Bonampak murals reproduction

Bonampak murals reproduction
Mayan leaders in discussion. One talks, many listen. Hieroglyphic text below. Replica mural from Bonampak, in Mexico City, Museum of Anthropology

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Midterm exam answers and feedback

Dear Students,

Overall, you did well on the exam, with an average score of 7.5 and a median (half were higher, half lower) of 8.0. What follows are the questions and then a student answer that I thought was very good. However, this was not the only way the question could have been answered. 

This exercise was designed to give you the time (almost a week) to synthesize and summarize your thoughts into a concise, well crafted answer with specific examples within the limit of 900 characters. Students lost points for not providing specific examples.

Q1. The old media monopoly has ended. New digital media have arrived. What are five ways that the consumer experience of digital media is different from a printed newspaper? Your answer should not exceed 900 characters (about 150 words).

One student's answer:

Amount of information: print media are more limited in size than digital media, so the selection of topics must be precise and the writing concise.
Information speed: Digital media are much faster than the printed press, information goes at an almost immediate speed, while print media has a slower process.
Information quality: A consumer may perceive the printed press as more precise or detailed, since the high speeds faced by digital media mean that they lose precision and depth.
Interaction: The digital press has hyperlinks, multimedia content, and the possibility for users to give their feedback through comments or reactions.
Dependence on the network: It is not a disadvantage, but a reality, the consumer of digital media needs the help of the Internet to access the information they want. In the case of the printed press, this dependence does not happen.

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

Week 7, Oct. 13: Analysis of projects from previous years, discussion of potential topics

 Oct. 13 No theory class. Mid-term exam due.

 Blog post 6, finish by Friday Oct. 16: Collect all 5 of your links, and reflect on blogging

Each member of the team will put links to all five of their blog posts on one blog entry and then write about their experience of blogging. UPLOAD THE LINK TO YOUR FINAL BLOG POST TO EXERCISE 6, IN ADI.

Practical classes, Oct. 13 and 14 

1. Check out the guidelines for the Final Project.
2. Check out some Final Projects from previous years (below).

BMusic 
Who Wears the Pants
The Erasmus Experience
How to be a Pokemon Trainer
Stages: Involve to Evolve
Exodus 2.0
The waiting list 

1. A reminder. At this point in the course, each of you is expected to do 6.5 hours a week on the final project. Each person, 6.5 hours a week. You will use this time for planning, creating, editing, and polishing your work. Most of the work will be done outside the classes.

2. The practice sessions will be the time for each team to meet with the professor, show their work, consult on ideas, get feedback.

3. Project 1, Oct. 20, 21

Monday, September 28, 2020

Updated: Links to all of the blogs

Be sure to check out what your classmates are doing. 

Cinematologists: movies and film industry

Feminism around the world: feminism

Film Insider: stories from inside movies and series

Mental health check: lifestyle and mental health

Milkyway: space and stars

Multicom Music: music

Navarra Esports: gaming

One ticket, one story: traveling

Traveling with EVC: tourism and travel

Pata de chucho: tourism and travel

What a trip: travel, food, and culture

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Oct. 6, Session 5, Emerging media forms: podcasts, video blogs, short form video (TikTok)

 Read: The Voice is mightier than the pen: podcast power

The easiest way to make a podcast (from Anchor) 

How publishers are growing their audience with TikTok

Optional:

News podcasts and the opportunities for publishers 

Exercise 5, due Friday Oct. 9
1. Work in groups of maximum 4 people. It can be any 2, 3 or 4 people.

2. You are going to create a multimedia presentation of an event, a company, or a product in at least 15 slides or pages, using online or offline platforms such as  Google Slides, Prezi, Powerpoint, Keynote, or another format.

3. The presentation must include texts, videos and images and must include at least 15 slides/pages. Depending on your topic, it might be a good idea to include a Google Map, a Timetoast.com timeline, a graphic, a gif with gifmaker.me, or a graphic with excel or infogr.amease.lydatawrapper or piktochart.com. Some of you might want to work on creating one of these multimedia elements.

Other tools: Timeline, Story Map, Juxtapose.

4. Elements to include in your presentation.

History, foundation
Key people, bios
Background
Relevant statistics 
Sources
Social media presence
Target market

5. Once the presentation is finished, Post your work -- either the link or the slides -- in Exercise 5 in ADI along with the names of the authors.


Blog post 5, finish by Friday Oct. 9: The best material posted on your topic in the past 12 months

Each member of the team will list several examples of what they think was the best work on your topic in the past 6 months, and why you chose them.

Blog post 6, finish by Friday Oct. 16: Collect all 5 of your links, and reflect on blogging

Each member of the team will put links to all five of their blog posts on one blog entry and then write about their experience of blogging. UPLOAD THE LINK TO YOUR FINAL BLOG POST TO EXERCISE 6, IN ADI.

Sept. 29 Homework, Session 4: Marketing strategies in social media, plus misinformation, disinformation

Homework for Sept. 29

Chipotle's The Scarecrow was a campaign that was on YouTube, to promote a smartphone videogame that helped promote this restaurant chain. (The company later removed the video from YouTube but you can watch it on Vimeo above.)
The Scarecrow video game has also been removed from the app store.
This graphic about the 7 types of mis- and disinformation is in Claire Wardle's article.
Click to enlarge graphic.


