NewtFire logo: a mosaic rendering of a firebelly newt
newtFire {dh}
Maintained by: Elisa E. Beshero-Bondar (eeb4 at psu.edu) Creative Commons License Last modified: Sunday, 17-Jan-2021 21:56:25 UTC. Powered by firebellies.

Fall 2020 Syllabus (Schedule) Classes meet M W F 3:35 - 4:25pm over Zoom and in Kochel 77. Zoom attendance is required for all students. The classroom is optional, but even in the classroom you will be connecting to Zoom to team up with your classmates. We may need to divide into groups to rotate attendance in the physical classroom. Group assignments will be made in Canvas. For in-class meetings, we must all wear masks and maintain a safe social distance. Remember: Your mask protects me, my mask protects you.

Read the Course Description

This contains a detailed explanation of course policies and the basis for grades.

Jump Down to the Schedule

This link jumps to the closest day to today's date. Review the schedule as we get started to get a sense of how this course will work on a daily basis.

Week 1 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 08-24

  • Welcome! Introduction to the course.
  • About the concept of Open Annotation and the Hypothes.is tool that we will experiment with together: Hypothes.is
  • Set up Hypothes.is accounts and join our private class Hypothes.is Group
  • Launch first Annotation Assignment
Respond to Dr. B’s Poll (see Canvas / Penn State email). Find the Zoom link for class (on Canvas / Penn State email). Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 08-26

Discussion based on first online annotations. Breaking (up with) computers? Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 08-28

Live discussion: Coders in corporate culture. Introduce exercise: Tagging Annotations. (Tags to use) Read (and play) with Paul Ford, What Is Code? Businessweek (June 11 2015). Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely
Week 2 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 08-31

Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 09-02

Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 09-04

  • Live Discussion: recent DH controversy in August 2020.
  • Live view of our class group's structured data: Hypothes.is API
  • Applying tagged annotations: Introduce next assignments: Comparative Website Development and Annotations Analysis.
Carefully read and annotate (with tags): Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 3 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 09-07 Labor Day, PSU classes in session anyway!

Launching Comparative Website Development assignment. Getting started with GitHub. Set up GitHub accounts in class, join the class GitHub repo and post in markdown.
  • Complete the Hypothes.is Annotation Assignment: review your annotations, revise tags for consistency. You should have four annotations per reading with some substance. Edit for accuracy and clarity.
  • Start Comparative Website development with GitHub. Git Exercise 1 (setting up your GitHub account), post on introDH-Hub issues.
Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 09-09

GitHub Pages; building a site in markdown. Links and images on a website. Adding and coding image files. Markdown lists and tables. Complete Git Exercise 2: (Create a personal repo and set up GitHub Pages.) Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 09-11

Learning git commands and working at command line (hands-on exercise). Clone the class repo to your new GitHub directory. Watch my video introducing the Bash shell and "home" on your computers and practice the shell commands I am introducing. Practice some shell commands Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 4 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 09-14

Overview and discussion of the Comparative Website Development Assignment.

GitHub Pages: Updating your site from your local computer using git commands:

  • git add .
  • git commit -m "your message"
  • git push
with help from git status along the way. Adding pages and site navigation: creating relative links to new pages. (Learn the difference between absolute and relative links.) More challenging: Modifying Jekyll theme layouts.
  • Use git clone to clone your personal repo to your GitHub directory next to the introDH-Hub that we cloned on Friday
  • Watch my short (15 minute) video showing how to git pull in changes, and the three-step of git add, git commit, and git push.
  • Add new content to site in GitHub Pages, working on your local computer and pushing files to your own repository.
Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 09-16

  • GitHub Pages: problem-solving site development, working with git and GitHub at command line.
  • Comparative website development: Begin setting up sites.psu.edu or personal.psu.edu and begin developing
Build up content described in the Comparative Web Development Assignment. Develop the basis of your portfolio website on GitHub Pages. Establish sections or pages and provide a way for a visitor to navigate your site. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 09-18

Orientation to new site development environment.
  • Create website account at sites.psu.edu (Wordpress) or personal.psu.edu (straight-up HTML)
  • Begin adding images and site navigation. Decide on styling/theme.
Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 5 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 09-21

Comparative Website Development reflection/sharing sites. Workshopping and troubleshooting site development. Cross-platform compatible image file types. Markdown and HTML code. Comparative Web Development Assignment:: Post content and site navigation to both of your sites (GitHub Pages and Wordpress or Penn State Personal sites). Fully Remote (I need to teach from off campus today.)

