About the Course Calendar
Each week will contain an introductory video I have created that explains the work for the week. It will also contain links to what needs to be read or watched, as well as links to any new assignments any Discussion and Design Journal prompts. My goal is to have the video and assignment for the following week posted the Thursday or Friday prior. The schedule is subject to change; it is your responsibility to check it regularly.
Jump to a week: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
Video and Assignment of the Week: Week FIFTEEN
Week Fifteen Video
Assignment for Week Fifteen
The assignment for week 15 is to continue working on the Final Semester Assignment. The assignment page includes all the details.I have posted the final submission details, which includes the requirements on the final presentation video and grading rubric.
The final assignment is due Monday, 12/18 by 5:00pm.
On Wednesday, 12/13 and Thursday, 12/14, between 1:00 and 2:00 each, I will be on the class Zoom space to meet with students who would like some feedback on drafts of their final work. I will be sending around a signup sheet, so look for that. If those times won’t work for you but you would still like to meet, please email me and let me know what days and times might work.
Discussion and Design Journal Entry
There is nothing to post in the Discussion and Design Journal this week.If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week One (8/28 – 9/1): Introduction to the Course
Week One Video
The video covers:
0:00: Welcome and introductory remarks
2:00: The components of the course website
3:50: Reviewing the course syllabus
13:20: The assignment for the week
Assignment for Week One
We’re going to get started pretty slowly this week just to make sure I can work out any asynchronous kinks that might occur. So, just a few little assignments and then we’ll get going next week.
Please read through the course web site carefully and post two questions you have about it to this anonymous form:
https://forms.gle/EaqmsFTJBrpVJ8Dg6
If you have yet to complete the confidential Start of Semester survey I emailed last week, please do.
I would also like you to read through the Weekly Discussion and Design Journal Assignment. On Monday, I shared with each of you a GoogleDoc you will use for that assignment. We’ll start using it next week, but just so I know you have received it, please add your name and email in the appropriate location in the document.
On Monday, I also shared with each of you a GoggleDoc where I’d like you to add some background info about your learning up to this point in your educational career. This information will remain between me and each individual student.
Please complete the above work by Thursday, August 31 at 11:00pm.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to email me.
Week Two (9/4 – 9/8): Evolution of the Alphabet and the Future of Languages
M: Labor Day
Week Two Video
This video introduces the concepts that will be covered in the work we complete during week 2. Specifically, the video discusses:
0:00: Introductory Remarks
0:55: About the reading from The Story of Writing
2:30: About the documentary Language Matters with Bob Holman
4:05: Connections to Sand Talk
6:00: Where to find the assignment and writing the work for your Weekly Discussion and Design Journal
Assignment for Week Two: Due Thursday, 9/7 at 11:00pm
The assignment for this week will get us started thinking about communication, focusing specifically on the history of writing and the fragile future for many of the world’s languages. In doing so, you will be introduced one of the main concepts of the semester: the technologies we use — and language is one of the main technologies we use daily — are not neutral. That is, embedded within them are complex histories, social hierarchies, politics, and human biases, to name a few impactful structures.Don’t wait until the last minute to start this work, as it will take time.
To begin, I’d like you read selections from Andrew Robinson’s wonderful book, The Story of Writing. You can download a PDF of the selections on the Readings and Texts page (the password is in the email I sent to the class earlier in week 1). The reading ends with the Greeks, but you can see the continued evolution of writing that led to the Latin alphabet in the below image created by Matt Baker:
(As I was preparing this assignment, my 10 and 12 year old boys saw that graphic and decided to write their names in Proto-Sinaitic. You might try the same!)
Robinson’s book is wonderful because it presents nuanced facts incredibly well and has excellent evidence to illuminate the points he is making. But, it does not contain much in terms of the social, political, and ethical implications of how languages evolved. That is exactly what director David Grubin presents in the fascinating documentary, Language Matters with Bob Holman, released on PBS in 2015. The documentary is 1 hour 50 minutes long and I strongly recommend you watch the entire thing. But, if you are pressed for time, fast forwarding between 0:55:45 and 1:09:40 won’t cause you to miss anything truly vital. You can find a link to the documentary on the Readings and Texts page (to watch it you will need to log in with your SJU email and password).
For your first Weekly Discussion Journal entry, I’d like to respond to the following prompt:
I’d like to think think about how the reading and documentary reveal how writing and language are not neutral (as I wrote above) and how the structures embedded within them have impacted the societies where those languages are spoken and written. Please refer to and/or cite both the Robinson reading and the documentary (which very nicely comes with a full transcript).
