We have stressed enactment in our explorations of rhetoric, technology, and culture—which is to say our rhetorical explorations of technology have taken place largely through particular technologies. To heighten this sense of enactment, the Technology Tutorial Project asks students to collaborate (in teams of 3-4) in preparing and executing a tutorial on a particular new media technology relevant to the other two major course projects. The tutorial will consist of two parts: a composed handout and a 30-minute interactive presentation. Teams will choose from the following list of technologies:
Each technology will be paired with one of the two other major course projects. For example, new media technologies such as Twitter and Facebook could by employed in the Distance Enhancement Project to accomplish a tangible change through online means. Similarly, students recasting their conference paper as an online journal article as part of the New Media Research Project might benefit from instruction in the use of Dreamweaver or Google Sites. Groups will sign up for a particular topic and then the instructors will assign presentation dates based on the needs of the course.
Composed Handout
The composed handout should include a brief overview of the technology (producer, cost, platform, competitors/market share, etc.) and a discussion of its potential benefits in the context of one of the other two major course projects.
30-Minute Interactive Presentation
The 30-minute interactive presentation should demonstrate the technology in use, highlighting particular features and providing instruction in how they might be used to advance the Distance Enhancement or New Media Research projects. All presentations should offer an in-class exercise to supplement the tutorial. This means that the tutorials should function as workshops, not lectures.
The class as a whole will do six tutorials throughout the semester (starting in week five and concluding in week ten). Specific tutorial presentation dates will be assigned by the instructors. Tutorial presentations will take place at the beginning of the class period.
The Distance Enhancement Project asks students working locally in groups to use online technologies to make a tangible, beneficial contribution to the other university. Each group’s choice of technologies should respond to the exigence of the situation, but three separate technologies are required (options include Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, YouTube, blogs, RSS feeds, and podcasts, among others).
To identify an enhancement to make, each student will research the other university and compose a Research Report positing a way to contribute. Each student will deliver an individual Enhancement Pitch to the other class based on this report. The other class will select a limited number of these pitches to move forward for group development.
Enhancements need not be overly grandiose, but they should be beneficial for a defined group. Examples of previous enhancements include:
At the conclusion of the project, each student will assess his or her own contribution to the group's efforts and those of the other other group members. Part of each student's project grade will be based on this peer assessment.
Research Report
The Research Report should be a document of approximately 3 pages identifying a practical way to benefit the other university. The benefit should be derived from research, and thus the Research Report should reference no fewer than 3 resources that demonstrate the genuine utility of the proposed change. (This is an individual project component worth 20% of the overall project grade.)
Enhancement Pitch
The Enhancement Pitch is a 5-minute individual presentation based on the Research Report and delivered to the other class. Its purpose is to get the other class to select the corresponding topic. Only a limited number of pitch topics will be selected to move forward for development. (This is an individual project component with the opportunity to obtain bonus points.)
Design Plan
The Design Plan is a detailed worksheet that formalizes the rhetorical of each group's proposed benefit. That is to say, the Design Plan establishes each group's goals and how they will be achieved by describing what technologies will be employed, who they will target, their contexts of use, and how they will be consciously crafted to achieve specific effects. (This is a group project component worth 20% of the overall project grade.)
Enhancement Materials
The Enhancement Materials are the actual online technologies that will be used to effect a beneficial change at the other university. These materials might include, for example, a Facebook group, a YouTube video, or a Twitter feed. Materials should be rhetorically sophisticated and demonstrate coherence with the corresponding Design Plan. (This is a group project component worth 50% of the overall project grade.)
Postmortem
The Postmortem is an individual, confidential form that assess the contributions of all group members to the project. Each student will receive an individual grade for this project component based upon the Postmortem assessments of his or her efforts. (This is an individual project component worth 10% of the overall project grade.)
Outcome Check
Near the end of the semester, each group will prepare a 5-minute presentation identifying project successes. That is to say, the Outcome Check is each group's opportunity to demonstrate that their proposed beneficial contribution has come to fruition (or has been greatly advanced). Members of both classes will vote on the success of the projects, and group bonus points will be distributed accordingly. (This is a group project component with the opportunity to obtain bonus points.)
Students will submit their Research Reports present their Enhancement Pitches during week 7. Groups will form shortly thereafter and construct their Enhancement Materials with the expectation that these materials will develop throughout the semester as each group attempts to enact its beneficial change. Near the end of the semester, groups will share their achievements with the class.
A major component of this course, as indicated in the syllabus, is the incorporation of rhetorical theory and technology into student research and teaching. This project asks students to develop a research project, articulating that project first as a conference paper (and in a conference proposal) and then as a multimedia text for an online scholarly publication that takes advantage of online, new media tools. Heeding the warning of Collin Brooke, this rearticulation will not be a transposed version of the conference paper. As Brooke argues in Linqua Fracta:
New communication and information technologies do not simply provide us with new sites of rhetorical practice; instead, they challenges us to reconceive rhetoric altogether.
The multimedia text, then, will need to be a re-conceptualized version of the conference paper and its argument, delivered and arranged to suit the constraints and affordances of online journals such as Kairos, Present Tense, The Writing Instructor, and Harlot.
The choice of research topic is up to the student, who should, nevertheless, take into account the available outlets (both conferences and journals), which have their own wants, needs and timelines. The research project should be anchored in the primary texts of the course, but students are encouraged to incorporate, integrate, and/or interrogate their own research agenda into and through the project. In other words, students are challenged to put rhetoric and technology to work for them.
Conference Proposal
The Conference Proposal should follow guidelines specified in the corresponding conference cfp. (10% of project grade.)
Conference Paper
The Conference Paper should conform to the expectations of the corresponding conference cfp. Conference papers are generally between 10 and 20 pages depending on the presenter's allotted time. (40% of project grade.)
Journal Proposal
The Journal Proposal should conform to the expectations of the selected journal. (10% of project grade.)
Multimedia Text
The Multimedia Text, based upon the Conference Paper, should meet the publication standards of an online journal stressing multimedia, hypertext submissions. (40% of project grade.)