Conferences Thursday 2/19 and Tuesday 2/24 (no class meetings)

Read Morse and Rheingold in Trend (87, 272)

Previous Blackboard Items

Class Blackboard for January 20

This is the main page for Craig Stroupe's section of Composition 5230 for Spring 2004. Please check back for updates. The links to the left will become active as the pages are updated and posted. Please e-mail me if you have questions. Below are some topics we'll cover today:

Introductions and Roll. (Some things about me).

Syllabus and materials needed

Tour of the site

First Assignment: The Personal Course Home Page

Screen Real Estate.

• Amazon.com (liquid design)
• Eastbay Hotel, Grand Marais (jello design)

Class Blackboard for January 22

Setting Up Your Folders. On your Zip disk or other storage device, please create a set of nested folders like those on the right:

Beginning Dreamweaver. Today we'll begin using Dreamweaver with two Exercises:

1. Liquid Page Design (Dreamweaver)
2. Moving files to the Web with Dreamweaver MX

You will have until Friday at 9:30 a.m. to post the sample page that you'll create to the Web and send me the URL via an e-mail message with the subject line "5230 liquid page."

Class Blackboard for January 27

Personal Course Home Page. Here's an online brainstorming activity for the Personal Course Home Page Project. A version of this project is due to be posted to the Web by Monday, February 2 at noon (new time!).

Texture. Christian Sandvig's home page.

Links Exercise. Today, we'll learn about creating three kinds of links in Dreamweaver using the "index.html" page that we created for the "Liquid" exercise.

Since I should already have the URL for this exercise in an e-mail from you last week, I will expect this updated page and the others to be posted to the folder "liquid" in "exercises" on the Web by Wednesday at 9:30 a.m.

Banner Exercise. Time permitting, we'll also get our feet wet with Photoshop in an exercise called "Banner Techniques." For this exercise, you'll need to download the image "richlighthouse.jpg."

75% of the problems novices experience with creating Web pages come from simple issues of organizing and consistency. Here are some Rules to Set you Free to create.

Class Blackboard for January 29

Personal Course Home Page is due to be posted to the Web by next Monday, February 2 at noon. Today, we'll look at some examples from the assignment page.

By the due date/time, you will need

1. to post the page to the Web in the folder "5230/perhome," and then
2. post the complete URL to the Webx discussion "Personal Course Home Page URLs" (we'll learn about logging into Webx in a few minutes)

Readings for next Tuesday. For next class meeting, please read two chapters from Jakob Nielsen's book:

• Chapter 1, Introduction, page 8-
• Chapter 2, Page Design, page 16-

Texture. Last time we talked a little bit about "texture" on the Personal Course Home Page. One way to think about texture is to consider your unconscious models you may have in mind for your page.

One, very untextured model would be the anonymous corporate or media sites so common on the Web. These sites serve as public faces for large organizations, not individual people. Imitating corporate-style sites in a personal page would result in page with a very generic feel, despite whatever individualizing details it may contain.

Instead, consider the blog or "Web log" as a model. Though I'm not asking you to start a blog for this assignment, take a look at a few examples of blogs from the following people to get a sense of their voice and texture: Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Jill Walker, Scott Rettberg.

Is there a way to capture the spirit and voice of a blog on the main page of a briefer, more conventional, static Web site?

In his book Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content, Biz Stone, suggest these simple guidelines for writing blog entries, which might also apply to items on your Personal Course Home Page:

• Get to the point early
• Express one thought at a time
• Go easy on the technical jargon
• Resist excessive sarcasm
• Back up your information
• Link! That's what makes it the web (page 181)

Webx Discussion Board (first time): Let's use our class discussion board to collect some examples of texture (with a URL) and comment on what we can learn from them about giving our Web-writing a sense of texture. Send a posting to the discussion "texture" with a URL and come commentary about how that Web page creates a sense of texture.

Banner Exercise. We'll finish up the Intermediate Banner Techniques Exercise today. If you're just beginning this exercise today, you'll need to download the image "richlighthouse.jpg" to work with.

