DGST101 // Spring 2021 // Schedule

@Jessifer // onlinedgst101.slack.com // jstommel@umw.edu

Welcome! Here’s what we’ll spend our time doing this semester. This schedule will evolve as we proceed. Watch regularly for more details, and stuff might change or move around as our conversation does.

You can annotate any Medium page. Feel free to make comments or ask questions right on this page (or any other within our course site).

[/] January 25–31: Early Dystopian Futures

First, read:

Ray Bradbury, “The Veldt” (About the Book)
Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains”

Then, do some stuff:

(1) Sign up for Medium (all you’ll need is a free account), create a profile, making sure to upload a picture (either you or something that represents you).

(2) Write an initial post, responding to one or both of the Ray Bradbury stories. Add at least one picture to the post. My favorite tool for finding free pictures is Unsplash. Tag your post with #Dgst101. (Next week, you’ll share the post with me and your classmates in Slack.)

Note: If you run into trouble with these or any of your digital work this term, you can make an appointment with the Digital Knowledge Center.

[/] February 1–7: the Web 20 Years Ago

First, read and watch:

Preface and Ch. 2 from Small Pieces Loosely Joined (Ch. 1 appears to be hacked. The point is to get a sense for how folks were thinking about the Web 20 years ago. The fact that the site is hacked and no longer maintained says something about the ephemeral nature of the Web.)

Then, do some stuff:

(1) Sign up for our Slack channel by going to onlinedgst101.slack.com/signup (you’ll have to use your UMW e-mail for this to work), and say hello in the #random channel, perhaps with a GIF.

(2) Make a short (less than a minute) video introducing yourself to us. This can be super simple (shot on your phone, no editing, etc.). Upload your video to a site like YouTube, Vimeo, or any other site where videos live. Post a link in the #who-are-we channel in Slack.

• Don’t tell us your major, unless you have a story about it
• Don’t tell us what you did over the Summer, unless it involves giant snakes, parachuting, a unicorn, a flash flood, or it was documented in a viral video
• Don’t tell us where you grew up, unless you’re going to show pictures
• Do tell us what moves you, what you care most about
• Do tell us what you hope to get from taking this course, but only if you can do so in a limerick
• Do tell us where you are
• Do give us random facts we can come to know you by
• Do click here and answer the first would you rather question that catches your eye

(3) Share a link to the Medium post you wrote last week in the #our-work channel on Slack.

[/] February 8–14: the Web 10 Years Ago

First, read:

Clay Shirky, “Does the Internet Make You Smarter”
Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”
“A Vision of Student’s Today”

Then, do some stuff:

(1) Write a Medium post responding to these questions: what is the internet? Draw on the various stuff you’ve read so far. Some things to consider: where is the internet? what is not the internet? how many internets are there? what is the internet becoming? is the internet alive? what do you love about the internet? what scares you? (This post should help you generate ideas for the Rebuild the Internet assignment you’ll complete in a couple weeks.)

(2) First share a link to your first Medium post in the #our-work channel on Slack, if you haven’t already. Then, read a few posts by other folks in the class and add comments or annotations. Follow your peers on Medium. Throughout the term, you can use your Medium blog in whatever way is useful. You’ll publish your major projects there, but I encourage you to write more often to share your thoughts with us.

[/] February 15–21: Social Media

For today, we’ll watch:

The Social Network (Netflix) ($3.99 on prime) ($3.99 on YouTube)

Join an optional live screening:

We’ll watch together live (Wednesday, February 17, at 8pm Eastern). Jump into the #social-network channel on Slack. Find the film wherever you can, we’ll all hit play at the same time, and then chat synchronously as we watch.

Or, watch on your own and make some GIFs:

Start here: The art of the animated GIF
(1) Instructions for making a GIF.
(2) There are also apps and some online tools you can use to make a GIF. Just Google something like “make a GIF.”
(3) Make several GIFs responding to the film and share them in the #social-network channel. (You could also write a Medium post and share them there.)

[/] February 22–28: Rebuild the Internet

First, do some stuff:

By end of the week, publish your Rebuild the Internet project on Medium. Use the #Dgst101 tag, and share a link in the #our-work channel on Slack.

Then, look ahead at what we’ll be up to over the next few weeks:

We’ll start by thinking about the politics of networks, Terms of Service, and then we’ll tinker around with some new tools by making a game.

[/] March 1–7: The Politics of Networks

First, read and watch:

Zeynep Tufekci, “We’re building a dystopia just to make people click on ads”
Howard Rheingold, “Smart Mobs”
The Social Dilemma (Netflix)

Then, do some stuff:

(1) Go to the #our-work channel and respond to a few of the Rebuild the Internet posts from your peers. If you see something that inspires you, write a longer response on Medium. Look for projects with no comments and respond to those. Continue the discussions started on your own posts.

(2) Join an optional live discussion in the #social-dilemma channel on Slack (Sunday, March 7, at 8pm Eastern). We’ll chat about social media broadly while watching The Social Dilemma together (available on Netflix). If you can’t watch together with us, pop into the channel at any point to share your thoughts about the film.

(3) Find at least one other piece (an article, work of art, video, etc.) about social media that you think would be useful for our group to look at. Share a link in the #random channel with a sentence saying why folks should read it.

[/] March 8–14: Terms of Service

First, read:

Medium Terms of Service.
NPR, “Do You Read Terms Of Service Contracts? Not Many Do, Research Shows”
Inside Edition, “Social Experiment Proves That No One Really Reads Terms and Conditions”
Terms of Service; Didn’t Read

Then, do some stuff:

Publish a post to Medium (in any genre: text, video, sound, image). As usual, tag with #Dgst101 on Medium and share in the #our-work channel in Slack. Then highlight and comment on the posts of several of your peers.

