Activities for r 12/10

Remember: Everything is due by midnight, Dec 15

The SEI/class evaluation form is open until December 12. We are Subject: ENGL Course Number: 303 Section: 001 CRN: 84703 Instructor: Baldwin, Charles.

Presentations > Students will take turns coming to the front of the class for a five minute presentation on your creative gallery. Provide a tour of the project: explain what it is about and how it relates to the topics of the course. Show us some of the project.

Activities for T 12/8

Remember: Everything is due by midnight, Dec 15

The SEI/class evaluation form is open until December 12. We are Subject: ENGL Course Number: 303 Section: 001 CRN: 84703 Instructor: Baldwin, Charles.

Collaborative document >

• Who is working on it today? Alonso, Balnionis, Berardi, Caughie, Center, Graff, Lewis, Simmons, Yoder, Zarkades. The other half of the class will work on it on Thursday.
• As you edit, expand where you see fit. Work on smoothing and regularizing the document. Look for places to get it into the same voice, the same tone. Take it out of the first person. Remove colors, inserted comments, etc. Correct format.

If you are not on the list above, work on your creative gallery. Starting at about 250pm, students will take turns coming to the front of the class for a five minute presentation on your creative gallery. Provide a tour of the project: explain what it is about and how it relates to the topics of the course. Show us some of the project.

Activities for R 12/3

Tuesday and Thursday > Present Creative Gallery! Plus arrive at conclusions on collaborative document.

Today, first write a blog post > What is the status of your creative gallery? Note: think expansively. If you created a video, think about creating another. Or a Google Map story or .... Think of a gallery as including several items. But, on the other hand, if you're working hard at creating an interesting video, take your time on it, don't rush! Note: after completing your post, you'll be asked to comment on two other posts.

Second, collaborative document >

1. Same as Tuesday, with two groups.
2. Expand on a point.
3. Re-arrange as you see fit, trying to find the logical order of points.
4. Pay attention to transitions. How does the end of the paragraph/point take an idea and bring it to the next paragraph/point?

Third, work on creative gallery when you're not working on the collaborative document.

Activities for T 12/1

Work on collaborative document >

1. Continue to re-arrange, seeking the best logical order for the point.
2. Choose one point and expand it to at least a paragraph.

Group 1: Alexander, Balnionis, Bergamo, Caughie, Ehrlich, Graff, Miller, Simmons, Spencer, Yoder
Group 2: Alonso, Berardi, Castillo, Center, Garland, Lewis, Reedy, Skomorucha, Suder, Zarkades

Work on creative gallery.

Activities for T 12/1

Work on collaborative document >

1. Continue to re-arrange, seeking the best logical order for the point.
2. Choose one point and expand it to at least a paragraph.

Work on creative gallery.

Activities for R 11/19

Continue to play with video.

Blog about creative galleries. Where are you at? What problems are you facing?

Work on collaborative document > Choose one point and expand it to at least a paragraph.

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A scary night in Pittsburgh.


Penguins on YouTube


Multiple YouTube Examples. These are done quickly - they are just the same video copied over and over. Why not use different videos and sequence them to tell a story?

Activities for T 11/17

The Big Word Project
Subservient Chicken

Create a movie > Windows Moviemaker. (Moviemaker is free but limited. It can only work with files that Windows Media Player works with, i.e. .wmv. and .mpg.)

Where to get movies?

• Make your own using a camera or cellphone
• Make a text-based movie
• Download and remix movies from the web. Search Creative Commons, Internet Archive

Save the movie as .wmv or .avi. Upload it to your blog and YouTube.

Activities for R 11/12

Look at Google Docs templates > From Google Docs go to Browse Template Gallery.

Audio > Look at audio and Audacity postings from last class. GarageBand tutorials. Example: Murmur


Edit collaborative document > Work on essential logic of the argument. Work by groups, below:
Group 1: Alexander, Balnionis, Bergamo, Caughie, Ehrlich, Graff, Miller, Simmons, Spencer, Yoder
Group 2: Alonso, Berardi, Castillo, Center, Garland, Lewis, Reedy, Skomorucha, Suder, Zarkades

Activities for T 11/10

Return to today's blog post > What will you do for your creative gallery?

