There is one main assignment for this class - your digital group project. Groups should be organized between the start of class and MUST be finalized by the end of class on February 1st. All groups MUST have at least three members in them. Larger groups will be expected to complete more elaborate projects than smaller groups.
Every students will be graded on the following three aspects of this assignment:
1)
The Group Project - The same grade that everyone in your group gets, given at the completion of final presentations at the very end of the semester. (25%)
2)
Your Blog - Much of it will describe the research and the acquisition of technological skills needed to complete this project, but not all of it. (25%)
3)
Your Process Paper - Due during the final exam period, this will be the place where you make the case that you were primarily responsible for your group project or I'll see that your contribution fell short. (25%)
The Group Project will begin with a 2-3 page, double-spaced pitch paper, composed by the entire group. This paper should so some rudimentary knowledge of your topic (acquired through research) and hint at where the group project might go by the end of the semester. Explain why the topic is interesting, historically significant and why it might find an audience on the Internet. This pitch paper will be accepted, rejected or amended (most likely this last one) and returned to your group ASAP. While you do not have to follow everything you said you'd do in the pitch at the end of the semester (priorities change) I will look back to your pitch to help me decide what the final grade on the group project should be. It is due by class time on February 7th.
The criteria for evaluating the final group project as a whole will be gradually explained over the course of the entire semester.
Your Blog will be set up during the tools sessions near the beginning of class. I will be looking there for substantive descriptions of your research process, engagement with the course tools and project updates appearing once per week for the rest of the semester.
If you have done no work on the project that week, I need you to write that in the blog. Nonetheless, I expect to see at least SEVEN substantive posts over the course of the semester (including a required post the week of April 9 and 11 that describes everything you've done to that point in time and everything you plan to do before the final exam period presentation period).
A substantive post is one in which you describe your research process, how you solved a technological dilemma or overcame some other obstacle that will improve the final product that your group produces. Ideally, each post will appear most weeks by 9AM on Wednesday morning (looking back on the previous seven to fourteen days of work) and include your work schedule for the coming week so that I can do my best to visit you at your respective archives. Since this is a group project your blogging grade will also depend upon the frequency that others in your group post (since you aren't sharing the work well if they aren't posting). Therefore, IT IS UP TO YOU TO MAKE SURE THAT OTHER MEMBERS OF YOUR GROUP BLOG REGULARLY.
