Digital Culture Topics to Date

As I ask students to be reflective about their learning, I in turn will be reflective about teaching digital culture. These are the readings / media we've read or watched so far, and the topics that go with them. I've added questions likely to be asked of my students. (Recordings for class lectures can be found here.):

• Michael Wesch’s “The Web is Us/ing Us”
  How does hypertext differ from written text? How does XML differ from HTML? What is Web 2.0? What does Wesch mean in saying we are the machine, or that we are teaching the machine?
• Digital Culture Wiki
  What is a topic that you browsed in the digital culture wiki that covers an issue in digital culture we may not have covered in class?
• “A Call for Digital Explorers”
  What kind of exploring was exemplified in the video shown in this post? How have you explored digital culture this semester? If we are already inundated with info and distracted all the time, why should we explore or how can we do this meaningfully?
• Digital Literacy: Consume, Create, Connect
  What are one or two questions surrounding the principle of consuming, as mentioned in the Prezi presentation? Similarly, for creating and for connecting? What is a tool that you have tried, or might try, for consuming content, for creating media, or for connecting better online? Did you look at any of the tools listed in the Backpack 2.0 site?
• Digital Culture: An Overview 
• In Dr. Burton’s Prezi presentation and lecture, he cites Charlie Gere’s definition of “digital culture.” What is something Gere lists in digital culture that we have not yet learned about in class OR that you have learned and blogged about? 
• What were the two distinct sense by which Dr. Burton described the digital as historical?
• Give an example of one field (besides music) in which the digital has introduced disruption.
• Describe one digital subculture 
• Explain a new or emerging digital genre 
• Give an example of one of the core tensions of digital culture mentioned

• “Collaborative Creativity and Crowdsourcing”
  How is Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir an example of digital creative collaboration? Describe the three types of crowd labor Dr. Burton mentioned in his crowdsourcing presentation. Describe the types of laborers these correlate with, and the types of compensation available. Which of these types of crowdsourcing is the LDS church involved in? What is an example of a non-LDS crowdsourcing platform?
• “The Power of the Long Tail in Digital Culture” | “The Long Tail” (Anderson)
  What is the long tail? Why is this concept essential for understanding digital culture? Can you explain what the long tail is either for formats or for one of the long tails listed at the end of this post?
• "The Three Phases of Academic Blogging" | “Chasing the White Whale of Literary Blogging" (chapter 2 of this ebook. 3)
  Name and describe the three phases of academic blogging, and be prepared to indicate what your plans are to move your blogging along these phases. What are some of the benefits of blogging as described in Burton’s chapter?
• Consider the Spiral
  How does the concept of the spiral, as described by Burton, tie in with the concept of social proof?
• Digital Culture and Video Games (from lecture 9-26-13)
  What are some of the reasons we should take video games seriously today?
• Socially Optimized Research (from lecture 10-2-13)
  What are the steps in a socially optimized research strategy? How does this fit into academic blogging or the process of developing finished or formal content?