Assignment: Reading Response + EUI Training Write-Up [due 10/20 @8 PM]
PART 1: LAB ACTIVITY - Ethnography of the University Initiative Lab
Karen Rodriguez'G will host an Ethnography of the University Initiative [EUI] training. This will be a first step toward designing and implementing your final project surveys. We will begin promptly at 9 am. If you cannot find us, or if you show up late, please call or text Adrian at 951.219.3496. Bring a notebook, pencil and cell phone/camera so that you can takes notes/document your visit. If for some reason you are unable to attend, you will need a formal excuse [doctor's note, letter from job interview, etc] in order to grant you a "re-do" with Karen.
You'll need the following resources:
EUI Proposal Worksheet (note: Word Docs will not preview in Scalar, click "Source File" on the media page to initiate a download of the file).
Survey Questions Template document (distributed during class 10/14)
- At the training, you will work with the above documents. You will complete the EUI Proposal Worksheet - adding in your final questions for Part 3 - as part of this week's Lab Assignment. This should be completed and turned in with your Reading Response as a MS Word or PDF on Sunday night, 10/19, at 8PM.
PART 2: READING RESPONSE
- Read and review the below assigned readings on PLATO this week:
- Brian Dear, PLATO History Blog (spend 30 min. skimming)
- Don Bitzer, "Use of CBE for the Handicapped," American Annals of the Deaf 124.5 (1979)
- Valerie Lamont, “New Directions for the Teaching Computer: Citizen Participation in Community Planning,”Technological Forecasting and Social Change5 (1973), 149-162
- Larry Weber, "Blind Student Power," Technograph (October 1968), 17-20.
- Consider Valerie Lamont's description of PLATO as a system "developed primarily as an educational device. However, the expansion of the PLATO system and the probable widespread distribution of similar equipment over the next few decades suggests that we are discussing not simply an educational device but a new type of mass communications system which offers the possibility of two-way communication among various interest groups. Such a system would seem to suggest a number of uses beyond normal classroom activities.... [including' the involvement of a larger number of people in considering community goals." (Lamont, 1971, 7). Using the 4 assigned readings, select/list at least 5 different applications or design features of PLATO that evidence how it had "widespread distribution... [signaling] a new type of mass communications system" in and outside of educational applications.
- Consider how the readings frame PLATO's role in "distance learning" innovations. What differences (in user experience, affordances in design, incentives for use, etc.) do you infer between PLATO and education-oriented user experiences today on online platforms/frameworks such as Coursera, Khan Academy, Youtube, etc)? Aim to mention 2 or 3 factors/features.