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Syllabus

All students should register for accounts on the following sites: CUNY Academic Commons, Twitter, and Zotero. Remember that when you register for social-networking accounts, you do not have to use your full name or even your real name. One benefit of writing publicly under your real name is that you can begin to establish a public academic identity and to network with others in your field. However, keep in mind that search engines have extended the life of online work; if you are not sure that you want your work for this course to be part of your permanently searchable identity trail on the web, you should strongly consider creating an alias. Whether you engage social media under your real name or whether you construct a new online identity, please consider the ways in which social media can affect your career in both positive and negative ways.

Week 1: Feb 2 – Introduction of the course, faculty

  • intro/bios
  • Review of syllabus/requirements
    • Week-by-week breakdown
    • Regular Blog Posting
    • Wikipedia assignment
    • Proposal Abstracts
    • Final Project
  • Discussing use of online tools (Academic Commons)
  • Blog posting
  • Weekly commenting
  • Signing up as class motivators
  • New Media Methods
  • Collaboration
  • Want vs Need
  • Scope Creep and Minimally Viable Product
  • Incorporating Failure into your process (Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.)
  • Learning how to learn
  • Wikipedia intro (user accounts, edit tab, basic BB Code)

Assigned: Introductory project ideas in blog post.

Workshop 1: Feb 7, 630-830, Wikis/Wikipedia 1

Led by Malika Toure, Wikipedia Campus Ambassador

Covering: user and article talk pages, signing comments, page history, creating and linking diffs

 

Week 2: Feb. 9 – Contexts and Practicalities

In this class we will explore ways of thinking through and analyzing a project before it begins and look into issues that can arise depending on the way in which the project realized.

Context Thinking about the What, Where, When, Why and How before you begin a project. The four little B’s (build, buy, borrow, beg). Which one is the right fit for your software project? When starting any software project this often the first consideration. Do you build it your self, buy it off the shelf, use free and open source software (borrow) or use some of the free web services out there (beg)?

Reading: Chris Stein, Contexts and Practicalities

This post is a reading in itself and provides links to the other readings for the week. There are a lot of links and you won’t need to read through and analyze every article thoroughly. They are there to help give context, support and detail to the arguments made in the post.

 

Week 3: Feb. 16 – Online Learning and Teaching

DUE: Submit to my talk page a diff of one paragraph added to an article related to your research.

Assigned: Collaboratively written Wikipedia article

Readings:

  • Some of you may have already stumbled upon it, but this post (and its comments) on cac.o.phony is an interesting breakdown of the pros/cons/challenges of online learning. You’ll note that Joe Ugoretz (ITP Faculty) is one of the commenters. (please make sure to read all of the comments as that is where the good conversation takes place)

Related background readings (things to look at if you’re so inclined; also resources for future use)

  • “Modest Changes, Revolutionary Possibilities: Distance Learning and the Future of Education,” Gary Natriello, Teachers College Record Volume 107 Number 8, 2005, pp. 1885-1904 [1]
  • “What Makes the Difference? A Practical Analysis of Research on the Effectiveness of Distance Education,” Yong Zhao, Jing Lei, Bo Yan, Chun Lai & Sophia Tan, Teachers College Record Volume 107 Number 8, 2005, pp. 1836-1884 [2]
  • Educating the Net Generation (2005), Diane and James Oblinger (eds.) [3] (especially “The Student’s Perspective” [4] and “The New Academy” [5]
  • Theory and Practice of Online Learning (2004), Anderson & Elloumi (eds.) [6]; Chap.2 [7], Chap. 5 [8], and Chap. 14 [9]
  • Innovative Technology for Collaborative Learning and Knowledge Building (ITCOLE) project D 2.1 “A review of the state-of-the-art of pedagogical models of CSCL,” Edited by Minna Lakkala, Marjaana Rahikainen, and Kai Hakkarainen – ITCOLE Project [10]

Motivator: Sonia and Naomi

 

Workshop 2: Feb 16, 630-830, HTML

Led by Haddasah Hill

Workshop 3: Feb 21, 630-830, Wikis/Wikipedia 2, Room C196.03

Led by Malika Toure, Wikipedia Campus Ambassador

Review of material from Wikis/Wikipedia 2,  wiki projects, best practices.

Week 4: Feb. 23– What does what OR How to get things done

Assigned: Project Abstracts

Michael will be at a conference. Class to be held via discussion on WordPress.

