Class-by-Class Schedule

Assignments are listed (as HW) on the day they are assigned, and are due at 10pm 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 / default), Pitt’s OneDrive instance (next best thing), an external service like Dropbox, or flash drive.

Contents:

Unit I: Digital Media Stacks

In this unit, we’ll introduce affordances and iteration as recurring ways to think about digital products and processes – both those we encounter and those we create.

Wednesday, Jan 8 – Lesson 1 – Introductions

HW for next time includes lots of little things:

• 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 – or read through the course website, which contains the same information in a different format.
  • 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 either the open source Pulsar Editor or Microsoft’s VS Code or, which runs on PC, Mac, and Linux. (Chromebook users might try Caret, though note that Chromebooks might have trouble with some of the multimedia editing software coming up; talk to me about options if this is your main device.)
    • Especially if you don’t know what “syntax highlighting” is, I recommend this 7-minute intro to VS Code.

Monday, Jan 13 – Lesson 2 – Interfaces and Repositories

HW for next time:

• Read and watch two versions of “Five Principles of New Media: Or, Playing Lev Manovich,” by Madeleine Sorapure: a text-only version and a video recording of the original Flash site (now defunct); run time is 22:24 at 1x speed.

• Write a short blog post: What do you notice? What do you wonder? What can and can’t text do in this context? Post this on the appropriate Issues thread.

• EXT for eager readers: interested in more on affordances? Try this short chapter from Keywords in Design Thinking.

Wednesday, Jan 15 – Lesson 3 – Digital Affordances

For next time, some intellectual stimulation…

• Listen to example audio narratives (see lesson plan for links)
• Read the excerpt from Writer/Designer on assets and fair use, plus (optionally) a webcomic on Creative Commons.
• Write a short blog post: what do you notice? what do you wonder? Post this on the Issues page.

… and some nuts-and-bolts preparation:

• Download the Audacity 3.7 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, which may help if you’re using your phone to record audio
• Watch Audacity Basics: Recording, Editing, Mixing by Kyle Stedman (run time 18:20 at 1x speed) and come in ready to play with the software – and ask any questions that come up

Monday, Jan 20 – no class (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day)

Unit II: Soundscapes and Soundwriting

In this unit, you’ll arrange layers of sound to project a sense of place, and of things happening in that place. The genre of the narrative is open: it could be documentary, fictional, even science-fictional. (The title you choose will help steer listeners’ expectations, and thus their perceptions.)

Wednesday, Jan 22 – Lesson 4 – Audacity; Sound On, Sound Off

For next time:

• Read and listen to the audio recording advice (Fowkes and MacAdam; see lesson plan)
• Review the piece on fair use and open licensing from last week if you need a refresher.
• 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

Monday, Jan 27 – Lesson 5 – 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.
  • Audacity itself has a ton of documentation on their site: see support.audacityteam.org/.
  • Search is also good! It’s how I find these things, after all. But remember that a Large Language Model like ChatGPT or Gemini’s AI Overview is not, in itself, a search; it’s attempting to recreate and consolidate language it’s found elsewhere. Look for the sources so you can see more clearly how to adapt advice from their context to your own.
• Push a audio narrative preview including
  • the layered Audacity file (.aup3), named for reusability throughout your project (i.e. don’t call it “preview”)
  • at least one screenshot of your work in progress (.png)
  • one exported playable sound file (.mp3)
  • a brief description of what you’ve included, as part of your README.md file.

Wednesday, Jan 29 – Lesson 6 – Sound Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

• Work toward the baseline criteria for your audio narrative
• Continue taking screenshots and posting meaningful commits to GH
• Push a full draft, with the same four parts as the preview plus a file crediting your sources and permissions/license to use them. This can be part of the README or a separate file (e.g. sources.md) that your README will ideally link to.
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Monday, Feb 3 – Lesson 7 – Sound Workshop

For next time:

• Continue to save, commit, and push toward your project, incorporating feedback from partners.
  • If you didn’t get feedback, please let me know asap!
  • If you haven’t finished giving feedback, please do so asap, and no later than noon on Wednesday for full credit.
• Optionally, write a blog post of possible integrative projects for the final unit of the class. What more might you want to explore? Or what do you know you won’t have time for now, but maybe could look into and build toward by the end of the term?
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Wednesday, Feb 5 – Lesson 8 – Sound Studio

For next time:

• By 10:00pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your audio narrative.
• By noon on Monday, post a prose reflection to the issue queue that incorporates screenshots of your feedback and of your Audacity project as it developed.
  • Annotations on these screenshots are optional but I’ve found them helpful in the past, and you might, too.

Unit III: Visual Rhetorics and Argument

In this unit, you will make a rhetorical intervention (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, interesting, or memorable, and how you therefore wish to attract and direct their attention.

