English 236
Notes for Class 5: Project Workshop 1

This page contains materials intended to facilitate class discussion (excerpts from readings, outlines of issues, links to resources, etc.). The materials are not necessarily the same as the instructor's teaching notes and are not designed to represent a full exposition or argument. This page is subject to revision as the instructor finalizes preparation. (Last revised 1/25/00)

  1. Introductions
  2. Course Entrance Survey Responses
  3. Project Development
  4. Student Access to Transcriptions Server



Transcriptions Course Survey Responses

Entrance Survey Results for English 236, Winter 2000

[Compare: Entrance Survey Results for English 165CI, Fall 1999]

Comment: note the disparity between graduate and undergraduate students in the following areas:

  • Bandwidth of connection to the Internet
  • Usage of instant "chat"
  • Browser preference
Reference: Los Angeles Times, "Ethernet is Changing Dorm Life," 14 Jan. 2000, A:1 (free online access with registration until 28 Jan. 2000)

Project Development
Comment: Whether or not students who are new to the technical skills required for the project ever become fluent in the medium, the point is to explore and learn enough about the basic logic of the process to see through it—as through a glass darkly—to larger issues (the nature of the medium, the nature of IT-enabled collaboration, etc.). Most important: enjoy, do not fear. You cannot permanently break anything on the Transcriptions site with the file permissions you have been given no matter what you do unless you are both extremely knowledge#FF9999able about programming and seriously malicious. (See statement on the philosophy of technology in this course.)

Student Access to the Server

Students in this course will be assigned an individual userid and password for their account on the Transcriptions server. This account allows access to the following functions:

  • Project Site: Once students supply a title for their project site, a folder (i.e., directory) for the project will be created on the Transcriptions server. Students will be given read/write permission for their particular project folder, which will enable file uploading and downloading. The basic idea is that you download the templates for the pages of the project; add content on your home or Transcriptions studio machine; and then upload the revised pages to your site.
  • Exchange Discussion: Between classes 13-16 in the course, students are asked to critique another team's project by means of a threaded discussion forum conducted through the Transcriptions Exchange messaging environment. (See Exchange).
Note: the student individual userid and password are different than those supplied in common to the whole class for access to the locked directory holding the Andy Goldsworthy and other materials private to this class.

Comment: Students are encouraged to experiment with their server access in advance of real work on their projects. Put up a test page in your project directory, for example (so long as you clean up after yourself eventually by removing the test page before the end of the quarter). Also, try out your access to the Exchange threaded discussion forum:

  1. Point your browser to: http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/exchange
  2. You will be asked to log in. Supply your userid and password.
  3. When the Web interface to the Exchange program appears, you will be asked to type in your userid again. Then, unfortunately, there is a redundant step when you will be asked to supply your login information all over again.
  4. Once you have logged in, the Exchange interface will appear in your browser set by default for your "Inbox." In the left-hand navigation frame, click on "Public Folders."
  5. The only Public Folder you will see in the screen that next appears is "English 236." Click on that to see the messages or sub-folders currently contained in the English 236 discussion forum.]
  6. Go in to the test sub-folder to play around.

For a fuller step-by-step intro to using Exchange through the Web, see these instructions.

These class notes are for a course in the Transcriptions Project | Page content by Alan Liu | Last revised 1/25/00