Class Audio Remediation Projects

Here are the final class Audio Remediation Projects for your enjoyment!

Frankenstein
http://www.rickvodicka.com/team1-frankenstein.mp3

Goldilocks and the Three Bears
http://www.dtc-wsuv.org/fmungeam/threebears3.m4a

Rumplestiltskin
http://www.dtc-wsuv.org/fmungeam/rumplestiltskin.mp3

Goldilocks and the Three Baristas (updated link!)
http://www.dtc-wsuv.org/fmungeam/three-baristas.mp3

Summer Abroad Study Opportunity with Prof. M!

Interested in the chance to earn academic credit while having an immersive overseas travel experience?

I will be teaching a credit course in Travel Writing in Prague, Czech Republic during the month of July. It's a 3-credit course, with the option to add a second 3-credit history course, all while experiencing the rich culture and history of Prague and its surroundings. Costs include tuition as well as room and board, and free (optional) daily language class as well.



For more information, please visit the ieimedia website at: http://ieimedia.com/prague

Final Class: Notes and Action Items

Since we have class projects instead of a final exam in DTC 375, Wednesday at 6 p.m. will be our final class of the semester.

A couple of notes for final class:

1. Steve Clem has graciously offered to supply pizza, so if you'd like to partake bring a few bucks to contribute. Thanks Steve!

2. Thank you to several students who've already turned in their final project Reflection Paper. As with the 2nd project, I did want to offer students who wish more time the chance to turn that in by Friday at 5 p.m., so that the final product and presentation can be included in the reflection experience. All work for credit must be received by email no later than Friday at 5 p.m. due to WSU final grade submission deadlines.

3. I will set aside class time for you to complete two 'reviews' - one is the Peer Review form like you did for the Research Project of the work of your peers; the other is the WSU form for you to review the DTC 375 class.

4. Along with the main event - the presentation of your Audio Projects - I will do a short recap lecture on the key elements of the 375 course. I would like you to be thinking about, and prepared to share, 3 personal takeaways of your own from our course work.

5. Finally, I need to get an email letting me know who on each team has the final audio file to upload, so I can invite them to the "Drop Box" file-sharing folder I have created so that the Audio projects can be uploaded to me in advance, thanks!

Soundscapes and Audio Remediation

Taking a story beyond mere words is the art of audio theater.

The most famous example of painting a soundscape so realistic that the listening audience is completely immersed in the story...is Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds." The broadcast was heard by more than 6 million Americans on the CBS Radio network...and taken as a real report of a Martian invasion by many of those listening.

ORSON WELLES: War of the Worlds


A compelling narrative must have a strong plot, interesting characters, and a compelling story arc. Stories shared orally can create a sense of place and time, and develop characters...through SOUND as well as dialogue. Note how the modern master Garrison Keillor and his fellow characters use music and vocal tone to create a sense of place and to develop character.

A Prairie Home Companion: "Guy Noir"


Beyond music and vocal tone, there's another level of audio storytelling - the soundscape which captures the sound of the setting and of the action. Note how many supporting sounds are added to the spoken story performed by the radio company of A Prairie Home Companion.

PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION: "Rhubarb"

Audio Project: Tips and Resources

Now that you are well into writing and planning your Audio remediation scripts, I wanted to alert you to some recording resources here at WSU-V.

Jeanette Altman has recorders and microphones that can be checked out. She is in fine arts, a lab technician / graphic designer; Jeanette Altman 360-546-9491, or altman@vancouver.wsu.edu.

Also, there is a recording studio in the Fine Arts room next door to VMMC111.

Regarding the scripts themselves, here are two things to keep in mind as you edit your drafts:

1. When in doubt, cut it out! An effective accoustic experience eliminates wasted words, and unnecessary dialogue. So once you have your story narrative worked out, the actual-beginning-middle-end, loop back and apply this filter to all your dialogue:

Does this dialogue a) develop character, b) reveal story details needed by the listener, and/or c) advance the plot? If a line or sequence does neither, CUT IT OUT

The other thing I've noticed: Make sure you are investing creative thought into the AUDIO remediation, not only the script/story writing. Remember your story unfolds to a listener who does not have visual cues, or access to companion text, they will experience the story as an ACOUSTIC experience. So edit your drafts with a LISTENING audience in mind, and look for ways to enrich the spoken narrative with an “acoustic space” of sounds, settings that enhance the experience beyond merely Spoken Words.

