page.
  • Begin recording the sounds you’ll need

Lesson 6, Tuesday 9/8 – Sound Ethics, Sound Studio

For next time:

  • 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 7, Thursday 9/10 – 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 8, Tuesday 9/15 – Sound Workshop

For next time:

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

Lesson 9, Thursday 9/17 – Sound Studio

For next time:

  • By 11:59pm on Sunday, aim to complete – at least for now – your soundscape narrative.
  • By Tuesday’s classtime, 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 10, Tuesday 9/22 – 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 11, Thursday 9/24 – Generating Visual Ideas

For next time:

Lesson 12, Tuesday 9/29 – Visual Unit Studio

For next time:

  • Read about fonts, optionally playing a font-matching game
  • Compose and push a visual rhetoric preview

Lesson 13, Thursday 10/1 – Visual Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

  • Compose and push a visual rhetoric draft

Lesson 14, Tuesday 10/6 – Visual Unit Workshop

For next time:

  • Write a blog post with more ideas toward the final / integrative project unit. What further possibilities might you want to explore?
  • Bring headphones for sonic isolation, if you’d like

Lesson 15, Thursday 10/8 – 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.

Lesson 16, Tuesday 10/13 – Midterm Reflections

For next time:

  • NO HOMEWORK: Take care of yourselves! Rest and recharge!

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 17, Thursday 10/15 – Intro to Markup and Web Design

For next time:

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

Lesson 18, Tuesday 10/20 – Generative Studio

  • Do more of the HTML and CSS 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, a prospective asset list, and a link to your repo. Post to the issue queue.

Lesson 19, Thursday 10/22 – 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.
  • Separately, also read about Grid Layout (and optionally the followup post on responsive grid).
  • As a reminder, you should do the exercises in the tutorials and push them to your repository – possibly in a subfolder.
  • A preview isn’t due for another week, but you’re welcome to begin assembling your website before then if you have ideas. That’ll just give you more time to debug and refine!

Lesson 20, Tuesday 10/27 – Web Unit Studio / Layout Q & A

For next time:

  • Compose and push a website preview: a beginning of your own site.
    • A full draft of your website project is due in one week, when we’ll have workshop.
  • Finish the tutorial, if you haven’t yet – or revisit the sections that are still confusing. I especially encourage you to look at sections 12 (Semantic HTML) and 14 (Web Typography), and if you’re having trouble with positioning even after working through Flexbox (section 8) and Grid (on Medium), try section 9 (Advanced Positioning).
    • Email me with any questions, noting that I can help fastest if you include a screenshot and a link. Better yet, create a New Issue! Then my answer to you can help others, too.

Lesson 21, Thursday 10/29 – Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

  • Compose and push a full draft of your website project no later than Tuesday morning (let’s say 10am Eastern).
  • When it’s ready, to test that it’s fully on GitHub, clone it again to a new location on your computer: if you can successfully open your pages in a local browser from that second location, you should be good to get feedback even from an asynchronous workshop. (And you should then also be good to delete that extra copy, before you get confused as to where you’re pushing from.)

Lesson 22, Tuesday 11/3 – Web Unit Workshop

UPDATE: To give everyone the flexibility to go to the polls, this will be a fully asynchronous workshop. See lesson plan for details.

For next time:

  • Write one more blog post about what you’d like to do in our final / integrative unit. If you’re interested in finding people to collaborate with, this is a good time to make a pitch.
  • Continue to save and push toward your final-for-now website.

  • If you’re workshopping asynchronously, be sure to finish leaving your comments by Thursday, so your partners have time to revise.

  • By 11:59pm next Sunday (11/8), complete – at least for now – your website project.
  • By next Tuesday’s class, write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress.

Lesson 23, Thursday 11/5 – Studio

For next time:

  • By Sunday, aim to complete – at least for now – your website project. That’ll give you more time to reflect.
  • By Tuesday, write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress.

Unit V: Putting it Together (Bit by Bit)*

In this final unit I’ll ask you to build on what you’ve already made: a revision, an extension, or a combination, of the modes and media you used in earlier units. If you have a team that can collaborate effectively via online formats (via Zoom, Discord, Slack, what-have-you), that’s up to you! Please do let me know if you want to be in a break-out group together during class.

Lesson 24, Tuesday 11/10 – Intro to Consolidation / Integration Unit: Charting a Course Forward

For next time:

  • Preparing for the final portfolio:
    • Read Paul Ford’s “Letter of Recommendation: Bug Fixes” from The New York Times Magazine (June 11, 2019). (Pitt Library link)
    • 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.
  • Preparing one final project or revision:
    • Make a new repository* (GH, Box, or Drive) containing a task list for your project – along with proposed roles for your team members, if you have a team of more than one.
      • * If you’re updating an existing project, I recommend doing this in a new branch of the old repository, instead.
      • Post a link to this repository on the Issue Queue.
      • Decide (together, if applicable) what would constitute a minimum deliverable project, and what series of stretch goals you’ll try for beyond that minimum. Push these updated goals to the repo.

Lesson 25, Thursday 11/12 – Intro to Final Portfolio, Consolidation Unit Studio

For next time:

  • Push a project preview (i.e. get something started) to your repository.
  • Continue updating and following your work plan.
  • Document your progress as you go! Screenshot, save, commit (or otherwise log changes), push.

Lesson 26, Tuesday 11/17 – Consolidation Unit Criteria (But Mostly Studio)

For next time:

  • Set yourself some deadlines: what are you trying to finish by the last class (in two days!)? Will you continue beyond that for Sunday, knowing the final portfolio is due soon?
  • Push a full-as-possible draft of consolidation project

Lesson 27, Thursday 11/19 – Last day of class! Looking back and looking forward

For next time:

  • Finish consolidation project by Sunday, if you haven’t yet
  • Work to complete your final portfolio (due in our final exam slot, which we now know is Monday, November 30th – the first Monday after Thanksgiving – at 2pm)