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Final Reflection Assignment

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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.
Final

Cesco’s Annotated Bibliography

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McDonnell, Andrea P., Leanne S. Hawken, Susan S. Johnston, JaimeeE. Kidder, Marjorie J. Lynes, and John J. McDonnell. “Emergent Literacy Practices and Support for Children with Disabilities: A National Survey.” EDUCATION AND TREATMENT OF CHILDREN 37 (2014): 495-530. Print.

All the contributors to the article are professors, associate professors, graduate assistants and deans of the Special Education Department of the University of Utah. The authors’ thesis is that emergent literacy is a key element in reading comprehension that needs to be addressed immediately. The main focus of the paper is the impact of various pedagogical strategies on children with many different disabilities ranging from reading comprehension issues to deafness and blindness. The authors’ intended audience is clear to be both students researching this topic as well as educators in the field who could pick different teaching strategies based on the findings of this study. The bias in the article appears to be that the authors believe something needs to be done for students with any type of disability, in contrast with some educators who believe that some of these disabilities are inexistent. One of the potential weaknesses of the article is the relatively low response rate from the sample size (about half). Another weakness is that the survey showed which strategies the teachers were willing to implement, rather than the results of the implementation. This material is especially relevant to our product research because it shows that our product would be used especially in classrooms where children had disabilities. The study supports our thesis because the instructor’s willingness to use new methodologies shows there is a need in the market for instructional tools.

Narang, Susheela, and Raj K. Gupta. “THE EFFECT OF MULTIMODAL REMEDIAL TECHNIQUES ON THE SPELLING ABILITY OF LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN.”INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION 29.2 (2014): 84-91. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.internationaljournalofspecialeducation.com/>.

The authors are both professors at the University of Panjab in Chandigarh, India. Their thesis is that spelling is closely tied to reading ability and, as mentioned in the previous article, is something that needs to be addressed at an early age. The study uses three methods of instruction, one tactual and visual, another solely visual and the last auditory, visual and vocal. All three activities used flashcards with words and drawings to help the disabled students get a better grasp on the structure of certain vocabulary. Same as in the last study, the audience appears to be both students in the field as well as “special educators, teachers and parents, as in this
study an effort has been made to see the effectiveness of training in very important area, which has a direct bearing upon the education of children.” (Narang & Gupta) The only slant I was able to incur when reading the study was a belief in the legitimacy of these disabilities (which I personally believe in but many discredit). The authors themselves stated the weakness of their study: the small sample size (39 students broken up into groups of threes). The findings of this study support our thesis that visual aids can have a positive impact on children with learning disabilities and their learning. The students gained “increased confidence” and “willingness to perform;”— exactly what we’d like to see from our product. This material was equally relevant as the last in our research for the project because it shows that importance of visual aids in children’s pedagogy.

Burrell, A, Sodan A. C. “Web Interface Navigation Design: Which Style of Navigation-Link Menus Do Users Prefer?” Data Engineering Workshops. 2006, Atlanta, GA. Atlanta, GA: IEEE, 2006. Print.

The authors of this research paper are two computer science professors from the University of Windsor in Canada. Their authority derives from their background as instructors in the computer field. The goal of the research paper was to implement a series of different website navigation designs and test which were the most preferred by a series of participants. Their hypothesis was that “certain navigational styles are better for usability than others” (Burrell, Sodan). They claimed that existing literature at the time made them believe that left-hand side navigation was best, but their findings contradicted this initial statement. It’s also important to note that they didn’t adopt this as their own hypothesis, only acknowledged that this was a previous finding. The intended audience for the paper appears to be students in computer science departments, other instructors, and all website developers. I couldn’t find any bias or slant in the paper other than the hypothesis, which was that certain navigation layouts were better than others. I can postulate that as computer science professors (and possibly developers outside of school) they had some vested interest in proving that certain navigation layouts were preferable, although I couldn’t imagine how. I didn’t find any websites attributed to their name online to confirm or disprove this. The strength of the article is that they had 6 different fully-functioning test sites for the users to try, so they weren’t limited in options. Another strength was a varied age demographic in their sample—they didn’t limit it to younger students or older individuals. The weakness, as in the other research papers, lies in the small sample size (30), as well a requirement for the tested individuals to have a basic knowledge of computers and the Internet. It is possible that the results would have been different had they sampled individuals that didn’t know their way around a website. The research presented in this paper confirms our research regarding design because we, also, decided to place the navigation on the top and left of the screen—the top three results of the study for effectiveness. This paper is very relevant to our project when looking at how we decided to present the information on our website. It’s especially relevant because our product doesn’t just have a website as an auxiliary source, it itself resides on a website. It’s important to note that this study is from 2006, before this type of information became common knowledge to most, if not all, Internet users. It is still relevant, however, because it is good to know that users prefer this based on scientific research, not just habit.