Before tomorrow at class time, then, do the following

1. Post the image file "banner.jpg" to the Web in the folder 5230/exercises/banner and then try to view the image with your Web browser. If you set up your folders as I suggested, it should be at the URL

<http://www.d.umn.edu/~youruserid/5230/exercises/banner/banner.jpg>

If it doesn't come up on your Web browser, try checking the structure of folders in your "www" folder on the Web using Dreamweaver's Site Files window.

2. As you're viewing your "banner.jpg" with your Web browser, copy the complete URL (Web address) from the "Address" window, open up the class's Webx discussion board and paste the URL into a message to the discussion "Banner Techniques Exercise URLs" inside of the "exercises" folder.

Class Blackboard for February 3

Questions, problems, loose ends from the Personal Course Home Page Project (Stage 1)?

Readings for Thursday. Nielsen's Chapter 3, "Content Design," starting on page 98

Stage 2: the Nielsen Challenge. of the Personal Course Home Page Project: applying ideas from Jakob Nielsen's book to our projects to improve them. Stage 2 due Monday, Febrary 16 by noon.

Image Maps exercise. If we complete this exercise in class today, please post it and send the URL to the discussion "Image Map URLs" by tomorrow (Wed) at 9:30 a.m.

Saving your "www" Site Information to your Disk.

1. Look in the "Site Panel" on the right side of the Dreamweaver screen.
2. Find the "Site" menu at the top of the "Site Panel" and open it.
3. Choose "Export"
4. From the "Export Site" box, choose yes for "Back up my settings"
5. Navigate to your Zip disk and save the .ste file.

When you want to begin work on a different day, simply choose "Import" from the Site Panel's "Site" menu and navigate to that .ste file to import it.

Class Blackboard for February 5

Readings for Tuesday 2/10. Nielsen's Chapter 4, "Site Design," starting on page 162.

Nielsenizing your Personal Course Home Page. Today, we'll continue talking about Jakob Nielsen (chapter 3) and applying the insights of "usability" to our ongoing, first project.

Text/Image Exercise. We'll pay particular attention today to the issue of "scannability" by trying to build visual bridges on our pages between the small print and the larger images. We'll call this principle "visual hierarchy." For this exercise, we'll use our richlighthouse.jpg image again. Use the version in your "web design" folder if you still have it.

Saving Your "WWW" Site Information. Here's a way of never having to go through the laborious process of setting up your local and remote sites again!

After setting up your local and remote site information in Dreamweaver:

1. Look in the "Site Panel" on the right side of the Dreamweaver screen.
2. Find the "Site" menu at the top of the "Site Panel" and open it.
3. Choose "Export"
4. From the "Export Site" box, choose yes for "Back up my settings"
5. Navigate to your Zip disk and save the .ste file.

When you want to begin work on a different day, simply choose "Import" from the Site Panel's "Site" menu and navigate to that .ste file to import it.

Class Blackboard for February 10

No Class Thursday. After today (2/10), we will meet as a class again on Tuesday, February 17. The room will be open to your individual use as usual on Thursday, February 12.

Reading for Tuesday, February 17. William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic," pg. 57 in David Trend's collection Reading Digital Culture.

Nielsenizing your Personal Course Home Page. Today, we'll continue talking about Jakob Nielsen (Chapter 4, "Site Design" ) and applying the insights of "usability" to our ongoing, first project, the Personal Course Home Page, which will be due by Monday, 2/16 by noon.

In a post to the discussion "Nielsen Chapter 4", describe three ideas or techniques (with page numbers) from Nielsen's Chapter 4 that you want to apply to your Personal Course Home Page Revision. Comment briefly on why you chose each point.

Then read over the postings of your classmates and respond to at least two either by connecting their points to yours, or perhaps taking an alternative view.

Turning in the final version of the Personal Course Home Page.

To turn in the new-and-improved version of your Personal Course Home Page, you'll need to do the following by Monday 2\16 at noon.