Don’t forget to complete the Discussion and the Reflection.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Three (9/11 – 9/15): Writing as a Technology
Week Three Video
Assignment for Week Three
The assignment for week three is going to move us from the evolution of the alphabet and the implications of language loss to the evolution of print. W’ll be watching videos on the subjects of moveable type, which was invented in China, the Gutenberg printing press, the last press in the United States that uses traditional hand-crafted printing methods, and the invention of word processing. To contextualize those videos, we’ll be reading sort selections from Jay David Bolter’s book, Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (2001), which can be found on the Readings and Texts page.Please complete the work in the following order: read Bolter, “Writing as a Technology.” Then, watch the four videos. Then read Bolter, “Remediation.”
The four videos to watch are:
- Wooden movable-type printing of China
- How a Gutenberg printing press works
- How Books Are Handmade At The Last Printing Press Of Its Kind In The US
- 1968 “Mother of All Demos” by SRI’s Doug Engelbart and Team
In the video I promised to add some links, so here they are:
- The Gutenberg Bible
- Arion Press
- Soapbox Community Printshop and Zine Library
- The Mother of All Demos
For your second Discussion Journal entry, please respond to the following prompt by Thursday, September 14, at 11:00pm:
On page 19, Bolter writes: “The technical and cultural dimensions of writing are so intricately related that it is not useful to try to separate them: together they constitute writing as a technology.” Try to break that sentence down a bit. What does Bolter mean by “technical and cultural dimensions of writing”? Why and how are they so “intricately related”? Think about how you might see that represented in the evolution of print as depicted in the videos. What do those changes say about the changes in human culture (don’t make assumptions about differences between nationalities) from the time when humans first invented moveable type to Engelbart’s 1968 presentation? Why do you think some people still enjoy using traditional methods?
There are lot of questions in that prompt and you don’t need to address them all. Just go where your ideas take you, ensuring that you are discussing the videos in terms of Bolter’s ideas.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Four (9/18 – 9/22): Social Media, Algorithms, and AI
Week Four Video
Assignment for Week Four
The assignment for week four is going to leap-frog us from the invention of word processing, which is where we ended in week three, to our contemporary social media moment.In the years leading up to the invention of social media, internet scholars and technology critics lauded the democratic, egalitarian possibilities of the internet, calling it, as Harold Rheingold did in 1993, a “virtual community” where the technology that hosts it “has the potential to bring enormous leverage to ordinary citizens at relatively little cost–intellectual leverage, social leverage, commercial leverage, and most important, political leverage.” But, Rheingold warned, “The same tool, improperly controlled and wielded, could become an instrument of tyranny. The vision of a citizen-designed, citizen-controlled worldwide communications network is a version of technological utopianism that could be called the vision of ‘the electronic agora.’ In the original democracy, Athens, the agora was the marketplace, and more–it was where citizens met to talk, gossip, argue, size each other up, find the weak spots in political ideas by debating about them. But another kind of vision could apply to the use of the Net in the wrong ways, a shadow vision of a less utopian kind of place.”
The work for this week will ask us to look into that “less utopian kind of place” and see what we think about what we see.
Toward that end, I’d like you to read three articles and watch one documentary (links on the Readings and Texts page) in chronological order:
- Hatzipanagos (2018) on online hate (from The Washington Post)
- Noble (2018) on the algorithms (from her book, Algorithms of Oppression) (Note that this reading analyzes the social and racial implications of Google search results of innocuous terms, such as “Black girls” and “Latina girls,” that resulted in sexualized language and references to pornographic depictions of women)
- The Social Dilemma (2020) documentary
- Bogost (2022) on ChatGTP (from The Atlantic)
For your third Discussion Journal entry, please respond to the following prompt by Thursday, September 21, at 11:00pm:
I’d like you to think about the implications for us as human beings and global citizens as a result of what we read and watched for this week, particularly in terms of the control that technology has over our lives.
We started this semester thinking about whether technology is neutral or not, but the texts for today suggest the question: how can we ever not be consumed by or manipulated or controlled by the information technologies that we use every second of the day (some even when we sleep as they monitor our breathing).
There are many cliched answers here — “the good outweighs the bad,” “I’m not addicted,” “here’s nothing we can do about it because all my friends and family use it” — and so on. Avoid all these, and more.
I want to read truly what you think about the way that these technologies, shape our actions, alter our livelihoods, and impact whether we live or die. (We’re a long way from moveable type….)
