Class-by-Class Schedule

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, Box, Dropbox, or flash drive.

Contents:

Unit I: What Makes Digital Media New?

Lesson 1, Tuesday 1/8 – Introductions

HW for next time:

• Read syllabus and grading contract; return with questions or a signed contract.
• Read Madeline Sorapure’s interactive webtext, “Five Principles of New Media: or, Playing Lev Manovich”. After you’ve finished the Flash version, skim the pdf version.
• Watch Michael Wesch, “Information R/evolution”
• Respond to the Tech Comfort Survey if you haven’t done so in class
• Join GitHub if you haven’t yet, and post an introduction to yourself on the issue queue.

Lesson 2, Thursday 1/10 – What Can We Do With Digital?

HW for next time:

• Watch Git and GitHub for Poets, starting at least with the Introduction and going as far as your interest and time allow.
• Download any software you’ll need to use Git at the command line, possibly including Homebrew (on Mac) and GitBash (on Windows)
• If you’re feeling intimidated by the command line, try out this Command Line Crash Course

Lesson 3, Tuesday 1/15 – Building a Repository

For next time:

• Listen to example sound narratives
• Write a short blog post: what do you notice? what do you wonder? Post this on the Issues page.
• Schedule a one-on-one conference with Ben using https://benmiller314.youcanbook.me

Unit II: Soundscapes and Soundwriting

Lesson 4, Thursday 1/17 – Soundwalking

For next time:

• Download Audacity, including the mp3 LAME encoder
• Read Writer/Designer excerpt (scanned file)
• Read Stanford’s Fair Use overview;
• Write a proposal for your sound narrative, including a prospective asset list (as per W/D); post to the Issues page.
• Begin recording the sounds you’ll need
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Lesson 5, Tuesday 1/22 – Audacity

For next time:

• Fork the assignment repository on GitHub Classroom
• Work toward your soundscape narrative
• Push a soundscape preview, including
  • the layered Audacity file (.aup)
  • 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 1/24 – 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 1/29 – Sound Workshop

For next time:

• Write a blog post of possible group projects for the end of term. What games or branching narratives do the soundscapes put you in mind of? Or what more might you want to explore?
• Bring headphones so you can work in class

Lesson 8, Thursday 1/31 – Sound Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Sunday, Feb 3, complete – at least for now – your soundscape narrative.
• By Tuesday’s class, 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 2/5 – Can You Picture It? Visual Rhetorics and Argument

For next time:

• Read a quick introduction to graphic design principles
• Find an example of good visual rhetoric
• Write a blog post about your example

Lesson 10, Thursday 2/7 – Generating Visual Ideas

For next time:

• Read about fonts, optionally playing a font-matching game
• Write a visual rhetoric proposal, including a prospective asset list; post to the issue queue

Lesson 11, Tuesday 2/12 – Visual Unit Studio

For next time:

• Compose and push a visual rhetoric preview

Lesson 12, Thursday 2/14 – Visual Unit Criteria and Stretch Goals

For next time:

• Compose and push a visual rhetoric draft

Lesson 13, Tuesday 2/19 – Visual Unit Workshop

For next time:

• Write a blog post with more ideas toward the collaborative project

Lesson 14, Thursday 2/21 – Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Sunday, Feb 24, complete – at least for now – your visual argument.
• By Tuesday’s class, Feb 26, write a prose reflection 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 2/26 – Midterm Reflections and Intro to Markup

For next time:

• Do as much of the Interneting is Hard (but it doesn’t have to be) tutorial as you can – at least parts 1-4 (from “Introduction” through “Hello, CSS”)
• Show your work by pushing your tutorial code to a repository
• Bring headphones for sonic isolation during studio time

Lesson 16, Thursday 2/28 – Generative Studio

For next time:

• View/Read documentation on using GitHub Pages
• Do more of the tutorial, including at least The Box Model (5) and CSS Selectors (6), if you haven’t yet.
• Read more about how CSS selectors work
• Write a website proposal, including at least one hand-drawn design sketch, types of pages, and a prospective asset list. Post to the issue queue.

Lesson 17, Tuesday 3/5 – Web Unit Studio / Deployment

For next time:

• Do more of the tutorial, including at least Flexbox (8) and Responsive Design (10), if you haven’t yet.
• Compose and push a website preview: a beginning.

Lesson 18, Thursday 3/7 – Web Unit Criteria

For next time:

• View/Play sample Twine games
• Compose and push a full draft of your website project by the Thursday after break

Lesson 19, Tuesday 3/19 – Studio and Collab Unit Planning

For next time:

• Compose and push a full draft of your website project

Lesson 20, Thursday 3/21 – Web Unit Workshop

For next time:

• By 11:59pm on Tuesday, Mar 26, complete – at least for now – your website project.
• By Thursday’s class, Mar 28, write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress.

Lesson 21, Tuesday 3/26 – Studio

For next time:

• By 11:59pm, complete – at least for now – your website project.
• By Thursday’s class, Mar 28, write a prose reflection that incorporates images from your feedback and screenshots of your work in progress.

Unit V: Collaborative Composing

The deadlines and assignments here will vary from group to group, according to a team contract and more formal project proposal… unless we all agree to just make interactive stories in Twine, in which case I’ll follow a similar deadline pattern to the previous three units.

Lesson 22, Thursday 3/28 – Intro to Collaborative Unit (Integrative Interactive Narratives)

For next time:

• Skim through the Twine 2 wiki
• Project pitch due by 11:59pm on Sunday; come in on Tuesday having read the pitches and chosen your top 3 to work on.

Lesson 23, Tuesday 4/2 – Grouping Up and Setting Out

For next time:

• Make shared repository, task list. Twine tutorials and reverse engineering.

Lesson 24, Thursday 4/4 – Collaborative Unit Studio

For next time:

• Push a collaborative project preview

Lesson 25, Tuesday 4/9 – Collaborative Unit Criteria

For next time:

• Full-as-possible draft of collaborative project, for workshop

Lesson 26, Thursday 4/11 – Collaborative Unit Workshop (Playtesting)

For next time:

• Work together to revise and extend

Lesson 27, Tuesday 4/16 – Studio; Intro to Final Portfolio

For next time:

• Finish collaborative project (at least for now)

Unit VI: Reflection and Revision

Before the semester ends, we’ll have time set aside for in-class revisions and reviews, and for drafting a reflective introduction to your final portfolio.

Lesson 28, Thursday, 4/18 – Last day of class! Project histories; final project presentations; OMETs