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Annotated Bibliography

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Jucks, Regina. And Elisabeth Paus. “What Makes a Word Difficult? Insights into the Mental Representation of Technical Terms.” Metacognition and Learning 7, Jan. 2012: 91–111.

This article is by Regina Jucks and Elisabeth Paus who both contribute to higher academic institutions. While Jucks has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology in Teaching and Education, Paus is senior researcher in clinical medicine at the University of Oslo. Their combined knowledge and specializations make this study not only reliable but also comprehensive and helpful towards uncovering why some words are more difficult than others to understand. Their main thesis states that to understand and grasp a wider vocabulary a broader context of knowledge is required.

Jucks and Paus’ study is intended for academic researchers who could use their findings for their own research or for academic enthusiasts who are interesting in literacy. This study conducted to analyze what makes certain words more difficult to understand gives an in-depth analysis of words origins. The study presents theories about reading comprehension and the monitoring of personal knowledge and how it impacts ones learning process. This article is valuable for its detailed exposition on the origins of people’s difficulty with language and for demonstrating the theories in a detailed recapture of the study conducted to prove the feeling to knowing approach mentioned. Rather than focusing on the positive outcomes of the study, this text is indispensable because of its fair perspective on the results and holistic approach. This study will be especially useful for understanding how people understand words. This text could be easily incorporated into the decision of what types of words to include in the index.

 

Pardieck, Sherrie. C. “Using Visual Literacy to Teach Science Academic Language: Experiences from Three Preservice Teachers.” Action in Teacher Education 36, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 192–210.

This article is by Sherrie Pardieck, a professor at Bradley University specializing in the teaching of reading. Pardieck’s education provides a legitimate source of knowledge that will provide insightful points about how visuals enhance learning. The thesis of this article is that visuals undoubtedly enhance learning and word comprehension significantly.

This article argues that visual literacy is a corner stone of the learning process and significantly improves word comprehension. Pardieck details how visual tools are used to solve problems and help connect cognitive functions for an overall understanding of objects and words in relation to each other. This article projects the helpfulness of using visuals for learning and presents no downsides. There seems to be no bias or slant as the author is a knowledgeable professor with no reason to cover the detriments to visual literacy. There is also considerable supporting evidence for her claims. This article will be especially useful in demonstrating a need for the visual dictionary. The nature of this article suggests it is for academic purposes but the language used makes it accessible for college students. Pardieck’s article legitimizes the purpose of our product while supplying us with background information on the benefits our product will create.

“Millennial Marketing Must Haves.” Forbes. Accessed December 5, 2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2014/11/20/millennial-marketing-must-haves/.

Josh Rampton, the author of this article, is an entrepreneur who helps start-ups as the president of Adogy marketing agency. Rampton is extremely well recognized as an influential marketing strategist and has spoken at many business conferences; he is also a contributor on Forbes’ website. These credentials make Rampton a very reliable source when writing and gaining information about marketing. Rampton’s thesis is that marketing strategies have drastically changed after the millennial generation in attempt to target Generation Y, which is proving to be challenging.

The intended audiences for this article are those interested in marketing trends, and those who want a fuller understanding of todays marketing climate. This article is valuable for its current analysis of the marketing climate, accessible language and examples, which make the information applicable. While I cannot see a large bias in the article, there could be a more in depth explanation of the specific steps the companies profiled in the article took to redefine their marketing strategies for Generation Y. This article will be especially helpful for writing the marketing strategy for our product. With the examples of marketing strategies from companies dominating their respective markets, we are able to adopt similar practices to ensure an effective strategy.