Exercise 4, due Friday Oct. 2

1. Work in pairs.  

2. Download this form as an .xls spreadsheet. Fill out the form with information you research about the online presence and social media strategy of a company/organization/event/association/public figure of your choice.

3. Save your document. Upload it as a spreadsheet (not a PDF) to Exercise 4 in ADI. It is due Friday Oct. 2.

Blog post 4, finish by Friday Oct. 2: How social media cover the topic

Each team member will search social media for people and organizations that regularly post material about the team's topic. Identify the ones that are most useful and interesting to you and write a few sentences on why each of them is relevant to your topic. Search using hashtags or other indicators to help find material. 

Blog post 5, finish by Friday Oct. 9: The best material posted on your topic in the past 12 months

Each member of the team will list several examples of what they think was the best work on your topic in the past 6 months, and why you chose them.

Blog post 6, finish by Friday Oct. 16: Collect all 5 of your links, and reflect on blogging

Each member of the team will put links to all five of their blog posts on one blog entry and then write about their experience of blogging.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Sept. 22 Homework Session 3, Theory and Practice of Interactivity

 Read 

▪   Shedroff, Nathan, Information interaction design: A unified field theory of design. Available in Pdf on ADI, in the Contents section. (This is a challenging text. Read it without distractions.)

Exercise 3

Exercise 3: Research and analysis of different forms of interactivity (work in pairs).

1. Download this document and share the document with your partner.

2. Fill out the form, using Shedroff's definitions of each different type of activity as your guide. Include a comment on why you chose each example. (This powerpoint will help guide you with examples of each of the types of interactivity.)

3. It is best if you have 18 different examples: that is, don't use Facebook as an example for each of the six different types of social media interactivity, although you could. Don't use Google as an example for all six types of web activity, although you could. Find others.

4. Upload the completed form to ADI in Exercise 3. Due Friday Sept. 25.


Blog post 3, finish by Friday 25: Profile a prominent figure in the area of your topic

Each team member of the team will profile a different person who is prominent in the field. (It could be a persona; that is a person who adopts a pseudonym. "Prominent" is a relative term; the person should have some kind of a reputation in the field, either positive or negative.

Blog post 4, finish by Friday Oct. 2: How social media cover the topic

Each team member will search social media for people and organizations that regularly post material about the team's topic. Identify the ones that are most useful and interesting to you and write a few sentences on why each of them is relevant to your topic. Search using hashtags or other indicators to help find material. 

Blog post 5, finish by Friday Oct. 9: The best material posted on your topic in the past 12 months

Each member of the team will list several examples of what they think was the best work on your topic in the past 6 months, and why you chose them.

Blog post 6, finish by Friday Oct. 16: Collect all 5 of your links, and reflect on blogging

Each member of the team will put links to all five of their blog posts on one blog entry and then write about their experience of blogging.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Sept. 15 Homework Session 2: The linking economy, hypertext design, usage, navigability.

 Readings for class of Sept. 15.


All of the readings are about hypertext links, which are the soul of the Internet. 
  1. Erica Negritypologies and usage of hypertextual links. Some best practices are illustrated. 
  2. Mindy McAdams, 10 rules for creating links
  3. Here are some navigation maps for websites that show how hyperlinks can be used to organize information.
  4. Moz, External Links, Best Practices for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search Engine Optimization means making your blog or website "findable" by Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. The higher your content rises in search-engine results, the more traffic you will get. 
  5. Here is a tutorial I prepared on how to embed hyptertext links.
  6. Prof. Ramón Salaverría of UNAV explains some best practices with hypertext (links), in Spanish.



Exercise 2 [not 4-my mistake], Hypertext design and navigability
1. Work in pairs. Two people (no groups of 3, please). Download or copy the form for analyzing a website or app.

2. Choose a website or app that you enjoy using or that interests you. (Not the big ones like Facebook, Google, Snapchat, etc.). If you don’t know what to pick, I have suggested some on the form.

3. Give a rating of 1-5 to each of the characteristics of usability, navigability, and transparency. 

5-excellent, 4-very good, 3-good, 2-fair, 1-poor.  And write brief comment on each. 

4. Upload your responses to ADI, Exercise 2.

Blog post 2, finish by Friday Sept. 18: Main online sources and references for your blog topic

Each member of your blog team will write a blog post that lists at least five online sources that you use for researching your topic, and why you consider each source useful, relevant, inspiring, and so forth. Try not to duplicate all the same sources other team members use. Each team member should look for some different sources. (Some duplication is inevitable.)

Blog post 3, finish by Friday 25: Profile a prominent figure in the area of your topic

Each team member of the team will profile a different person who is prominent in the field. (It could be a persona; that is a person who adopts a pseudonym. "Prominent" is a relative term; the person should have some kind of a reputation in the field, either positive or negative.

Blog post 4, finish by Friday Oct. 2: How social media cover the topic

Each team member will search social media for people and organizations that regularly post material about the team's topic. Identify the ones that are most useful and interesting to you and write a few sentences on why each of them is relevant to your topic. Search using hashtags or other indicators to help find material. 

Blog post 5, finish by Friday Oct. 9: The best material posted on your topic in the past 12 months

Each member of the team will list several examples of what they think was the best work on your topic in the past 6 months, and why you chose them.

Blog post 6, finish by Friday Oct. 16: Collect all 5 of your links, and reflect on blogging

Each member of the team will put links to all five of their blog posts on one blog entry and then write about their experience of blogging.