Course Information

Professor Information

Term: Spring 2010

Office: 433 Clemens

Credits: 3

Phone: 645-0691

Course Wiki: http://thedigitalage.pbworks.com

E-mail: areid@buffalo.edu

Meeting Time: T 3:30-6:10

Twitter: DigitalDigs

Classroom: Clemens 538

Office Hrs: T 2:00-3:30 R 10:00-12:30 by appt.

Course Attributes

Course Description

This course examines the impact of digital media and computing on English Studies as an object of study, as a tool for research and scholarly production, and as a site of pedagogy. From web courses and journals to mobile devices in our classrooms and scholarly conferences to academic blogs and online social networks, digital media networks affect the way we work, teach, and communicate. The readings in this course will provide a firm grounding in digital humanities with an emphasis on English Studies. Katherine Hayles (How We Became Posthuman) and Lev Manovich (The Language of New Media) explore the historical development of digital media as it emerged from engineering, information science, and the arts. Bruno Latour (Reassembling the Social), Brian Massumi (Parables for the Virtual), and Paul D. Miller (Rhythm Science) offer a range of theoretical and aesthetic approaches to the study and use of digital media. Greg Ulmer (Heuretics) and the Writing New Media collection discuss pedagogical implications for English Studies.

This is not a “how-to” course in new media production. No special technical knowledge is required. Nor will you require any special software. While we will undertake web-based projects, all assignments can be carried out either on the average home pc or one of the standard student workstations on campus.

Grading

Extensive

Intensive

Wiki Project

70%

Wiki Project

40%

Pecha-Kucha

30%

Pecha-Kucha

20%

Research Paper

40%

• Hayles, N. K. (1999). How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. U Of Chicago P.

• Latour, B. (2007). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford UP.

• Manovich, L. (2002). The Language of New Media. The MIT Press.

• Massumi, B. (2002). Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Duke UP.

• Miller, P. (2004). Rhythm Science. The MIT Press.

• Ulmer, G. L. (1994). Heuretics: The Logic of Invention. The Johns Hopkins UP.

• Wysocki, A. et al. (2004). Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Utah St. UP.

Assignment Descriptions

Wiki Project

You will receive an invitation to join our course wiki. On the wiki, you will do work analogous to the conventional “response paper,” except here you will work collaboratively with your classmates to produce a reference website that will be of use to yourselves and other graduate students studying digital media. You will make weekly contributions that might include:

• Summaries and responses to assigned readings or portions of those readings

• Reviews of related material

• Annotated bibliographic-type entries on research material (Intensive students only)

• Inclusion of video and other media, links to useful material

I will ask you to keep a record of your activities and write a brief reflection at the end of the semester on the work you contributed and the experience of working collaboratively in this way.

Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha is a type of slide presentation where there are 20 slides and each slide appears for exactly 20 seconds, resulting in a presentation that is exactly 6:40 in length. You will make these presentations in class at the end of the semester. Your presentations may be on your research topic or another matter related to the course.

Research Paper (Intensive Students Only)

You may write the conventional 20-25 page research paper for this course, or you may attempt an equivalent digital project.

Course Policies

Working in Public Online Spaces

The wiki in which you will work will be a public space. That means that what you contribute in such spaces will be viewable by anyone with an Internet connection. In addition, these contributions will be searchable by Google and other search engines. We will discuss the reasons for this during the course. However, you have the option of employing a pseudonym (i.e., a false name) as long as I know who you are and you remain consistent with your choice.

Student Disability Services

Government regulations require that university policies, practices, and procedures not discriminate on the basis of disability. Disability Services coordinates reasonable modifications so that individuals with disabilities can access and benefit from all programs, services, and activities of the university. Please visit the Disability Services website for further information: http://www.ub-disability.buffalo.edu/.

Academic Dishonesty

Please familiarize yourself with the University’s Academic Integrity policy, which can be found at http://undergrad-catalog.buffalo.edu/policies/course/integrity.shtml. In a writing course, we are particularly concerned with plagiarism, which the catalog describes as “Copying or receiving material from any source and submitting that material as one’s own, without acknowledging and citing the particular debts to the source (quotations, paraphrases, basic ideas), or in any other manner representing the work of another as one’s own.”

Late Assignment Policy

On occasion, students are unable to meet assigned due dates. If you believe you will be unable to meet a due date, you must email me prior to the day an assignment is due. In your email you should explain your situation and identify when you will complete the assignment. Typically I will grant students a week extension on one assignment during the semester.

Assignments turned in late without prior arrangement will be reduced one full letter grade. Assignments later than one week may not be accepted.

Attendance Policy

As University policy states, “Since the university desires to promote student responsibility, there is no general rule concerning student class attendance; however, every class instructor shall provide to students a course syllabus during the first week of class that specifies attendance policies and dates and times for classes, exams and all other required activities.”

If you know you will be absent on a particular day, please let me know via email as soon as possible. You are permitted two absences, though you may be required to complete additional work on the wiki to make up for the second absence. Three or more absences will adversely affect your final grade, with each absence reducing your final grade by a full letter.

Meeting Day

Assignments

Jan 12

•

Jan 19

• Latour

Jan 26

• Latour

Feb 2

• Hayles

Feb 9

• Ulmer

Feb 16

• Ulmer

Feb 23

• Manovich

Mar 2

• Manovich

Mar 9

• Spring Break

Mar 16

• Massumi (Virtual Class -- I will be out of town)

Mar 23

• Massumi

Mar 30

• Massumi

Apr 6

• Presentations

• Wysocki

Apr 13

• Presentations

• Wysocki

Apr 20

• Presentations

• Miller

May 4

• Research Projects Due (Intensive Students Only)