[Air-L] Study Digital Rhetoric at MSU this summer

[Liza Potts]

Hi AOIR folks, 

The Rhetoric & Writing program and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures will once again offer three summer courses in the popular “sprint” hybrid format. These courses are designed to work well for students and researchers from a variety of disciplines. Credit and non-credit options are offered.
AL 891 Tracing Digital Culture with Liza Potts
AL 860 Visual Rhetoric with Danielle Devoss
AL 881 Teaching with Technology with Bill Hart-Davidson
More about each course is below and see our video descriptions here http://youtu.be/8ymaOdFyia4

How does the Sprint Format work?
Modeled after NEH Summer Seminars, the courses meet online for 3-4 weeks, then come together for a week in residence consisting of four and a half days on the MSU campus. Participants then work on projects and review one another’s work for another 3-4 weeks before a final hybrid symposium where work is presented and discussed. Affordable accommodations are made available on campus for those coming to East Lansing from out of town. Room rates start at $35/day with meal options for $14/day. Families can stay too!

Enrollment Options
Courses can be taken for graduate credit by MSU students. They are also available for MSU lifelong education credit for students who may wish to transfer credit to another institution. Non-credit options are available as well, which allow faculty and students who do not wish to receive course credit to enroll. Fees for the courses vary according to the enrollment options. For more info about any of these options contact Administrative Assistant for the Graduate Program Melissa Arthurton at 517.355.2400.

AL 891 Tracing Digital Culture

Instructor: Liza Potts (lpotts at msu.edu)

Online Meetings May 14-June 1
On Campus June June 4-8 (Friday is a half day)
Symposium: July 6

In AL 891, we will develop your understanding of digital culture practices by tracing major and minor events as they move across different genres online. From Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. as well as mainstream media sites such as the BBC News and CNN, we will examine how people communicate online and exchange information. We will discuss relevant theories, methods, and practices such as actor network theory, activity theory, and articulation theory. By examining these events, we will offer you opportunities for learning to trace events through people and technologies as they travel across the Internet. As we trace the movements of data as it becomes information and transforms into knowledge, we will gain a greater understanding of how participants use these systems to communicate and how we as communicators and designers can improve these systems. 

AL 860 Visual Rhetoric

Instructor: devossda at msu.edu

Online Meetings May 29-June 15
On Campus June 18-22 (Friday is a half day)
Symposium: Friday July 20

Today’s technologies challenge writers and teachers of writing to address how, when, and where images and words collide. In AL 860, we will explore how visuals work–alone and with text. We will analyze what it means to see, look at, and read visual elements, and we will examine the effects visual elements have on different readers/viewers/users. Visual compositions range from a book to the interface of a software application to an advertisement from a print magazine to the splash page of a web site. Visual elements we will work with include, but are not limited to, typography (font faces and sizes), graphics (clipart, photographs, diagrams), color, margins, paper and screen textures, and alignment. We will approach visual rhetoric from a variety of perspectives (e.g., from the perspectives of the fields of graphic art and technical communication; e.g., as writers, teachers, and designers). We will analyze different print and digital compositions and create and analyze our own compositions using different tools (e.g., software applications like Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop; using online image databases and materials we gather during the semester). Activities will allow us space to develop familiarity with different technologies for producing visuals.

AL 881 Teaching with Technology
Instructor: Bill Hart-Davidson (hartdav2 at msu.edu)

Online Meetings May 21 – June 8
On Campus June 11-15 (Friday is half day)
Symposium: July 20

In AL 881 we will examine theoretical and practical frameworks for designing and/or evolving curriculum and pedagogy for digital delivery. Participants spend time designing or redesigning a course, which will include evaluating interaction needs for supporting learning goals, assessing affordances of specific technologies and designing course materials. You’ll get feedback from a scholar who both teaches with technology and who researches, theorizes and builds new technologies (that’s me, @billhd…and there will be some guests too!). Together we’ll work to create a space for reflection about the intellectual, ethical, and political consequences of teaching in digital spaces. Want to see what AL881 folks can do? Check out the 2011 Course Blog!

_________________________________________ 

Liza Potts, Ph.D.
Director of User Experience Design at WIDE @ MATRIX
Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities
Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Email: lpotts at msu.edu  |  AIM: LizaPotts  |  Skype: LKPotts  |  Office: Bessey 291