First Assignment: Reading on Screens

For our first reading/thinking/blogging assignment, students will post their thoughts and reflections on two articles:

1. Everything Science Knows About Reading on Screens by Annie Sneed
2. Reading in a Whole New Way by Kevin Kelly

Students will experiment with a few interactive digital artifacts as they explore the affordances new media brings to composition and reception of electronic "texts."

Check the Blog List to the right to see their posts!

All the Answers to the Final Exam are here!

Welcome to CM10 - Fall 2019!

This is the Instructor's Blog - or as we will call it, the Class Blog. You will check here for reminders of assignments, summary instructions, and other feedback from the Professor. This page will also feature links to your colleagues in this section (and to colleagues who have gone on before you.)

You could think of this as a "hub" for our class bloggers, but in reality, each of your own sites will, in pretty short order, be "hubs" of their own, connecting with your colleagues.

The main site for resources will be our Limestone Digital Class Website. (Blackboard contains only syllabus, but it is hyperlinked to these sites and other digital resources.)

Bookmark this blog site, as well as the class website, and you will be off and running!

Now let's get this show on the road...

Museum Reception, Defense Review, and Portfolio Reminder

CM412 students will be finishing video resumes, and will move quickly on to adding it to their website, and finalizing their digital portfolios.

On Tuesday, the class will meet to review the expectations for the "Portfolio Defense" to be held during Final Exam time, (Monday, May 6, 11:00am-1:30pm.)

On Tuesday, we will also discuss last minute preparations for the Tuesday night "VR Tour Launch" event at the Cherokee County History & Arts Museum - which runs from 5:30pm to 6:30pm.

Final VR Shoot & Digital Addenda

The CM 412 students will be re-shooting the spherical images for the VR tour, and will also be planning embedded "Close-Ups" for visitors the the Cherokee County Virtual Museum.

Students will complete the following field work:

1. Re-shoot images with proper orientation to match the site-map.
2. Take portrait-oriented 2D photos of a selected close-up" or highlight within an assigned area.
3. Writing a shot (25-45 words) description of teaser of that highlighted artifact.

 After the shoot, students will complete the following production work in lab:

1. Rename spherical images to match the site map.
2. Create a New Tour and import images into theViewer platform. https://theviewer.co/
3. Set the "landing pano," and insert "warps" as need for transporting the audience.
4. Resize "close-up" images to match the constraints of the medium.  (Hint: begin with 300px wide)
5. Use the "add an image" button to place the close-up image for viewers.
6. Compose the text for the short description of the close-up feature, and use the "add info spot" feature to place the text for the visitors to see.
7. Corporately review the tour - make change as needed.
8. Publish the tour.
9. Insert the LINK as well as the TOUR via EMBED CODE.

The World Wide Web Turns 30 - What's Next #ForTheWeb ?

Thirty years ago - on March 12, 1989 - Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for a way to use the (then in its infancy) internet to more easily share information via something called "hyper-text."

Berners-Lee's proposal - with comments from supervisor: "Vague, but exciting."

The world wide web was born, and things would never be the same. Anyone younger than 30 has never known a world with out the World Wide Web, and would probably find it hard to conceive of such an existence. In fact, the World Wide Web is, for many "users," taken for granted, accepted as a fact of life, a default reality. But passive acceptance of the Web, and uncritical consumption of its content poses some really big problems.

I encourage my Digital Communications students to THINK about their work as digital communicators from different perspectives, and to sometimes step back and look at the big picture. One way to do this is to read this short piece by Berners-Lee called "30 years on, What's Next for the Web?" Read, reflect, respond, and THINK.

Sir Tim Berners Lee arriving at the Guildhall to receive
the Honorary Freedom of the City of London
(Photo by Paul Clark - CC 4.0)

Our Spring Term Client: Cherokee County History & Arts Museum

Cherokee County History & Arts Museum

Students from Dr. Nichols' Digital Literacies II class have begun work on a 3D-360 Virtual Tour for the Cherokee County History and Arts Museum.

Students, in collaboration with Museum Directors and Curators, are making plans to build a Virtual Tour of the museum, and will begin shooting spherical (3D-360) imagery with VR cameras, and building the navigational elements using theViewer software. The Virtual Museum Tour will be available on the museum website, and can be viewed using a web browser, smartphones, or VR headsets.

Students will also work with museum staff to refresh the social media presence of the museum, launch a promotional campaign for the VR Tour, host a celebratory on-site event, and build a social media dashboard for the organization. The Virtual Tour is expected to launch April 2019.

• Website: https://www.cherokeecountyhistory.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CherokeeCountyMuseum/ 
• WeddingWire: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/cherokee-county-history-and-arts-museum-gaffney/80e2eecbbae82a80.html
• Email: chaps@cherokeecountyhistory.org 

• TripAdvisor review: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g54240-d7106702-Reviews-Cherokee_County_History_Arts_Museum-Gaffney_South_Carolina.html 
• Yelp Review: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cherokee-county-history-and-arts-museum-gaffney
• No Instagram 

Mid-term Status Report

At mid-term in the Digital Literacies II course, students will review the work they've done to this point, and will post a blog containing surveying their work in the first half of the term.

A) Each student will post links to their work on 10 assignments:

1. Machinima and remix – link to blog reflections and examples
2. Video Editing – link to blog entries with baseball intro + at least 2 other video clips and reflections
3. Camera Shots Vocabulary – link to  shooting the vocabulary video and reflections
4. Using a Shot List – link to blog with music video, documents and reflections
5. What is the state of VR in 2019? link to blog entry with research links
6. 360 Photography – link to 2 sets of Cardboard Camera shots and reflections
7. Interview and Lighting Basics – link to notes & 2 interview video examples
8. Updated Resume – link to resume on website
9. Script and Shot List for Digital Video Resume – submit via print, email, or link
10. Updated Portfolio – link to portfolio on website (provide short explanation of recent changes)

B) Each student will also post a short, but thoughtful, general reflection on their work at mid-term, considering questions such as:

• How has my work helped me understand more about the world of digital communication? 
• In what areas do I have a natural "knack," or enjoyment, or frustration, or interest?
• How do I envision using my knowledge from CM410 and CM412 in my career?
• What professionalism goals will I set for myself for the remainder of the term?
• Etc.?

They will post their responses and reflections BEFORE Thursday at 1:50 pm.