Assignments & Grading
Each week, I will ask you to complete either an annotation activity or a written reading response with the assigned material. Annotations will occur on Canvas with the tool Hypothesis Sometimes you will be able to see and interact with others’ annotations as well.
For written responses, you will respond to a particular prompt I post on the assignment; for annotations, you will be asked to complete a certain number of highlights, comments, questions, orf interactions with others.
Grading will be based on meeting the annotation requirements & level of engagement with the text. Your lowest grade for this category will be dropped automatically on Canvas.
Throughout the semester, we will do many different activities analyzing digital objects or digging deeper into readings, either all together or in groups. This work will take place in class and you will turn something in to me at the end of the activity that will count toward your grade in this category.
Grading for these activities will be based on 1) completion and 2) engagement with course material & concepts.
You must be present to participate in these activities.
An alternative assignment may be created *ONLY* if you have alerted me of your absence before class begins.
Attendance is required in this course and I will take it in class. Please reach out to me if you are sick or anticipate missing class.
Unexcused and uncommunicated absences will result result in a lower grade in this category— or, in extreme circumstances, you could be dropped from the course.
Engagement generally can come through speaking in class discussions, as well as participation in in-class activities, communication with me after class/via email, and turning in assignments on time and with tangible effort.
I will have you complete 3 short papers over the course of the semester. Your final for the course will be a class presentation at the end of the semester based on your Paper 2, along with a brief reflection paper submitted on May 15.
Paper 1: Determinism Analysis (15%)
This will be a short essay, essentially a media analysis, where you’ll demonstrate a company or technology’s connection to the kinds of technological determinism we will discuss in Week 2. You’ll look at ads, news articles, or other media for this. You can build off of your reading response due in Week 2, and will add in another in-class reading for your analysis.
Paper 2: choice of prompts (15%)
I will provide a few different options for papers to write here that you’ll be able to choose from. (For example, I might have a prompt to use to conduct interviews with people about their technology use & write about your findings; another prompt might be to create a new, fake social media account and see how you can tweak the algorithm that is serving you content.)
Final Presentation & Reflection: Expanding on Paper 2 (15%)
For your final in the course, you will expand upon your work in paper 2 and present on it in class. You’ll incorporate feedback you got in Paper 2. I’ll provide more details about this later!
