Networked Media

s2, 2012, RMIT University

lecture 1 by jenny weight

Introduction to the course

Agenda

• A course like no other!

• Flexibility

• Digital storytelling

• The networked media assessment system

• Mip and Mop Get Lost

• First task

• Housekeeping

A course like no other

In this course we will use the internet, to

learn about the internet.

That includes all the course content –

lectures and tutes.

However, you can still attend F2F lectures

and tutes should you choose to do so.

Choice

The internet gives us so many choices

that we didn’t use to have.

And that goes for the way we learn, as

well.

The best way to learn is to do …

… so we’ll do our learning via the Internet

However…

As I said …

• You can still go to tutes if you need them.

• You’ll need to assess your learning needs,

and decide whether you need or want the

tute, or whether you are fine on your own.

• With greater choice comes more

responsibility…

And lectures?

• There are only 5 F2F lectures.

• The next one is week 3, ‘What is a website?’ and it

will address some of your assessment tasks

• We have a guest lecture about web design in Week

9

• The rest of the lectures are online videos.

• They are all linked from the course website,

• http://geniwate.com/admin/mipandmop

Flexibility

• By using the internet, you get flexibility.

• But you also get the ability to work at

your own pace.

• You can finish the course way ahead of

schedule, then turn your attention to

other things – if you want to.

Flexibility

That’s because the content isn’t tied to

1 lecture a week. 7 of the lectures are

available online right now.

Deadlines

You can hand in your work at any time, but the final

deadline is end of week 13.

We recommend

--finish level 1 by end of week 6

--finish level 2 by end of week 9

--finish level 3 by end of week 13

…So, what’s the assessment like?

Many small exercises

• They vary in complexity

• They vary in the potential mark from

2 marks to 25 marks

• They are organised into three levels

Many small exercises

• Level 1 – you have to do all of it, but you can choose the

order.

• Level 2 – will only be marked if you have submitted all of level

1. You have to do at least 4 exercises, and at least 1 from

each of the three sections.

• Level 3 – is optional. It will only be marked if you have done 4

tasks in level 2.

• You are unlikely to pass if you only do level 1. You are unlikely

to get an HD if you don’t do level 3 (as well as 2).

• …and they work together to give you skills in …

Digital storytelling

• Stories created for distribution on the internet

which make great use of digital production tools.

• There’s great scope for variety within that

definition, and we hope you’ll get a taste of that

variety during this course.

• The final assessment task – should you choose to

accept it – is to create and publish your own

digital story.

Digital storytelling• The assessment tasks are varied, but they combine to give

you skills in digital storytelling

• At the start you’ll find them very specific and not clearly

relevant to digital storytelling.

• There are tasks about social media, the history of the

internet, computer code, and online research, and creating

and maintaining a blog and a website.

• To use the web properly you need to have the history and

the technical knowledge

• Further into the course, the digital storytelling theme

becomes more obvious.

But how is the course going to work?

We have made an online system to

manage this course. When you finish a

task, you have to submit it to the

system.

Task submission form

Linked from

the task itself

(be patient)

The bit you don’t see

The submitted tasks go to a

spreadsheet which James, Jeremy and I

use

Your mark and feedback sheet

We transfer the spreadsheet to your own form kept in Google

docs. You can read it, and your tutor can write in it. You can

look at it any time to see what your marks and feedback is.

• Don’t know Google docs? You will, after this week’s tute

Read this!

The total mark on the form may not be the same as your mark

for the course. This is because there are approximately 130

marks available in the exercises.

So, where do I start?

Mip and Mop Get Lost:

http://geniwate.com/admin/mipandmo

p

This is the storyworld for Networked

Media. In it are the tasks and the

theory and everything else for this

course.

Storyworld?

A storyworld is a term derived from

computer games. It is literally both story and

world. There is a narrative (often in

computer games it is rather rudimentary)

and a universe in which the narrative

happens (which can be very rich and visual

in computer games).

Let’s check it out

http://geniwate.com/

admin.mipandmop

In the tute this week

• We will set everyone up with ‘study buddies’

• Discuss the course guide asnecessary

• Do the first task about gmail contacts

• Submit the task to the form

• This includes uploading a screen grab of your contacts.

• Then … I recommend you go to Vanity Fair next, but you

have the freedom to choose.

Note: we are going to use Twitter rather than email. Vanity Fair

is where you set that up.

The first exercise

• About gmail contacts

The first exercise

And about using Google docs (the image shows the

‘share’ dialogue box that you will use to share a file

with your tutor)

The first exercise

• It’s a bit dry, but we have to learn to

communicate before we can do

anything else

Housekeeping• If you haven’t received an email from me yet, put your name and s

number on the list.

• Assignments from last semester’s writing media texts to collect on

your way out.

• Tute changes

– only 2 tutes with room. No-one can enter the full tutes unless several people leave,

so it is unlikely. If you must try to change, put down several choices on the tute swap

form. I can’t guarantee anything.

• Lectures

--next week, the lecture is a ‘flipped’ online video lecture.

--go here http://geniwate.com/?p=2542 and choose one (with the exception of the

digital storytelling one which you should do later in the course).

--In week 3 there is a face to face lecture.

--I sent a calendar invitation to all the F2F lectures (only 5)