A few of you asked me questions in the “comments” on my Week 4 “Midterm Notes” post. I’ll address them here, and include a few other items.
1.
Kevin asks if you can tackle concepts (like spreadability or transmedia) or do I want only theories (like cybernetics or information theory). Good question! I expect you to discuss either concepts or theories that are pinned to and grounded around actual examples from our weekly website viewings. “Spreadability” is a huge concept, and cybernetics is a huge theory. How can you focus these and follow a particular/specific thread that you find in the readings? AVOID GENERALIZATIONS so you don’t get lost. Try to find your unique angle.
2.
Melissa asked about paper format. Another good question! To simplify the process and give you a format, please use this one from Patricia Zimmermann’s pre-publication manuscript, Gado Gado . Use double-space, same margins, your title, name, course name, date.
Do not bother with a “cover page.” The body of the text should add up to your 10 pages, with end notes extra. For those of you who feel comfortable with word counts: approximately 2500 – 2750 words for the body of the text.
3.
Please email me (hdemich2@uoregon.edu) your completed paper to me as a Word Document by the deadline, November 8. I will work through the 24 papers over the next 9 days (one day off!) and score them/send them back to you via your uoregon email address. Please be patient with me.
4.
This week (see Week 5 course assignments page), please look at (3) of the short Lunch Love Community films and tour around the website. A post by you about Lunch Love Community IS NOT REQUIRED, but you are welcome to respond, ask questions, contextualize it around the other works we have been examining.
Alternatively, you may do this week’s public post about your paper, ask questions and get feedback on your ideas and themes. Or you can post about your Group Term Project website and engagement campaign to get preliminary feedback. This is a great forum to get and give peer review!
5.
On Saturday, we will block out 15-20 minutes per group to view and give feedback on the web projects. These feedback sessions will take 90 minutes+ of class time, and they will be very valuable for you at this point in the process.
Please come prepared with a quick overview and questions to ask the class, so your group can leave with some new ideas and insights going forward into the outreach phase.
We will also Skype in Professor Patty Zimmermann, and she and I will do a short talk about Lunch Love Community, anda Q/A session about our “Open Space Documentary” model. If time permits, we can discuss Engage Media with her.
6.
I am in contact now with Sam Ford (Spreadability co-author) and he is open to Skyping into our class on December 7! Our course site is not open to ‘outsiders,’ so he cannot comment directly to your posts. However, I’ll ask him if he has something to put out there, I can re-post it for him. And if you have specific questions for him as you read the book, let me know, and I will send them along. Or if you have a concrete way that you think we could interact with him without taking up too much of his bandwidth, please let us know.
Please comment if you have other questions or comments here.
What? No cover page! That was the only part I had done!
As the wife of a professor, I feel your pain having to grade 24 papers. That’s a huge undertaking.
To make it easier on yourself, maybe it would be a good idea if you gave us a SECOND week off from the private posts – so that there isn’t one due with Nov. 3 OR Nov. 10. If you think about it, we will be dedicating a whole week to our Nov. 8 paper and will not have much time to write a truly thoughtful private post with only two days to spare after the midterm paper.
Plus, those of us in Strat Comm have our big midterm paper due on Monday, Nov. 11, so we’re really squeezing a lot into a very short period of time.
You have a big heart. I could tell after watching LunchLoveCommunity.
Whine, whine, whine.
Thanks for listening!
Fair enough. Let’s talk and decide on Saturday…when the whole class is in the room.
The option to post about Lunch Love Community, our paper, or the Group Term Project website in this week’s public post is appreciated. How can we use this platform effectively to seek feedback, ask insightful questions, or share preliminary insights, ensuring a collaborative and constructive exchange among peers?