Week 1
Read:
Kress, “The Futures of Literacy.”
Compose:
Reply to this blog post with a link to one of your favorite digital texts and/or social media account. Include a sentence summary and a sentence on why you like the text.
Week 3
September 14
Read:
Read through a Facebook page and a Twitter account via a screenreader.
Compose:
Post on Class Blog: How do the issues and concerns of “Multimodality in Motion” change the way you think about the Internet? In answering this question, you may address how your favorite websites exclude or include certain groups of people through their design and function, the responsibility of web creators to people with disabilities, and how centering disability and accessibility can enhance our digital creations.
Comment on 5 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Unit 2: Writing
Week 4: Hashtag Activism
September 21
Read:
Nancy Fraser
http://adanewmedia.org/2014/07/issue5-loza/
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with at least daily posts.
One Class Blog: What is hashtag activism? Is it effective? Or not? What rhetorical aspects must be considered for a successful and effective hashtag? What hashtags are related to your issue/activity? Did you/would you participate? Why or why not?
Comment on 5 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Week 5: Wikipedia
September 28
Read:
Zittrain’s The Lessons of Wikipedia
Wikipedia ‘edit-a-thon’ seeks to boost number of women editors
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with at least daily posts.
One Class Blog: How have you used Wikipedia in the past? If you have edited a page before, what did you consider when doing so? If you have not, why not? How does your interaction with the site change when you’re a composer as opposed to a consumer?
Comment on 5 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Week 6: Text-Based Games
October 5
Read:
Salter’s What Is Your Quest Excerpt.
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with at least daily posts.
One Class Blog: What are your reactions to text-based games? How can they be used to construct an argument? What are the affordances and limitations of text-based games? What is Depression Quest’s central argument, and how does it make it?
Comment on 5 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Visuals
Week 7: GIFS
October 12
Read:
La Grandeur’s “Digital Images and Classical Persuasion”
http://www.wired.com/2013/01/best-animated-gifs/
A piece that uses GIFS to make the argument
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with at least daily posts.
Class Blog: Respond to one question or a mixture of more: What is visual rhetoric? How do digital platforms make use of visual rhetoric? When are visuals more effective rhetorically than text? How does discussion about your topic make use of visual rhetoric? Or share an example of awesome digital visual rhetoric and explain what makes it awesome.
Comment on 5 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Written Project Due by Monday October 12 at Midnight.
Week 8: Remix
October 19
First, the academic piece: Springsteen’s Visible Guerrillas (Hint: the most important part starts at page 234)
Second, an example here. You’ll need this context to understand the argument of the images.
Compose class blog: What Springsteen calls “appropriative reproach,” others call “remix.” What is the rhetorical significance of altering pre-existing images to convey something else? Share an example of appropriative reproach in your post and analyze its argument.
Maintain your sharing platform with daily posts.
Comment on two other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Week 9: Infographics
October 26
Read:
Select two or three infographics from here
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with at least daily posts.
One Class Blog: Share a visual argument you think is especially effective. Analyze the image’s rhetoric (think argument, audience, purpose) and how the CRAP design principles are used to make the argument.
Comment on 2 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Unit 3: Sound
Week 10: Podcasts
November 2
Read:
This American Life “Harper High Part 1” http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/487/harper-high-school-part-one (You can access Part 2 there if you’d like to listen as well. IT’S SO GOOD.)
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with daily posts.
One Class Blog: What was your experience listening to “Harper High Parts 1 and 2”? How was the podcast rhetorically effective or not? How did your embodied listening shape your experience of the listening to the podcast?
Comment on 2 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Visual Final Project due Monday Friday November 6 by Midnight
Week 11: YouTube
November 9
Read:
An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F_EOquQtZg
Compose Blog Post: Michael Wesch talks about the far reach of YouTube, as well as how YouTube connects us through vlogs and viral memes. What do you think of his claims? Do you think he’s overstating YouTube’s significance? Or right on the money? Why? Share a YouTube video–one that is user-generated and non-commercial– that backs up your assessment of Wesch’s argument and explain how it does so.
Maintain your sharing platform with daily posts.
One Class Blog:
Comment on 2 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Week 12: Captioning
November 16
Read:
Zdenek, Sean. “Which sounds are significant? Towards a rhetoric of closed captioning”
Sean Forbes “I’m Deaf” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5l-2Jo14cQ#t=95
Sean Forbes “Let’s Mambo” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2KYAlcTQno
Deaf Professional Artist Network “Wrecking Ball” https://youtu.be/HMyXL-QnLbo?list=PLx1wHz1f-8J_xKVdU7DGa5RWIwWzRWNVt
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with daily posts.
