Class Policies

Grading
Grading will primarily be based on your writing, but with much consideration given to class-room participation, presentations and in-class assignments.
• 50% short papers (5)
• 30% final paper and blog
• 20% responses and classroom participation/in-class assignments etc.

Attendance
If you are more than ten minutes late, you will be considered late. Two lates equal an absence. Four absences result in a full letter reduction in your grade. More than that and you could be considered for a failing grade. For excused absences, I would like print documentation that I can keep (xerox of doctor report, etc). You are expected to be quiet and attentive in class. If you are sleeping, typing on your cell phone, giggling and chatting, etc. this will count against you in the final grade.

Plagiarism
You will fail if caught plagiarizing. Once you have settled on a final paper, you are not allowed to change your topic unless you revise your entire blog.

Late papers and assignments
For every week a paper is late, it is worth a full grade less.

Assignments
There will be two primary writing assignments in this class:

• Freewriting Response: These are short, 2-3 page responses to the work that we have read for the week. These papers will be graded on grammar, spelling and style, and should give me a sense of your prose writing at its best. In general, they do not require additional research though should be researched enough to bring your level of understanding higher than a first impression. (I.e. do a Google search on the topic, and reread parts of text that confuse you). These must be handed in hard copy but also posted on your blog so that others can read them. I won’t read them unless you give me a hard copy.
• Research Papers: These papers should be well researched and constructed like a proper paper, with an introductory and concluding paragraph, etc. We will review the possible subjects for your final papers, but in general they must involve some issue regarding the uses of new media in art and culture (a list of general topics will be posted). The style need not be aca-demic or dry, but should be thoughtful and coherent. These papers should be from 6-8 pages long (visual supplements do not count in the page count). Please don't use any filler; stick to your points and keep it lean.

Format style: All papers should be in 12 point type (in Times Roman or similar font with serifs) with 1.5 spacing and 1 inch margins. They will be marked down if not in this format. Research papers should have the proper biography and footnotes where applicable.

Blogs
You will be required to create and maintain a blog for this class. The blog should be used to col-lect material on what will be your final paper assignment. The blog must include multimedia elements, some of your own editorial writing, an RSS feed to someone else’s blog in the class and to other websites, images, and links to stories of interest to you. You will be graded on this blog during the course of the semester. The blog should also include your freewriting assignments.

Short Presentations
Throughout the semester students will be asked to give short presentations on new media art works. These presentations can be quite short, but the student must be prepared to answer ques-tions and conduct that portion of the class on his/her own. Presentations should include the fol-lowing:
• a brief synopsis of what the piece is/does
• a brief description of the creators of the piece and its history
• choice excerpts from text where that is applicable
• a “demo” of the piece if it is a piece of interactive software
• an evaluation of the success of the piece taking in consideration all of the above

Vocabulary Notebooks
You should keep a notebook of important vocabulary as it is introduced throughout the semester. I will be evaluating you for your understanding of basic vocabulary at certain moments through-out the semester.

Final Presentation
During the last weeks of the semester you will give a final presentation of your research work. This presentation must include your blog in it. You will be expected to employ elements of mul-timedia in your presentation. The presentation will be roughly 15-20 minutes in length including whatever multimedia elements you choose to employ.