E379S Senior Seminar
Responses to Nature: Literature, Art, Music, Architecture
Jerome Bump, SWC, Computer Assisted
T Th
http://www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/E379S2/
bump@mail.utexas.edu;
Office phone: 471-8747, home: 267-7884
"I think Frank Dobie was one of the greatest teachers
the University of Texas ever had, but like very great teacher he could never
have been typed. For example, he wasn't and he didn't claim to be technically a
folklorist. What he certainly was, and never claimed to be, was one of the
truly great natural historians in the tradition of the Greeks, the
medievalists, Renaissance men, the eighteenth-century English naturalist
Gilbert White, and W. H. Hudson. And this insight into nature, I think, needs
to be continued as a Dobie tradition here if the University is really going to
realize its own promise."
Harry
Ransom, Chancellor, University of Texas
Some
class meetings will be outside, devoted to observing and writing
about nature at Waller
Creek, the Biology Ponds, the courtyard of the Humanities Research Center, the
lawn of the Littlefield house, Frank Dobie’s house and related statues of
horses and cattle along San Jacinto, the Japanese garden at Zilker Park,
etc.; some to discussing famous
artistic responses to nature and
what we can learn from them; some
to reading each other’s
writing. The basic premise of the course is discovery learning, especially by comparing our point of view with
those of other people and other creatures.
Grades. 30% of the final grade will be determined by the portfolio; 50% by the projects (15% for each first
draft, 10% for each revision), and
20% by class participation, which
is required, especially on
computer days because other people will be depending on you. Portfolio.
A paper version of the portfolio consists of the journal, clean copies of your
essays, and printouts of all your contributions to the sycamore and pine web
pages, to the Dobie web page, both Waller Creek web pages, to both Biology
Ponds web pages, your comments on projects 1 and 2 of other students, your LR
contributions, and the road map of your journey. The journal must include a
detailed account of your own personal response to the Oriental Garden. A multimedia version of
the portfolio will be graded on the basis of the effort put into learning HTML
as well as the result. Projects.
We will create multimedia
projects on paper or on the web about our responses to nature and those
in world literature, visual art, digital art, music, and architecture. Students
will keep portfolios of their emotional and intellectual responses to nature to
compare their responses to those of the artists we will encounter. Students
will bring a journal page or two to class the day we discuss a particular work
to help initiate discussion. Students
should be prepared to think for themselves. There will be fewer instructions
for subjects of projects than what
students may be used to from other courses. Our goal is discovery learning
(http://www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/discovery.html). This can be frustrating for
some, especially those who want a detailed formula which will guarantee them a
good grade. Instead I try to give students maximum freedom to be creative, to
be individual, and to write about what is important to them. Projects can be
written for different audiences and from different points of view, from
autobiography to scientific observation. At
times we will use networked computers to achieve more collaborative class
discussion and provide more feedback about projects. Students will produce two
polished projects communicating their
response to nature in at least two media: traditional essays with
“illustrations,” or HTML multimedia sites on the web. If a
traditional essay format is chosen pictures must be scanned into the text and
text wrapped around them. Students are encouraged to use multimedia to fulfill
all the writing requirements and ultimately put everything on the web site.
Students will read the first draft of each other's projects and revisions of
the projects will be due a few
weeks later. Class participation consists of
showing up in class on time, having read the material assigned for that day,
being prepared to talk about it, and handing in your journal pages about the
readings assigned in the syllabus
for that day before class starts. Class participation includes
sharing in class from what you have written about that day's assignment in your
journal: one of the goals of the course is better spoken as well as written
communication. Our primary concern is not organized discussion of a topic, as
in a speech contest, but rather each individual learning to speak about
feelings as well as our thoughts, to listen, and to concentrate when others are
speaking.
LR. Part of the
grades for class participation and the portfolio will be based on the
Learning Record (LR), a portfolio-based assessment tool that allows students
to document their learning in terms of the goals they have chosen for the course. Besides samples of work carefully
selected to document learning, the LR will include personal narrative, an
interview with someone familiar with your intellectual development, a series of
self-observations, and interpretive essays written at midterm and semester's
end. Texts: a collection
of xeroxed materials to be purchased from Jenn's, (in the basement of the church
of scientology building at 22ndand Guadelupe) 473-8669. Requirements. Students should be familiar with keyboarding,
operating systems, word processing, electronic mail, and web-browsing. Students
will also need an IF computer account and provide their own storage diskette or, if they are going to do a
web project, a UNIX account or a ZIP or JAZ cartridge, and/or some blank Cds if
they are going to store their site on a CD. New users may claim an IF account
at the Student Microcomputer Facility in the Flawn UGL by completing an IF
account request form and presenting it and a government-issued photo ID at the
front desk. HTML.
Two classes will be devoted to how to copy and
modify HTML templates; afterwards, if students are going to do web projects,
they must have or acquire basic HTML skills on their own in the first month.
Multimedia project students should expect to spend a considerable amount of time
outside of class, sitting in front of a computer, and may also find it useful
to attend some of the free classes and workshops on various technical topics
offered by ACITS, TeamWeb, or the General Libraries. See class schedules:
http://www.utexas.edu/computer/classes/ For
self paced tutorials see http://www.utexas.edu/cc/training/handouts/tutorials.html#internet
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