Something that might be of interest to some of you, particularly the photographically minded. I received an email from Jess DiBlasi about a pop-up in the SAB this week, a great chance to talk to a couple of authors about their work and being published. Details from Jess’ email below.
What you’re writing – Week 2
Bronte with some great reflection on her experience of network literacy in practice. Personal experience and theoretical uncertainties are perfectly fine at this point (in fact, if everything was certain, there would be no need for theory!)
Abbey has chosen to create a stand-along Netmed blog, and another for her personal use. While I would recommend managing only one blog at a time, this means her Netmed blog can be for exploring, reflecting and prototyping, which leaves her with a ‘clean’ blog for her online profile. More work, but a good experiment.
Shannon already has a blogroll list going with some great bloggy resources (if the links have been deleted form this post then check out the blogroll list on her homepage).
Ben has added a category into his default menu; not much posted yet but a good technique for sorting content going forward.
Shantelle is showing that she has a strong blogging voice emerging already, listing several great approaches to what her blog might end up being.
Looking forward to continuing to read these (and more) throughout the semester.
Quick overview of RSS
A succinct little clip that explains what RSS is, and how to use it. If you’d like a way to organise and present your resources in an easy to manage fashion, this will be good for you – but you’ll need to put a bit of work in to let it sink in.
(source: http://www.staynalive.com/2011/05/twitter-and-facebook-both-quietly-kill.html)
Six word stories
I’ve mentioned ‘six word stories‘ a couple of times already, they can be incredibly powerful, but of particular interest here is the way they demonstrate succinct (yet emotive) storytelling.
While there isn’t anything that ‘networky’ about them, they are well suited to the short-form medium; easy to share, emotionally charged, kind of poetic headlines. Also a great example of ‘microblogging’ at work. Check them out, and see if you can find one that speaks to you.
Note: There are a couple of different Twitter accounts using the name sixwordstories – I’ve linked to my preferred option above, but see what suits you.
Beginning (or continuing) to blog
Off to a roaring start yesterday, thanks to everyone who made it to the lecture and contributed. As you would have gathered, making contributions and being part of the network is what we’re all about in this course. Here is a bit of broad direction for the workshops, and the rest of the course beyond.
Week 2 Workshop
Firstly, we’ll do a quick follow up from last week and address any questions, then take a look at Assessment Task 1.
Next, we’ll discuss: What are some ways we can demonstrate network literacy on our blog? You should back up your discussion with a reference (quote or other) to this week’s reading.
This week’s exercises are below. Similar to last week, these will make up part of your blog checklist to be completed in the Week 3 workshop.
Differently to last week, you will notice a lot less detail in this task. This is deliberate, all the information you need to know is out there, so go find it! Of course you can always ask your tutor for help in the workshop.
If you had an existing blog before this course, you may have completed some of these steps already, but make sure to check. If so, you should focus on the optional tasks, suggested blog entries, finding/reading other student’s blogs, analysing the reading and any other ideas that you can write about and use in your first assessment task.
Exercises:
- Expand your Blogroll (links): 5 student blogs, 5 ‘other’ blogs. In dashboard, you need to add a link, then set the link category to something that is on your sidebar
- Add a widget to your blog sidebar (can be anything you like)
- Select a Creative commons license and add it to your blog sidebar: http://creativecommons.org.au/
There are also a few optional things you can do, depending on your level of interest:
- Learn about RSS and see how you can use it on your blog
- Add twitter feed to blog sidebar (your own, or #netmed2016 …?)
- Start a Codeacademy course https://www.codecademy.com/
For next week:
Bring some photos, or audio, or video (or all 3). Phone quality is fine, but you will be uploading it to your blog, so make sure it’s something that you’re comfortable with being public.
Suggested blog entries:
- Standard stuff; notes on the reading, lecture, class discussion
- Write about the widget you have chosen, what it does and why you chose it
- Read other student’s blogs and link to one of their posts
Week 1 Workshop
Group Discussion Question: Online identity
In this course you will be developing your online identity, which shapes how you are represented across various online platforms. What do you hope to gain from this? What challenges do you think you might face?
Exercise
To prepare ourselves for the course, there are some fundamental things we need to do. Some of you may find these tasks very quick and easy, others may take a while, but please follow them carefully as they will be vital to your learning and assessment throughout the course.
During (and after) this workshop you should have completed:
- Assessment Google Doc shared with your tutor
- Created your blog
- Created a post on your blog
- Chosen a custom theme
- Created a page on your blog linking to the RMIT assessment declaration
- More blog posts!
Some of these steps will make up part of your blog checklist the be completed in class week 3, so be sure to be thorough.
Please see further detail on these tasks, click the link below:
Networked Media 2016
Welcome to the network! This is the official course blog from COMM2219 Networked Media, Semester 1 2016. Here you will find everything you need to know – weekly updates, lecture content, information on assessment tasks, links to readings, additional resources, and general discussion to assist your learning. If you can’t find what you’re looking for right now, it will appear here soon – this blog will be continuously updated throughout the semester.
The primary focus of this course is to develop your skills and experience as online content creators. If you’re new to it, you will be introduced to fundamental approaches and basic tools needed to write online. Or if you’re already familiar with this stuff, you’ll be encouraged to further your knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of it through various experiential, historical, technological and cultural contexts.
For now, bookmark this blog and keep your eyes peeled for more updates to come.