Mstu4020/Due dates

From Studyplace

[edit] BLOG

• Ongoing

You will be expected to post at least once per week. At times, you will be asked to respond to specific questions; at other times, you will be free to choose the topic of your post.

While the blog is an assigned component of the class that makes up a part of the overall grade, it is intended to be a less formal space for personal reflection on the course materials and the research process. While the written assignments are closely graded according to APA guidelines, on the blog I encourage you to write freely! It is your space, and you’re free to use it above and beyond the assignments, to post about anything that strikes you as interesting (though preferably with at least a tangential relationship to the course).

[edit] ARTICLE CRITIQUE PRESENTATIONS

• OCTOBER 25, 2007

Find an article in your area of interest that relates to the research question that you are developing for your final paper/project. As such, you should be able to relate it to the central foci of the class: social aspects learning, social aspects of electronic learning environments, ways to design social environments for learning, and so on. To repeat this, you need to be able to draw a relationship to the class, the paper itself doesn't actually have to do this. In this way, I have structured this assignment to be wide open. That is, you have to do is to be able to talk about whatever paper you choose in relation to the focus of the class in some way.

So it's not so much that the paper has to be right on target and directly discuss social issues and/or technology, but you need to be able to relate it to concepts of technology and learning as we have discussed.

I have intentionally made this assignment wide open so that you can read something in your area of interest and think about how it would relate to our class. So you can choose something in ESL, policy, design, identity, how social and other factors affect learning, or any area of interest to you.

Once you have chosen an article, read it and write (1) an abstract of the article and (2) no more than 2 pages that discuss and critique the item you have chosen. The abstract should be no more than one page long, double spaced. Your critique should be no more than 2 pages long, double spaced. You must use current APA style in terms of margins, headings, font, reference format, pagination, and so on. Look on-line or check the library or other places for a style guide if you don't have one.

Post your abstract electronically to the reviews page on the class wiki by the date shown in the course outline. Send your abstract and critique to the entire class (using ClassWeb) by the date shown on the outline. In the subject line for your message/broadcast, use: 4020 critique lastname As an example, if I were to send a critique to the class, I would use in the subject line of my message: 4020 critique Lohnes Your attachment should be in Word, with the filename of the attachment being the same as the subject line of the message (4020 critique lastname .doc). As an example, I would use 4020 critique Lohnes.doc as my Word filename. Your attached file should contain the abstract, followed by the critique, and the article's bibliographic reference (in APA style).

In class, you will each have 3 minutes to present an overview of the article and discuss how it relates to the class and what you think of the article that you chose. This will be timed (you will be cut off after 3 minutes). Three minutes goes by quickly, so practice and budget your time so that you can quickly say what the article was about, then spend most of your time talking about it's relevance to you and to the issues of interest to the class and critiquing what the article says.

If you want to use PowerPoint or other presentation items to support your talk, remember to load whatever you need onto ClassWeb before class. Also, try to copy what you need to the class presentation machine before class. I don't want to take much time between your presentations to load files. It is not necessary to use PowerPoint and, with such a short time for the presentation, it is often better to do without it.

So, in summary, you need to:

1. Choose an article of interest related to your final project and relate it to the class.
2. Read the article and write a one-page, double-spaced abstract and a 2 page critique, double spaced, in APA style.
3. Post your abstract to the reviews page on the class wiki (Studyplace).
4. Send one file containing the abstract and critique to the class by the required date using ClassWeb and using the names for your attachment and subject line as noted above.
5. Present your critique to the class in a 3-minute presentation.

[edit] FINAL PAPER/PROJECT

• Paper due by the start of class on December 13, 2007
  • Please email me a Word doc in the style of the midterm: 4020 final Lohnes
• Presentations December 13 & 20, 2007

1. You can do a paper that is essentially a literature review and discussion of a given topic, or you can do a project/mini-study and turn in a write-up of that work.
2. Whichever you choose, it should be related to the course in some way. That is, it should relate in some way to the issues we will read about and discuss in class, with a technology focus: social aspects, identity, literacy (very broadly defined), and so on.
3. A paper means that you can do a formal literature review in an area related to a topic in the course.
4. A mini-study means that you would design and create something, and/or test something with people to examine an issue related to a topic in this course. If you choose to do a mini-study/project it isn't expected to be a formal, large-scale experiment. It should try to address a question of interest to you, but doesn't have to use a large number of "subjects." If you design and create something it doesn’t have to be a completely finished item. It could be representative of what a finished item would be, along with a description of what the completed item would be like.
5. Whether or not you decide to write a review paper or do a project/study, you will have to include references and present a theoretical discussion that relates to your topic. That is, a mini-study should not only report what you did, but also relate it to relevant other work and literature. While a more formal paper will likely have more references than a mini-study paper, both will have to incorporate relevant literature that relates to the topic of what you are writing about. In either case be aware that this is a class paper, not a dissertation, and so results from a design project or mini-study or literature review would not be conclusive, but exploratory.
6. Length: Though this is a question almost every instructor gets asked, I'm sure the answer from about every instructor is the same—one that you've heard many times before: There is no way to predict what "enough" is in terms of length. Obviously, one can't develop an argument and present content adequate for graduate work in a page or two. Also, obviously, a class paper is not a dissertation proposal or dissertation-length literature review. So you'll need to use as much space as you need to show that you have a grasp of the topic you wish to present in your paper or project, but you need not be exhaustive in your discussion. A paper that is a more traditional literature review will have more references than a project paper, but length might be about the same, as the project/mini-study has to describe what was done, and include measures and results (if that's the kind of project you want to present), but also needs to include references and some sort of theory relevant to the topic of the mini-study project. There really isn't a length that I'm looking for. Perhaps the best way I can answer the question about length is to say that the shortest paper that I have received in the past five years that received an "A" grade was about 12 pages, including references, and the longest was 41 pages, including references. As I said, both of these received an "A" grade, but I've also had 12 to 40 page papers that did not receive an "A." The actual grade isn't so much related to length as it is to the things noted above.
7. References: As with length, there is no way to predict what is "enough" in terms of the number of references included in your paper. However, please be certain that a) most of your references come from sources other than those we've read for class, and b) most of your references come from scholarly sources. The definition of scholarly source varies; however, the popular press is not considered a scholarly source (i.e. newspapers, news or technical magazines, etc.). If you're unsure about whether a source is appropriate, check with me.

Please come and see me and check your topic or ask any questions that you have.