Course Guide

This course guide contains all of the materials for this class. To see all of the contents of this guide on one page, click on the "printer-friendly version" link below.

Course Description

 

English 605: Computers in Language and Rhetoric

Spring 2008

TTH 10:30-11:45 a.m.

BRNG B274

 

Contact Information

Professor: Samantha Blackmon

Office: 302B Heavilon Hall

Phone: 494-3742

Email: blackmos@purdue.edu

Office Hours: 1-2 p.m. TTH & by appointment

 

Course Syllabus On-line at: http://www.digitalparlor.org/sp08/blackmon1

 

(Syllabus and Calendar are tentative and subject to change. Please check on-line syllabus for latest changes. Any hard copy may be obsolete, so be sure to bring it with you to each class to record all changes.)

 

Course Description:

 

This seminar investigates how computers figure in contemporary theories of text and text-making. Readings and discussion topics will cover pedagogy, cyberspace, and a critical analysis of both technology and specific technologies used in the computer-mediated classroom (i.e. synchronous/asynchronous discussions, electronic writing and publication, and new media studies). Assignments for this course will include weekly response assignments, a mid-semester project/presentation, and a seminar project.

 

Course Policies

Books are available at Border's on the levee or they can be ordered online.

 

Required:

 

Banks, Adam J. Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: Searching for Higher Ground

 

Shaffer, David Williamson. How Computer Games Help Children Learn.

Selfe, Cynthia, L. and Hawisher, Gail E. Gaming Lives in the 21st Century.

Takayhoshi, Pamela, and Sullivan, Patricia. Labor, Writing Technologies, and the Shaping of Composition in the Academy.



Course Expectations: In order to accomplish the course goals, you must come to each class prepared. This means coming to class on time, as well as completing your readings and outside assignments. Active and informed participation in class discussions and collaborative work is also crucial. In terms of writing assignments, you will be required to complete one annotated bibliography (ten points), one seminar paper proposal (ten points each), regular blog entries (fifteen points), one mid-semester project (twenty-five points), and one semester project (forty points). Late assignments will only be accepted with the prior specific permission of the instructor and will be penalized 10% for every calendar day late.

 


Grading Scale: The grading scale for this course is straightforward with no curve.

 

100-90

A

 

89-80

B

 

79-70

C

 

69-60

D

 

59-below

F

 


Note about Incompletes: The mark of ‘I’ is inappropriate if, in the instructor’s judgment, it will be necessary for the student regularly to attend subsequent sessions of the class. I will give an Incomplete only in cases of extreme emergency.

 


Class Participation & Assignments: This is one of the most important components to the success of the course. All reading and outside assignments are to be completed prior to class. This means reading carefully and critically, bringing materials to class, and coming prepared to engage with the ideas and your class. Each student is required to prepare a 15-20 minute presentation based upon one of the texts twice in the semester. This presentation can be a response based solely upon what is covered in the course or course texts and specific areas of interest (i.e. video game theory and the representations of people of Middle Eastern descent in video games since 9/11).

 


Attendance: Attendance is welcomed, expected, and mandatory. To best utilize our time, come to class on time. You are considered absent if 1) you are more than 15 minutes late and/or 2) you are unprepared for class. There will be regular in-class work to record your attendance and preparation for class. You may miss two (2) sessions without penalty. For every class after the these two, I will lower your final grade by five points. After two absences you must attend a conference with me to discuss whether you should continue in this course. Four absences constitute automatic failure of the course.

 


Conferences and Contact: I am open to discussing matters pertaining to the course, readings, and your writing; please feel free to contact me via email or phone as well as in person. I hope you will also take advantage of my office hours and email.

 


Academic Dishonesty:

 

Cheating: All written work submitted for a grade in this course must be the product of your own composition. Ideas generated due to reading and group discussion may provide the inspiration for your work, but should not be the sole ideas represented. With collaborative projects, of course, ideas should be representative of the group’s work.

 

Plagiarism is the act of presenting as your own work another individual’s ideas, words, data, or research material. The concept applies equally to written, spoken, or electronic texts, published or unpublished. All ideas and quotations that you borrow from any source must be acknowledged: at a minimum, you should give the name of your author, the title of the text cited, and the page number(s) of the citation. The only exceptions to this requirement would involve what is familiar and commonly held (e.g. the fact that the earth is round). You should know that penalties for plagiarism are severe and can entail suspension from the University. Students are responsible for reading and understanding the University policy on Cheating and Plagiarism set forth in Purdue University’s Academic Integrity: A Guide for Students available at http://www.purdue.edu/odos/admin/bacinteg.htm.

 


Classroom Behavior: I am sure that at this level this goes without saying, but here goes. Insults, slurs, or attacks of any kind will not be allowed in my class. Any student who engages in this type of behavior in the classroom will be permanently removed from the class. In other words, forced to drop the course, in addition to other possible punishment given by Purdue University (See the Purdue University Student Code of Conduct Available at http://www.purdue.edu/odos/admin/ccode.htm). In order to have an effective teaching and learning environment we must practice both respect and tolerance, without question.

