learning to look and listen

this semester's digital media production class, or #DMP09, has been among the most creative and collaborative i've ever taught. the combination of easy-to-use social media like twitter, flickr, and facebook with the creativity and curiosity of the students has made for a prolific semester. but between my making media mantra - "create, collaborate, share!" i bark to my students, "now do it again! and again! and again!" - i took extra steps this semester to encourage them to simply look and listen.

over the course of the semester, we've taken campus field trips to spots with spectacular views. first, with help from twitter, we met in kalmanavitz 499, overlooking main campus, where many of us began looking at our campus for the first time.



later in the semester, we hiked up lone mountain and met in the president's conference room, a room with a gorgeous view of the city and the bay.



and yesterday we climbed the steps of st. ignatius church, all the way to the bell tower, to get new perspectives of the campus and city we call home.




i'm immensely proud of DMP09 students' abilities to create, collaborate, and share. i'm equally proud of their growing abilities to look and listen.

tuesday's homework

as discussed in class yesterday, tuesday's homework for digital media production is as follows:

READ: Gabriel Cohen's You Talkin’ to Me? New York's Brash, Boisterous Blogosphere; Malia Wollan, The Big Draw of a GPS Run; and Rex Sorgatz's A Data Point on Every Block: An Interview with Adrian Holovaty.

LEARN: google maps. this part of the assignment is optional: you have the option to learn google maps now or later.

LOG OFF: a) visit one place, restaurant, park, bar, store, water fountain, lake, cafe, bookstore, bus line, church, alley, or any other thing or place in the city of san francisco; b) soak it in; and c) collect, compile, and create a flickr set that includes the following information:


(be sure to tag your photos dmp09mapproject)

have a nice weekend.

yelp homework assignment

yelp homework for digital media production

1. create a profile on yelp. using your full, real name is optional.

2. write a yelp review about something or someone in san francisco.

3. when thinking about what makes a good review, consider reading some yelp reviews to get a sense of the style, tone, and flavor.

4. once you have posted your yelp review, tweet it. be sure to include a link from your tweet to your review. your tweet is due no later than monday night.

5. this assignment is not very demanding. therefore, do it really well.