And the winners are!

For the FTN Videos, the class has chosen the videos on Race, Sexualities, and Bodies. I have embedded them directly in our discussion mural, so please watch them and join the conversation there. I have also added space for discussing Alien and Sleeper.

If your group is not yet signed up for a check-in with me, please use Doodle to sign up. I can’t wait to see your latest work.

Final Project Guidelines

Good morning and happy monday!
We’ve talked in class about expectations for the final project, but here is a checklist for your group to use.

As you know, our final project is a multimedia companion to Year of the Flood. We have our site set up at http://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/yotf/. You have all been invited to the site and can start contributing to it now.

Each group is responsible for a few things:

• A well thought out subsection of the site that represents information in your area
• Multimedia work that represents your approach and/or analysis. In some groups, individuals are making their own pieces and in others, this work is being done collaboratively. Either is fine, but clearly indicate on the work who is responsible for it!
• While our focus here is multimedia, you should have enough writing to guide site visitors through your work, and to give it context. Think of someone who has never read the book, and what they needs to make sense of what they are encountering on the site.
• Each group member should have a short reflective essay on the final site that talks about the multimedia work you did and your experience translating your understanding of the novel into a digital format.
• Each group should have a short, polished contribution to the Wikipedia page on Year of the Flood.

The end of the semester is creeping up, and we have the holiday this week. But I would like to hold a conference with each group–in person or via Google Hangout–sometime before December 3. Please be in touch before Thanksgiving so we can figure out a time that works.

Syllabus Adjustments

There are a few adjustments I would like to make to the syllabus.

1) Going forward, I would like a weekly blog update from each group (one post per group–I recommend that you rotate this responsibility) on their thoughts, process, and progress for the final project. You can use this post to get feedback from me, Emily, and your classmates about your project. Tell us your insights, and discuss any stumbling blocks.

2) Along with your reading responses, you should also comment on at least two classmates’ blog posts every week.

3) General questions and discussion items should still be posted in the forum, but since we are meeting weekly going forward, we can turn our energies to blogging and commenting.

4) The wikipedia project is going to be postponed slightly. Details forthcoming!

5) Everyone should contribute to our mural on a regular basis. You have two responsibilities: charting your group’s area and contributing to the areas on major characters and events.

6) Your second reading response–a multimedia response to Year of the Flood–is due on November 14. You may do this project as a group or individually. Keep in mind that a group project should be more ambitious than an individual one! Please let me know your plans by Nov 7. Emily and I are available to consult!

Year of the Flood Project

This evening in class, we will begin our discussion of Margaret Atwood’s Year of the Flood. I have enjoyed reading the responses you have posted so far.

Tonight, Emily will also do a demonstration of Mural.ly, a collaboration tool we will use to discuss, draft, and plan your final project: a collaborative multimedia response to Year of the Flood. To complete the project, we will break down into teams:

• Chronology and Geography
• God’s Gardeners: Saints, Celebrations, and Beliefs
• Corps, Science, Technology, and Social Systems

Each group will brainstorm about possible responses and media to represent them (timelines? maps? short films? text? what else?). As you read, you should add notes about your area to our class planning mural. We’ll all add notes on major characters to the mural. In each class meeting, each team will give brief report back on their findings. We’ll use our mural help draw connections between ideas and events in the novel, and to determine the architecture and draft components of our final project site. A class wikipedia page is also available for drafting, and eventually, our class will contribute to the Year of the Flood page (and possibly more) on Wikipedia.

By next Thursday, Oct 31, your group should have an established presence on the mural, list out key elements of the novel for your area, and should make a blog post about your ideas for the final project. (One post per group is fine–within your group, you should decide how to allocate that job fairly.)

You should make updates to the mural often in the upcoming weeks. What you post there does not need to be formal; it should serve as a workspace, drafting, and note-gathering area. In class on Nov 7, we will wireframe the final project site together.