Example from last year: "I recorded a musical piece and created a Facebook group, allowing members to listen to the song and write their own lyrics. For the final project, I used a set of lyrics as inspiration, and the same general music, with variations here and there."

InBFlat again

This week > Audio. Goal: Create an audio file by the end of the week. Host it at Box.net. Be sure to enable enclosure links to link to the file from within a Blogger post. To do so: go to Settings > Formatting tab and set the "Show Link fields" option to "Yes."

Where to get sounds?

• Make your own with a mic or straight into a computer
  
• CCMixter andCreative Commons (Jamendo) and CC-Wired mix
  
• Freesound
• Open Music Archive
  
• Hippocamp
• Micromusic
  

How to edit sounds?

• Download Audacity
• Audacity tutorial
• Don't forget the Lame MP3 encoder
• Download additional plugins

Work on collaborative document.

Activities for R 11/5

For those working on Fan Fiction, look at the Organization for Transformative Works.

Creative responses working with text >

Creating hypertext fiction. Examples of collaborative blog-based fiction: A Million Penguins and Flight Paths. To create write hypertext fiction on your blog:

1. First create a new blog by going to your Blogspot dashboard and selecting Create a Blog.
2. Write your story. Plan at least one fork per post i.e. two links coming off each post.
3. Think about the type of story and genre that requires forking. Try this science fiction beginning: "The last person in the world sat in a room. There was a knock at the door. The question was: to open it or to remain seated?"
4. Make links off the words "open" and "seated." Make sure you are in the "Compose" mode. Add a link to "open.html" on the word "open" and to "seated.html" on "seated." Now create a new post and give it the title "open" (without quotes). The link from the first page will go to this new page. Do the same for seated, and continue to write your story this way.
   
5. Create a link from your main blog to the story blog. Important: link to the individual posting that starts the story, rather than the blog as a whole.
6. For example. Here's the story of the last person in the world.
   
7. Next, try Hypertextopia, a visual hypertext form.

As alternative, write a story or a novel using Twitter or Facebook or email or txting or something else. Do it on your own or invite collaborators. Here's an example of Neil Gaiman's Twitter novel . Make use of comments, links, photos, etc. Here's a list of fictional blogs or flogs. Another possibility: create the life and story of a character with existence across multiple sites...

Try a Google maps story. Place and location are powerful storytelling devices. Mapping is fundamental to narrative. Here's Google maps for telling meteor landing sites. Why not use this to tell a story? Here's an example: The 21 Steps. (Note: loads slowly if at all. Here's an image from it.) Here's another in German: Senghor on the Rocks. Here's Joyce Walks (James Joyce Google mapped).

1. Go to Google maps and go to My Maps.
2. Create a new map. Give it a title.
3. Add locations to the map. Write text into the location. This is your story! You can also add images, videos, audio, etc.
   
4. Add lines, other features.
5. Be sure to click Done when you are done editing.
6. Click on the Link button in the upper right to get the html code to paste into your blog. You can embed your map directly into your blog!
   

Translation text. Use online text to create new work in/across languages.

1. Take an English text and translate back and forth into other languages. Use any languages you want - use several.
2. Use any text you want - perhaps something of your own or tou might use a Dickinson poem or Bush quotes .
3. Use Google Language Tools, Babelfish, Lost in Translation, or other tools.
4. Post the original and translated text on the blog, and tell what tools you employed.
5. Next, try to Shannonize a text or Dialectize a page.

Please look at shared document and make adjustments! Add, re-order, comment.

Code for adding images to Google map nodes:
Note: be sure to add in "Edit html"



View My Amazing Adventure in the Barcelona in a larger map

Activities for T 11/3

The Creative Gallery > You will make creative gallery linked to your blog, where you extend your topic through something (or several things) you make. What can you make? Whatever you want! You might: make an iPod-ready soundtrack for your project, using audio that you find or create; make a YouTube video; make a presentation with images and animation; make a remix of the project, mashing up text images…; what else? All of the above and more...

