Designing for "Wunder"

"English Studies ... still privilege[s] the Word as its preferred mode of 
performance, and linear argument as its preferred form. For this to change, 
more scholars must move beyond critical verbal analysis of visual texts and 
become active architects of intellectually engaged (and engaging) multimediated 
visual rhetoric. Until we and our students see ourselves as producers rather 
than just consumers of visual rhetoric, we are ceding the authority to speak 
and intervene in an increasingly mediated world" (Delagrange 11).

Before I embark on my big creation (a Wordpress site for my AP English class), I wanted to practice being a thoughtful producer of digital design who would make Susan Delagrange proud.

A Temporary Stop ...

I have come to a stopping point for my Google Sites and coding exploration. My goal has been 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 next 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).

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!

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.

Canonical Texts Wikipage Review

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

Back on Ning

So, I have moved back to Ning ...

Despite hearing from the Grou.ps head guy on my prior post about technology, I have not been able to get my front page reactivated. I also found last semester that grou.ps doesn't thread replies to conversations, and that just does not work as well as having replies linked to the original comment.

So, Pearson has accepted my Ning, and I am working under limited abilities. I still love the overall functionality of Ning better than anything else I have been able to find, but the limits to educational Nings are just frustrating. My latest question with Ning is why do I HAVE to approve all blog posts on a private, educational ning? I want students to read each others' posts and comment ... so I have found myself constantly checking if there are new posts to approve just to force a kind of natural flow. Sigh ...

On the upside, I have a wonderful new Virginia Tech graduate student, Meg Dixon, working with my students in the Ning, under the capable supervision of Katie Dredger. I am excited to be able, through my ODU program, to study and write about this collaborative work I have done with Virginia Tech for two years. I have found so many benefits to having my students branching out and working at a true college level with Tech's college mentors, and I am excited to really pin down what all is happening. One of the things I hope to research through this project is Google Sites as a possible alternative to Ning. if anyone has any input on this, I would love to hear it.