Local Mapping Project

Project Summary:

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

Each student will construct a Google Map about a single theme that identifies and describes at least five relevant sites using substantive text and images. 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 flora and fauna 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 and images. Students will do readings and activities that will give them the knowledge and experience to produce such maps.

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Field Research Packet (10% of project grade)
   Each student will assemble a packet of field research about his or her chosen sites consisting of notes, photos, and commentary. The packet must be bound together in some way (folder, CD, binder clip, etc.) so that the material will stay together physically. The information in this research packet will be the raw material that students will incorporate into their Google Maps. Excellent Field Research Packets will contain productive information and insightful commentary, and will be logically arranged to be assessable to other people. Excellent Field Research Packets will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
2. Design Plan (10% of project grade)
   (Design Plan criteria are available here.)
   Each student will construct a design plan based on the rhetorical elements identified in Compose, Design, Advocate that articulates the map's goals 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. 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.
   
   
   
   
3. Final Map (60% of project grade)
   (The rubric created by the class is available here.)
   Each student will produce a Google Map that illuminates 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 images. Excellent maps will explicate an interesting, productive subject through insightful, grammatical text and original, professional-grade images. Excellent maps will use icons (placemarks, lines, shapes) appropriately, and demonstrate significant student engagement.
   
   
   
   
4. Final Map Presentation (10% of project grade)
   (The presentation criteria chosen by the class are available here.)
   Each student will present his or her map to the class, explaining how the map represents its subject. Map presentations will use Google Presentation and last approximately 5 minutes. Excellent map presentations will incorporate techniques discussed in class readings. Excellent map presentations will be on time, and be rehearsed and polished.
   
   
   
   
5. Postmortem (10% of project grade)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Each student will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into his or her design process. Excellent postmortems will account thoroughly for all sections of the postmortem form, thereby providing valuable information about project development, successes, challenges, and lessons learned. Excellent postmortems will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.

Online Community Advocacy Project

Project Summary:

The Online Community Advocacy Project asks students working in groups to produce a campaign to make a tangible, beneficial change in the local environment through online advocacy. The capacity of online networks and digital technologies to change social spaces is burgeoning, and (as we will see) has become a salient popular, commercial, and academic topic.

Groups will have the opportunity to incorporate multiple technologies into their advocacy campaign, including Twitter, Facebook, Google Docs, YouTube, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, iPhone and other smartphone apps, etc. Choice of technologies will be determined by groups based upon the rhetorical potentials of the situation, however at least three separate technological deployments are required. Advocacy topic choice is wide open. Topics need not be overly grandiose, but they should be interesting, useful, and productive for a specific group. Topics also should not replicate existing advocacy campaigns. If an existing campaign is in place, the group must find a way to extend it to a new audience, context, or purpose for the topic to be viable.

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Individual Topic Pitch (individual bonus points on project grade)
   Students will individually produce one-page pitches covering specific advocacy topics that provide a general overview of the proposed advocacy project's goals and how it will accomplish them. Pitches will be shared in class, and the class will vote on a limited number of topic pitches to pursue. Those whose pitches are selected will receive individual bonus points on the assignment. Excellent topic pitches will outline a workable, interesting advocacy topic, and provide a clear understanding of project goals and means.
   
   
   
   
2. Design Plan (10% of project grade)
   (Design Plan criteria available here.)
   Once groups have formed, each will produce a design plan that explicates the goals of their chosen advocacy project and how it will accomplish them (this report will likely be based in part on the selected individual topic pitch). Essentially, this report uses rhetorical elements (audience, context, purpose, medium, strategies, arrangement) to establish how the group's online texts will accomplish their goals. 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 proposal reports also will reflect the components of the corresponding advocacy campaign, and be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
3. Technology Seminar (10% of project grade)
   Each group will lead a seminar covering an technological service. The seminar should respond to the question: "how can we use this service to foster local community change?" Groups will select their own topic. Examples include:

   • Twitter
   • Facebook
   • Google Docs
   • YouTube
   • texting
   • blogs
   • RSS feeds
   • podcasts
   • iPhone and other smartphone apps
   • other (pending instructor approval)

   Seminars will last half the class period (~20 minutes), and should incorporate an interactive element, such as a group activity, a guided walk-through, or a quiz. All group members should participate in the seminar. Excellent technology seminars will provide useful information in an engaging and readily-comprehensible way. Excellent training seminars will involve all group members, be on time, and be rehearsed and polished.
   