W 09-23

Cross-platform compatible image file types for the web: jpg, gif, png. Website environments and how they compare. Porting contents to multiple sites: issues, possibilities. Comparative Web Development Assignment: Finish preparing content for both of your portfolio websites Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 09-25

Work through any last minute issues with Comparative Web Development Assignment:. Start introducing next unit and distant reading methods. Drilling Hypothes.is API for data: live demo. Comparative Web Development Assignment: Continue working on websites. Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 6 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 09-28

Introduce Annotation Analysis assignment group. Comparative Web Development Assignment: Continue working on websites. Complete web essays (on both sites): Reflection on Two Different Approaches to Website Development. Post on Canvas links to both of your finished Portfolio websites. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 09-30

Introduce distant reading: Voyant Tools on readings, annotations data. Organizing data from Hypothes.is: tags, times, dates. Structuring data in Google Sheets. Investigate templates for time maps and concept maps. Follow instructions posted in Canvas to set up Google Drive, Google Sheets, and Access Hypothes.is API. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 10-02

Exploring corpus text analysis. Review and continue experiments with Voyant Tools. Introduce Antconc. Saving documents in text formats: Working with Notepad or Notepad++ (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), or <oXygen/> (if you're taking one of the higher level DIGIT classes). Introducing N-grams. Voyant Exercise: Experiment with Voyant Tools on any collection of data from our annotations, or from the readings themselves. Post a visualization and explain what you did to create it on our introDH-Hub Issues Board here. Capture some embed code for putting your visualization on a website and include that with your post. Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 7 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 10-05

Exploring corpus concordances with Voyant and AntConc. Introduce the Corpus Analysis Assignment.
  • Read An Introduction to N-Grams: What are they and why do we need them?
  • Install Antconc on your computer.
  • Save some plain text in a text file: Copy and paste a column from the Google Sheet of Hypothes.is annotations data, or copy and paste the text of some of our readings (or any long-ish text of your choice) into your computer’s text editor. You may use Notepad or Notepad++ (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), or <oXygen/> (if you're taking one of the higher level DIGIT classes): Paste the text and save it with a .txt file extension. Make a file folder to save this and other related files in your personal GitHub repo, and push this up to your repo.
  • Open your text file in AntConc. Select the Clusters/NGram option along the top AND mark the NGram checkbox at the bottom. Set a minimum and a maximum size: try a minimum size ngram of 2 and a maximum of 4. Take a look at your results, and create a screenshot to save and push to your GitHub repo.
  • On Canvas, upload your text file and your screenshot, or send me a link to these when you have pushed them to your GitHub repo.
Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 10-07

Cleaning the text data: preparing plain text files to remove material not meant for analysis. Review new assignment options in the Corpus Analysis Assignment for long texts to compare. Exploring Keyword in Context (KWIC) with Voyant and ngrams. Finding patterns and exploring them. What kinds of comparisons can we make? Read the new options posted in the Corpus Analysis Assignment, and continue saving and testing texts in Voyant Tools and Antconc. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 10-09

Corpus Analysis continued. Making educated guesses, drawing conclusions, what can we say definitively? What can we speculate?
  • Continue exploring text data for the Corpus Analysis Assignment. Take screen captures as you explore comparing texts posted on the assignment. (You may also try cleaning up some text files you find of interest on Project Gutenberg: find a text and look for a download option of Plain Text to save the file to work with, and be sure to cut off the lengthy Project Gutenberg boilerplate from the top and bottom of the file.
  • Be sure that your files are saved with a .txt file extension, as in hamlet.txt.
  • Take screen captures of interesting results you see. Think of points of comparison and contrast you might be finding between a couple of texts.
  • Respond to our introDH-Hub Issue post to share some interesting views (at least one from each text you're analyzing) with us to look at together in class.
  • Open a new post on introDH-Hub if you are stuck and want some help!
Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 8 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 10-12

Review / discuss drafts of corpus analysis projects. Introduce next unit: Timemaps or concept maps with Google Sheets. Prepare a rough draft of your Corpus Analysis post to workshop and review. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 10-14

Structuring data in Google Sheets for TimeMaps or Concept Maps. Finish and post your Corpus Analysis comparison post on your website, and submit a link to Canvas. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 10-16

  • Launch TimeMapping assignment.
  • Issue Take-Home Midterm Exam
(Nothing due): Preview TimeMap files Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 9 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 10-19

TimeMapper Exercise: Plotting time and space. Incorporating image media and media credits. Troubleshooting dates and location markers. Follow my instructions and use my template for setting up TimeMapper and post two things on Canvas:
  1. Your copied Google Sheet template for TimeMapper
  2. Your published TimeMapper view
Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 10-21

