Assigned

Well, here they are. I thought it might be better to have all the assignments and dates here, even if the dates are somewhat fluid.  I’m listing by dues dates (and expectations for response), but better to get in the conversation later than not at all. We do not adhere to the pirate code: those who fall behind are left behind. But if the ship takes off without you, be prepared to swim hard to catch up.

May 25:

Hard copies for these, but convert these to blog posts whenever you can.

Readings for May 25, hard copy responses, turn into blog posts...

These books are open textbooks available on the WAC Clearinghouse. To be clear, there are five chapters you needed to have read and responded to–better late than never for this kind of work.

June 1:

Here’s the one textbook you needed to purchase and read by this date–Blackboard (Bb) discussion due by then, too.

Book from Parlor Press you need to own.

If you haven’t finished this, you need to because it’s going to help inform your case study and your larger projects, even a book review. You need this basic historical understanding to contextualized the rest of your learning in the class.

If you haven’t contributed to the Bb discussion yet, get in there and get going.

The class info and project will whoosh past you in no time in a summer session.  Spend a few nights just plowing on to catch up, if that’s what you need. If you’re all caught up–hooyah for you.

June 6:

You needed to have read Alex Reid’s article on blogging and Seth Kahn’s chapter on ethnography in Writing Spaces and commented on these in Bb, and if you liked, you could copy your thinking into your blog and elaborate upon it.

The Web Writing Style Guide by Writing Spaces (WS). You needed to have read this by this date and written about it Bb. Again, take your thoughts there and add to them and make a blog post.

Pick one essay from WS (not Reid or Kahn) to read and write about on your blog. This was going to be a group project, but evolved into an individual thing.

Your blog should have been in pretty good shape by this point, created and added to everyone’s blogroll.

June 8:

In class:

• Fool around with blogs
• Fix any issues with blogs
• Change the “About” page to say something about your goals for the course
• Add pages that work for your various projects

You and your triad or partner picked a reading from WS for discussion via blogs.

Bring the comment love to your blogs–I want to see lots of interaction happened between y’all.

June 15:

Must finish by this date–IN THIS ORDER:

• Ken Robinson on schools killing creativity.
• Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity.
• Ken Robinson on the learning revolution.
• Richard Baraniuk on open source learning.
• Free to Learn (read as deeply as you can).
• RiP! A Remix Manifesto, a documentary by Brett Gaylor
• The learning guide that goes with RiP!

In class, we’ll talk about all this and more, our blogosphere, WAC, open, and work on our blogs. I can’t wait.

Blackboard Posts: here’s what’s been required up to June 15 (see these to the right and just a bit below)

Bb posts through June 15

You’ll have various other Bb posts along the way, due June 22 (listed here and in Bb), and then weekly or so after that, but this work will be much less frequent than at the beginning of the course.

I still want you to be active in Bb through the end of the term because it’s a private place we can ask for help, email our partners or triads or quads, post more personal things that we might not want on the blogs–and where you can contact me.

We’ll also change blog groups on this day–the new partnerships, quads, or triads will choose a reading from one of the Journals in the WAC Clearinghouse to read and discuss on their blogs which will be due by June 22. Pick something that can support your case study (something about WAC programs and sustainability would be a good choice).

We’ll also spend time talking about interviews and how I can help you make connections to your WAC program directors or asst. directors.

June 22:

We watched Everything is a Remix, Parts 1-3 by Kirby Ferguson, an NY-based film-maker. I loved these first three parts. As rhetoricalvelocityandbeyond said today, “WAC and Open–I get it.” I encourage you to watch these again. Funny and insightful–and makes one think about how easy it is to say _______ is everything and how difficult it is to define what that “everything” means, and yet, somehow John Donne was totally right–we are of one volume.

Report on Case Study progress for everyone–we didn’t report so much as talk.

Report on Book Reviews to whole group (due June 24)–BUT if you need to take through the weekend–totally okay (by June 27 would be ideal as I’d like to assess by that evening).

We’re going all blog–all the time. And we got groups handled for the rest of the term. I’ll post that information with names on Bb to protect all of us.

We talked about the big project–not in any detail that might have been wholly satisfying, but I’ll blog about my ideas for a big project on and off again–good for me, might be good for you.

NO MORE CLASS meetings after this until the poster sessions on July 25 and 27. You may, of course, meet informally, and if you want to invite me to be with your study group, I will try to be there (try to make it at a place I can get coffee!). One of our group is going to Facebook the class so we can talk via that page and stay connected re: meetings and such.

Readings for the rest of the summer term:

I’ll post all reading assignments here by date–everything needs a blog post in response.

NO MORE responses on Bb–all responses will be on your blog from here on–thanks to an all-class decision about being all-blog-all-the-time.

All readings/viewings will be relatively short (articles, essays, poems… maybe, quick video–but short).

