Courses taught in Spring 2011
Morgan Schwartz
office: Nugent 560, Room A
tel: 1-212-774-4865
email: mschwartz AT mmm DOT edu
web: http://sodacity.net/courses/
Spring 2011
Section 02 Tuesday, 7:15pm - 9:50 pm
Nugent 556
Digital and interactive media permeate virtually every aspect of our society—from information delivery and product marketing to education and entertainment. In this course you will learn practical and critical skills necessary to become a technically proficient and cognitive digital media maker. Literacy in any medium is the ability to both access (read) materials created by others and to generate (write) materials for others. In this course you will learn to “speak” the language of digital media and to become conversant with the computer as an expressive medium. Through hands-on exercises and projects, you will be introduced to creative approaches to media production and to a range of software. The format of this class is designed to bridge theory and practice. We will explore contemporary issues including: digital imaging, the computer as a medium, typography, copyright, sound and moving image, and web design. We will concern ourselves with “how” and “why” the digital world is constructed the way it is. Students will be challenged to deconstruct this world and to develop an ability to analyze and critique the cultural implications of digital media in our lives.
A successful student will develop the following skills by the end of the semester:
materials:
USB Flash Drive (4-8 GB) - OR - portable Hard Drive
texts:
all required readings will be available online or handed out in class
attitude:
Your enthusiasm, curiosity and willingness to learn.
optional technical texts:
Technical books become out of date quickly; I recommend finding an appropriate online resource. Many tutorials (of varying quality) are available without cost online. Good video tutorials are available from Adobe. More advanced and complete tutorials specifically selected for this course are available at Lynda.com for $35. w3Schools offers great resources for coding (HTML, CSS, XML, PHP, etc.).
optional history/theory texts:
A large amount of class time will be dedicated to group critiques, team projects and class discussion. I encourage you to take an active role in contributing to make our class a fun and dynamic place to be.
This is where its at - you can't learn web development by osmosis or wait until the end of the semester to cram for an exam. Digital Media production involves a complex spectrum of techniques and software. If you do the assignments each week you will do well. If not, you will fall behind rapidly. Weekly exercises are due at the beginning of class the week after they are assigned unless noted otherwise.
This group project integrates many of the skills you will learn this semester. Each team will be assigned a "client". You will perform an analysis of the client's existing website. Using this information, the clients goals and requirements and other research, you will design and build a new website using HTML and CSS.
Electrical:
Water/liquids are a excellent conductors. You can be shocked if you are touching water that touches electricity. Be careful with drinks around the computers!
Carpal Tunnel
Computer keyboarding, typing and use of the mouse are among many common activities that have been identified as contributing to repetitive stress induced [w:Carpal_tunnel_syndrome|carpal tunnel syndrome].
Eye Strain
Staring at a glowing monitor for extended periods of time can cause headaches, eyestrain and problems with your eyesight. Remember to take frequent short breaks by looking away from the monitor and focusing on something in the distance, or close your eyes for a moment. Your eyes need a break!
Attendance and participation are essential for success in this course. Remember that if you miss one class, you miss an entire week’s worth of material. You are allowed one unexcused absence (for the entire course) without penalty. You are responsible for the material (including exercises and projects) you missed during your absence. Additional unexcused absences will result in a penalty to your final grade in the course: your second absence means your final grade drops one notch (e.g. B+ to B); your third absence drops your grade an additional two notches. Your fourth absence results in a failing grade for the course.
Lateness is also damaging to the class dynamic and chronic lateness will adversely affect your final grade. Three late arrivals to class (or early departures) during the course of the 14 week sessions results in a loss of a full letter grade of your final grade in the course. A lateness is arrival to the classroom 10 minutes past the starting time or departure more than 10 minutes before class ends.
Any late assignments, written or media based, will result in a deduction of points from the grade for the assignment.
Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments for this course must either enroll in the Program for Academic Access or register with the Office of Student Support Services. For any accommodation, the instructor must be presented with either a letter from the Assistant Director of the Program for Academic Access or an Accommodations Card from the Office of Student Support Services during the first week of classes.
MMC fosters an academic community where students and faculty work together to create a learning experience that imparts knowledge and forms character. To achieve this, the College requires all members of the community to adhere to the policy of Academic Honesty that can be found in the Student Handbook, the College Catalogue and on the College website.
