Discovery Writing #1: "Storying Technology"

For homework, you read David Bell's second chapter on "Storying Cyberspace." In it, he moves away from the Gibsonian stories of cyberspace toward the Barlovian, which he defines as the interaction between the "material and symbolic aspects of computer-mediated communication (CMC) or the human-computer interface (HCI)" and the "cultural practices of everyday life" (30). To tell these stories, Bell writes about his own experiences with personal computing, his history of game-playing and using the computer to work, etc.

What is your "technological history"? What are your earliest memories of technology? Computers or video games or the vibrating bouncy-chair that cuddled you as a baby? What of Teddi Ruxpin? the Speak and Spell? or the See-and-Say? When did you use your first computer? What was it like? What did you do with it? What fears or phobias do you have regarding technology? computers? How does your computer function in your day-to-day life? How would your life be different without your computer? e-mail and the Internet? What would be more difficult about being a student if you didn't have computers/Internet? What would be easier?

Before you write, however, you should take the following fun quiz from Quizzilla! It might spark your memories to start writing. (When you finish the quiz, you'll see a section of "code" that you can copy-and-paste into a blog entry. Do so if you wish -- it's fun to have these images and quizzes on your blog, I think.)

Discovery Writing #2: "Projections"

In order to get you thinking, even this early, about your first project, I'd like for you to take some time in class today and reflect on possible projects. This is truly "discovery" writing, writing to determine what you know already, what you might have yet to find out, and to think through the various possibilities that you have. By the time class ends, you should have written about at least four (4) possible project topics that interest you. As you write about these, think of the following broad questions:

• What is the topic?
• Why does it interest you? How does it connect to your interests/needs? What has led you to think about it as a possibility?
• What do you know already about this topic?
• What might you learn? What sort of research might you do? How might you go about conducting this research?

Devote one paragraph to each "topic." At the end of class, you should email me (banksw@ecu.edu) a copy of your project.

When emailing a professor, remember a few of the cardinal rules:

• SUBJECT: Make sure you place the course number in the Subject line, along as some mention of the assignment included (e.g., ENG3810 - Discovery Writing 2)
• BODY: Make sure your name appears somewhere in the body of the email. ECU student email accounts use letters and numbers, so they mean very little to teachers as we look at them. Without your name there, we don't know who has sent us a message.
• ATTACHMENTS: When you send a professor an attachment, make sure the file name of the attachment reflects the owner and the assignment so that the professor doesn't misplace or miss the piece (e.g., banks_dw2.doc; banks_majorproject1.doc)

These steps should help professors not to lose or miss your work. These codes also help prevent spam-catchers from thinking you're sending nefarious attachments or emails, as these look like respectable, individual-generated texts.

Discovery Writing #3: "Constructing Online Space "

In Randall Woodland's essay, "Queer Spaces, Modem Boys, and Pagan Statues," we see how the metaphors we use for constructing cyberspace matter to us, mostly because they wall in and wall out what can and cannot be part of an online "community" or "space." As you think about this idea more, write a one page, single-spaced reflection in the veign of Woodland's work: look at some of the cyberspaces you visit (frequently or infrequently) and explore how those "spaces" (and the metaphors they use) tell visitors/readers what can and cannot be done there, what is and is not "appropriate" in this space. How do we learn to "read" a space? What frees and constrains us in cyberspace?

Not knowing all the sorts of spaces you might view, whether regularly or just as a "lark" one day, I cannot predict what you will find or even make suggestions. Wallow in this assignment for a while and see what emerges.

Discovery Writing #4: "Community & Self"

For homework, you read David Bell's chapter on "Community and Cyberculture," and surely, it got you thinking about the metaphor of community itself, about the communities you're part of, perhaps even those you're not a part of. For one thing, you saw a distinction between Gemeinschaft (the "tradtional" community where "everybody knows your name") and Gesellschaft (an "associational" community where relationships are "partial and transitory").

