Schedule for English 3810, Section 003

First Class
Discuss Syllabus

Small Group: Technology Survey

Homework for Thursday: Read the following short pieces from USA Today & Kuro5hin. Make a list of where these texts/authors connect and disconnect. What are their interests or concerns with MySpace? Why?

• Kornblum, "Teens Hang out at MySpace" (USA Today)
• Kornblum, "Adults Question MySpace's Safety" (USA Today)
• dbickett, "MySpace: A Place for Dolts" (Kuro5hin)

Defining Cyberculture

Discussion: MySpace, Facebook, "Authoring," and Cyberculture

• What fears/anxieties are we experiencing with online spaces? Why?
• What types of "social" sites are popular now? Why?
• How do people use online spaces for communication? writing? reading?
• What does it mean to be an "author" in the age of the Internet? to publish? to write?

Mini-Lesson:
Writing the Rhetorical Précis
Practice Article for Précis: Jeff Howe, "File Sharing Is, Like, Totally Uncool"
(See also Ken Fisher, "Nielsen Rating System Points to Possible Deceit in RIAA Sales Figures")

Homework:
Read Sirius's "The Medium is the Message and the Message if Voyeurism" and write a précis of the article.

Defining Cyberculture

Small Group: Share your rhetorical précis and discuss writing strategies

Discussion: McLuhan, Media, Messages, and Cyberculture

Homework:
Read Jeff Howe's "File Sharing Is, Like, Totally Uncool" and write a Précis
(See also Ken Fisher, "Nielsen Rating System Points to Possible Deceit in RIAA Sales Figures")
Read David Bell, Ch. 1 (An Introduction to Cybercultures)

Ponderables:

• What is the "logic of the book"? How might that different from the "logic of the net"? What might an "illogic" of these two be?

Defining Cyberculture

Homework:
Read Bell, Ch. 2 ("Storying Cyberspace 1") and write a short (250-300 word) response to the chapter (Discovery Writing #1). You choose how to write your response. Responses shound be around 2 double-spaced pages, or one single-spaced page.

Remember to revise Rhetorical Précis #2, including an extented response using the first two Stasis Questions (Conjecture or Definition). You do not have to answer all the questions; just use them generatively in order to think through how the author constructs the argument he/she is making.

Ponderables:

• What "material stories" do you have of the Cyberculture? What was the first video game you played? the first electronic gadget? When did you start using the 'net? what for?
• What role does metaphor play in our understanding of Cyberculture and the 'net?

Defining Cyberculture

Group Work: Read and respond to DW #1

Discussion:
Stasis Questions, Pt. 2

Homework: Read Kevin Robbins'"Cyberspace and the World We Live In", our first academic article, and write Rhetorical Précis #3, this time using the second set of Stasis Questions (Quality or Policy) to extend your response.

Ponderables:

• Can a person "remake" herself on the 'net? Can we be whoever we want to be?
• If we can be someone else, how do we do it? What must we know in order to "re-create" ourselves or to perform some other self?
• How does Cyberculture affect/effect the world we live in?
• Is real life (IRL) linear or webbed?

Defining Cyberculture

Discussion: Robbins and "Cyberspace"

Homework: For the next class, read Daniel Terdiman, "Play Games, Be Better Students?" and John Brandon, "Dropping the Bomb on Google." Write two précis, one for each article. Remember to "extend" your précis by using stasis questions.

Analyzing Cyberculture: Metaphors for Constructing Knowledge

Discussion: Terdiman and Brandon

Homework: Read Randall Woodland's "Queer Spaces, Modem Boys, and Pagan Statues" and write a précis of the article. Remember to "extend" your précis using the stasis questions.

