I have begun grading the remix projects. I will update the blog posts or attendance totals by midafternoon today. I will send out an announcement through Scholar once I have all the remixes graded. Once the course grades are finalized next week, I’ll send out another Announcement.
10:10 class presentations will be from these folks:
11:15 class presentations will be from these folks:
Please complete this 4-question survey to help me make decisions about how to teach the class in the future. You will need to login with your vt.ed email address and password. Your answers will not effect your grade in the course.
Please complete the SPOT survey if you haven’t yet.
Submit your remix by 11:55 PM tonight (Wednesday, May 6, 2015), following the instructions posted last week.
Take the final exam. If your work is not submitted by 11:55 PM on Monday, May 11, you will receive a zero.
If any of these deadlines is a burden because of other exams or the like, talk to me by the end of class today.
Project 3 is graded, so the gradebook reflects Projects 1, 2, and 3, plus your attendance and blog posts as of 4/22. Remember that I will not update the blog posts or attendance totals until after class on May 6.
Presentations
10:10 class presentations will be from these folks:
11:15 class presentations will be from these folks:
If you are presenting Monday, email me the link to your presentation by midnight on Sunday (no grace period) so that I can set up the post for class
Please complete the SPOT survey if you haven’t yet.
Submit your remix by 11:55 PM on Wednesday, May 6, 2015, following the instructions posted April 27.
Take the final exam. If your work is not submitted by 11:55 PM on Monday, May 11, you will receive a zero.
I’m still grading Project 3. Remember that I will not update the blog posts or attendance totals until after class on May 6.
Presentations
10:10 class presentations will be from these folks:
11:15 class presentations will be from these folks:
If you have a zero in Scholar, submit your work for Projects 1, 2, or 3 by 11:55 PM on Wednesday, 4/29. Otherwise the zero will stand.
If you are presenting Friday, email me the link to your presentation by midnight on Thursday (no grace period) so that I can set up the post for class
Complete the SPOT survey if you haven’t yet.
Submit your remix by 11:55 PM on Wednesday, May 6, 2015, following the instructions posted Monday.
Take the final exam. If your work is not submitted by 11:55 PM on Monday, May 11, you will receive a zero.
Today is an in-class work day, but I want to share some information about the course grades and the Scholar gradebook as well. After I review the gradebook information, you can work on your projects in class.
I have converted the Exemplary / Satisfactory / Unsatisfactory grades to numbers so that you can see course averages in the Scholar gradebook. As I sent out in the Scholar announcement on Wednesday, I used these numbers:
Number | Letter | Description |
95 | A | Exemplary/beyond satisfactory work/very strong project |
92 | A- | Very satisfactory |
85 | B | Satisfactory |
79 | C+ | Borderline/Barely Satisfactory |
70 | C- | Unsatisfactory (pieces missing, but the work was submitted) |
0 | F | Project not submitted |
In addition to grades (or places) for each of the four projects and the final, you will also see these grades:
Item | Worth | Description |
Participation | 38 | Total number of sessions attended. This is a flat number that does not take into account documentation you may have shown me from Health Services or the Dean of Students. The number of classes to date is 31. Everyone will earn an additional +1. |
Class Work | 28 | Total number of blog posts. This is a flat number of posts to date. The ultimate grade will take into account persistent progress during the course (e.g., that you posted when you were supposed to and didn’t post them all at the end of the term). The number of posts to date is 26. You will write one more today and one on Monday to reach 28. |
I will not update the numbers for attendance or blog posts again in the grade book until the last day of class.
In your final exam, you will highlight your best work and argue your case for these two grades. I will share the finished assignment on Monday, 4/27, but you can look at the rough draft now.
Note that to protect your privacy, I cannot discuss your individual grades in class.
Monday, 4/27: Discussion of the reflection memo for Project 4 and the final exam. Last day of independent, in-class work.
Wednesday, 4/29 to Wednesday, 5/6: In-class presentations. Link to your presentation due by 11:55 PM the day before you present.
Wednesday, 5/6: Reflection Memo and Project 4 links due by 11:55.
Today’s reading is about moving to the organization and planning stage for your projects. Your goal today is to organize the content portion of your project, using whatever works best for you.
