Class Assignment for Midterm/Final

Hello Class!

This week, one of the course discussions is to share your ideas for your project for the class. As stated in the syllabus, the course's midterm and final are both related to a social media project of your choice. This week, we want you to consider your options and share some ideas with the class on Moodle. Then, next week, we will ask you to pick one of them and begin the project.

This is not as hard as it may at first sound. The assignment was based upon one from a smaller, simpler introductory class. The difference is that with this class you will have the opportunity to spend about 8 weeks on the project instead of 3, giving you more time to observe and learn.

Further, you have more freedom to adapt the project to something you want to accomplish. Consider this an opportunity to try out a social media project for your personal, professional, or educational interests. This is a participatory project track where you get to explore social media in a directly applied purpose relevant to you.

So for this week, ask yourself, what would you like to explore, and how far you want to participate. Then share your thoughts with us.

The full project assignment is in the course syllabus, however, I have included it below. Please note that we have modified the start date a bit to give you more time to consider your alternatives.

Questions? Ask in Moodle in the discussion question for this assignment in Week Two.

From the Syllabus:

Students will also engage in a social media research project. This project will require them to choose from one of the following two options:

Project Track A: Choose a pre-existing social media community to join and engage in. This should be a community you are not already involved in. This may include one of the following: 

• Follow and engage with a blog that has a robust comments section 
• Join and engage a Facebook page or group
• Join and engage a LinkedIn group 
• Join and engage others on Twitter 
• Propose to the instructors another social media site that you think is worth exploring.

Project Track B: Plan, create, and implement your own social media community, which may include one of the following: 

• Plan and create a blog for a specific purpose 
• Plan and create a Facebook page or group for a specific purpose
• Plan and create a LinkedIn page or group for a specific purpose 
• Plan and create a YouTube channel for a specific purpose 
• Plan and create a Twitter account for a specific purpose
• Combination of some or all of the above 
• Propose something else to the instructors that will best meet your needs for learning and using social media.

Please note: regardless of which track is chosen, students will be graded by their observations and learning from these experiences, as demonstrated in the discussion areas of the course’s Moodle site and/or in the final reflection paper, not on the content the student has created outside of Moodle. Further, we understand that some students will have privacy concerns regarding participation in social media; we encourage but do not require students to utilize their real names in their social media projects. If you have specific privacy concerns, please contact the course instructors and accommodations will be made.

The social media community chosen may be for personal, professional, and/or educational purposes. Students should expect to choose and begin to engage in their social media community in week two, and be prepared to discuss initial observations during week six. Interaction will continue throughout the class. Those contracting for an A grade also need to submit a 5-6 page reflection paper on their learning and observations by the last day of the class, Sunday, 6/5/11. Students will not be graded on the content or extent of their engagement in their chosen social media communities, but rather by demonstration in their reflection papers of their observations and learning during the engagement process.