One other important reminder, please note per the Project Assignment description the audio file is due at 9 a.m. on 12/7, not at 6 p.m. (enabling me to load all projects onto the class website).

Augmented Reality (AR)

In the innovative transmedia film The Matrix (1999), Morpheus poses the question to Neo: "What is 'real'...?"



















Innovators in Augmented Reality (AR) are using new digital technologies to blur the conventional boundaries between what is 'real' and what is 'virtual'.


Augmented play:


Augmented shopping:


Remember the Terminator?


Science Fiction...becomes reality with StarkVision?!


The future: Reality...except more so.


How is "reality" different when it is..."augmented"? [Articulated Naturality]

Immersion, Avatars and Virtual Worlds

New digital media permit users to fulfill the ages-old wish to escape and immerse in fantasy worlds, but in a new and more participatory way, Janet Murrow notes in Hamlet on the Holodeck (1997, p. 98).

Whereas 18th-century readers immersed themselves in the fantasy world of novels, today users can escape into participatory augmented and virtual reality spaces.

Second Life is one of the earliest, best known, and most popular virtual worlds.



Creating a personal AVATAR, a digital representation of one's virtual self, is the beginning step in navigating virtual worlds. In the virtual world, through the Avatar, you can be whoever you want to be. What happens to identity in a world populated with self-constructed avatars?

Do You Want to Date My Avatar? (The Guild)


And this humorous remix response:
I'm Too Busy to Date Your Avatar


And this digital to analog remediation: Humans playing Avatars!



What does it mean for society that we can escape into these immersive environments? Are we at risk of blurring the line between virtual and real?

IBM: Avatars


And what about relationships? Does the ability to be whoever we want to be in the virtual world reduce our ability to have real relationships and make real connections in the real world.

Coke: Avatars


What makes immersive worlds seem "real"? Here are some interesting insights from James Cameron, director of AVATAR, about his own question to make the immersive world of that movie believable to the audience.

Avatar: The Movie (Discover Networks)

11-11-11: Visual-mapping of Tweets

Tweets mentioning 11-11-11 on the day.

Philosophy and The Matrix

The Matrix is much more ambitious than a traditional movie, attempting to combine explorations of religious, philosophical, and political themes across multiple platforms, all while still delivering an action-adventure thriller that worls within each 'screen.'

Here's a remarkable documentary detailing the philosophical themes woven within the Matrix.
Philosophy and The Matrix

And of course, any transmedia storytelling effort with such grand ambitions will elecit parodies, and perhaps none was more detailed (and star-packed) than this from the opening of the MTV Movie Awards in 2003.

Audio Remediation: Student Project Examples

"iPod of Discord," by Todd Hartsfield, Alyssa Blanton, Erin Kelley, Sarah Robison-Mathes, and Laura Velarde

Hansel and Gretel, by Dom Ramunno-Johnson, Joshua Lovejoy, Anaya Martella, Joshua Roberts and Lindsey Esch

Lisa Strata, by Jennifer Wheeler, Heather Martin, Chad McClure and Alan Olson.

"Three Pigs," by Mary Liu, Jacob Burton, Sandi Oja, Zak Steltz and Cassie Watson.

"A Predicament"
by Nic Wilson, Erik Cummings, Terri Mason and Eduard Nagornyy.

"The Importance of Being Earnest"
by Alyssa Andersen, Andrew Rajigah, Rick Fisher and Geoffrey Wallace.

"A Christmas Carol"
By Ashley Gonder, Cathy Manwell, Rebecca Fraser and Ernie LeDuc.

"The Scarf"
by Henry Ortega, Jon Perry, Aida Koric and Elena Mahrt.

Audio Remediation: Resources and Examples

Here are a list of helpful resources and examples related to audio theater and audio remediation.

