Jason's last lecture...

Jason’s all everything, gigantic and super lecture on how to teach yourself
Software.

1. begin by figuring out what you need to do. Don’t bring a tank to water balloon fight. Find the most simple and easy to use software to do what you want to do
2. But then maybe what you think you want to do, is not actually what you should be doing. To you and your mom and your girlfriend the cut off head of your dog on uncle’s body you made in MS Paint might be hilarious. But when it comes to extorting money from your boss by doctoring photos of them in the back parking lot sniffing the cremation remains of Abraham Lincoln. Well you might need something better.

3. OK….so you’ve figured out you need something more advanced. How do you learn software in just a few days.

4. First….. you should know. YOU DON’T. Good Software is designed to be deep. Meaning that you might be able to open and save something, or resize or make an audio clip. But that doesn’t mean you know how to use it.

5. Begin by playing. Make something. Anything. It will make you feel better. And then you’ll hit a brick wall. Like learning French by going to France. They will teach you how to say hello and I’m sorry, but after that they just laugh and try to trip you as you walk down the steps of some lame museum gift shop.

6. What are the common features of most software packages? Look at the buttons stupid. Well it isn’t that you are stupid….you just smell that way is all.


7. You’d better save your work damnit. And save it five thousand million billion quadrillion times. The law of averages suggests that eventually you will do something right…so saving all the time with various file names means you will save the right version……eventually.

8. Try the help file. I know…this seems obvious….but you don’t do it. I have no idea why, but you don’t. lame lame you.

9. Ok so the help section sucks…..yes we know.

10. Search it damnit….but then how do you do a good search? Try specific and general. Let’s try it now.

11. Join forums and ask the damn question. People out there will eventually answer. Cause you know. People are ego maniacs.

12. Don’t fear the tutorial books and the video tutorials. Once you learn the task you needed to learn. Try these as well. Feel free to skip ahead and jump around!

13. You don’t always have to take a course!!! Cause they are just going to do the above anyway.

14. And remember, as soon as you learn that software, either a new package will come along or a new version will replace it.

15. It is all about content damnit.

Blog Requirements :)

Week 4 - 5
The task for your blog this week is to find three internet delivered short films (max 10min) and embed or upload into a new post. Just providing the link will not suffice.

Drawing on the previous lectures, you will also need to provide a discussion as to why you have chosen these particular films.
Max 3%

Jason Week 5
Create your own google maps.
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=68480
http://www.sketchcast.com/
start with this:
http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html
Max 2%

From Josh's week 6 lecture we wanted you to create a fictitious news report on 'ireport.com'....

You were to upload your 'news report' to the account set up for your tute...(ask around cause it was written up on the white board, the login will be newsuploader1@gmail.com or something similar...
Make sure you also upload the same video to your blog (include the news story/caption) just in case they delete your ireport submission.
The actual news item you film can be anything you like... just shoot it on your phone or camera and upload to both spots.
Max 3%

Week 7
Jason's Lecture....

We would like you to download one or more of the freeware apps that Jason mentioned or one that you find yourself.
Use it, see what you think, write about it in your blog.
Max 2%


Week 8
This week's tasks:

What opportunities can you find for political participation via the internet. How many of the following can you achieve while sticking to your political beliefs?

• Sign an e-petition.
• Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
• What is Barak Obama up to today?
• Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
• Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
• Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
• Read the lecture and the readings, pursue a couple of the topics that you find most interesting and then post your blog with your well-considered thoughts about the theory and practice of politics.
+ we ask:

What do you think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???

What place does censorship have in a democracy?

Max 3%


And Finally before the Due date of Friday Week 10 at 5.00pm

We ask that you add to your blog some form of art that you have created. It can be previously made and you just scan or photograph it and then upload.
But keep in mind Jason's lecture on using software and 'feeling' the way through. Try something new and see what you can make. We're looking for blogs that shine.

Max 3%

I think that leaves 4% for General execution, ease of navigation, Suitable text colours/font/size for headings and body (readable, clear).

These percentage values are maximum values for perfectly presented work with interesting extra research.



Have Fun..

Week 8 tute task.

Everyone should have completed their news report videos by now - for Ireport - and you should also have posted them onto your weblog either by uploading to blogger or putting them on a video hosting service.

It is time to begin thinking about what topic you will choose for your final essay. Have a look at the questions on the announcements page. You should choose only one of the questions to answer. You may think of another topic but you must have it approved by your tutor during the tutorials.

This week's tasks:

What opportunities can you find for political participation via the internet. How many of the following can you achieve while sticking to your political beliefs?

• Sign an e-petition.
• Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
• What is Barak Obama up to today?
• Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.
• Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
• Let your local member know what you think about their last speech.
• Read the lecture and the readings, pursue a couple of the topics that you find most interesting and then post your blog with your well-considered thoughts about the theory and practice of politics.

+ we ask:

What do you think of the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")???

What place does censorship have in a democracy?

========================================================


Remember that the blogs are due for assessment on Friday the week 10.

Esssay Topics for your 1000 word essay due end of week 12 in your blog.