In class:
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Read for today:
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link to HTML cheat sheet
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Morgan Schwartz
office: Nugent 560, Room A
tel: 1-212-774-4865
email: mschwartz AT mmm DOT edu
web: http://sodacity.net/courses/
SPRING 2011
Section 01 Tuesday, 2:30 pm - 5:20 pm
Nugent 556
In this second semester of the multimedia course sequence, students will develop, design and produce their own advanced interactive projects. Media theorist Lev Manovich claims we are living in 'Generation Flash'. Low bandwidth Internet connections created a demand for lightweight vector graphics software spurring a new aesthetic sensibility. Flash is an authoring environment that allows artists to weave together traditional linear animation, user interactivity, object-oriented programming and multimedia (video, sound, etc) blurring the lines between art, design and computer programming. In this class we introduce the fundamental principles of Flash animation and basic Action Script. Prerequisite: COMM 225.
materials:
USB Flash Drive (4-8 GB) - OR - portable Hard Drive
required texts:
all required readings will be available online or handed out in class
25% A large amount of class time will be dedicated to group critiques, team projects and class discussion. I encourage you to take an active role in contributing to make our class a fun and dynamic place to be.
50% You can't learn digital media passively or wait until the end of the semester to cram for an exam. To learn this stuff you have to make things! Digital media production involves a complex spectrum of techniques & software. If you do each project you will do well. If not, you will fall behind rapidly.
25% This project will be self-initiated and should integrate many of the skills you will learn this semester. When the time comes I will help to suggest possible topics and approaches. You will have the option of working individually or collaborating with other students.
Attendance and participation are essential for success in this course. Remember that if you miss one class, you miss an entire week’s worth of material. You are allowed one unexcused absence (for the entire course) without penalty. You are responsible for the material (including exercises and projects) you missed during your absence. Additional unexcused absences will result in a penalty to your final grade in the course: your second absence means your final grade drops one notch (e.g. B+ to B); your third absence drops your grade an additional two notches. Your fourth absence results in a failing grade for the course.
Lateness is also damaging to the class dynamic and chronic lateness will adversely affect your final grade. Three late arrivals to class (or early departures) during the course of the 14 week sessions results in a loss of a full letter grade of your final grade in the course. A lateness is arrival to the classroom 10 minutes past the starting time or departure more than 10 minutes before class ends.
Any late assignments, written or media based, will result in a deduction of points from the grade for the assignment.
Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments for this course must either enroll in the Program for Academic Access or register with the Office of Student Support Services. For any accommodation, the instructor must be presented with either a letter from the Assistant Director of the Program for Academic Access or an Accommodations Card from the Office of Student Support Services during the first week of classes.
MMC fosters an academic community where students and faculty work together to create a learning experience that imparts knowledge and forms character. To achieve this, the College requires all members of the community to adhere to the policy of Academic Honesty that can be found in the Student Handbook, the College Catalogue and on the College website.
look:
look:
DUE today: "t e x t" - choose a word and illustrate either its mood or tone or meaning in a frame-by-frame animation. You may only use the one word - no other words are allowed. You may use other shapes. Your animation should be sized to 550x400, 12 frames per second and EXACTLY 60 frames in duration.
DUE today: "morph-olution" - Create an animation that explores the notion of evolution in at least 5 stages. The project should incorporate at least 2 shape tweens that utilize shape hints. The final result should be a "perfect loop" - it should end exactly where it began. Your animation should be sized to 550x400, 24 frames per second and 10 seconds in duration.
DUE today: "crowded" - Create an animation of a walking crowd of people. Your animation should use MovieClips and MotionTweens.
DUE today: "Banner Ad Jam" Think about the ad banners on websites as public spaces similar to billboards, posters, signs & other advertisements. Plan & design a 468x60 (24 fps) Ad Banner in flash that utilizes images and text and incorporates a corporate logo. The banner can advertise your love for something or someone, can express a political message, can be humorous - keep in mind that this is meant to be presented in a public places. You should be able to make the argument that your piece is an example of Culture jamming.
http://www.logotypes.ru/default_e.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_jamming
DUE today: "My Life" - Animate your life story in 30 seconds or less (bunnies optional). Your flash movie should be 640x480 at 24 fps. - 1st draft should include your soundtrack/voice over and approximately 10 seconds of completed animation (This will be graded)
http://www.angryalien.com
http://www.oddtodd.com
DUE today: "My Life" - final draft of My Life.