1. Post your new page and any associated image files to the Web to replace your original version of the project.
2. Make sure the page is located at the same URL as the first version. Go to discussion "Personal Course Home Page URLs" with your Web browser, click the link in your message and see if it brings you to the new version of your page. Be sure the pictures are displaying. If you still see the old version of your project, try uploading the revised version of the page again.
3. Print and annotate the project. Print out the page(s) of your project from the Web and make annotations on particular features and parts by 1). writing numbers on the printout and then 2). typing your comments for each numbered item in a separate Word document. Print out the comment sheet and leave it along with the Web-page printout in my mailbox in Humanities 420 by Monday, February 16 at noon.

Class Blackboard for February 17

Questions and issues related to turning in the Personal Course Home Page yesterday?

Scheduled Conferences. We will not meet as a class this Thursday or next Tuesday (2/19 or 2/24) because of scheduled conferences. This one, 20-minute conference, however, will count as two days' worth of attendance so please be sure to make it. We'll meet in my office, Humanities 424 (Composition Office suite Humanities 420).

Please sign up for a time slot using the discussion board by clicking the link there for either Thursday 2/19 or Tuesday 2/24. If you can't make any of the times, please e-mail me to make other arrangments. Be sure to sign up only for times listed on that day which have not already been reserved in posted messages.

In this conference, we'll talk about your Personal Course Home Page but also any of these other up-coming matters, depending on what's concerning you:

• The Analytical Essay 1
• Dreamweaver, Photoshop, your "www" folder, etc.
• Anything else that may help you in the class

Our next meeting together will be Thursday, February 26.

Reading for Thursday, February 26. Michael Heim (Trend 70) and Sherry Turkel (Trend 236)

Introducing the next project, Analytical Essay 1.

Reading for today . William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic," pg. 57 in David Trend's collection Reading Digital Culture. We'll need the following resources:

• Believing and Doubting Game
• weather.com
• Webx discussion "Journal/Gibson (2/17)"

Class Blackboard for February 19-24

Scheduled Conferences. We will not meet as a class this Thursday or next Tuesday (2/19 or 2/24) because of scheduled conferences. This one, 20-minute conference, however, will count as two days' worth of attendance so please be sure to make it. We'll meet in my office, Humanities 424 (Composition Office suite Humanities 420).

Please sign up for a time slot using the discussion board by clicking the link there for either Thursday 2/19 or Tuesday 2/24. If you can't make any of the times, please e-mail me to make other arrangments. Be sure to sign up only for times listed on that day which have not already been reserved in posted messages.

In this conference, we'll talk about your Personal Course Home Page but also any of these other up-coming matters, depending on what's concerning you:

• The Analytical Essay 1
• Dreamweaver, Photoshop, your "www" folder, etc.
• Anything else that may help you in the class

Our next meeting together will be Thursday, February 26.

Class Blackboard for February 26

Introducing the Glocalization Project, due by Monday, March 29 by noon.

For Tuesday, read Brenda Laurel and Timothy Allan Jackson in Trend (pages 109, 347)

Michael Heim and Sherry Turkle. Today, we'll talk about the reading from Heim and Turkle in the Trend collection, especially how they might be used in the Analytical Essay.

In the Webx discussion, Heim/Turkle (2/26), you'll write about how an idea from Heim or Turkle might be applied to understanding the Web site you've chosen (perhaps only tentatively) for your Analytical Essay.

CFP stands for "Call for Papers," an invitation for scholars and writers to propose talks or demonstrations on topics of interest. While sometimes these announced topics are broad and generic, often they are very pointed descriptions of a intellectual or interpretive problems. In this way, CFPs can provide an education in themselves about the most current issues in a given field.

Consider this session topic for the Modern Language Association meeting next December, for example:

CFP: Special Session, MLA Convention 2004 in Philadelphia, PA

Deterritorialization After Deleuze

Is deterritorialized space the best location for marginal cultures? Or is it an impossible fantasy that denies minorities a place in the nation-state? Please send a 750-word abstract via e-mail to aqc1774@nyu.edu (Marc Caplan) by March 8.

Or how about this:

For a proposed special session at the 2004 MLA Convention in Philadelphia, "Too Much Information? The Novel in the Age of the Internet." How has immediate access to the internet changed the form or the relevance of the contemporary novel? Send 1-2 page abstracts and brief vitae by March 15
to:

Quentin Miller
Suffolk University
Department of English
41 Temple Street
Boston, MA 02114

E-mail submissions welcome:
qmiller@suffolk.edu.

