WEEK 10. How is it already week ten? This requires that I reassess all the hopes and dreams I packed into the syllabus in order to identify what we can actually accomplish in the time we have remaining. I have distributed a handout that maps out our remaining classes.
Project 4
Tonight we have two goals. First, we’ll talk about your Shipka assignments. Second I will lay out the possibilities for our 4th Project. The 4th project will be due in class on December 4th.
There’s myriad possibilities for what you might do for this project. Here are a few ideas.
First, you can do your Shipka assignment. I don’t like to give an assignment that I have not done myself. It is hard to imagine the pitfalls unless you have actually tried it out first. Alternatively, you could find a partner and do each other’s Shipka assignments, giving the creator some valuable feedback.
Second, you can choose to transform an existing conference presentation into a more dynamic, multimedia presentation. Of course, this doesn’t have to be something as developed as Michael Wesch’s “The Web is Us/ing Us,” but it could be! You could either narrate the paper set to images, of find a way to remediate the argument of the paper into a different media/form.
Third, you could turn a syllabus into an infographic (using Photoshop, InDesign, or even template software). Or, you could convert a syllabus into a (cool) website. Here is a list of resources on infographics.
Fourth, you could produce a new media manifesto. This was an original assignment for this course that I had to cut. The inspiration for this piece is not only Wesch’s work, but also something like Prince EA’s Why I Think This World Should End. Really, the manifesto could be any kind of definitional or argumentative performance.
Fifth, you could dedicate a month to building content in your blog. Warren Ellis, Morning Computer. Write a blog post, however long, every day on anything you want.
Sixth, you can remediate your MEmorial into a video.
Project 5
There is one additional project I would like you to complete this semester–and that is further developing your WordPress sites. We’ll work on this a bit in class in the coming weeks. In the end I would like your sites to have:
- A teaching portfolio
- A teaching philosophy (250 words or less)
- A sample course syllabi
- A unique project
- A multimedia resource (a powerpoint? handout? what do you have to share?)
- A research portfolio
- An about page or research narrative/trajectory
- A digital CV
- A PDF CV
- A sample conference paper or abstract (academia.edu?)
- What else?
- A coursework page: this was something that a few universities requested when I was on the job market–a detailed list of relevant coursework with brief course descriptions.
And we’ll read Collin Brooke’s post on “The Strength of Weak Media.”
Homework
For next class, please read Bogost 1-98 and McGonigal 1-77. While I realize this is quite a bit of reading, neither should be too impenetrable (though the Bogost can be dense in a few places) and this is the last reading assignment I will give this semester.
