Syllabi
- Fall 2019: Multimodal Writing/ Digital Literacy: Creativity + Technology = Magic
Syllabus and Schedule - Fall 2018: Advanced Exposition: Cod(ex)2position
Syllabus and Schedule - Summer A 2018: Advanced Exposition: Makeademia
Syllabus and Schedule - Spring 2018: Advanced Argumentative Writing: Making Media Meta
Syllabus and Schedule - Fall 2017: Writing Through Media: Disney Then and Now
- Fall 2016: Disneyfication of American Literature and Culture
- Fall 2015: Survey of American (Children's Fantasy) Literature
- Spring 2015: Writing Through Media: The History (and Future) of the Book
- Fall 2014: Writing About Magic
Rhetorical Deathly Hallows
I developed the image above to teach my Summer 2015 ENC1101 students about rhetorical persuasion.
It is an update of the traditional rhetorical triangle to include not just logos, ethos, and pathos, but also telos and kairos.
Courses
Web Design: Crafting Micro Enterprises [TOC]
Crafting Micro Enterprises
In this course, students will learn the ins and outs of web design by crafting their own micro enterprises in order to create websites for ecommerce, marketing, blogs, education, and portfolio purposes. Students will design their own products, learn how to conduct market and audience research, design graphics, and demonstrate best practices in building their own websites using front-end technologies.
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Digital Media and Design for Communication: Aesthetics [TOC]
Aesthetics
In this course, students will develop a cohesive aesthetic across media inspired by their own interests. Students will learn how to use industry-leading technologies and software to create raster and vector graphics as well as print/web layouts, and polished videos. Students will develop critical perspectives on media consumption and creation while learning intermediate skills in design and imagining for visual communication in print, web, social media, and time-based media. The course focuses on conceptual thinking and problem-solving in the development and production of digital media projects.
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Visual Methods: Trompe L'oeil [TOC]
Trompe L'oeil
In this course, we will study how trompe l'oeil, the artistic and scientific endeavor to trick the eye, can be applied to photography, vector illustration, video, and 3D objects. We will explore, create, and apply magic, optical illusion, perspective, and special effects to our creative projects, learning tricks in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects.
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Interactive Methods: Magic Books [TOC]
Magic Books
In this course, we will learn the principles of digital interactivity by studying magic books, including choose-your-own-adventure gamebooks, interactive picturebooks, and augmented reality books. This course will be divided into four units of interactivity: text, image, surface, and material. We will consider how to translate or adapt interactive books using hyperlinked text with Twine, animated images with Scratch, and augmented reality with AR.js and 3D modeling. In addition, students will enhance their design and coding skills with Canva, Tinkercad, and Autodesk Slicer. This course will engage with concepts of 1) subverting expectations of the book, 2) defining interactivity and interactive books, and 3) considering bookmaking as a technological process. Students will prototype print, digital, and hybrid interactive books throughout the semester. For our final unit and project, students will learn how to incorporate sensors, paper circuitry, CNC cutting technology, or other mixed materials to create an interactive digital magic book.
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Coding for Humanists: Escape Rooms [TOC]
Escape Rooms
In this course, we will become escape room designer extraordinaires! We will first craft a persuasive narrative themed around a humanities topic to engage our players in their quest. We will then learn how to use HTML to format text, CSS to design and style our site, and JavaScript to create the actions and responsiveness to the puzzles for our virtual escape room. We will use CodePen to tinker with our code and GitHub to host our assets. In addition to traditional web design coding, we will also play with physical computing using Tinkercad Circuits and Arduinos to see how coding can interact with the physical world to create an escape room puzzle.
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Visual Methods: Aesthetics [TOC]
Aesthetics
In this course, we will learn the principles of raster, vector, code, and motion visual design. We will explore, create, and apply individual aesthetics to our creative projects, especially photography, print graphics/digital fabrication, web design, and motion graphics/animation/video.
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Film, New Media, & Culture: Disney+Technology [TOC]
Disney+Technology
In this course, we will learn Disney's role in the history of film technology (synchronized sound animation, multiplane camera, rotoscoping) and explore the representation of technological innovations in Disney+ films and new media.
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