Audiotheater.com

Crazy Dog Audio Theater
(Including this helpful piece on the basics of writing for audio theater)

Chatterbox

Radio Drama Revival

The largest broadcasting company in the world, The BBC, still invests heavily in audio theater. Some of the best modern pieces are coming from here. There are three channels producing this kind of work:

BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 generally offer drama and more serious fare.

While BBC Radio 7 offers sci-fi and comedy as well as other miscellaneous programs.

The Wireless Theatre Company

Example 1 from WTC (banter, character development and sound effects, including silence): The Importance of Shoes

Example 2 from WTC (language and communication): Laying Ghosts

Example 3 from WTC (framing): The Fun Tom Menace

L.A. Theatre Works (We heard a clip from its version of "Pygmalion")

Many samples of L.A. Theatre Works plays on this site, including the Tony Award-winning play "Art" by Yasmina Reza.

The Mercury Theatre (Orson Welles's troupe, which created the infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast

From the Rick Emerson side project, "A.Z.," an action piece about when zombies take over the world,

Episode 6: "No Mercy"

And a big list of all sorts of radio theater on the Web

Social Technology meets Remix Culture

Since our last two class topics have been Social Technology and Remix Culture, I thought this was an interesting news item to share, which illustrates both: "Tebowing."

What is "Tebowing"? Well, it started when Denver backup quarterback Tim Tebow got his first start of the season last week, and rallied his team from a huge deficit for an improbable overtime win. Tebow knelt in peaceful prayer while his teammates celebrated wildly around him.

It's the kind of sight fans have experienced before, players expressing their faith while the audience watches passively from home. But we're talking about The People Formerly Known as The Audience now, right?

That image struck a chord with folks around the country. It inspired one man to grab the URL tebowing.com and launch a web site. On that site, every manner of American has now uploaded photos of themselves "tebowing", kneeling in all sorts of places from Army barracks to HazMat sites, family 'tebowing', bowing on boats and in ballet class, and in the cockpit. The distance between inspiration and personalization, between imagination and action, is shorter than it has ever been - and what a remarkable example of photo remixing using social technology.

Read: Tebowing sweeps country

Photos: Tebowing

The People Formerly Known as The Audience

Here is the original, now-classic post by Jay Rosen about the People Formerly Known as The Audience

Clay Shirkey: How Social Media can make history

Here's one of the most forward thinkers in Social Media from a 2009 talk.

DTC375 visit to KGW Studios

A note on APA style

After reviewing this past week's literature review assignment, I can see that it would be helpful to offer a review of key elements of APA style, which is essential for the reference section of your team projects. Learning and using proper APA style will also help you in every research paper you ever write, and make it easier to read research papers.

Purdue University has an Online APA Style Guide that is extremely helpful and easy to use, organized by the type of citation (in content versus reference section) and then is also divided into authors (single vs. multiple), books versus periodicals versus online citations, conference papers, etc. I strongly encourage you to use this online guide as you prepare your project's references section.

Two of the most common citations you'll make in your reference sections are for journal articles, and for articles retrieved/found online. Here are the models for these two common sources:

Journal article, APA style:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.

Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Article retrieved online, APA style:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/

Bernstein, M. (2002). 10 tips on writing the living Web. A list apart: For people who make websites, 149. Retrieved from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/writeliving

Why 31% of Phone-and-text Users Prefer Texting

Is the phone call a dying mode of communication?

Here's the study we've referenced in class a few times, from the Pew Research Center, which found that of Americans with text-enabled cell phones, 31% preferred texting to talking on the phone to someone as their preferred communication method. An earlier Pew study found the majority of teens preferred texting to talking by phone.

We've talked in class about Marshall McLuhan famous assertion that the medium affects the message. Orality, Print and Electronic media each have their own textuality, as noted in Dr. Grigar's handout that we've reviewed.

Think about what is lost, and what is gained, in a text message exchange versus a phone call; and, why and when someone might prefer texting over speaking by phone. The attached links suggest some answers.

KGW Live @ 7 episode

The mission of KGW's "Live @ 7" is to be 'not your normal local newscast' but news with an updated edge, and web / social elements. Please review this episode in advance of our field trip to KGW to watch a live production of the show.