Ponderables:

• Given you knowledge of metaphor, what metaphors can you think of for cyberspace and the Internet? (Obviously, "net" and "web" are already there, as is "space" -- what else?)
• How does metaphor construct the space we go to? How does it control WHO goes there and WHAT HAPPENS there? (these are arguments Woodland makes in his essay)

Analyzing Cyberculture: Metaphors for Constructing Knowledge

Writing: Discovery Writing #2

Discussion: Woodland and Metaphors of/on the Web

Links relevant to Woodland's article

• "What is LambdaMOO?"
• LambdaMoo Intro Screen
• LamdaMOO Info
• LambdaMOO Map
• DiscWorld MUD
• DiversityUniversity MOO

Homework: Read Bell, Ch. 3 "Experiential Stories". When you finish, complete Discovery Writing #3, paying special attention to the sort of storeis Bell talks about and how your own stories intersect or do not.

Analyzing Cyberculture

Group Work: Discovery Writing #3

Discussion: Major Project #1

Daily Technology: Using FURL: Social Bookmarking and Research File Cabinet

Homework: Write a Discovery Draft of of your Proposal for Major Project #1

Analyzing Cyberculture

Group Work: Discuss MP#1 Proposals

Homework: Read Bell, Ch. 4 "Cultural Studies in Cyberspace" (pp. 65-91). Using search terms like "Foucault+computers" or "Baudrillard+cyberculture" or "Deleuze+Guattari+technology" (or others you can think of based on your homework reading), google to see what links you get. If you find any interesting articles that help you understand either the theorists (Foucault, Baudrillard, or Deleuze & Guattari), furl them for future reference.

Ponderables:

• How is "theory" a metaphor for understanding?
• What are the implications of Baudrillard's theory of the "simulacrum" (a copy w/o an original)? How does the "simulacrum" apply to links? blogs? news stories?
• How does Deleuze and Guattari's theory of "becoming" affect/effect our understandings of cyberspace? of the web-surfer?
• Foucault argued that individuals are produced by the languages (discourses) that form them. What might this mean in relation to the Internet, where individuals are always only discursively created -- where surfers are only "real" in their words and images (which might all be "fake")?

Analyzing Cyberculture

Discussion: Bell, "Cultural Studies in Cyberspace"

Homework: Read Bell, Ch. 5, "Community and Cyberculture" (pp. 92-112) and complete Discovery Writing #4.

Ponderables:

• What makes a "community"?
• Think of the different communities you're a part of: how do these communities function? What couldn't they do if they were an online community? What could they do more effectively? easily?
• How do Baudrillard's or Deleuze and Guattari's theories impact our understanding of "community"?

Analyzing Cyberculture

Discussion: Bell, "Community and Cyberculture"

Homework: Major Project #1, Draft #1

Analyzing Cyberculture

Group Work: Peer Review of MP#1, Draft #1

Homework: After class, you should email a copy of your project to Dr. Banks so that I can offer some preliminary feedback on the project. Remember to put the course name and number in the SUBJECT line of your email and be certain to add your name to the email itself so that I know who has sent me a document.

Analyzing Cyberculture

Conferences about MP #1

Working in New Media

Group Work: Peer Review of MP#1, Draft #2

!!!Spring Break!!!

Working in New Media

Discovery Writing # 5: Analyzing New Media Compositions

Working in New Media

In-Class Writing: Reflection #1, MP#2

Homework: Continue to work on Digital Story. Bring Storyboard and a finished copy of Reflection #1 to class on Thursday.

Working in New Media

In-Class Writing: Continue work on Digital Story.

Homework: Reflection #2, MP#2

Working in New Media

In-Class Writing: Continue work on Digital Story.

Homework: Prepare a draft of your Digital Story for "Showcase Day" on Thursday.

Last Day of Class: Showcase Day!!

Presentations: Today, each "digital composer" will get the chance to share his/lher story with the class and ask for feedback.

Discussion: Preparing the Course Portfolio

Homework: Finish Digital Stories, Revise MP #1, Create Portfolio Cover Letter, and Put Together Course Portfolio

???Final Exam???
2:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Bate 2016