Over the next several classes we will cover tools and techniques for text production, audio, and video. By Thanksgiving break, you should have a good sense of one or more creations for your gallery. After Thanksgiving, classes will be devoted to working on your gallery and showing it off.

Creativity is inherent in multimedia. The author and the user blur together. Try detournement as a method... (but you can choose other approaches as well)

Dagwood explains!



Return to blog post > Think about a "creative response" to your topic. What will you do? What will you create?

Shared document > boiled down to outline/bullet points. Please go and read and see if you want to add or rearrange. Next step: each will write three paragraphs into the outline, emerging from your project.

Activities for R 10/29

The goal today is to work with the collaborative document to extract shared claims, to cluster the shared claims, to organize the shared claims, and to discover the binding logic of the shared claims.

Work in groups to edit the shared document. If you're not editing, please work on revising your document. After about 40 minutes, we will work as a class on the shared document.

Here is the shared document.

Group 1: Alexander, Balnionis, Berardi, Bergamo, Castillo, Caughie, Center, Ehrlich, Reedy, Spencer

Group 2: Graff, Lewis, Miller, Garland, Simmons, Skomorucha, Alonso, Suder, Yoder, Zarkades

Activities for T 10/27

Blog response > Today we'll work on your essay drafts. You should have a blog post linking to the draft. Go to and edit the post, adding a brief reflection on the following: What is most successful in your draft? What still needs work?

Also, please make sure your blog has your name on it, so that readers arriving at the blog know the author's name...

Read and respond to drafts > Start with the person after you on your group list below. Read and respond. Repeat with the next in the list. If you reach the end, go back to the beginning of your group. Each draft gets at least three readings. Write your response in the comments to the writer's blog post.

Groups:

1. Alexander, Bergamo, Graff, Lewis, Ehrlich
2. Balnionis, Berardi, Miller, Reedy, Garland
3. Alonso, Castillo, Simmons, Skomorucha, Yoder
4. Caughie, Center, Spencer, Suder, Zarkades

First reading: Read the essay once for an initial response. Write about the following:

• Your overall impression
• What did you like? What didn't you like?

Second Reading: Read the essay a second time again for an in-depth response. Write about the following:

• What is the main idea / claim expressed in the essay? What are the sub-ideas or claims? Are the claims related to the main idea?
• Is there evidence supporting the ideas/claims? Name particular places where the essay could use more evidence and how.
• Does the writer use ideas and sources from the directed lectures/theories presented in class (theories of authorship, narratology, remix culture, social media, gaming, etc.)? Suggest how one or more of these concepts could be incorporated into the essay.
  
• Are the parts of the essay connected in a logical, convincing manner, with supporting evidence? Name particular places where the logic and transitions could be improved and how.
  
• Name particular places where the language of the essay is confusing or unclear. How could it be improved?
  
• Finally, what should the writer focus on to improve the essay? What should she do next?

Activities for R 10/22

Finish group critique from Tuesday and Work on drafting your essay. Remember: the essay is 1500 words minimum, due 11/10. It can be written in Google Docs or in another format and uploaded to Google Docs, and then linked to your blog; or (optionally) you can write it directly into your blog.

1. Focus on links and connections at the paragraph level. Every paragraph ends with an idea that links to the next paragraph. Every paragraph begins with an idea that carries from the previous paragraph
   
2. Focus on incorporating your materials, annotated bibliography. Work on summarizing each primary material/source, then describing ideas emerging from this, then making links.
   

Work on shared document.

Group 1: Alexander, Balnionis, Berardi, Bergamo, Castillo, Caughie, Center, Ehrlich, Reedy, Spencer

Group 2: Graff, Lewis, Miller, Garland, Simmons, Skomorucha, Alonso, Suder, Yoder, Zarkades

Activities for T 10/20

Make sure you have blog post for today

Logical mapping > structuring your project.

1. Create a diagram
2. Write your single sentence research topic
   
3. Write your content areas (what do you need to talk about to make the explore the research topic? what websites etc. but also what texts, essays, etc.)
4. Write your assertions/claims coming out of the topic
5. Order and organize the claims in relation to the content areas
6. Link to blog post for today
   

Work in groups of 3-4 > Present blog post, theory, logical map, annotated bibliography. Present the organization and structure of your essay. What parts does it include? What does it need? What part should you write first?