Calendar

Follow the links at the bottom of this page for a schedule of assignments for each week this semester. Within each week, you will find daily listings of assignments. Each bullet point for the day is a different task for you to complete. Unless specifically noted otherwise, all assignments are to be completed before class on the day listed.

This course calendar may be updated throughout the semester. I'll notify you about any major changes, but you are still responsible for keeping up with the current schedule.

IMPORTANT: You must visit all of the links provided within the course calendar. There are many links to follow and read. Make sure you visit all of them. Some links provide easy access to other parts of the class site which will help you in your assignments. Some links are to required readings. Others provide you with detailed instructions on completing the assignments. Eventually, you may come to know the instructions which supplement assignments that are repeated throughout the course, but it's still a good idea to continue to revisit the instructions to make sure that you are satisfying all of the requirements.

Week 1

T:

TH: Handouts

Week 5

T: Respondent Sarena

Takayoshi & Sullivan, Intro & Part 2

TH: Respondent Ehren

Takayoshi & Sullivan, Part 1

Week 6

T: Respondent Mark H

Banks, Beginning-4

TH: Respondent Cris

Banks Chaps. 5-7

Week 7

Assignments and activities for Week 7
T: GDC
TH: GDC

Week 8

T: Presentation of Group Projects

TH: Respondent Zack

Takayoshi & Sullivan, Part 3

Week 9

T: Respondent Ehren

Takayoshi & Sullivan, Part 4

TH: Respondent Mark

James Gee, "Semiotic Domains"

James Gee, "Games and Learning"

Selfe & Hawisher, Foreward-Interchapter 1

Week 10

Spring Break

Week 11

T: Respondent Jeff

Selfe & Hawisher, Chap. 5- Interchapter II

TH: Respondent Mark H.

Selfe & Hawisher, Chap. 9 - Afterword

Week 12

T: Respondent Pepper

Bogost, Ian. "Procedural rhetoric". In Persuasive games: the expressive power of videogames.

TH: Respondent Cris

Shaffer, Foreword- Chap. 3

Week 13

Assignments and activities for Week 13
T: CCCC
TH: CCCC

Week 15


T: Respondent Cat

Gitelman, Lisa (2006). New media publics. In Always already new: Media, history, and the data of culture.

Levy, Steven. (2006). Podcast. In The perfect thing.

Rickert, Thomas, and Salvo, Michael. (2006). The distributed gesamptkunstwerk: Sound, worlding, and new media culture.

Voida, Amy, Grinter, Rebecca E., Ducheneaut, Nicolas, Edwards, W. Keith, and Newman, Mark W. (2005). Listening in: Practices surrounding iTunes music sharing.

McKee, Heidi (2006). Sound matters: Notes toward the analysis and design of sound in multimodal webtexts.


TH: Respondent Lars

What Does Computers and Composition Sound Like?

Week 16

Final Projects

Course Handouts, Guides, and Readings

All course handouts, guides, and readings can be found here.

Week One Readings

Baron, Dennis (1999). From pencils to pixels: Thestages of literacy technologies. In Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Self (eds) Passions,pedagogies, and 21st century technologies (pp.15-33). Logan: Utah State

University Press.

Bernhardt, StephenA. (1993). The shape of text to come: The texture of print on screens. CollegeComposition and Communication,44, 2: 151-175.

Ohmann, Richard.(1985). Literacy, technology, and monopoly capital. College English, 47, 675-89.

Kalmbach, James.(1996). From liquid paper to typewriters: Some historical perspectives ontechnology in the classroom. Computers and Composition, 13, 57-68.

Gerard, Lisa(2006).  The evolution of theComputers and Writing Conference, the second decade. Computers andComposition, 23, 211–22. 

Projects & Activities

Descriptions of major course projects are listed here.

Group Project

I'm going to try to make the assignment pretty general so that you
can take it in any direction that appeals to you. Your group should
consist of no less than 3 people (with one group having 4). Using the
readings/topics/discussions of the first seven weeks of the syllabus as
a starting point think about how they can operate pedagogically.

Consider any number of things including (and more):

  • What you pedagogical practices are or were
  • How they may have change, may change, or are reinforced by what we have read and discussed
  • How you see this operating in your own pedagogical research
  • How might this work for different disciplines

What you should bring to the group for discussion:

  • An abstract that can be submitted to a professional conference or an academic publication (use an actual call as a model...Cs, C&W, MLA, ATTW, etc.)
  • A teaching unit (subject matter open) that utilizes any or all of the above
  • A sample assignment that will dazzle us
  • A presentation that is worthy of a professional audience

You should aim for 20 minutes of talking time and 10 minutes of
discussion. As with a professional conference there will be penalties
for exceeding the time limit so make sure that one of you is prepared
to act as chair/timekeeper.