Podcast Assignment

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Summary:

Jennifer Edbauer Rice argues in “Rhetoric’s Mechanics: Retooling the Equipment of Writing Production”:

Rather than shrinking back or separating our work from the materiality of production means, we have the opportunity to expand our own engagements with the modes of invention and means of circulation. (368)

The rationale for podcasting in this course is twofold: to draw attention to a nascent mode of communication and to explore how modes and means undergird any act of composition. Engaging a new technology will hopefully unconceal the values built into certain technologies, what those technologies want, and what we think we want from them.

Each individual is responsible for three podcasts over the course of the semester, which will be due on specific dates throughout the semester. When not responsible for a podcast, students will listen to and rate all podcasts, and will comment on one of them. The class will have a workshop to cover the practical and rhetorical issues surrounding podcast and comment production. As a whole, the podcast component of the course is worth 25% of the final course grade.

 

Deliverables:

Podcasts
At minimum, podcasts should five minutes in length. They should forward some claim about a reading or group of readings relevant to the themes and/or goals of the course. Students may speak extemporaneously or from a script. Students who are (or become) comfortable with Audacity (or a similar tool such as Garage Band) may layer in sounds, music, or audio clips. Additionally, students might wish to produce video podcasts (although video podcast production will not be covered in class). No matter the form of a given podcast, the key is a sophisticated engagement with the readings that makes them salient for the class audience in the context of the course. Provide a paragraph of description about the podcast as well. Podcasts are due Sunday (before the class period for which the readings have been assigned) at 11:59p.m.

Rating
All class members should use the five-star voting system that appears with each podcast to rate it. It is hoped that a set of shared podcast expectations will emerge from this rating process by identifying outstanding and mediocre work. All podcasts should be rated by Monday at 5:00p.m.

Comments
Students not podcasting should comment on at least one podcast per cycle. Comments should be approximately 200 words and can address both the form and content of the podcast. Discussions of form, while important given the nature of both the assignment and the course, should not result in an underpriviliging of content (both instructors recognize the problematic bifurcation of form and content. Nevertheless...). Successful comments will be addative rather than evaluative. That is, comments should work to extend the conversation by asking generative questions, adding supplemental readings or evidence, and linking to related conversations. Comments should be posted by Monday at 6:30p.m.

 

Resources:

 

Time Table:

Podcast due dates:

  • Team #1: Weeks 4, 7, & 12
  • Team #2: Weeks 5, 10 & 13
  • Team #3: Weeks 6, 11, & 14