Writing & Digital Media

This is the post for the Wednesday, September 21, 2016 class meeting.

Design Presentations

• 2:30 Class: Justin M.
• 4:00 Class: Hanna H.

Still Images in Videos

A very simple way to make a video is to create a series of slides in PowerPoint and then save your work as a movie. The example below was made using the PowerPoint technique.

The Basic Process

1. Create your slides in PowerPoint. Google Slides won’t work.
2. Add Transitions between your slides and set them to advance automatically (not by clicking).
3. Insert Audio to add royalty-free or free-to-use background music or your own narration.
4. Drag the Audio icon off the slide.
5. Use the Audio Tools -> Playback option to make the recording “play across slides,” and edit any other settings you’d like.
6. Save the slide show as a movie. The technique you use depends upon your version of PowerPoint.

Practice

Create a movie based on a PowerPoint slideshow with five or six free-to-use images, including the one you made last class, and an audio track at http://dig.ccmixter.org. Share your movie in the PowerPoint Movie Practice Discussion.

The grace period for this discussion ends next Wednesday, 9/28.

Work on Formal Pitches

At 3:15 in the 2:30 class and at 4:45 in the 4:00 class, we’ll stop playing with PowerPoint and shift to working on the formal pitches. Those of you who want to work, can work independently. I’ll pair up those of you who want to do peer review and let you read each other’s work.

Homework

1. Your Formal Pitch is due by 11:59 PM today, Wednesday, September 21. The grace period ends at 11:59 PM on Wednesday, September 28. The submission instructions are at the bottom of the Formal Pitch page.

2. For Monday, 9/24, read Chapter 4 of Writer/Designer, and complete Design Journal #5 by finding and analyzing a still image (not video or sound).

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! ’tis th’ post fer th’ Monday, September 19, 2016 crew meetin’ arrr.

Survey Says…

Take the two-question Peer Review Survey to tell me what you want to do on Wednesday.

Design Presentations

• 2:30 Class: Victoria D.
• 4:00 Class: Katie H.

Paying Attention to Design

We will review the Ten Design Tips page, and then apply some of the ideas to a student’s draft for the Formal Pitch:

• Original Draft
• 2:30 Revision
• 4:00 Revision

Editing Images

1. Go to PicMonkey.com. It’s a free site, and it does not require a login.
2. Watch for the crown logo, which represents Royale upgrades that you would have to pay for. Don’t waste time on them.
3. Find and save an image that is “free to use” using Google Image Search. (You will read about Creative Commons in Chapter 4 of Writer/Designer.)
4. Note the source information about the image for your documentation. (More on this next week.)
5. Choose Edit at the top of the PicMonkey page, and then upload your image.
6. Crop out any distractions in the background so that the image focuses on the main point.
7. Edit the image as you like, adding filters, special effects, and so forth.
8. Add text to the image that complements the image to help communicate your message, if desired.
9. Save your image with a new name and make a backup.

We are using PicMonkey in class because it’s easy and free, but feel free to use whatever image editor you like for your projects. See other tools and how-to details on the Major Projects Resources page.

Homework

1. Your Formal Pitch is due by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, September 21. The grace period ends at 11:59 PM on Wednesday, September 28.

2. Have your formal pitch draft with you, and whatever you would need to work on it, on Wednesday.

3. For Monday, 9/24, read Chapter 4 of Writer/Designer, and complete Design Journal #5 by finding and analyzing a still image (not video or sound).

This is the post for the Wednesday, September 14, 2016 class meeting.

Design Presentations

• 2:30 Class: Dom D.
• 4:00 Class: Victoria B.

Major Projects Pages

• Planning Your Major Projects
• Major Projects Workflow
• Major Projects Resources
• Formal Pitch Assignment

Informal Pitches

Today you will share your current plans for your major project with the members of your small group. As Writer/Designer explains, “A pitch is a short presentation that explains how the what and the how of your idea might come together in the final project” (55).

Use the questions on p. 56 of Writer/Designer to guide your discussion. You can record your informal pitch on the Small Group page of your Participation Log.

Homework

1. Read pp. 90–92 of Writer/Designer (on proposals).

2. Review Ten Design Tips page.

3. If you want to get ahead, watch Up and Running with Online Social Video (49m 28s) on Lynda.com (free with your VT.EDU login). If you have trouble, go to the Virginia Tech login page first.

This is the post for the Monday, September 12, 2016 class meeting.