Please cite the texts in our discussion. And remember, feel free to exceed the word count.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Five (9/25 – 9/29): Copyright; Intro to Graphic Design and the Grid; Draft 1
Week FIVE Video
Assignment for Week Five
The assignment for week five is going to get us started on our first major project, the Design Assignment. In this assignment you will be learning about and putting into practice the fundamentals of graphic design. The project will be completed over a series of weeks, with each week’s work building on the prior week, resulting in very different drafts from week to week. It will be, I hope, a challenging and fun assignment to complete.By the end of this week you will have complete Draft 1.
Please note there is a lot of content this week, which will require you to complete it over a period of days. Do not attempt to complete it in one sitting.
Preparing for the Assignment: Copyright
To prepare for the assignment I’d like you to watch two videos and read one short article on copyright. We’re learning about copyright because understanding the concept is essential for all creators and because for Design Assignment we will be using material obtained from the web. Knowing what material we can use and why is important. You work falls under the heading of Fair Use. The videos and text are:
- The History and Philosophy of Copyright
- Understanding Copyright, Public Domain, and Fair Use
- The US Copyright Office says an AI can’t copyright its art
Completing the Assignment
Once you have completed the Copyright work, I’d like you to read the Design Assignment. You’ll see an overview of the assignment and then the first of what will be several specific weekly assignments. You are to complete all of the steps under the Week 5: Graphic Design Fundamentals and Draft 1 heading. I have created 2 tutorials for you and there are also several videos to watch. They all must be watched in order to complete the assignment.Discussion and Design Journal Entry
This week will be the first of several weeks that feature design work in your Discussion and Design Journal. See the assignment for specifics of what to include in Design entries. Use the same Discussion and Design Journal GoogleDoc you have been using all semester, but follow the Design guidelines in the assignment:Design entries are to be completed during the weeks when you are working on your designs (or photographs). Each Design entry will have two sections, the Designs and the Reflection:
- The Designs: This entry should include 3 screenshots of various stages of the design (or photography) work you have completed and a 30 – 50 word description directly under or above each screenshot of what you were trying to achieve in each example. In your description, highlight various design (or photography) techniques you were attempting to employ.
- The Reflection: In 50 – 75 words, discuss how the work challenged you as a designer (or photographer) and list 1 or 2 questions you have about your designs (or photographs).
Because there is much to complete this week, I’m extending the deadline from Thursday to Friday, so your drafts and your Journal entry will be due Friday, September 29, at 11:00pm.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Six (10/2 – 10/6): Color and Typeface
Week SIX Video
Assignment for Week Six
The assignment for week six is going to have us continuing to work on the Design Assignment. Specifically, we are going to be making color and typography choices. You can work work on the color first or the typography first, it doesn’t matter, and I have broken the work into sections based each.Completing the Assignment
Yo will find the assignment under the Week 6: Color and Typeface Theory and Draft 2 heading on the Design Assignment page. I have created 2 tutorials for you and there are also several videos to watch. They all must be watched in order to complete the assignment.Discussion and Design Journal Entry
As you are completing the work on your typography and color, be sure to take screenshots so you can add them to your discussion and design journal. See the assignment for specifics of what to include in Design entries. Use the same Discussion and Design Journal GoogleDoc you have been using all semester, but follow the Design guidelines in the assignment:Design entries are to be completed during the weeks when you are working on your designs (or photographs). Each Design entry will have two sections, the Designs and the Reflection:
- The Designs: This entry should include 3 screenshots of various stages of the design (or photography) work you have completed and a 30 – 50 word description directly under or above each screenshot of what you were trying to achieve in each example. In your description, highlight various design (or photography) techniques you were attempting to employ.
- The Reflection: In 50 – 75 words, discuss how the work challenged you as a designer (or photographer) and list 1 or 2 questions you have about your designs (or photographs).
Because there is much to complete this week, I’m extending the deadline from Thursday to Friday, so your drafts and your Journal entry will be due Friday, October 6, at 11:00pm.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Seven (10/9 – 10/13): Advanced Design, Graphics, and Design Draft Conferences
Week SEVEN Video
Assignment for Week Seven
The assignment for week seven is going to have us continuing to work on the Design Assignment. Specifically, the work for week 7 is going to radically transform your project, as the last two weeks were essentially designed to introduce you to some design concepts and the Canva workspace, both of which I have been pleased to read in your Discussion and Design Journals have been new to many of you.Your poster from this week forward will now be advertising a fake exhibit for the subject you have chosen at the The Frances M. Maguire Art Museum, which is a beautiful brand new museum on the SJU campus housed in the former Barnes Museum space.
