Week 1 assignments

Digital Identity/What Is a Domain?

Welcome to Intro to Digital Studies! I'm really looking forward to our time together as we explore some really interesting, and important, aspects of digital work and life this semester.

Following are resources and assignments for the first week.

Schedule

Tuesday class meeting

What is your digital identity? What do you want it to be? How can you change what people find about you online? We'll also introduce hypothes.is, the web annotation tool we'll use to kickstart discussions of (and add value to) our readings. We'll end by going through the syllabus and various administrivia.

For Thursday's class

Read the five articles/posts below (under "Readings"), and annotate at least two of them using the hypothes.is plugin. Remember to tag them with our hypothes.is group "digitalstudies". Peruse at least some of your colleagues' annotations before class. (Right before would be ideal, if it fits your schedule, so it's fresh in your head when we start class.) Then signup and personalize your profile on Slack. (See details below.)

Also, look over the modules on the DGST 101 website and on the DTLT Documentation page under "Building Blocks for Domain of One's Own". Pick a few that you think sound the most interesting.

Thursday class meeting

Follow-up discussion on the readings. Feedback and discussion about each other's domain ideas. Discuss/decide on modules to add to the course schedule. Introduction to Week 2: Data Ownership and Usage.

For assignments due Monday and Tuesday, see the Week 2 Guide.

Readings

Digital Identities: Six Key Selves of Networked Publics, by Bonnie Stewart
The Web We Need to Give Students, by Audrey Watters
Do I Own My Domain If You Grade It?, by Andrew Rikard ― a response to the use of a program at Davidson College that follows the pattern of UMW's Domain of One's Own
Digital minimalism ― being deliberate about digital identity, by Kris Shaffer
Beginner's Guide to Domain Names, from ICANN (feel free to skim this one)

Slack

Sign up for the class discussion forum, Slack. If you are registered at the beginning of the course, you will receive a notification email on or before the first day with information on signing up for Slack. If you did not receive one, please email me (kshaffer@umw.edu), and I will make sure you get one. Be sure to use a username that helps us identify you. For example, mine is @kris (though @kris.shaffer would have also been fine). Please do not use something that we wouldn’t call you in person (like your UMW login or other cryptic code). This video (from an online course I taught in the past) will help you get familiar with Slack.

Personalize your Slack account with a picture. It's no fun conversing online with a bunch of plaid squares!

Say hello. Drop a little message in the #introductions channel. Tell us something unique about yourself, upload a picture, share a GIF, whatever little thing could help us get to know you a little better. Then flip through each other's intros and leave a reply, or just an emoji response.

Resources

Hypothes.is ― An annotation tool for the public web. Install the plugin in Chrome for the best experience. (It does not work with MS Edge or Internet Explorer, and I've experienced mixed results on Firefox.) Be sure to make your annotations in the digitalstudies group, rather than private or fully public.
Hypothesis Quick Start Guide for Students.