Well, not really– but for the term it is, of course.
As you all know, the blog/twitter reflections are due by the end of the day today, Wednesday, August 18. I see that some of you have gotten started on it, but I probably won’t start commenting on them until tomorrow.
Oh, and send me one last email correspondence about participation! I think everyone who has stuck with it has done a pretty good job, but let’s just seal the deal with one last email, especially if you want to make the case for a better grade for the second part of the term.
Posted in Announcements.
By Steve Krause
– August 18, 2010
I just wanted to let everyone know that I am (temporarily, I am sure) caught up with commenting/grading things for the class. I just posted grades for both the “print to web” projects and the wiki reflection projects. I thought people did great jobs on both projects; I guess overall, I’m left with two thoughts/observations.
First, I was surprised to see that most (all?) of you made your print-to-web pages “by hand,” and without the use of something like Dreamweaver or some other HTML/CSS editor. The reason why this surprised me is that I have always found these tools to be pretty helpful– again, once you understand (basically) how the HTML and CSS stuff works first. It isn’t bad that folks did it this way; it’s just surprising to me.
Second, I thought that the wiki projects were pretty good, and I say that based on that after thinking that the assignment itself wasn’t as thought-out as it should be. If that makes sense. I guess what I mean is you all surpassed my expectations in your analysis of this, and I’d encourage you to read each others’ essays on this. Interesting stuff.
Anyway, the end steadily approaches. Note that both the graduate student project (which is really just one big essay, along with whatever tweaks you do to your wireframe based on usability feedback) and everyone’s blog reflections are due by Wednesday, and then the end of time is still with us on the 19th!
Posted in Announcements.
By Steve Krause
– August 16, 2010
The “end of time” is rapidly approaching and I know all of you are busily finishing your print to web projects (let me know if you’re done, by the way– I have a small window of work opportunity today before I go out and enjoy lovely weather here “up north”). But I also wanted to remind everyone that the short (1000 words, or about 4 typed and double-spaced pages) reflection on your wiki work is due on Saturday.
Take another look at the assignment to refresh yourselves a bit, but basically, what I am asking for here is an essay where you reflect on what it is you think you learned from the experience– not necessarily the subject matter of EMU or whatever you followed on Wikipedia, but what wiki writing is “like.” And if you can, see if you can make connections to stuff we’ve read and/or talked abut this term.
There’s no formal peer review for this project, so here is pretty much your only chance to ask questions or raise concerns if you have them. Of course, if you want to informally read and discuss each others’ reflections, that’s up to you.
Posted in Writing Assingments.
By Steve Krause
– August 12, 2010
… here it is! http://engl444gradsu10.wordpress.com/usability-testing/ The undergrads amongst you, do your grad student colleagues a favor: visit that site and give them some feedback on their outline’s usability, at least as well as you can. And if any of the graduate students in the group want to explain that further, explain away here.
Posted in Reading assignments, Writing Assingments.
By Steve Krause
– August 10, 2010
My wife and I are staying “up north” near Traverse City and such. It’s more of a vacation for her than it is for me because she’s not teaching right now, and because I am, we had to stay someplace with internets, so no deep woods cabin for us. But we’ve got nice views and nice surroundings, so it’s a pleasant enough “working vacation” and/or change of scenery.
Anyway, just a couple of reminders to pass along here:
- Peer review for the print to web project should be wrapping up, and, judging from the discussion that has been taking place here, you all know that. Seems like it’s been successful overall. We can talk here if you want about any questions you might have about this project; I guess I will say that based on what I’ve seen, people have the right idea. But don’t forget that the essay you write about the experience itself– the connections to the readings, the problems and dilemas of making a page work, the changes you need to make the print to work, etc.– is the most important part of this.
Don’t forget: it’s due Thursday! However, Friday is a traveling day for me, so here’s the deal: if you get it done earlier than Thursday, let me know and I’ll comment on it before; if you get it done on Thursday or Friday, I’ll comment on it over next weekend.
- Speaking of stuff coming due: don’t forget about the reflection on the wiki and on your blog, too!
- Sometime very soon (later today? tomorrow?) I am hoping that the grad students working on a mock-up of a revised writing program web site will have a link to share with the world. With any luck, some of the undergrads in the class might have a chance to give some “usability-like” feedback on that site, too.
Posted in Announcements, Writing Assingments.
By Steve Krause
– August 9, 2010
Someone posted this to a mailing list I’m on: From Mashable, “Kanye West’s Tweets + The New Yorker Comics = Memetastic.” I thought this was hilarious, but I also agreed with the guy who posted it that this would be a fine and teachable moment for a variety of different classes: find a tweet– any tweet– and try to match a picture up with it. Anyway, funny stuff and FWIW.
