The impact of computers, on research and teaching in English, rhetoric, and composition, already significant, has become truly revolutionary as multimedia CDs and web sites supplement or replace books, periodicals, and even scholarly conferences. The increasing use of hypermedia (interactive computerized words, graphics, sounds, animation, and video integrated by hyperlinks) now faces strong opposition from critics of multimedia (Postman, Healy, Kernan, Bickerts. etc.) and has inspired eloquent defenders (Bolter, Lanham, Ulmer, etc.). We will explore this debate, especially as it is framed in terms of the left brain/ right brain dichotomy, and question the meaning of "reading" and "writing" when applied to hypermedia. Students will be given the opportunity to create a multimedia site of their own and make a CD version of it. The site/CD can be devoted to literary criticism, creative writing, rhetoric, FLEC, or related academic pursuits.
This is primarily a hands-on, discovery learning course. One of the key features of this new genre, the increased interactivity, inviting the reader to make decisions and participate in the creation of the text itself, also facilitates the new teaching initiative on this campus, "discovery learning." With the assistance of various guest experts, you will be given opportunities to learn how to make advanced HTML work, with and without the assistance of a WYSIWYG editor such as Front Page; how to capture pictures, animations, and sounds from the Internet; how to hyperlink to pictures, animations, and sounds on the Internet; how to scan images for the web; how to edit images for best cross platform file size, image dimensions, and color resolution; how to create animations; how to capture and edit digital audio and video; how to make all these work together in a cross-platform web site; and how to save this site to a cross-platform CD.
Grades will be based on your OLR portfolio, consisting of class participation [20%], two brief presentations on the Healy-Lanham debate or related issues (20%), and your CD /web site [60%]. Class participation involves making the required postings to web forums on time, class attendance, and active participation in class. Each student has the potential to get an A in the course.
Assessment will be based on The Online Learning Record (OLR), a portfolio-based assessment tool that allows students to document their learning across five interdependent dimensions (confidence and independence, skills and strategies, knowledge and understanding, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness). Besides samples of work carefully selected to document learning, the OLR will include personal narrative, an interview with someone familiar with your intellectual development, a series of self-observations, and interpretive essays written at midterm and semester's end. If you're not familiar with the OLR or you'd like to refresh your memory, please consult Professor M.A. Syverson's excellent site, Beyond Portfolios. You'll also find a printable/downloadable copy of the form you'll use for your Learning Record at the Beyond Portfolios site.
Texts: Required: Healy, Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think; Lanham, Electronic Word; Lemay Web Publishing with HTML 4 in 21 Days, Professional Reference Edition. Second Edition;
Students should be familiar with keyboarding, operating systems, word processing, electronic mail, Web-browing, and must have or acquire basic HTML skills in the first month. Students will also need an IF computer account and provide their own storage, that is, get a UNIX account or a ZIP or JAZ cartridge, and/or some blank Cds if they are going to store their site on a CD. Students should expect to spend a considerable amount of time outside of class, sitting in front of a computer, and may also find it useful to attend some of the free classes and workshops on various technical topics offered by ACITS, TeamWeb, or the General Libraries
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Course Schedule