1. Marc Prensky's "Emerging online life of the digital native" and Dave Weinberger's "A New World" both presentdifferent views of contemporary internet users. In light of your own experiences with new technologies do you think they are accurate portrayals? Discuss why or why not with specific examples.

2. The idea of the internet as cyberspace has been a part of our contemporary culture for some time, particularly in the popular medium of film. But is the concept of cyberspace still relevant to our contemporary society? Discuss with reference to your own experience of contemporary media.

3. Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digitalcontent.

4. What are the uses/limits of the internet in terms of politics and/or democracy? Should we rethink the nature of the political? What happens to the nation/state in the age of networks that have the potential to span thewhole planet? What has happened to the idea of "community" in the age of networked digital media? Discuss with an example.

5. Creative Commons is both a solution and yet another failure to deal with authorship and copyright on the internet. Discuss and give examples.

6. Any other challenging topic related to the lectures that is approved by your tutor. To be approved, your topic should be unique and be based in your own interests in the online world and the theory that relates to it.


Students will research and present an academic essay (min 1000 words, max 1200) that answers one of the
questions above. Write your essay for the internet, embedding links to
available citations and illustrating it appropriately. When you have completed your essay you must post it
onto your weblog by 5pm of Friday of week 12. Concentrate on getting the maximum amount of ideas
and insights into the relatively short word limit. The general approach to the topic must be decided in
consultation with your tutor.
As it is an academic research essay, you must include at least five (5) links to websites relevant to the
topic, AND must reference at least five (5) academic journal articles and/or scholarly library books that
you have consulted in your research. That means a MINIMUM of ten (10) reference items.

Students are expected to display a high level of critical analysis of their chosen topic. Students are
encouraged to write as clearly and concisely as possible. You must fully reference all your sources in the
essay in appropriate academic style.

Make sure you keep a copy somewhere other than your blog. (why not try google docs... )

Week 7... Tute and Lecture....

Soooo... I'm sure everybody has now done their 3 internet delivered short film/movie blog post.

And your google map that has been embedded in your blog....

From Josh's week 6 lecture we wanted you to create a fictitious news report on 'ireport.com'....

You were to upload your 'news report' to the account set up for your tute...(ask around cause it was written up on the white board, the login will be newsuploader1@gmail.com or something similar...
Make sure you also upload the same video to your blog (include the news story/caption) just in case they delete your ireport submission.
The actual news item you film can be anything you like... just shoot it on your phone or camera and upload to both spots.

FOR this week.... Jason's Lecture....

We would like you to download one or more of the freeware apps that Jason mentioned or one that you find yourself.
Use it, see what you think, write about it in your blog.

A google map entry...just a simple one...

View Jules' in a larger map

This is to be worked through by the end of week 6

Creative and Social uses of the net.
Recent history of the net:
Dot Com Boom: the wayback machine:
http://www.archive.org/index.php
Dot Com Crash:
Dog Food is expensive to ship.
Rise of Monopolies
Web 2.0
Forever Change:
Glut of Social Networking sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
Even in 2007 they were starting to divide the social networking world into smaller and smaller sub groups:
http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/
a recent ranking of social networking sites:
http://blog.compete.com/2009/02/09/facebook-myspace-twitter-social-network/
The dark side to social networking:
The fastest way to become average and dull.
Personal becomes public! Imagine you’re your future boss watching you at a Bucks Night party.
For all things social networking:
http://mashable.com/
And then there is this:
Vampire Rave
http://www.vampirerave.com/levels2.php
For all things useful on the net:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/design/

Creative spaces on the web:
Polyvore: when the commercial becomes creative
http://www.polyvore.com/
One time playthings. Viral creations for simple ideas.
http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/
Special interests meet powerful cartography.
http://mashable.com/2008/05/14/17-google-maps-mashups-to-waste-away-your-day/
Art portals:
http://turbulence.org
http://rhizome.org
disaster maps:
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php
visualization of net traffic speeds
http://www.speedtest.net/index.php?nojs=1


For the class:
Create your own google maps.
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=68480
http://www.sketchcast.com/
start with this:
http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

Week 5/6

The task for your blog this week is to find three internet delivered short films (max 10min) and imbed or upload into a new post. Just providing the link will not suffice.

Drawing on the previous lectures, you will also need to provided a discussion as to why you have chosen these particular films.

This item will be assessed in the second round blog submission.

Marking Criteria for your Blog!

End of week 5 Blog Marking Criteria for the 20% portion of your overall grade.

3% - We can find your Blog and a Definition for ‘Convergence in Communication’ is there.

3% - There are 4 pictures depicting convergent technology, at least two of these will depict convergent communication technology with some form of editing or an altered version also posted (with captions to explain).

1% - There will be two Youtube videos embedded in the Blog.

1% - Internet timeline and History of Computing timelines.

2% - Shot composition task is complete and clear.

2% - Who, What, Where, When, Why and How task is complete (watch movie of your choice).

2% - Treasure Hunt (make sure you do the one from your tutorial-check the blog for your list).

6% - Aesthetics, Completing ‘extra’ tasks and showing engagement with lectures and tutorials.