Tuesday, April 1

Today I introduced the Twitter Narrative Project (please see the link). The purpose of this project, as I stated in class, is to not only to become familiar with--and expert in--this form of social media, but also to figure out how to use this medium effectively and how to draw and relate to an audience. I recognize that I am asking you to work with a platform that you are not familiar with, but I have faith that you can do this. And do it really, really well.

Homework: The first step is to create a Twitter profile for a character. If you want to preserve your anonymity--and many people do--you might link it to a different email account. Many people often open gmail accounts just for this purposes. You may do the same.
After you create your Twitter profile, follow me @jenamarquardt (and direct message me your "real" name).

Next, we returned to our Infographic Project. We discussed your readings on typography and determined three different purposes for using typography:
- to create an image
- to convey an emotion
- to draw/direct attention

I accessed several images of typography using Pinterest and we discussed the different purposes of various examples of typography.
We also looked at alphabets created by typographic artists: one alphabet was created by manipulating snippets of subway maps. Another was sky framed by buildings to form letters.

Homework: create your own found alphabet and post this to your blog. You may take photos with your cameraphone or find images online, but you will need to manipulate these images in a way that forms a unique set of letters.
At the beginning of class, I asked you to find a favorite or beautiful word in English. Please use your alphabet to write this word and post it on Twitter.

Thursday 3/27: Evaluating Sources

Today, as we look for sources and data for your own infographics, we talked about evaluating sources. You already know how to tell the difference between a scholarly source and a non-scholarly article. But what about other sources?

One source that we use a lot is the TEDTalk. And this is for good reason: TEDTalks are useful mediums for us because they are relatively accessible discussions by very smart people. These smart people take a complex idea and explain it in ways that make sense to us, so that they seem simple. However, as Bruce Fierson points out in his infographic "Ted-o-Matic" in Vanity Fair (see the link to the right), there are also many bad TEDTalks that oversimplify complex issues (rather than taking the time to explain them well). 

Fierson’s Critiques:

1) the speaker’s claim of specific and interesting knowledge

2) a topic that is oversimplified/reduced (rather than a complex idea that seems simple)]

3) entertaining instead of explaining

4) using popular terms/vocabulary/buzzwords - rather than explaining

5) using popular names - rather than explaining

6) the speaker brags about the self (though seems humble)

7) Concludes with an oversimplified explanation

Homework:
Complete the GoogleDoc on "Faux Profudnity" (listed at right). 
Next week, we will begin discussing the design aspects of infographics. For this reason, please be familiarize yourself with typography by reading (and responding to in your blog entry #7) Butterick's Practical Typography Chapter 1: "Why Typography is Important" (see link at right).

Tuesday 3/25

Today, we experimented with holding class outside. We ran into some connectivity issues, though I was pleased that we were able to solve these problems by grouping together (good job being resourceful).
Today's objectives focused largely on linking one form of media with another, namely the video lecture into an infographic. To do this, we had an example of a TEDTalk turned into an infographic (Stanton's "How to Create a Great Story" rendered into an infographic by Hueck and Quick). We also used McCandles' video text "The Beauty of Visualized Data" explaining the process and benefits of making information visible (rather than textual like a book or audible like a podcast or radio program).

To help us understand data, or the subject that we represent in all these various ways, I asked you to use the Google Doc to examine one of McCandles claims, that the old analogy "Data is the new oil" should be changed to "Data is the new soil." Returning to discussion as a class, we noted that

• each analogy involved a kind of searching /digging/seeking for information that involved a certain amount of labor (and getting dirty)
• The value, accessibility and priority of data changed slightly. 
• We also identified that the "final product" of each analogy was different. 
• Specifically, that the initial analogy [data as oil] suggests that data is the final and valuable end-product, 
• while McCandles' analogy [data as soil] suggests that data is only the starting point for the finished product.

I then asked you to create and explain your own analogies and was impressed by the results and how well-thought out your explanations were. I was also pleased that, when I challenged your analogies or offered alternatives, you readily defended your choices. Very smart.

Some of the analogies you came up with:

• data as water
• data as human development
• data as cosmetics 
• data as a trash bin

Sunday 3/34

First of all, I appreciate that everyone not only came to class on this make-up day when we are already very tired.  I also appreciate your participation. Well done.

Building on our Infographic Project, today we discussed your findings on infographic software (as posted on the Google Doc). We discussed the pro's and con's of various programs (and have a few more to go on Tuesday).

This left surprisingly little time to watch the TEDTalk, “The Beauty of data Visualization" (see video on the rght). And we did not have time for discussion. This is ok. We will discuss this on Tuesday's class.

For homework (both link are to the right):

Please watch this TEDTalk: Edward Stanton "The Clues to a Great Story."

This talk was turned into an Infographic: “How to Tell a Great Story, Visualized.”

Response/Blog Entry #6: Reflect on your experience as an audience:

-          How was the infographic different from the video lecture?

-          Which kind of information is easier for you to comprehend?

-          Which was a more enjoyable experiece?

Tuesday 3.18

Today we framed our discussion on inforgraphics by talking about Power Point and how much Edward Tufte hates it (please see the link to the reading "Why Power Point is Evil").
Tufte's main complaints against Power Point are that it:

• reduces, "disrupts, dominates and trivializes content" (instead of simplifying it)
• elevates format over content 
• removes context from the relevant information (rather than showing the content alongside other relevant information)
• "rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for the presentation."
• sets up a speaker's dominance over the audience

Tufte closes by stating "Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: respect your audience."

After discussing the article, we looked at a humorous infographic ("Everytime you make a Powerpoint, Edward Tufte kills a kitten") and discussed the ways that these two texts had similar stances (they were both humorous and reflect Tufte's dislike for Power Points), but they presented very different types of information:

the article presented and explained ideas while the infographic described (in very little detail) a cause-and-effect relationship.

The point of this conversation--using the terminology of the rhetorical situation--was to think about what kind of format/medium is appropriate to various purposes.

We then introduced Project Infographic (see the Google Docs link) and began working on the first stages of this project, exploring various ways to create softwares to create infographics.

Our discussion brought up an interesting question about the differences between an infographic and a simple picture and we determined that a picture is usually static, capturing/illustrating a single moment. While an infographic describes the relationship between two (or more) sets of information. We used the images below as examples.

This is a picture of Cinderella leaving the ball. The information we get here is that 1) she is leaving her shoe and 2) she is reluctant to leave, but must.

The information this image does not give us is 1) why she is leaving or 2) what caused this action 3) what happened as a result of this action.

http://blingee.com/blingee/view/88094383-Cinderella-Running-Away

This infographic explains how the elements of the Cinderella story work together and how the combination of two (or more) elements have a particular result.

(Admittedly, a lot of the information here is reduced or oversimplified and would require a textual explanation.)

http://www.disneyeveryday.com/disney-math-cinderella-infographic/

For Thursday, continue thinking about a suitable topic. We will continue our work on Step 1.

Thursday 3/13/2014

We began today by reviewing Web 2.0 and I asked you to play a game (using Google Docs) in which you list different examples of Web 2.0 (specific functions or applications that incorporate both dynamic and interactive qualities) as possible.
You came up with:

• online media players (incorporating video or audio into a text)
• collaborative documents (allowing users to work on the same document at the same time)
• online purchasing and reservation services
• online rating services
• orientation systems (maps that tell you where you are and how to get to where you want to be)
• social networking

and lots more
These are all good examples of the interactive qualities of Web 2.0 and the benefits it has over static text.

We then began working on "Reverse Engineering the Infographic" (see the corresponding Google Doc) a small, in-class exercise where I ask you to take apart an infographic and re-imagine it as a traditional text essay. I then ask you to think about the differences between the infographic essay and the text-based essay.
Please finish this in Google Docs for class on Tuesday.

Homework, I'd like you to repeat the "Reverse Engineering the Infographic" process for an infographic essay of your choice.
I define the essay as a text that not only explains/notices something, but also explains how this realization/explanation is significant. Your infographic essay, then, will likely need to be a series of graphics--rather than a single graphic.
Please include a link to your infographic essay as well as your answers in your blog Entry #5.

You had some good questions about the Rhetorical Situation, which was covered long ago last year. If you need a refresher, or had a different instructor who didn't cover rhetorical situation in the same way, here is a brief refresher: Rhetorical Situation
There were also some good and specific questions about Genre (which is one element of the Rhetorical Situation and discussed in the above link), though largely what I am asking you to do is recognize the category of essay that you are reviewing. Is it a comparison-contrast essay? An analytical essay? An argumentative essay? etc. And what are the rules or conventions of this category? How does it work? (For example: the argument essay, which seeks to persuade the audience, presents a point of view, defends that view, refutes opposition, and concludes with a review of its strengths).
Here is a humorous infographic that examines paintings, identifying the conventions of a particular painter, then categorizing the paintings according to the painter: How to Recognize Artists of Different Kinds of Paintings

Tuesday, 3.11

Today, we opened with a review of the differences between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Social 3.0, which were included in earlier readings.
The main differences we determined were:
Web 1.0 is static (or it does not move)
Web 2.0 is dynamic (or it moves and allows for interaction)
Social 3.0 is instantly dynamic (users can communicate in real-time)

Text vs. Data
We then moved on to talk about the infograph/article "A Data Miner's Guide to Romance" that I asked you to read for today. We also talked about infographics in general and how they are different from a regular text article, ultimately deciding that data is a good way to represent quantity, but perhaps not quality--or discussions of nuanced or intricate things.

We then broke into groups, looking for an infographics to analyze. I asked you to document your work on our Google Doc "Intro to Infographics" which we will return to on Thursday. Primarily, I want us to focus on infographics as analogous to text articles and think about the necessary work involved in transferring a text article (like the one by Caitlin Roper) into an infographic (like the one by Josef Reyes).

Homework:
Read and Respond: "Searchin'" by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson

Class 3.4

Today, we had a visit from Charles Greenberg from the WKU Library, who discussed Zotero, a tool that aids in documentation.

Here are some main points from his talk:

Vocabulary Terms

Metadata

Unique identifier

DOI

URL

Cite

Citation format

Reference

Tool bar

Synchronize

Finding articles on the library website (he helped us locate the McLemore article for Thursday's class).

Finding blogs using Technorati

Features of Zotero:

How to capture articles

How to organize captured articles

- Tag

- folder

Creating Bibliography in MS Word

For Thursday 3.6.2014:

Read: “Safety Pin as Signifier” McLemeer, Scott

Chronicle of Higher Ed on MLA International Bibliography (library database)

Respond on your Blog: Thinking about Web 2.0 and the punk movement that McLemore describes, write a response articulating how Punk and Web 2.0 [or Social 3.0] are related.

Wikipedia explanation of "punk" (with my notes!)

http://www.diigo.com/cached?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPunk_rock%23Characteristics