IN-CLASS

1. General questions.
2. In-class work on Project.

HOMEWORK

• All work due by 6:00 PM, Thursday, May 6. Project 2 & Project 4 may be burned to the same CD-Rom.
• Journals.

IN-CLASS

1. General questions.
2. Letham’s “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.”
3. Finish discussing The Medium Is the Massage.
4. Introduce and discuss Project 4: The Video Remix/Mash-up
5. In-class work.

HOMEWORK

• Continue work on Project 2: McLuhan Commonplace Prezi.
• Work on Project 4: The Video Remix/Mash-up
• Journals.

From Ars Techica is an article touching upon issues of copyright, fair use, and digital culture, especially interesting in light of Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” From the introduction to “Attack on Hitler parodies now newest front in copyright wars”:

One of the longer-lasting Internet memes in recent years has been the parody trend of the 2004 German film Der Untergang (also known as Downfall). If you have spent more than a couple of hours on the Internet over the past couple of years, you have likely seen at least one or two of these clips, and if you are an aficionado, you know that there are plenty of them. That’s why it was surprising when many of these parodies recently disappeared from YouTube thanks to Downfall producer Constantin Film. Taking advantage YouTube’s Content ID system, Constantin has decided enough is enough, and copyright advocates are calling foul. [Read more.]

For an example of the meme, see the video “English Downfall,” produced and published Kairos 13.2.

IN-CLASS

1. General questions.
2. Brief discussion of This Means This, That Means That.
3. Individually, review The Medium Is the Massage, pp. 42-93 and study questions. What questions you have about this section? What do you find interesting?
4. Discuss The Medium Is the Massage, pp. 42-93.
5. Break
6. Discuss Faigley et. al. “Picturing Texts.”
7. Share and discuss collages.
8. In-class work.

HOMEWORK

• Continue work on Project 2: McLuhan Commonplace Prezi.
• For each of the chapters in This Means This, That Means That, choose 2 concepts to apply to The Medium Is the Massage (16 concepts in all). For each concept, choose a passage in McLuhan’s book and in a paragraph or two discuss how the concept helps interpret that passage. Make sure you identify both the concept and the passage. Please post to BlueLine: Lessons –> Homework –> “This Means This, This Means That” and McLuhan dropbox.
• Read McLuhan pp. 94-135.
• Read Letham’s “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.”
• Journals.

While Prezi itself offers a number of presentation-type uses of Prezi, others are using it as a writing space. Here are two examples:

• “Writer’s Recession” by Kimberly Hampton
• “i’m like … professional” by Bonnie Kyburz

IN-CLASS

1. General questions.
2. Brief discussion of This Means This, That Means That.
3. In groups, use the “Information and/or Communication Interactions” Study Questions” to discuss Ong’s “Information and/or Communication Interactions.”
4. Watch Wesch’s video “The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version).”
5. Discuss Ong’s essay and Wesch’s video, particularly in terms our two central questions.
6. Break
7. In groups, using the “The Medium Is the Massage pp. 1-41 Study Questions” as a guide, read and discuss pages 1-41 of The Medium Is the Massage.
8. As a class, discuss The Medium Is the Massage, pp. 1-41.
9. Break
10. Preview Project 2: McLuhan Commonplace Prezi.
11. Discuss images.
12. Preview Project 3: Visual Collage.
    • Literature and New Media Collage Examples
    • Character Collage Examples
    • Visual Explication Examples
    • Writing Women Examples
13. In-class work.

HOMEWORK

• Read Faigley’s “Picturing Texts.” [Part 1.]   and “Picturing Texts.” [Part 2.] Picturing Texts. New York: Norton, 2004. 22-55.
• Read This Means This, This Means That, pp. 93-173. Please take notes and keep a list of questions you have about this reading. Email them to me by 2:00 PM, Thursday, April 15.
• Read The Medium Is the Massage to page 93. See Handouts for study questions.
• Begin Project 2: McLuhan Commonplace Prezi.
• Do Project 3: Visual Collage. Due Thursday, April 15.
• Journals.

IN-CLASS

1. General questions.
2. Notes on the course.
   • Some Definitions of Rhetoric handout
3. Peer review of Project 1.
   • Break up into groups of 3 and read your technological literacy collages out loud.
   • Before you read, let your peer-review partners know of any questions or concerns you have that you would like them to listen for and address.
   • After each collage is read, spend some time discussing what you found interesting, what you wanted to hear more about, what you think was well developed, what themes you notice, etc.
   • After all the collages in your group have been read and discussed, talk about how you drafted your collage, what you might want to change, what insight you’ve gained, etc.
4. As a class, discuss Project 1 issues.
5. Break (5 minutes).
   continue reading "25 March Daily Agenda"

Throughout our course, keep two questions in mind:

• How can digital technologies support our traditional notions of composition and compositional practices?
• How are digital technologies expanding our notions of what what composition and academic work are?