Take some time now to write about some of the different communities you're a part of and explain how those communities are like either Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft arrangements. Try to think of at least three or four communities you're a part of. Think, in particular, of the ways in which these communities are normative.

Next, think of three or four communities you're NOT a part of. Maybe you want to be, maybe you don't. Maybe there are some communities out there that you see on the news or on websites or in movies, you'd never want to be part of the group, but you find them interesting for some reason. Explore that for a while in your writing -- what interests you about these groups? what do you know? what do you NOT know? what could you learn with some research/exploration? where would you go?

Write two (2) single-spaced pages, keeping in mind that "discovery writing" is rarely organized and arranged in linear ways like an "essay" . . . do not feel that you have to have a "thesis" to these writings or even a clear pattern to your thought. Just write!

Discovery Writing #5: "Analyzing New Media"

To get us all started thinking about "digital stories" and "digital compositions" — of the ways that we can compose and re-compose sounds, image, text, and culture — I'd like you to take a look at the following two sets of digital parodies. Both are based on popular movies in our culture; to borrow from the language of our class textbook, these are movies so instantiated in our culture, you cannot not know something about them: Harry Potter and Brokeback Mountain (and, by extension, Top Gun, Dumb and Dumber, and Back to the Future).

Set One: The following videos offer parody of the popular Harry Potter book/movie series. For those who read the books and watch the movies, the obviously budding romantic between Ron and Hermione won't seem very new, but in the earliest books, we often assumed that Hermione and Harry would end up together, the hero and the heroine, a matched set. "The Soup" (on E!) has also offered us a version that puts Harry and Ron together in their 4th year, while the final parody connects the Harry Potter series and Brokeback Mountain. Give these a watch, paying particular attention to music, sound, images, and words:

• Save You - Ron and Hermione
• I Just Want You to Know
• Harry and Ron
• Brokeback Hogwarts

Set Two: These digital compositions, of course, build on the media flurry that has surrounded Brokeback Mountain. Why this movie should be so interesting to people is anyone's guess, but after watching the original preview and the parodies, I wonder what ideas you'll have about its cultural interest:

• Brokeback Mountain: Original Theater Preview
• Top Gun 2: Brokeback Squadron
• Brokeback to the Future
• Zoolander 2: Brokeback Runway
• Brokeback of the Ring
• Dumb and Dumber Parody

For this Discovery Writing, choose one set of these parodies/digital compositions and analyze what you see happening in these texts: how do they use music, image, text, and cultural assumptions/beliefs/taboos/etc. in order to create their texts? How do these texts "work" (are they funny, intriguing, annoying, ridiculous? why??)? What assumptions about our culture and beliefs do these "writers" work with in order to make their digital stories come to life?

** Be certain to talk specifically about at least two of these "texts" here, though you might make reference to others. Your writing should be grounded in at least two specific texts, noting exact scenes, wording, use of music, etc.**

Length: 2 - 3 double-spaced pages, typed.
Due: Tuesday, March 28, in class.

Discovery Writing #6: "Whose Body?"

This project was cancelled for Spring 2006 due to lack of time.

Major Project #1: Academic Reseach on Cyberculture

For your first major project this semester, you should develop an 8 - 10 page academic essay which addresses a topic related (in some way) to cyberculture. These projects should be structured as academic texts, and we'll spend some class time doing invention and peer response activities in order to help you move your texts into that genre.

Primarily, you are encouraged to use the Stasis Questions to help you develop ideas for your essays. These questions also give you some useful ways to think about how to structure your essays. I also encourage you to meet with me individually to discuss your projects so that you can work as effectively as possible.