Class Work for 9/12

1. In Canvas, go to the Calendar and then choose the Scheduler to sign up for your Design Journal presentation time slot. You can check the Canvas documentation if you need help.

2. Use the slideshow if you need to review the concepts from today’s reading.

3. Practice identifying Audience, Purpose, Context, Author, and Genre as a class with these examples:

• Jeanne Abel and Alan Abel, “Vote for Yetta,” StoryCorps
• Get in the ring with Kmart, WWE Fan Central!
• Mellow Mushroom – ED Commercial
• Disney Princesses
• Virtual Tour: The World of Shakespeare
• If FROZEN Was A Horror Film
• A Guinea Pig Pride and Prejudice trailer

4. Identify Audience, Purpose, and Project Potential in small groups:

• Return to small groups.
• Have one person in your group email me (tengrrl@vt.edu) the names of your group members, so that I can set up groups in Canvas.
• Review the Design Journal Entries for everyone in your group. If someone is using the grace period, skip that person obviously.
• Choose an entry that your group will share with the class
• Identify the Audience and Purpose, using these questions from the textbook:
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Who might be the secondary audience(s)?
  • What values or opinions do the primary and secondary audiences hold? Does the author appeal to these values or opinions in any way?
  • What do you consider to be the overall intention for the text? What leads you to this conclusion?
  • Might there be one or more secondary intentions? Why do you think so?
• Brainstorm some ways you might use the same kind of text in a major project for the course.
• Involve all members of your group in some way, and be ready to present by 3:15 in the 2:30 class or by 4:45 in the 4:00 class. Aim to use no more than 5 minutes presenting.

Homework

1. Read Chapter 3 of Writer/Designer and the Presentation FAQ page for Wednesday.

2. Be prepared to talk about your tentative plans for your course projects. You will share informal pitches with your group. Formal pitches will be due to me next week.

3. Begin playing with the video recording options available to you. You will need to have some video footage to play with in class next week. Your footage can be anything that is appropriate for the classroom. It doesn’t have to be on the topic for your project.

4. If you want to get ahead, watch Up and Running with Online Social Video (49m 28s) on Lynda.com (free with your VT.EDU login). If you have trouble, go to the Virginia Tech login page first.

This is the post for the Wednesday, September 7, 2016 class meeting.

Class Work for 9/7

1. Make any updates to the attendance chart in Canvas.

   Use of Tardy Label:
   Absences where you provide a note from Schiffert, the Athletic Dept, or some other university office are marked as “Tardy” in Canvas. Using the “Tardy” label for these excused absences allows me to still know when people were (or were not) in class while not having that absence count in the Canvas calculation for Attendance.

2. A Calendar link is now in the site menu at the top of the page

3. Go over the Planning Your Major Projects page, and talk about the 3844 Potential Topics List and Kinds of Audio and Video Projects.

   We’ll look at some partial examples:

   • Zelda Fitzgerald
   • Rainbow Springs State Park
   • Pemberley
   • Rosemary Remembering

4. To practice identifying the modes of communication, we are going on a multimodal dig, a sort of personal inventory of multimodal texts.

   1. Begin by digging through your backpack or bag to locate all the multimodal texts that you have with you. Think broadly and creatively. One item may have more than one way that it is (or contains) a text. For instance, your smartphone could be a multimodal text, but Candy Crush Saga is a multimodal text that might be on that device. So you have multiple texts there.

   2. Go to the "Multimodal Dig" Discussion in Canvas for your class time, and create a Reply that lists the multimodal texts you have with you (or on you). It doesn’t have to be an exhaustive list. Aim for at least 10 texts, and look for the unusual.

      • 2:30 Class Multimodal Dig
      • 4:00 Class Multimodal Dig

   3. Once you have your list, label the items with the modes they include. You can use the first letters (e.g., L=Linguistic, V=Visual). See the slideshow or page 4 of Writer/Designer if you need a refresher. Additionally, note whether they are digital or not.

   4. Once everyone has posted, I will ask you to share your most unusual text with the class and how modes are used by writers as they create texts.
       

   This activity is graded Pass/Fail and counts as part of your participation grade as a class discussion. The grace period for this activity ends on Thursday, September 8 at 11:59 PM.

Homework

1. Write Design Journal Entry #3 by noon Monday in Canvas:

   • 2:30 Class Discussion
   • 4:00 Class Discussion

2. Read Chapter 2 of Writer/Designer for Monday. Read Chapter 3 of Writer/Designer for Wednesday.

3. [Optional] Still time to post in the AMA discussion if you like.