We will meet at 6:30 p..m. on October 12 at KGW Studios, 1501 SW Jefferson St. in Portland.

Steve Jobs: In His Own Words

Steve Jobs' commencement address a few years ago to Stanford, shortly after doctors told him of his cancer, has been called the "Gettysburg Address of commencement speeches." An innovator who rarely granted interviews, Jobs' comments in this 15-minute address are worth viewing as we reflect on the passing of one of the brilliant digital thinkers of our time.



And here's a link to the full text

Journalism example: Nonlinear / Multimedia Storytelling

Here's an example from several years ago that shows how digital media can be combined in creative ways to more effective report a news story than in conventional media formats like print or television.



The Minneapolis Star Tribune created a web experience where users could explore the city's bridge collapse, entering and exiting the story wherever they pleased (rather than a story experience controlled by the reporter or the newspaper).

The project also does a great job of effectively combining multiple media formats, from images and maps to text and powerful video interviews, again with the added strength of allowing the user to choose how they navigate through the story.

13 Seconds in August (Minneapolis bridge collapse)

Non-linear / Multimedia Storytelling

The National Archive Digital Vault is a remarkable example of taking a physical museum, constrained in time and place, and making it available to 'virtual visitors' at any hour from anywhere in the world. And, once inside this virtual online museum, explorers can chart their own path - a true non-linear experience, created by Second Story, an interactive media company based in Portland, Oregon.

Artist Book: Grades and Feedback sent

Feedback and grades for the class Artist Book projects have been emailed to everyone. Please contact me at frank.mungeam@gmail.com if you did not receive feedback on your project.

A quick note on grading. Projects were evaluated on the two assigned criteria: Thematic organization and use of media objects.

• 'A' projects had a focused theme with a coherent, compelling narrative
• 'A' projects used a variety of media objects (beyond words and pictures) and in ways that enhanced meaning and project theme

As a group, the projects displayed an exceptional variety and creativity in the use of digital media objects. I encourage you all to incorporate some of the creative ideas you saw from fellow students as you work on your future projects!

Struggling with new technology: Monks...and The Book

Our cultural struggles to assimilate and understand new technology is not a new challenge. In each era of disruptive innovation, the new technology is initially confusing and often even opposed ("TV/texting/video games are bad for you.")

As we discussed in class, the full implications of a new technology are rarely initially understood - even by the creators of the technology, which in the begin often mimics some recognized, established technology of the era. Here is a humorous view of how Monks may have reacted to the first 'book technology'...

Digitizing the World

Another dramatic example of the digitizing of the analog world: The famed 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls have been digitized in a partnership between Google and the host museum, making these rare documents available for viewing and even analysis anywhere, any time.

Here's Google's blog announcing that the Dead Sea Scrolls are online.
And the YouTube video:

Research Project: Topics and Process

By now, you should be communicating with the members of your Research Project Team, brainstorming possible topics for your Research Project, the second major project of the class.

A couple of tips:

As you think about possible topics, reflect on what you are CURIOUS about related to Digital Media and Technology. What do you wonder about? What is a belief, or theory, or hunch or guess you have that you'd like to explore or TEST through actual research? The things that may you go "hmmm", the thinks that lead you say to yourself: "I wonder why...?" are the stuff of great research projects.

Also, remember that this is a group project. This is on purpose for two reasons: As we've discussed, in Digital Media no one person has all the knowledge so teams can pool individual areas of expertise to achieve a better group result. Secondly, working in teams and developing the skills of managing the dynamics of a group are LIFE skills you'll need throughout your professional career so now is the time to begin to develop those skills.

Team projects rely on all members to contribute. Identify the best way to communicate within the team (email, phone conference/skype, Facebook, texts); develop a plan as a team of who will do what by when; be the teammate you'd want to have; and, remember all team members will be evaluated by their peers and will be graded for their equitable contribution to the group effort.

From Writing to Printing: Man of the Millenium

How important was Gutenberg's invention of the printing press? He's been called the Man of the Millenium because his technology of printing transformed society at so many levels.

Here's an entertaining look at the impact of Gutenberg's invention.