   
   
   

4. Critical Resource Analysis (10% of project grade)
   Each group will produce a short report discussing how one critical, book-length text might inform and shape our production of the Online Community Advocacy Project. Each book may be selected by only one group. Groups will select their own book. Examples include:

   • Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks
   • Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, The Starfish and the Spider
   • Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs
   • Clay Shirky, Here Comes Everybody
   • Bill Wasik, And Then There's This

   Each group's analysis should provide an overview of the work, but the main issue is how it can help us with this project. What applicable information, strategies, or techniques may be drawn from it? How does it change the way we view the topic? These short reports will be shared with the class. Excellent critical resource analyses will provide thorough, concise overviews of their corresponding works and insightful information about how they may might inform and shape our projects. Excellent critical resource analyses will be in a finished, polished format, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   

5. Final Advocacy Materials (50% of project grade)
   The final advocacy materials include all of the works produced for the advocacy campaign, including Facebook groups, Twitter feeds, YouTube videos, etc. Although these materials are called "final," groups should think of them as the launchpad for the corresponding campaign rather than its end. Excellent materials will be thorough and appropriate to the goals and means defined in the corresponding design plan. Excellent materials will incorporate several technological services and media. Excellent materials will be polished and professional, incorporating engaging, grammatical text and original, professional-grade multimedia.
   
   
   
   
6. Final Advocacy Presentation (10% of project grade)
   Each group will present its final advocacy materials to the class, explaining the campaign's goals and how they will be accomplished through the corresponding materials. Presentations will last approximately 10 minutes, but need not incorporate all group members. Excellent final advocacy presentations will incorporate techniques discussed in class readings, be on time, and be rehearsed and polished.
   
   
   
   
7. Postmortem (10% of project grade, individual to each group member)
   (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.
   
   
   
   
8. Results Presentation (group bonus points)
   At the end of the semester, each group will deliver a final, 10 minute presentation discussing the outcomes of its advocacy campaign. The class will vote on the various campaigns' effectiveness, and bonus points will be awarded accordingly. Results presentations need not involve all group members. Excellent results presentations will highlight the successes of the corresponding advocacy campaign, be on time, and be rehearsed and polished.

Podcast/Vodcast Project

Project Summary:

The Podcast/Vodcast Project asks students to develop audio or video content and a corresponding website to deliver it. Podcasts and vodcasts (video podcasts) are relatively new formats, but already they cover a dizzying range of topics, and most are created by amateur enthusiasts. Something that effective podcasts and vodcasts have in common is that they communicate a specific topic to a specific audience in a specific context for a specific purpose.

Each student will create a complete podcast or vodcast including both an episode and a corresponding website venue. Students will analyze existing works to determine effective and ineffective features. Existing podcasts and vodcasts may be found through iTunes, Odeo, PodcastAlley, and other services.

Each student's final podcast or vodcast episode should be over 3 minutes in length and in an appropriate file format. The corresponding website should offer a properly formatted and functional rss feed to distribute the podcast or vodcast. Podcasts and vodcasts may include talk, music, interviews, sound effects, jingles, etc., but the majority of the content in each episode should be original. This means that students can't, for example, make an episode that only contains unoriginal music. Design plans and postmortems should be printed.

Project Sequence and Grading:

1. Design Plan (20% of project grade)
   (Design Plan criteria available here.)
   Each student will construct a design plan based on the rhetorical elements identified in Compose, Design, Advocate (audience, context, purpose, medium, strategies, arrangement) that articulates the podcast's or vodcast's (and corresponding website's) goals 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. 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 podcast or vodcast, and be in a finished, polished format incorporating appropriate grammar and mechanics.
   
   
   
   
2. Podcast/Vodcast and Corresponding Website (60% of project grade)
   (the rubric created by the class and the instructor is available here.)
   Each student will create a complete podcast or vodcast including one episode and a corresponding website. Each student's final podcast or vodcast episode should be over 3 minutes in length and in an appropriate file format. The corresponding website should offer a properly formatted and functional rss feed to distribute the podcast or vodcast. Podcasts and vodcasts may include talk, music, interviews, sound effects, jingles, etc., but the majority of the content in each episode should be original. Excellent podcasts/vodcasts and their corresponding websites should adhere to the principles of effective works analyzed by the class.
   
   
   
   
3. Postmortem (20% of project grade)
   (The postmortem form is available here.)
   Each student will produce a reflective postmortem that provides insight into his or her design process. 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 written for a professional readership and be complete and polished, including appropriate grammar and mechanics.