Week 1 – Course Introduction

Welcome to Digital Media Production, Fall 2013

We will cover the following information in today’s class:

Introduction

  • Introduction to Lab
  • Digital Workflow and Best Practices
  • Class Blog
  • Setting Up a WordPress Account
  • Setting Up a Flickr Account
  • Setting Up a Delicious Account
  • Hosting Account

Week 1 Overview

  • Create a WordPress blog to turn in assignments
  • Create a Delicious account to tag relevant websites
  • Create a Flickr account to host images
  • Register for the class blog
  • Fill out the student questionnaire
  • In class blog posting assignment
  • Obtaining a web hosting account

Student introductions – syllabus review – lab overview


“In the Future Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”
-Andy Warhol 1968

“On the Web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people”
-David Weinberger* 2002


A Vision of Students Today


Photo Booth

Go to PhotoBooth on your Mac and take a photos of yourself. Lean in close to the camera so that the photo shows a close up of your face. Once this is completed, please create a gravatar so that your image will be posted with each of your comments on the class blog. It will ask you to sign up for a WordPress account. Use your Ramapo email and use your first and last name as your username.

Your Personal Blog

You will post all homework on your personal blog. This is a blog you create specifically for this class. Go to WordPress and create your blog. For your blog address as well as your username, use your full name. Example, johnbrown.wordpress.com. It’s as easy as that! Please take note of the address now!

You will be required to post all your homework on your personal blog before the start of each class. When you log into the CLASS BLOG for each class, write the url of your homework that you created on your PERSONAL BLOG.


The Class Blog

This is the class blog. All lessons, homework, readings, and resources for the class will be posted through this blog. All of you will be required to register on the blog, and I will use the email address that you sign up with to communicate with you outside of the class. I will also place comments to your work on this blog. Please take note of the address now! Bookmark the url in Del.icio.us.

You will be required to log into the class blog each class. Please create a gravatar so that your image will be posted with each of your comments.


Student Questionnaire

Fill out the student questionnaire so that I have your contact information and can get to know you a little better.


Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking service that everyone is required to sign up for an account for an maintain tags on it. Through del.icio.us you are going to “tag” pages related to our work in the class so that you can reference them later and share them with the class. It is a way to keep all your tagged pages in an orderly manner making it very easy for you to find your tagged pages. We will be using Del.icio.us to tag sites related to this class including tutorials, design inspirations, lectures and other articles.

Everything you tag for this class must also include the following tag: digitalmediaproductionramapo2013 as well as additional and relevant tags.

Sign up for an account here: http://del.icio.us/


Flickr

Flickr is a photo sharing service that everyone is required to sign up for an account for and upload your weekly work too. Through Flickr you are going to “upload” images related to our work in the class so that you can reference them later and share them with the class. It is a way to keep all your work in an orderly manner making it very easy for you to find your tagged images.

Everything you tag for this class must also include the following tag: digitalmediaproductionramapo2013

Sign up for an account here: Flickr


Best Practices for File Storage

What happens when you move your files to multiple locations?


Best Practices for File Naming

Accurate file-naming – Special characters – Underscore – Date

YYYY_MM_DD _YourName_FileName_Version

Read more about file-name convention for digital files.


Homework | Week 1

  1. Register as a user of this blog. Post a comment to this blog post to let me know that you are registered and include the address (url) for your  ”wordpress blog”. Each week following this you will post a link to your homework on your own WordPress blog in the comments section of this blog.
  2. Go to WordPress and create a blog that you will use to house your homework for this class. Under appearances, select themes and choose a new theme. Add widgets, fill out the personal info on the blog and create a blog that shows some personality. Add the Delicious and Flickr widgets.
  3. Fill out the student questionnaire.
  4. Create a del.icio.us account for yourself. Tag three Web Sites that focus on WordPress tutorials (example: how to create a WordPress post, how to change and manipulate and/or change a WordPress theme, etc.) and write a note in Delicious about why you think each one would be a good resource for this class. *Make sure you also add the tag: digitalmediaproductionramapo2013 as well as other relevant tags.
  5. Create a Gravatar account. Take a photo of yourself, upload it to Gravatar and link it to your WordPress blog using the email you used to create the blog.
  6. Create a Flickr account.
  7. You are required to purchase a domain name and web hosting space for this class. This is where you will post and maintain all of your work for the semester. My recommended hosting company is Bluehost but you may purchasing hosting space anywhere you choose. The domain name should be your first name, last name .com. Example: www.maryjones.com Make sure you obtain a domain name and web hosting account by the next class. Bring in the username and password for your account.
  8. You will need access to the Adobe Creative Suite for homework assignments. You can come in to use the school computers or you can purchase Adobe Creative Cloud for $19.99/month (student discount).