Posted in FWIW.
By Steve Krause
– August 6, 2010
First off, I want to let everyone know that I’ll be out of town until next weekend– basically from August 8 until August 14. I don’t think this will have much impact on the class because a) everyone seems to be busy working on finishing up those last projects, and b) I’ll still be online. Actually, in terms of my work (this class, an article I need to finish, reading, starting to think about the fall term, etc.) the only real difference is I’ll be doing it up near Traverse City instead of Ypsi.
Anyway, this means I won’t be able to meet with anyone in person next week; however, I am always happy to answer emails, talk via Skype (in fact, I might even try a “Skype experiment” next week), and/or even the phone. And I might post some picts/tweets too.
Second, as we head into the end and the cascade of final projects (including the print to web that you are all peer reviewing/working through right now): any general questions or concerns? Everyone still feeling relatively confident about the stuff that you’ll be turning in?
Posted in Announcements.
By Steve Krause
– August 6, 2010
I’ve set up the groups and the basic guidelines for the peer review for the “print to web” project:
Group 1 (here is a link to your page) is Josh F., Tyler K., Carrie L, and Aimee M.
Group 2 (here is a link to your page) is Pam M., Dave N., Colin S., Sierra W.
(It’s an increasingly small group this term, which I think is kind of an odd phenomenon…).
Anyway, just a few things to get everyone started on this, in addition to the basic guidelines I have on the pages I’ve set up for each group:
- I think what folks did for the last peer review worked out well– that is, a mix of comments/exchanges on your groups’ page with individual comments on each others’ blogs.
- Ideally, you’ll get started with peer review today and you’ll finish it tomorrow, but the truth is that if it stretches into the weekend or even early next week, that’s not the end of the world. Just keep in mind that the goal is to give and receive feedback from your colleagues, and in order for that to work best, you need to get things posted as soon as you can. In other words, if you wait until this weekend to post a draft of your project, you can’t very well to get a lot of feedback from others in your group.
- This is the last organized peer review! I would like to do peer reviews for the other projects too, but the fact is time is an issue. Besides, the essays reflecting on your blogging/twittering experiences and your wiki writing/wikipedia watching experiences are a little more straight-forward than this assignment. In the “print to web” project, I’m asking you to do a lot more “creating,” and that is the kind of thing that would probably benefit from more peer review.
Let me know what you think and get started peer reviewing!
Posted in Reading assignments, Writing Assingments.
By Steve Krause
– August 4, 2010
Just wanted to let everyone know I posted comments and letter grades for the CSS Zen Flowerpot projects on the emuonline gradebook. To see my comments, log into emuonline and go to the gradebook. I don’t exactly know what your view looks like (I’ve never seen the “student” perspective on the site), but you should see a letter grade next to the CSS Zen Flowerpot item in the gradebook. Click on that letter grade and you will see my comments on your project.
I thought folks did a very good job on this, generally speaking. One thing that I learned (or re-learned, I guess) is that it’s a heck of a lot easier to make a web site that almost all would agree is “ugly” than it is to make a web site that almost all would agree is “pretty.” I also looked more favorably on projects that made good connections to the readings.
In any event, I always welcome questions and other inquiries about grades on things. I figure it’s my job as a teacher to be able to explain how I arrived at a grade on a project. In return, it is your job as a student to ask if you have any questions or concerns about the grade.
I’ll be setting up peer review groups for the print-to-web project this evening/tomorrow morning. You need to have some sort of draft to share with your peer review group and for your usability testing by the end of the day tomorrow! Oh, and don’t forget all the other stuff. Yikes! The end of time!! But like I said before, the good news is this is finishing stuff up is pretty much all we’re doing from now until the end of the term.
Posted in Announcements, Writing Assingments.
By Steve Krause
– August 3, 2010
Aimee asked about this the other day, and my initial reaction was that I don’t really have any good examples, and besides, this is the kind of assignment where each of you are liable to do something a little different from everyone else anyway. So take these examples with a grain of salt.
That said, it seemed to me that I ought to be able to show everyone something to go on. So here are three examples I found from last term:
Now, it’s worth noting these are all “good examples”– that is, I’m showing you ones that I think did a great job, and I’m not showing you anything where you can learn what not to do ala webpagesthatsuck. Also note that the essays about the projects themselves a) make specific reference to the readings and other materials on style that influenced their choices in making their sites; b) they talk in some detail about their usability testing; and c) they are well-written.
Anyway, hope that helps a little. Get those posted before the end of time arrives!!
Posted in Announcements, Course Materials, Writing Assingments.
By Steve Krause
– August 2, 2010
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