[Air-L] what should an introductory course cover in such a fast-changing field?

Thu Oct 28 12:24:02 PDT 2010

I think it's important that every student knows how to build a very  
basic webpage, and isn't scared of source pages for information.
Getting the concept that information is hosted, and when it's called  
can generally be tracked back, is important.
When I mean basic, I mean:
<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<p>Hello</p>
</body>
</html>

On Oct 28, 2010, at 10:37 AM, Tery G wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I asked a while back about acceptable resources for one of my  
> classes. I've
> heard offline from a few people who are currently designing courses  
> similar
> to mine, and who asked what I covered. We thought that might be an
> interesting question to ask on this list.
>
> Background on my course: I teach in a Media Arts department and the  
> class is
> called Digital Media Literacy. I designed it years ago, and I could  
> not find
> a single model for it, so it would be especially interesting for me  
> to hear
> now what people do or would do in this type of course.
>
> The course is designed to introduce our freshmen to both the  
> concepts and
> some of the tools we use to create digital media (so it's a 100-level
> course). Some of the class is spent on tools, currently Audacity for  
> sound,
> Photoshop for images, Quicktime for video, and Keynote for  
> presentations. I
> introduce them to at least three browsers, so they stop thinking IE  
> *is* the
> web. There are a handful of other utilities that we use: file transfer
> programs, SnapZPro, etc. We do a quick history of the internet and  
> of the
> web (including the internet gift economy, though it barely exists  
> anymore).
> We cover file compression, types of compression, and when and why  
> they need
> to compress files.
>
> The more I read about search engines, the more I want them to  
> understand
> about these tools that they use to gather the information they use  
> to live
> their lives, let alone write their papers. So, we cover search  
> engines in
> general, and Google in particular. Then we use the library  
> databases. I'm
> still following the controversy about whether and how PowerPoint  
> affects the
> way we think, so we read and talk about that. We look at copyright  
> issues
> and Creative Commons licensing. We look at net neutrality. I'm  
> probably
> forgetting something; I don't have my syllabus in front of me right  
> now.
>
> I've been staying away from things that seem trendy to me, and that  
> I have
> not been able to see academic value to, like Twitter and Second  
> Life. I
> included each once, but didn't get enough out of it and you can't  
> include
> everything . . .
>
> Their final project is a multimedia presentation on a topic of their  
> choice,
> as long as it's related to digital media or media arts. They  
> critique each
> other's presentations as they build them, so this is a sneaky way of  
> working
> in more material while also giving them more practice with the tools  
> we've
> covered all semester.
>
> So the question from me, and some others on the list, is -- if you  
> were
> designing this type of course, what would you put in?
>
> Best,
> Tery Griffin
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