Imitation is the highest form of... design?

Our Digital Literacies Students are engaging design principles by imitation... to learn the ins and outs of their software. Here are a couple of project you might want to try...

READY?

Imitate this poster...

by using this picture and this picture.

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And imitate THIS ONE...

by using this image - and this image..

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And while you're at it - pick a color used in one of these designs - or in a design of your choice - and think about what colors "mean" in design.  Explore this interactive site to learn about complimentary colors, split compliments, use of colors as symbols, etc...  http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/colors/Colors.html

Best Blogging Practices

Here are some examples of comments from students on sample blogs they investigated:

• Game On - pictures, video, good mouse-over information, tabs easy for navigating, good contrasts in design colors, content had relevant and plentiful information -Zach
• Domino's (actually NOT a top blog - but a "blog we could do without")- video demonstrated quality of their product, games, apps, lots of videos, a lot going on,  can share on Facebook and twitter, etc. -Nolan
• Basketball Jones - Lots of Sports good title, very up-to-date, outlooks on different teams, audio (podcast), videos, photos, news, good name - Anthony
• The Everywhereist - good conversational style - but used offensive language, easy to navigate, photos,engaging stories - Keri

Based on a study of the Web's "Best Blogs" as exemplars, we compiled a list of "things to look for" in making a good blog - sorting the factors into two categories: visual and verbal.

VISUAL

Colorful
Easy Navigation
Visual Navigation
Photos, photos, photos
Video
Easy to read font
Good use of white space (not too busy)
Cool logo –
Simple is sometimes better
Social Networking connections

VERBAL

Good Title
Speaks to a topic of interest
Provides detailed information to readers
Useful and relevant links to other resources
Short, but GOOD writing
Provides more detailed info for interested readers
Gives a “behind the scenes” angle
Up-to-date (fresh) content
Connected to other related blogs
Easy access to earlier posts
Identifies blog content by category
Good grammar and writing

Exploring New Digital Literacies

Our students have dealt with some interesting new approaches to how technologies are shifting and growing to accommodate the literacies demanded in our new digital world. One such example was the "searchable videos" at TED Talks, where a viewer can search the transcript and go directly to that part of a digital talk. You might explore this technology by viewing this talk by Kevin Kelly on technology. (Turn on the transcript in your choice of languages and follow along.)

We will also be exploring how a classroom incorporates real-time digital devices by using Via Response. The students will log-in to http://viaconnect.viaresponse.com/Student/Login.aspx to access this digital enhancement of our course. (This element of the course can be accessed by smartphones, tablets, laptops - or even our lab desktop computers, which we will be using mostly.)

AND... since our Digital Literacies Students are now becoming bloggers, they will work together to answer the question, "What Makes a Good Blog?" by exploring the top blogs of the last couple of years:

• Top Blogs of 2011
• Top Blogs of 2012

Blogging: It's What's for Dinner!

In class, CM 410 listened to Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait," and began discussing the shifts from literacies of the page to literacies of the screen. They explored the interactive version of the song via "The Wilderness Downtown Project," and discussed how "being connected" affects our lives.

Over the weekend, our bloggers will be expanding the functionality of their blogs by adding active blog lists of their fellow CM410 bloggers, and will be posting some reflections on a couple of important articles about digital literacies.

I wouldn't be surprised if some even begin adding other gadgets, like quotes or weather or news - and maybe even adding images to their blog entries. At the very least, they will add hyperlinks to their readings, such as the ones to these articles:

• Becoming Screen Literate by Kevin Kelly
• Is Google making Us Stoopid? by Nicholas Carr

It should be interesting to see what a weekend will bring with our digital explorers.

Springing (digitally) into 2013

The adventure of Digital Literacies begins... 

You are entering the wild world of Digital Literacies for the first time - Welcome!

We will use this blog space - and your connected blogs - for our ongoing class discussion this term. You will link your blogs to those in your class - but you can come here to see what students in the other section are doing - and what those who've gone before have done.

Digi Lit I (CM 410) Students - Take Note - Complete Before Friday's Class:

Getting Started with Blogger

1. Create a Blogger blog and customize it to your selection of colors, etc. (You will revisit and redesign it many times throughout the course - so just get something you like that is easy to use and easy to read.)  
•  Quick Tour of Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g 
• Video Tutorial of Blogger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA4s3wN_vK8
2. Watch the Video below. Then think about these questions:
• When you were a young child, what did you imagine the future would be like? What inventions, improvements, changes?
• Which of these things have come about so far? Which of these things have not come about? Do you expect some other facets of your vision of the future will come about soon?
• What things developed that you would never have imagined as a child? What would the "child you" think of this future?
• What is my experience with digital media - e.g. blogs, websites, social networks, etc.?

After watching the video and considering the questions - post your first blog entry about your thoughts.

Avoiding Death By PowerPoint

Say it with PowerPoint - but please, don't bore me to death!

Here are some resources we discussed in our classes the week of November 5-9:

 

 

Images: Copyright, Copyleft, Copy in the Middle?

Students in CM 410 (Introduction to Digital Literacies I) will discuss various licenses for digital images, such as:

• Copyright
• Copyleft
• Public Domain
• Creative Commons (various licenses)

Students will also explore digital image resources at a number of sites in Dr. Nichol's Delicious Links here: http://www.delicious.com/randynickatnite/images-for-multimodal-composition


(They will especially note Wikimedia Commons, Morguefile, US Government Photos and The Library of Congress Flickr Stream.)


**Students will review their own image-editing software, or will download and become familiar with GIMP - either for Windows, or for Mac. They will use the tutorials here to resize images and other simple tasks: Lite Quickie Tutorials