External Links for Embedded Visuals Site

Here is an annotated list of external links found within the site. These are organized according to node.

Introduction

• The first link is to my home page off the Computer Writing and Research Labs site. This site contains on-line information about courses I've taught, my c.v., and other information.

• The link to the Computer Writing and Research Labs shows my affiliation to the labs run by the Division of Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at Austin. The computer-assisted classrooms are for the teaching of composition and English courses.

• The University of Texas at Austin link is to the main page of the university's site.

Integration Section

• The link to Bruce Sterling's article A Brief History of the Internet is an example of a reading assignment I give my students to help them build a conceptual model of the internet. This is a short description of how the internet came into being by the person on the first cover of Wired magazine. Bruce also spoke to the Cyberpunk course mentioned in other sections of the article.

• There are a number of handouts I have generated over the years to help my students learn specific software as well as more conceptual aspects of design. The introduction to the web handout merely gives a sample of one the more standard handouts. This link is off the handouts page of the CWRL.

  Evaluation Assignment and Student Samples Page

  • Greg Smith's paper on the Kaplan homepage shows his evaluation argument about a web site first developed on paper. The original version refers to a page of the actual site that he chose to change based on criteria outlined in his paper. The changed version is the HTML redo of the page reflecting his suggestions. Greg was a student in my E309M (Writing about Technology) course and these materials are on the class web site.

  • Danielle Viglione's paper entitled The Click of a Mouse or the Flip of a Remote shows her evaluation argument about a web site (the NBA site) first developed on paper. The original version refers to a page of the actual site that she chose to change based on criteria outlined in her paper. The changed version is the HTML redo of the page reflecting her suggestions. Danielle was a student in my E309M (Writing about Technology) course and these materials are on the class web site.

  • Claire Benedikt's paper entitled The Cyberspace Opera, or The Search for Harmonious Web Design, shows her evaluation argument about a web site (a Cyberspace opera created by UT student Madelyn Starbuck) first developed on paper. The original version refers to a page of the actual site that she chose to change based on criteria outlined in her paper. The changed version is the HTML redo of the page reflecting her suggestions. Claire was a student in my E309M (Writing about Technology) course and these materials are on the class web site. Her suggestions were actually incorporated into the site, so the original and the redo are now the same. However, her argument is based on an earlier version of the site.

  • Chris Chase's paper on a Cyberpunk Page shows his evaluation argument about a web site first developed on paper. The original version refers to a page of the actual site that he chose to change based on criteria outlined in his paper. The changed version is the HTML redo of the page reflecting his suggestions. Chase was a student in my E309K (Writing about Cyberpunk) course and these materials are on the class web site. His class was the first to do this type of assignment.

• The link to a student's project page from my E309M course serves as an example of how usable design techniques can influence students. If you look at the bottom of the page, you will see her site information is organized according to a simple structure of links, with the page being viewed grayed out of the menu. Many students in the class did this type of menu after discussion of Cloyce's and John's site design earlier in the semester.

• The links to the Cyberpunk and Computers and Writing courses take you to the site where you can view the results of the third assignment in each course.

  Presentation of Design Rules and Student Examples

  • The William Gibson Homepage was designed to fulfill a group project assignment in my cyberpunk course. One of the students, Michaela Drapes, decided to maintain the site and so moved it to a personal commercial account. This example shows original artwork by students in addition to some nice visual design on the part of Michaela, Alex Peguero and Michael Hayden.

  • The Streams of Information site was designed to fulfill a group project assignment in my computers and writing course. One of the students, Cloyce Spradling, had to do some specialized scripting and programming on this site, so he placed it in his personal account. What you don't see is extremely important for this site. The site is optimized to change depending on the browser you are using. The site is rather visually plain, but it's on purpose. Cloyce and John want everyone to have access to a site that explains their theory and research on the different components of the Internet.

    Virus. The Nanotechnology group in my cyberpunk course created a fictitious corporation set in the near future that manufactures nanotech in order to end disease. It also has other motives as well (in the classic cyberpunk tradition of evil corporate entities). This site is located on a student's personal account. It uses the visual rhetoric of business: charts, graphs and financial projections.

  • The Edge. A fictitious on-line company (ala The Sharper Image) that sells cyberpunk artifacts. Ruben Garza is extremely interested in computer designed graphics and he did all of these slick images himself. He has a version of this on his own website, but this link is to my Cyberpunk course site.
  • The Diamond Age. A site about Neal Stephenson's book by the same title uses a Victorian motif to emphasize the book's own subject matter. This site is maintained by the student.

  • Statistics and Polling Useless? Not to a Social Scientist. This site takes Neil Postman's Technopoly to task about his characterizations of social science. This is in my E309M site.

  • Usenet as a Society on the Internet. An argument about the culture of newsgroups. I mention Cloyce understands that links become part of the rhetorical space. They must be integrated into the text in an understandable fashion. This site is maintained by the student.

• The early days of the HTML is a link to one of my attempts (a freshman-level composition course in Fall of 1994) teaching HTML. This was in the early days of the web before students could change as much of the interface.

• The description of my own portfolio assignment is from my Computers and Writing course. This assessment is based on Dr. Margaret Syverson's On-Line Learning Record Site. It's a terrific site that discusses the background of portfolio assessment as well as various implementations in classroom settings.

• I also have a link to a page on my personal site called Portfolios and the CA Classroom. This page contains links that demonstrate the different kinds of evidence generated in a computer-assisted course for portfolio assessment.

• General Interface Guidelines. This is an example of a handout on interface design I give my students. It's linked off my own site.

• General Data Formats. This is another example of a handout on practical data issues I give my students. It's linked off my own site.

• American Literature: The HyperNarrative is a link to my E316 course off the CWRL site. It contains information about a multimedia project where design guidelines are also a consideration.

• The Macromedia site (a corporate site) contains more information about the authoring environment my students are using to develop their hypertext.