Thinking about Technology: “Paper” #4 – Winter 2017
At least six entries ready: March 2. Final version due: 11:30 pm March 7
FORM:
The final product for this assignment should be either a Blog or Website, and 300 or more words of analysis of your blog or website. On March 7, by 11:30 pm, you should
Have sent an email to Ms. Patton with 300 or more words of analysis (pasted in – no attachments!) and a link to your blog or website (http:// ). I expect at least ten very complete (fully developed) blog postings that respond to the Social Fictions Conference, the class presentations, and the readings. Please respond minimally to every class and every reading (but your response to several may be as little as one sentence).
WHAT WE WILL DO ON March 2:
We will bring as many laptops as we can. At this point, you will respond to blogs of at least three other people in the class.
Criteria for excellence:
having at least six postings in rough form on March 2
posting responses to three other people’s blogs.
style, originality, and hard work.
direct responses to the eight readings.
being very, very specific.
Excellent analysis.
grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Here is some advice for this assignment, copied from Catherine Latterell’s book, Re-Mix, 672-3.
Select a name for your blog and visual design theme. Before doing so, consider how the blog’s name and design will affect your audience’s responses to it.
Write daily (or at least five times/ week) entries over a two-week period. These posts should respond to the readings, explore connections, and allow you to develop your own positions. You may write about what happened in class and what you think about that as well as what went through your head while reading.
Incorporate links in these entries. Consider linking to a classmate’s blog or to a web page that provides an example that supports your point, defines a concept, or offers biographical information (eg. Spinoza).
As you go, record your thoughts about blogging for the purposes of the 300-words of analysis. What’s fun about it? What’s difficult?
To make this more enjoyable, try the following:
Make a YouTube video and include a link for us! (www.youtube.com)
Link to somebody else’s YouTube video
Tell your story in a Web Comic (try the Mac program “Comic Life” at www.plasq.com)
Add pictures!
Questions to answer in the 300-word analysis which is pasted into your email to mapatton@ucsc.edu
How would you compare blogging to other kinds of writing? What is challenging about it? What is surprising? How will it affect the way you write in other contexts?
How has blogging helped you to think about how people read texts? How they write them? How texts function for different audiences?
How has blogging enabled you to respond to ideas in the readings?