About the Course Calendar (updated 10/7/15)
Texts are to be read/watched/listened to for day they are listed. For example, Robinson is to be watched for Wednesday, 8/26. Homework in addition to listed readings will be presented in yellow. The schedule is subject to change; it is your responsibility to check it regularly.
Week One: Introductions
M 8/24: Introductions to course; listen to Part Six of This American Life Episode 109. Notes on Camp (starts at 37.48).
Assignment for Wednesday, 8/26
Click through the course web site, getting familiar with the layout and read the Syllabus carefully. Come to class with any questions you might have.If you do not yet have a Twitter account, please sign up for one at http://twitter.com. Twitter works best (especially for our purposes) when the username is professional and you are authentic. For example, my username is: billwolff (http://twitter.com/billwolff), and I use my full name to show who I am. My account is unlocked. Please sign up with a professional username and keep your account unlocked. We’ll be using Twitter in a professional way so there is no need to keep anything private. Make sure you have your username with you. The shorter the username the better and please avoid underscores (_); they are hard to type on smartphones.
Create an Instagram account, as well, if you don’t yet have one.
If you do not have a portfolio page on your web site, please create one and add a menu link to it. If you already have one, just make sure it’s working okay. Create a password-protected In-Progress page on your web site and add a menu link. Make the password “digf15.” You will post in-progress work to this page and the password will give Bill access. If you would like, the page and work can be removed after final grades have been submitted.
Read “Bloom Like an Artist” by Ida Eva Margrethe Neverdahl.
Update: If you have let your COM 200 web site domain expire, please re-register it (or create a new one) with Reclaim Hosting, which is $25 for a year. Make your domain name professional and easily identified with you, like williamwolff.org is identified with me. Choose a .com or .net domain, not .org. If you did not create a web site with your own domain name in COM 200, please let me know.
To create an account and install WordPress, you can follow this tutorial”
W 8/26: Introductions to each other; “Bloom Like an Artist” by Ida Eva Margrethe Neverdahl
Assignment for Friday, 8/28
Please read Radio: An Illustrated Guide and Ira Glass on Transom. Search the This American Life web site, find, and tweet an episode you think particularly represents what Glass described in the Illustrated Guide and on Transom. Remember to add the #digf15 hashtag and be prepared to discuss it.
F 8/28: Abel, J., and Glass, I. (2012). Radio: An Illustrated Guide (see Readings page) and Ira Glass on Transom.
Week Two: Unit I (Updated)
Assignment for 8/31 (UPDATED)
Readpages 1 – 45 in Documentary Storytelling andRadioLab: An Appreciation by Ira Glass and Julie Shapiro on Sound Art (be sure to listen to the examples in the text). Listen to the first 7.41 of the Stochasticity episode of RadioLab:
Note: The first 30 seconds or so is an ad. Then the introduction starts.Please read the Social Media assignment and start tweeting with the #digf15 hashtag.
M 8/31: Julie Shapiro on Sound Art; RadioLab: An Appreciation by Ira Glass; audio-storytelling-questions.pdf
Hand out the Social Media assignment
W 9/2: Documentary Storytelling Part 1 Understanding Story pages 15-45
Hand out Unit I: Audio assignment
Assignment for Friday 8/4
Listen to:
Read Ch 14 in Documentary Storytelling and Rosenthal, Before the First Question.Install the free audio editor, Audacity, on your laptop/computer and bring your laptop to class on Friday. If you don’t have a laptop, one will be provided for you. Follow the tutorial on how to important and add audio, and add the audio recorded in class on Monday (if you don’t have a laptop, be sure to have the audio with you on Friday).
Explore the following sites in preparation for some experimentation in class on Friday: Re:Sound, Archive.org, and Freesound.org. Tweet some interesting sounds you find.
F 8/4: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. Documentary Storytelling Ch 14 “Storytelling: A Checklist”; Rosenthal, Before the First Question Sound Play: Re:Sound, Archive.org, Freesound.org, jamendo.com
Week Three: Unit I (updated)
Sunday, 9/6: Audio Proposal Due on in-progress page of your web site by noon
M 9/7: Labor Day, no classes
W 9/9: Documentary Storytelling Part 1 Understanding Story 47 – 91, “Narration and Voice-Over”
F 9/11: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. Sound Play; Nancy Updike on Transom; Rosenthal, Barf Draft with an iPhone; Rosenthal, Story Dissection, “Dead Animal Man” (note: 29 minutes; this is an episode that dissects an Ira Glass story about a man who cleans up deceased animals along highways)
Sound Play: Re:Sound, Archive.org, Freesound.org, jamendo.com
Audio Rough Draft #1 handed out
Week Four: Unit I
Assignment for Monday, 9/14
Conduct your interview(s) for your Audio Project. Begin playing around with Audacity if you haven’t already. There are several tutorials listed on the Resources page, which I encourage you to use.
M 9/14: Work on Audacity.
W 9/16: In-class critique
Audio Rough Draft and notes reflection #1 due by 12:00 noon on SoundCloud the in-progress page of your web site.
Hand Out Audio Rough Draft #2 Assignment
F 9/18: President Reed’s Inauguration; Classes canceled
Week Five: Unit I
Sunday, 9/20: Audio Rough Draft and reflection #2 and transcript due by 11:00pm. on the in-progress page of your web site Upload audio to SoundCloud and email link and transcript to BW.
