ENGL 303 – Multimedia Writing| Spring 2011 | Colson G06 | 11:30 – 12:45

“Writing” in digital environments has become an essential skill for professional and technical communicators and also broadens the career possibilities for just about any major or discipline. This course will introduce you to variety of skills and tools including graphic production and manipulation, writing and editing HTML and cascading style sheets, and understanding basic video production. In addition to these more ‘functional’ skills, we will be studying how access to so much information affects the way we learn and behave when online. Do you learn differently online? What makes a web site more or less persuasive? How do you critique content online? Finally, online access and the ease of which we may copy and reproduce materials have started legal battles over intellectual property (IP) rights. We will cover the basics of IP law and understand why the internet is such a legally (and ethically) contested space.

Instructor: Dr. Brian BallentineOffice: 211 Colson

URL: community.wvu.edu/~bdb026/303Hours:M1:00 – 3:00

E-mail: R 9:00 – 11:00

Instructor: Jessica TapiaOffice: 142 Downtown Library

URL:Hours:By appointment

E-mail:

Texts:

Redish, Janice. Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works.Burlington, MA: Kaufmann, 2007.ISBN-10:0123694868

Learning Objectives – adapted from the National Council of Teachers of English

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies —many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. In this course you will:

  • Develop functional literacy/proficiency with course tools of technology (Dreamweaver, Photoshop, iMovie, Firefox add-ons, WVU library databases)
  • Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively
  • Design and share information for global communities by publishing work online
  • Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
  • Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
  • Attend to the legal and ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
  • Assess and reflect on your own cognitive style(s) as a learner and researcher

Course Requirements & Deliverables:

Students will produce several multimedia projects over the semester and leave the course with an impressive online portfolio of work. At a minimum, students produce a significant (20+ pages) amount of professionally written and designed work for their portfolios.

You will be evaluated on written documents, oral presentations, class participation, and your final personal and group video projects. You will receive a detailed assignment sheet for each task. Note that active participation in course activities make-up roughly 10% of your grade.

Assignment Possible Points

Reflections (4 of 5 required)25%

Quizzes (cannot be made up)10%

Completed PSD File05%

Class Participation10%

Group Video Project + Presentation20%

Personal Web Portfolio20%

Final Reflection10%

Please keep in mind as you turn in these assignments that I will try to hold you to the professional standards that prevail in your field. For example, your employer will take for grantedqualities such as promptness, neat appearance, and correct mechanics (grammar, spelling, and punctuation). Late work will not be accepted.

Posting: Even though you will be posting a copy of your Reflections to your web space, please turn in a paper copy for grading. Your Reflections (as well as all the other work you do) can be part of your Personal Web Portfolio.

Professional Expectations & Conduct:

In addition to the requirements in this syllabus, you are expected to work until the class period has ended; to complete all reading assignments on time; to help your classmates learn by your responses to their writing; to choose projects that require significant research and analysis; to spend at least six hours per week out of class for writing and class preparation; to be courteous and considerate. Please turn all cell phones and pagers off (as in no ringing and no vibrating) during class time, as they are disruptive to the class. I’ll do the same. No text messaging, Facebook, MySpace, etc, please. All are very detrimental to your class participation grade. Finally, let’s please respect the request for no food or drink in the lab. If at any time course expectations are unclear please do not hesitate to ask.

Course Tools & Technical Resources:

In our Colson Lab you will have access to Adobe’s Creative Suite (version CS5) which includes Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, and Flash. In this class we will be focusing on Photoshop and Dreamweaver instruction. You can also find Adobe CS5 across the street in the basement of the library and in Oglebay Hall just up the street.

You will also need to verify your free web hosting space provided by the university at: You will need to have an active CENTRAL ID. If you have access to another account you are welcome to use it instead.

USB Drive & Portfolio Keeping:

Please obtain a USB drive that you will dedicate to collecting the writing, designing, editing, and revising done in this course. Please bring this drive to each class. As you work on your assignments both in and out of class,keep (within reason) progressive versions of all your notes, drafts, outlines, peer reviews, and research materials.Organize and label the documents as you go and it willbenefit both of us. As you prepare your final portfolio and write your final paper, you will review these materials in order to learn how your discovery, drafting, and research processes have evolved throughout the course.