Some options for today’s post:
* Respond in some way to one or all of the readings for this week.
* Write a parody Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.
* Follow some or all of the steps here or here. Write a post about what you did, why you did it, and what you discovered along the way.

[/] March 15–21: Metacognition

We’ll slow down this week, so you can think about and reflect on your own work so far. I’m sharing some recommended reading that might help as you think about how to evaluate your work for the course.

First, read some or all of this:

Nancy Chick, “Metacognition”
Audrey Watters, “The Web We Need to Give Students”
Alfie Kohn, “The Case Against Grades”

Then, do some stuff:

(1) Click here to submit your self-reflection. I see you as the expert in your own learning, so I almost always give students the grades they give themselves. Over 20 years of de-emphasizing grades in my courses, I have found that students are incredibly honest in evaluating their own work. If you are worried about this process, reach out at any point (via DM on Slack).
(2) Submit one (or two) revised post(s) to our course publication. You can use your rebuild the internet post and/or whatever else. Anything you submit will have a broader audience (it will appear on the front page of our course site), so keep that in mind as you pick what work to feature. If you follow the steps linked above and find that you don’t have access to our course publication yet, just send me a DM on Slack.

[/] March 22–28: Limbo

First, read, watch, and play some stuff:

Gaming Can Make a Better World
Play LIMBO for at least an hour (it’s on multiple platforms for $4 to $10)
Kevin Wong, “The Most Depressing Theories On What Limbo Means” (lots of spoilers, so you may want to play the whole game first)

Then:

Join a one-hour optional live discussion in the #gaming channel on Slack (Sunday, March 28 at 8pm Eastern). We’ll chat about gaming more broadly, but we’ll focus on LIMBO, so play before the discussion and feel free to continue playing as we’re chatting :)

If you can’t join us synchronously, pop into the #gaming channel at any point during the week to share your thoughts.

And, also:
If you haven’t already, look ahead to next week and start work on your own videogame.

[/] March 29 — April 4: Videogames

First, read and watch:

Veli-Matti Karhulahti, “Defining the Videogame”
New York Times #Gamergate Retrospective
Anita Sarkeesian, “Body Language & the Male Gaze”

Then, do some stuff:

(1) Make a Game. An interactive or collaborative narrative. Even just a simple prototype for a game. Use ink, Construct, Sploder, Scratch, Twine, PuzzleScript. Or draw the game out on paper. Or use Twitter to make one like A Dreadful Start. Link to your game in a Medium post. Here are some more ideas for how to get started.
(2) By the end of the week, publish a post to Medium with a link to your game, screen shots, a narrative of your construction process, and/or an invitation to potential players. Tag your post with #Dgst101, and share a link in the #our-work channel on slack.
(3) Spread the word and get folks to play your game.
(4) Go to the #our-work channel and play the games of your peers. Comment. Root each other on. Share your high scores.

[/] April 5–11: the Infinite Canvas

First, read:

Craig Mod, “Books in the Age of the iPad”
Weing, “Pup Ponders the Heat Death of the Universe”

Then, begin thinking about your Final Project:

For the final project, you will work as an individual or group with a deceptively simple prompt: do something on the web about the web. You can use any of your previous posts or assignments as a jumping off point. At the end of the semester, you’ll publish a Medium post with your project, a link to your project, or pictures of your project. And you’ll document your process (with a short video, text, and/or a series of images). You’ll share your work in the #final-project channel on Slack. You can go there now to work through your ideas with your peers.

[/] April 12–18: What’s Behind Door Number 10101?

Decide what you’ll do for your final project

If you’re having trouble deciding:

1) Check out some of the final projects from previous students on the home page for our course.
2) Do one or more of these activities to generate ideas: What’s Behind Door Number 10101?
3) And you can find more ideas in the modules here.

[/] April 19–25: The Dark Web

First, read and watch:

Daniel Miessler, “The Internet, the Deep Web, the Dark Web”
Juan Sanchez and Garth Griffin, “Who’s Afraid of the Dark? Hype Versus Reality on the Dark Web”
(Optional): “The Dark Web: What is it exactly and how do you get there?”

Then, do some stuff:

Work on your final project

[/] April 26 — May 2: Final Project

Share your final project:

By the end of the week, publish a post to Medium, and share your work in the #final-project channel on Slack.

The deceptively simple prompt: Work as an individual or group with a deceptively simple prompt: do something on the web about the web. Then, Document your process (with a short video, text, and/or a series of images).

Optional: If you’re willing to share your final project with a broader audience and future students of this course, submit it to our course publication, as you did with your work at the midterm. (This will be the first thing future students see when they enter the course next semester, so you will become one of their teachers.)

[/] May 3 — 7: Blade Runner

First, a few optional activities this week:

Either: Join an optional live discussion of Blade Runner (1982) in the #blade-runner channel on Slack. You can rent it on quite a few platforms for as little as $2.99. We’ll hit play at 8pm Eastern on Wednesday, May 5.

Or: if you just have something you can’t not say about Blade Runner, watch the film on your own and publish a post to Medium (in any genre: text, video, sound, image, series of GIFs). Then, highlight and comment on the posts of several of your peers.

Then, complete your final self-reflection:

Click here to submit your final self-reflection by the end of the day on May 7.

Note: Hopefully, by this point, you feel able to evaluate your work for the course, but don’t hesitate to reach out (via DM on Slack) if you have concerns.