Activities for R 10/15

The essay > Remember: 1500 words minimum. We'll work on this over the next several weeks, due Nov 10.

Annotated bibliographies / literature reviews >

1. Add annotations to your Diigo links. Annotations should at least include the following three parts: a) a brief summary of the resource, b) a brief evaluation of the resources; and c) a brief explanation of why the resource is important to your project.
2. You should have a minimum of two resources from either Project Muse or JSTOR. Also, check out Google Scholar.
   
3. Once you complete your annotations, go to your Diigo Library > select the Edit and Manage View (the right hand view option) > select all your bookmarks with the check box in the upper left > select generate report from the pull-down menu.
   
4. Cut and paste your report with annotated links into a new Google Doc >save the Google Doc > name it something related to your project and link it to your blog.
5. Work down the blog list and read at least two others annotated bibliographies. Comment on their blog, suggesting improvement to the annotations, and suggesting additional resources relating to their project.
   

Collaborative Document >

The entire class will write a single document on the course topic. This allows us to see how the projects are related; to look for problems in our arguments; and to see how ideas developed in the course come together to make something larger than the individual projects. Today we will start by knocking heads together - just putting ideas into the collaborative document. Later, each of you will add to and expand your contributions.

1. Use Wordpad or something similar to: write one sentence describing your research topic; and then to write at least one, maybe more, ideas or theories emerging from your topics.
2. Paste your writing into the collaborative document. (You should have received an email invitation to edit the Doc.)
3. Be sure to include your name at the beginning. For example, Sandy says [and then add your text].
   

Note: we will all be editors of the document, but only 10 can actively edit at a time; after the limit of 10, others can only view.

Activities for T 10/13

Looking ahead in the syllabus

Final Diigo bookmarks....

Theory presentation due today!

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Gaming as a research topic >

• Who plays games? What games do you play?
• Do games supplant narratives/writing as privileged cultural forms? (Note estimates that over 72% of all people in the US played video games last year, whereas more than 25% read no books in the last year)
• How is "playing" like "reading"?
• Is a game a narrative? Is it a kind of writing? Or are games a fundamentally different type of thing? (e.g. difference in types of events, difference in speakers, difference in temporality)
  
• Are things that we agree are games (chess? football?) also narratives? How about Tetris? Is it a narrative? Why or why not?
  
• OK, then is Zork a game? How so?
  
• Look at Nelson's "i made this. you play this. we are enemies."? What is it? (game? narrative?) How about September 12 (which declares "This is not a game.")?
  
• What is the role of narrative/writing within games? How do games contain stories or comes within a story? We may narrate a game after the fact, but is this part of the game? (How?)
  
• Hybrids, e.g. Machinima ("Who's the tank?"), movies and books based on games (Resident Evil, Doom, etc.)
  

Activities for R 10/8

Emoji Dick and Kickstarter



Respond to theory> Read the "theory presentation" of the next three people on the blog list. Respond to each in the comments section of their blog.

• Is the topic clear? Does the presentation theorize the topic? (Don't summarize the topic but tell us about it - premises, assertions, claims)
  
• Is this a guide to the topic? Are there relays that take you from one assertion to the next? What could be added? How could it be re-ordered?
• Visual thinking. Are the images part of the thinking or are they just illustrations? How could the images become more central?
  
• Does the presentation incorporate concepts and arguments from the directed research lectures? How can the writer incorporate concepts from one or more of the lectures?
  
• Narratology (telling the story)
• Remix culture (read/write culture and hybrid creativity)
• Social Software (public display and performance of self)
• Social Media (tactics)

Activites for T 10/6

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship (only three more weeks of links)



Theory Presentations > look at three presentations

• Is the topic clear?
• Is this a guide to the topic? Are there relays that take you from one assertion to the next? What could be added? How could it be re-ordered?
• Visual thinking. Are the images part of the thinking or are they just illustrations? How could the images become more central?