Plagiarism Policy:

West Virginia University defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and responsible manner.All students should act with personal integrity; respect other students’ dignity, rights and property; and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their efforts.

Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course.Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. For procedures regarding the procedure for handling academic dishonesty cases, please consult the current Student Code of Conduct at <

Talking over your ideas and getting comments on your writing from friends are NOT acts of plagiarism. Taking someone else’s published or unpublished words and calling them your own IS plagiarism: a synonym is academic dishonesty. When plagiarism amounts to an attempt to deceive, it has dire consequences, as spelled out in the university’s regulations- WVU Academic Integrity/Dishonesty Policy is available at:

Please note: West Virginia University is committed to social justice. I concur with that commitment and expect to maintain a positive learning environment based upon open communication, mutual respect, and non-discrimination. Our University does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, veteran’s status, religion, sexual orientation, color, or national origin. Any suggestions as to how to further such a positive and open environment in this class will be appreciated and given serious consideration.

If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements with the Office of Disability Services (293-6700).

Undergraduate Writing Center:

Please consider taking your ideas and your written work to the WVU Writing Center, where trained peer tutors will consult with writers about any piece of writing at any stage of the writing process. The Writing Center is located in G02 Colson Hall. To schedule appointments or to ask questions, call 293-5788. For more information about Writing Center programs as well as for materials to help you negotiate various stages of the writing process, visit In addition, please feel free to visit the Center for Literary Computing also located in the basement of Colson (G20).

