Class meets Wednesdays, 4:15 – 6:15 PM, in Room 7314.
Skills sessions run 6:30 – 8:30 PM on Wednesdays and some Thursdays in the library computer labs (see specific details on each date below).
All students should register for accounts on the following sites: CUNY Academic Commons, Twitter, and Zotero. Remember that when you register for social networking accounts, you do not have to use your full name or even your real name. One benefit of writing publicly under your real name is that you can begin to establish a public academic identity and to network with others in your field. However, keep in mind that search engines have extended the life of online work; if you are not sure that you want your work for this course to be part of your permanently searchable identity trail on the web, you should strongly consider creating an alias. Whether you engage social media under your real name or whether you construct a new online identity, please consider the ways in which social media can affect your career in both positive and negative ways.
Non-digital readings for the course:
Program Or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, Douglas Rushkoff, OR Books, 2010
Week 1: Jan 29 – Introduction to the course, faculty, students
- Intro/bios: faculty and students
- Review of syllabus/requirements
- Week-by-week breakdown
- Wikipedia assignment
- Proposal Abstracts
- Final Project
- Blog posting
- Weekly commenting
- Signing up as class motivators
- Discussing use of online tools (Academic Commons)
- Public, private, anonymous
- Digital teaching and learning
- New Media methods
- Collaboration
- Want vs Need
- Scope Creep and Minimally Viable Product
- Incorporating Failure into your process (Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.)
- Learning how to learn
- Skills Workshops, and the need to go (to avoid the bad kind of failure)
- Wikipedia intro (user accounts, edit tab, basic BB Code)
Assigned: Introductory project ideas in blog post
Saturday, February 1 – Art+Feminism Wikipedia Editathon
Michael is co-organizing a series of Art+Feminism Wikipedia Editathons, with around 20 locations worldwide. You are welcome to join Michael at the event at Eyebeam in Chelsea, or join Maura at the event at the Brooklyn Museum. This is not a required workshop, but it will be an early view into editing Wikipedia, and an example of the kinds of non-traditional organizing and para-scholarship that is possible as one of your options for the Independent Study.
Week 2: Feb 5 – Contexts and Practicalities
In this class we will explore ways of thinking through and analyzing a project before it begins and look into issues that can arise depending on the way in which the project realized.
Context Thinking about the What, Where, When, Why and How before you begin a project. The four little B’s (build, buy, borrow, beg). Which one is the right fit for your software project? When starting any software project this often the first consideration. Do you build it your self, buy it off the shelf, use free and open source software (borrow) or use some of the free web services out there (beg)?
Reading: Chris Stein, Contexts and Practicalities
This post is a reading in itself and provides links to the other readings for the week. There are a lot of links and you won’t need to read through and analyze every article thoroughly. They are there to help give context, support and detail to the arguments made in the post.
Workshop 1: Feb 5, 630-830, Room C415B, Wikis/Wikipedia 1
Led by Ann Matsuuchi, Wikipedia Campus Ambassador
Covering: user and article talk pages, signing comments, page history, creating and linking diffs
February 12 – NO CLASS – Lincoln’s Birthday
Week 3: Feb 19 – What does what OR How to get things done
Assigned: Project Abstracts
Less is more is both an aesthetic principle of modernism and a functional spec of agile development. Agile development has a long history. It takes its most recent, and quite popular form in Ruby on Rails, 37Signals, and their Getting Real PDF. We will look at what it means to make less.
Every tool has a specific use. You can use a tea kettle to hammer in a nail, but you really shouldn’t. We will discuss some of the basic tools, and languages, and what each is used for.
Readings:
- 37 Signals, Getting Real (2009). Pages 2-74 of the PDF are required, but you will find it to be a fast read and may want to read the whole thing. PDF posted in the CAC group.
- This announcement, made February 5th, 2014.
- Joe Ugoretz, et al, CUNY AC Kitchen Sink Utilities wiki page
- Suggested: Miriam Posner, How did they make that?
- Bamboo DiRT, http://dirt.projectbamboo.org/, registry of digital research tools for scholarly use
Guests: Past ITP students to talk about their Independent Study projects: Naomi Barrettara, Hadassah Damien, Sonia K. González (maybe), and Laura Kane (by Skype).
Motivators: Kelly, Silvana
Workshop 2: Feb 19, 630-830, Room C415B, HTML
Led by Jared Pike
Week 4: Feb 26 – Online Learning and Teaching
DUE: Add one well cited paragraph to an article related to your research. Submit a diff of your work to both Michael and Maura’s talk page. If you didn’t make it to the Wikis workshop, please watch this video, and do this training.
