Coding like a (New and Inexperienced) Pro: Project Reflection #2

As I was exploring CSS in the middle of this semester, the one piece of advice I read again and again was that the best way to learn to code was to just jump into coding.  Well, I have jumped in, and my Google Site now has custom fonts, custom font colors, and custom spacing ... all brought to it by CSS Coder Susanne Nobles!

Mapping New Media

Google Sites Kinda Scared Me: Project Reflection #1

Step 1: the seemingly simple goal of creating my Google Site -- just the homepage.  I was confident I could do this easily because I have been using a Google Site for my grad class all semester and I have created multiple online sites for my own classes using Wikispaces and Nings.  I also use many other Google applications, from gmail to Google Documents/Forms/Presentations. How hard could it be to set up a basic Google Site? 

Individual New Media Project Plan

Please visit bubbl.us to explore my map in detail. Add me (user name: Susanne Nobles) to your contacts, and I will share my map with you.

Striking Out on My Own (New Media Project Proposal)

Rhetorical Situation

My goal is to create a class site for my high school freshmen on Google Sites with CSS coding within the pages to personalize them.  My students will use this site throughout the year to share work with each other and a larger audience (for example, they will present original poems and recorded recitations of them) and to complete group projects (for example, they will work with partners to research and create a page on the site about a Holocaust topic).  I will also research the implications of FERPA for an online classroom for minors.

Final CSS Exploratory Outing and Reflection

Explorer Nobles reporting in from week four. Lost bearings on third outing. Ended up mired in the CSS Language Swamp. Have regained footing. Repeat: have regained footing.  No longer feeling smug but know upcoming trip into the Coding Canyon of CSS will not be a disaster ... most likely anyway ...

Canonical Texts Wikipage Review

The two wikipages I reviewed are Manovich's The Language of New Media and Baudrillard's Simulcra... and  The Illusion ...

Baudrillard, McLuhan, and Bolter ... oh my!

My fascinating reading for this morning comes from: Diane, Suzanne, Sarah, and Jennifer. 

The physical remediation so prevalent in our society and laid out with incredible visual power in Diane's post really had me thinking about the struggles of women to meet the unrealistic expectations of beauty in our society ... and who knew I was channeling Baudrillard as I thought about this! Suzanne and Sarah explain well Baudrillard's concept of simulcra, and I was struck most by his point that society has gotten to where the real and the simulated can no longer be distinguished.  At its most basic level, this is speaking to the women's magazines Diane writes of and the video on plastic surgery she shares.  When a reader of Cosmo feels she needs to look like the models, she is seeking to make a simulcrum into a reality ... and the damage that comes with such an effort is enormous. Sarah and Jennifer then offer the final link in today's cycle of thoughts -- McLuhan's thoughts on how media affect messages.

CSS Exploration #3

As I am in the midst of understanding CSS vocabulary and not yet done, I need to stop and let these foundational terms sink in before I go further. Here is my key terms list for today (all taken from the Mozilla CSS tutorial site):

CSS Exploration #2

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Today I took the advice I read last week that nothing is better than just jumping into playing with coding. This CSS tutorial recommended by Wil Laveist is a great start for beginners like me. After working through the first four modules, I succeeded in getting coding into my browser and adjusting the style. This is the me who did not know before tonight how to get coding into a browser let alone how to code. Thank you, Mozilla Developer Network for your excellent beginner's guide -- you have me feeling like a real Stage 2 Programmer!

CSS Exploration #1

Explorer Nobles reporting in from week one. Not lost. Repeat not lost. In fact, feeling rather smug that this first foray into the unknown terrain of coding went so well. Must remember though that tougher terrain lays ahead ...

It's Not Disney World, but CSS ... Here I Come!

For my individual tutorial I am going to explore CSS, which means I am also going to explore HTML. After hearing about all of the languages last night, I have decided that, as a newbie to this whole world, CSS/HTML, since it is so widely used, is a good entry point that will lead me in the right direction for my future work. I am attending the 2012 DMAC, during which I will explore video and audio editing a great deal. I hope to take that experience and apply it to the basic of website building that I will learn through my explorations this semester with the ultimate goal of creating my digital portfolio for my PhD language requirement.

Exploring Blogs

Responses to first part of Lingua Fracta:
- Cheri Lemieux Spiegel's post
- Diane Cooke's post

Responses to finishing Lingua Fracta:
- Eric Sentell's post
- Mat Reynold's post





My partner in the canonical book assignment (McLuhan's Understanding Media):
- Jennifer Buckner's post
- (Reading Eric's post above and seeing that he was also reading McLuhan led me to read his McLuhan post ... so I have two on three topics versus three on two topics. Hope that is okay ...) Eric Sentell's post

My Story of ENGL 866

My Goals for New Media Theory I: My study of Pottermore in Tracing Digital Cultures in summer 2012 is the most interesting work I have done thus far in my PhD studies, confirming my New Media emphasis choice. This degree focus plus my acceptance into DMAC 2012 led me directly to this class and these goals:

• To gain a strong base in new media theory to found my DMAC project and future studies
• To determine which language I want to use for my digital portfolio requirement and begin to learn this language (and maybe even start on my digital portfolio)
• To determine my direction for my independent study post-DMAC -- this might be theoretical and it might be practical ... the wide scope of this class will show me all of the possibilities and allow me to explore enough to make an educated decision
• Last but not least, to take a class with Dr. Roderigo, who is my independent study mentor for DMAC and post-DMAC!