The IVANHOE Game
Due 4.25, 5.2, 5.10
For the rules of the game, please go here. The game
boards are located here.
Paper
Due 4.18
Write a four (4) page paper in response to the following question:
How have digital media changed the way we read and write, and what
additional changes do you expect to see in the future?
Rather than trying to cover every conceivable aspect of that question,
pick a
particular topic or approach that feels relevant to you. If you're
interested in journalism, for
example, you might write about the role of the daily newspaper in the
Information Age. A focused and detailed paper on a specific topic
will almost
always fair better
than one that ranges broadly and superficially over a number of different
topics. The
paper should be well organized, spell-checked, and proof-read
(I will take off for gratuitous spelling or grammatical errors). The
tone
and style of the
paper should be formal (not just casual or anecdotal). Personal opinions
or assertions will be most effective if they are backed up with a
citation from something
we've read this semester. Please use MLA style for your citations.
Visualization
Due 4.2
Use the HTML skills you have learned to create a visualization of a
750-word portion of the text (about 2 pages) of your own choosing.
You can find an electronic edition of the novel here.
Copy and paste the portion of the text you want to work with into
your HTML
file(s).
"Visualizing" the work entails adding HTML markup to the
electronic text
to create a visual
environment that somehow--and here's where you'll each have to work
hardest to
conceptualize your individual project--performs an
interpretation
of the text.
The interpretation will involve more than simply adding pictures,
backgrounds, or
other superficial features. Nor does it mean writing
critical
commentary. Rather, you will each need to think about how
the electronic space you are creating functions as an
extension
of the original text, simultaneously complicating and communicating
its
core themes.
The
text need
not all be on the same page, or accessible in a linear fashion; for
example, you
may wish to use links to disperse the original text across a number
of
different pages.
Grades will be based upon the thoughtfullness and imaginative
quality of the project; flashy design for its own sake will not be
rewarded. If you have advanced Web design skills you are welcome to
make
use of them, but everyone is capable of earning an "A" using
only
the
HTML I have taught in class. Like the still-life in classical
painting,
sometimes simple is best.
The project should be built in your WAM
account. It should include a
title page with a short prose introduction that articulates
a rationale for
your visualization: explain the concept or strategy behind what
you've
done,
and discuss how the process of
visualizing (or you might think of it as performing) the text
in
HTML has
changed
the way you've thought about it. Please also be sure to inlcude your
name and an
email link. Mail me the
link
when you're ready for me to evaluate it.
MOO Exercise
Due 2.28
In the FrankenMOO, most of the room descriptions are drawn from the text
of the novel. Point of view in the MOO has thus
been predetermined by the point of view present in the text.
Your
assignment is to
choose a room or space in FrankenMOO, and
rebuild it from the point of view of another character: Victor,
Victor's father,
Elizabeth, William, Clerval, or the monster. Note that by "room" I also of
course
mean outdoor spaces. So, for
example, you might choose to rebuild Victor's lab from the point of view
of Elizabeth; or the Alps from the point of view of the monster. You
should think about the exercise as in part an opportunity to deliver
fresh
insights about a particular individual: so would seeing
Victor's lab have transformed Clerval into something other than the rather
flat character he appears as in the novel?
You should dig rooms and create objects that represent the space from the
new point of
view you have chosen. The most successful projects will be those that rely
not only on prose description but also on the arrangements of the rooms
and
the properties of the objects they contain. In short, show, don't
just tell. And try to be creative: for
instance, would Victor's
laboratory appear to be a labyrinth to the uninitiated?
Your room(s) should include at least one object that is the product of
external research. For example, Victor's lab might include an air pump of
the sort depicted on the cover of the novel. What is it and how does it
work?
Your grade will depend on: the originality of the space and point of view
you choose; the creativity with which you build rooms and objects to
represent point of view; the
quality of your writing about them; and finally, technical merit (do your
rooms and objects work the way they're supposed to?)
Mail me your room number when
you're ready for me to visit.