Assigned: Collaboratively written Wikipedia article
Readings:
- “(My) Three Principles of Effective Online Pedagogy,” Bill Pelz, JALN Volume 8, Issue 3, 2004, pp. 33-46
- Browse the “No Significant Difference” site
- Some of you may have already stumbled upon it, but this post (and its comments) on cac.o.phony is an interesting breakdown of the pros/cons/challenges of online learning. You’ll note that Joe Ugoretz (ITP Faculty) is one of the commenters. (please make sure to read all of the comments as that is where the good conversation takes place)
- “Two Roads Diverged in a Wood”: Productive Digression in Asynchronous Discussion – Joseph Ugoretz Innovate 1:3 (2005)
- Maura Smale and Mariana Regalado, “It’s an internet phone, but I don’t have internet: Students Using Technology” slides and notes, CUNY IT Conference, 2013
- Lee Skallerup Bessette, “It’s About Class: Interrogating the Digital Divide,” Hybrid Pedagogy, 2012
Related background readings (things to look at if you’re so inclined; also resources for future use)
- “Modest Changes, Revolutionary Possibilities: Distance Learning and the Future of Education,” Gary Natriello, Teachers College Record Volume 107 Number 8, 2005, pp. 1885-1904 [1]
- “What Makes the Difference? A Practical Analysis of Research on the Effectiveness of Distance Education,” Yong Zhao, Jing Lei, Bo Yan, Chun Lai & Sophia Tan, Teachers College Record Volume 107 Number 8, 2005, pp. 1836-1884 [2] (article preprint)
- Educating the Net Generation (2005), Diane and James Oblinger (eds.) [3] (especially “The Student’s Perspective” [4] and “The New Academy” [5])
- Theory and Practice of Online Learning (2004), Anderson & Elloumi (eds.) [6]; Chap.2 [7], Chap. 5 [8], and Chap. 14 [9]
Motivators: Pelz & Ugoretz: Aleksandra, Ian; Smale & Bessette: Pamela
Workshop 3: Feb 26, 630-830, Room C415B, Wikis/Wikipedia 2
Led by Ann Matsuuchi, Wikipedia Campus Ambassador
Review of material from Wikis/Wikipedia 1, wiki projects, best practices.
Week 5: Mar 5 – Collaboration
Reading:
- Selections from Collaborative Futures – Read Introduction, Background Concepts, What is collaboration anyway?
- Critical Art Ensemble, “Electronic Civil Disobedience,” from Electronic Civil Disobedience, skim pp 7-25, but read closely pp 23-25
- Matthew K. Gold and George Otte “The CUNY Academic Commons: fostering faculty use of the social web.” Online Social Networking as a Site for Learning. Spec. issue of On the Horizon. 19.1 (2011).
- Boone Gorges, “I develop free software because of CUNY and Blackboard“
- Commons In A Box Announcement
Guests: CUNY Academic Commons Team
Motivators: CF & Crit Art Ensemb: Karyna, Jared; Gold/Gorges: Silvana
Workshop 4: Thursday Mar 6, 630-830, Room C196.02, WordPress 1 (install and config)
Led by Patrick Smyth
Week 6: Mar 12 – Extra Institutional Learning
Guest: Douglas Rushkoff, Technology as Classroom: the media environment as pedagogy
NOTE: Different time/location: 3:45, C202; we will reconvene after the seminar to discuss other course readings, ending at 6:30
Most conversations about technology and education concern how to use computers in the classroom. And while software and connectivity may enhance many courses when used appropriately, their deeper value may be in the example they provide of how different technologies influence learning, interaction, and thought. What are the biases of the technologies we are using, and how can we interrogate those biases from within the environment they have created? Can the digitally enabled classroom become a laboratory through which we can develop our critical faculties about technology?
For our post Rushkoff conversation, please take a look at the following links:
- Reassessing Inequality & Reimagining the 21st Century, a POOC
- FemTechNet, a DOCC
- DS106, an open online Digital Storytelling course
- The Public School
- P2PU
- Mozilla Badges (complete the “Badges 101” badge)
- SmartHistory.org
- Khan Academy
- TED Talks
- Instructables
- Make
- Trade School
Readings:
- Program Or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, Douglas Rushkoff, OR Books, 2010.
- “How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education,” Anya Kamenetz, Fast Company, 2009
- Educational Outliers, Michael Mandiberg (ed.), Social Text, 2013; read the introduction, and a couple of the case studies.”
- Edupunks Guide to a DIY Credential,” Anya Kamenetz (don’t read the whole thing… read for comprehension)
- Optional: “DIY Freaks Flock to ‘Hacker Spaces’ Worldwide,” Dylan Tweney, Wired, 2009
- Optional: Alternative Autonomous Accreditation, course description on The Public School, Thomas Gokey,
- Optional: Alternative Autonomous Accreditation, John Hutnyk (read the comments!)
