name: Kent W. Hooper

institution: University of Puget Sound

language: German

status: Full-time, tenure track

type: CourseRelease

type1: StudentAssistant

type2: SoftwareGrants

title: Advanced German Writing: film/music multi-media unitsduration: 1 semester, fall 1999description: Introduction:In both Elementary German and Intermediate German, the primary thematic focus is on what might be termed the quotidian: the everyday, the commonplace, the practical.

In German 231: (Advanced German Writing: Writing about Literature and the Other Arts), the thematic focus is on literature and the other arts. More specifically, in this course students develop the expertise necessary to allow them to write and speak intelligently about literature, music, film, and the visual arts.

To begin, students must master basic vocabulary particular to the aforementioned systems of signs; that is, students must become familiar with the formal elements associated with each artistic medium. For example, to write about a work of literature, students must be able to determine what type of work it is: prose, drama, or poem (or some combination thereof). If a poem, what type: sonnet, ode, elegy, ballad, or other? If an ode, what specific kind? What meter? What rhyme scheme? Which rhetorical devices are used? Such questions are often difficult enough to answer in English without adequate training. To do so in German is infinitely more difficult for non-native speakers. Similarly, to write about a film, students will find it helpful to be able to use terminology related to such topics as editing and mise en scène; and yet, most students have never been exposed to a systematic approach to film-even in English. Furthermore students of German literature are often called upon to be knowledgeable about parallel developments in the arenas of art and music. For example, when considering German literature of the Romantic period it is often extremely illuminating to delve, if only superficially, into the art and music of the period. And yet, this cannot be done if students are not familiar with the “languages” associated with art and music.

After mastering basic technical terminology associated with the formal criteria particular to each artistic medium, students then focus on vocabulary and expressions that allow them to write and speak about the histories of German literature, music, film, and art. For each medium individual movements are used as case studies. Major figures and works are discussed in literary, music, film, or art historical context, more to develop a general working vocabulary than to master specific factual data particular to any one movement.

Once students have become more familiar with basic characteristics of a specific artistic movement, major figures and representative works are highlighted and analyzed.

And finally, students explore, online, practical matters related to each medium. For example, students might be asked to determine which films are being screened at the moment in Berlin, what plays are being staged in Hamburg, whether one can one attend an exhibition of German Expressionism in Schleswig, what might be a good online source for German CDs, and which books are being read by the general public.

Thus during this one-semester course, students are asked to develop the ability to write about and discuss in German four artistic media: literature, music, film, and the visual arts.

Multi-Media Software Development to Address Problem

Area:

The film component and the music component currently consist of photocopy-packet-bases supplemented by in-class audio-visual materials; quite frankly, this approach does not function as the ideal way to introduce students to these two artistic media. Students first study written material and then come to class for the experiential material; that is, the written and the experiential are not well integrated. For example, verbal descriptions of the implications of various lighting strategies would be greatly enhanced by simultaneously viewing video clips embedded in such an explanatory “text.” Similarly, analyzing a piece of music would take place a more sophisticated level, if a hypertext version of the score could be viewed simultaneous to the listening of the performance.

In short, I propose not to begin from scratch developing music and film units for German 231 but to construct multi-media software units integrating material I already have—video, audio, still photographs, text—using a CBT authoring tool such as Asymetrix’s Toolbook II Instructor or Asymetrix’s Toolbook II Assistant.

My strong preference, of course, is to employ a programmer to implement what I, as content expert, story-book out for him or her. And yet, I am also willing, albeit reluctant, to do this programming myself, although I would certainly expect the student-programmer to digitize everything.

Toolbook rules!!

outcome: cf. above "Brief Description of Project"

timeline: August 1999:

2-day or 5-day course at Asymetrix for either me or a programmer

September:

digitize/scan, etc. material for music unit

October:

integrate material in CBT-program
test use in German 311

(Introduction to German Lit II)

November:

digitize video material for film unit

December:

integrate material in CBT-program test use in German 311 (Introduction to German Lit II) amount: cf. breakdown below breakdown: course release for Hooper student programer proficient in either Assistant or Instructor

Asymetrix Toolbook II Assistant: $695 or Asymetrix Toolbook II Instructor: $1495 (both: educational price) fyi: Assistant comes as a part of Instructor (think of Assistant as a dumbed down version of Instructor, or a version of Instructor with half the features turned off.

Note: I own Instructor already, although I do believe the university should purchase Instructor, or at least Assistant, so that all faculty may have access.

Software training at Asymetrix (in Bellevue) 2-day Assistant course: $795

This is the only class I would want to take--my skill level is not such that I would be able to benefit from the course below, although a student already competent in programming (or even Mark Otis) might find the course quite valuable:

5-day Instructor course: $1795.

Worst-case scenario: I use my own copies of Assistant or Instructor, receive no training, and do my own programming, and thus only need a one-course release.