Mock-ups are usually used for websites, projects that are “static” (like posters or brochures), and texts that are primarily linguistic or visual in nature. Wireframes (if you’re familiar with the term) fall into this category. Be sure to use the Mock-up guidelines on p. 95 of Writer/Designer to guide your process.
Here are some possible tools:
Storyboarding is usually used for projects that move through a series of pieces, places, or points in time—like a video, comic book, or graphic novel. Be sure to use the storyboard guidelines on p. 97–98 of Writer/Designer to guide your process.
Storyboarding is, essentially, visual outlining your text, so you may be happy with creating a simple outline in Google Docs. For online tools I’ve made, I created storyboards with PowerPoint, because it was simple and I had a copy. If you do go this route, Google Slides would work too.
If you want to try something specifically created for storyboarding, take at look at these resources for creating and organizing storyboards:
Good, old paper and pencil can work for mock-ups and storyboards. There’s no reason that these planning tools have to be digitally produced. Sketch them out if you want to, but then scan them or take a photo so that you can add them to your blog on Monday.
Wednesday, 4/15: We’ll go over the highlights of Chapter 6, looking at mock-ups and storyboards. Write a blog post with with the usual headings: (1) What I Did, and (2) Why I Did It. Include whatever work you have done since your last post. Include a link to your storyboard or mockup (or embed it) in your blog. If you are already past the mock-up or storyboard stage, include whatever notes/outline you already had or add a screen shot of your project as is.
Friday, 4/17: Class will work online. You will read about how to include documentation in your projects and the requirements for your presentations. You will continue working on your project and write a blog post.
Monday, 4/20: Presentation sign-up and discussion of drafts for peer feedback.
Wednesday, 4/22: Peer Feedback Day. Have a rough version ready to share in class.
Friday, 4/24: In-class work day.
I will point out some key points from the textbook, but you will spend most of your time trying out tools and planning a timeline for your project today.
Look for support for the tools you are using on the lynda.com site, which is free with your vt.edu login. Here are some examples, based on tools you mentioned in your pitches:
There are lots of tools that you can use as you work on your remix. Use the skills you developed in the Interrogate the Interface project to decide which of these tools might be right for you. Remember that your work needs to published in a public space online, so one criteria is that the tool has to provide something you can link to or that you can upload to your WordPress site.
These tools can help if you need to fake social media updates, just don’t use them to prank people:
These web-based tools can help you publish or build your project:
We also talked about using Storify to publish a collection of social media updates as a webpage in class on Friday.
As you read and use information from Chapter 5 of Writer/Designer, pay particular attention to these details:
Table of Technology Choices on page 78.
The book explains that a multimodal project doesn’t have to be digital; however, what you make for Project 4 does have to be digital.
As you firm up your decision on what tool(s) to use, keep in mind the same questions you used to evaluate an interface in Project 3. There’s also a case study that starts on page 79 and a technology review on page 81.
Pay attention to the tips on organizing and naming your files on pages 88–89.
Consider making a short style guide for your work to ensure consistency, following the suggestions on page 89.
As part of your work in the next 24 hours, sketch out a timeline (page 91) for yourself so that you get all your work done. Please incorporate the dates on the class calendar into your timeline for the following:
Today, 4/13: Create a timeline for your project, setting up a work schedule for yourself. Write a blog post with with the usual headings: (1) What I Did, and (2) Why I Did It. Include whatever work you have done since your last post. Also include your timeline in your blog post.
Wednesday, 4/15: We’ll go over the highlights of Chapter 6, looking at mock-ups and storyboards.
Friday, 4/17: Class will work online. You will read about how to include documentation in your projects and the requirements for your presentations. You will continue working on your project and write a blog post.
Monday, 4/20: Presentation sign-up and discussion of drafts for peer feedback.
Wednesday, 4/22: Peer Feedback Day. Have a rough version ready to share in class.
Today we will listen to pitches from everyone in class. We’ll use the entire time for presentations, so be ready to go!
Today, you will share your pitch with the rest of the class, following the list of questions on p. 56 of Writer/Designer. Remember this is just an informal chat with your classmates. No reason to be nervous. Just talk loudly enough for everyone in the classroom to hear you.
