Assignment #3: Problem Finding (Final Project)
Summary: Write an 8- to 10-page essay (10–15 pages for graduate students) that explores some new terrain while illustrating what you’ve learned in this class.
In school and college, people are always giving you problems to solve and telling you what to do, but the most interesting things you’ll do in your life may very well be challenges that you take on yourself.
So for the final essay in this class, you can write whatever you want that illustrates your understanding of the ideas in this class. Ideally, what we’ve done together is combine two different surveys. First, we’ve explored a number of different genres of technologies, and I’ve tried to give you some hints about how to think about new technologies and how to situate them in different genres. Technologies within a genre tend to operate similarly in social contexts, so if you can place a particular technology in a genre, you can make some good guesses about what kinds of social and learning interactions will follow. Second, we’ve explored a number of different strategies that cognitive scientists, learning scientists, and social scientists use to make sense of learning environments, predict how people will behave within those environments, and design better learning environments.
I can think of a few different ways you might tackle this challenge, but I’m very open to your perspectives. You might do an extended version of one of the first two assignments by applying theory to existing learning technologies and explaining how they function in complex social systems. You might write a design prospectus for a new school, technology, or learning environment. You might do a short literature review of some theory, set of ideas, or set of technologies that you are interested in. In the ideal set of circumstances, you’ll find something that you are particularly interested in, and use this as an opportunity to explore those ideas.
In some way, this writing assignment should take you beyond the boundaries of what we’ve read and discussed in class, by analyzing new technologies and reading beyond the bounds of our syllabus, to learn more about theories, technology genres, or the social circumstances of schools and learners. It would be hard to do this well without reading additional sources, incorporating these ideas in your writing, and citing them appropriately.
If you’d like to present your assignment in some alternate form of media, discuss that with me early on in the process and we can make adjustments to expectations.
Expectations
The essay should be 8–10 pages (2600 words) (~15 pages for graduate students) and should be written in a normal font, at a reasonable font size, with 1.5 spacing and normal margins. Any effort to convince me that you’ve written a longer paper by fussing with any of these things will bring dishonor upon your house and family. You should cite sources from the syllabus using any standard citation system (ACM, APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.), and you will need to read additional works and cite those as well.
You’ll write your essay in steps. You’ll brainstorm some ideas and outlines, and perhaps meet with me to chart out a plan. The week of session 22, you need to independently pair up with a colleague to peer edit each other’s essays. The final essay/project is due session 24.
Presentations
Each student will share a short presentation about their final project in process. Half the class will present during session 22, and the other half will present during session 23.
The presentation should do the following:
- Introduce the “stakes” of the research/work (answer the “so what” questions)
- Address the methods used in the work
- Provide some initial claims and evidence or reasoning
- Describe the rest of the work you hope to accomplish before submission, and ask for help in solving the remaining challenges.
Presentations will be 7 minutes long with 2–3 minutes for questions.