What does it mean to write an 'academic text'? Well, while there is no set format or organizational pattern, academic readers assume several things about the texts their reading critically:

1. We assume the writer has done his/her homework on the topic, has excellent sources, and has enough sources to "prove" his/her claims about a particular subject. These sources are support for the essay, not the essay itself; we still want to hear what points the writer is making quite beyond what the writings he/she has read have made.
2. We assume the writer can handle "complexity" — the complexity of the topic itself and the complexity of using source materials. And we expect to see this complexity demonstrated in the writer's text.
3. We assume the writer can write without excessive emotion in relation to the topic and can articulate the topic without necessarily passing hasty judgments. We do not want to hear the "Jerry Springer" version of argument; instead, we want to see how even 'emotive' issues (like child safety/endangerment in online spaces) can be handled based on evidence and not just the writer's soap-box.

Part of doing this well, of course, will involve your skillful use of those Stasis Questions. While the effective academic writer will NOT just follow those questions and answer them in any lock-step fashion, that writer will most likely deal with the four large questions of stasis. For example, part of the assumption in #2 above ("complexity") rests on the reader's reassurance that the writer has, indeed, demonstrated that the problem or issue at hand is relevant, significant, and important. Some of that may come early in the essay; other evidence will come later. Likewise, the academic reader will need the problem significantly explained (or "defined" — but absolutely NOT by using the dictionary!) and contextualized. Context, of course, may be explained through looking at the recent or distant history of an issue, but it may also be demonstrated through looking at what others have and are saying about this issue (or in this course, this particular "technology" or "cyberculture"). Ultimately, the academic reader expects the writer to argue for some course of action, one which follows logically from the evidence presented in the essay. It may well be that you do not have "the answer" to the problem, but you should still argue for something to happen (some way of thinking to change, so way of being to shift, some policy to come into effect to deal with the issue at hand). Don't be afraid to be wrong! Lots of us are: we put out the best information we have available, we hope, and we then let our readers help us decide if we make sense or not.

As part of this project, rather than have you create annotated bibliographies, you should photocopy your source materials and turn them in with the paper itself at the end of the project, along with all the drafts you were required to bring to class and any peer response materials we completed in class as part of this project. Failure to have these materials will seriously jeopardize your grades for this assignment. A high quality "A" paper will still get a "D" if the packet is not complete!

Peer Review 1 of Major Project #1

For our first peer review, please remember that you are all "peers" in age (perhaps) and in experience (somewhat), but after research, you are may no longer be "intellectual peers" on these different topics you're addressing. That's o.k. The goal of peer review is NOT to "fix" a piece of writing. It is to listen to a paper, to really hear what the writer is doing and trying to do. These, of course, are different.

As you listen to your partner read his/her paper aloud, take notes on what you're hearing: what are the main points that are sticking out for you? what do you see the writer doing with this topic? When the writer finishes reading, write for a few minutes about what you think the writer has done well and what the writer still needs to do — and tell the writer why he/she may need to do these things you suggest. Your suggestions may ultimately be rejected, but they're still important to make; they may spur the writer on in his/her thinking!

When you finish writing a response, then share it with the writer of the original essay. Explain your thinking and see what answers the writer can offer. Then do the same process with your own draft.

Remember to keep copies of your peer's written response to your work, as well as your response to your peer's work. All of this counts as "documentation" that's required for this project to be considered "complete" when you turn in MP#1.

Peer Review 2 of Major Project #1

This project was cancelled for Spring 2006 because students had not completed enough of their drafts to do a full second review.

Major Project #2: Digital Stories

We have spent the first half of the semester looking at our experiences with various technologies, investigating the stories we've told and the ways we've been "constructed" by the technologies we've used. We've read a good bit about various computer and Internet technologies were formed, as well as how they may have impacted our culture, even as we have looked at how our culture has seeped into the Internet itself (like the two types of communities we looked at online).

We've done what many academics do: we've investigated, we've read, we've researched.

Now, we're moving in a different direction, one that will have two parts: the thing itself and the reflection on the thing. Huh? Well, now we're going to be constructing some "digital stories" — and these stories may be made up of all kinds of narratives and all kinds of texts. In my mind, this project will be "creative" and "fun," providing us all (as I'm going to make one, too) with the chance to play with Windows MovieMaker 2 and the audio coding device Audacity.

