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Maintained by: Elisa E. Beshero-Bondar (eeb4 at psu.edu) Creative Commons License Last modified: Tuesday, 22-Mar-2022 04:11:59 UTC. Powered by firebellies.

Spring 2022: Classes meet T H 12:05 - 1:20pm in Kochel 77. Attend class wearing a face mask that covers your mouth and nose. (Until further notice, face masks are required inside all university buildings, regardless of vaccination status.) 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.

Quick links to digital resources

Week 1 Class topics Do before class

T 1-11
  • 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
 ...

H 1-13
  • Discussion building on annotations: Slow computing while in university.
  • Things your computer conceals from you
  • Introduce Dear Data
Week 2 Class topics Do before class

T 1-18

 Discussion / hands-on exercise on Dear Data. Longer-range challenge on personal data collection and visualization
  • View videos and images of the Dear Data Project
  • Challenge Before class, make three screen captures of three hand-crafted/humanized data visualizations from anywhere on this site (including video content) that particularly struck you. What is being shown and why does it seem memorable?

H 1-20
  • Discussion of Warsame reading/annotations, time, space, data
  • Hand-crafted data viz workshop. Organizing daily data in Google Sheets
Week 3 Class topics Do before class

T 1-25

 Discussion: data non-neutrality / data ethics / data justice / data visceralization. Introduce Matrix of Technological Domination exercise

H 1-27
  • Challenge: Matrix of Technological Domination post
  • Follow the instructions posted on Canvas to download the oXygen XML Editor on a computer you work with for your assignments this semester (choose the version of oXygen compatible with your computer to install). Note: when you download oXygen, you'll receive three different versions: the Author (red icon), the Editor (blue icon), and the Publisher (grey icon). We will only be working with the Editor (blue icon). Please install this and apply the license key posted in my announcement before class on Tuesday 2/2 so we can begin exploring it in class.
Week 4 Class topics Do before class

T 2-01

 Launching Comparative Website Development assignment series
  • Revisit code and code structures: Electronic Verse Engineer, XML and HTML in the oXygen XML Editor
  • Writing code: HTML structure
  • Saving your code on your computer:
    • Mindful File Management and preparation for GitHub
    • Making a personal GitHub repo and finding a good location for it on your computer
    • Cloning a repo and knowing where your files are!
  • Viewing HTML in the web browser
  • Configuring your GitHub profile settings, setting and storing a Personal Access Token. Preview of git and GitHub for code, version control, and website publishing with GitHub Pages.
  • Review and make sure Hypothes.is annotations on first set of readings are complete.
  • Start Comparative Website development with GitHub. Git Exercise 1 (setting up your GitHub account), post on introDH-Hub issues.
  • Personal Data Collection / Visualization Challenge: stage 2

H 2-03
  • Complete Git Exercise 2: (Create a personal repo and set up GitHub Pages.)
  • Save an index.html file with some well-formed HTML code to your docs/ directory.
  • Get connected with our DIGIT coders chat: Install Slack on your computer / mobile devices and set up your profile using this Slack Guide for New Users : Join the DIGIT-Coders Slack (link expires in two weeks), and set up your profile display name so the class can recognize you.
  • Read the git manual 1.1 to 1.3: "Getting Started—About Version Control"
Week 5 Class topics Do before class

T 2-08
  • HTML Workshop:
    • HTML elements: in-depth orientation: Slides on Learning HTML.
    • Publishing your HTML on GitHub Pages by pushing your files. File directory structure: docs/ directory.
    • images and links: absolute and relative paths pointing to files
    • Introduce simple CSS
    • Hints for preview of local HTML files:
      • You can open a local file you're working on in a web browser to see how it will look on your published site.
      • Also, try previewing the page by clicking the Author tab in the bottom center of the oXygen XML Editor window.
      • Super helpful resource for info on HTML and CSS code: w3schools
  • Git and GitHub: Hands-on work with cloning your GitHub repo and the class's GitHub repo, and pushing changes using:
    • git pull (to pull in changes from the remote web repo)
    • git add -A (to add your local changes to your repo on your local computer for tracking)
    • git commit -m "your commit message" (to commit your changes in a bundle ready to be sent to the remote repo, adding a descriptive message to develop the commit history)
    • git push (to send your commit up to the remote repo.
  • Personal Data Collection / Visualization Challenge: stage 3
  • Watch my video introducing the Bash shell and "home" on your computers and practice the shell commands I am introducing. Practice some shell commands
  • 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.
  • Getting Started with git commands and your index.html file:
    • Make sure your web GitHub repo is configured to publish GitHub pages.
    • Clone your GitHub repo and our class introDH-Hub to a computer where you have installed GitHub (following our previous exercises).
    • Make sure your GitHub repo has a docs/ directory and a file named index.html inside as the start file for your website. (You may start by copying my docs/ directory from your local clone of the introDH-Hub into your repo).
    • Open the index.html page in the oXygen XML Editor and begin studying how HTML code works. Try modifying the index.html page, and save your changes on your local computer.
    • Use your git command line (Git Bash Shell on Windows, or Terminal on Mac), and use git add -A, git commit -m "your descriptive commit message", and git push to push your changes to your remote GitHub repo, so they are published on your GitHub Pages site.
    • Find and post on the GitHub code view of your repo the link to your published GitHub Pages site.
    • Also post this link to your published GitHub Pages site in Canvas for today's assignment.

