The growing presence of technology in our personal and professional lives is driving many forms of disruptive change. This course explores digital literacy as a concept and practice that offers tools for shaping cultural change as we navigate the present and look toward the future. From individual reflections on the costs of innovation to meaningful connection through digital communication, each of us has an impulse to shape change. This impulse often pushes us to learn, adapt, and create. It also demands digital literacy.
In DIGC 1200, students learn to deconstruct, create, and remix projects using digital tools that they will encounter in a variety of settings outside the course. This course pushes students to grapple with concepts that shape our current technological and social landscape and question assumptions about digital citizenship and digital natives. Thinking critically about audience, genre, rhetorical purpose, and design, students create various digital artifacts that speak to cultural change. Some of the essential guiding questions for the course include: How does technology affect the ways we share our values and perspectives? How do we foreground identity and agency when exploring participation in digital space? What are adaptable models for creative meaning-making with digital artifacts? How do we make room for serendipity, reflection, and revision in online participation? Who owns digital objects, and how do we represent that ownership?
*Academic credit is defined by the University of Pennsylvania as a course unit (c.u.). A course unit (c.u.) is a general measure of academic work over a period of time, typically a term (semester or summer). A c.u. (or a fraction of a c.u.) represents different types of academic work across different types of academic programs and is the basic unit of progress toward a degree. One c.u. is usually converted to a four-semester-hour course.
Instructor
- Director of Curriculum Design, Arts and Sciences Online Learning, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Clayton Colmon is the director of curriculum design for the Arts and Sciences Online Learning team at Penn. In this role, he works with instructors to conceptualize, create, and support educational experiences. Clay believes lifelong learning is integral to any sustainable social system and… Read more
