Class-by-Class Schedule

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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), Pitt’s OneDrive instance (next best thing), an external service like Dropbox, or flash drive.

Contents:

Unit I: What Makes Digital Media New?

Lesson 1, Tuesday 1/10 – Introductions

HW for next time:

• Surveys and sharing:
  • Complete two short modules on Canvas, about self- and community-care and the grading contract. This includes a short “quiz” (should take just a minute or two) and a chance to propose changes or adopt the contract.
  • Read the rest of the syllabus.
  • Respond to the Tech Comfort Survey if you haven’t yet done so.
• Written introduction to the people in the class:
  • Join GitHub if you haven’t yet (you can use your Pitt email to get free private repositories!),
  • and post an introduction to yourself on the issue queue.
• Prep software for next class:
  • Download and install the GitHub Desktop application
  • If you don’t already have one, please download and install a plain text editor with syntax highlighting. If you don’t have a preference, try Microsoft’s VS Code, which runs on PC, Mac, and Linux. (Chromebook users might try Caret.)
    • Especially if you don’t know what “syntax highlighting” is, I recommend this 7-minute intro to VS Code.

Lesson 2, Thursday 1/12 – Interfaces and Repositories

HW for next time:

• Read / play through Tyler Su’s “Playing Lev Manovich”. Be ready to talk about what you noticed, and what you wondered.
• Listen to example audio narratives (see lesson plan for links)
• Write a short blog post: what do you notice? what do you wonder? Post this on the Issues page.
• EXT for eager readers: interested in more on affordances? Try this short chapter from Keywords in Design Thinking.

Lesson 3, Tuesday 1/17 – Digital Affordances

For next time:

• Download the Audacity 3 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
• Watch the recommended Audacity 3 tutorial and come in ready to play with the software (and ask any questions that come up)
• Read the excerpt from Writer/Designer on assets and fair use, plus (optionally) a webcomic on Creative Commons. [NB: this was moved up, so it’s okay if you don’t get to it until the weekend]

Unit II: Soundscapes and Soundwriting

Lesson 4, Thursday 1/19 – Audacity; Sound On, Sound Off

For next time:

• Read and listen to the audio recording advice (Fowkes and MacAdam) if you haven’t yet
• Write a proposal for your audio narrative, including a prospective asset list (as per W/D); post to the Issues page.
• Begin sourcing the sounds you’ll need
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Lesson 5, Tuesday 1/24 – Recording, Ethics, Studio

For next time:

• Skim the audio resources on the site, and read more deeply in anything that seems like it would help you.
  • In particular, I recommend the LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) series of videos on Audacity. It’s about 2 hours total, but I’ve marked my highlights.
• Push a soundscape preview, including
  • the layered Audacity file (.aup3)
  • 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 1/26 –  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 1/31 – Sound Workshop

For next time:

• Keep working toward your soundscape narrative, incorporating feedback from partners.
• If you haven’t finished giving feedback, please do so asap, and ideally before Thursday morning.
• Optionally, 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 8, Thursday 2/2 – 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 9, Tuesday 2/7 – 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 post on the relevant issue queue about your example, using the analytical language from the reading

Lesson 10, Thursday 2/9 – Generating Visual Ideas

For next time:

• Skim the visual media resources on the course site, and read/watch more deeply in anything that seems like it would help you.
• In particular, I highly recommend the LinkedIn Learning series of videos on “GIMP Essential Training.” It’s about 5 hours of material, which I’m not expecting you to view all of in one weekend (though you do you): as before, I’ve marked some highlights and starting points. I’ve been using GIMP for years, and I confess I learned some things even from the basic tool options videos. Note that there are exercise files, should you want to follow along and make sure it works in practice.
  • If you’ve been having trouble with LinkedIn Learning, try this LIL link, which routes through MyPitt. I also am happy to troubleshoot with you during office hours!
• Write a visual argument proposal, including a prospective asset list and a rough sketch; post to the issue queue
• Bring headphones for sonic isolation, if you’d like

Lesson 11, Tuesday 2/14 – Generative Studio

For next time:

• Compose and push a visual rhetoric preview; workshop-ready draft due in one week.
• (Weekend reading, should you want it / have more time now: Read about fonts, optionally playing a font-matching game)

Lesson 12, Thursday 2/16 – Visual Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

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

Lesson 13, Tuesday 2/21 – Visual Unit Workshop

For next time:

• Optionally, write a post on the issue queue 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 14, Thursday 2/23 – Revision Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your visual argument
• By classtime on Tuesday, post a prose reflection to the issue queue 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 15, Tuesday 2/28 – Midterm Reflections and Generative Writing

For next time:

• Review sample student website projects
• Consider the collections of work you might want to gather
• 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 16, Thursday 3/2 – Intro to Markup and Web Design

For next time:

• Optional If you haven’t yet, spend some time getting to know your plain-text editor.
  • Can it show two or more files side by side? Can it preview how an html file will render? Does it allow plugins or extensions to enable either of those things?
  • If you’re using VSCode, you may want to check out some intro tutorials. I also recommend this list of HTML-specific features and optional settings.
• Do as much of the Interneting is Hard (but it doesn’t have to be) tutorial as you have time for – but at least parts 1-4 (from “Introduction” through “Hello, CSS”).
  • Heads up to fast workers: Float layouts used to be a big deal, but aren’t as widely recommended any more. You can probably skip the Float chapter, at least for now.
• Show your work by pushing your tutorial code to your project repository.
  • Do start by copying the pages as written, before attempting to adapt to your own work: confirm that you can get them to look the same as in the tutorial.
  • If your pages aren’t working the same as in the tutorial, please do check with me! I’ll set aside some breakout group time when we get back, but feel free to email or use the issue queue in the meantime: see if your question’s been answered, and if not, post a new issue, because you’re probably not alone.

