Fall 2002:: ENG 1131: Writing Through Media
Schedule For Section 1363See Critical dates by Term for Further information.
I reserve the right to amend the schedule (and the rest of the syllabus).
| Week 1 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon. Aug. 26 | Introduction to this class and the NWE | Reading syllabus and all four main "What is the NWE?" pages | |
| Wed. Aug. 28 | More on the NWE and introductions from each student | Reading all five main NWE account information pages | |
| Wed. Aug. 28, E1-E3 | Beginning work with ASWE | Reading: How to save images; Introduction to web authoring: on this page, click the hyperlinks for and read "Introduction", "Files and URLs", "Differences?", "Citations" with it's four pages, and "Other Web editors". | |
| Fri. Aug. 30 | Planning your index page and familiarizing yourself with your group: Quiz and Group work here. | Reading Chapter 1 in The End of Books-Or Books Without End(Hereafter, this will be abbreviated as TEOB) | |
| Week 2 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Sept. 2 | Labor Day, no class | None | |
| Wed. Sept. 4 | Coding as everyone should have accounts by now and possibly discussion of TEOB Ch. 1 | Reading Deus Ex article. Also, look over the IGDA site. | |
| Wed. Sept. 4, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing Rope: Discussing how technical limitations often define a medium, yet Hitchcock's Rope could be set as a play - how does it utilize the constraint of a single room to its advantage? | Read TEOB CH 2 | |
| Fri. Sept. 6 | Discussion of TEOB Ch. 2. | Read TEOB Ch 3 | |
| Week 3 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Sept. 9 | Learning how to do tables, and discussion of TEOB Ch 3. Quiz 2 | None. | |
| Wed. Sept. 11 | Discussion of September 11 comic books (made to benefit victims of the attacks) and either the idea of the hero, or how expression encourages healing depending on the class thoughts. | Read TEOB Ch. 4 | |
| Wed. Sept. 11, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon: this is a film and is linear in many ways, but the story is also nonlinear. | Play your video game | |
| Fri. Sept. 13 | Three Quiz grades based on having your video game by now - you must bring it to class and show me that you have it. Discussion of TEOB Ch. 4 | Read TEOB ch. 5 | |
| Week 4 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Sept. 16 | Yom Kippur - no class | Yom Kippur - no homework | |
| Wed. Sept. 18 | Lecture on TEOB chapters and on Project 1: theme, organizational setup: sidebar, bottom or top bar... | Play your video game | |
| Wed. Sept. 18, E1-E3 | Meeting in the CIRCA lab (CSE E211) to play video games. You must bring your game with you - do not forget because having the game is a prerequisite to participating in class. | Work on websites/think about theme. | |
| Fri. Sept. 20 | Two response papers are due today. Two quiz grades for having The Big Fat Kill: A Tale from Sin City and Blade of the Immortal; these are available at FBS Vol. 1 or 2. In class work on project one and questions/answer on projects. 2 response papers due this week. | Reading SCIAM article online | |
| Week 5 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Sept. 23 | Discussion of and working on project 1 websites in class. | Work on project 1. | |
| Wed. Sept. 25 | Class cancelled - work on your projects. | Work on project 1 | |
| Wed. Sept. 25, E1-E3 | Extremely brief discussion of the SCIAM article. Watching and discussing Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream: parallels with Rashomon with multiple storylines playing at once and parallels with Rope, Rope working within limitations and Requiem using technology only recently available | Work on Project 1 | |
| Fri. Sept. 27 | Peer review in class, so project must be finished before class as on the project description. No response papers due this week. | Homework is to finish the first project edits before 8pm | |
| Week 6 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Sept. 30 | Watching and discussing The Honeymooners and discussing its relationship to radio, vaudeville, and theater. | Reading "COMPLETE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT": VIDEO GAMES AS GENDERED PLAY SPACES This is long - you don't have to read the whole thing, just enough to get a feel for it (probably about 7 pages worth). | |
| Wed. Oct. 2 | Discussion of "COMPLETE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT": VIDEO GAMES AS GENDERED PLAY SPACES | Read TEOB Ch 6 | |
| Wed. Oct. 2, E1-E3 | Playing video games in the CIRCA lab, CSE E211. Remember to bring your game. | Read Scott McCloud's website and ideas and look over Don Norman on Affordances. | |
| Fri. Oct. 4 |
Discussion of TEOB ch 6 and of Scott
McCloud's website and ideas and Don
Norman on Affordances.