Activities for R 10/1

Diigo bookmarks

Remix Culture >



Read and comment on two other "theory presentations" >

• Look down the blog list. Choose the blog after yours.
• Read their "theory presentation" draft in Google Docs and write comments on their blog, following the general guidelines set out for Tuesdays class and previous class.
• Once you finish, comment on the next person in the list. Do at least two. If you reach the bottom of the list, go to the top.

Activities for R 9/29

Look at the Path and 253

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship (only three more weeks of links)

Theory Presentations > look at three presentations

• Is the topic clear?
• Is this a guide to the topic? Are there relays that take you from one assertion to the next? What could be added? How could it be re-ordered?
• Visual thinking. Are the images part of the thinking or are they just illustrations? How could the images become more central?

Work in groups of three on theory.

Discuss Google Books and the future of the book.

Activities R 9/24

Research topic: telling the story. What is narrative?

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship (only three more weeks of links)



Work on Theory > Respond to "theory" blog post. Respond to next person after you on the blog list at the right. In your response, address the following and how the writer can revise to improve these points: 1) Does the post create a guide for the topic, using techniques such as series of assertions, connecting relays, parallels, and analogies? 2) What images would work as part of the theory? Repeat with the next blog on the list.

Activities for R 9/17

Author from Visual Thesaurus

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship

Creating your theory > What is theory? Review theory points on T 9/15 post.

Creating your theory > Start from a blog post, under the "influence" of Foucault or Barthes, not so much by taking their words (though you can) but writing in that style and mode, about your topic... later you will move to a Google Docs presentation.

Where to get freely usable images? > Creative Commons, Wikimedia Commons, icanhascheezburger?

• Take your Research Proposal and create a Wordle image. Post it to your blog.
• Try a keyword from your proposal in Visual Thesaurus (hint: you need to email it to yourself to get the image)
• Get a free image from one of the sources above, edit it in Pixlr, and use it in your blog post for Tuesday
  

Activities for T 9/15

Extra time > You can revise your research proposal up until midnight on Tuesday. Remember, the proposal is not the "content" but a set of questions (and to a lesser degree, assertions) arrived at through the content. For example, your proposal is not to "discuss website x" but to discuss "question a" and "question b" about multimedia authorship "using website x as evidence." Similarly, your assertions would attempt to answer the questions. Try to include preliminary assertions in your proposal; developing the assertions will be the primary focus of the "theory" project. (Look at syllabus...)

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship

Image Editing > Pixlr

Presentation> Look at Google Docs

Creating your theory >

• Think of movie trailers: You are creating a "trailer" for your project.
• Start from an assertion about the "premise" of your project. A premise is a claim - not your claim but a claim that is implicit in your content and grounds the topic. A premise asks for your recognition and belief. Every cultural topic starts from a premise.
• Work from the premise to other premises to create a guide to the project. Connect premises to create relays that tie the parts of the project together.
• Relay: start from your premise and add to it. Premise + a + b + c. "Authorship is [this] according to [this] + "and this implies/relates to/contrasts to"
• In creating your relays and building them into a guide, work from your "gut," from what seems right to you. Trust that you are interested in the topic for good reasons - this is your theory of the topic, and you are part of the network of culture that the topic exists in. Make associations, create an assemblage, and worry about filling it out later. Speculate and expand.
  
• The guide can be as long as you want or need. The relays can go on and on. No need to create the first part, second part, third part, etc.; but "this part," "that part," "another part," and worry about order later.
  
• Use assertions, claims, propositions.
• Use analogy, e.g.
  

Multimedia writing is

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

• Combine the text with images - not images that illustrate or provide example of the "content" but images that deepen and develop the theory
• Think of an emblem or logo: What is the logo for your project?
  
• Insert images into your Google Docs presentation. Note: You can simply drag and drop images into your Google Docs presentation or you can use the Insert Image button on the toolbar.
• Insert videos. Use the Insert Video button.
• As you revise, draw on your bookmarks and the research materials presented in class.

Visual Thinking > Wordle, Thinkmap , Wikipedia Storyboards, Google Images Sample Storyboards, More Sample Storyboards, More Sample Storyboards

Activities for R 9/10

Don't forget to coolify your blog!

