1/13/20-1/17/20
All work is due by midnight on Friday, 1/17/20
Welcome to ds106! This first week is dedicated to getting set up: set up your domain and Web hosting; install your WordPress site; and create other social media accounts such as Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc. Complete introductions via posts, twitter, video, audio, etc. The sooner you get started, the better. If you run into trouble after looking through the supporting links, the Digital Knowledge Center in the Hurley Convergence Center is a great place to go for help.
Here is a detailed list of what to do this week:
- Review the Syllabus
You should carefully read through the syllabus. You may find this course a little different from other you have taken. (You may find that an understatement.) The syllabus will help you understand the work and activities of the course. If you have any questions on the content, send them to me via Twitter or email. - Set Up Your Accounts
Almost all of the activity for this class will take place on the open web, through blogs and social media. You do not need to expose any personal information, and are welcome to develop a persona and identity just for the course.
Domain Sign up for your own domain name and web site (free through UMW’s Domain of One’s Own project). Detailed instructions can be found here. Don’t skip the verification step! If you already have a domain through Domain of One’s Own, then you are one step ahead. NOTE: If you don’t already have a domain, you may want to put some thought into your domain name.
Google / Youtube (video sharing) http://www.google.com/accounts/
If you have a Gmail account, you are already set with this. If not create a Google account. This is what will allow you to join any synchronous video discussions we have (in Google Hangout) and gives you access to YouTube.
Twitter http://twitter.com Twitter will be one of the main channels for communication in ds106. If you already have an account for personal purposes, you are welcome to use it or create a new account for communication related to this class. Make sure you customize your profile! Send your first message of greeting and be sure to use #ds106 hashtag in your tweets. Learn how to search on the #ds106 hashtag.
Soundcloud (audio publishing) http://soundcloud.com/ This account is where you will share audio you create for the class.
Instagram http://instagram.com for photo sharing
Note: All of the social media accounts (Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and SoundCloud) that you create for this class MUST be public so we can all see each other’s work. If you already have accounts on these services that you don’t want to make public, you’re welcome to set up separate ones just for this class. - Install WordPress
You’ll be using this install of WordPress to share your work every week, all semester. So you’ll want to get this installed and get comfortable with it ASAP. You should install it either at the root of your domain (www.yourdomain.com) or on a subdomain (ds106.yourdomain.com, for example). If you already have WordPress installed on your UMW Domain from another course, you can use your existing site (and just tag or categorize your ds106 work accordingly) or choose to create a new WordPress site in a separate subdomain.
We have a few online guides that I recommend you review as you tackle this task:
Brief Introduction to cPanel: This guide will help you learn to navigate cPanel (the control panel for Web hosting on Domain of One’s Own).
Creating Subdomains and Subdirectories (optional, but good to know): If you want to install WordPress somewhere other than at the root of your domain, check out this guide.
Installing WordPress: Learn how to get WordPress installed on DoOO.
WordPress Basics: Orient yourself to the WordPress environment.
NOTE: Do not use wordpress.com. You have to set up your own domain, or use a domain you already have (see Step 2, above), and you have to install WordPress on it (this step). - Register Your Blog at the Main ds106 Web Site
Once your blog is available on the web (it should be almost immediate) register yourself and your new blog on the DS106 site. You MUST do this in order for everyone to see the posts you’ll be writing for the class. NOTE: As part of the registration process, you will need to use your Twitter user ID, so be sure to have one. - Make some Multimodal Introductions
Now that you have all your accounts and everything set up, it’s time to use them to introduce yourself to the class. Use Twitter, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Instagram to introduce yourself to the community. You are encouraged to be creative, and welcome to adopt whatever you want for the course. Once you’ve done that you need to embed them all into a WordPress blog post and tag it ds106introductions. Here are some tips for embedding media in WordPress.Are you exhausted yet? There is a lot more still. If you wait until the weekend to do all your work you will be crushed! - ds106 things
We’re using a 80s pop culture theme for this semester. What we make of this is up to us collectively. Personally, I’m interested in the question, “What do the 80s mean to today?” but you are free to pursue different angles on it. The purpose of the theme is to give us some common ground for interaction. You are welcome to stretch and twist it in any way you like. You will have ample opportunities to personalize the work you do. You, as a group, have as much influence over where the theme goes as you care to take. To that end, I want you to share your thoughts on the theme. You don’t need to be a fan of 80s culture, or even know or care about it. You get to make of it what you want. If you need background on it, TV Tropes has an overview as does Wikipedia. Note that we are limited to any of these views, nor are we limited to any approach to the theme. We could use this course to inhabit it or to critique it. Or both at the same time. So, what do you think of the theme? Are there examples of it that you particularly like? What do you think we can do with the theme? What would you like to do with it? What can we, as a group, make out of it?
What were the 80s like? There is a documentary on Netflix about The Eighties and another recent view of the times is in Chernobyl. (I haven’t seen either yet.) But I think an interesting view is Blade Runner, from 1982, set in 2019 (Amazon, Youtube, and the Simpson Library has the DVD). Or, if you want to get an idea of how goofy it could get, there’s Better Off Dead. (That might tell you something about inflation too.) Another free option on Youtube is Night of the Comet. Watch any one of these, or any suitable substitute (ie, something that relates to the 80s theme), and share your insights on what we might be able to make of this theme.
Share some suggestions. What do you think are good examples of storytelling that tie in to an 80s theme? Share them here.
Write your thoughts about all this in a blog post and tag it ds106thingsthoughts. Need to know about tags in WordPress? Here’s some help. We will be discussing this further next week - Write your Weekly Summary
You’ll be completing these summary posts on your blog every week. This week, write a post that shares your reflections on the first week. Tag this post WeeklySummary and submit the URL to the Assignments section of Canvas. These posts are REALLY important. They are what you get graded on each week, so you need to link to other posts you’ve written, embed media you’ve created, and narrate the process of learning that you went through this week. What did you learn? What was harder than you thought it would be? What was easier? What drove you crazy? Why? What did you really enjoy? Why? NO EXCEPTIONS. NO LATE WORK ACCEPTED.