All posts by Amanda Marie Licastro

Assignments, Final, Final Projects, Uncategorized

Final Reflection Assignment

Leave a comment

Final Reflection (pdf here)
Thinking and Writing Through New Media
Fall 2015

In Authentic Learning in the Digital Age: Engaging Students Through Inquiry, Larissa Pahomov writes, “For student reflection to be meaningful, it must be metacognitive, applicable, and shared with others,” and defines metacognitive reflection as taking the process of reflection “to the next level because it is concerned not with assessment, but with self-improvement: Could this be better? How? What steps should you take?” (read full article here). In light of this assertion, I would like you to write a metacognitive reflection on the final project. This reflection should address the following questions, with an aim to identify how you could improve your work.

1. How did you formulate a group contract, and why did you claim responsibility for the tasks you pledged to complete? Was this an effective approach? In retrospect, could you have divided the workload in a way that was more effective?

2. Describe your contributions to the final project in detail. What writing/research/design/management responsibilities did you take on in order to complete this project? How did you complete your individual contributions to the group? What steps did you take? What tools did you use? Did you meet your deadlines (why or why not)?

3. Did you feel like your contributions had a positive impact on the final project? Did you feel the other group members valued your contributions? Did the reactions of your group members (revisions, suggestions, critiques) help you develop your materials in a constructive way?

4. How do you feel you worked as a team? How did you facilitate communication and collaboration between the group members? What tools did you use? Can you suggest improvements for this process? What did you learn that would help you in future group work situations?

5. Imagine you were an audience member during your presentation and rate it on the same scale provided in class: research, innovation, creativity, clarity (1-10) and why?

6. And finally, what did you learn through the process of creating and presenting this project? How did this project help you synthesize and apply the topics we covered throughout the semester? Do you have suggestions to improve this assignment?

You may expand or add to these guidelines in any way you wish. This is your opportunity to speak directly to me about what you learned in this course.

This will be worth 25 points, and should be 3-5 pages in length (single spaced please). Please submit this as a Google Doc that you share with me upon completion. You must invite me as an editor (with privileges to edit, not just read or comment). This is due at 4:55pm on Wednesday, December 17, 2014.

“What Meaningful Reflection On Student Work Can Do for Learning.” MindShift. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
Uncategorized

Event of Interest: LAST Extra Credit Opportunity

Leave a comment

Infrastructures of Labor

Dec 8, 2014 | 6:30 PM-8:30 PM

Infrastructures of Labor

Infrastructures of Labor explores how infrastructures are not just technical artifacts but are comprised of human labor. From networked infrastructures in the global North to do-it-yourself “people as infrastructure” systems in the global South, the panelists will present research considering how human bodies and communities are interwoven with the built environment and its technological systems. This exploration will illuminate the forms of dirty labor and exploitation that infrastructures depend on, the informal systems through which people make their cities conform to them in unpredictable ways, and the insurgent politics that may arise from rebelling through infrastructure.

PANELISTS
Kafui Attoh / Assistant Professor of Urban Studies / The Murphy Institute / CUNY
Catherine Fennell / Assistant Professor of Anthropology / Columbia University
Malini Ranganathan / Assistant Professor / School of International Service / American University
Rosalind Fredericks / Assistant Professor / Gallatin School of Individualized Study / NYU

MODERATOR
Penny Lewis / Associate Professor of Labor Studies / The Murphy Institute / CUNY

About the Political Infrastructures Series:
Far from being neutral technical elements of the urban landscape, infrastructures are political in all sorts of ways. Urban infrastructures, including housing and architecture; public services such as water, waste, electricity, and transportation networks; and data systems are key sites of conflict and contest between government and urban dwellers. They can serve as key performative elements of governing as well as sites for claims-making by elite and disenfranchised citizens alike. Urban infrastructures can crystallize patterns of uneven development and injustice, highlighting the city’s vulnerabilities and producing political dissent. This series takes a critical approach to understanding the politics of infrastructure by thinking through the different ways that urban infrastructures are implicated in citizenship struggles, urban labor questions, planning practice, and resilience strategies for uncertain futures. It will bring together people thinking about the design, function, break-down, and even demolition of infrastructures in a diverse range of cities in the global North and South for insight into how the material city shapes lives and urban possibilities.

Date + Time Dec 8, 2014 | 6:30 PM-8:30 PM
Location 20 Cooper Square | 5th Floor Conference Room
Category Urban Democracy Lab
Open to Public? yes
RSVP

RSVP
Announcements, Reflections

Event of Interest (Extra Credit)

Leave a comment

Infrastructures of Labor

December 8

| 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
20 Cooper Square | 5th Floor Conference Room
Infrastructures of Labor explores how infrastructures are not just technical artifacts but are comprised of human labor. From networked infrastructures in the global North to do-it-yourself “people as infrastructure” systems in the global South, the panelists will present research considering how human bodies and communities are interwoven with the built environment and its technological systems.
Panelists
Kafui Attoh – Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, The Murphy Institute, CUNY
Catherine Fennell – Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University
Malini Ranganathan – Assistant Professor, School of International Service, American University
Rosalind Fredericks – Assistant Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, NYU
 
Moderator:
Penny Lewis – Associate Professor of Labor Studies, The Murphy Institute, CUNY
If you attend and post a short description relating this event to our course you can ear 5 points extra credit.
Announcements, Reflections

Privacy as a Human Right

Leave a comment

To follow-up on our discussion of privacy and data-surveillance, here is an interesting article that looks at this issue from the angle of policy-makers worldwide:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/23/privacy-human-rights-frontier/
“We need a more powerful moral narrative, more powerful technical narrative… Here’s where this issue is different from many other issues, the knowledge level is very low, amongst people more widely, because it is very technical, because it’s very complex, so although it’s the new frontier of human rights it’s a very complicated frontier of human rights… It’s very different from other human rights issues — it’s one where we have to educate others because they will not always see the importance of it.”
I also strongly suggest reading The Circle by Dave Eggers, which is a utopian/dystopian near-future novel addressing these concerns.

