Syllabus by Prof. Karl Stolley, IIT Department of Humanities
A course in the rhetorical theory and applied practice of digital writing. Topics include word-processor alternatives, social media for professional development, multimedia writing, and collaboration & project management.
- Aristotle, On Rhetoric
- Lidwell, William, Kritina Holden, & Jill Butler, Universal Principles of Design 2nd ed.
- Ong, Walter J., Orality & Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word and The Presence of the Word (selections)
Plus shorter articles and blog posts on technology, writing, design, and 21st-century communication
- Digital Literacy Narrative: A personal digital essay about the student's development as a writer in digital environments.
- Social Media Presence: Initiation and maintenance for four weeks of a social media presence on a site/service new to the student (for FERPA purposes, aliases are allowed).
- Writing with Media: A digital writing project rich with images, sounds, and/or video, based on the content of another course in which the student is enrolled.
- Teach Your Teachers: A small-group writing project emphasizing collaboration and project management; each group will develop guidelines for a particular kind of digital writing, for an audience of faculty at IIT looking to build more sophisticated digital writing assignments into their courses.
Each project will include 2 oral presentations (an in-progress and a final); a critical/reflective memo about the students writing; and opportunities for students to revise and resubmit for a higher grade.
Welcome & introductions; back-to-basics with plain text, Markdown and wiki creoles.
Examination of the current fad of stripped-down writing environments, such as iA Writer for iPad.
Exploration of wikis, content management systems, and other Web-based applications for writing and publishing.
Principles and practices for sharing writing, revising, and engaging in peer review, using open-source development methods as a model.
A look at Twitter, Identi.ca, and App.net and the purposes of microblogging for professional development.
An examination of traditional blogging on new platforms with enhanced social dimensions, especially Tumblr.
Exploration of photo-sharing and writing through images, as on Flickr, Instagram, etc.
The use of Pinterest and other bookmarking/scrapbooking sites in professional development & communication. Discussion of open licensing of content, such as Creative Commons.
Introduction to basic HTML & CSS, and principles of accessibility.
Further coverage of basic HTML & CSS, and principles of usability and internationalization.
Image formats, manipulation, and preparation for sharing across mobile and desktop devices.
Video formats, manipulation, and preparation for sharing across mobile and desktop devices.
Principles of project management and the use of platforms such as Basecamp for planning, pacing, and collaboration.
Challenges and approaches to writing in groups.
Constructive peer review in group project settings.
Platforms, licensing/copyright, and broad dissemination of work to a wide audience.