Less is more is both an aesthetic principle of modernism and a functional spec of agile development. Agile development comes from Ruby on Rails and 37Signals, and took its first full form in their Getting Real PDF. We will look at what it means to make less.

Every tool has a specific use. You can use a tea kettle to hammer in a nail, but you really shouldn’t. We will discuss all of the basic tools, and languages, and what each is used for.

37 Signals, Getting Real. Pages 2-74 of the PDF are required, but you will find it to be a fast read and may want to read the whole thing. PDF posted in the CAC group.

Joe Ugoretz, et al, CUNY AC Kitchen Sink Utilities wiki page

Motivator: Sonia, Mei-Ling, Laura

Workshop 4: Feb 29, 630-830, WordPress 1 (Install and Config), Room C196.02

Led by Boone Gorges

Week 5: March 1 – Collaboration

Reading:

Guest: CUNY Academic Commons Team

 

Motivator: Hadassah, Chrissy, Kiran

Workshop 5: Mar 6, 630-830, CSS, Room C196.01

Led by Jesse Merandy

Week 6: Mar. 8 – Student Blogging:

DUE: Wikipedia Article

Reading:

Motivator: Janice,  Amy, Tope

 

Workshop 6: Mar 8, 630-830, Scholarly Collaboration Online, Room C196.02

Led by Sarah Ruth Jacobs

Workshop 7: Mar 13, 630-830, Public Data Exploration, Room C196.03

Led by Sarah Ruth Jacobs

 

Week 7: Mar. 15 – Mid-semester project conversation

Workshop of your abstracts

Reading: Case studies (TBD) from Net Works, burrough (ed).

Workshop 8: Mar 20, 630-830, Photoshop, Room C196.01

Led by Laura Kane

Week 8: Mar. 22 – Images and Open Educational Resources (future of the textbook)

Guests: Ashley Dawson and Tavia Nyong’o, Co-Web Editors of Social Text.

Reading:

Motivator: Chrissy, Ria and Sonia

  • Dawson:
  • Everyone must find at least one journal in their field that has transitioned to a hybrid online/offline or fully online model, and write a blog post assessing the effort. Some questions to consider include whether there are few or many in your field that have gone online, and why? What is gained and what is lost by transitioning online? Are there any examples you can find that skipped the print version, and created themselves anew in digital form?

 

Workshop 9: Thursday Mar 22, 630-830, Academic Publishing Online, Room C196.02

Led by Leila Walker

Workshop 10: Mar 28, 630-830, WordPress 2 (Basic Theme Disection), Room C196.02

Led by Boone Gorges

Week 9: Mar. 29 – Extra Institutional learning

Places for exploration:

Readings:

Motivator: Hadassah, Amy, Laura

Workshop 11: Apr 3, 630-830, Inkscape/Illustrator, Room C196.01

Led by Naomi Barrettara

Week 10: Apr. 5 – Applied Free Culture

Reading:

  • Lewis Hyde, from Common As Air, selections
  • Lawrence Lessig, “REMIX: How creativity is being strangled by the law”, from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
  • Michael Mandiberg, “Giving Things Away is Hard Work: Three Creative Commons Case Studies,” from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
  • Fred Benenson, “On the Fungibility and Necessity of Cultural Freedom,” from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)
  • Fred Von Loehman, “Your Intermediary Is Your Destiny”, from The Social Media Reader, (ed. Mandiberg)

Motivator: Naomi, Tope, Jacob

 

Week 11: Apr. 12 – BREAK

(post final project final update)

Workshop 12: Apr 17, 630-830, Prezi and presentations, Room C196.03

Led by Mei Ling Israel

Week 12: Apr. 19 – Failure. Also, Slideware…

Guest: Addie Wagenecht

Readings

 

Motivator: Janice & Mei-Ling

Week 13: Apr. 26 – The Future of the Internet (Web 2.0/3.0/++)

 Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet (and How We Can Stop it) http://futureoftheinternet.org/download, Section II pp. 63-148; suggested: conclusion, pp. 235 – 246.

Motivator: Kiran, Ria, Naomi

Week 14: May 3 FLEX SESSION (presentations if necessary, or other topics that may come up during the semester)

Guest: Marco Deseriis

Week 15: May 10 – Presentations

Week 16: May 17 – Presentations

 

 


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