M 9/21: Class canceled for individual conferences
W 9/23: Class canceled for individual conferences
F 9/25: The Pope’s in Town; Classes Canceled
Week six: Unit 2
Sunday, 9/27: Audio Final Draft, transcript, and reflection, and portfolio blurb due by 11:00pm on the portfolio page of your web site.
M 9/28: 7 Stages of Digital Storytelling (PDF) Chapters 1 – 4; DIGF15 In-Class Audio Story Listening Festival
W 9/30: 7 Stages of Digital Storytelling (PDF) Chapters 1 – 4; TED Talk Joe Lambert
Assignment for Friday, 10/2
Please read the Introduction to 7 Stages of Digital Storytelling (if you haven’t already) and the article, “Remembrance,” by Annette Kuhn (on the Readings page). Try to find a photograph of you taken by someone else when you were younger. It should be a photograph you remember being taken or one that you have been told quite a bit of back story about. You don’t need the original; you can have a digital version that someone emails you.
F 10/2: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. Photo Play; 7 Stages of Digital Storytelling (PDF) Introduction; Kuhn (1991, 2003) (see Readings page) [note, this incorrectly said Kelly earlier today]
Week Seven: Unit 2
M 10/5: 7 Stages of Digital Storytelling (PDF) Chapters 5 – 7; Travel and Street Photography Ch 3: Finding the Light; examples TBD
Homework for Wednesday, 10/7
Please complete the story assignment started in class using GoogleDrive. You can access your story through the GoogleDoc you were invited to. If you have any questions, please let me know. We will be using the story and associated notes and images in class on Wednesday.
W 10/7: GoogleDoc fron Monday; Travel and Street Photography Ch 4: Composition
Hand out Project 2: First Person Story
F 10/9: Travel and Street Photography Ch 4: Composition
Meet in first floor of Bronstein. Photo Play; Lighting, Weather, and the Subject; Depth of Field Examples
Hand out First-Person Audio and Photo Assignment
Assignment for Wednesday, 10/14
Between class on Friday and class on Wednesday, I’d like you to tweet 5 photos you take. I’d like you to choose 1 of the 7 colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). Each of your photos should showcase that color in whatever shade it takes. Each photo should feature a different compositional technique, as discussed by Bartoff. I’d also like you to tweet 2 black and white photographs that exhibit a particular emotion. Remember to use the #digf15 hashtag.When making your photos, use Aperture mode on your camera; do not use flash. Try to tweet one per day and not all at once just before class. In your tweet, describe what you are photographing, the compositional feature, the emotion (if any), as well as the ISO, F-stop, and shutter-speed.
Week Eight: Unit 2
M 10/12: Fall Break; No Classes
W 10/14: Travel and Street Photography Chs 6 and 7
Hand out Project 2: First Person Story
F 10/16: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. More Photo Play
Week Nine: Unit 2
M 10/19: First person story proposal due; work on proposals
First Person Story and reflection rough draft 1 due on in-progress page of your web site by 12:00 noon
W 10/21: BW at a conference; class canceled
F 10/23: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. in-class critiques
First Person Story rough draft 1 due online by 12:00 noon
Week Ten: Unit 2
M 10/26: Class canceled for individual conferences
First Person Story draft #2 due online by 12:00 noon
W 10/28: Class canceled for individual conferences
F 10/30: Class canceled for individual conferences
Week Eleven: Unit 3
M 11/2: Digital Storytelling Chapters 1-4
Final First Person Story and reflection due online by 11:00pm
W 11/4: Digital Storytelling Chapters 5-8
F 11/6: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. Scripting and Storyboarding
Hand out Project 3: Stories of Change
Week Twelve: Unit 3
Assignment for 11/9
Please read and come to class ready to discuss Perks and Thompson, “Part I Critical Developments in Oral History” (the quality is a bit poor in this; if I find my book I’ll be able to add a better version); Haley, “Black History, Oral History, and Geneology”; Thompson, “The Voice of the Past”; and Sangster, “Telling Our Stories” Feminist Debates and the use of Oral History” (see the readings page).
M 11/9: On oral history and social change; digf15-oh-questions-pt1.pdf
Assignment for 11/11
Please read and come to class ready to discuss Portelli, “What Makes Oral History Different?” and Studs Terkel with Tony Parker, “Interviewing an Interviewer” (see the Readings page) Please listen to three of Studs Turkel’s oral history interviews with Dawn Kelly:
Joseph Moore:
and Leola Spann:
W 11/11: On oral history and social change
Assignment for 11/13
Please watch at least the first 35 minutes of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts:
F 11/13: Meet in first floor of Bronstein. interviewing and oral history
Week Thirteen: Unit 3 (Interview week) (updated 11/13/15)
M 11/16: TBD
W 11/18: TBD
F 11/20: video editing day; class not meeting
Week Fourteen: Unit 3
M 11/23: Bronstein Q&A Day
Stories of Change rough draft 1 (2 – 4 minutes) due on YouTube by class time
W 11/25: Thanksgiving Break; No Classes
F 11/27: Thanksgiving Break; No Classes
Week Fifteen: Unit 3
M 11/30: TBD
W 12/2: Class canceled for individual conferences
Stories of Change draft #2 due by noon on YouTube
F 12/4: Class canceled for individual conferences
Week Sixteen: Unit 3
M 12/7: last day of class
Tuesday, 12/8: Final Story of Change and reflection due by 11:00pm