Final, Uncategorized

White Space Annotated Bibliography

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Byfield, Bruce. “Linux.com.” Online Word Processors: A Hands-On Comparison. N.p., 5 Sept. 2006. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://archive09.linux.com/articles/114171>.

Bruce Byfield discusses word processing in his article “Online Word Processors: A Hands-On Comparison.” This article, written for people looking for information and advice on which word processors to use, compares four online word processing applications: ajazWrite, ThinkFree Online, Writely, and Zoho Writer, in the following categories: interfaces, basic formatting tools, advanced formatting tools and unique features, and document export and administration. Byfield outlines how each word processor addresses these word processing needs and compares their performance. At the end of each section Byfield declares a verdict, stating which processor he believes does its job the best in each category. In his conclusion Byfield makes a general comparison the word processors and is quick to point out that online word processors were still in their early stages, as the article was published in 2006. Byfield claims that online word processors were a regression, that their simplicity and reliance on the internet made them less efficient than other word processors.

Bruce Byfield is a computer journalist focusing on free and open source software. He has written over 1,200 articles for a variety of online journals and other websites. His past work includes working at as a university English professor and technical writer, as well as communications, marketing, and design consultant. His bias in “Online Word Processors: A Hands-On Comparison” is that of a person who is well-versed in word processing technicalities and has expectations for maximum efficiency in the programs he uses. This article has some weaknesses in that it is a short article and does not provide outside resources for the reader to go to to find more information. While its 2006 publishing date could be seen as a weakness because word processing has changed significantly since then, I believe it can be seen as a strength for our project. Seeing reviews of word processors in their early days can be very informative to the creators of White Space as they decide which features people have found most and least appealing in word processors throughout the years. Part of White Space’s goal is to give users the option to revert to a simpler software if needed, and this article provides ample information about older word processors and their relationship with the internet. Use of this source in our research would strongly support White Space’s thesis that the ideal processor takes the best from word processors already available.

Collier, Richard M. “The Word Processor and Revision Strategies.” College Composition and Communication 34.2 (1983): 149-55. JSTOR. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/357402?ref=no-x-route:eae95b932ea3538933238188507e6a01>.

In his 1983 article “The Word Processor and Revision Strategies,” Richard Collier outlines a hypothesis about the way using a word processor will affect the editing process for students. The intended audience was fellow educators that were possibly looking to incorporate word processing into their curriculum. Collier predicts the word processing revision process will be difficult for those who are less computer-savvy and that they will stick to smaller revisions and only use the simplest features in the processor. He then tests his hypothesis on four female writers between nineteen and thirty-two years old, asking them to revise handwritten essays on word processors. Collier finds that the revision process was very difficult for those who were less computer-literate, but resulted in more active revisions and slightly longer, more experimental essays. He decides that his hypothesis was wrong because the changes in the essays were not as significant as he had predicted. At the end of the article Collier claims that word processing has a long way to go before it is an efficient process, but if students learn how to use it well they will benefit from it immensely.

Since the article was published by The National Council of Teachers of English, I can deduct that Collier was an English educator. His bias is that of an educator; he wants word processing to be a tool that enhances student writing. One weakness of this article, which basically outlines an experiment in word processing, is that Collier only tested four students, all of which were adult women. This does not provide a wide scope for the way word processing was used by students, it just gives a narrow glimpse into Collier’s classroom. The early article publication, 1983, limited the processing software that Collier could use as well. However, this article gives an interesting insight to the way people expected word processors to develop. In a time when word processors were still very new and had almost no precedent, Collier provides an academic’s goals and wishes for the future of the word processor. For White Space it is essential to go back to the original goals and intentions of word processors in order to find out what is needed to apply to its design.