June 29:

Read this essay by Jonathan Lethem and blog about it. Do read other blogs and respond to each other as much as you can–esp. in your group (groups posted on Bb).

Pick an essay from Across the Disciplines, an open access journal on the WAC Clearinghouse site, to read and blog about. You can pick an essay as a triad, quad, or quint (ha!), but you can also each choose your own article to read and write about, thus sharing your experience and research. (You can post links to your readings on a page on your blog–see below!)

July 6:

TBA–if you find something amazing that is WAC and OER and more, make a suggestion, please. Will consider anything Serendipity throws our way. “Remember Kirby Ferguson!” is my new motto.

Today, June 27, Serendipity said, you must find this and read it and then share with students: The Power of Open. In a miracle post I shared this reading assignment for July 6–read this .pdf from Creative Commons and blog about it, please, by July 6. Thank you. I know you’ll love it.

No more TBA. Been announced.

July 13:

TBA

July 20:

There are no readings due this week or blog entries–you need to be working in high gear with each other regarding the final projects and poster presentations (so you should be blogging about what you are doing, blogging what you are doing, and commenting like mad on each others’ work). It’s a lot of stuff to create and process–work with each other, support one another, share your research, give thoughtful responses, ask hard questions, be around for each other.  You might even want to schedule a support-you’re-really-sensational-keep-going session this week (or this day) with your final group to keep up your focus laser-like. If you give me notice, I’m happy to show up, or you might want me to be present for only part of a get-together. You tell me.

June 23-July 24:

We’ll be online for this month. I’ll post and write as often as I can, check every other day (at least) for emails and in Blackboard. We’ll have small reading and writing assignments besides the big work you’ll be doing–but not a horrific deal of it as you need to be working on the big stuff and sharing your progress on your blog.

During this period, you should be blogging A LOT to support your projects–AND getting responses, giving feedback to each other, and bringing the support. Be kind to each other and help as you can.

Write all the time to work out your thinking, to get the kinks out of your work flow, to share and learn. If you aren’t writing a lot, then you’ll suffer.

AND remember to write about the other courses you’re taking, papers you have to do–ALL writing counts in this “notebook” experience in our blogosphere. In this case, more is better. Think, write, think, revise, write, think, write, grow.

HERE: THIS GREAT IDEA, or HEAR THIS!

We talked about the importance of collaborative learning and cooperation today. So in that spirit, if you keep all your sources on a separate page in your blog, you essentially share the burden of research with everyone. Whatever you find, you share; whatever someone else finds, he/she shares. If you take from the commons, give back to the commons. Who wins by collaborating in our creativity? We all do.

Medium to Big Assignments Due:

30% “Notebook”–blogs, Bb posts, book review

• June 24: book review–see assignment sheet for details (on Bb). Take until June 27 if you like but no later, please.
• Book review should be a regular blog post of not less than 1,250 (not including any excerpts you might want to include for context).
• If you want to make this a separate page, it might be easier to fool around with it in one location–so feel free to post about your book AND copy and paste into a page and finish it there–why not?
• Or just make it a page.
• Overall “Notebook” grade will be assigned at the end of the term (but I’ll read the book reviews and give you feedback and assessment before June 29).

30% Case Study (WAC program of your choice)

• July 8–due on blogs–see assignment sheet for details.
• THIS is going to come up very quickly–faster than you think–if you haven’t contacted a person to interview, you may not be able to get someone in time. Do the best you can… but I recommend doing extensive searches on several databases for scholarly articles on your school’s WAC program. You’ll find that people write about and publish their work on WAC pretty regularly (for instance, there are conference presentation papers on our web site about our WAC program). See Project Muse, JSTOR, the MLA International Bibliography, the… WAC Clearinghouse!
• Can post variously on your blogs, but eventually this needs to be a page on the blog where you pull everything together in one space (3,000 word)
• I’m thinking you’ll want through that weekend of July 8-10 to finish this work. Okay by me–by July 13 at the latest, please.

40% WAC Program or Course (grads)

• July 25 or 27* (you’ve already picked your day–names and dates will be on Bb)
• This project includes (see assignment sheet for details–and talk to me):

1. Course/program (4-5,000 words)
2. Poster (you pick format–there will be options)
3. Poster reflection paper (1,000 words–hand out at poster presentation)
4. OER review (1,000 words; use this to inform all you do–needs to be it’s own page on your blog)

40% Personal WAC Attack (undergrads)

• July 25 or 27* (you’ve already picked your day–names and dates will be on Bb)
• This project includes (see assignment sheet for details–and talk to me):

1. This is up for grabs–think outside the traditional academic paper (2,500-3,500 words)
2. Poster (you pick format–there will be options)
3. Poster reflection paper (1,000 words–hand out at poster presentation)

* We will not be meeting in our classroom on July 25 and July 27. I’m not sure where we’ll meet yet, but I’ll put the information here when I know, email, post on Bb, and etc.