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship

Research Proposals > go down the blog list on the syllabus, find the next proposal you have not read, read it and write comments on their blog; repeat

Your Proposal > revise based on blog comments and Google doc comments; remember: your proposal starts from your cool idea or content to find a direction of inquiry through questions and assertions (i.e. the proposal is not the content but emerges from it)

Bibliography > new blog post with bibliography for your project so far, drawing from bookmarks - yours and others! - to create a bibliography, in the proper format, with at least four works and include it in your proposal (note: you should make sure your Diigo bookmarks include descriptions of at least 100 word; be sure to describe the significance of the bookmark for the course and your project) > format:
Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Site. URL. Date Referenced.
e.g. Tate, Ryan. "You Wrote My Twitter Book, Now Promote It!." Gawker.com. http://gawker.com/5345292/you-wrote-my-twitter-book-now-promote-it. 9/10/09.


Photoshop > basic techniques, using Gimp and Pixlr

Research proposal is due Tuesday!

Activities for T 9/8

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship

Your research Proposal >In general, move from your cool idea ("content") to focus on a specific set of questions and assertions.

1. Is it at least 250 words?
   
2. Does it clearly state a topic in a sentence near the beginning?
   
3. Does it clearly state one or more questions about the topic? (questions might be about: about authorship, creative expression, history and future, implications for individual and society, etc)?
4. Does it clearly state one or more assertions or claims that address these questions? (i.e. asserting a provisional answer or direction of inquiry)
   
5. Finally, what resources (bookmarks) do you draw on? (I assume that the topic is a web site or similar resource - so include that - but what other bookmarks?)

Respond to Proposals >

1. Look at draft research proposals of your group (group from last week).
   
2. Write a separate response to each proposal in your shared document.
3. Be sure to clearly state your name and whose draft you're commenting on.
4. Don't forget to save!
   

Group Brainstorming > What are the shared, guiding questions and assertions so far?

Activities for R 9/3

"I is an other" > Lethem and Tenners' conclusions

Diigo bookmarks > arguments and assertions about multimedia authorship

Groups > brainstorm topics... what is your topic?

Big group > Talk about topics...

For Tuesday > Blog post draft of your research proposal, including the content/site/topics, notable features, assertions and questions + plus 2 Diigo bookmarks (so, at least four total)

Activities for 9/1

Note: Make sure your blog posts have titles! That way they're linkable on the blog stream... Second, make sure comments are enabled on your blog

Read blog posts about Tenner/Lethem and comment on as many as you can

As you respond, consider the following:

• What do the readings say about authorship, voice, originality, creativity? In particular, what do they say about multimedia authorship?
• Tenner speaks of the plagiosphere and its dangers. What does he mean by this? What are the dangers? Is he right, in your opinion?
• Lethem speaks of "open source" culture; he also writes of "second use," "active reading," and the "already read." What does he mean by these things, do you think? What is he arguing for? Is his argument right, in your opinion, and why? Also, what views are being challenged here? What arguments about authorship etc. are Lethem in dialogue with?
• Is it possible to remix something so that it becomes "you" and "yours"? Why or why not? Where does the author come in?
  

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Present bookmarks. What is the site? How is it useful to us? Here is the brainstorming doc.

Tuesday's Blog Post and Links

Remember, the course is a collaborative research project. It will evolve as the semester progresses. You will receive instruction and direction in the necessary skills and in framing the research, but you - everyone in the class - are responsible for the research questions. The goal is to arrive at excellent research that can be presented to the world!

Don't forget the reading and blog post for Tuesday (look at the prompt on the syllabus). Also, remember by Tuesday to have two examples of resources from the net that relate to our topic. Bookmark them in our Diigo group and be prepared to talk about why you think they relate!

In class today:
1. Discuss Google Docs and Diigo and Blogs. How to bookmark? Remember: we'll add other applications later.
2. Blog post. The prompt is here: Writing online autobiography, to start brainstorming.
3. Work on topic. We'll add notes to the "Writing online autobiography" page above. As you develop topics in upcoming classes, we'll brainstorm/collate them into Google Docs files.

ENGL 303

This is the blog for English 303: Multimedia Writing, Fall 2009, at West Virginia University.