Fall 2007 Syllabus

In Piloting Pedagogies, we write "solo" and together in groups, and each student will conduct research in 3 phases:

1. Conduct library and field research on the politics, ethics, and practices of new media. Present a case study to your peers.

2. Design a proposal. Students will create a robust online persona who will narrate and reflect on the process. As part of process, students will be required to beta-test software and services currently under consideration for wider deployment in the state educational system.

3. Class participants will then conduct the proposed experiment, and write up the results. The narrative/project will be delivered in two formats. First students will tune their projects to the audience of choosing, utilizing the media and rhetorical tools available and appropriate to their case. Then, students will "remix" their efforts into a different rhetorical situation: an eportfolio. Students will become acquainted with proprietary and open source creation tools, and will analyze the functionality of both software paradigms.

Spotlight on Writing

Students enrolled in the graduate-level section will complete an additional assignment, and this assignment, which will be composed with FEAP outcomes in mind, and will require a 4 step process: a memo that proposes an assignment in FEAP terms, a draft, a peer-review session, a reflection on peer feedback, and a final draft.

When reading, planning, drafting, and revising, keep these WPA outcomes in mind (designated in bold are "tags" that you will apply to your best writing, so that you can easily assemble a portfolio of your best work):

1. rhetorical knowledge RK

2. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing CTRW

3. Process

4. Knowledge of Conventions KC

Bare-minimums

*read, write and arrive to class prepared to present, respond to presentations, and discuss the projects as they emerge.

*For the duration of the course, you will perform at least three significant writing actions per week to this wiki, and link your writing to your "home" page, which you will link to your section's class roster page. This means you will need regular and reliable internet access. More than three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade.

*Collaborate openly and effectively with your peers towards a FinalProject. This will involve informal communications, blogging, and experimentation, as well as polished "formal" pieces tailored to a specific audience. Late work depreciates one full letter grade per day!

*Complete informal writing, formal assignments, a proposal and a semester project in a timely fashion. The audience for this final project is different than the readership you imagine for your portfolio.

*Assemble an eportfolio. Even though the final portfolio is not due until the end of the course, you need to work on this project throughout the whole semester. The project will include a cover letter in which you analyze what you have learned this semester as measured against the aforementioned course learning goals. Essentially, your assertion in the portfolio cover letter is this: “Here are the skills and knowledge that I have learned this semester, and here’s the evidence that I have acquired these skills and this knowledge.” Note that the evidence will be crucial, and you should draw on all sorts of sources to find that evidence—for instance, your journal/blog/wiki-presence, excerpts from formal/unit assignments, notes from peer-group discussions, internet chats with the collaborators in your group, and any other record of your effort. You will turn in a draft of your portfolio at mid-term with a mid-term reflection to make certain that you’re on track. Be sure to click on the following link, where you will find a Student Portfolio Permission Form, which you will sign and return to the professor the second week of class.

*Open a tab for this wiki in your browser whenever you are online. Check the CourseCalendar, read your peers' wiki posts, and read ShareRiff's mind...in other words, keep "tuning up" regularly and you'll stay in tune with weekly assignment prompts.

Prosody Workshops, Peer-Review, and Response-able Participation

We will dedicate a large portion of each class meeting to reading our writing aloud, making presentations based on our readings, interviews/legwork/research, and workshopping our writing as it happens. Because our course is premised on the idea that ideas and revisions emerge by means of frequent and dynamic exchanges, students will be expected to visit our recent changes page and revise pages in common, daily. In-class participation will depend on staying in tune with our wiki's activity during the week, by reading and responding to each others' writing. Although daily blogs, responses to peer blogging, and early versions of working drafts need not be “polished,” our early-and-often uploads should address the prompts and issues of the week, as well as address and solicit feedback from your peers. Under no circumstances will I accept a “final” version of a major assignment, proposal, or final project unless I have seen a regular rhetorical process. Students show up to class on the day an important draft is due without having posted draft work by midnight the night class will forfeit all possible participation points for that week.

Attendance, Participation/Assignments, and Grades

Attendance in this course is required. While it is understood that emergencies / University-sanctioned activities may arise which result in your missing one or more classes, frequent absences will negatively affect your final grade. As a rule, one or two absences will have little impact on your final grade, assuming you participate enthusiastically when you are in class and realize you are responsible for all material covered during the missed class(es). In the event that your prepared attendance, or lack thereof, becomes a problem, I will ask you to meet with me to discuss our options. These options may include a failing grade or a lower grade than you might have earned had you attended classes regularly. In short: show up prepared to talk and write about the wiki's recent changes.

Participation--For both sections: timely and thrice weekly wiki posts during the first 10 weeks of the course will account for 100 points, or 33 and 1/3% of your final grade.

Unit assignments and peer-grading will tally another 33 and 1/3%, and FinalProjects + portfolios will fill out the scale.

Grades: we will rigorously pursue an evaluation process known as peer-grading. Response-able and consistent interaction in wiki will help us create rubrics for each assignment, and each student will do an evaluation of each group assignment. This "swarm" approach will ensure a steady and ample rate of useful and ongoing feedback on our projects. The instructor will in turn grade the rationales detailing and justifying each evaluation, and will also, where necessary and at his discretion, override any "off-the-mark" peer-assigned grades.

Information Management

Please back up everything you write for this course. You should either write your wiki posts in a word processor and save before posting. Or, if you like the feel of writing directly in wiki, cut and paste your work to an open word processing window, saving a back-up version in this way as you proceed. Information technologies carry a trace of instability, so it is always good to have redundancy in your writing process: make copies and put them in different places!

Freedom of Speech and Cognitive Liberty

As you will see, classrooms and wikis are both spaces devoted to free inquiry.

This is a rhetorical space, one where composers are response-able to each other: they think and write in response to each other, and not to a preconceived notion of each other. Assume the best in those you study with and be generous with your respect, and you will teach them to respond in kind.

The First Amendment of The United States Constitution

Religious observance absence policy

Students who find a meeting time in conflict with a major religious observance must provide notice of the date(s) to the instructor, in writing, by the second class meeting.

Disability access policy

In my capacity as instructor, I will do everything I can to make fully available the educational resources we use and create in section 602 and section 799. Any student with a disability should be encouraged to meet with the instructor privately during the first week of class to discuss accommodations. Each student must bring a current Memorandum of Accommodations from the Office of Student Disability.