Monday, Feb 10 – Lesson 9 – Can You Picture It? Generating Visual Ideas

For next time, some software…

• If you haven’t already, download and install GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program
• Watch Learn GIMP in 20 Minutes from Chris’ Tutorials.

… and some food for thought…

• Read An exercise in frustration by Janelle Shane (from her blog, AI Weirdness; Medium calls it a 6-minute read)
  • Also read the Facebook post Shane links to in her opening line

… ending with some digital textual composing:

• Write a short blog post, about either the reading or the video. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Post this on the Issues page.
  • optional: If you’re one of the first five to post, I encourage you to pose questions for your classmates; if you’re not, I encourage you to respond to them.

Wednesday, Feb 12 – Lesson 10 – Generative Studio

For next time:

• Read the following articles, each from a series on design principles in Smashing Magazine:
  • Improve Your Designs With The Principles Of Similarity And Proximity (Part 1), by Jon Hensley
  • Improve Your Designs With The Principles Of Closure And Figure-Ground (Part 2), by Jon Hensley
  • Design Principles: Compositional, Symmetrical And Asymmetrical Balance, by Steven Bradley
  • Design Principles: Dominance, Focal Points And Hierarchy, by Steven Bradley
• Write a visual argument proposal, including a prospective asset list and a photo of a rough sketch; see lesson plan for more. Post to the issue queue

Monday, Feb 17 – Lesson 11 – Visual Rhetorics and Argument

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.
  • optional: This weekend’s assigned reading, should you want it / have more time now, is about fonts: groups, pairings, hierarchies, etc
• Compose and push a visual argument preview; get it started, see how it feels to work with these tools/materials. A workshop-ready draft due in one week.

Wednesday, Feb 19 – Lesson 12 – Visual Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

• Read about fonts: groups, pairings, hierarchies, etc
• Work toward baseline criteria for your visual argument / rhetorical collage
• Compose and push a workshop-ready full draft

Monday, Feb 24 – Lesson 13 – Visual Unit Workshop

For next time:

• Continue to save, commit, and push toward your project, incorporating feedback from partners.
  • If you didn’t get feedback, please let me know asap!
  • If you haven’t finished giving feedback, please do so asap, and no later than noon on Wednesday for full credit.
• 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? Or what do you know you won’t have time for now, but maybe could look into and build toward by the end of the term?
• Bring headphones for sonic isolation, if you’d like

Wednesday, Feb 26 – Lesson 14 – Revision Studio

For next time:

• By 10:00pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your visual argument.
• By noon on Monday, post a prose reflection to the issue queue that incorporates screenshots of your feedback and of your project workspace as it developed.
  • Annotations on these screenshots are optional but I’ve found them helpful in the past, and you might, too.
• 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.

Unit IV: Webslinging (HTML + CSS markup)

In this unit, you will build a multi-page website from scratch, beginning with html, css, and images, to explore the affordances of the web design stack as a medium, and especially its ability to flexibly render content for multiple audiences or reading priorities.

Monday, Mar 10 – Lesson 15 – 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.

Wednesday, Mar 12 – Lesson 16 – Intro to Markup and Web Design

For next time:

• Sign up for Kevin Powell’s HTML & CSS for absolute beginners. It requires a free login, but that’s mainly to help save your progress; you shouldn’t get any spam emails.
• Work through the first three modules. Note that you should be able to either read the text or watch the videos: they mostly repeat each other’s content. Use whichever suits your preferences!
  • The quick introduction to the course
  • Module 2, on HTML
  • Module 3, on CSS
• Show your work by building out the model website he guides you through, pushing your tutorial code to the tutorials folder of your project repository.
  • NB: 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 next class, 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.

Monday, Mar 17 – Lesson 17 – Studio / Stylesheeting

• Work through more of the HTML & CSS tutorial:
  • Module 4: The box model
  • Module 5: Selectors, Specificity, and more styling
• Optional EXT: Want to get deeper?
  • See if the old tutorial’s page on Web Typography is up and running
    • Remember your resources on fonts from the previous unit? They can help you here, too!
  • Read more about how CSS selectors work
  • Try loading and clearing plates at the CSS Diner.

Wednesday, Mar 19 – Lesson 18 – Studio / Navigation

For next time:

• View Kevin Powell’s video on 5 simple tips to making responsive layouts the easy way (runtime: 15:53 at 1x speed)
  • The key sections are The right mindset and Start with global styling, but the rest will help you start next week in the right headspace!
  • Also catch up on any tutorial chapters you’ve missed so far. For Interneting is Hard users, that should include the chapter on Semantic HTML.
• Compose and push a first draft of your website: a beginning, focused on html content and mobile (i.e. minimal) design.
• Recommended EXT: Read Getting Started with the Google Fonts API and recall your knowledge of font choices from the visual unit to choose one main body font and one main header font (or consciously keep them the same, but at different weights / font sizes)
• EXT for eager readers: Want still more advice?
  • Dive back into design principles: Improve Your Designs With The Principles Of Continuation And Common Fate (Part Three)
  • Get into the weeds with web fonts: Choosing web fonts: A beginner’s all-in-one guide

