Syllabus

Description

Introduction to Digital Media (IDM) is an intensive semester-long course in which you will learn the technical and conceptual tools to understand the basics of digital media, as well as begin to learn the language of the visual narrative.

In this class you’ll learn the fundamentals of photography and image-making. We’ll be making still images and printing them using the latest and best technologies. You’ll learn matting and framing techniques so that you can present your work in a professional manner, as well as learn how to present your work on the internet in websites and blogs. You’ll also learn techniques for video and audio, and how they relate to still imagery. In this class you’ll build both blogs and websites as a means of communicating and presenting your work to a wide audience.

We will concentrate on the fundamentals of traditional image-making with an emphasis on craft, but we will also be exposed to the most contemporary concerns of the medium from critical and theoretical perspectives.

What’s Expected of You, Generally

Energy and enthusiasm in this class are vitally important. Please be prepared to share your experiences, thoughts and ideas with the class. This will be a fun learning experience, but you’ve got to bring something to share with everyone. Influences for your image-making and art can come from anywhere; music, nature, writing, philosophy, personal experiences, etc. Please be prepared to share them with the class!

Work and participate actively and steadily. Please keep your blog and website up to date, and turn in your assignments on time. Understand that you are expected to work outside of class to complete your assignments and readings.

Requirements, Specifically

Each week you are expected to add one to two entries into your blogs. Additionally you’ll be asked to submit your assignments to your blogs as well. It is important that you turn all your work in on time, as late work will not be accepted.

In addition to submitting your work on the blog, you’ll sometimes also be asked to submit photographs as matted prints. You’ll be graded on the quality and content of the images, as well as the quality and execution of the presentation.

Final project. Your final project will consist of a blog and a portfolio website which will include all your assignments and projects. Additionally, you’ll present a series of photographs. The prints for the final portfolio should be the best that you can make them, and be properly matted and presented.

Grades

Grades are based on quizzes (20%) and assignments and their quality, and class participation. (60% of grade.)
You will develop a final portfolio based on your weekly projects, to be turned in the final week of class (20% of grade.)

Photography projects, blogs, websites and final portfolios are graded based on a number of criteria. Does it solve the problem posed by the instructor? Is the work well-crafted.  Is your writing insightful and dose it show you have put adiquate thought into the work?  In addition to craft, excellent work is content driven; that is, the print goes beyond being pretty and well crafted. Excellent work is about something!

The “A” student will have attended all classes and participated (in a meaningful and relevant way) in the class discussions. They will turn projects in on time, and those projects will be clearly superior to the majority of those presented. Often the excellent student will do more than asked and may raise questions that challenge not only the students but also the instructor. Please understand that just by attending all classes and turning in all work does not guarantee you an “A”.

The “C” student will attend most of the classes and turn in a significant number of assignments on time. The work from the average student will look pretty much like the majority of work turned in; in other words it will look average. Average students contribute to class discussions, but may not do so consistently and/or with the same insight as the excellent student.

Please remember that the grade you receive is the grade you earn, not the grade that the instructor “gives” you.

Attendance

All students are required to regularly attend class. Art is a practice-based discipline and the learning process requires active participation. Students will receive a failing grade upon their fourth absence. Being tardy for class equals ½ of an absence. Being unprepared for class by not having an assignment on critique day or not having the appropriate materials to perform in class assignments will count as an absence.

The first ten minutes of each class period you may use the computers for Facebook, Twitter, whatever. After the first ten minutes if you use Facebook or are texting on your phones, you will be marked absent without warning. Please turn your phones off before you come into the classroom.

Supplies

Digital Camera
Card Reader (If your camera does not use SD cards)
External Hard Drives (One to take to class and another for back up)

Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person’s work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards academic dishonesty as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences that range from probation to expulsion. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting or collaboration, consult the course instructor.

Statement on Student Behavior

“All students enrolled at the University shall follow the tenets of common decency and acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment.” (See Student’s Guide Handbook, Policies and Procedures, Conduct)

Statement on Accommodations for ADA eligible students

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact me, and

Office of Student Disability Resources and Services
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Gee Library, Room 132
903-886-5150 or 903-886-5835
Fax 903-468-8148
StudentDisabilityServices@tamu-commerce.edu