Course Description and Objectives: A beginning hands-on introduction to the tools, techniques, and concepts behind the production of digital media including basic digital imaging, sound production, and animation. 

The curriculum in this class emphasizes an integrated and creative approach to digital media production, including detailed instruction and practice in the technical aspects of production. It is designed to give students a firm grounding in the tools and techniques necessary in advanced digital media courses and will include the use of digital cameras and scanning, bitmap and vector-based graphics, output for both screen and print, digital audio recording and editing, use of the internet for communication, and animation. The course will also include discussion of contemporary issues related to digital media, issues such as copyright, privacy, identity and others. 

At the end of this class students will: 

• participate in a discussion forum or listserv 
• use email to communicate with the instructor and fellow students 
• create bitmap and vector graphics on the computer 
• use scanners, digital cameras, printers, and other peripheral devices 
• use a web browser to search for and capture images and sounds 
• create images using various resolutions, sizes, color palettes, layers, and file formats 
• use storage media for digital projects
• record and edit digital audio 
• create simple animations on the computer 
• work independently and collaboratively with other students on digital media projects 

Grades will be awarded using the standard grading scale: 
90-100% A 
80-89% B 
70-79% C 
60-69% D 
below 60% F 
 

The following courses are recommended upon successful completion of this class: Media 285 Web Production I, Media 360 Interactive Media Production
 

Students need to purchase a guide and resource book for Adobe Photoshop. 
Here are two suggestions:

• Lee, Lisa. Photoshop 6 Digital Darkroom. New York: Premier Press, 2000. 
• Weinman, Elaine.  Photoshop 6 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual Quickstart Guide.  New York: Peachpit Press, 2001. 

• At least one 100 MB Zip Disk
• A notebook to take notes in and reference 
• Time outside of class to work! 

• Anders, Peter. Envisioning Cyberspace. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999. 
• Goldberg, Ken. The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology on on the Internet. Cambridge, MIT Press, 2000. 
• Hables Gray, Chris. The Cyborg Handbook. London: Routledge, 1996. 
• Haraway Donna. Modest_Witness @Second_Millennium_Female  Man_Meets_Onco,Mouse, Feminism and Technoscience.  London: Routledge, 1997. 
• _____________.  Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books, 1991. 
• Hiltz, Starr Roxanne and Murray Turoff. The Network Nation: Human Communication  Via Computer Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993. 
• Kroker, Arthur and Marilouise Kroker. Digital Delirium. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. 
• Kurzweil, Raymond. The Age of Intelligent Machines. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992. 
• _______________.  The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. New York: Viking, 1999. 
• Landow, George. Hyper/Text/Theory Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994. 
• Laurel, Brenda. Computers as Theater Boston: Addison Wesley, 1993.
• Levy, Steven.  Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984. 
• Manovich, Lev.  The Language of New Media. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. 
• McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media.  Cambridge:The MIT Press, 1994. 
• Minsky, Marvin. The Society of Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster,1986. 
• Negreponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. 
• Norman, Donald. The Invisible Computer. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. 
• Picard, Rosalind.  Affective Computing. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1997. 
• Plant, Sadie. Zeroes + Ones: Digital Women + The New Technoculture. New York: Doubleday, 1997. 
• Spalter, Anne. The Computer in the Visual Arts. Boston: Addison Wesley, 1999. 
• Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen. New York: Touchstone Books, 1997. 
• Wiener, Norbert. Cybernetics or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1948. 
• Wilson, Stephen. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001. 

• Macromedia
• Flashkit
• Class Discussion Forum