English 411

Week 8 and 9: Finishing Ambient Findability and Starting Convergence Culture

Week 8 marks the midpoint of the semester, and we will celebrate the occasion by finishing our fourth book (we’re more than half-way through our reading list!) and starting our fifth: Henry Jenkins’s Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. For Tuesday, please read pages 119-179 in Ambient Findability and come to class (in Ross 406) ready to spend some time in the book. (We’ve been exploring some tangents lately, which is fine, but I don’t want to neglect Morville’s text.) For Thursday, please read pages 1-58 in Convergence Culture. Tracy will lead our discussion that day; watch for an email from her about where to meet.

I will be at a conference during Week 9, so we will not meet as a class that week. However, please keep up with reading schedule by reading pages 59-173 in Convergence Culture before you leave for Spring Break. Also, the fourth due date for short papers is Thursday, March 12. However, I won’t be back from my conference until the 15th, so you can submit your short papers any time before you leave for Spring Break. Please put your essays in my mailbox in Ross 206. If you have any questions about paper topics, please come see me during office hours or email me before I leave for my conference on March 10.

Last but not least, it’s time to start thinking about possible topics for your final paper. Proposals for the final paper are due on March 26, and we will discuss the format and length of these proposals in class, but you should spend some time over Spring Break brainstorming ideas for your paper. You may want to extend one of the topics you’ve written about for a short paper, or you may want to write about something entirely new. Whatever the case, please feel free to float ideas past me during office hours or via email. I’ll respond as quickly as I can.