Our first individual conferences will be held during week 7, specifically on Thursday and Friday. I will be sending around a signup sheet. During the conference, we will discuss your poster draft.
Completing the Assignment
You will find the assignment under the Week 7: Advanced Concepts, Purpose, and Graphics and Draft 3 heading on the Design Assignment page. I have created 1 tutorial for you and there are also a few videos to watch. They all must be watched in order to complete the assignment (the linked-to Canva tutorials are not required, but could help with specific Canva functions).Discussion and Design Journal Entry
As you are completing the work on your typography and color, be sure to take screenshots so you can add them to your discussion and design journal. See the assignment for specifics of what to include in Design entries. Use the same Discussion and Design Journal GoogleDoc you have been using all semester, but follow the Design guidelines in the assignment:Design entries are to be completed during the weeks when you are working on your designs (or photographs). Each Design entry will have two sections, the Designs and the Reflection:
- The Designs: This entry should include 3 screenshots of various stages of the design (or photography) work you have completed and a 30 – 50 word description directly under or above each screenshot of what you were trying to achieve in each example. In your description, highlight various design (or photography) techniques you were attempting to employ.
- The Reflection: In 50 – 75 words, discuss how the work challenged you as a designer (or photographer) and list 1 or 2 questions you have about your designs (or photographs).
Your work is due by the start of your required conference, which will be Thursday 10/12 or Friday 10/13.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Eight (10/16 – 10/20): Rule of Thirds, Color Contrast, Final Drafts and Presentations Due
M & T: Fall Break
Week EIGHT Video
Assignment for Week Eight
The assignment for week seven is going to have us completing the Design Assignment. Specifically, the work for week 8 is goingto be finishing and submitting your poster and a 12-slide, less-than-5-minute presentation about the poster in which you discuss your design decisions.Completing the Assignment
You will find the assignment under the Week 8:Final Design and Presentation Due heading on the Design Assignment page. I have created 1 tutorial for you, which must be watched you so know how to create and submit your presentation.Discussion and Design Journal Entry
The discussion and design journal entry this week will ONLY consist of links to your final poster and final presentation. No other content is required.Links to your work are due by 11:00pm, Sunday, October 22.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Nine (10/23 – 10/27): Intro to Photography
Week NINE Video
No video for this week!
Assignment for Week NINE
This week we are going to shift focus and move into photography and how we can use photographs to tell stories. As we did with writing, we’ll be looking at the history of pgotography, but we’re going to get to that toward the end of the Photography unit so you can get outside and take photos while the weather is still nice and there are leaves on the trees.The Readings
To get us started, I’d like you to read the selections from David duChemin’s book, The Soul of the Camera, which are available on the Readings and Texts page, as well as this blog post by Barry O’Carroll on Composition Techniques. (You might also check out duChemin’s website, if you’re interested.)Discussion and Design Journal Entry
This week we’re back to the written Discussion and Design Journal Entries, with a bit of a visual twist. There are 3 parts:In the Discussion portion of your entry, I’d like you to:
- discuss a passage from the duChemin reading that you found particularly interesting and/or engaging and why you gravitated toward that.
- link to or paste a photograph you have seen online or a photograph you have taken that you think illuminates one of words of wisdom duChemin makes. The words of wisdom can be the same as you discussed above or different. Describe how you see the image illuminating the duChemin passage.
- link to or paste a photograph you have seen online or a photograph you have taken that is an example of one of the composition techniques O’Carroll describes. Discuss what impact you think the composition has on the story being told.
Don’t forget to complete the Reflection part of the Entry!
Please complete your work by Friday, 10/27 at 11:00pm.
Week Ten (10/30 – 11/3): Taking Photos
Week TEN Video
Assignment for Week TEN
This week we are going to start creating photographs, and we have a phenomenal weekend to get started on it. To get started, please the Photography Assignment with great care. Then, get started on the work for the weekThe Work for the Week
You will find the work for the week under the Work for Week 10 heading on the Photography Assignment page. There is one video, which must be watched, on interrelated subjects of aperture (also know as f-stops) and depth of field. It also include a photography exercise to help you take intentional photographs that showcase various photography composition techniques and storytelling.Discussion and Design Journal Entry
This week we’re back to the written Discussion and Design Journal Entries, with a bit of a twist.In the Discussion portion of your entry, I’d like you to:
- share links to the Technical and Soulful Images folders you have created in Google Drive. Be sure to label which link is which.