For the rest of the semester, I'll be sending along by e-mail interesting CFPs just for your information. You are free to delete them whenever you wish. If you are interested in a field, especially if you are a graduate student, you should subscribe to e-mail lists of CFPs and consider writing and submitting a proposal (often only an abstract). In English, for example, subscribe to the University of Pennsylvania's excellent service "CFP." The Web site "Conference Alerts" also has an e-mail service where you can specify subject areas, conference locations and other key words.

Questions about the Glocalization Project, which due by Monday, March 29 by noon?

For Thursday, read Margaret Morse (Trend 87) and Howard Rheingold (Trend 272)

Brenda Laurel and Timothy Allen Jackson. Today, we'll talk about the reading from Laurel and Jackson in the Trend collection, especially how they might be used in the Analytical Essay.

In the Webx discussion, Laurel and Jackson (3/2), you'll write about how an idea from Brenda Laurel or Timothy Allen Jackson might be applied to understanding the Web site you've chosen (perhaps only tentatively) for your Analytical Essay.

q

Class Blackboard for March 4

Questions about the Glocalization Project, which due by Monday, March 29 by noon?

For next Tuesday, read Pierre Levy and Donna Harraway in Trend (253-58, 28)

Today, we'll talk about Margaret Morse (Trend 87) and Howard Rheingold (Trend 272), especially how they might be used in the Analytical Essay.

In the Webx discussion, Trend for Analysis (3/4), you'll write a long paragraph applying some idea from the Trend readings to an analysis of the Web site you've chosen (perhaps only tentatively) for your Analytical Essay.

Class Blackboard for March 9

Job Opening

Office Assistant, UMD English Department
$8.00/hour, Flexible hours.
Call 8228.

DUTIES:
Desktop publishing and production of chapbooks (templates and training provided) to accompany the Jankofsky Medieval and Renaissance Studies lecture series; production of posters, flyers, etc.; duplicating, mailing and other clerical duties; work with the Jankofsky Committee at UMD, UMD Print Services, and off-campus Duluth letterpress printer/binder.

See the complete announcement...

Keep thinking about a topic for the Glocalization Project, which is due by Monday, March 29 by noon.

Here are a couple of examples of how students addressed a global audience about a local topic:

• Tranquil City
• Beer Pong

The Analytical Essay is due tomorrow, 3/10 by noon. Please turn it in via my mailbox in Humanities 420.

MLA Works Cited. In your "Works Cited" section of the Analytical Essay, the articles from the Trend book should use the MLA's documentation form for an "essay in collection." See the entry form on the page at Purdue's OWL on MLA format.

Scheduled Conferences Thursday and Tuesday after Spring Break.
We'll not meet as a class this Thursday or the Tuesday after Spring Break (3/11 & 3/23) because of scheduled conferences. This one, 20-minute conference, however, will count as two days' worth of attendance so please be sure to make it.

Please sign up for a time slot using the discussion board by clicking the link there for either

• Thursday 3/11 or
• Tuesday 3/23.

If you can't make any of the times, please e-mail me to make other arrangments. Be sure to sign up only for times listed on that day which have not already been reserved in posted messages.

In this conference, we'll talk about your Analytical Essay, your plans for the Glocalization Project and anything else that can help you in the class.

Our next meeting together will be Thursday, 3/25.

We'll talk about Pierre Levy and Donna Haraway in Trend (253-58, 28)

Class Blackboard for March 25

New Deadline: the Glocalization Project will be due at W 3/31 at noon. Questions?

Jello Design Exercise

Today, we'll learn a new design technique for creating Web pages. When you've completed the exercise page, please post it to a folder "www/5230/exercises/jello" and send the URL to the Webx discussion "Jello Design."

To begin this exercise, you may want to use two images for backgrounds:

and snowtreesback.jpg.

Tiling Background Exercise.

