Digital Rhetorics

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Digital Rhetorics

• Introduction

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todays menu

• Multiplayer me, you
• Course description
• Course format
• Course content
• What rhetorics? Possible topics
• Next week

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multiplayer

• Academic background
• Department (INC)
• Office 2D16, tosca_at_itu.dk
• Research
• Other courses
• Why am I here?

you

• Name
• Academic Background
• Semester at ITU
• Why are you here?

me
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Course Description competences

• Upon successful completion of the course the
  student will be able to 1) Demonstrate an
  understanding of rhetorical theories and critical
  approaches to digital communication. 2) Employ
  and apply rhetorical strategies in a variety of
  digital discourse contexts. 3) Construct
  guidelines for their learning that will become
  rhetorical methodologies they may adopt for
  future work-related, or scholarly, projects. 4)
  Conceive and conduct a research project through
  which they engage a rhetorical issue, design and
  document the issue using digital rhetorics, and
  trace a trajectory for further research.

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Course Description Exam

• The final exam is a written exam only. You will
  get practise in the rhetorics of academic writing
  and produce a 10-12 pages paper (ACM conferences
  format) that presents original research within
  some of the topics touched upon during the
  course. The paper will be delivered at the end of
  the course period and you will get written
  feedback about it.
• (Individual or in groups, structured production,
  peer review community)

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How the course relates to DKM/DDK

• Third semester, advanced course
• A theory course that requires some praxis
• Anwers to Studieordningers 4th important module
• 4. Kommunikationsstrategier inden for it.
  Modulets fokus er teoretisk forståelse af de
  digitale mediers særlige egenskaber og vilkår
  samt anvendelse af kommunikationsstrategier på
  avanceret niveau.

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Course Format I

• This course is organized as an "advanced
  seminar", which means that the students are
  responsible for their own learning and the weight
  is not so much upon lectures but on preparation
  and discussion work. You cannot turn up to
  classes and sit back - if you havent done your
  homework, things will not make any sense.
  Students are expected to prepare readings (and
  present at least one text each to the class) for
  every session and to participate in the
  mini-projects or exercises that will be arranged.
  Students are also expected to work both
  individually and in groups, and to give
  constructive feedback to each other in an
  authentic peer-community spirit.

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Course format II

• 10 to 12 lecture seminar
• you prepare readings
• 13 to 15 exercises (varies)
• Usually first half hour to one hour to comment on
  last weeks exercise, the peer review spirit
• Last hour can be a scheduled exercise to be done
  in the classroom or it can be left free for you
  to do exercise when you can
• Readings at home other preparations

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2
6?
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Raw numbers the horrid truth

• 20 to 30 hours per ECTS, everything included
  (also the physical exam).
• Thus, 7,5 ECTS corresponds to 150 to 225 hours.
• If we count 10 hours per week per course (which
  amounts to 40 hours total workload per week)
• students will use about 156 hours during teaching
  period
• and the remaining hours for exam preparation

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The blog we are all authors

• Information slides, exercises, plan
• Communication homework, groupwork, cool links,
  comments...
• It will coordinate the feedback teams

http//ddrtE06.blogspot.com/
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Course content

• This course covers a wide range of topics
  concerned with rhetoric and communicating in
  digital environments. It is designed specifically
  to address forms of expression (written and
  visual) and interpretation (reading protocols)
  with emphasis on critical analysis of various
  discourses and discourse communities (and
  disciplines) in which rhetoric is central in the
  age of information technologies. In addition, we
  will examine the rhetorical culture of digital
  spaces (i.e., what is means to be 'digital,' to
  write hypertextually, to become hybrids).
  Potential topics include classical-to-digital
  rhetorical invention, visual rhetorics,
  multimodal communication, rhetoric and
  design/style, digital ethos, strategic
  communication, aesthetic reasoning, virtual
  reality rhetorics, and other venues for, and
  genres of, digital rhetorics.

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Course content II

• Introduction to classic rhetorics
• Digital rhetorics
• E-literacy
• Multimodality
• ?

praxis

• Academic writing (exam is an academic paper)
• Get hands dirty with rhetorics!

theory
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Course content III
6 theory spaces
7 exercise spaces
4 paper exercise spaces
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Possible topics, objects or aspects

• Structure hypertext and argumentation
• Structure distributed and fragmented narratives
• Pathos in digital media (f.e. Storytelling to get
  message across)
• Discourses about digital media
• Mobile rhetorics
• Software rhetorics
• Gameplay rhetorics
• The visual!!!!!!!
• Sound

• Cross Media rhetorics
• Ethos in digital media
• Rhetorical invention (i.e. Ulmer)
• Machinima
• Storytelling in digital media (narrative),
  e-learning
• Digital genres (different expectations, user
  perspective)
• Aiming messages to recipients, other kinds of
  users

We have to vote!
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For next week

• Do your own summary of classical rhetorics of no
  more than two pages. Resources
• Silva Rhetoricae http//humanities.byu.edu/rhetor
  ic/silva.htm
• Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric
• Rhetoric definitions http//www.stanford.edu/dept
  /english/courses/sites/lunsford/pages/defs.htm
• Make a self-standing powerpoint presentation
  where you exploit the medium as you see best.
  Topic to convince us all others of something. 10
  slides max. (Bring it to class in a USB or hang
  it on the web where we can look at it)
• Sign up for the blog (you will receive an
  invitation email)