The goal with this project is not to make a perfect "movie" or "digital story"; the goal is for you to experiment and play with the technology so that you might ask yourself one significant question related (in ways) to the "academic" work we've already done this semester: How do technologies affect writing? More specifically, you might ask yourself any of the following questions while you work:

• How do images, sounds, movement affect "narrative" texts? Why?
• How do my composing strategies differ when I'm working on "paper" (or Microsoft Word) from how I work when composing "New Media"? Why might that happen?
• How does one define "New Media" and "digital story"? What is to be gained from these definitions?
• How does "New Media" impact the "reader" or "viewer"? Why?
• Why does Dr. Banks keep using "scare quotes" around "everything"?

These questions will inform the Discovery Writings we do in class, on some level, but primarily, they will come in after you've completed the "digital story" itself and will constitute your "academic reflection" on the project. This reflection will be a contextualizing document, one that I read before I view your digital story.

So what is the story? Pretty much anything you want. Consider some of the following ideas:

• Tell a story from your past, one that you think would be more appealing with sound, image, movement.
• Tell a story of how technology has impacted your life.
• Tell a story about someone you've admired or found interesting.
• Tell a story about politics.
• Tell a story about something that worries you, excites you, frustrates you.

These, of course, are mere suggestions, possible starting points. In all of them, you'll need to find relevance: why would anyone care about this story? But you also want to think about ways you might "write" that differ from what you're used to. What might "hypertextual" writing look like in a "digital story"?

Learning Goal: Because our time is limited for this project, I do not expect a "perfect" digital story; think of it more as an exploration of sorts. My goal, at this point, if both to orient you to how you might produce a digital narrative, but also for you to develop your critical capacity as digital consumers by thinking of how images, sounds, and various media interact and intersect in order to make meaning.

Materials Due at the End:
The following materials will be due at the end of this project, each requried in your course portfolio:

• Your Digital Story, exported from Windows Movie Maker as a single movie file and burned to a CD.
• Two "in process" reflections on the project, each begun in class.
• A storyboard of your digital story.
• Your 2 - 3 page narrative draft (due early in the project)
• Final Project Analysis

Reflection #1 on Major Project #2

For this first reflection, which we will start in class, I want you to think about two large questions:

1. What have you chosen to do for your "digital story" and why? How did you come up with this idea? Explain your idea for your story (a type of "narrating" of the story) and why you chose this topic/idea?
2. What problems have you had so far in bringing your story to digital life? Specifically, I'm interested in the technological problems that you're experiencing, and you should focus on those first, but you can also talk about other problems you're having so far, from topic development to length, etc.

Reflections will most likely be one single-spaced page, though you may add to these after class.

Reflection #2 on Major Project #2

For your second reflection, which you will complete over the weekend, I want you to think critically about the following questions:

1. In what ways have you been frustrated as a "writer"? How has this project — from the chaotic assignment itself and lack of instruction from the professor to the inability of Windows Movie Maker 2 to do certain things with images, video, etc. to your choice of "topic" for a digital story to other things — created frustrations for you? Are these the same frustrations that you experience when you write traditional papers for classes? Are they different? How so, beyond the obvious (e.g., we're making movies)?
2. Using your best guessing abilities, why might the professor have structured this assignment as he did? Why the chaos with a new "composing technology"? Why the lack instructions? What "professional" skills (i.e., skills useful in future writing at work situations) might the professor have been looking for you to develop as you moved from the comfort zone of writing in a traditional medium (Microsoft Word) to a more nebulous kind of media?

Reflections should be 1.5 - 2 single-spaced paged.