Monday, Mar 24 – Lesson 19 – Web Unit Studio / Accessibility and Layout

For next time:

• Work through tutorial Module 6: Layouts
  • NB: when you get to Flexible layouts with Flexbox, there’s a typo in the first interactive code block: he says there are two layouts, one using grid and one using flex, but the HTML only has one. You can fix it with a little copy-paste! Just edit the class on the outer div so you have one <div class="flex"> and one <div class="grid">.
• If you’re doing the Interneting is Hard tutorials, once you’ve finished Semantic HTML and Web Typography, you’ve basically gotten the best they can offer you: the rest we can leave for historical interest. But you’ll still need advice on layout!
  • For that, you’ll need to read Josh Comeau’s Interactive Guide to Flexbox and Interactive Guide to CSS Grid
  • If the Comeau Flexbox page is too abstract, as an alternative you can try MDN’s flexbox intro; make sure to catch the Test your skills challenge at the bottom.
• Everyone will also probably benefit if you watch Powell’s Useful & Responsive Layouts, no Media Queries required (11:02 runtime at full speed). It’s got a bunch of ready-to-roll layout solutions that will apply broadly. Do the reading above first, though: it will make much more sense if you’re already familiar with Flex and Grid layouts.
• Armed with all that info, compose and push a second draft, now adding or updating layout for larger screens (i.e. desktop).
  • 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.
• EXT for enthusiasts:
  • If you’re doing Powell’s tutorial, check out the two Josh Comeau resources above, which get into more depth than Powell’s Layouts chapter does.
  • Want even more layout templates and examples? Try Rachel Andrew’s Grid By Example, which also has video tutorials.

Wednesday, Mar 26 – Lesson 20 – Web Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals / Studio

For next time:

• Work toward baseline criteria for your website portfolio.
• Compose and push a workshop-ready full draft of your project.
  • 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.)

Monday, Mar 31 – Lesson 21 – Web Unit Workshop

For next time:

• Continue to save, commit, and push toward your project, incorporating feedback from partners.
  • If you didn’t get feedback, please let me know asap!
  • If you haven’t finished giving feedback, please do so asap, and no later than noon on Wednesday for full credit.
• Optionally, write one more blog post about what you’d like to do in our final / integrative unit. What further possibilities might you want to explore? Or what do you know you won’t have time for now, but maybe could look into and build toward by the end of the term? NB: 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

Wednesday, Apr 2 – Lesson 22 – Post-workshop Studio

For next time:

• By 10:00pm on Sunday, complete – at least for now – your website project.
• By noon on Monday, post a prose reflection to the issue queue that incorporates screenshots of your feedback and of your source files and/or browser output as the project developed.
  • Annotations on these screenshots are optional but I’ve found them helpful in the past, and you might, too.

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, extension, or combination of the modes and media you used in earlier units. If you have a team (up to 3 people) that can collaborate effectively, go for it. It’s a short sprint to the end of term, so scope your ambitions accordingly!

Monday, Apr 7 – Lesson 23 – 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? What have you wanted to do, but not yet done?
• Preparing one final project or revision:
  • Work through the questions in the lesson plan’s EXT, if you didn’t yet, to develop an informal project pitch and post it to our shared google doc. (The doc, rather than the issue queue, will make it easier for potential collaborators to annotate and for you to edit together in our next class.)

Wednesday, Apr 9 – Lesson 24 – Consolidation Unit Pitch Market and Studio

For next time:

• Preparing one final project or revision:
  • Meet with any groupmates (or set some time for yourself) and set some explicit goals, with notes on who will take lead on what. Write these notes down and see below.
  • Create a repository, if need be, or choose an existing project repository if you will mainly revise. Add a link to the repo to your planning document.
  • Post this plan to the the issue queue by in lieu of a project preview

Monday, Apr 14 – No class (Passover)

For next time:

• Keep in touch with your groupmates (if relevant) and move forward with your plan.
• Push a preview of your project, i.e. get something started, so you can assess your needs.
• Document your progress as you go! Screenshot, save, commit (or otherwise log changes), push, repeat.

Wednesday, Apr 16 – Lesson 25 – Consolidation Unit Studio / Preparing (for) the Final Reflective Letter

For next time:

• Check in with the calendar and update your deadlines: what are you trying to finish by the last class (in five days!)? Will you continue beyond that, 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.

Monday, Apr 21 – Lesson 26 – Last day of class! Looking back and looking forward

For next time:

• Finish consolidation project
• Work to assemble and finalize your final portfolio and reflective letter, which are due Monday, April 28, at noon (i.e. one week after our final class).