And here's a deeper exploration of the context and impact of Gutenberg's printing press, as well as links to a BBC documentary on Gutenberg.

Reflections: Artist Books

Thank you, students, for your creative efforts on your Artist Books. In addition to the learnings you had creating your own project, an important part of our course process is learning from each other through the sharing of work. On reflection, I noted several 'takeaways':

Pursue your passion: Many of the projects were infused with energy by your personal passion for the subject matter. Notice what a difference this makes - both in your own interest in the work, and also in the response from the audience. Did you notice how some projects were so interesting that students asked you follow-up questions about your topic?

Rich media makes richer messages: Did you notice how adding media elements BEYOND merely words and text made projects more rich, whether it was the cooking video or the Carl Sagan audio or the physical leaves for the LDS story and the many tangible, tactile representations of "Autumn"?

Using Digital Media to create new media and new meanings: Notice how the Capitalism and garbage presentations combined disparate elements into a single, new frame and it was the digital combination that created a new meaning. That's the power of Digital. And the ability to move "transmedia" - as in the missionary presentation, where everything from bottle caps to bracelets to a picture frame (physical objects in the real world) were transformed into digital objects that could be manipulated and presented in a digital world.

As we go forward, I encourage you to reflect on these uses of media, and challenge you to embrace the opportunity to think "beyond words and pictures" and to imagine and create your own new digital media objects, and meanings!

Prof M

Notes for class on 9/21

Greetings class, I'm looking forward to your presentation of your Artist Books in class on 9/21.
A coupe of quick notes in advance of class:

1. Some of you have shared that this has been a challenging project, in part due to open nature of the assignment. I appreciate your willingness to engage in the struggle, because an important aspect of the learning on this project is to encourage thinking beyond the conventional elements of a "book", i.e. words and pictures - so there is a purpose behind this struggle.

Several students have also asked for clarity around fair use for this assignment. As we discussed in class two weeks ago, the Artist Book project won't be "published" outside of class, so you are free to use copyrighted material but you should still 'source' it properly. Other works, like the comic without words, which could be published to the web...require a higher standard, and that's discussed in detail here in an earlier post in the class blog.

2. Also, if your project doesn't easily lend itself to having a digital copy submitted, it is OK to simply make a photocopy and turn that in to me in class. This element of the assignment is only so that I can have a copy to review later, so use whichever submission method is easiest for you.

3. Finally, remember there is a small Twitter / participation assignment for this week's class, which is specified in the Week 5 Assignment linked on the class web site. I understand that Aaron May reviewed Twitter "hashtags" in class last week. For any Twitter assignments that ask you to send a class-related Tweet, as Assignment #5 directs, please include the class hashtag: #dtc375. That way all of us in the class can easily find your tweet.

FRIDAY UPDATE: Do NOT "re-order" DTC Reader - it will automatically be shipped

Dear students,

I've just received this message this morning from University Readers:

"Any DTC 375 student who previously ordered the University Reader will AUTOMATICALLY have the new, corrected reader shipped to them at no cost!!"

This latest update supersedes the instructions they asked me to pass along to you yesterday. For any students who may have already 'double-ordered' the reader, my contact Jennifer has promised you can get a refund for the 'second' order.

Here is her contact info, if you think you were charged twice please alert her and she will take care of it (Spencer, she already has your info!)

We’re automatically shipping the correct copies to the students who have already paid. Please have any students with questions immediately contact us at orders@universityreaders.com or 800-200-3908 #503.

Best,
Jennifer Allen
Acquisitions Editor
University Readers, Inc.

Twitter 101

Here's a good video with a step by step of getting signed up on Twitter and using this Micro blogging / social platform.

Marshall McLuhan: A Lighter View

In our examination of Orality, and in comparing the textuality of speech with print and digital media, we reviewed Marshall McLuhan's bold and controversial views in The Medium is the Massage, including the ideas that we shape media, and they shape us right back; and, that the print medium is less rich and social than both aural and digital media. McLuhan can be obtuse in his pronunciations, so I thought you might enjoy this lighter look...and also note the media used to create this message: stop-action animation, with cereal letters!

The Ballad of Marshall Mcluhan from Randall Acronym on Vimeo.

