Class Notes

Working on Project 2

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This is the post for the October 3, 2014 class meeting.

Important Dates

  • October 8: Draft of P2 due in class for Peer Review
  • October 13, 15, or 17: Presentation Days (no grace period)
  • October 17: P2: Interrogate the Interface web essay due
  • October 24: P2: Interrogate the Interface deadline (end of grace period)

Today’s Work

Interrogation cat wants answersToday you will have most of the class session to work on Project 2. My goal is to move around the classroom and visit with each one of you to see where you are in the project and answer any questions that I can. If we run out of time before I visit with everyone, we will continue on Monday.

At the end of the session, please write a blog post that talks about the work you have done on Project 2 so far. Use the “What I Did” and “Why I Did It” headings. If you filled out the Writer/Designer Analysis Questions, include a share link in your blog post so I can see what you’ve done so far. It can be a link to your working file. It doesn’t have to be completely finished.

Reminders on Taking Screenshots

You’ll need screenshots of the interface you are evaluating in your web essay and presentation. Here’s a reminder on how to take them.

On a Mac: Use Command + Shift + 3. The screenshot usually shows up on your Desktop, with a name like “Screen Shot 2014-10-03 at 9.29.31 AM.” You can edit the image (crop it, etc.) if you like. You may also have an app called Grab, which will let you select a specific portion of the screen (rather than the whole page). Look for Grab in the Applications folder and then in the Utilities folder.

On Windows 8: Use Windows Key + Print Screen. You can also use the Snippings Tool (also on Windows 7), which will let you select a specific portion of the screen (rather than the whole page).

Homework/Schedule

M, 10/6: You will have time to work on your second project in class. I’ll share some additional resources, and have a quick conference with each of you to answer any questions. Please be sure to check email before class on Monday.

W, 10/8: You’ll exchange Project 2 drafts and complete peer review in class.

F, 10/10: Fall Break

M, W, F 10/13–10/17: Presentations in Class. You will write a short blog post for each day, based on the presentations that took place that day. Remember to send me the URL to your presentation by midnight the day before you present so that I can set up the presentation links for the session.


 
Last updated on 3rd October, 2014, 1:24 AM

Class Notes

No More Boring Presentations

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notfridayThis is the post for the October 1, 2014 class meeting.

Today, we’ll sign up for presentation time slots and talk about the expectations for the Project 2 presentations. If you haven’t posted your memes, please get them online!

Presentation Sign-Up

Sign-up for a presentation slot for sharing your tool with the class, using the Sign-Up Tool in Scholar. The slots open at 10:15 AM. Go ahead and log into Scholar and be ready to click sign-up when the form opens.

Qualities of an Awesome Presentation

Hop on over to the Presentation Padlet, and add at least two things that make a slideshow presentation fail (or two things that make it fantastic). Put the negatives on the left and the positives on the right. Try not to duplicate ideas.

Details on the Five-Minute Presentations

Why? The goal of these presentations is to share details about the tool you are analyzing with the class. By the end of the presentations, everyone in class should know enough about all 24 tools to be able to decide whether the tools will would work for other projects we do.

How Long? Five minutes, strictly enforced. Please practice at home to make sure that you fill the time without going over.

How? I encourage you to use a Google Drive Presentation because of its flexibility and accessibility, but you may use other tools if you want. No matter what tool you choose, it has to be available online to everyone in the class. You can embed it or upload it to your WordPress site. Remember to send me the URL to your presentation by midnight the day before you present so that I can set up the presentation links for the session.

What? Review the information in the assignment on the content for the presentation. Also check the information in the Assessment Guidelines. Generally speaking, I expect your slideshow to include the following:

  • A title slide with your name, the name of the tool, and the URL to the tool site.
  • Overview slides that show what the tool is, who would use it, and what it does.
  • Analysis slides that demonstrate the affordances and constraints and that offer general recommendations on using the tool.
  • A concluding slide that pulls your thoughts together.

If you are working toward an A, remember that your presentation needs to use the 1/1/5 organizational strategy (using no more than 15 slides) to present the information to the class. As the linked article explains, “you must have at least one image per slide, you can use each exact image only once, and you should add no more than five words per slide.”

How many? I’m leaving the exact length up to you; however, you may not have more than 15 slides. Plan to spend no more than 20 seconds per slide (15 slides * 20 seconds each = 300 seconds/5 mins) to avoid exceeding your allotted five minutes.

Dressing for Your Presentation

You need to wear clothes for your presentation, but you do not need to wear your job interview clothes. The regular clothes you wear to class are fine. Just use common sense, and avoid anything that may be distracting or somehow undercut your credibility.

Homework/Schedule

F & M, 10/3 & 10/6: You will have time to work on your second project in class. I’ll share some additional resources, and have a quick conference with each of you to answer any questions. Please be sure to check email before class on Monday.

W, 10/8: You’ll exchange Project 2 drafts and complete peer review in class.


