From Scroll to Screen
ENGL 165SS - Spring 2002, Carol Braun Pasternack
Voice to Text
The "Text-IT" assignment allows each student to specialize in one IT;
(Information Technology), to work with a small group of fellow students with
a similar interest, to share what the group learns with the rest of the class
via a group website, and to analyze a text in relation to that information technology. The assignment has several components and should be worked on throughout the term (note specific due dates for different stages).
Group website has several parts, which you will probably separate into separate
pages. It will have a homepage with an introduction to the medium, a page
with relevant links, a page with a chronology of significant dates in the
development of the technology, and any other pages that the group thinks important
and interesting, such as short bios of people important in the technology's
development or use. Each group will determine how to organize the site and
how to allocate the work. (At the end, each person will do a self-evaluation
indicating his or her contributions and also evaluations of the other group
member's contributions.)
Voice to Text Due:
4/16/02
Choose whether you wish to be a performer or a transcriber.
Performers will perform a story or poem in front of four or five students, and the performance will be recorded as audio and the sound put on our website.
Transcribers will work in teams of 2 or 3. Two teams will be audience members as well as transcribers for each performer so that we can see two different possibilities for transcribing each performance.
Tues., Apr. 9: We need 5 or 6 performers ready to tell two- to five-minute tales or poems. The performer can use gestures, guitar, audience response. S/he can make up the tale or poem or learn it from a book or elsewhere. We will record the audio dimension of the performance, and I will have it uploaded to our class’s website.
Tues., Apr. 16: Each transcribing team should have its transcription ready on disk to upload to one member’s UWEB site during our lab session. You can bring it in Word format, Wordperfect, or in HTML. We will link each to the appropriate audiofile (and each audiofile to the transcription file).
Choose an Information Technology to Specialize In Due:
4/25/02
Choose a general topic of an IT by 4/25. I will do an initial sort into
groups.
Decide on a chairperson for your group, who will keep the project moving
along and keep everyone organized.
Decide on the keeper-of-the-page, who will maintain the group web-site on
his or her u-web site (or another site).
Perhaps decide also on a technical adviser.
Brainstorm ideas re. what kinds of things should be addressed on site and
how the pages should be divided, as well as whether an individual person will
be responsible for each page or a number of people will contribute to a page,
signing their contributions.
Group Links Page Due:
5/2/02
Even before the group is fully organized, you can start collecting links.
Each member of a group locates two or three "useful" links. "Useful" means
that they provide reliable information that is appropriate to your topic and
our class.
The member who finds the link notifies others in the group that s/he has
done so (so that others don't waste their time on that link, though others
may want to consult it to find useful links branching off of it) and annotates
the link.
An annotation indicates
The source of the site, an individual and/or an organization.
The credentials of the source. You may learn about the source's qualifications
via a link to a homepage or by truncating the url to learn the origin of
a page. Qualifications may include university degrees, other publications,
and the nature of the organization.
The name (or initials) of the author of the annotation.
The group's links page is due 5/2 at the time of the lab session. Bring
it with you.
Group Site Plan Due:
5/7/02
Each group meets to:
Decide on a chairperson for your group, who will keep the project moving
along and keep everyone organized.
Decide on the keeper-of-the-page, who will maintain the group web-site on
his or her u-web site (or another site).
Perhaps decide also on a technical adviser.
Brainstorm ideas re. what kinds of things should be addressed on site and
how the pages should be divided, as well as whether an individual person will
be responsible for each page or a number of people will contribute to a page,
signing their contributions.
Written plan due 5/7.
Group Site Due:
5/24/02
Production of site: Organize all elements on one page or index page plus
sub-pages. (Optionally include graphics, color, or other design elements.)
Publish or upload group page and supply Michael Perry (mperry@umail.ucsb.edu), course technical assistant, with URL to make link to class pages
at course site. Due 5/24.
Individual Compositions Due:
6/4/02
Write an individual essay, approximately 7 pages (no more than 10 maximum),
on one of the following topics:
Argue an interpretation of the primary text for your group that takes
into account the information technology through which the text was or is
disseminated (the IT for your group page). Use close readings of the text
to support your argument as well as consideration of its contemporary medium
of production and circulation.
Write an essay presenting what you consider the most important, definitive
aspects of the information technology of your group, using the primary text
to exemplify and explain the significance of those aspects for our understanding
of their contemporary culture or for interpretation of that text.
Or make a web page (with appropriate sub-pages) that does the work of one of these topics.
Or do an oral presentation (making full use of that IT) that does the work of one of these topics (for this approach, you will need to make arrangements with the professor to do the performance for the class).
transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu
directed by: Alan Liu
site
developed by the transcriptions team
code by: Eric Weitzel
pictures by: Bo Kinloch