Fair use guidelines

An excellent question was posed at the beginning of our DTC 375 class regarding the limits and application of "fair use" of copyrighted material. This is an important question with no simple answer and, as you transition from the role of student to the potential role of professional digital content creator, it will be important to continue to develop your understanding of the concept and limits of fair use, since the rules are not black-and-white.

What is Fair Use?

The Center for Social Media (www.centerforsocialmedia.org) explains Fair Use this way:

"The fair use doctrine... only refers in general to four considerations ("factors") that people should weigh in deciding whether their use will add more to the culture than it will cost the rightsholder: the nature of the copyrighted material, the nature of the use, the amount, and the market effect."

"In practice, since 1990 judges have boiled those concerns down to two: Is your use transformative? (In other words, did you add real value and did you employ this material for a different purpose from the one that the owner created it for?) Is the amount appropriate to satisfy that new purpose? If the answer to these questions is yes, the market effect concern takes a back seat. And judges look closely at community practice. That’s why codes of best practices in fair use have been so valuable in establish what is acceptable and normal to do in any professional community."

Read: Film-makers code for Fair Use (PDF)

How is Academic Fair Use different?

Educators and learners in media literacy often make uses of copyrighted materials that stand far outside the marketplace, for instance, in the classroom, at a conference, or within a school-wide or district-wide festival. Such uses, especially when they occur within a restricted-access network, do enjoy certain copyright advantages. As a practical matter, they may be less likely to be challenged by rights holders. More important, however, if challenged they would be more likely to receive special consideration under the fair use doctrine—because they occur within an educational setting.

Here is the full document on Fair Use guide for Media Literacy Education

And here is the most relevant section of that document for our class purposes:

STUDENT USE OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS IN THEIR OWN ACADEMIC AND CREATIVE WORK

DESCRIPTION: Students strengthen media literacy skills by creating messages and using such symbolic forms as language, images, sound, music, and digital media to express and share meaning. In learning to use video editing software and in creating remix videos, students learn how juxtaposition reshapes meaning. Students include excerpts from copyrighted material in their own creative work for many purposes, including for comment and criticism, for illustration, to stimulate public discussion, or in incidental or accidental ways (for example, when they make a video capturing a scene from everyday life where copyrighted music is playing).

PRINCIPLE: Because media literacy education cannot thrive unless learners themselves have the opportunity to learn about how media functions at the most practical level, educators using concepts and techniques of media literacy should be free to enable learners to incorporate, modify, and re-present existing media objects in their own classroom work. Media production can foster and deepen awareness of the constructed nature of all media, one of the key concepts of media literacy. The basis for fair use here is embedded in good pedagogy.

LIMITATIONS: Students’ use of copyrighted material should not be a substitute for creative effort. Students should be able to understand and demonstrate, in a manner appropriate to their developmental level, how their use of a copyrighted work repurposes or transforms the original. For example, students may use copyrighted music for a variety of purposes, but cannot rely on fair use when their goal is simply to establish a mood or convey an emotional tone, or when they employ popular songs simply to exploit their appeal and popularity. Again, material that is incorporated under fair use should be properly attributed wherever possible. Students should be encouraged to make their own careful assessments of fair use and should be reminded that attribution, in itself, does not convert an infringing use into a fair one.

Summary

The simple answer is: There is no simple answer or black-and-white to Fair Use. Academic uses enjoy greater freedom, compared to commercial uses. But academic use is not a 'free pass.' The most justified Fair Use meets the requirements above for "transformative" and "proportional."

The other lesson in the area of Fair Use is to access, whenever possible, public domain / Creative Commons content that is intentionally free to use - so that you only use copyrighted material when it is essential to the content and can meet the requirements above.

Thursday update, DTC 375 class readings

Greetings students,

Last night I reviewed the 'corrected' University Reader for DTC 375, and unfortunately, U-R still did not have the list of readings entirely correct.

I have resent the actual assigned reading list and am awaiting a reply regarding when the corrected reader will be available to students, and how to handle the billing issue - and will pass along an update as soon as I have one.

In the interim, please note that both of the Week 3 assigned readings are linked in the right column of this class blog as PDFs for your convenience.

