Blog Post

We will discuss the mechanics of posting in class - 25% total

General Blogposting Guidelines:

• Each blog post serves a different purpose, but all of these exercises are intended as scaffolds towards your final group project.
• Blog posts are less formal than writing for an academic audience. Think of these as concise and thoughtful communications that might sound similar to what you contribute to a class discussion. In the blog posts, you have more time to craft your thoughts and ideas and reflect upon the prompt.
• Reflecting through writing is very useful for your learning in this class, but also can be helpful for your future self. I would recommend keeping a copy of some of your reflections for your own research portfolio, website, etc. You never know when having a description of your past experiences (with tools, projects, resources) might come in handy! I recommend this for beyond the parameters of this classroom, also.

Grading of Blog Posts:

• I will evaluate the blog posts according to the following 0-4 point scale:
  • 5 : Excellent The blog post incorporates the elements outlined the blog assignment prompt (see below). The writing is focused and thoughtfully and coherently responds to the prompt. It demonstrates that you have reflected on the process and engaged with the relevant materials.
  • 4 : Good The blog post is reasonably focused, and superficially examines the elements outlined in the assignment prompt. Fewer connections are made between ideas, and although new insights are offered, they are not fully developed. The post demonstrates moderate engagement with the topic.
  • 3 : Average The blog post is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and few connections are made between ideas. The entry reflects a passing engagement with the topic.
  • 2 : Not Good Enough The blog post is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments, and displays no evidence of engagement with the topic.
  • 1 : Unacceptable The blog post is late, or consists of one or two disconnected sentences.
  • 0: No creditThe blog post is missing.

Blog Post #1: Reverse engineer a Digital Liberal Arts project

Due: Wednesday, February 12th, before class (c/o Austin Mason)

Watch Miriam Posner’s video on the components of a digital liberal arts project, and then explore one of the sites below and write a 400-word post trying to reverse engineer one of these projects (or a DLA/DH project that you find on your own):

• The Collinwood Fire, 1908
• Exploding Tongues: Language, Art, and the Russian Avant-garde
• Kindred Britain
• Austen Said: Patterns of Diction in Jane Austen's Major Novel
• Livingstone Online: Illuminating Imperial Exploration
• Plateau Peoples' Web Portal
• The Tar Baby and the Tomahawk: Race and Ethnic Images in American Children's Literature, 1880-1939
• Torn Apart / Separados
• Walt Whitman Archive
• The Willa Cather Archive
• The Darwin Correspondence Project

Make sure your post does the following:

• Introduces and links to the project you explored.
• Contains an image of the project that links directly to it.
• Breaks down the "black box" of your digital project by identifying its:
  • Sources (assets)
  • Processes (services)
  • Presentations (display)

Blog Post #2: Project Critique (staged critique idea c/o Kristen Mapes)

Due: Wednesday, February 26th, before class

Write a 400-word post that does the following:

Evaluate the project Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760-1761 (http://revolt.axismaps.com/). Fill out the "Project Evaluation Template" by going to the following link and clicking on "File" and "Make a copy" and then saving it to your own drive to edit: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aJPx6KHs4TD7UE8u_xLyQqnIrFA3zhesHsDZ9j9j-V8/edit?folder=1jL9a7OtOfhqkeAPdPkHyHWe_-pa-KKgW).

Explore the project goals, what type of data it used, how that data was found and/or transformed, what technologies were used, and why. Be sure to include your own analysis of how successful you think the project was in achieving its aims, and why or why not.

Blog Post # 3: "Object" Label

Due: Wednesday, April 15th, before class

We will discuss this process in class on April 6!

Create an interpretive label (100-150 words) that helps project explorers understand one of the data visualizations that you plan to include in your final project. Your label should explain your data visualization as an interpretation of your dataset. The goal of a label is to be concise, informative, and thought-provoking: engage the viewer by pointing out something that makes them look again, carefully.

Your object label should include the following:

• Image capture of the data visualization (it is okay if it is not yet in its final form)
• Title of the data visualization and current date
• A concise interpretation of the visualization:
  • What do you want the viewer to notice?
  • What do you want viewers to understand about your interpretation of the data?
• A description of the data visualization in relation to the data set:
  • What are we seeing in the visualization?
  • What does it mean?
  • Include a concise description of the process of creating the visualization.

Blog Post # 4: Project Critique of your own project

Due: Wednesday, April 22nd, before class

Write a 400-word post trying that does the following:

Evaluate your own project in its current state (I do not expect it to be finished!). Fill out the "Personal Digital Project Evaluation" by going to the following link and clicking on "File" and "Make a copy" and then saving it to your own drive to edit: (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vfJMuxNYKRnAg7hBe3qVVI7e1eZWMU9Eup8LTIkkCNQ/edit).

Explore the project goals, what type of data it used, how that data was found and/or transformed, what technologies were used, and why. Be sure to include your own analysis of how successful you think the project was in achieving its aims, and why or why not.