Writing Digital Media

This special studio and workshop Freshman seminar will offer students the opportunity to explore and create digital media. While our projects may run the gamut of writing styles and genres, our primary work will focus on digital culture and our local pittsburgh culture and will be expressed through social media, sound essay, video, and integrated website creation. To this end, students will work on the development of texts with attention paid to the rhetorical modes and communicative platforms that specific media encourage. Students will also learn how to use audio and video editing software as well as basic HTML and website editing, and relevant software.

previous experience in these practices is not necessary, but solid access to reliable and sufficiently powered computing is required as will be access to quality software packages. Pitt labs offer all of these services. Students should anticipate a very heavy workload as the course will not only serve the work of the "writing" (including scripts, images, videos, linking, and editing) of various media, including text, but also serve the work of learning new software and textual mark-up language.

but how? we will practice a DIY (do-it-yourself) ethos with "minimalist pedagogy"... huh? this means that prof. bianco's number one goal is to make you capable of making, doing and teaching yourself. why? media formats and software change constantly and unless we all plan on sitting around laboring (and at a rather low level of skill) on Facebook or other advertising and marketing machine, we need to know how to Make our own media (which is, afterall, how facebook started...a student project).

minimalist pedagogy? what does this mean? this means prof. bianco will do everything in her power to give you just what you need to get started and find your way and then leave you to flourish. to this end, your search for the answers to your questions begin on google and relevant websites provided on the syllabus, then twitter, then your working group, then our class TA, amy, our digital media ta, dave, my graduate student, who also teaches digital media, erin anderson & prof. bianco.

does this mean that prof. bianco is not available to you? NO!!! you may come visit prof. bianco in our out of her office hours or on twitter or skype. just make an appointment.

what it does mean is that the first question that prof. bianco, ta amy, erin and/or ta dave will ask you is " what have you already tried to figure this out?" "what did you find on google and twitter? what did your working group say"

Professor Bianco practices "minimal marking" -- a style of evaluation that respects the student's work. She will not write or comment all over your work. She will discuss your work with you as often as you make yourself available in her office hours or by appointment. Furthermore, you will receive constant in-class "collaborative feedback" from Prof. Bianco and from your student peers. In the end, your university career, your work, your education, your progress in this class...are yours--your responsibility, your achievement, your brilliance. Learning to evaluate the quality of your own thinking and composing is part of the DIY ethos--the number one goal for this course.

prof. bianco also practices teaching through an "emergent syllabus," which means that she will modify the syllabus as we go along to suit the needs of this particular class and the actual people who populate it.

check the course twitter feed daily. this is the means through which prof. bianco will communicate updates, changes, information, and send messages to you directly.

attend ALL classes and arrive on time and stay for the entire class.

Complete all assignments as assigned and on time. Assignments described in the schedule.

Meet Prof. Bianco as requested and as scheduled for your mid-term evaluation.

participate orally in the weekly project critiques

meet with your working groups and participate fully

attend the Library session (9/12), the Experiential Learning Fair (10/6), one FP Lecture and one additional FP event of your choice

contribute to our collaborative process project

orally present your individual projects to the class & participate in peer review

orally present your final portfolio as scheduled. You may NOT miss the Final Presentation, so do not schedule a departure from campus prior to our final class.

attend the weekly tutorials (mandatory if Prof. Bianco requires it)

complete weekly blog posts on time

SAILS survey

more on expectations, grading, and the quality of your coursework...

Weekly in-class writing

Weekly entries on the class DIY 'How-To Make Media' Blog -- due by the Sunday before class at midnight

Freshman Program's Reader, Oryx and Crake, research assignment

Website

Photo Essay (Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project)

Soundscape (Pittsburgh Neighborhood Project II)

Day-in-a-Life video || or || discuss your own video idea with Prof. Bianco

DIY video

Final Portfolio with revised assignments

[we will discuss each of these in detail, and keep in mind that we are building a large media portfolio in steps. This means that you should give serious consideration to the earlier assignments and understand that you will be revising earlier projects].

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5:
Master Collection -or- production collection (you will have to use dreamweaver in the labs if you choose the second option)--DO NOT PURCHASE UNTIL we DISCUSS IN CLASS!

*Available to students from CSSD (105 Bellefield Hall) at a discounted price.
*This collection provides the entire Adobe CS5 Suite.
*There are limited work-around alternatives, including use of the Pitt Campus Computing Labs.
*I guarantee you we will use the following Adobe applications (though others may be used depending on our progress): Photoshop, DreamWeaver, Premiere, Soundbooth/audition, Media Encoder, & Media Player.
***Please Note: you are required to use the software assigned for our class. This software is the required text for this course.***

domain and website host
*while Pitt offers students free domains and hosting service, this service is extremely limited.
*I recommend you invest in your own domain and private hosting service. we will discuss this in class. In the meantime, prof. bianco has generously provided a domain and hosting and you will be assigned an individual directory and ftp account.

Memory Stick/Portable External Drive
*You will need a minimum of 16G of memory.
*This memory key will be used exclusively for this class.

Regular Access to Digital Camera
*Camera needs to have the capacity to shoot short video clips.
*extremely high quality cameras Cell phones are fine, but most won't cut it.
*Make sure that whatever camera you use (especially if you borrow a videocamera) that you have the software to access the image files *and download them to your computer or memory key.
*access to digital still and video cameras is also available through student media services

access to a microphone or sound recording instrument
*While most computers have a built-in microphone , experience has proven that this is not sufficient for different types of recording situations.
*cell phones and external computer mics can be used but will produce a bad, tinny quality.
*there are many outlets that sell cheap, decent quality mics (if you purchase any mic, make sure it is compatible with your computer.
*ask me about the ear bud trick for rough cuts and hail mary moments.

Pitt Policy on Academic Integrity ... keep in mind what was discussed regarding intellectual property in our discussion in the first two weeks of class. Read the digital millenium copyRIGHT act assigned the first week of class.

If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890 or (412) 383-7355(TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.