Prof M

Social Media, 'Digital' Communities and Anonymity

During our discussions of Oral, Text-centric and Digital communities in Week 2, we had a lively discussion on the effect of anonymity in today's Digital (virtual) communities.

With slight editing to PG-13 language, I share with you John Gabriel’s "Greater Internet *Douchebag* Theory," put forth by by webcomic-artist/internetologist Mike Krahulik, through his internet personae John Gabriel.

Week 2 class readings - UPDATED 8/28

Here's a quick update on the class readings for week 2:

As I mentioned in class, the Grigar 'Channels of Information' PDF is posted on the right-hand side of this blog for your to access.

I have heard a report that "Definition of Man," the Burke reading for Week 2, was not available in the first 20% download of the University Reader. If that's so, on Sunday when I get back from Hood to Coast I will upload a PDF version of that to the class blog as well.

UPDATE (Sun.): Here is the link to the Burke reading (PDF)

Finally, the McLuhan assigned reading was purposely omitted from the class reader because it turned out that the fees associated would have dramatically increased your student book cost.

Click on this link to access the assigned McLuhan reading (if prompted, PW = artuf )

Thanks for your patience, it can be tricky the first week or two until the physical book arrives.

Prof. Mungeam

PS - I will be using TUMBLR to live-blog during Hood to Coast Friday and Saturday, if you are interested here is the link to the KGW Running Footage TUMBLR blog.

KGW Field Trip details, car pooling

I have posted details on the KGW Field Trip on October 12.

There is also a comment window which students can use to coordinate car pooling.

Also, I have included a permanent link to the Field Trip info on the right-hand side of the blog under Lectures / Class Materials.

Cheers,
Frank

Remixes: I Like Turtles

As promised, here are a few versions of the "I Like Turtles" video clip.

The social and viral remixing began as an innocent 'camera freeze' during a live broadcast on KGW-TV.



The clip was posted to YouTube, and spawned countless remixes, including this "Techno" remix which has tallied nearly a million views.



And here is the Bill Oreilly remix.

Ordering instructions for DTC 375 Textbook Reader

Dear students,

I have compiled a set of custom readings for DTC 375, published in a binder by University Readers and now available online at https://students.universityreaders.com/store/.

I have carefully selected the readings included in this course pack to provide you with a more relevant, custom learning experience. Please purchase this course pack to stay on top of your readings.

To purchase the textbook, please follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Log on to https://students.universityreaders.com/store/.

Step 2: Create an account or log in if you have an existing account to purchase.

Step 3: Easy-to-follow instructions will guide you through the rest of the ordering process. Payment can be made by all major credit cards or with an electronic check.

Step 4: After purchasing, you can access your partial digital pack (FREE 20% PDF) by logging into your account and clicking My Digital Materials to get started on your readings right away.

Orders are typically processed within 24 hours and the shipping time will depend on the selected shipping method and day it is shipped (orders are not shipped on Sundays or holidays). If you experience any difficulties, please email orders@universityreaders.com or call 800.200.3908 ext. 503.

The Media and the Message

How does the media we use influence the message sent and received?

How has the Digital revolution changed communication?

These themes will be explored in this course, and are provocatively illustrated in this short YouTube video by Michael Wesh, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University.

In-class survey for 8/24

My teaching philosophy is one of co-learning. I will share my knowledge with you, and I look forward to discovering new knowledge from each of you in return.

In order to better understand the digital technology skills you bring to this class, and your motivation for taking this course, I've created a short, 8-question survey that I'd like each of you to complete during if not before our first class on 8/24.

This survey is anonymous and should take less than ten minutes to complete. I will share the aggregated responses with the class during our second meeting on 8/31.

Click here to complete the survey.

Welcome to DTC 375

Welcome to DTC 375 - Language, Texts and Technology.

This class explores the development of language, texts and technology through examinations of the work of leading theorists and via practical, creative exercises.

Students will discover the malleable nature of texts and explore the relationship between communication and technology.

The class will experiment with language, words, images, audio and video to reach an understanding of how oral, print and electronic forms can function effectively and artistically in a post-modern world.

Frank Mungeam