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PreviNote

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“Make a previNOTE”

 Screenshot 2014-11-16 13.44.20

The time has come to start college and a young and eager freshman takes their first steps into the university library. Overwhelmed, this student quickly sits down at a desk and starts on the first assigned university homework. The online databases are filled with countless e-books, academic articles, and scholarly texts all unknown to this student. How will this student succeed with an overwhelming academic article and grasp all of the necessary information? This is where PreviNote comes into play. PreviNote works with the university online databases to track the changes and annotations a previous reader has made, keeping them visible to any current reader. This way, while reading any given article a student can access insightful, helpful, and clarifying annotations in the PreviNote database. The new student struggling to understand their work is now being indirectly helped from peers before, being guided through the course work in a constructive manner. The purpose of this technology is to keep a large database of annotations and notes on scholarly articles for future access. This database will serve as a comprehensive resource for students who are seeking new insights and a helpful guide for their readings and studies. Students will be able to access the helpful annotations through online university catalogues after the University has installed the PreviNote application into their server. Once this has happened, students who acess PDF documents online will be prompted with the option to highlight, make a note, add an annotation, draw comparisons and contrasts in the text. After the reading students can then download that document with their own annotations and select annotations from previous readings they found helpful to remain on the document after saving. Readers will have the ability to turn off the visible annotations so as to not distract the reading process. However, PreviNote will encourage a close reading and rereading giving the student the opportunity to read once making their own notes and then going back to see what others have noted before hand.

 

With the widespread use projected for our product one of our key selling points about this product is the interactivity between students reading the same text. Not only will students be able to pull ideas and clarifications from students previous, they will be able to ask questions and answer inquiries made by others. Professors will also have access to this interface. And with students registered under their specific university professors will be able to mark points of interest, add in questions to help guide the reading and response to annotations. PreviNote provides an extremely interactive interface that truly allows students to excel in challenging academic reading.

 

In current education almost all scholarly work can now be accessed online as we are experiencing a “paradigm shift” to more digital technologies (Hayles 1). It is rare to see a student without a laptop, or without access to one. In addition, e-readers have become increasingly popular with the widespread usage of the Kindle, the Nook, Google Books and especially the iPad. The most common ways of reading are now through online books and PDF’s. PreviNote builds onto the existing reliance on technology for reading and adds an additional and user-friendly purpose. Current technology doesn’t allow you to seamlessly make notes and annotations that efficiently auto saves while you read online. With this new app PreviNote builds off existing technology to enhance productivity, a feature in society we are in danger of loosing. With PreviNote there is no need to “transition between a ‘view’ and ‘edit’ mode in order to make changes to the text”, as this technology, similar to Word Star, derives from the longhand form of composition (Kirshenbaum, 8). The demand for this product is already there as e-readers, laptops and iPads are widely used. Accessing this technology will be as simple logging into the university database website on a computer or smartphone app to complete readings on the go.

 

As Katherine Hayles addresses in her text “How We Think”, human attention is a precious resource and PreviNote works to grasp the readers attention in a way that will make texts much more accessible to the reader. PreviNote will address “hyper reading, which includes skimming, scanning, fragmenting and juxtaposing texts” as it will function as a “strategic response to an information-intensive environment, aiming to conserve attention by quickly identifying relevant information” with the various annotations markings in the text (Hayles, 12). PreviNote will also allow readers to practice “close reading” which “correlates with deep attention… that prefers a single information stream” but needs a “pedagogical [strategy] that recognizes the strengths and limitations of each cognitive mode” through a heightened attention to what each annotation means in the text (Hayles, 12). PreviNote thus allows readers to practice hyper reading and close reading at once while only using one visual mode on the screen to do so.

 

The added feature of the database here allows for the creation of a “special history” that will “[open] the door to new strategies that, rather than using narrative as their primary mode of explication, allow flexible interactions between different layers and overlays” (Hayles, 15). Thus the added database of annotations that PreviNote provides enhances the cognitive reading experience, as readers are now able to interact differently and creatively with the text.

 

The target audiences for this product vary, but the main audience will be all college students, teenagers and young adults from age’s 18 – 21, who might struggle with a difficult reading and would benefit from additional notes professors at these academic institutions. These are the society members who will be actively reading and writing who will benefit from previous annotations. Undergraduate students already have a knowledge of simple technology such as their online university catalogue, giving them very easy to PreviNote when they go to find an article.

