Author: admin

Final Reflection

In Authentic Learning in the Digital Age: Engaging Students Through Inquiry, Larissa Pahomov writes, “For student reflection to be meaningful, it must be metacognitive, applicable, and shared with others,” and defines metacognitive reflection as taking the process of reflection “to the next level because it is concerned not with assessment, but with self-improvement: Could this be better? How? What steps should you take?” (read full article here). In light of this assertion, I would like you to write a metacognitive reflection on the final project. This reflection should address the following questions, with an aim to identify how you could improve your work.

  1. What did you learn through the process of creating and presenting this project? How did this project help you synthesize and apply the topics we covered throughout the semester? Do you have suggestions to improve this assignment?
  2. What readings, activities, assignments, and discussions did you find particularly helpful, informative, and engaging in this class this semester? What would you suggest be changed to improve this course next time it is offered?
  3. Bonus question: if we were to rename this course in the future, what should this course be called? What title would appeal to students?

You may expand or add to these guidelines in any way you wish. This is your opportunity to speak directly to me about what you learned in this course.

This will be submitted as a Google Doc (title: finalreflection_yoursection_yourlastname for example finalreflection_381_licastro) that you share with me upon completion. You must invite me as an editor (with privileges to edit, not just read or comment). You will complete this by the day of our scheduled final exam, 5/11 at 4:15pm.

Also, please include this statement at the bottom of the document and fill in your name and response:

I ____________ do/ do not give Dr. Amanda Licastro permission to use my final project as an example in scholarly presentations and publications.

Pitch Feedback

On each pitch post, answer the following questions in the comment section.

  1. What excites you about this project and why?
  2. What do you want to see more of and why?
  3. What additional evidence does the audience need to be convinced that this research is complete?

The Future of the Book

Final Assignment

Together we have explored the history of media through theory and practice. For this assignment you will engage in “reflective design,” defined by Hancock et al as “promot[ing] critical inquiry over usability and exploratory prototyping over fully realized productions.” You can do this by beginning with the current state of publishing and then projecting potential solutions – or perhaps evolutions – of these tools to enhance the reading experience in the future. We are specifically concentrating on the tools of publishing for this project, since this course has focused on media we use to communicate. Essentially, it is your job to imagine the future of the book. However, these are meant to be visions of the future – featuring a balance of imagination and practicality

This project will be broken into parts:

Stage 1: The Pitch                 

  • Create a proposal for your “design fiction” project ( 450-500 words, 3-5min presentation)
  • Introduce the product and explain its purpose – this is the time to dream big!
  • Explain what need this product will fill that is not met by currently available technology and how it builds on current technology(ies)
  • Prove this item has a customer base, and be specific about your target audience
  • Imagine the process and materials it would take to manufacture and distribute this product – even if these do not exist yet
  • Provide evidence of preliminary research – especially evidence that this product does not currently exist already (Use MLA citation formatting for in-text citations and works cited entries)
  • Present this idea is a “Shark Tank” style pitch in under 5 minutes

Stage 2: Annotated Bibliographies

  • Using Zotero, you will build a research base for this project
  • Each person must contribute at least 3 resources to our group library
  • Each source must include a correctly formatted MLA citation
  • Each source must be summarized and evaluated in the “notes” section

Stage 3: Final Proposal

  • Create a dossier for your proposal. This should serve as the complete representation of your product. Create a 5-7 page description that features your research (properly cited in MLA format) and connections to what you have learned in this course.
  • You paper should include the following:
    • Purpose
    • Audience
    • Technical specifications (what products are you modeling this on, how will the user interface with the product, and include a mock-up/prototype)
    • Implementation plan (advertising/marketing/long term vision)
  • Include some kind of prototype or mock-up of your tool. Use multimedia to your advantage!
  • Include a full works-cited page for all materials used (including media)

Additional Notes:

Each student must meet with me in pre-scheduled conferences. I am also available to consult with you on your individual product pitches during office hours. This description is subject to change after we discuss your ideas.

Zotero

A Quick Guide to Zotero

zotero handout (click to download)

Why Zotero?

  • COLLECT

Grab information from an item displayed in your web browser with one click!

  • ORGANIZE

Drag and drop imported citations into folders. Use tags to further categorize your items.

  • CITE

Drag and drop bibliographies into a word processing document or use a toolbar in Microsoft Word and Open Office Writer to insert citations and bibliographies.

