Reading, Writing, & Technology (III)

Reading: For this week, please read Atwan06.pdf & Atwan07.pdf. Section 07, we will discuss 06 in Monday's class & 07 in Wednesday's class. Section 09, we will discuss 06 on Tuesday, as well as finish 05; the first half of Thursday's class will be dedicated to 07. As always, these files can be found on Blackboard.

Writing: You will have 2 writing assignments this week. Both are to be 300 words & contain 2 relevant hyperlinks. Assignment 1 is DUE Wednesday, September 19th @ midnight & Assignment 2 is DUE Sunday, September 23rd @ midnight. The specific guidelines are as follows:

Assignment 1: For your first major writing project (due on Friday, October 5th), you will be writing an observational & reflective essay on a place, person, or event related to Lincoln, NE. Your subject matter must be from the public sphere (i.e. you cannot write on a family member, etc.) & will require some first-hand observations. As such, for this week's initial writing assignment you will be asked to choose a subject & write an observation about it. What do you see, hear, or smell; if it pertains to your choice, what do you taste or feel (as in tactile sensations, not emotions)? You are not required to stay with the subject matter you select for this assignment, but it will be quite beneficial for project if you do. In addition to the aforementioned guidelines, you must also incorporate 1 image into your post in an aesthetically appealing & contextually relevant way.

Assignment 2: One advantage writing in a digital medium has over traditional, paper-based writing is the former's ability to utilize moving images & streaming video (&, as the following video demonstrates, become essays or arguments unto themselves):

So, for your second writing assignment, you will be require to embed a video into your post. The video you choose must have something to do with either the state of Nebraska, the city of Lincoln, or Lincoln the former president of the United States. For this assignment, you must write reflectively on your video. Therefore, you do not want to write narratively about what you viewed, but on what the video made you think, how it made you feel, & what the consequences of these thoughts & feelings are.

Technology: Obviously, to accomplish the previous assignment, you will need to know how to embed videos into your post. Section 07, in Friday's class we will discuss how to do this; section 09, the second half of Thursday's class will cover this material, as well as trouble-shooting problems that arose with image incorporation & photobucket accounts from last week.