Syllabus

Course: Interactive Media, Spring 2009

Professor: Huong Ngo

Email: hngo@pratt.edu

Course Goals: Students in this class will explore the potential of the Internet and their collective and individual roles as thinkers and designers in this social sphere. They will investigate principles of interactive design while becoming familiar with the tools and terminology of the web. They will read, research, share, and engage in discussions in class and online about design concepts, current trends, and best practices. They will learn to think analytically about the how their designs are executed, and will begin to form an intuition for programming languages involved.

Skills covered: Students will learn how to create interactive web experiences using XHTML, CSS, Javascript, and PHP. We will use primarily Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Image Ready, but will also explore freeware options. Students will learn how to integrate blogging technologies and how to copyright under a Creative Commons license.

Assignments: As a class, we will collaborate on the first project in order to establish an environment of collegiality, generosity, and curiosity. Students will then work on an individual final project (chosen from a list of possible projects), which will be linked from a class portfolio site. Students will have weekly RRR (reading, researching, and responding) assignments, which they will post to the class blog by Sunday 5PM the night before class. The weekly reading assignments will be posted on the blog as a pdf. Students should do the reading, post one response, one question, and one related link to the blog. Students should keep a sketchbook or journal to record ideas and designs.

Expectations: Attendance and participation are both mandatory. Lateness on 2 occasions will equal 1 absence. This is a small class and we will cover a lot of material. Both the class and yourself will feel your absence. Do yourself a favor and come to class. 2 unexcused absences will result in a whole drop in grade. 3 absences will result in 2 drops. If you are going to be unavoidably absent, email me as soon as possible. It is your responsibility to get caught up on all missed materials. Students should share contact info for this purpose.

Required Materials:

1. A sketchbook.
2. A storage device (flash drive, portable hard drive, ipod, etc)

Recommended text:

Some students like to have a printed text to use for reference. Most of the information is available through the web or help references for the programs, but if you work well with a guidebook, by all means get one. I would choose one that works with your learning style (in terms of the way that information is organized and presented), but here is a recommendation:

Dreamweaver CS3: The Missing Manual [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)
David McFarland
O’Reilly Press

This is a tome. Chock full of information and $10 less than the official one from Adobe.

Resources Online:

http://www.w3schools.com (amazing resource and tutorials)

http://www.alistapart.com (such an amazing site for design hacks and best practices, especially CSS)

http://www.aiga.org (online community for design professionals)

http://www.wordpress.com (free blog site)

http://www.blogger.com (another free blog site)

http://groups.google.com (no kidding, a really great tool for creating networking sites)

http://creativecommons.org (resources for publishing CC and using materials with CC licenses) also http://www.ccmixter.org

http://www.rhizome.org (online database of netart and community of net artists)

http://artport.whitney.org/ (commissioned collection of new media art)

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com (interesting projects going on in the art and design world)

Grading Policy: Though this class will focus on the mastering of technical tools and design principles, your ideas, attitudes, and actions are just as important to your development as a thinker and a designer. Thus, my grading relies heavily on participation in the two major projects, in class, and online. I need to know that you are really engaging in the materials on all different levels. Here is the breakdown:

Individual contribution to collaborative project: 20%

Final Project: 20%

Participation in classes through RRR’s, discussion, leadership, etc: 40%

Mini-programming assignments (daily exercises, photo slideshow, etc): 20%

SCHEDULE:

1/26
Week 1: Getting Started

  • Introduction
  • History of the internet
  • Common internet terms
  • Discussion of uses of the internet today, participation, culture
  • Blog Setup
  • Explore the blog as interactive tool:
  • Blog Assignment:
    • Do an assignment from Learning to Love You More. Post it to the blog.
    • Post 3 links of interest/inspiration to you.
    • Write a little paragraph about yourself. Be bold. Be descriptive.

2/2
Week 2:

2/9
Week 3:

2/16
Week 4:

  • View simple animations:
  • Meta tags
    • Refresh
    • Keywords
    • Annoying, crazy, spastic meta behavior
  • Colors: then and now
    • RGB, HSB, HEX
  • Images
    • Bitmap or Vector? Lossy or lossless?
    • GIF, JPEG , or PNG?
    • Image tag and its attributes
    • Image styles
    • Optimization
  • Continue discussion about collaborative project
    • Share sketches, wireframes, site maps
    • Decide on how to implement project:
      • Division of labor (each person will make a 3 page contribution)
      • Media
      • Deadlines
  • RRR Blog Assignment:

2/23
Week 5:

3/2
Week 6:

  • Work Day
  • Time for extra demos and troubleshooting.
  • Assignment: Finish your contribution and have it ready to link with other pages.

3/9
Week 7:

  • Link projects together
  • Publish online
    • FTP
    • Discussion and reflection
  • Submit to Rhizome
  • Blog Assignment: Write some last thoughts on the blog about this project.

3/16
SPRING BREAK- No Class. ENJOY!

3/23
Week 8:

  • View work: http://www.c3.hu/collection/form/
  • Tables and layers
    • Pros and Cons
    • Where and when to use them.
  • CSS
    • Browser considerations
    • Browser checks
  • Frames and framesets
  • RRR Assignment: Reading from Participation, Claire Bishop, ed.

3/30
Week 9:

  • Javascript
  • Object oriented programming
  • Basics
    • Writing, alert, random number, for loop
    • Rollover images
    • Image maps
    • Opening windows
  • When to use them
  • Calling on external .js pages
  • Assignment: Research a topic of interest in your life. Collect images. Write a few paragraphs about it on the blog.
  • Bring images and text to class. I want you to gather your own images for this assignment, so get out your cameras, and go see it for yourselves.

4/6
Week 9:

  • Javascript
    • Creating a slideshow
    • Controlling the way new windows look
    • Changing HTML in page.
    • Use with simple form.
    • Preloading images
  • Mini Assignment: Create a complete javascript slideshow with images and text that you collected.·

4/13
Week 11:

  • Dynamic Content
  • PHP and forms
    • Why we use dynamic content over Templates
    • Creating a form
    • PHP primer- includes, variables
    • Explanation of MySQL, PHP, Javascript, and CSS integration
  • Assignment: Blog a concept for your final project. Sketch wireframes for the 5 page site. Think about what technologies you will use when, and which ones can get reused. Think about which sections are interactive and/or require feedback from the user. Gather media to work in class

4/20
Week 12:

  • Integrating multimedia
  • Formats explained and compared
    • Streaming vs. embedded
    • Embed a quicktime movie
    • Embed a sound file
  • Review of programming concepts
  • Assignment: Gather all media needed for final projects. Make a list of questions for next class. Work on projects outside of class in the lab.

4/27
Week 13:

  • Integrating blog rss feed
  • Publishing under a Creative Commons License
  • Meta Tags
  • In class work time
  • Assignment: Gather all media needed for final projects. Make a list of questions for next class. Work on projects outside of class in the lab.

5/4
Week 14:

  • Getting online
    • URL registration and web hosting
    • Best practices
    • Testing on browsers
  • Meta tags
  • In class work time
  • Assignment: Finish up final projects and publish to pratt site or personal server.

5/11
Week 15

  • Final Project Presentation and wrap up
  • Question and answer

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