Time permitting, we'll also learn to create our own tiling backgrounds in Photoshop. You can use the image fallleavesgnd.jpg

Class Blackboard for March 30

The Glocalization Project will be due at W 3/31 at noon. Questions?

Tiling Background Exercise

We'll complete the tiling backgrounds exercise in Photoshop. Here again is the image fallleavesgnd.jpg.

A suggestion for your background:

Experiment with different degrees of opacity. Place a colored layer behind the semi-transparent image as desired.

Steps:

1. In the Layers palette, find the “Opacity” box in the upper right.
2. Click open the Opacity control and move the slide to the left to decrease the % of opacity.
3. If desired, place a colored background behind the image layer by:
4. In the Layers palette, click the half-moon icon at the bottom
5. Choose “Solid Color” from the menu
6. Choose a color from the Color Picker
7. In the Layers palette, drag the solid color layer below the image layer.
8. Adjust the color of the solid color layer and the opacity of the image layer for the effect you want.

Please set your completed tiling background image as the page background for your jello exercise page and repost it to the Web.

Class Blackboard for April 1

On Thursday , we'll workshop the projects 1-5 listed in the table below by discussing them in class.

Prepare of this workshop by doing the following:

1. Before class time on Thursday, visit the projects listed for discussion that day in the table below.
2. Type comments and suggestions for each project. Include with each response the project number, the creator's name, and your name as the responder. See the workshop page for details and guidelines.
3. By the end of class time, copy the text of your various comments for the day into a single e-mail to me. Please do not send an attachment.
4. Print out the comments and cut the page in pieces so you can give the comments to the projects' designers. Be sure your name appears on each piece.
5. Be prepared to talk about your reactions and suggestions when I call on you in workshop.

On Tuesday, we'll do projects 6-9 following the same process.

I'll make links to the projects posted as of the time I'm editing this page, but the most complete set of links can be found at the Webx discussion "glocalization URLs"

Resources for today:

• Repetiton of Images
• Falconcam (Minnesota Power, Grand Rapids, Minn)

Class Blackboard for April 6

Read Jakob Nielsen's chapter on Accessibility starting on page 296.

Today , we'll complete workshopping the projects listed in the table below starting with #5.

Prepare of this workshop by doing the following:

1. Before class time on Thursday, visit the projects listed for discussion that day in the table below.
2. Type comments and suggestions for each project. Include with each response the project number, the creator's name, and your name as the responder. See the workshop page for details and guidelines.
3. By the end of class time, copy the text of your various comments for the day into a single e-mail to me. Please do not send an attachment.
4. Print out the comments and cut the page in pieces so you can give the comments to the projects' designers. Be sure your name appears on each piece.
5. Be prepared to talk about your reactions and suggestions when I call on you in workshop.

I'll make links to the projects posted as of the time I'm editing this page, but the most complete set of links can be found at the Webx discussion "glocalization URLs"

Resources for today:

• Falconcam (Minnesota Power, Grand Rapids, Minn)
• Google search results for "State Parks of the North Shore"
• UC Berkeley's Golden Gate Exhibition

Class Blackboard for April 8

Introducing the

Today, we'll talk about Jakob Nielsen's chapter on Accessibility starting on page 296.

As part of this discussion, we'll experiment with two activities:

1. A Mark-Up exercise using a simple text program called "Notepad" (see Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad)

2. An "Atl Tag" exercise in Dreamweaver using a page from our Glocalization site (the page with the most images on it).

Time permitting, we'll also begin an exercise, Selecting with Masks, in Photoshop, which may prove helpful to you in preparing images for your Revision and Client Projects.

You can use the following images for this exercise:

• fallleavesgnd.jpg
• cat.jpg

Class Blackboard for April 13

Today, we'll talk about the importance of creating community with your client's Web site.

Forms. We'll learn how to create forms in Dreamweaver.

I'll ask you to post your page with form fields on it to your exercises folder (www/5230/exercises/forms/form.html) and send the URL to the Wex discussion Forms.

Class Blackboard for April 15

The Revision project is due next Monday by noon. Please do the following:

1. save the revised pages in a new folder "www/5320/revision" so your original version is preserved as it was.
2. Send the URL of the main page by the deadline in a message to the Webx discussion "revision URLs" and
3. print out, annotate and hand in to my box paper copy of all pages by the deadline.