DUE today: How-To script/storyboard Have a sitemap and at least 2 of the 5 scenes.
look:
DUE today: How-To first draft
look:
DUE today: "How To": With a partner, develop an interactive Flash movie that illustrates/teaches your audience how to do something. This could be anything from how to make a PB&J sandwich to how to knit to how to make a Flash movie. It must have at least 5 different scenes; at least 1 voiceover and it must utilize buttons for your audience to interact with.
DUE today: Final project proposal:
Morgan Schwartz
office: Nugent 560, Room A
tel: 1-212-774-4865
email: mschwartz AT mmm DOT edu
web: http://sodacity.net/courses/
Spring 2011
COMM 308 Section 02 Wednesday, 2:30 pm - 5:20 pm
Nugent 556
This course is motivated in large part by the spirit of the open-source movement. Participatory culture, fans, gamers, bloggers and vloggers are challenging the dominant content of mainstream media and traditional notions of privacy and intellectual property. In this course we will complete projects that introduce and experiment with a variety of tools that enable collaboration and sharing. What is socially engaged citizenship in the context of open-source technology? [Buzzwords: blogs, social graph, wikis, freemium, podcasting, RSS feeds, del.icio.us, tumblr, Indymedia, Wikipedia, open API, flickr, skype].
materials:
generosity and good will
required texts:
all required readings will be handed out in class or available online at: http://sodacity.net/courses
Participation: 10%
A large amount of class time will be dedicated to group critiques, team projects and class discussion. I encourage you to take an active role in contributing to make our class a fun and dynamic place to be.
Pecha Kucha (chit chat): 10%
A passionate presentation of 20 slides shown for exactly 20 seconds each - click here for Pecha Kucha guidelines.
Qwik Writes 10%
Occasionally I will give "pop" in-class writing assignments, in which you will be asked to make critical reflections on the day's readings.
Citizen Journalism 20%
You will develop and maintain your own "inquiry blog" over the course of the semester. In writing your blog you will strive to develop a unique and personal voice about topics that are interesting and important to you. You will experiment with connecting and communicating with your readers.
Collective Intelligence 15%
As a class, we will engage in an experiment about massive authorship. Over the course of the semester, we will use a wiki, a form of collaborative software, to collectively research, write and visualize a specific topic. You will write a reflective essay comparing and contrasting your experience of writing an individual blog to co-authoring a wiki.
Your Public/Private Self 10%
Assignment details forthcoming.
Your Social Graph 10%
Assignment details forthcoming.
Final Paper/Project: 15%
This will be a group project - details will be presented later in the semester.
Work in the lab with a friend - when learning new technology, 2 brains are usually better than one. You are welcome to work on your assignments at home but many students use the Digital Media Labs in room 556 or 559. Lab hours will be posted after the first week of classes. Students may not use the lab when another class is in session. If the lab is locked during regular lab hours you may get a key from the Security Desk.
Attendance and participation are essential for success in this course. Remember that if you miss one class, you miss an entire week’s worth of material. You are allowed one unexcused absence (for the entire course) without penalty. You are responsible for the material (including exercises and projects) you missed during your absence. Additional unexcused absences will result in a penalty to your final grade in the course: your second absence means your final grade drops one notch (e.g. B+ to B); your third absence drops your grade an additional two notches. Your fourth absence results in a failing grade for the course.
Lateness is also damaging to the class dynamic and chronic lateness will adversely affect your final grade. Three late arrivals to class (or early departures) during the course of the 14 week sessions results in a loss of a full letter grade of your final grade in the course. A lateness is arrival to the classroom 10 minutes past the starting time or departure more than 10 minutes before class ends.
Any late assignments, written or media based, will result in a deduction of points from the grade for the assignment.
Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations or academic adjustments for this course must either enroll in the Program for Academic Access or register with the Office of Student Support Services. For any accommodation, the instructor must be presented with either a letter from the Assistant Director of the Program for Academic Access or an Accommodations Card from the Office of Student Support Services during the first week of classes.
MMC fosters an academic community where students and faculty work together to create a learning experience that imparts knowledge and forms character. To achieve this, the College requires all members of the community to adhere to the policy of Academic Honesty that can be found in the Student Handbook, the College Catalogue and on the College website.
Week by week course schedule:
Course Introduction - what does sharing have to do with survival and citizenship?
