It’s probably fair to say that new digital media have changed the ways you write and communicate — with your friends and family, on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and the next big thing; at school, on CTools, Google Drive, Piazza, Lecture Tools, and the like; at work, via email, WordPress, even video. These new tools and platforms — and a range of other technologies — are also changing the ways that scholarly research and discovery take place.

From historians mapping Underground Railroad sites in Detroit using GIS software to choreographers mapping the movements of the human body using motion capture technology to environmental scientists mapping geographical vulnerability to climate change using large-scale data analytics — many researchers and practitioners are asking different questions, following different processes, making different kinds of arguments than they did, or could, even ten years ago.

In 22 Ways to Think about New Media you will meet some of these scientists and artists, and also publishers, curators, policy experts and more, from schools and disciplines across campus. They will visit our class each week to share the ways that new media technologies have transformed their work. On days we don’t have visitors, we will have opportunities in smaller-group discussions and interactive collaborative work to explore some of these media ourselves via readings and assignments that give you the chance to follow your own interests.

Course Requirements:

You will blog regularly about what you’re discovering and connections you’re making, write a narrative about how new media has changed the way you argue, and complete a multimedia final project that takes a closer look at digital media in a field or discipline that has significance to you.

Intended Audience:

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Class Format:

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