Embedding TimeMapper on a website. Troubleshooting dates and times.
  • Work on the TimeMapper Assignment. Research and plot three events on your TimeMapper, with descriptions and media.
  • complete Take-Home Midterm Exam (submit on Canvas)
Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 10-23

Troubleshooting Timemaps. Introduce Digital Narrative cluster: Frankenstein Variorum Research and plot three more events on your TimeMapper. Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 10 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 10-26

Reading and exploring multiple versions of a text at once: Frankenstein Variorum and its five versions. Nonlinear reading assignment Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 10-28

Exploring the textual genesis of Frankenstein
  • Begin exploring The Frankenstein Variorum:
    • Check out the Penn State Behrend website's feature of the Frankenstein Variorum!
    • Start by opening the Variorum Viewer to the first fragment available of the 1816 manuscript, and begin exploring that first page.
    • Then select any of the other versions and begin reading Frankenstein from section 1 through section 3.
    • Click on passages highlighted in grey as variants and take note of any particularly interesting alterations that make a substantial change to the way we read a passage. Come prepared to share at least one of these in class discussion.
Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 10-30

Reading / catch-up day: no class meeting. Posted: full Frankenstein Variorum Review assignment. Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 11 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 11-02

Review first round of Frankenstein Variorum UX (user experience) posts, and discuss full Frankenstein Variorum Review assignment: how to develop these into website reflection posts Write a first review post on the introDH-Hub of the Frankenstein Variorum: try to explore roughly three or four sections to start. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 11-04

Frankenstein Variorum: Micro Comparison Class Exercise. Work on Frankenstein Variorum review write-up on your website. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 11-06

Introduce Emily Carr and Klee Wyck censorship study: ongoing controversies over representation of indigenous peoples.

Introduce the two versions of the Klee Wyck sketches:

Discussion of Klee Wyck readings; art, indigenous culture, ongoing controversy. Applying diffing tools to versioned sketches: Google Docs

Prepare screen captures and commentary for the Frankenstein Variorum Review assignment. Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 12 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 11-09

Survey Klee Wyck alterations in Google Docs. Work on Frankenstein Variorum Review assignment review page on your website. Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 11-11

Survey alterations in the opening sketches of Emily Carr’s Klee Wyck. Art gallery controversy over Carr’s work: Should art/literature be retitled, relabeled? Klee Wyck Censorship Exercise: Experiment in Google Docs to compare versions of Klee Wyck sketches: Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 11-13

Post on introDH-Hub for the Discussion of Klee Wyck's Opening Sketches Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Week 13 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 11-16

Discussion: Leaf by Niggle, sharable worlds and digital media Tolkien Hypothes.is Annotations Exercise: Read and annotate (w/ Hypothes.is) J. R. R. Tolkien, Leaf by Niggle Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

W 11-18

Tolkien Hypothes.is Annotations Exercise: Complete second round of Hypothes.is annotations on Leaf by Niggle Kochel 77 + Zoom (audio muted), or Zoom remotely

F 11-20

Class dismissed! Have a wonderful holiday! Explore options for Game Analysis Assignment. Fully Remote (Zoom Friday)
Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 11-23 - F 11-27

Thanksgiving Holiday Have a peaceful and productive week! See you online. Play some games!
Week 14 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 11-30

Live discussion: Avatars and secondary worlds Game Analysis Assignment: Complete phase 1 (note-taking stage) on your game, and post a copy of your notes on Canvas. Take descriptive notes on game setting, characters, themes. Fully Remote (Zoom)

W 12-02

Critiquing games Work on screen captures and website posting for Game Analysis Assignment Fully Remote (Zoom)

F 12-04

Complete a full review of one game for the Game Analysis Assignment and post to Canvas a link to your finished website post. Fully Remote (Zoom)
Week 15 Topics Do before class Class delivery

M 12-07

Discussion of Game Analysis drafts. Introduce Creative Commons: Remediation, Remixing Copyright, Creative Commons Prepare a first draft of your Game Analysis on your website. Fully Remote (Zoom)

W 12-09

Discussion: Remediation, Remixing Copyright, Creative Commons Fully Remote (Zoom)

F 12-11

Last Day! Class meeting is optional: for website consultation and tearful farewells. Wrapping up work on your website for the semester.
  • If applicable to your work, choose a Creative Commons license for resources you are sharing on your website. Cite and credit resources that are not yours.
  • Game Analysis Assignment: Rough draft of second Game Analysis: Include direct links to the game resources you are reviewing on itch.io.
Fully Remote (Zoom)
Finals Week: M 12/14 - F 12/18 Due

T 12-15

Complete Game Analysis Review posting due by 11:59pm