Your pitch should tell us the following information:
Remember this project is graded 100% on participation. To that end, as your classmates pitch their ideas, please listen politely. Your attention should be on your classmates and not on your computer screen. As appropriate, you can ask questions about another student’s project, make suggestions, and offer support.
Today: Be ready to give your pitch to the class, in short 2-minute max explanations, following the list of questions on p. 56 of Writer/Designer.
Monday, 4/13: We’ll go over tools, timelines, and the highlights of Chapter 5. Most of the class time will be spent working on the project.
Wednesday, 4/15: We’ll go over the highlights of Chapter 6, looking at mock-ups and storyboards. Most of the class time will be spent working on the project. I will ask you to declare the primary technologies you will use in a blog post.
Friday, 4/17: Class will work online. You will read about how to include documentation in your projects and the requirements for your presentations. You will continue working on your project and write a blog post.
Today, we will talk about gathering assets for your project and the expectations for your project pitches.
You can check out the topics and requirements for the rest of the term by looking at the class calendar. Be sure to notice presentation sign-up day, peer feedback day, and presentation days. Also note the online work day scheduled for April 17.
For this project, you will need to find assets, like sound clips, video clips, photographs, cartoons, and so forth to include in your project.
NOTE: Finding assets is not a requirement for this week, but you will find it pays to keep track of possible assets that you find. Nothing is more frustrating than knowing that you saw something you could use and then not being able to find it again.
I have posted tips for finding assets for your projects on the FAQ site. Here’s the short version:
Most importantly, know that unless you take the photo, record the audio, or film an event yourself, you need to be sure that it’s okay to use it in your writing. Remember that assets you make yourself can be simple. Take advantage of your own creativity. Anything you make, you can use freely. Consider the approaches of The Christmas Snake or Don Quixote and the Giants.
You will probably also incorporate assets that you have acquired, rather than created. Work through these FAQs for details and resources, including places to find assets that you can use freely (as long as you credit your source):
You will pitch your project to the class on Friday, April 10. As Writer/Designer defines it, “A pitch is a short presentation that explains how the what and the how of your idea might come together in the final project. . . . Pitches are sometimes called elevator speeches, drawing on the idea of a writer who is on an elevator with a publisher and has only four floors to convince the publisher to accept his or her book proposal” (55).
You will have about two minutes to tell the class the story you have chosen, how you are remixing it, what form/genre you are using, what tools you will use, and how are you incorporating risk. I will display those topics on the board/screen to help you make sure you cover everything. To prepare:
Today: Write a blog post that informally proposes the story you will focus on for your remix, or in the language of Chapter 3 of Writer/Designer, “the what” you will focus on. Include the following information:
Friday, 4/10: Be ready to give your pitch to the class, in short 2-minute max explanations, following the list of questions on p. 56 of Writer/Designer.
Monday, 4/13: We’ll go over tools, timelines, and the highlights of Chapter 5. Most of the class time will be spent working on the project.
Wednesday, 4/15: We’ll go over the highlights of Chapter 6, looking at mock-ups and storyboards. Most of the class time will be spent working on the project. I will ask you to declare the primary technologies you will use in a blog post.
Friday, 4/17: Class will work online. You will read about how to include documentation in your projects and the requirements for your presentations. You will continue working on your project and write a blog post.
Class will work online. I have an ear infection, and the doctor said to stay home. For today’s class, I will provide a link to the remix assignment and to several examples.
To begin, please read all of the Project 4 assignment page. I will add dates and firm up some of the instructions next week. I will also talk about how the project is graded next week.
Review these example Remix Projects, which students completed in previous classes:
For your blog post, I want you to respond to the assignment and the examples that you reviewed. Please answer these questions. You can use each question as a heading in your post:
What makes a good remix
Based on the assignment and the examples, list some characteristics that make for strong projects. Focus on how the story is rethought, or remixed.
What makes a good digital story
Look at the 12 examples and talk about which one you felt did the best job of digitizing an existing story. Support your opinion with some details from the examples and/or some comparisons to other examples. Focus on the technology behind the story.
Stories I am considering
Brainstorm a list of 3 to 5 stories you might focus on, and say a little bit about why you are considering them. If you feel that you already know exactly what you want to focus on, you can talk about your choice. (My goal here is to help you start focusing on your project’s topic).