|
Reading TEOB CH 7 | |
| Week 7 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Oct. 7 | Discussion of TEOB Ch 7. Making rollovers and cropping and resizing images. Office hours moved today because I have a meeting that I can't reschedule. Office hours will instead be held today from 1:30-3:30 today in Rolfs 410, or by appointment as usual. |
Reading Trip and make sure you know your gatorlink name and password. | |
| Wed. Oct. 9 | Discussion of Trip. Quiz FTPing your work over to your plaza space - you must know your gatorlink name and password for this. |
None | |
| Wed. Oct. 9, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing 15 minutes or so of Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera and then watching Blood: The Last Vampire. | Play your video game | |
| Fri. Oct. 11 | Discussion of Trip and the Highway metaphor versus the Ocean metaphor for navigation. 2 Response Papers due this week. | Reading part 1 and 2 of Blade of the Immortal: Dreamsong | |
| Week 8 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Oct. 14 | Discussion of Blade of the Immortal | Reading part 3 and 4 of Blade of the Immortal | |
| Wed. Oct. 16 | Discussion of Blade of the Immortal | Finish reading Blade of the Immortal and look over article on race, class, and violence to aid the discussion of Fresh on Wednesday night | |
| Wed. Oct. 16, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing Fresh in relation to heroes, crime, and innocence. Not the in-movie discussion of XMen versus The Punisher - if you don't know who these are, don't worry we'll talk about it. | Finish Reading Blade of the Immortal | |
| Fri. Oct. 18 | Final Discussion of Blade of the Immortal. 2 Response Papers due this week. | Read Fibonacci's Daughter | |
| Week 9 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Oct. 21 | Discussion of Fibonacci's Daughter | Playing video game | |
| Wed. Oct. 23 | Group work filling in/creating dialogue for comic pages | Reading Sin City | |
| Wed. Oct. 23, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing Oh Brother, Where Art Thou | Reading on film noir | |
| Fri. Oct. 25 | Introduction to and discussion of Will Eisner's ideas on sequential art, particularly frames and framing. 2 Response Papers due this week. | Read chapter 1 of Sin City | |
| Week 10 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Oct. 28 | Discussion of Sin City and film noir. | Read Chapter 2 & 3 of Sin City. | |
| Wed. Oct. 30 | Discussion of Sin City | Finish Reading Sin City | |
| Wed. Oct. 30, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing Snatch in relation to Sin City in terms of frames and over-the-top violence | Reading on the NWE's graphics programs | |
| Fri. Nov. 1 | Peer review of project 2. Project 2 and the printout of project 2 must be ready before class begins. No response papers due this week. | Finish Project 2 edits by 8pm. | |
| Week 11 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Nov. 4 | Introduction to the NWE's graphics programs | Reading on how to use the NWE's ImageMagick | |
| Wed. Nov. 6 | Working with the NWE's image programs. | Reading on how to use the NWE's XV image viewer | |
| Wed. Nov. 6, E1-E3 | Watching Perfect Blue | Reading on how to use the Gimp | |
| Fri. Nov. 8 | In class work with the image programs. 2 Response Papers due this week. | Reading Gloomcookie | |
| Week 12 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Nov. 11 | Veteran's Day - No class | No homework, Holiday | |
| Wed. Nov. 13 | FTPing and Introductory informal presentation on what you've been working on for your final project to the class: these are to make sure that everyone is working on the final project and has some direction; they are also so like projects can collaborate on ideas.. | Reading the introductory pages to the MOO. | |
| Wed. Nov. 13, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing Ghost in the Shell | None | |
| Fri. Nov. 15 | Homecoming - No Class. No response papers due this week. | Homecoming, so no homework. | |