And in case you missed it, here is the documentary I suggested (and some students used in their midterms): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084953/

You can watch a trailer here: http://tacma.net/tacma.php

 

Assignments, Final

Annotated Bibliographies

Leave a comment

The following presentation will help you construct your annotated bibliography for this course (and can be used as a guide in the future). We will review this in class together.

http://www.slideshare.net/AmandaLicastro/annotated-bibliographies-41672179

 

You should post two entries on this site before Thanksgiving break, and continue to add entries as you research. You will collate these into a final document to be turned in with your final project. Please put these under the category “Final” and tag “bibliography.”

Use this worksheet as a guide:

Annotated Bibliography Worksheet

The purpose of an annotation is to summarize and evaluate a potential source for your research paper. Using the source you prepared for class, compose an annotation that answers the following questions in at least one to two paragraphs:

1) Who is the author, what is his/her authority or background?

2) What is the author’s thesis? What are the author’s main claims?

3) Who is the author’s intended audience?

4) Is there any bias or slant in the article?

5) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the article?

6) Does the information in this article support or counter the thesis of your research paper?

7) How relevant is this material in terms of your paper?

Announcements

Railroads and Clocks

Leave a comment

To follow-up on our discussion of the connection between time keeping devices and the railway system, please check out this brief summary:

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html

“The railways cared most about the inconsistencies of local mean time, and they forced a uniform time on the country.”

And this fun site puts it into perspective: http://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/time-standardization.html

More to come…

Announcements, Assignments, Resources

Reverse Outlining

Leave a comment

Reverse Outlining

Whether you are reading published scholarship or another student’s paper, reverse outlining can help you process information by distilling the main ideas of a text into short, clear statements. Put simply, when reverse outlining the reader tries to summarize each paragraph of a text in two sentences. This process will not only help you analyze the material you are reading, it will also allow you to organize your response. You may use reverse outlining to revise your own work, revise the work of others, or to annotate a text.

Reverse outlining follows a two-step, repeatable process:

  1. In the left-hand margin, write down the topic of each paragraph. Try to use as few words as possible.
  • When reading, these notes should work as quick references for future study or in-class discussion.
  • When revising your own work or the work of your peers, these notes should tell you if each paragraph is focused and clear.
  1. In the right-hand margin, write down how the paragraph topic advances the overall argument of the text. Again, be brief.
  • When reading, these notes allow you to follow the logic of the essay, making it easier for you to analyze or discuss later.
  • When revising your own work, these notes should tell you if each paragraph fits in the overall organization of your paper. You may also notice that paragraphs should be shifted after completing this step.

Remember to be brief. You should try to complete each step in 5-10 words. When reading a published text, you should be able to summarize the topic and the manner of support quickly; if you can’t, you should consult a dictionary, an encyclopedia, or other resources to help you understand the content. When reading your own work or the work of a peer, you should consider revising any section that does not have a clear point that is easy to re-articulate.

When reading a potential source, you should consider which points you agree or disagree with and make notes that help you formulate your opinion. However, when reading work with the goal of revision, the objective is to communicate an understanding of the writer’s main ideas, not to critique or correct these points. When reading your own work or the work of a peer, if the paragraph does contain an easily identifiable point, but it does not relate to the thesis or topic of the paper, it may be appropriate to remove this section entirely.

This exercise can be expanded by rewriting/typing your outline with comments or further suggestions, but writing in the margin might be sufficient.

 

This exercise is adapted from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/689/1/ by The OWL at Purdue

Announcements, Readings

Optional Reading: Internet Mods

Leave a comment

WARNING: this article contains explicit language.

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-moderation/

This article directly relates to our discussion on Internet censorship – especially the case we discussed in relation to child pornography. It is written by Adrian Chen, the same journalist we spoke about “doxx-ing” Reddit moderator ViolentAcrez (article here, )(rebuttal here). This is the story of Internet moderators:

“…companies like Facebook and Twitter rely on an army of workers employed to soak up the worst of humanity in order to protect the rest of us. And there are legions of them—a vast, invisible pool of human labor. Hemanshu Nigam, the former chief security officer of MySpace who now runs online safety consultancy SSP Blue, estimates that the number of content moderators scrubbing the world’s social media sites, mobile apps, and cloud storage services runs to “well over 100,000”—that is, about twice the total head count of Google and nearly 14 times that of Facebook.” (Chen)

I think this is very interesting, and important for you to be aware of, but again I warn that it does contain sexual and violent language.

Announcements

Articles of Interest

Leave a comment
FYI: Here are two articles making the rounds on social media this week that directly relate to our discussion on Monday. Please share your reactions in the comments below.
(These can also be found in our Zotero folder)
Cox, Susan. “Facebook Has Totally Reinvented Human Identity: Why It’s Even Worse than You Think.” N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
McGahan, Jason. “She Tweeted Against the Mexican Cartels. They Tweeted Her Murder.” The Daily Beast. N.p., 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.