  • SYNC

Keep all your information backed up and accessible on multiple computers.

  • COLLABORATE

With a free Zotero.org account you can create and share group libraries.

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How to use Zotero?

  1. To create a Zotero account
    Go to zotero.org and click on “register” in the top right corner. Follow the instructions to create a free account. When you validate your email address you’ll be asked to open Zotero and change your password in preferences.
  2. Making Zotero work for you
    Now that you have a Zotero account you can add and upload citations to your library manually, however a lot of the cool functionalities that make Zotero easy and awesome are not yet available to you. You’ll need to download Zotero onto your personal computer. If you use Firefox as your regular browser, choose “Zotero for Firefox”; otherwise choose the “Zotero Standalone” with the browser extension that matches the browser you use most often (ex. Chrome or Safari). Once it is downloaded, open it up and click on the gear menu, choose “preferences”, then choose the “sync” tab where you will log in using the account you just created.

Once you’ve created an account, you can explore these great tutorials (https://www.zotero.org/support/screencast_tutorials) on the Zotero.org website.

  1. Using Zotero to Cite Your Sources
    Chances are, if you spend time reading an article or book that you find interesting you’ll want to refer back to it more than once in the course of your academic career. Zotero lets you easily store sources that look promising as you’re doing Internet research, and it helps you to organize them in multiple ways.

Adding sources: Once you’ve downloaded Zotero, when you arrive at webpages that contain bibliographic information a Zotero icon will likely show up in the top right hand corner of the address bar.

What if I don’t see an icon? In the Zotero pane, find the button that looks like a page with a little plus symbol: it’s next to the big green plus-sign. That will create a new item from the current page. Equivalently, you can right-click to “save page as a Zotero item.”

You can also change the item type in the right side of the Zotero pane, or even add subtypes like “comic.”

Already have an item on your computer? Try “store copy of file.” This will sync it up with the Zotero server. You can also then right-click on the new item to try to “retrieve metadata for pdf.”

There are also apps for Android and iOS smartphones that let you scan bar codes to add books to your Zotero library.

Tags vs. Collections (folders)

When you add something to your library, it will automatically be added to My Library and to any collection/folder you’re currently viewing. NB: This applies as well to group libraries: if you’ve selected a group collection in the Zotero pane, then any item you add will be shared with everyone in the group. And if you haven’t selected the group collection, it won’t be shared with them. But you can always drag something from one folder to another: it will be copied to the new folder without being removed from the old one.

What’s the difference between a collection and tags?

Think of a collection as a single bibliography, at least in potentia: all the sources you consulted for a given research project. The reason to put these sources together in one folder is to make it easier to select-all.

Tags, on the other hand, are per-source descriptors that travel with each source wherever they might go, and make it easy to find connections between projects – or even to find new projects.

Once you’ve built a Zotero library full of sources, you can use Zotero to construct citations and bibliographies while you’re writing a paper!

One-off citations (e.g. forum posts): Just drag and drop a source item from the center Zotero pane into anywhere you can enter text: it will automatically take on the format you set under Gear > Preferences > Export.

Bibliographic projects (e.g. an orals list): Select the items in the center Zotero pane, then right click and choose “Create Bibliography from selected items.”

Longer projects (e.g. articles, papers, dissertations): If you have integrated citations, you’ll want to use a word processor plugin, which will allow you to rapidly convert your footnotes to parenthetical citations, MLA to APA to ACS, what-have-you. Zotero Standalone comes bundled with plugins for MS Word, or you can download it separately for the Firefox version; there’s also an OpenOffice plugin.

Either way, you’ll have to activate it within Word; how depends on your OS:

  • On a Mac, head to Tools menu > Templates and Add-Ins > Zotero.dot. It’ll add a little Zotero toolbar, which you may or may not be able to add to the ribbon. (Depends on your version of Word.) If you accidentally lose the toolbar, you can get it back from View > Toolbars > Zotero Bibliographic Management.
  • On a PC, hit the round Office button > Word Options > Add-Ins > Manage > Word Add-Ins > Zotero.dot. It’ll add an Add-Ins tab to the ribbon, containing the same buttons as on the Mac.

