Digital Technology and Culture

A blog for students and friends of Washington State University Vancouver's Digital Technology and Culture Program

Job Announcement

Job Title: Website Designer
Company: The Daily News
Location: Longview WA
Closing Date: 1-26-2007

Salary or Hourly rate: $17.30 per hour

Job Description: The Daily News in Longview, WA is seeking an experienced creative website designer to join our online department. Located about 45 minutes north of Portland, OR., The Daily News is a 22,000 circulation, seven-day daily publication. We believe having a good, interesting and vibrant web site is vital to the continued success of our newspaper. So, we need someone who can take the area's premier online source of information, www.tdn.com, to the next level, whatever that is. Responsibilities include developing and maintaining online revenue products and opportunities for The Daily News and tdn.com. This position will work closely with the Advertising and Editorial departments to coordinate delivery of content for readers and advertising vehicles for customers. Requirements include 2 + years extensive computer experience with a Mac or PC and proficiency in HTML, PHP, CSS, and JavaScript. Knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, and Macromedia Flash MX a must. AA degree preferred. The selected individual must be visionary, able to access needs and opportunities for revenue and user growth and display effective teamwork skills. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, display of professional conduct, and the ability to work on multiple tasks under tight deadlines also a must. We offer a competitive, starting salary, bonus, and a benefit package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k), paid vacation, employee stock purchase plan and more.

EOE/Drug Free Workplace
Full description available at: www.apply-to.com/job2343482 or www.tdn.com
Application Process: Fax, email and/or mail to: Apply online at:
www.apply-to.com/job2343482 or hr@tdn.com.

Degree required: AA preferred
Req degree type: Computer Science
Listing: local employ list
Address: P. O. Box 189
City: Longview
State: WA
Zip: 98632
phone: (360) 577-2507
fax: (360) 575-6205

posted by: grigar at 22:33 | link | comments |

Town Hall Meetings

The Digital Technology and Culture (DTC) Program is holding a Town Hall Meeting for all students to discuss the Program’s Mission, Goals and Objectives, Five-Year Plan, and upcoming additions and enhancements to the Program.

Because the information we plan to relay is important to your experience and success in the DTC Program, it is crucial for you to attend. Therefore, we will offer the event on two different days, Wednesday, January 17 from 12-1 pm *and* Thursday, January 18, from 5-6 pm. It is hoped that one of these two times will work for your schedule.

The first part of the Town Hall Meeting will be a presentation by the DTC Faculty. This presentation will be followed by a Question and Answer session that will give you a chance to respond to the presentation and/or pose questions about other issues relating to the DTC.

This will be the first time such an event has been offered to our students, and it is one we think will be helpful to you. Please make plans to join us.

Event: DTC Town Hall Meeting
Location: TBA
Dates: Wednesday, January 17 from 12-1 pm
Thursday, January 18, from 5-6 pm


For more information, contact Dr. Dene Grigar, X69487. Please share this information with other DTC students whom you think may not have received this message.

posted by: grigar at 05:07 | link | comments |

Internship Announcement

We are pleased to announce that DTC student Chuck Folkins has accepted a professional internship with the City of Vancouver. He will be responsible for developing and delivering a complete and highly detailed needs assessment that examines primary and secondary City operations from a training/performance perspective.

Chuck says he intends to uncover gaps in skills/performance, determine their causes, and recommend viable solutions, including multimedia training programs that he and other DTC students can develop. "The City of Vancouver hopes my project will set the groundwork for subsequent internships," says Folkins. "They are keen on the prospect of long-term involvement with WSUV interns."

As should be the case with any DTC internship, Folkins is confident his project will, short term, provide him with real-world experiences in that it will reveal opportunities for him to help the City improve its training processes. In the long-term, Folkins believes the experience gained through this internship will provide solid experience for professional employment.

posted by: grigar at 18:49 | link | comments |

Update on Program

Harrison, John and I met on Tuesday, December 12, for a full day retreat to work on updating program goals. A few plates of homemade oatmeal cookies and several cups of latte later, we came up with these 10 Learning Goals, which we aligned with current course offerings. Here is what we believe students graduating with a BA in DTC should be able to do and the DTC courses in which we believe students should gain these skills and abilities:

1. Demonstrate competency with computers for designing and distributing digital works in various mediums. [DTC 355]

2. Synthesize media forms for multimedia contexts. [DTC 355, DTC 477, FA 434, FA 435]

3. Employ the principles of visual form for sophisticated image manipulation. [DTC 336, FA 332, FA 335, FA 363, FA 433]

4. Understand the production and assessment of media objects. [DTC 478, DTC 336]

5. Know the basics of information architecture and the ways digital information can be structured for different audiences. [DTC 356]

6. Question the way digital media functions in multiple cultural contexts. [DTC 475]

7. Recognize various forms of language processing and their implications for media authoring. [DTC 336, DTC 375]

8. Appreciate the history of technological development, from local to global perspectives, and its implications for a variety of mediums. [DTC 375, DTC 476, FA 331, FA 380]

9. Utilize an interdisciplinary perspective in order to understand the basics of social, economic, and education changes brought about by digital media. [DTC 475]

10. Be practiced and capable writers in all mediums. [DTC 475, DTC 375]


We also spent some time considering the focus of "culture" in the program name. "What do we mean by culture when we say we are "Digital Technology and Culture?" was the problem we sought to solve. After much deliberation and debate, we arrived at a simple answer (actually John arrived at it first)anchored in the name's grammatical construction: "Digital" functions as an adjective for both nouns, Technology *and* Culture (those of you who write know that repeating "digital" in a title twice is a redundancy good writers try to avoid). So, it is essentially Digital Technology and [Digital] Culture. Thus, the DTC is not a cultural studies program but rather a program that studies the digital nature of culture, or what some of us think of as "cyberculture."

It was a fruitful day since much was accomplished. We are a step closer to the ultimate goal: articulating a five-year plan for the DTC. Stay tuned for that news.

posted by: grigar at 00:35 | link | comments |

Congratulations, DTC Graduates

Congratulations to DTC graduates for Fall 2007:

Kimberly Adolph
Ralph Aiken
Terrell Harris
Jodi Helton
Justin Lee
Jason Reed

We are proud of your accomplishments and wish you the best as you embark on the next stage of your lives.

posted by: grigar at 03:59 | link | comments |