Lesson 17, Tuesday 3/14 – Studio / Stylesheeting

• 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 OR if you prefer game-based learning to straight-up reading, try loading and clearing plates at the CSS Diner. (There’s still reading, in the sidebar, which tells you how to win the round.)

Lesson 18, Thursday 3/16 – Studio / Navigation

For next time:

• View video on 5 simple tips to making responsive layouts the easy way
• Do more of the tutorial, including at least Flexbox (8) and Responsive Design (10), if you haven’t yet.
  • As a reminder, you should write out the exercises in the tutorials and push them to your repository – probably in the tutorials subfolder. Once you have them working as presented, feel free to update them to test out ideas for your own site! But do try to confirm you can get them working first. HTML, like all code, is fiddly: punctuation (including spaces) matters for things like close-tags and CSS selectors.
• Separately, also read about Grid Layout (and optionally the followup post on responsive grid).
  • EXT: Want more CSS Grid templates and examples, including CodePens to play with? Try Grid By Example, which also has video tutorials.
• Compose and push a first website preview: a beginning, focused on content and navigation.

Lesson 19, Tuesday 3/21 – Web Unit Studio / Layout Q & A

For next time:

• Continue the HTML & CSS tutorial, adding at least Semantic HTML (12) and Web Typography (14). If you’re encountering weird layout intransigence, you may also want to try Advanced Positioning (9).
  • Remember that the main tools for layout now in use are Grid and Flex; you can probably skip the chapter on Float except for particular use-cases (e.g. text that wraps around an image).
  • Email me with any questions, noting that I can help fastest if you include screenshots and links to your site/repo. Better yet, create a New Issue! Then my answer to you can help others, too.
• Compose and push a second website preview, now adding or updating layout. A full, workshop-ready draft of your website project is due in one week.

Lesson 20, Thursday 3/23 – Web Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals / Studio

For next time:

• Compose and push a full draft of your website project by Tuesday morning, let’s say 11:59am.
  • If you’re doing something advanced (Jekyll, React, etc) that will require a server and not just a browser, be sure to explain in your repo’s README.md file how to load your files.
  • If you haven’t already done so in class, test that your website portfolio is ready for your workshop partners to download: try to 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.
    • (You should then also delete that extra copy, before you get confused as to where you’re revising and pushing from.)

Lesson 21, Tuesday 3/28 – Web Unit Workshop

For next time:

• Optionally, 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.
  • Post this to the issue queue, as usual
• Continue to save, commit, and push toward your final-for-now website.
• If you didn’t get feedback, please let me know asap!

Lesson 22, Thursday 3/30 – Post-workshop Studio

Planning ahead:

• The website project and prose reflection will be due by next Friday (4/7), incorporating (as usual) images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress. If you’ll need an extension, please confirm it by Tuesday (4/4).

Lesson 23, Tuesday 4/4 – Final Web-Unit Studio on Zoom (access with password and Zoom link in Canvas: see blue box up top)

For next time:

• Unless you’ve confirmed an extension with me, the final (at least or now) website project will be due by Friday (4/7), along with your prose reflection incorporating (as usual) images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress.

Thursday, 4/6 – no class

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, that’s up to you! Please do let me know if you want to be in a break-out group together during any remaining online classes. It’s a short sprint to the end of term, so scope your ambitions accordingly!

Lesson 24, Tuesday 4/11 – Intro to Consolidation / Integration Unit: Charting a Course Forward

For next time:

• Preparing for the final portfolio:
  • Read Paul Ford’s short “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; maybe even review your studio goals and exit notes. What things have you done this semester?
• Preparing one final project or revision:
  • Work through the questions in the EXT, if you didn’t yet, to develop an informal project pitch you can post to the shared google doc.

Lesson 25, Thursday 4/13 – Consolidation Unit Pitch Market and Studio

For next time:

• Set yourself some deadlines: what are you trying to finish by the last class (in one week!)? Will you continue beyond that, knowing the final portfolio is due soon?
• Push a project preview (i.e. get something started) to your repository.
• Document your progress as you go! Screenshot, save, commit (or otherwise log changes), push, repeat.
• Continue updating and following your work plan.

Lesson 26, Tuesday 4/18 – Consolidation Unit Studio / Preparing the Final Reflective Letter

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?
• Continue updating and following your work plan.
• Push a project update (i.e. maybe not a finished draft, but closer) to your repository.
• Document your progress as you go! Screenshot, save, commit (or otherwise log changes), push, repeat.
• Optional: 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 share these in the last class.

Lesson 27, Thursday 4/20 – 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, which we now know is due Tuesday, April 25th (our final exam slot)

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