Attendance and Participation – Ongoing, impacting all assignments below
Attendance in class is mandatory and your participation grade is determined by your engagement with readings, your active collaboration in groups, and your in-class exploration of tools and ideas. If you will not be present, please notify me (and a group member, if applicable) ahead of class, and prepare a ‘key question’ or big idea for each reading (sent to me prior to class if possible). This will ensure your ideas can still be brought to the group in some way during class, even in your absence.
Course Portfolio (50% – breakdown below) – Complete by November 4*
Production 1: Website Powerup (5%) – Set-up by September 16, with ongoing updates.
Production 2: New Literacies Reflection (Critical Essay) (5%) – Posted to your website by September 23
Production 3: Serious Comics & (Dual Language) Graphic Texts (10%) – Posted to your website by September 30
Production 4: Media Production (5%) – Posted to your website October 7
Production 5: Connecting Inquiry-based Learning with Multiliteracies (Wikimedia) (5%) – Linked to on your website and completed on the wiki platform by October 21
Production 6: Creating and Sharing Stories in/of Education (Wikimedia/Transmedia) (10%) – Linked to your website and completed on the wiki platform by October 28
Production 7: Using Twine for New Literacies, Game Design & Simulation/Modelling (10%) – Posted to your website by November 4
NOTE! Do NOT work ahead on the productions – productions are subject to change a bit, in response to class interests/strengths, etc.
The course portfolio consists of 7 ‘productions’ (things you DO/engage with, connected to the ideas we explore via readings and resources). The productions, described in more detail on the course website, will be hosted on your personal website unless noted otherwise. Taken together, these productions make up your course portfolio, and feature the work and play you will engage in throughout the course. The productions are meant to be relatively low-risk opportunities for you to learn to work with new tools, play with/critically consider ideas, and experiment with different new media technologies. Please email me (bt1@yorku.ca) when each production is completed/posted to your website so ongoing feedback can be provided.
*If you would like feedback and opportunities for revision, the above due dates for each production must be adhered to. If you do not wish to have feedback and submit for just a grade (with no revisions), all productions must be complete by November 11th.
Final Group Project Proposal (5%) – Due October 24
A brief proposal of your final group project (max 3 people per group). In the proposal you must address the following things:
1) Identify the creative challenge you will engage: what will you make and do? What inquiry questions or issues or creative goals are you addressing through this project (with a brief rationale connecting with course themes)
2) What media will you will use to produce your project (what are you going to create? What media tools will you use or integrate? What modes of inquiry (resources? interviews? etc.)?
3) Production Plan: Brief sketch or script indicating how you will get this project done (brief group action-plan, next steps, individual contributions to the project, a work schedule/timeline for completion).
The proposal can be done in any format your group wants to use (slides, video, written proposal, etc.) as long as it includes the above information. The due date for the proposal is October 24th to allow you time to engage with a range of new media tools and digital technologies. However, your group can complete and submit the proposal earlier. Please email me with your completed proposal when it is complete. Examples will be provided early on in the course. See description of final group project below (#5).
Works in Progress’ Group Presentation (5%) – Presentations on December 2
In your groups, you will present snapshots or samples of your Multiliteracies Project and tell the story of project. Think of this as a tour of your media project-to show your peers what questions/research topics you engaged, what you learned, and what you designed and created. You will briefly reflect upon what and how you learned through this process and briefly connect that experience to course themes, theories, and readings.
The purpose of this presentation is to share your work and get constructive feedback from peers to improve/modify the project. You are presenting a ‘work-in-progress,’ and feedback from your audience and course director can be used to improve or revise your project.
Each group presentation should only be 5 minutes (10 minutes maximum).
Final Group Project (40%) – Due December 9
For this final project, the primary goal is to creatively and critically experiment with multliteracies and new media in a project that is educationally focused and/or based on a group-directed inquiry topic that is significant and that matters to you. The media project should connect with inquiry, or a subject of interest or critical concern today (in or outside of schools) and result in a media product of some kind (e.g., multimedia iBook, a digital game, digital app, multimodal visual graphic narrative, documentary film, (e)zine, digital mapping project, etc.). Examples will be provided early in the course.
The aim of the project is not only to promote fluency with new media and new literacies, but to situate you in the roles of creative/critical makers, and to explore/consider how people learn through self-directed inquiry and creative production using new media. By ‘doing’ these creative challenges and enacting related media competences, you will emerge with a more nuanced grasp of how to theorize, apply and extend new media literacies in your own practice and lives.
This is a self/group-directed media project. You will select the topics/issues of inquiry, modes of inquiry and research, and the media tools of creation and publication. Do something that has value to you, that is meaningful to you (or to your community), or make something you always wanted to make (e.g. a digital game, documentary film, multimodal digital book, etc.).