Course – ENGL 1501: Literature of Public Life
Instructor: Geoffrey Sirc

DIGITAL PROJECT ON PUBLIC LIFE – ROUGH TIMELINE

What I do for this project is simply tell students to do some kind of digital project on some aspect of Public Life.  Then we spend a day in class where I give them a very quick tour of how to edit digital video and how to do a sound essay and and how to do a blog and even how to do a rudimentary website.  I urge them to play around with video and sound, but I don’t require it (PowerPoint or a a few web pages are fine for those who are intimidated by tech; but they mostly take the chance to play with video). I show them some cool, easy things that I have bookmarked (student projects either from previous students or from stuff colleagues around the country have shared with me).  That helps show them possibilities. Then I give them a week off, canceling classes, and I keep longer office hours and hang out in my office during class time (we have an IT Fellow who also has longer office hours for my students that week); that seems to be important, having some help available.  Then we spend the last two class sessions looking at what everyone did – it’s a very cool way to end the class.  When Chris’s was shown, the student’s loved it.