- Optional: Handmade Masters Degree curriculum, Alison Jean Cole
- Optional: A conversation between Anya Kamenetz and Siva Vaidhyanathan, Baruch College (first hour of conversation, second hour of Q&A)
Motivators: Rushkoff: Kelly, Edupunks & Outliers: Josh, Aleksandra
Workshop 5: Mar 12, 630-830, Room C196.03, CSS
Led by Jared Pike
CANCELED – will reschedule
Suggested Lecture: March 13, 2014, 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm
Mushon Zer-Aviv “Disinformation Visualization”, NYU ITP, 721 Broadway, 4th Floor, http://itp.nyu.edu/sigs/news/event-disinformation-visualization/
Week 7: Mar 19 – Mid-semester project conversation
Workshop of your abstracts
Suggested Reading: Nathaniel Rich, “Silicon Valley’s Start-Up Machine,” New York Times, 2013
Workshop 6: Thursday Mar 20, 630-830, Room C196.02, WordPress 2
Led by Patrick Smyth
Week 8: Mar 26 – Student Blogging/Collaborative Authoring
DUE: Wikipedia Article
Reading:
- Alex Halavais, “Blogging Course Texts: Enhancing Our Traditional Use of Textual Materials” in Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy (ed. Scholz)
- Mushon Zer-Aviv, “When Teaching Becomes an Interaction Design Task: Networking the classroom with collaborative blogs,” in Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy (ed. Scholz)
- Ulises A. Mejias, How I Used Wikis to Get My Students to Do Their Readings in Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy (ed. Scholz)
- Suggested: Matt Barton Is There a Wiki in This Class? Wikibooks and the Future of Higher Education in Wiki Writing: Collaborative Learning in the College Classroom (ed. Cummings and Barton)
- Suggested: Tiffany Holmes, Socializing Blogs, a Guide for Beginners in Learning Through Digital Media Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy (ed. Scholz)
- Additionally, please read two chapters of your choice that relate to your discipline or research area.
Guests: City Tech OpenLab Team
Motivators: Christina, Jared
Workshop 7: Mar 26, 630-830, Room C415B, Mobile App Development Basics
Led by Damon Baker, faculty member in Entertainment Technology at City Tech
Sunday March 30th, Unconference: Experiments in Extra-Institutional Learning.
Details, co-organized by Michael
Week 9: Apr 2 – Open Access, Open Educational Resources (future of the textbook), and Images
DUE: Wikipedia Article
Reading:
- Ashley Dawson, “DIY Academy? Cognitive Capitalism, Humanist Scholarship, and the Digital Transformation,” in The Social Media Reader (ed. Mandiberg)
- http://www.socialtextjournal.org/
- http://publicculture.org/
- http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/
- Suggested for those who are unfamiliar with open access publishing: Open Access to Scholarly Literature: Which Side Are You On? by Jill Cirasella, Graduate Center, and Open Access: Six Myths Put To Rest, by Peter Suber, The Guardian, October, 2013.
- Additional information: Open Access @ CUNY and Open Educational Resources @ CUNY
Guest: Emily Drabinski, Radical Teacher Editorial Collective
Motivators: Josh, Adam
Workshop 8: Apr 2, 630-830, Room C415B, Open Journal Systems (OJS)
Led by Anne Donlon
Week 10: Apr 9 – Applied Free Culture
Readings:
- Lewis Hyde, from Common As Air, selections
- Lawrence Lessig, “REMIX: How creativity is being strangled by the law”, from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
- Michael Mandiberg, “Giving Things Away is Hard Work: Three Creative Commons Case Studies,” from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
- Fred Benenson, “On the Fungibility and Necessity of Cultural Freedom,” from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
- Fred Von Loehman, “Your Intermediary Is Your Destiny”, from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
- xtine burrough, Let’s Go Crazy: Teaching Media Literacy with Remix Practices
- Eric Faden, A Fair(y) Use Tale.
Motivators: Hyde/Lessig: Ian, Benen./Mandi./Loehman: Adam, burrough/faden: Hamad
Workshop 5 (rescheduled): Apr 8, 630-830, Room C196.02, CSS
Led by Jared Pike
Apr 14-22 – BREAK
Week 11: Apr 23 – Failure
Readings:
- Guggenheim Museum, “The Aesthetics of Failure,” Website for Maurizio Cattelan retrospective.
- Richard Gabriel, The Rise of Worse is Better
- Scott Berkun, The Myth of Innovation, hour long lecture based on book.
- Alison Carr, In Support of Failure, Composition Forum, 2013.
- Sean Michael Morris, The Failure of an Online Program, Hybrid Pedagogy, 2013.
- Bonnie Stewart, How NOT To Teach Online: A Story in Two Parts, Hybrid Pedagogy, 2013.
- Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy’s Teaching Fails columns, choose and read two.
Motivators: Gabriel/Burkun: Hamad, Teaching & Failure: Christina
Workshop 9: Apr 23, 630-830, Room C196.03, Statistics/Data/SPSS/R
Led by Christina Shane-Simpson
Workshop 10: Apr 24, 630-830, Room C415B, Data Visualization Basics
Led by Micki Kaufman
Week 12: Apr 30 – The future of the internet, NSA, and censorship
Reading:
- Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet (and How We Can Stop it) http://futureoftheinternet.org/download, Section II pp. 63-148; suggested: conclusion, pp. 235 – 246.
- James Grimmelman, The Google Dilemma. New York Law School Law Review, 53, 939-950, 2008/2009.
- Tim Wu, Why Monopolies Make Government Spying Easier, New Yorker, 2013
- Nick Bilton, Internet’s Sad Legacy: No More Secrets, New York Times, 2013
Motivators: Zittrain/Grimmelman: Pamela, Karyna, Wu/Bilton: Hamad