One Class Blog: After reading Zdenek’s article and watching the examples, what do you think of the affordances and possibilities of captioning? How can captions be used to advance an argument or interpretation? How will you make your third project accessible?
Comment on 2 other student blog posts by Wednesday’s class
Week 13
November 23
No class November 25
Compose:
Maintain your sharing platform with daily posts.
Sonic Project due November 23 at Midnight via Class Blog
Week 14
November 30
Show and Tell Week:
Students Post their Favorite Webtexts Related to Their Issue
Week 15
Choose medium for Final Portfolio
Review digital portfolio examples
Finals Week:
Digital portfolio/reflection due Friday December 11 by midnight via class blog
Writing in a Wireless World 
https://instagram.com/chubby_life/
This is one of my favorite Instagram accounts. It is actually run by a former UMD student, and it has an assortment of photos of various (yummy) foods. A lot of the foods shown are from College Park or DC restaurants, so I love looking at it and deciding where I should go eat at next!
LikeLike
http://www.hitrecord.org/
I love HitRecord! It’s a website built by Joseph Gordon Levitt and his older brother which allows artists to collaborate on a large scale in creating films, songs, stories and any other style of art work you can think of. Everyone involved in a collaboration receives their due credit and, when the project airs on the show “HitRecord on TV,” they get paid for their work. I really wish I could find the time to get more involved in the site but even so, it’s a lot of fun to just watch the final product of hundreds of people’s hard work come together!
LikeLike
My favorite social media account is Buzzfeed Video of Facebook. They post tons of funny videos that their staff/actors/interns star in. The videos can range anywhere from people trying weird things, like guys trying on wedding dresses, to really cool and simple recipes virtually anyone can make, to emotional videos like people speaking on their parents death and how it made them feel. I really like Buzzfeed video as just a way to escape from things I tend to see all the time like personal posts or news. It gives me a time to relax but still either learn or watch things and still stay interested.
LikeLike
Link: https://www.facebook.com/BuzzFeedVideo?fref=ts
LikeLike
http://www.buzzfeed.com/juliapugachevsky/times-elle-woods-empowered-you-as-a-woman?utm_term=.xrBQWAwDP#.egX998Knw
This listicle from Buzzfeed, “23 Times Elle Woods Empowered You As A Woman,” is one of my favorites! My mom posted it on my wall the day before I went on a tour of Harvard law. It lists the many commendable attributes that Elle had, including that she “proved feminists could be many things at once.”
I do actually look up to Elle Woods. She was determined to reach her goals and she did all while maintaining who she is. Her and I are alike in that neither of us really fit in with the Harvard crowd, so I’ve always sympathized with her. I tell myself that if Elle can do it, I can do it!
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/thefatjewish/
This is a link to my favorite instagram account. The guy who runs this account basically just looks through the internet to find funny and relatable pictures and then shares them with the world. My friends and I are constantly tagging each other in these pictures because they are hilarious and painfully accurate.
LikeLike
This is a link to my most favorite Twitter account. I love checking social media daily, and this is account that is always on my news feed. The account seems to be created by someone who is generally close to my age range. The account stays up to date with current events that are relative to the “average” male teenagers life. The account posts hilarious vines, and pictures that make me laugh almost every time.
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/eurotravellers/
This is one of my favorite Instagram accounts. If you like to travel, hopefully you’ll really enjoy this. This account re-posts pictures from all around Europe. In the captions, they name the place and a fun fact or piece of history about it. I really like this account because I love to travel and I plan on going all around Europe when I get older. This account shows me all the best places to go.
LikeLike
This link is for the twitter feed for the website Total Frat Move. It is a blogging website that posts funny, interesting stories and pictures from around the country with the majority of them talking about different things going on in college campuses. Not only are they the twitter that i would say i “favorite” the most, but i also see a lot of their stuff directly on their website. They also have a sister website called Total Sorority Move which does pretty much the same thing but directs it at a more female demographic.