This is the post for the Wednesday, August 31, 2016 class meeting.

Class Work for 8/31

1. Take attendance and set up seating chart:

   • 2:30 Class Seating Chart
   • 4:00 Class Seating Chart

2. Office Hours Sign-up now online. More details on the office hours policy page.

3. Any questions about the Participation Logs?

4. In addition to your Design Journal Entries, you will each give one short presentation of a digital design from your journal to the class. You will spend a few minutes telling the class about the design, why you chose it, and how it connects to the class. After you show your design, you will lead a short class discussion on the design. You will sign up for these presentations in advance.
   • Return to small groups.
   • Review the Design Journal Entries for everyone in your group. If someone is using the grace period, skip that person obviously.
   • Choose an entry that your group will share with the class and work up a five-minute presentation. We’ll skip the class discussions portion of the presentations in the interest of time.
   • Work in some of the vocabulary from Chapter 1 of Writer/Designer, which is summarized in the slideshow.
   • Involve all members of your group in some way, and be ready to present by 3:15 in the 2:30 class or by 4:45 in the 4:00 class.

Homework

1. Write Design Journal Entry #2 before class by 11:59 PM Tuesday in Canvas (you get an extra day because of the holiday):

   • 2:30 Class Discussion
   • 4:00 Class Discussion

2. Read the info on Planning Your Major Projects, and browse the 3844 Potential Topics List. We’ll talk about these topics and the major projects for the term more in our next class, on Wednesday, 9/7.

3. [Optional] Still time to post in the AMA discussion if you like.

This is the post for the Monday, August 29, 2016 class meeting.

As you all know from the email I sent, class did not meet in the classroom because of safety concerns. We will complete the activity originally planned for Monday on Wednesday.

Work for 08/29

1. Read Chapter 1 of Writer/Designer, and think about how the ideas apply to the texts we have explored from your journals. I will ask you to connect the modes of communication to the class activity on Wednesday.

   I have a slideshow that includes short definitions of the ideas from Chapter 1, which are also shown in the image below, from page 4 of Writer/Designer.

   

2. [Optional] Post in the AMA discussion if you like. AMA is short for "Ask Me Anything." In case you are not familiar with the idea, AMAs gained traction on Reddit as a way for fans to connect with celebrities and other interesting folks. You can read more about AMAs on Wikipedia.

3. [Optional] Post in the Questions about the Syllabus and/or Course Logistics discussion at any point in the term if you have general questions.

This is the post for the Wednesday, August 24, 2016 class meeting.

If you missed the previous class session, be sure to read the details on what you missed in the post for August 22 and complete the related activities.

Class Work for 8/24

1. Introductions & Roll
   I will ask each of you to tell the class your name, and I will mark your attendance in Canvas. On Monday, we’ll create a seating chart.

2. Course Questions
   For homework, you reviewed the syllabus, course policies, and assignments. To get started today, add any questions or comments that you have about the course to the Google Doc for your section. I will lock the documents after class ends.

   • 2:30 Section Questions Doc
   • 4:00 Section Questions Doc
      
     
3. Participation Log
   Participation is worth 15% of your final course grade. Starting today, you can track your participation in a log that will help you account for the contributions that you make to the class.

   Make a copy of the Google Doc Participation Log for 3844. If you prefer to work in Excel, you can use this version. This log is primarily for your records, but I will look at it occasionally. You’ll use this log at the end of the term to write your self-assessment.

4. Design Journal Entries
   
   Every week you will submit a link to a digital document (or an attachment of a photo/video) and talk about the design features and technical strategies that it uses.
   To avoid awkward discussions, I ask that you do not submit any work that I have done nor any work that you or your classmates have done.

   To get started on your journal, we will look at an example video today, gather some notes about the video in small groups, and then gather those ideas together. At the end of this activity, you should know exactly what kind of information to include in your journal entry.

   We’re using this video, which is featured on the VT homepage today:
   

   In your small groups, you will focus on one of the areas listed below. Make sure that someone in your group takes notes in the Google Slides document for your class (2:30 slides or 4:00 slides), and choose a person to present your observations to the full class.

   1. Obvious Features
   2. Use of Sound, Images, and Text
   3. Use of Screen Space
   4. Use of Movement and Body Language
   5. Use of Absence—What’s Left Out?

In-Class Writing/Homework for 8/24

Write a design journal entry before class on Monday in Canvas:

• 2:30 Class Discussion
• 4:00 Class Discussion

We will look at the journal entries in class on Monday.