Composing Assignments
I. Individual pieces to be composed during the course of the semester:
A. A digital literacy narrative
Write a piece in which you discuss the presence (or absence) of digital media in your life. Are you, for example, a ‘digital native’ or a ‘digital immigrant?’ When and how did various forms of new media (or technology of any kind) enter your life? You might consider such things as frequency of email use, hours you spend on the internet and for what purposes, whether or not you have ever developed a friendship online, the role of gaming in your life, what you use to get the news of the day, to do scholarship and/or to read novels, how and when you listen to music, whether you participate in online networks and for what purposes, how you feel if you leave your (smart) phone at home or if you lose it, if you crave solitude or ever have the desire to disconnect.
B. An evocative objects story
In Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, Sherry Turkle writes, “We live our lives in the middle of things. Material culture carries emotions and ideas of startling intensity. Yet only recently have objects begun to receive the attention they deserve.” (p. 6) You are being asked to do what Turkle asked the authors in her collection to do: “to choose an object and follow its associations: where does it take you; what do you feel; what are you able to understand?” Turkle reminds us: “Some objects are experienced as part of the self, and for that have a special status;….Other objects remind us of people we have lost….Most objects exert their holding power because of the particular moment and circumstance in which they come into the author’s life.” (pp. 7-8)
For models, read David Mann on “The World Book” and Susan Pollak on “The Rolling Pin” listed under readings on the course blog.
C. A piece based on the Guidelines for Composing (will begin in class with a guided exercise and will then be completed at home)
Each piece will be shared as a draft in a small writing group (copies required) following which you are expected to turn it into a new media experiment to be shown to the entire class. In other words, you can choose a part of the piece or the whole piece and see what happens when you use composing tools or digital formats to tell the same story. What is interesting, of course, is if it remains the same story once you use a different set of composing tools or how the medium affects the message. Paying attention to your process and your sense of self as you compose in new media should also be a part of this inquiry. The piece (what I am calling a new media experiment) should be uploaded to the class blog by the day of your presentation. Be prepared as well to talk about your composing processes.
II. Group Project: The Work of a New Media Scholar
In groups of three or four, you are being asked to create a presentation on the work of one new media scholar or one composition scholar who works in new media. Groups should select their scholars early in the term and inform me of the choice no later than February 25. Presentations are due following spring break and should last about 20 minutes.
III. Final Reflection
A final piece presented on the last day of class in which you use new media to explore your journey through alphabetic and digital literacy. Trace important moments in the seminar and/or in your composing this term that help you flesh out/describe/depict your understanding of yourself as a ___________ (reader, writer, compositionist, sociologist, etc.) in the digital age. Finally, based on your experience, come up with your own theory of embodied knowing.
IV. Blog Posts on Assigned Readings: Posted by the Sunday evening prior to the next Tuesday class (or earlier)
Each week, I’d like you to identify an issue or idea that you find particularly compelling and to write informally about it on the class blog (under Responses to Readings, listed by author). I’d like you to include 1-2 quotes that you find, to quote Collin Brooke, “compelling, provocative, or otherwise noteworthy,” and to think out loud about 1 or 2 questions either raised by or answered by the text.
Each week, one student will be responsible for reading all forum posts and synthesizing the material you have all generated by highlighting shared issues of interest and posing questions to be discussed further. That week, the ‘synthesizer’ is not responsible for writing a separate post on the readings.
Time permitting, the synthesizer will present his or her notes to the class (5-10 minutes max). I would like you to email me a copy of your notes prior the class (Tuesday morning is fine.) After class, these notes will be posted to the appropriate forum.