As promised, I’ve put together a quick survey asking you what changes you think would improve the course next semester. I have a bunch of ideas to try out next time around, but I’d value your input since you’re, well, part of the target audience. This survey is fast, optional and totally anonymous — but if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
Again, thank you all for a wonderful semester. It has been a genuine pleasure working with all of you.
Presentations start tomorrow!
For the nine of you not presenting tomorrow, please come with your best listening ears … and your web-capable mobile devices (phones, laptops, tablets, etc) so that you can fill in the feedback forms without turning your back on the class.
If you don’t have a web-capable mobile device, you can totally turn your back on the class to use the computers in the classroom. But it’ll be nicer if we don’t need to do that.
Presentation feedback is to be given through a Google form (that will automatically collate it for me). After the presentations, I’ll collate the feedback for each presenter and email it to them anonymously, along with my own comments. The form DOES ask for your name, but that’s only so I can make sure everyone is taking the feedback process seriously — I will not under any circumstances release your name to your peers.
Here is a direct link to the form.
You can also access it at the following short URLs if you want to type it in:
TinyURL: http://www.tinyurl.com/hackfeedback
On my server: http://www.beckwise.com/hackrhet
I’ll put these addresses on the board in class tomorrow, but I’m providing them here so you can bookmark them if you want. See you all tomorrow.
Here are your peer review documents for Monday’s workshop.
If your partner wrote an argumentative paper:
Review sheets in Word form (typing-friendly, direct link to .doc)
Review sheets in PDF form (printer-friendly, direct link to .pdf)
If your partner wrote a reflective paper:
Review sheets in Word form (typing-friendly, direct link to .doc)
Review sheets in PDF form (printer-friendly, direct link to .pdf)
As in our previous workshops, you do not have to use these forms — but you must offer your writer formal, written feedback that covers the same topics and issues as these forms, and you must perform a self-reflection that covers the required topics. Copies of the feedback and your self-reflection, as well as Monday’s draft, should be submitted with your paper on Wednesday.
ETA: Here’s the link to sign up for next week’s final conferences (log in with an @gmail or @utexas email address). Please check the dates before you sign up; you need to click forward to next week (Dec 2 and 3), and the slots are Monday 9-noon & 2.30-5.30, and Tuesday 9-12.20.
1. Some people are reporting to me that they have not been hacked. If you haven’t hacked your person, you need to get in contact with me NOW — since your failure to complete the assignment makes it impossible for your peers to complete the assignment, which is not okay.
2. Video!
Two important things in this post:
1. Presentation guidelines.
2. Notes on observations and Learning Records.
You want to read this!
Use the comments to this post to nominate texts that you think the class would benefit from consuming (reading, watching, listening to, etc) over the next month.
These texts should relate to the course theme and be persuasive in some way. You can — indeed, probably should — select your favourites from the texts you’ve discovered in your own research. Please include a sentence that indicates why you’re nominating this text (“It’s a great example of X”, “It’s a terrible example of Y”, “It’s really funny”, “It offers a radically new perspective on Z”, “It’s from a particularly interesting/cool/off-beat publication”, etc).
I’ll try and schedule one reading from each person into the remaining weeks (you can nominate more texts if you want).
Please post your nominations by 11.59pm on Saturday night. I’ll review them on Sunday and get them scheduled in for the week / available online in an organised fashion for y’all to access.
Long post, but please read to the bottom! This post contains the peer reviewing documents, reminders about the workshop process and submission requirements, and REALLY IMPORTANT NOTES about what to expect on Monday.
As you know, Monday is peer reviewing workshop day for your analysis paper. Come in, on time, with a complete, polished draft* of your analysis project and as much caffeine as you need to get you through the class; I’ll provide the cut-price post-Hallowe’en candy for your lunchtime sugar hit; if you have a request for thinking music, post it in the comments here and I’ll endeavour to oblige.
Here are your instructions for today’s in-class assignment:
Hackasaurus instructions
1. Open a browser – not Safari. Firefox or Chrome both work for this.
2. Navigate to www.hackasaurus.org
3. Follow the three-second tutorial.
4. Install X-Ray Goggles in your browser, following the instructions here: http://hackasaurus.org/en-US/goggles/install/
5. Find a site, activate your X-Ray Goggles and hack! Work on your own or in small groups to disrupt or reinforce the message of a website.
Other resources
Hackasaurus is designed to be pretty intuitive, but here are some HTML resources you might like to refer to:
Google Image Search: http://www.google.com/imghp
When you’re done, publish your work and email the link to beck.wise@utexas.edu along with a link to the original site so we can put them all up on the big screen. Be ready to explain what you were trying to do!
Monday is a peer reviewing workshop day for your Analysis Paper. Come to class with a complete, polished draft in electronic form — you can print for free in the classroom if you prefer to work on paper. You’ll work in pairs to identify strengths and weaknesses in each other’s papers, then go home and redraft before submitting to me on Wednesday.
In case you are stuck / want to make sure you’re covering all possible angles, here’s a worksheet that might help (direct link to PDF; I’ll be handing out paper copies in class today — this is in case you lose yours or aren’t in class today).
Following the mid-semester check-ins, we’ve agreed on the following changes to the course:
