A college course on how to build news apps

The ideas and links on Matthew Waite‘s syllabus for his JOUR 491 news apps class are too good to lose, so I’m saving them here (abbreviated):

Jan. 14, 2014 Introduction to news applications. Homework:
— Read: A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change by Adrian Holovaty
–Read: A dao of web design by John Allsopp
–Read: Code, the newsroom and self doubt by Noah Veltman
–Reaction Paper: In 500 words, give me your take on this. Look at the news you read. Could it be structured? What could you do with that structure? What do your answers say about you? Or where they come from? What medium they’re rooted in? And do you think you can do this? Due before next class.

Jan. 16, 2014 How the internet works — and how it’s different. Homework:
–Watch: Don’t Fear The Internet parts 1-3
–Read: 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web 1, 4-5, 7, 16

Jan. 21, 2014 How to make things on the internet, Part 1: Text editors, IDE’s and you. Homework:
Read: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML and CSS 1 – 2
Do: Codecademy: Web Fundamentals 1 – 6

Jan. 23, 2014 How to make things on the internet, Part 2: File structures and version control. Homework:
— Read: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML and CSS 3 – 7
— Do: Codecademy: Web Fundamentals 7 – 12
— Do: Commit your resume from #12 to your Github repository.

Jan. 28, 2014 How to make things on the internet, Part 3: How to Google. Homework:
— Do: Dash Project 1

Jan. 30, 2014 Guest speaker: Dan Sinker, Mozilla Foundation. Homework: Build a personal website. You have until Feb. 4. Requirements: It must be three pages — index, resume and surprise me with something. The design must be consistent across all three pages — i.e. same navigation, fonts, colors, etc. Host it on Github

Feb. 4, 2014 An introduction to data journalism. Homework:
— Read: Want to build a data journalism team? You’ll need these three people
— Read: The Data Journalism Handbook, Introduction
— Read: The Canvas for CAR

Feb. 6, 2014 Guest speaker: Matt Wynn, Omaha World Herald

Feb. 11, 2014 An introduction to analysis: Spreadsheets, data and the basics. Homework:
— Do: JS for Cats

Feb. 13, 2014 More hands on with spreadsheets. Homework:
— Do: Codecademy: JavaScript 1-4
— Do: Try jQuery 1-6

Feb. 18, 2014 Your first news app, part 1. Using Tabletop.js, make a single page news app. Data TBA.
Feb. 20, 2014 Your first news app, part 2. Finish single page news app. Commit to Github.
Feb. 25, 2014 The ethics of news apps. Homework:
— Read: Handling Data About Race and Ethnicity
— Read: Public Info Doesn’t Always Want To Be Free