ENG 314-001

Project Summary:

The Local Mapping Project asks students working in groups to communicate aspects of their local environments through the practice of digital mapping. Technological geolocation has become a significant means to revisit our immediate spaces and places and explore how they connect with a shared history, culture, and landscape.

Each group will construct a Google Map about a single theme that identifies and describes at least five significant sites using substantive text, images, and audio and/or video. Examples of similar maps include:

• Katrina Information Map
• San Diego Witch Creek and Harris Fires Info and Maps
• Nioibu Smell Map
• Montréal Sound Map

Many other examples may be found through Google Maps Mania, Mashable.com, and Programmable Web.

Topic choice is wide open. Topics need not be overly grandiose, but they should be interesting, useful, and productive for a specific audience. Consider local historical or cultural sites, campus areas, indigenous wildlife and flora sites, health and sport sites, leisure spots, etc. Like all issues of design, topic choice should coordinate with the work's audience, context, purpose, medium, strategies, and arrangement. All maps will be built upon the Google Maps platform, and must incorporate text, images, and audio or video (or both). Students will do readings and activities—including leading training seminars—that will give them the knowledge and experience to produce such maps.

Groups:

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Design Plan (10% of project grade—draft due Friday 9/4, final due Monday 9/21)
   Each group will construct a design plan based on the rhetorical elements identified in CDA that articulate the goals of its map and how it will accomplish them. Design plans help guide the design process, but they are not static recipes. They are evolving documents that shift to accommodate changes encountered during project development. Because of this, groups will turn in final, revised design plans with their completed maps. Excellent design plans will account thoroughly for all of the rhetorical elements established in CDA and present a coherent narrative rather than a collection of disconnected parts. Excellent design plans also will reflect the corresponding map, and be in a finished, polished format incorporating appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
2. Training Seminar (10% of project grade—due Wednesday 9/9 or Friday 9/11)
   Each group will lead a training seminar in a subject that will assist the class in the production of Google Maps. Seminars will last half the class period (~20 minutes), and should use Google Presentations as a presentation tool. Seminars should incorporate an interactive element, such as a group activity, a guided walk-through, or a quiz. Excellent training seminars will provide useful information in an engaging and readily-comprehensible way. Excellent training seminars will use Google Presentations for organization, and will not clutter the slides with unnecessary elements. Excellent training seminars will involve all group members, be on time, and be rehearsed and polished.
   
   
   
   
3. Map Draft (engagement assignment grade, not part of project grade—due Monday 9/14)
   Each group will produce a draft of its Google Map for a draft workshop. This stage is important for the design process, but drafts are graded as engagement assignments, and are not included in the project grade. Drafts should be as complete as possible so that draft feedback is maximally beneficial.
   
   
   
   
4. Final Map (60% of project grade—due Monday 9/21)
   (The class-produced Final Map rubric is available here.)
   Each group will produce a Google Map that reveals an aspect of the local area's history, culture, or landscape. Maps should identify and describe at least five significant sites in a chosen theme using substantive text and multimedia. Excellent maps will explicate an interesting, productive subject through insightful, grammatical text and original, professional-grade multimedia. Excellent maps will use icons (placemarks, lines, shapes) appropriately, and will contain enough sites to demonstrate significant engagement.
   
   
   
   
5. Final Map Presentation (10% of project grade—due Friday 9/18)
   Each group will present its map to the class, explaining how the map represents its subject. Map presentations will last approximately 10 minutes. Excellent map presentations will incorporate techniques discussed in class readings. Excellent map presentations will involve all group members, be on time, and be rehearsed and polished.
   
   
   
   
6. Postmortem (10% of project grade, individual to each group member—due Monday 9/21)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Each student will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into the contributions of group members and the global performance of the team. Postmortems will be used to assign group members individual grades for this project component. Excellent postmortems will account thoroughly for all sections of the postmortem form, thereby providing valuable insight into project development, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Excellent postmortems will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.