H 2-10

 Continue GitHub Website Development: Hints for preview of local HTML files:
  • You can open a local file you're working on in a web browser to see how it will look on your published site.
  • Also, try previewing the page by clicking the Author tab in the bottom center of the oXygen XML Editor window.
Week 6 Class topics Do before class

T 2-15
  • Look at the CSS Zen Garden: same HTML content styled several different ways with different CSS
  • Responsive web design: resizing to fit mobile devices vs. wide screens
  • Site navigation: creating a simple navigation menu: Sample navigation bars
  • Personal Data Collection / Visualization Challenge: stage 4
  • Read about HTML Accessibility and apply what you learn about accessible code on your HTML code for headings, images (providing alt attributes), links, declaring the language. Try applying title attributes.
  • Read about Responsive HTML and try applying what you learn to scaling some elements on your site.
  • 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.

H 2-17
  • HTML and CSS together for simple, accessible web design. Creating the same structure for styling multiple pages the same way.
  • Embedding data viz from the Personal Data Collection Challenge on your site: labeling, documentation, explanation
  • Orientation to Penn state's web services for students, faculty, and staff: https://sites.psu.edu and https://personal.psu.edu
  • Continue developing GitHub Pages site(s): create and style a navigation bar to connect your pages. (See Sample navigation bars)
Week 7 Class topics Do before class

T 2-22
  • Working with HTML @class and @id attributes for use in styling wtih CSS.
  • Reading the w3c Validator: what it shows you.
  • Designing and checking for website accessibility: testing and checking sites; how to improve accessibility
  • Porting contents to multiple sites: issues, possibilities

H 2-24

 Orientation to PSU Wordpress and Penn State web hosting services. Wordpress themes for accessibility, and Pages vs. Posts
  • Create website account at sites.psu.edu (PSU Wordpress)
  • On the Wordpress site, orient yourself to how pages and images are added and arranged. Begin adding and organizing your site content.
  • Work toward completing the Comparative Web Development Assignment
Week 8 Class topics Do before class

T 3-01

 Website development: Review of Comparative Website Development Assignment. Wordpress and GitHub Pages in-class work. Develop HTML content and CSS styling.

H 3-03

 Website Development consultation.

Develop web portfolio contents on both GitHub Pages and Wordpress

M 3-07 — F 3-11

 Spring Break Enjoy this week!
Week 9 Class topics Do before class

T 3-15
  • Introduce distant reading: n-gram and kwic analysis with Google Ngrams.
  • Voyant Tools exercise with texts posted in introDH-Hub.
 Comparative Web Development Assignment due: Complete content development on both sites. Revise content, formatting, styling with accessibility in mind.

H 3-17
  • Corpus text analysis. Introduce n-gram and kwic analysis with Google Ngrams.
  • Orientation to Antconc for ngram and kwic analysis. Review and continue experiments with Voyant Tools.
  • 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 (perhaps from our class exercise on Tuesday): 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 open a new Text document in <oXygen/>: 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 and upload to Canvas for this exercise.
Week 10 Class topics Do before class

T 3-22
  • Review/discussion of Mystery Text exercise
  • Large corpus text sampling: how do we read and understand data from a distance?
  • Exploring Keyword in Context (KWIC) with Antconc. Finding patterns and exploring them. What kinds of comparisons can we make?
  • Exploring corpus concordances with Voyant and AntConc. Introduce the Corpus Analysis Assignment
Antconc / Voyant assignment: mystery text assignment and discussion on introDH-Hub

H 3-24
  • Cleaning the text data: preparing plain text files to remove material not meant for analysis.
  • 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. What ideas do they give you about the texts you are working with?
  • Post on the DIGIT-Coders Slack or open a new post on introDH-Hub if you are stuck and want some help!
Week 11 Class topics Do before class

T 3-29

 Testing/drafting exercise for Corpus Analysis assignment: Comparing ngrams in context Analysis/screen captures for Corpus Analysis assignment

H 3-31

 Workshop/Discuss corpus analysis drafts Prepare a rough draft of your Corpus Analysis post on your website to workshop and review.
Week 12 Class topics Do before class

T 4-05
  • Introduce secondary worlds and game analysis unit. Revisit Hypothes.is and introduce Kumu.io networks and J. R. R. Tolkien’s Leaf by Niggle. Tolkien, Secondary Worlds, digital media, and game culture.
 Complete the Corpus Analysis assignment on your website.

H 4-07
  • Discussion of Leaf by Niggle. Tolkien, Secondary Worlds, digital media, and game culture.
  • Networking the story with Kumu.io: Google sheets templates, Kumu import.
Tolkien Hypothes.is Annotations Exercise: Read and annotate (w/ Hypothes.is in our 2021FA-IntroDH group) J. R. R. Tolkien, Leaf by Niggle
Week 13 Class topics Do before class

T 4-12

 Organizing and visualizing networks on Leaf by Niggle: Working with Kumu.io: styling nodes and edges, touring network stats. Construct a network in Google Sheets and import to Kumu.io. Begin styling and organizing in Kumu.io

H 4-14

 Complete a Kumu network on Leaf by Niggle, submit links to Google Sheet and Kumu network on Canvas.
Week 14 Class topics Do before class

T 4-19
  • Critiquing a game and analyzing for user experience
  • 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
  • Collect, file, and organize screen captures from your game.

H 4-21

 Discussion of Game Analysis drafts. Introduce Creative Commons: Remediation, Remixing Copyright, Creative Commons Prepare a first draft of your Game Analysis on your website.
Week 15 Class topics Do before class

T 4-26

 Class Exercise: Readings and Discussion: Remixing, Copyright, and Creative Commons. . Work on Kumu.io network for Game Analysis Assignment

H 4-28

 Last Day! Workshop Game Analysis Review drafts / networks
  • 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.
Finals Week: May 2 - 6 To Complete

T 5-03

Complete Game Analysis Review due by 11:59pm