Inquiry blog - topics and lenses
Pecha Kucha
Workshop:
Consume:
DUE today:
Turn in a 1-page brainstorm for your blog project. It should include:
Readings:
Workshop:
Extending your blog skills: commenting, link equity, search engine optimization (SEO)
Links:
DUE today:
Readings:
Additional resource:
Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents [pdf]
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
scott-shane_spotlight-again-falls-on-web-tools-and-change.pdf | 106.35 KB |
naomi-wolf_wikileaks-revolution-lost-cojones-american-journalism.pdf | 186.03 KB |
al-gore_assault-on-reason-ch1.pdf | 1.72 MB |
Workshop:
Twitter demo - learn how to tweet
Watch: Egypt: Seeds of Change on People & Power (Al Jazeera)
DUE today:
Now that you've planted your blog, grow it:
Readings:
Workshop:
Extending your digital self:
DUE today:
Immerse yourself in Twitter - email me your Twitter handle
Weekly blog post
Readings:
Workshop: Hacking
DUE today:
Continue your weekly blog posts/tweets etc.
Your private public self - part one - start crafting your new identities:
Register at http://secondlife.com.
Choose a name.
Get Dressed (create your avatar).
Learn how to fly.
Register at http://delicious.com
Choose a name.
Start bookmarking socially.
Readings:
Pekka Himanen, "The Academy and the Monastery" [PDF]
Discussion:
Social networks have been the focus of much recent research and entrepreneurship. This discourse views social relationships as nodes and links (or ties). Nodes are individual entities (often people) and the links are the relationships between them (parent-child, student-teacher, friend-friend). The people you know are your social network. Social relationships can be characterized on a spectrum from shallow to deep. Some theorists claim that social networks with many weak ties are more valuable than ones with fewer and deeper ties. The premise is that the more connections you have, the more likely that new ideas and opportunities will be introduced to you. This seems to be the guiding principle of many of these new social networking websites. Deeper connections have greater costs in terms of time commitments, etc and tend to have redundant ties. Of particular value in these systems are nodes (people, entities) that can bridge two networks thereby brokering relationships between networks that otherwise are not directly linked.
In 1967, Stanley Milgram made the famous "small world experiment" which claimed to prove that people in the world are separated by at most 6 links. While the experiment is considered to have many flaws, the notion of six degrees of separation has persisted in popular culture.
DUE:
Readings:
Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing Community Into Being on Social Network Sites. by danah boyd
The Rhythms of Salience: A Conversation Map by Judith Donath
Workshop:
Introducing the wiki.
Wikipedia Cheat Sheet
MediaWiki Handbook
Wikimedia Commons
DUE: Your Social Graph
Readings:
"The Wealth of Networks: Chapter 3. Peer Production and Sharing" by Yochai Benkler [pdf]
"Silence is a Commons" by Ivan Illich [pdf]
Optional:
"The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin
DUE: Work on the wiki
Readings:
Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky - Chapters 1, Chapter 5 (excerpt), Chapter 6 (excerpt)
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
clay-shirky_cognitive-surplus-ch-1.pdf | 1.55 MB |
clay-shirky_cognitive-surplus-ch-5.pdf | 2.46 MB |
clay-shirky_cognitive-surplus-ch-6.pdf | 1.2 MB |
Links:
the Evolution of Cooperation
The Prisoner's Dilemma
DUE: Wiki updates
minimum:
2 substantive original entries [150-200 words each]
3 substantive edits of existing entries
Readings:
The Wealth of Networks: Chapter 7. Political Freedom Part 2: Emergence of the Networked Public Sphere by Yochai Benkler
DUE:
wiki updates
Readings:
The Mesh - Chapters 1 and 2
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
lisa-gansky-the-mesh-ch1.pdf | 2.59 MB |
lisa-gansky-the-mesh-ch2.pdf | 1.88 MB |
Commercial ReMix
Original Apple Commerical Introducing the Macintosh computer in 1984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8
"Anti-Hillary" commercial produced by the Obama campaign
Published March 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo
Video by Astrubal critiquing the 20 year rule of Tunisian president Ben Ali
Published February 29th 2004.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsF8qQmLYo0
Terms of Service:
Discuss Final Project
Links for final project inspiration:
DUE: Collective Intelligence essay
Readings:
We Media. Chapter 4: The rules of participation by Dan Gillmor
Critiques and propositions
One week you will collaborate with a classmate to share or give something to the rest of the class. Each group will follow the "Pecha Kucha" presentation format 20 slides shown for exactly 20 seconds each. Presentations will be given at the beginning of each class. You must email me by the Tuesday night before your presentation with a zipped folder of your 20 slides according to the following convention:
format: 20 jpg images (1024 x 768 pixels, landscape orientation)
naming: your initials followed by consecutive numbers, i.e. ms-01.jpg, ms-02.jpg, ms-03.jpg
Please follow this format - if you don't your images will appear in the wrong order and affect your presentation. And please PRACTICE your presentation in advance to make sure your slides are named correctly.
