EDC&I 585

Non-traditional Materials and Sources Exercise – Guidelines

The object of this exercise is to explore relevant resources on the culture of education and technology that exist outside of the traditional scholarly apparatus of books, articles, and reports. The aim here is to explore current popular electronic resources such as YouTube, Flickr, other social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.), blogs and wikis, to find new ideas, new services, new technology-based approaches that suggest changes in the function and activity of schools, universities, and other relevant educational settings. You might also find software, networked systems, sites, reports, or materials from non-academic projects that have bearing on these questions.

Find at least three items that you feel are especially interesting or relevant, and post their URLs on the class GoPost before our class meeting. Be prepared to say a bit about:

(1) How you found the item (how hard it was, how you searched, what you looked for, etc.);

(2) What you think is provocative or interesting about the item (what it says about the state of education, new opportunities presented by technology, threats to existing ways of doing business or models for new ways, etc.); and

(3) What you feel are the "next questions" that the item suggests – in other words, to try to figure out whether a particular new service or system might have a significant impact on education, what else would you want to know about it, about the operation of educational institutions, or about the ways other similar changes have worked themselves out over time?

DUE: April 21

EVALUATION: Graded (leniently), based on quality of material identified and analysis during class presentation.

CONTRIBUTION TO COURSE GRADE: 15%.

So, given this element was not included in the course syllabus at the start, I've revised the grading matrix for the course as follows:

Work	Contribution to Grade (%)
a. Readings and class discussion	5
b. Oral presentation on the readings	20 oral presn in cls 10 outline 10
c. Oral presentation on your project	20 oral presn in cls: 10 lit revw: 10
d. Individual course paper/project	40
e. Non-traditional materials/sources	15