Class time: 2:00-5:00pm, Mondays from January 13th 2025 thru February 17th 2025.

Instructor: Professor Cathryn (Cat) Ploehn (she/they)

Office: The void of the internet

Email: [email protected]

The grain of the digital

Today, I want to challenge us all to have greater ambitions for the web. I want the web to reflect our hopes and fulfill our dreams, rather than magnify our fears and deepen our divisions. — Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the web on its 29th birthday

From Computer Lib / Dream Machines

schedule: the grain of the digital

Previous cool website(s):

HOME - AREA CODE 512

Deliverables and grading

Each of the below deliverables is worth 6.25% of each unit (Figma, HTML, CSS, JS). Each is graded for reasonable completion.

• Sketchnotes. Each unit has an assigned interactive preparation material (such as codeacademy), for which I will expect drawn sketchnotes. Each unit enumerates what the sketchnotes should include at the minimum. More on sketchnotoes below.
• Quizzes. Each quiz is given at the beginning of each class on Canvas.
• Exercises. Start in-class (or before) and finish by the following Friday (except for the Figma exercise, which is due the same day). Full points given to assignments that made by you / are typed up by you (and not copy+pasted) and meet the minimum requirements in each assignment. 50% deduction to each exercise not meeting minimum requirements.
• Design challenges. Start in-class and (typically) finish by the following Friday. Full points given to projects that meet the minimum requirements in the assignment. Double check Canvas for exact due dates.
• Touching grass. At some point during each class (usually midway), I will ask you to jettison / remove all digital implements from your person and hang out in the courtyard. Research is increasingly showing that such breaks are vital to health, to the point that I feel a little evil not building them into a tech-forward course. Please take them seriously. Listen more at the Body Electric Project at NPR

Attendance and participation is required, and 25 points will be deducted for more than one unexcused absence (see syllabus for more).