presentation: each group shows 20 images. You have 20 seconds to show each image. You have no control over this. It will be programmed on a computer, so you should be fast and we recommend you practice your presentation. Members of each group should speak equally.
What should you present? The key to a great presentation is to present something you love - a creative project, your prized collection, how to make something…this is an opportunity to share something you enjoy greatly or feel passionate about. Here are some sites to refer to:
DUE: 3-4 page essay
This essay should grow out of your experiences in Second Life and the social bookmarking website del.icio.us.
DUE: write and draw
write: How do people display social networks in everyday life (that is, not online)? Give 2 concrete, specific examples. Why do they do this? What are the costs of making this display? The benefits? Does honesty play in?
write: Explore two different social networking sites [LinkedIn, Ning, MeetUp, SoundCloud, Orkut, Tribe, Ryze and others…]. One must be LinkedIn and the other is up to you but CANNOT be Facebook. Here is a very big list. What different aspects of your personality/identity can be expressed in these sites? How does the design of these sites facilitate networking? How does this sort of display compare to traditional means of displaying social connectedness. What are the advantages and disadvantages? Are signals of friendship here reliable? Why or why not?
draw: a diagram of your social network (family, friends, acquaintances) using nodes and links. Aim to have between 30 and 60 people in your network - the more complete the better. Show connections among those people whom you know know each other. As you draw the diagram, think about where you are placing people - how have you grouped them, what meaning, if any, are you giving to adjacency or top/bottom? Try to identify brokers in your social network.
DUE: 4-5 page comparative essay
Compare and contrast your experience of writing an individual blog to that of co-authoring a wiki. Your essay should draw from class readings. Try to look critically at the output of both endeavors.
Some similarities and differences you might consider:
The Networked Public Sphere is being designed as we speak. How this occurs will govern what you can do, what you can see, what you look like and who can gain access to what. It is our responsibility to participate in envisioning this future.
Imagine: your team has been offered 10 gazillion dollars of venture capital and a crack team of engineers and computer programmers who can make anything you design. You have 15 minutes to convince the funders that they should pick your project.
The Challenge: design either a new web service, app, or personal display (handheld or wearable device) that augments/enhances social interactivity.
Deliverables: Project Proposal (2-3 pages ) & Presentation (15 minutes)
Teams: work in groups of 3-4
Questions:
Project Name: consider a neologism.
Background: How did the idea for this project come about? What is the problem it is trying to solve? Why does it need to exist? Who will use it?
Specifically address:
Competitive Analysis: - Assess current alternatives/options. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How does your idea fit into the current landscape? You should case study at least 2 other products or services in this section.
Implementation:
Aesthetics
What is the look and feel for this project? How can specific design decisions make this service/app appealing and usable to your target audience?
Architectural Strategy
What is a suitable platform for your project? What kinds of existing technologies can you leverage (open-source code, hardware)? What kinds of new software/hardware needs to be developed to realize your project?
Social Strategy
Sharing and participatory culture are essential concepts for this course. What concepts of sharing, cooperation, crowdsourcing, open-source, gift economies, the commons, etc can you incorporate into your service. How does this differentiate your service from its competitors.
A 10-15 minute presentation in the form of Power Point or a webpage/blog/tumblr. Please turn in either a copy burned to CD or a URL.
The presentation should incorporate the following:
!!! your device/service does not have to work - but you need to explain how it would work.
* notes on use cases:
A use case is a description of how users will perform tasks with your software or app. Who can do what?
A use case includes two main parts:
Each use case captures:
You should present at least two use cases for your project.
Blogs written by students in Sharing 101 during the Spring 2011 semester. In no particular order: