For 480 students: I thought it might help to articulate, even in broad terms, the things I expect you to be doing at this point in the semester.
First and foremost, you should be thinking differently about computers and writing now. The texts we’ve read so far have expanded and complicated our notions of literacy, code, and style. As we work through more keywords, I want you to keep the open mindset towards the multiple meanings (social, cultural, and literary) we’ve discussed. Look for connections between the meanings we talk about and consider other things not directly covered in course discussions.
From a more practical side, I expect you to be blogging (which includes making comments on other folks’ weblogs) about the course and the texts (and whatever else strikes your fancy). You should be posting your web page experiments with basic HTML, styles, and other things using the web space WIU provides and/or your weblog. As we do more in class work which connects theory and practice, you’ll be adding to these experiments online (both individually and in groups). In other words, you should be becoming more comfortable with a networked approach to writing and the use of computers.
Finally, you need to be thinking a little about the direction you’ll be taking for your first project. We’ll talk more about that next week.