Note:
All materials for this course are available in alternative formats upon request.
Please contact Professor DeWitt to request such materials.
English 880C: The Seminar in Composition
Digital Media Production in First-Year Writing
Spring 2005
Dr. Scott Lloyd DeWitt
Tuesday/Thursday, 3:30pm-5:18pm
Denney Hall 343
Office: Denney Hall 338A/324
Office phone: 614-292-4640
Office hours: TR, 2:30-3:30pm (Appointments are always strongly encouraged)
Home phone: 614-262-4907
E-mail: dewitt.18@osu.edu
IM: DrSLDCMH (AOL IM and Yahoo! Messenger)
Web: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/dewitt18/e880sld/
Wysocki, Johnson-Eilola, Selfe, Sirc. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004.
Reading materials: Available online in PDF or HTML format.
Storage media: CD-R/CD-RWs; DVD-Rs; flash drive (USB).
Materials costs: To be determined, minimal cost.
The field of Writing Studies is poised to face a potential paradigm shift as our attention turns from what is now known as “computers and composition” to Digital Media Studies, an area of academic inquiry that is engaged with the creation and analysis of texts that combine sophisticated digital imaging, video, sound, and animation. Certainly, many new media texts still utilize alphabetic “writing.” However, these texts resist flat, print-privileged modes of communication and instead emerge as rich, layered, interactive, and dynamic representations of concepts and arguments, often without the use of the printed word. New media texts focus on aesthetics, form, design, and innovative visual presentations.
In Autumn 2005, the Digital Media Project will offer "cluster" sections of English 110C sponsored by the Communications and Technology Scholars Program (http://www.honors-scholars.ohio-state.edu/commtech/). Students enrolled in these sections of first-year writing have expressed an interest in exploring "the critical role of technology in today's world." They live together in the residence halls and have committed to working on a number of digital media projects as part of their residence hall living experience.
Our job in English 880C will be to create the curriculum for these cluster sections of English 110C, connecting the academic work of the course with the goals of the CommTech Scholars program. In doing so, we will create a course that focuses on collaborative multimodal composing, with students drawing on one another's affinities and expertise with particular media while working on projects where print, still and moving images, video, sound, and animation converge. This is no small task. We need to create a sustained ten-week curriculum that is informed by current research and practice in the field and that effectively sets and meets goals for a first-year writing course at Ohio State. At the same time, we need to work closely with the First-Year Writing and Scholars Programs and the staff at the Digital Media Project. I would like for us to develop a self-assessment instrument that will allow students to "place" themselves in a variety of collaborative structures. We'll need to discover models of digital media work for our students and understand real and appropriate kinds of production work that digital media authors face in diverse contexts. It goes without saying that we'll need to take up issues of assessment. And finally, we need to become comfortable with the digital media technologies we are going to ask our students to use.
(I am in the process of inviting a number of guests to our class: the Director and WPAs from First-Year Writing; the Director of the Comm/Tech Scholars program; faculty from the Marion Campus who have been using directed self-placement for all first-year students; local digital media authors.)
This course will meet in the Department's new digital media production classroom, the same classroom where English 110C cluster sections will be taught. You should have experience teaching composition (you don't necessarily need experience teaching a "C" class). You do not need to be a Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy student to enroll; the course will, however, be grounded in composition studies. Graduate students enrolled in this seminar will have the opportunity to teach the new curriculum Autumn Quarter 2005.
This course is structured mostly as a studio class, where we will be working together in the Department’s digital media classroom. The success of a studio course depends on your willingness to use class time to invent, create, play, and critique. I hope that most of our conversations will emerge from our work in the studio in ways that today, I am unable predict. I firmly believe that we cannot talk intelligently about new media technologies and their influences on writing and teaching until we, ourselves, compose with them. This is your opportunity to do just that.
Research
As the field shifts from “computers and composition” studies to “digital media” studies, so do the questions about our research practices. Whereas many of these questions have yet to be realized (and I hope that we discover many of them in this course), some of them might include:
Next Autumn Quarter, I expect to conduct a qualitative research study on these courses and their influence on the students' experiences in the Comm/Tech Scholars Program. Graduate students who enroll in this seminar and/or who teach cluster sections will be invited to participate in the study. I will be applying for IRB approval to conduct this study, and anyone who works as an investigator on the study must pass the Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI). You can find more information about this online training module at:
http://www.orrp.ohio-state.edu/education3.cfm
I would like everyone in this class to finish CITI by Thursday, 21 April 2005.
Your work in this class will consist of the following assignments:
Instructional assets. At the end of this class, I hope that we have created the instructional assets that we can all use in teaching English 110C: syllabi, assignments, texts, resources, activities, etc. We will work on these instructional assets collaboratively, contributing to a collective commons of resources. My wish is that this commons of instructional assets will continue to grow after the seminar concludes, serving DMP staff and instructors interested in curricular design.
Drafts of digital media assignments. I am going to ask that you attempt the digital media assignments that we will be asking students to complete. Considering all the work we need to complete this quarter, I will not ask that you work on these assignments as major components for the seminar. Instead, I am more interested in you becoming familiar with the technologies and the learning processes/strategies/techniques with which your students will be engaged.
Presentation. My vision for this assignment is fairly vague at this time. I would like each of you to make a presentation to the class about something that you feel will inform the way we’re thinking about curriculum development in digital media and writing studies. This could be scholarship review. This could be a review of media resources you have found. You could ask us to engage in some type of reflective or production activity. You could arrange and direct a field trip. The possibilities are endless, really, and I’m quite open to creative interpretation. I’m thinking that each presentation should run 30-45 mins, depending on the activity. You will arrange with me the day you would like to make your presentation. I would like all presentations to be completed by Thursday, 19 May 2005.
Final instructional portfolio. At the end of the quarter, you will turn in a portfolio that includes:
- A course syllabus for English 110C that is either a collaborative effort from the seminar or individually developed from the English 110C instructional assets.
- A sequence of assignments for English 110C that is either a collaborative effort from the seminar or individually developed from the English 110C instructional assets.
- Drafts of digital media student assignments.
- A final reflective composition about your work in the seminar.
Because this is graduate course, I don’t expect to have to enforce an attendance policy. I would simply ask that you keep in touch with me about any absence that you have. With such a small class, your absence will be felt, and we may need to revise a class activity as a result. Call. Email. Stop by to talk. That’s all it takes.
Until the system changes, I am still required to provide for the University an evaluation of your performance in this class. I will use your contributions to the seminar, the English 110C instructional assets, and your portfolio to assess your work.
The University grades for final course assessment are as follows:
A 4.0
A- 3.7
B+ 3.3
B 3.0
B- 2.7
C+ 2.3
C 2.0
C- 1.7
D+ 1.3
D 1.0
E 0.0
Monday, 28 March 2005: Spring Quarter begins
Thursday, 21 April 2005: Last day to finish CITI
Thursday, 19 May 2005: Last day to make class presentations
Monday, 30 May 2005: University closed, Memorial Day
Thursday, 2 June 2005: Last class meeting; Portfolios due
Note: I will be attending CIWIC—NM (Computers in Writing Intensive Classrooms—New Media) this year at Michigan Tech. The workshop runs from June 1-14. I am not planning to attend the entire workshop, but I am still unsure of when I will be leaving town. Just to be safe, I would like to conclude our seminar by the last week of classes, before finals week.
One final note: Minor parts of this syllabus may change as the quarter progresses. As changes are made, you will be notified, IN WRITING, of such changes.