Final Project Analysis (Short Essay)

As part of Major Project #2, you will complete an analysis of your digital story, paying careful attention to the evolution and development of the project, to the effectiveness of the project in meeting its goals and telling a story to an audience, and to how composing a digital story differs from more traditional "essay writing." You should produce a cover memo of between two and four single-spaced pages. Your memo should perform the following duties in an order that makes sense to you as the writer:

• Explain how you decided what you wanted to do for the digital story (topic selection etc.), as well as how you actually went about doing the project. How did the project evolve over time?
• What does your story actually do? Analyze the images, sounds, organization, etc. in your project, explaining why these elements matter to the overall effect of the piece on your audience. Do NOT just tell me, frame by frame, what each picture is; rather, focus on a few of these that you think are most successful for your project.
• What were you unable to do in your digital story? Why? What might you do differently with better technology or more time? Why?
• Explain in detail how your experience composing in "new media" has differed from composing an essay in a more traditional technology, like Microsoft Word of WordPerfect. What elements of composition were similar? Why do you think that is?
• Of all the parts of this project that you've reflected on in Reflections #1 and #2, and other thoughts you've had since, what value might doing this project have for your future interactions with new technologies? How might this project assist you with future projects in your majors or careers, if at all?

You might want to move in a different order than I've asked these questions, but I expect that all of these issues will be addressed in your cover memo. Use examples as much as possible to illustrate your theories about composing in new media or composing this particular project.

Preparing the Course Portfolio

Your grade for this semester is based completely on two things: your writings, revisions, and digital story project in your course portfolio and your attendance and commitment/engagement with class.

Portfolio evaluation, however, does not concern itself with assigning grades to individual projects; rather, the evaluator looks at all the work, reads it (or views it) holistically, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the entire corpus. Everything taken together produces one grade, your course grade (slightly adjusted depending on attendance and engagement with the course).

Your portfolio should be organized as follows in a three-ring binder. Plese make the sections easy to find as your evaluator (me) will have many to grade and only a short time to grade them in:

Items marked with two asterisks (**) will be new to the portfolio. You will write these after the last day of class. If you would like feedback on either of these documents, you may email them to me and, time permitting, I will respond to your questions about them.

Analytical Cover Letter

Just as a cover letter would accompany a business portfolio or proposal, just as a cover letter would accompany a resume and letters of recommendation, just as a cover letter accompanies professional writing sent to publishers, so too will your portfolio contain a cover letter. I consider you all writers, and since you’re requesting something from me (evaluation of how your work has progressed and demonstrated your mastery of course outcomes as listed on the syllabus), you must ask for it in your cover letter. In this letter, address the following questions in paragraph format. Do NOT write only five paragraphs. You should think about these questions — and others that you think are more important — and write a thoughtful letter to me:
 

• Introduce yourself and your work: Who are you? Why am I reading this portfolio? What will I find in these pages?
• What are your two main projects?  Why did you want to do them?  What motivated you?  How did you go about drafting them?  What specific revisions have you made to the projects (explain them in detail)? Why did you make these changes?
• What have you learned from/about writing this semester?  How have the projects and your different readings, responses, and class activities helped or hindered you as a writer/learner?  Please be specific wherever possible.
• How have you matured as a writer? What does it mean to be a good writer to you? What parts of this class will be transferable to future writing situations (other classes, jobs, personal life, etc.)
• What grade do you deserve on your portfolio or work ? Why?  Please reserve your answer to this question until the very last paragraph – base it on the amount of work you gave the class (both in your own writing and in responding to others in workshops and small groups) as well as the quality of work you think you produced. You should also connect your assessment of your work to the course outcomes as listed in the course syllabus.

When you're writing this cover letter, ask yourself the following three questions: Does this letter convince the evaluator that he should keep reading and actually get to the projects? Have I whetted his appetite for reading my final revisions? How have my essays changed to their final form? The letter is the first thing that I, as evaluator, will read, so if it's weak, that will put me in a bad frame of mind regarding your work.

Your cover letter must be a minimum of two (2) typed, single-spaced pages, and it must be in a formal letter style (date, inside address, salutation, close, signature).