Archives for 2015

Peer Review and Submission for Project 1

This is the post for the Friday, January 30, 2015 class meeting.

ruff-feedbackToday you will complete peer review for the first project and then submit your work by the end of the day. Remember that you have a one-week grace period if you need an extension. No questions asked.

Peer Review Activity

Today’s peer review is just a short activity where you look over each other’s papers. You will provide each other verbal feedback. Please complete these steps:

  • Pair up with someone else in class. You may have to work in threes if there is an odd number of people in class.
  • Share your projects with one another, using whatever method is easiest. You can probably simply read one another’s screens.
  • Provide feedback on the following:
    • Check the title of the file and document. Let your partner know if it is unique, clear, and effective.
    • If you notice any spelling errors, punctuation errors, or typos, point them out, but please focus more on the content rather than editing.
    • Look at the image and the explanatory statement. Comment on at least three things your classmate does well and at least three things that your classmate could improve on.
  • Be sure you end your conversation with a bit of encouragement.
  • Make any corrections or changes that you want to improve your work

Reflection Memo

Once you are ready to submit your work, you will go to Scholar to write your reflection memo. Follow these steps to write your reflection memo and submit your project.

Homework

  • For Monday, 2/2:
  • For Wednesday, 2/4:
    • We will work on setting up the WordPress sites on Wednesday, so begin thinking about a name and the kind of design you would like for your site. It can tie directly to your online identity statement, but it doesn’t have to.
    • Begin taking photos you can use to illustrate your blog. You can use your online identity image for your About page, but you will need more images. Take some photos (or identify photos you have already taken) that will work with the name and design you are thinking of and upload them to some place like FlickrInstagram, or Google Plus Photos so you can get to them in the classroom.
    • Note that by the end of Wednesday’s session, you should have a blog set up and you should have written your first post.
  • For Friday, 2/6:
    • Class will not meet in the classroom, as I will be traveling to a conference.
    • In lieu of the class meeting, please watch the lynda.com video on “Changing the Appearance of Your Site” (39m 36s).
    • Apply what you have learned by choosing a theme for your WordPress site and customizing what you have on the site.
    • Write a blog post with the headings (1) What I Did, and (2) Why I Did It.

Project 1 Examples

This is the post for the Wednesday, January 28, 2015 class meeting.

Discussing Project 1 Examples

allthediscussionsFor homework, you explored the Project Examples linked from the assignment page. To kick off our discussion of the examples, I want you to share your reactions to the texts by completing the following survey:

Tools for Project 1

You will use Google Drive to write and share your project. I have created a sample document to demonstrate how to embed the image and layout your projects. Remember that it is just one example, not the only way to publish your work.

Consult the Google Drive FAQs and the help materials on the Google Drive site. The details on how to Insert an Image will probably be useful.

You can use whatever image editing tools you are comfortable with, but to work in class today, we’ll use picmonkey.com. You will find many options for touching up photos, adding filters, and (of course) inserting text.

Homework

  • Friday, 1/30:
    • Aim to have at least a draft of your image ready to share in class. Ideally, you will have a nearly-finished draft of the image and your explanatory statement. We will spend part of the session on peer review, and part talking about the reflection memo.
  • Monday, 2/2:

Intro to Online Identities

This is the post for the Monday, January 26, 2015 class meeting.

Discussing Today’s Texts

dogontheniternetToday’s readings were the following:

To begin our discussion of the homework, we’ll use an anonymous online whiteboard to brainstorm some ideas. Go to the Padlet for your course and add some short responses to the framing question there, “Based on the texts you read and viewed for your homework, what goes into establishing an online identity? How would you define the phrase, and what are the characteristics that comprise online identity?”

You will also have the chance to talk about your reactions to the different online identity situations.

Overview of Project 1

For Project 1, you will create a statement of some aspect of your digital identity using an image and a short explanatory statement. The assignment includes all the details for the project, which is due Friday, January 30.

Homework

  • Wednesday, 1/26:
    • View the “Images and Words” from Foundations of Layout and Composition with Sean Adams.
    • Explore the Project Examples linked from the assignment page. For each one, be prepared to share one thing that you think it does well and one thing the author could do to improve the project.
    • Work on Step 1 on the Project 1 Assignment. I will demonstrate some image editing strategies in class, and you can begin creating your image in the classroom.
  • Friday, 1/28:
    • Aim to have at least a draft of your image ready to share in class. Ideally, you will have a nearly-finished draft of the image and your explanatory statement. We will spend part of the session on peer review, and part talking about the reflection memo.
  • Monday, 1/30:

Class Logistics and Tools

This is the post for the Friday, January 23, 2015 class meeting.

We Should Talk Logistics.Today we’ll focus on getting familar with the different online tools that we will all use for the course. Go ahead and login on a computer so that you can follow along on your screen if you’d like.

Keeping Up with the Course

  • Follow the Twitter feed for @VTtengrrl
  • Subscribe to the site via email (form in the sidebar)
  • Check your email each day before coming to campus

Contacting Me

Tools We’ll Use

Course website: Everything for the course will be linked from this site. Look here first for anything you need.

Scholar: Our Scholar URL is https://scholar.vt.edu/portal/site/english3844s15

Lynda.com: Lynda.com is a tutorial site that is free to all VT students, faculty, and staff. Here are some examples:

WordPress.com: You will create your web portal for the course and post blog updates on a WordPress site. You can use a WordPress.com blog (recommended), a self-hosted blog, or a Blogs@VT site. If you want to begin learning how WordPress.com works, you can begin exploring the Lynda.com videos for WordPress.com Essential Training with Morten Rand-Hendriksen.

Homework

Welcome to Writing and Digital Media

welcome-catThis is the post for the Wednesday, January 21, 2015 class meeting.

Welcome to English 3844, Writing and Digital Media. This site is the official home for our course. All project assignments, weekly and daily activities, and related resources will be posted here.

Work for January 21

These are the tasks to complete for today:

  • Go over the syllabus
  • Look at some sample projects

Syllabus and Course Overview

You’ll find the syllabus in the menu at the top of the page. I send out a Tweet using the Twitter account @VTtengrrl when new content is published on this site. You can also see that feed in the sidebar on the side, so even if you don’t use Twitter, you can scroll through the list in the sidebar to see what has been added.

I also added a “Subscribe Via Email” option in the sidebar. Use this option to get an email message whenever I add a new post to the course website. The process is simple: Add your email, and click subscribe. You’ll have to confirm your subscription. That’s it. The email messages will have information on how to unsubscribe if you decide you want to.

Sample Projects

These are some projects students completed for the Remix a Story project when I taught the class last Spring:

  1. The Three Little Scholars Broadcast
  2. Chamber of PostSecrets
  3. Rapunzel
  4. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
  5. Green Eggs And Ham Remix A Story
  6. ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore as told through The Gay Rights Movement – final edit
  7. Calvin & Hobbes – Attack of the Deranged Mutant Monster Killer Snow Goons Story Remix
  8. What Happened to Little Red Riding Hood?
  9. Music Man Remix
  10. The Once Upon a Times

Next session, we will go over some of the tools we’ll use for the course, and you’ll set up the resources you’ll use.