A definition

Composition: “[T]he way written texts come to be and the way they are used in the home, school, workplace, and public worlds we all inhabit.”¹

1. Lunsford, Andrea A. “Rhetoric and Composition.” Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures. 2^nd ed. Ed. Joseph Gibaldi. New York: MLA, 1992. 77-100. [↩]

IN-CLASS

1. Welcome to class.
2. Overview of course web site.
3. Preview Project 1 and discuss the concept of “technological literacy.”
4. Review the “Technological Literacy Autobiographies” handout and spend some time responding to some of them. Share and discuss some of the responses as a class.
5. Break up into groups of 3-4. Using the “Technological Literacy Autobiographies” handout as a prompt, focus on telling each other stories about your technological literacy practices and values. As you discuss your stories, think about the values and practices they illustrate, think about how you might turn some of those stories into reflection and analysis of your technological literacy practices and values, and think about how you can use detail to support your narratives, reflections, and analysis.
6. Journal topic: On the LESSONS page of our course BlueLine site, you’ll find a folder for journals. Inside the folder are seven blogs, one for each week. To keep on track, you will want to write two journal entries/week, and you can write your first one for the week in class. In 250-300 words, reflect on your group discussions today. Some questions you might address include: What did you learn? What did you find interesting? Why stories do you like best and why? What ideas came up that caught your interest? Rather than answer all these questions, your journal entry should focus on one topic. You are of course welcome to focus on other ideas or issues related to your group discussions.
7. Discuss prewriting and invention strategies.

HOMEWORK

• Read: Elbow, Peter. “Your Cheatin’ Art: A Collage.” Everyone Can Write: Essays Toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. 300-314.
• Read: Ong, Walter J. “Information and/or Communication Interactions.” Communication Research Trends 16.3 (1996): 3-17.
• Journals.

On the Assignments page, you will find the following material for Project 1:

• Project 1 Guidelines: An overview of the assignment, including objectives, specific requirements, suggestions on how to proceed, and due dates.
• Project 1 Rubric: The evaluation rubric I will use when providing feedback on the project.
• “Main Assignment: A Collage about You as a Writer and How You Write“: A handout from a composition textbook that provides a general overview of how to produce a written collage. Note that their assignment is to write about oneself as a writer and ours asks you to write about your technological literacy practices and values.
• “Technological Literacy Autobiographies“: A set of questions from a technological literacy autobiography assignment. These questions are intended to help you think about your technological literacy and practices and values. Answering the questions will help you think about the subject, but simply answering the questions won’t be enough for the finished project.
• Professor Walter’s Technological Literacy Collage: My own technological literacy collage, written in response to the same assignment guidelines as you are.
• Commentary on Professor Walter’s Technological Literacy Collage: A short description of how I composed the collage.

A few thoughts about writing good collage passages

A good passage will go beyond simple facts. What is significant about the fact your parents read to you every night? What was your favorite book and why? What did you get out of playing World of Warcraft six hours/day during your second year of high school? If you’re writing a narrative, provide details. If your goal is to reflect on a particular practice or value, spend some time teasing out ideas. If you’re providing analysis, provide specific reasons to support your claims.

If you’re feeling uncomfortable about writing a collage

• Read over my technological literacy collage and the commentary on it. Pay attention to how I develop ideas.
• Read Elbow’s “Your Cheatin’ Art: A Collage.” You need to read it for next class anyway, and I have assigned it because it is a written collage about written collages. That is, Elbow’s piece is both a discussion of how to compose a written collage and an example of what a written collage might look like.
• Start by telling stories. Just write about moments or ideas related to how you read, write, and exchange information, keeping in mind that we are defining technological literacy broadly. You’ll produce more text than you need, but that’s the point. You are using composition to explore, to “assay” the subject of your technological literacy values and practices. (Note that our word essay comes from the word assay. Essays, as a genre, began as written compositions that explored an idea, the purpose of which was to “try out,” “attempt,” or “test” an idea.)
• Once you’ve told some stories, write some passages that reflect on various ideas or issues that arise during your story telling.