| Week 13 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Nov. 18 | Introduction to the MOO and customizing your MOO character | Online reading on Manga and Anime | |
| Wed. Nov. 20 | Introduction to building in the MOO. | Reading about building in the MOO | |
| Wed. Nov. 20, E1-E3 | Watching and discussing 2 episodes of Serial Experiments: LAIN | Reading about building in the MOO | |
| Fri. Nov. 22 | Digging in the MOO collaboratively. Use Maps. 2 response papers due this week. | Online essay 1 on Webcomics and look over forums on talkaboutcomics.com - do read both. | |
| Week 14 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Nov. 25 | In class MOO building. | Read at least 2 of each of these webcomics: 8bit Theater; Penny Arcade; and MegaTokyo |
|
| Wed. Nov. 27 | Quiz and MOO discussion of the webcomics | Play video game | |
| Wed. Nov. 27, E1-E3 | No CLASS because many of your will be absent for Thanksgiving. | Play video game | |
| Fri. Nov. 29 | NO CLASS -Thanksgiving. No response papers due this week. | None | |
| Week 15 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Dec. 2 |
MOO building. Someone has to go to the main English office (TUR 4008) to pick up the instructor evaluation forms. You'll need to fill these out in class - I'll be in the hallway or outside on the benches as instructors are not allowed to be present when these are being done. On these, please say helpful things - like "this class could've been helped if we watched a film that's considered film noir because I've never seen any of those films that we read about and I was confused" or "Laurie should have written on the board more often to give us the day's goals and major points and to further explain difficult concepts" or "we should have done more with whatever and why." Please don't just make comments like "i liked this class" or "this class sucked" - while those are useful, I'd really like comments that would better help me in later teaching - feel free to be critical, this isn't about sparing my feelings, it's about me improving as a teacher. |
Work on final project | |
| Wed. Dec. 4 | MOO building with each small group building a bot based on a famous person from the 1920-1930's. I'll have a list of people when class starts with some basic information on each and then your grouop will look up more information and build the bot based on what you learn. This is really neat because you can pick anyone in the world (they can be visiting) and because the Harlem Renaissance is going on so there are a ton of choices for who you can make. If there's anyone in particular you'd like to make, then just say so and as long as they fit the time period, that's great. People | Work on final project | |
| Wed. Dec. 4, E1-E3 | Watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail | Work on final project. | |
| Fri. Dec. 6 | In class work on projects and FTPing. No response papers due this week. | Work on final project. Please do any extra credit you're planning on using now - no extra credit will be accepted after class on December 9 (so none after 9:20 am on 12-9). | |
| Week 16 | |||
| Dates | In class | Homework | |
| Mon. Dec. 9 | Last day of class. Either Peer Review of fourth project, so project must be in a reviewable condition, or we'll just have group work on the final project and candy - let me know if the class would prefer donuts or bagels or whatever and I'll get them, but you'll have to eat them on your way out, so don't skip breakfast if you'll be starving by 9:20. I do have office hours today if anyone needs to talk about final project stuff or to find your overall grade thus far, but no extra credit will be accepted after class today (so none after 9:20am), so please meet with me prior to this if your grade is questionable. |
Work on final project. | |
| Wed. Dec. 11 | No class | Work on final project. | |
| Wed. Dec. 11, E1-E3 | No class | Work on final project. | |
| Fri. Dec. 13 | Final project due by 12noon. You must turn in the printout of your final website to my mailbox no later than 12noon. No response papers due this week. | Have a great semester break and I hope to see you all around campus. | |