Hover over each button in the new toolbar to see what it does; it’s pretty self-explanatory from that point. But, just to be safe:

  • Click “insert citation” to search your library for a citeable item.
  • To add page numbers, click on a name you’ve selected.
  • Press Enter to insert when you’re ready.
  • You won’t get a bibliography until you select “Insert Bibliography”; once you do, it will autopopulate the bibliography with the items you’ve cited.

What does the “remove codes” button do, and why use it? When you’re ready to submit to a journal or professor, use this button to convert the citation placeholders into real text, so you know it won’t get screwed up by their citation manager software. Just be sure to give it a new filename with File > Save As, so you can quickly switch citation styles later if you want (using the Set Doc Prefs button).

Timeline Assignment

Together as a class you will create an interactive timeline of publishing invention and innovation. Each of you will be responsible for adding 3 items to the timeline. Here are some examples to choose from, but you may suggest others:

Hieroglyphics – Shanice
Papyrus- Shanice
Vellum – Grace
The codex – Ryan R
Paper – Grace
The Greek alphabet
Folios – Marcus
The monastic scriptoria
Stationers
Moveable type – Juwan
Bookbinding – Juwan
Steam Press – Cory
Gutenberg Press
Pencil – Grace
Quill and ink – Lanett
Newspapers -Cory
The Republic of Letters – Juwan
Typewriter – Ryan R
Copyright – Lanett
The computer mouse – Ryan R
Creative Commons – Marcus
IBM – Marcus
OCR
Email
GNU Operating System
Apple II
Windows – Cory
MOSAIC
ARPANET
American Online (AOL)
Hypertext
Project Gutenberg – Lanett
TEI – Shanice
Blogs

Once you have selected three inventions, you will compose a timeline entry that includes:

  • A date range and title.
  • A thorough description, with MLA citations, that provides the history, impact, and context for this item. This should be between 300 and 500 words.
  • An image, video, or map that best represents this item. You must have citation information for each item, and they all must be free to use or share.

Here is our spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C4GPoW7NjVvPy-WZo5pAOmBA_PBQCFN__Z7UapBdVXc/edit?usp=sharing

Note: Don’t change the column headers, don’t remove any columns, and don’t leave any blank rows in your spreadsheet.

Here are guidelines: https://timeline.knightlab.com/docs/using-spreadsheets.html

Here is an example: https://timeline.knightlab.com/examples/user-interface/index.html

This is worth 30 points = 20% of your grade.

You will post extended drafts (between 500 and 700 words), with media, for each entry by 2/23 on our course site. Use tag “timeline” and category “blog.” You will present your entries on 2/28.

 

 

 

 

Reverse Outlining

Whether you are reading a published text or peer reviewing a paper, reverse outlining can help you process information by distilling the main ideas of a text into short, clear statements. Put simply, when reverse outline the reader tries to summarize each paragraph of a text in two sentences. This process will not only help you analyze the material you are reading, it will also allow you to organize your response. You may use reverse outlining to revise your own work, revise the work of others, or to annotate a text.

Reverse outlining follows a two-step, repeatable process:

  1. In the left-hand margin, write down the topic of each paragraph. Try to use as few words as possible.

When reading, these notes should work as quick references for future study or in-class discussion.

When revising your own work or the work of your peers, these notes should tell you if each paragraph is focused and clear.

  1. In the right-hand margin, write down how the paragraph topic advances the overall argument of the text. Again, be brief.

When reading, these notes allow you to follow the logic of the essay, making it easier for you to analyze or discuss later.

When revising work, these notes should tell you if each paragraph fits in the overall organization of the paper. You may also notice that paragraphs should be shifted after completing this step.

Remember to be brief. You should try to complete each step in 5-10 words. When reading a published text, you should be able to summarize the topic and the manner of support quickly; if you can’t, you should consult a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or other resources to help you understand the content. When reading your own work or the work of a peer, you should consider revising any section that does not have a clear point that is easy to re-articulate.

When reading a potential source, you should consider which points you agree or disagree with and make notes that help you formulate your opinion. However, when reading work with the goal of revision, the objective is to communicate an understanding of the writer’s main ideas, not to critique or correct these points. When reading your own work or the work of a peer, if the paragraph does contain an easily identifiable point, but it does not relate to the thesis or topic of the paper, it may be appropriate to remove this section entirely.

This exercise can be expanded by rewriting/typing your outline with comments or further suggestions, but writing in the margin might be sufficient.

This exercise is adapted from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/689/1/ by The OWL at Purdue