 

This application will be manufactured virtually as the nature of the product is so. What will be needed is a program that allows students to modify PDF documents online and that is also capable of auto saving this information for future users. The PreviNote headquarters will need a large infrastructure for computer hard drives that will be used to remotely store all of the data. Our product will be simply distributed, as the application is virtual and can be downloaded on any computer. PreviNote will act as a plug in, similar to Zotero, the popular citation generator. Although PreviNote will be installed, ideally, on all university computers, students can download the plug in on their computer and register with their university so as to see the most effective annotations.

 

PreviNote seeks to enhance the learning and reading experience for college students and institutions worldwide. With our dynamic interface students will bring creativity to reading that has been missing. Collaborating will be made that much easier all with the help of PreviNote. Students who have a question or interesting thought will be prompted to just “make a PreviNOTE”!

 

 

 

Hayles, Katherine. How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2012. Print.

 

Kirschenbaum, Matthew. Track Changes, A Literary History of Word Processing. N.p.: Harvard UP, 2014. Print.

 

Announcements, Assignments

Final Project

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Document here:

https://wp.nyu.edu/licastro_fall14/?p=953

Together we have explored future dystopias through the imaginations of EM Forster, Ray Bradbury, and Margaret Atwood. Each of these writers invent new technologies in their works in order to address current political and cultural issues they wish to address – for example, genetically modified food, over-exposure to screens (and celebrity), violence in video games, etc. These devices often utilize “remediation” drawing from new media concepts we are familiar with, and enhance them to fit in the alternate reality the author has created. For this assignment you will engage in “reflective design,” defined by Hancock et al as “promot[ing] critical inquiry over usability and exploratory prototyping over fully realized productions.” You can do this by beginning with the current state of new media and then projecting potential solutions – or perhaps evolutions – of these tools to enhance the reading and/or writing process in the future. We are specifically concentrating on the tools of composition for this project, since this course has focused on literacy skills the tools we use to communicate. However, these are meant to be visions of the future – featuring a balance of imagination and practicality.

 

This project will be broken into 4 parts:

Stage 1: The Pitch                 

Due Date – 11/14

Create a proposal for your “design fiction” project (3-5 pages, 3min presentation)

  • Introduce the product and explain its purpose – this is the time to dream big!
  • Explain what need this product will fill that isn’t met by currently available technology and how it builds on current technology(ies)
  • Prove this item has a customer base, and be specific about your target audience
  • Imagine the process and materials it would take to manufacture and distribute this product – even if these do not exist yet
  • Come up with marketing materials, such as a catch phrase/motto/logo to use in your pitch

Stage 2: Group Proposal

Due Date – 11/21

As a class you will vote on the top 3 products to develop into your collaborative final projects. (5-7 pages)

  • As a group you will create a contract defining the roles each of you will fill for your group, then you must divide the tasks you need to complete, and provide clear due dates for each task
  • This proposal will also revise the original pitch to incorporate everyone’s ideas and create a robust description of your new tool and its purpose
  • Together you should re-think how to prototype and market this product – consider your audience, and how this idea improves on already existing products
  • Create sample marketing materials

Stage 3: Annotated Bibliographies

Rolling due dates, post as you go (2 must be added before Thanksgiving)

Using Zotero, you will build a research base for this project

  • Each person must contribute at least 3 resources to our group library
  • Each source must include a correctly formatted MLA citation
  • Each source must be summarized and evaluated in the “notes” section (see presentation slides uploaded to our site for more information)

 

Stage 4: Final Project

Presentations on 12/8 and 12/10

Create a website for your product

  • This site should serve as the complete representation of your product
  • Include a description that features your research (properly cited) and connections to what you have learned in this course
  • Include some kind of prototype or mock-up of your tool
  • Design marketing materials, and work these into the overall design of the site
  • Use mutlimedia to your advantage!
  • Include a full works-cited page for all materials used (including media)

 

Additional Notes:

Each group must meet with me in pre-scheduled conferences as listed in the syllabus. I am also available to consult with you on your individual product pitches during office hours.

This description is subject to change after we discuss your ideas. Suggestions welcome!

A final reflection paper telling me what you learned through this process will be due on the date of your final exam.