Welcome to ENGRD221.03, New Media Writing
I look forward to working with you this semester.
Your homework to complete before we meet again Tuesday, August 31:
- Read over this website very carefully as it constitutes the syllabus for this course. Note that the Syllabus page includes a number of subpages, covering such topics as: the course learning outcomes; the texts and other services you’ll need; attendance, participation, and other policies; and how you will be graded. There is also a calendar of readings and assignments; and posts describing the three major assignments (literacy narrative, podcast series, and final project) and minor assignments this semester.
- Add this site to your bookmarks. Make certain that you can find your way back here, because you’ll be spending a lot of time visiting these pages over the course of this semester.
- Join the class Slack Workspace. Slack is a collaboration and communication tool that our class uses to work together to share ideas, discuss readings, collaborate on projects, and engage with learning. It will be our method for backchannel communication (that is not for public consumption). You can join the channel with this link.
- Sign up for a basic, free WordPress site. (Make certain to read this post about choosing a name for your site before you do.) Do not pay anything for this site; choose the free version with an address ending in .wordpress.com. Make sure to hit the “Launch” button to publish your site to the web.
- Leave a comment on this post asking a question about the syllabus. Put the URL for the WordPress site you created in the “website” line on the comment form. If you want to receive an email every time a new post goes up on this site, check the “Subscribe to site” box before you submit your comment. The first time you comment, it will not show up publicly until I’ve approved it.
- Reply to the Student Information Survey at the bottom of this post, which both asks some basic information I’ll need in order to manage communications with you and also asks some questions that will help me get to know you a little bit better.
- Complete the first sketch assignment, which will serve as your avatar for this class.
I’m supposed to leave a question about the syllabus?
Yes.
Do our blogs need to be related to our podcasts?
Not directly, no. You’ll do a bunch of things on your site, not just podcast related writing.
Other than the Podcast series, what are some other major projects that we will be working on this semester?
You’ll write a literacy narrative (in stages), which will increasingly focus on communicating with technology. You’ll also have project where you make an argument, based on your expertise, about the pandemic (we’ll talk way more about that in a bit).
If you follow the link to your site, you’ll see that it’s still a big blue page that says “Coming soon.” You need to log into your WordPress dashboard and press the launch button to finish publishing your site.
Will we have any exams or quizzes?
No
Since we are not using Canvas, I was wondering if there is another place for us to check our grades throughout the semester.
Not really. Check the page describing how grades will work in this class.
Are we going to systematically learn to use photoshop or premiere pro? If not, would you recommend us to prepare necessary skills before the course?
No, not really. Photoshop and Premiere are both available in the Media Lab in the library and there will be some opportunities for you to use them. I’ll point you towards some resources (like Lynda, which has been rebranded as LinkedIn learning) or provide other instruction. I’m not assuming that you have previous knowledge for photo editing.
Are we going to use platforms other than wordpress and Slack?
Not really. There are some other tools that we’ll be using, like Tableau and Twine, both of which have some capacity to host work. So it kind of depends on whether you call those platforms or tools.
If you follow the link to your site, you’ll see that it’s still a big blue page that says “Coming soon.” You need to log into your WordPress dashboard and press the launch button to finish publishing your site.
Thank you for organizing our course content on this super-cool website!
In [syllabus-learning outcomes-writing process], it says we will practice “research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection”. Shall we keep draft records on our website, or just update them with new versions?
You’re welcome! And thanks.
A bit of both. For the major projects, when you make significant revisions I’ll ask you to keep the old draft plus a new page with the later version. But if it’s a more minor change, you can just edit the existing one.
I was wondering how many times we would be meeting one-on-one or in small groups this semester. I also really love this website!
Thanks! We’ll meet at least a few times this semester — and of course, you can choose to meet more often if you’d like.
I think I already asked a question under the Sketch Assignment (and you replied to it). But, I just realized it is supposed to be here, so I just ask another one. I am curious, what inspired you to design a class like ours? It was the project that you had with students, right?
That question would require a longer response than I want to write here, and it’s something we’ll talk about over the course of the semester. I have been interested in writing for and on the web for most of my adult life and believe that it’s especially important to address some of the big, seemingly intractable problems facing us. Everyone needs to learn how to write online, and you can’t learn that by doing something else, like writing traditional essays on paper in closed-off environments. You have to do it to learn to do it. Despite spending so many years as a teacher, I pretty much believe that all learning is autodidactic — a teacher can provide structure and guidance, point you in the direction of resources that will teach you lessons, but in the end all learning needs to happen within the individual. I think the internet and web design is a great place to learn how to teach yourself what you need to know to accomplish your goals.
I missed the first class so I’m wondering, what is the podcast series?
We’ll discuss exactly what we want in the podcast starting on Thursday and then in more depth in the near future.
Will we be making our own podcasts at one point? Or are we all going to be working under the same podcast as a class.
Once the podcast starts, we’ll publish episodes each week. You’ll be responsible for being the lead producer on one episode of that series and you’ll also be the assistant producer for another episode. The way I am using those terms, the podcast is the overarching series that we all, as a class, will be contributing episodes to in order to make that series. So the answer to your question is sort of yes to both.
Are there plans to read another book(s) in addition to “Houston, We Have a Narrative”?
We’ll read articles and read some other media (podcasts, games, etc). And we’ll read one graphic nonfiction text and some excerpts from others.
If you follow the link to your site, you’ll see that it’s still a big blue page that says “Coming soon.” You need to log into your WordPress dashboard and press the launch button to finish publishing your site.