In the Reflection portion, I’d like you to:
- reflect on you experiences taking the photos and what questions you might have
We will be discussing your photographs and experiences during our week 11 conferences.
Please complete your work by Sunday, 11/5 at 11:00pm.
Week Eleven (11/6 – 11/10): Photography Conferences
Conferences M and T; Final Photography Assignment Due later in week
Week Twelve (11/13 – 11/17): History of Photography
Week Twelve Video
There is no video for this week.
Photography Assignment Update
Thank you for a great week of conferences. I truly enjoyed talking with each of you about your photographs. As I mentioned to each of you, please use this week to go back out there and create more photographs. Practice intentionally so you can refine your technical skills and create soulful stories.Your final photography project will be due no later than Tuesday, November 21, at 11:00pm.
Next week I will post the details for how I would like it submitted, but it will involve uploading the final 10 photos to two separate GoogleDrive folders (one for technical, the other for soulful) and a Canva presentation much like the one you submitted for your Poster design. I will provide you with the rubric, as well. That should be online between next Tuesday and Thursday.
Assignment for Week TWELVE
This week we are going to step back and consider some of the technical history of photography (just as we did with the history of writing) as well as social uses of photography. You will also be composing your final written Weekly Discussion entry, so make it your best of the semester!The Work for the Week
I would like you to watch the following videos, in order presented, which will provide you with an overview of the technical history of photography.Then, I would like you to watch the following video, which discusses the social and racial implications of how film and digital sensors were created, specifically using a calibration device that became known as Shirley Cards.
Moving forward to the present day, I’d like to focus on one contemporary photographer, Ruddy Roye, who is using photography to communicate visually stunning, soulful, and compelling stories. Please go to Ruddy Roye’s professional site and look at the images under the series “When Living is a Protest” (and explore the rest of the site, as you’d like). You can also check out Roye’s Instagram page, if you’d like. Then, watch the below videos, which in different ways they both showcase his approach to telling stories (note that they are both promotional videos for Fuji Cameras so there is some Fuji hyping in there, too):
Discussion and Design Journal Entry
In your final Weekly Discussion Journal entry, I’d like to respond to the following prompt:
I’d like you to think about the role of communication in photography, especially as a medium that invites storytelling, which even in the 1800s was a central component of it. In your discussion, I’d like you to consider how the technologies of photography afford or interfere with stories being able to be told. Make sure to reference duChemin and Roye as well as some of the technical videos.
Don’t forget to complete the Discussion and the Reflection.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Please complete your work by Friday, 11/17 at 11:00pm.
Week Thirteen (11/20 – 11/24): Photography Assignment Due; Final Assignment
W, TH, & F: Thanksgiving Break
Week Thirteen Video
There is no video for this week.
Assignment for Week Thirteen
The assignment for week 13 is going to have us completing the Photography Assignment. Specifically, the work for week 13 is going to be finishing and submitting your poster and a 12-slide, less-than-5-minute presentation about your photographs in which you discuss your composition and soulful decisions.Completing the Assignment
You will find the assignment under the Final Submission Details heading on the Photography Assignment page. I have created 1 tutorial for you, which must be watched you so know what to include in your presentation. You will create, record, and submit your presentation using Canva, just as you did for the poster presentation.Discussion and Design Journal Entry
The discussion and design journal entry this week will ONLY consist of links to your final photographs and final presentation. No other content is required. Details are under the Final Submission Details heading.Links to your work are due by noon, Wednesday November 22.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Fourteen (11/27 – 12/1): Final Project
Week Fourteen Video
Assignment for Week Fourteen
The assignment for week 14 is to start working on the Final Semester Assignment. You will be working on this assignment for the rest of the semester. The assignment page includes all the details.I will be posting the submission details and grading rubric during Week 15.
The final assignment is due Monday, 12/18 by 5:00pm, which gives you nearly 3 weeks to work in it. That being said, do not wait until the last minute to complete it.
During Finals Week, I will be offering some signup times if you’d like to join me on Zoom so I can answer any questions you have about your work. I will provide those during week 15.
Discussion and Design Journal Entry
There is nothing to post in the Discussion and Design Journal this week.If you have any questions, please let me know.
Week Fifteen (12/4 – 12/8): Final Project
Week Sixteen (12/11): TBD
Tuesday 12/21: Grades Submitted to University