syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 5.7.10

 

Projects Proposal

Purpose

This assignment is asking you to produce an exploratory document that articulates what you will accomplish with your individual projects (Blog Entries, Blog Community Analysis, Pedagogical Tool Review (PhD students), and Pedagogy Project with Rationale) this semester. By doing some preliminary research and organizing your thinking, you are not only developing a plan for yourself, you are also proving to the instructor that the work you will do is viable. If you are struggling to cognitively organize your projects, this is your writing-to-learn opportunity.


Instructions–Invention Process

Begin this process by reading through the links for the other course assignments:

As you read through these project descriptions, think about how you want to respond to them. Remember that you are encouraged to do research and produce documents that are relevant to your academic and/or professional interests. Therefore, you will benefit from envisioning a way to connect these projects; this connection, of course, is not a requirement. However, creating this connection will keep you more sane throughout the course of the semester.

You may want to start this process by asking yourself:

  • What writing and distance learning topics do I want to learn more about?
  • What writing and distance learning topics should I learn more about?
  • What writing and distance learning topics interest me most?
  • Within what instructional situation may I be asked to teach or am already teaching?
  • What type of professionalization opportunities would I like to advance or be in a position to facilitate?
  • What do I want to take away from this course?

Once you determine what you want to learn more about, do some preliminary research on the topic(s) related to your chosen inquiries. Although, this assignment will give you an opportunity to plan an inquiry above and beyond what we will be covering in class, you are encouraged to continue to do more outside research for your projects throughout the course of the semester.

Instructions–Writing

Write a document that describes the work that you will be doing over the course of the semester. This document should include, but is not limited to...

  • a description of what you will be doing for the projects
  • an explanation as to why you have chosen these approaches for these documents. Why will these approaches be relevant to you? How will you benefit from these inquiries?
  • proving that you have chosen viable inquiries by discussing the resources you will work from. Support this with evidence to demonstrate that you have enough resources to sustain your inquiry. It is assumed that the texts you find for the Blog Entries will provide some of this evidence. For some less examined topics, you may have to extrapolate from resources that you can argue are similar to your topic
  • anticipating and articulating problems that you may experience during your inquiry

It is understood that over the course of the semester, the focus of your inquiry may change. However, you should be mostly committed to the projects you propose. You should consult the instructor about any major changes that you make.


Criteria

Logistics:

  • 500-750 w0rds
  • single-spaced
  • This document is due on May 24, 2010 to the instructor as an email attachment by the beginning of class.

  • 50 points

In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of

  • a sense of audience–do you provide enough information and detail about your projects that your audience (i.e., the instructor) has a clear sense of what you have done and what you will be doing
  • your projects' viability
  • an informed understanding of writing pedagogy and distance learning (at least as far as its has been discussed in the class to this point). Does your inquiry demonstrate an understanding of the issues relevant to the teaching writing from a distance?
  • appropriate use of conventions, including MLA or APA citation formatting