Conferences next Tuesday and Thursday

The Client Project Proposal will be due by your conference time either on Tuesday 4/20 or Thursday 4/22. Sign up via these links.

Cascading Style Sheets. We'll learn how to change the look and behavior of our pages with Cascading Style Sheets.

I'll ask you to save a copy of your Personal Home Page (and the "assets" folder with the supporting images ) into a folder "www/5230/exercises/css". When we have completed the exercise, please post this "css" folder to "exercises" on the Web and send the URL in a message to the Webx discussion, "css."

Also, please be sure you've posted your "Selecting with Masks" exercise to "www/5230/exercises/css" on the Web, and that you've sent to URL to "selecting with masks"

Class Blackboard for April 20 & 22

Conferences Tuesday and Thursday

The Client Project Proposal will be due by your conference time either on Tuesday 4/20 or Thursday 4/22. Sign up via these links.

Please be sure you've posted URLs for these recent exercises to the following Webx folders: selecting with masks, Forms, and css

Class Blackboard for April 27

A BETA version (rough draft) of the Client Project should be posted to the Web by tomorrow (Wednesday 4/28) at noon.

Then, on Thursday, we will begin workshopping those projects to give each of you ideas and suggestions for preparing the final version, which is due on Tuesday 5/11 by 10 a.m. (our scheduled final exam time).

Please do the following by Wednesday at noon:

1. Complete your BETA version and post it to the Web in the folder www/5230/client
2. In a message to the Webx folder "client URLs and introductions," a.) paste in the URL of the main page of the site and, below the URL in the message, b.) write a paragraph introduction to the client and the goals of the site that you're creating. You could copy wordage from your Client Project Proposal to create this introduction.
3. Print the pages of the project and turn it in to my mailbox by noon Wednesday.
4. Include: While you don't have to do a formal annotation with this BETA version, please do attach a copy of your Client Project Proposal to the front of the printout and a note that explains your main questions and concerns with the project. Basically, what kind of feedback or suggestions would be most useful to you? I will try to direct discussion in the workshop toward your concerns.

Then before class time on Thursday:

1. Review the workshopping page for ideas about what you might discuss in your comments.
2. Visit the Client Projects scheduled for Thursday in the schedule below.
3. Read the introductions for these projects in "client URLs and introductions."
4. Type written comments and suggestions for each project scheduled for Thursday.
5. Printout the comments, separated on different sheets by project, to give to the authors of the sites after class on Thursday.

By the end of class on Thursday,

Paste all the comments for Thursday into a single e-mail message (no attachments please) and send it to me by the end of class on Thursday with the subject line "5230 client workshop"

Softening the Visual/Verbal Border

Today we'll learn some tricks in Photoshop for creating images that integrate better with the "flatland" of text on our Web pages.

The Problem: Images and words don't want to work together—not only because they're different sizes, but because they operate in different worlds and by different rules. See this page for Grandma's Saloon as an example.

In contrast, look at how McIllhenny's Tabasco site softens the borders between pictures and and text by including lots of small images and visualized type that bridge between the big graphic banner and the fine print. This page has what is called "Visual Hierarchy"

Even pages with almost all text can use good visual hierarchy: see the UC Berkeley Library's Golden Gate Bridge page.

Some Answers: Please complete these exercises and post the URL for each final product in the Webx folder "softening"

For this exercise, you'll need to download the following images (right-click, choose "Save Image As..." into your "web design" (non-www) folder. Then, open them in Photoshop.

Once we're finished, note that other techniques might include

• Applying various filters to give the image a texture, call attention to its flat medium
• Creating graphic, illuminated first letters or opening punctuation, for instance:

Four score and seven years ago..."

•Using images in type (see our previous exercise "Putting an Image Into Type")
• Others?

Class Blackboard for May 4

Today, we'll complete thel workshop of the Client Project BETA versions.

The most current links can be found in the Webx discussion Client Project URLs and introductions.

Workshop Resources

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