 
Last updated on 1st October, 2014, 7:08 PM

Class Notes

Memes and Animation

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This is the post for the September 29, 2014 class meeting.

It’s more on memes today!

Important Dates

  • October 1: Sign up for a presentation time slot in class
  • October 8: Draft of P2 due in class for Peer Review
  • October 13, 15, or 17: Presentation Days (no grace period)
  • October 17: P2: Interrogate the Interface web essay due
  • October 24: P2: Interrogate the Interface deadline (end of grace period)

Reviewing Memes from Last Week

We will begin by looking at the memes you created last week and posted on your blogs. Keep in mind the short definitions from the slideshow on the modes of communication, design choices, and rhetorical situation.

Considering Animated Memes

The memes you made last week used visual, linguistic, and spatial modes to convey a message. What happens when you add the gestural mode? Make an animated GIF, using one of these options (or a tool of your choosing):

Follow the same basic guidelines for keeping the GIF clean and classroom appropriate. Post what you create on your blog and add a description that tells us what you were trying to do, how well it worked, and how/if the addition of the gestural mode changed the way you designed your GIF. You only have to try today. Don’t worry if your animated GIF doesn’t sweep the Internet.

Homework/Schedule

W, 10/1: We’ll talk about the expectations for the oral presentation (and how to avoid bad slideshow presentations) and you will sign up for your oral presentation time slot. To prepare for class, think of two things that make a slideshow presentation fail (or two things that make it fantastic). I will ask you to share your observations at the beginning of class.

F & M, 10/3 & 10/6: You will have time to work on your second project in class. I’ll share some additional resources, and have a quick conference with each of you to answer any questions.

W, 10/8: You’ll exchange Project 2 drafts and complete peer review in class.


 
Last updated on 29th September, 2014, 2:33 AM

Class Notes

Meme What You Say

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This is the post for the September 26, 2014 class meeting.

Today we are going to talk about memes: how they are made, why they work, and why they sometimes fail. I have shared the Notes on the Project 2 Web Essays on Google Drive.

Important Dates

  • October 1: Sign up for a presentation time slot in class
  • October 8: Draft of P2 due in class for Peer Review
  • October 13, 15, or 17: Presentation Days (no grace period)
  • October 17: P2: Interrogate the Interface web essay due
  • October 24: P2: Interrogate the Interface deadline (end of grace period)

Choosing Your Interface

If you have not yet done so, go to the Project 2 Sign-Up and choose one of the remaining tools for your project. Remember you are governed by the Honor Code (so don’t remove someone else’s name to add your own).

Introduction to Memes

Wrong font on a paper? Zero!For today, I asked you to read the Introduction to Memes and explore some of the links on the page. A meme can be anything—an image, a catch phrase, a video clip, a gesture. For our purposes today, we will think specifically about the image memes that you frequently see online. If your Facebook News Feed is like mine, you see this type of meme all the time.

What I would like to do is look at some original versions of some memes and apply what we know about multimodal composing to how they work. We’ll use the short definitions from the slideshow I shared last session to work through some examples.

Meme Guidelines

I want each of you to create a meme image that you will publish on your blog (and elsewhere if you like). Your audience will be other students at Virginia Tech (or all college students generally). Your purpose will depend upon what topic you choose to focus your image on (e.g., to be entertaining, to draw attention to something on campus, to correct a myth/misunderstanding).

There are a few important guidelines:

  1. Please keep the image clean. No inappropriate images of naughty, naked bits or bloody, gory things please.
  2. R-rated language can be okay if it fits the message. Explicit descriptions of things done with naked bits are not.
  3. Try to work within the Virginia Tech Principles of Community. Nothing racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.

Beyond those guidelines, you can do what you want. If you aren’t sure, you can always ask me.

Making Your Memes

There are two ways to go about this activity.

  1. You can begin by choosing a topic. Your meme could focus on something about campus, classes you are taking, or special events taking place recently. You can make a “What I really do” meme. If you want to get out and about, you might try contributing to one of the Photo Fad memes (think planking, owling, or Tebowing). You can focus on things unrelated to campus and being a student as well.
  2. You can begin by looking at existing memes. You can look at the memes on any of the sites linked below to see what other people have done, and then when inspiration hits, go with it. Do realize that you may happen upon inappropriate images and messages.

These tools all help you make memes. They are generally the same. You can play with the different tools to see is one offers you an affordance that will help you:

If you want to play a bit, feel free to make more than one meme image. Post them all on your blog, but tell us which one is your favorite in the linguistic text of your post.I’d love to see evidence that you took some risks and tried multiple options.

Also, if you’re interested in LOLcats, be sure to check out “Cats Can Has Grammar.”

Homework/Schedule

M, 9/29: Write a blog post that shares the meme you make. You can also share your meme online, wherever you like (e.g., your Facebook timeline). We will go through the examples in class on Monday.