LikeLike
http://www.sjana.com.au/
This is a website run by an Australian girl named Sjana who is aspiring to be a professional lifestyle and travel blogger. Her website is a mismash of the photos she takes in incredible places around the world, music videos and videos how to do certain yoga poses, as well as inspirational posts of positivity that simply remind me how much there is to enjoy every day. She also provides a plethora of recipes and other fun miscellaneous tips and tricks which are always fun to read and try out. Through all of this she has attracted quite a following, and chooses to use her website to also spread accessibility to a couple of charities that she is passionate about.
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/fantastic_earth/
So I love traveling and I love photography so this account just takes the two of them and makes them one. This account lets Instragram users submit their own photos of places around the world to be featured on the account, and some of these photos just look GREAT. As someone who travels a lot, I really wish to be able to go to as many of these places as possible and from someone who likes photography it’s kind of inspiring to see a bunch of great photos, even if some of them have been Photoshopped.
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/marutaro
This one’s pretty straight forward. It’s a constant stream of pictures of the cutest Shiba-Inu, who’s name is Maru. I follow it because seeing him pop up on my feed always brightens my day. Check it out to smile 🙂
LikeLike
More Social Media Accounts:
I Fucking Love Science (Facebook)
George Takei (Facebook)
Deray McKesson (Twitter)
Offbeat Bride (Pinterest)
Jessica Prato (Pinterest)
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/humansofny/?hl=en
This is my favorite instagram account called Humans of New York. This is run by a photographer who essentially photographs strangers in New York City (he has expanded to other continents now too) and asks them provoking and honest questions. It is so interesting to be allowed insight to the lives of strangers and to put life into perspective sometimes.
LikeLike
Even though I am an avid user of Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, I love to look at different Buzzfeed pages. Whether it be taking a quiz or reading “24 Things Only Your Best-Best Friend Knows About You”, I enjoy spending time reading them because it not only entertains me, but it also makes me come to many realizations about life in general. I do not have a preference to any particular pages; I like them all! (http://www.buzzfeed.com)
LikeLike
This is one of my favorite social media accounts run by one of my favorite bands. They typically post irrelevant jokes that are 100% NSFW. The lead singer, Dan, is also one half of the popular Game Grumps Youtube channel with EgoRaptor (Arin Hanson). While I do not go on social media often, when i do, these guys make me laugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
My favorite social media account is “atticuspoetry” on instagram. Atticuspoetry writes short poems and posts them in a very simplistic layout. But what I like about his (I assume he’s a he) work is that it really hits you right in the feels. His posts are definitely up for interpretation because they are so short and vague, but I interpret most of them to be about being young and being in love. One of my favorite poems of his is called “rich of love”.
“I promise
to live a life
so rich of love,
that at the end,
I will not be,
so shy of death.
a t t i cu s”
This is a link to his instagram, but he also has a tumblr and twitter account.
https://instagram.com/atticuspoetry/?hl=en
LikeLike
wolf pupy or @wolfpupy is one of my favorite twitter accounts because its extremely random yet oddly relevant tweets amuse me. i guess it’s because we have a similar sense of humor. check it out:
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/gotdamnzo/
This is one of my favorite instagram accounts because it’s always a good source of laughter. The guy who runs the page also has accounts across vine YouTube and snapchat. One of his favourite phrase that he always uses is”You Knew!” Take a look and you’ll see why!
LikeLike
https://www.facebook.com/TheOriginalBestOfTumblr
This is one of my favorite Facebook Pages. It’s essentially just a giant collection of internet blogging, most of which is from Tumbler. What makes the page so good are not only the posts but the comments from people often times will have you laughing out loud for quite awhile or nodding your head in agreement about how you missed something so obvious.
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/kendalljenner/
This is Kendall Jenner’s Instagram page, she is beautiful and a wonderful person and I idolize her. Instagram is my favorite social media because of the use of pictures and the different ways people utilize their cameras to make their pictures look very interesting which helps show a little bit of who they are.
LikeLike
https://instagram.com/flavorgod/
This is the instagram page of Flavorgod Seasonings. I love this page because one, I love to cook, and 2, because this page posts pictures and recipes of really neat and healthy dishes that I love reading about and attempting to create. Sadly, I have yet to actually buy one of their seasonings which is sad, but that is on my “to do” list!
LikeLike
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/
“What is Code?” by Paul Ford
This article is a very long (38,000 words) explanation of what programming is, but for non-programmers. I find the actual article interesting, but I like how it takes advantage of the fact that it is on a dynamic website, and not static physical media. The author uses images, videos, animations, and small games to present an idea in a way the reader would better understand.
LikeLike