Week 1 / Introduction + Remote Hosts, FTP Clients, & Directory Structures
1/11 / Discussion: Intro to course and colleagues
Assigned: Obtain your Central ID and Password for next class and bring an external USB memory/jump drive
Visit: on Sign Up for the Central ID Account – you may have to call OIT at x34444)
1/13 / Reading: Selber, Multiliteracies for a Digital Age. Ch. 1 (handout)
Discussion: Connecting to your account
Assigned: Your first post (Quiz equivalent)
Due: Bring Central ID and Password to class
Week 2 / The Multiliterate Student: Cognitive Styles
1/18 / Reading: Hayles, “Hyper and Deep Attention” (handout)
Reading: Redish, chapters 1
Discussion: Cognitive Styles
Assigned: Reflection #1 on Cognitive Styles
1/20 / Reading: Carr, “The Juggler’s Brain” ch. 7 from The Shallows (handout)
Reading: Shirky, “Why Abundance is Good: A Reply to Nick Carr”
Discussion: Cognitive Styles++ / J. Tapia on library research
Week 3 / Privacy + Library Research
1/27 / Reading: Manjoo, “Can We Get Some Privacy?”
Reading: Farrell, “An Internet Where Everyone Knows You’re a Dog”
Reading: Redish, chapter 2
Discussion: Privacy in online environments
Due: Reflection #1, posted online and hardcopy
1/29 / Reading: Purdy, “Wikipedia is Good for You!?”
Reading: Hirsch, “‘You Can Always Look It Up’…or Can You?”
Discussion: Connections between cognition and privacy?
Assigned: Reflection #2 on Privacy
Week 4 / Designing Interfaces & Photoshop + Design Principles
2/1 / Reading: Redish, chapters 3 & 4
Reading: Zotero.org, “Quick Start Guide” and RefWorks, “Quick Start Guide”
Discussion: J. Tapia on RefWorks and Zotero
2/3 / Reading: Redish, chapter 5
Discussion: Photoshop and home page design principles
Assigned: PSD “Tut”
Week 5 / Designing Interfaces & Photoshop + Design Principles
2/8 / Reading: Redish, chapter 6
Discussion: Photoshop PSD Tutorials
Assigned: PSD “Tut” (continued)
Due: Reflection #2, posted online and hardcopy
2/10 / Reading: Redish, chapter 7
Discussion: J. Tapia on Google Scholar
Assigned: Reflection #3 on Design
Week 6 / Photoshop/DreamweaverHow-Tos + Design Principles
2/15 / Reading: Redish, chapter 8
Discussion: Photoshop PSD Tutorials
Assigned: PSD “Tut” (continued)
2/17 / Reading: Redish, chapter 9
Discussion: Photoshop PSD Tutorials (last day!)
Week 7 / Intellectual Property
2/22 / Reading: Nard, et al., “The Law of Intellectual Property” (handout)
Discussion: J. Tapia on intellectual property research
Assigned: Reflection #4 on Intellectual Property
Due: Reflection #3, posted online and hardcopy
2/24 / Reading:Lessig, “Getting Our Values Around Copyright Right”
Watching: Lessig, “How Creativity is Being Strangled by the Law”
Discussion: Copyright, patent, trademark, trade secrets
Due: PSD “Tut” post online
Week 8 / Intellectual Property & Creative Commons
3/1 / Reading:Creative Commons Licenses
Reading: Redish, Chapter 10
Discussion: Standard IP versus CC licenses
3/3 / Reading: Ballentine, “Writing in the Disciplines versus Corporate Workplaces”
Discussion: Opposing views on the copyright debates
Week 9 / Hackers and Hacker Ethics
3/8 / Reading: Raymond, “Hacker Dictionary” entries on ‘hacker’ & ‘hacker ethics’
Reading: Red Hat Security Guide on Hackers
Discussion: Ethical implications of hacker definitions
Due: Reflection #4, posted online and hardcopy
3/10 / Reading: McHugh, “Data Wars”
Reading: Visit Greasemonkey and Userscripts
Discussion: What constitutes a ‘hack’?
Week 10 / Web 2.0 and Remix
3/15 / Reading: O’Reilly, “What is Web 2.0?”
Discussion: Characteristics of Web 2.0 and relationship to IP issues
3/17 / Watching:Wesch,The Machine is Us/ing Us.
Discussion: J. Tapia on Research on Remix
Assigned: Reflection #5 on Remix
Week 11 / SPRING BREAK
Week 12 / Video Production
3/29 / Reading:Apple’s iMovie Tutorials
Discussion: Introduction to iMovie
Assigned: Group Video Project & Presentations
Flip Cam’s “Mino Quick Start Guide” and “Ultra HD Quick Start Guide”
3/31 / Reading:Berkeley’s J-School iMovie Tutorials (many sub-sections)
Discussion: What makes a successful movie?
Week 13 / Video Production
4/5
Ballentine@
conference / In-class workshops with J. Tapia – groups should bring cameras and flash drives to work on video projects.
4/7
Ballentine@
conference / In-class workshops with J. Tapia – groups should bring cameras and flash drives to work on video projects.
Week 14 / Video Production + Presentations
4/12 / In-class workshops with J. Tapia
4/14 / Video presentations – all groups plus follow-up discussion
Assigned: Final Reflection (due as part of final online portfolio on 28th)
Week 15 / Online Portfolio Peer Reviews & “Clean Up”
4/19 / In-class workshops to finalize and polish online portfolios.
Reading: Redish, Chapter 11 & 12
Due: Reflection #5, posted online and hardcopy
4/21 / In-class workshops to finalize and polish online portfolios.
Reading: Redish, Chapter 13
Week 16 / Portfolio Reviews
4/26 / Short, informal reviews of student online portfolios. Open forum on the major themes of the course as well as issues covered in final reflections.
4/28 / Course Evaluations & Closing
Note: Your final Portfolio must be published online in final form by the end of class today – please email me your URL

Five Major Themes:

  1. Cognitive Styles and Learning in Digital Environments
  2. Privacy
  3. Design Principles in Digital Environments (web and video)
  4. Intellectual Property, Ethics, and Hackers (or, hacker ethics)
  5. Web 2.0 and Remix

Five Reflections:

Each of the themes will have a written reflection assignment associated with it. Prior to the reflection piece coming due, Jessica will provide an in-class lecture on how and where to search for information related to the theme.

1