W, 10/1: We’ll talk about the expectations for the oral presentation (and how to avoid bad PowerPoint presentations) and you will sign up for your oral presentation time slot.

F & M, 10/3 & 10/6: You will have time to work on your second project in class. I’ll share some additional resources, and have a quick conference with each of you to answer any questions.

W, 10/8: You’ll exchange Project 2 drafts and complete peer review in class.

 


 
Last updated on 26th September, 2014, 9:32 AM

Class Notes

Examples for Project 2

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This is the post for the September 24, 2014 class meeting.

What group work teachesToday we will look at some resources for Project 2, assessment guidelines for the project, and some examples for the web essay portion of Project 2.

Important Dates

  • October 1: Sign up for a presentation time slot
  • October 8: P2 draft due in class for Peer Review
  • October 13, 15, or 17: P2 presentations
  • October 17: P2 web essay due
  • October 24: P2 web essay deadline

Choosing Your Interface

If you have not yet done so, go to the Project 2 Sign-Up and choose one of the remaining tools for your project. Remember you are governed by the Honor Code (so don’t remove someone else’s name to add your own).

Gathering Details for Project 2

I have a slideshow that includes short definitions of the major components of your evaluation that you can use as you work. You can make a copy of a blank version of the Writer/Designer Analysis Questions that we used to analyze WordPress.com by following these steps:

  1. Open the blank version of Writer/Designer Analysis Questions. (If it asks you to login, use your vt.edu email login.)

  2. Under the File menu, choose Make a Copy command. Give the file a new name if you like in the box that pops up:
    make-a-copy

  3. Click the OK button, and Google Docs will open a version of the document with the name you have chosen.

You can probably find the file later by going to the top folder in your Google Drive (in other words, My Drive). If you have trouble, use the search tool to look for the file on your drive. Once you find it, you can find the name of the folder that it is in after the filename (indicated by the mouse pointer in the example below):
file-location

Examples for Project 2

The assessment guidelines for Project 2 outline what you need to do in your projects to earn the grade you are aiming for. Essentially, the movement from a C to a B to an A has to do with increasing sophistication with how you integrate the different modes of communication, the design of the web essay, and the balance on text and images in your oral presentation.

The example web essays included in the Project 2 assignment demonstrate how some students worked on the assignment in the past. Note, however, that the students did not have exactly the same assessment guidelines that you do. I will arrange the class into four small groups.

  1. The Video Star Verdict
  2. Haiku Deck
  3. Editorially
  4. PowToon

Each group will answer the following questions for the essay and prepare to share their findings with the class as a whole at the end of the session:

  • What are three good things about the project? What should not be changed? Why is it good?
  • What three suggestions do you have to improve the site?
  • What three lessons can you take away from the example as you work on your own project?

Have one group member take notes online and email your group’s notes to me by the end of the session. I will compile all the advice into one document and share it on Friday.

Homework

For Friday, the 26th, read the Introduction to Memes and explore some of the links on the page. We’ll discuss memes and make some in class. Be aware that some memes are in questionable taste and/or offensive stereotypes.

For next week, we’ll talk about the expectations for the oral presentation (and how to avoid bad PowerPoint presentations), and perhaps talk about working with screenshots as well as maybe do some more work with memes.


 
Last updated on 3rd October, 2014, 1:13 AM

Class Notes

Project 2 Sign-Up and Analysis Techniques

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This is the post for the September 22, 2014 class meeting.

You chose wisely, from Indiana Jones and the Last CrusadeYou will sign up for your interface for Project 2, and then we will return to the analysis we were working on Friday.

Important Dates

  • October 1: Sign up for a presentation time slot
  • October 8: Draft of P2 due for Peer Review
  • October 13, 15, or 17: Presentation Days
  • October 17: P2 web essay due
  • October 24: P2 deadline (end of grace period)

Choosing Your Interface

Once everyone appears to have settled in, I will ask you to log into your VT Gmail account. Doing so will mean you’re signed into Google Docs too and can comment on the sign up sheet. Once everyone is logged in, I will open up the Project 2 Sign-Up, and you will add your names. Remember you are governed by the Honor Code.

Analyzing WordPress.com

We will go back to the Writer/Designer Analysis Questions on WordPress.com from Friday, and work through the details. My goal is to model the process of gathering information that you can follow as you work on Project 2.

Today’s Blog Post

Write a post for today that talks about the tool you will focus on for Project 2. Explain what tool you will work on, and why you chose it.

Please focus on why it was one of your choices, what drew you to it, and why you want to explore it. Please do NOT spend this post whining about how it wasn’t your first choice or similiar misfortunes.

Homework

For Wednesday, the 24th, read all of the example web essays included in the Project 2 assignment. Be ready to talk about how they work, what they do well, and lessons you can take away as you work on your own project.

For Friday, the 26th, read the Introduction to Memes and explore some of the links on the page. We’ll discuss memes and make some in class.


 
Last updated on 22nd September, 2014, 12:14 AM