Initial Assignment: Neighborhood Analysis

Learning Goal

To practice 3 essential skills:

1. Mapping Key Features of a Place
2. Making Careful Observations about a Place
3. Researching a Place

Task

1. Map your neighborhood: indicate your perception of your neighborhood boundaries.
   • Mark key institutions, landmarks, shopping areas, gathering points for the community
   • Indicate name for neighborhood and adjacent communities
2. Using phone and camera, document observations of what you consider the main social gathering point or landmark
   1. Use voice memos to record what you see, what you observe
   2. Use photos and videos to document different types of social interaction
   3. Use photos and videos to  illustrate the nature of the place
3. Find a historic document/book/article/map that speaks about the history of the place you select as a focus and/or the overall neighborhood
4. Using this historic document and your documentation, create a five-minute multi-media presentation (for example, PowerPoint or Prezi embedded with video, voice and images) that will give the class an understanding of your neighborhood and the place you selected

 

Case Study Analysis and Research (Midterm Presentation)

Team Assignment: Teams of 2 students

Learning Goal:

To  practice 3 essential skills:

1. Mapping Key Features of a Place
2. Making Careful Observations about a Place
3. Researching a Place

Task:

1. Map the site: boundaries, name, public space, roads and pathways
   1. Mark key institutions, shopping, gathering points for the community
2. Using Phone and camera, document observations of place
   1. Voice memos to record what you see, what you observe
   2. Photos and videos of types of social interaction
   3. Photos and videos of the nature of the place
3. Using sketchbook, document observations of place
   1. Sketch diagrams that document how people enter and leave the site
   2. Sketch diagrams that document where people occupy the place (where are they sitting, standing, meeting and talking)
   3. Sketch diagrams of observations of types of activities and where they occur
   4. Note the weather, time of day, location of sun, day of week of observations.
4. Find 6 historic documents/books/articles/map that speaks about the history of the place. Examples of documents are:
   • Government Reports
   • Contemporary Documentation (photos, books, journals, newspaper articles)
   • Maps (Google maps aerial photo views, fire atlases, historic maps)
   • Social Data (census data, Social Explorer data sets)

Guidelines:

The mid-term presentation will consist of the following:

1. Summary: Present a summary of your view and insights of the case study site.
2. Theme: Present a theme/issue/research question to sell to your classmates for the final project.
3. Research Method: Present a method you propose to research the theme further (what questions need to be asked and answered?, how and where do you need to go? what materials do you need to inspect and study?)
4. Outline of Major and Minor Topics related to Research: Develop a draft outline of the major talking points for the multimedia presentation on your proposed theme.
5. Bibliography as starting point for Research: Develop a draft bibliography with at least 4 PRIMARY sources that would be useful for the multimedia research. (No more than 1 newspaper article.)

All students will post a pdf of presentation to the Openlab course site. Students may use presentation software of their choosing . All required items above should be documented in submitted pdf.

An excellent midterm presentation includes all of the following elements:

-strongly developed and clearly realized theme, issue or research question that is relevant to the study site
-clear and realistic research methods are described
-well-organized outline with sufficient detail to demonstrate how the topic, question, or theme will be addressed
-the bibliography includes 4 or more relevant primary sources with complete citations
-PDF of presentation is submitted on time, free of typos, and grammar, syntax, or formatting errors

Presentations to be at least 7 minutes but no more than 10 minutes including discussion.

Case Study Final Project

Team Assignment: Teams of 4 students

Learning Goal:

To work as a team to synthesize, document, and present a coherent and well organized research  on the case study site using tools for research including:

1. A research outline with a clearly defined research question
2. An annotated bibliography
3. A multimedia presentation with audio narration and videos and images that coherently presents the research and a conclusion to the research question.

The final project makes use of the analysis and research of assignment #2 to finalize and document the research and present it in a research outline, annotated bibliography, and multi-media presentation.

Group Outline

An outline makes any research assignment easier because it helps you organize the ideas and concepts hierarchically and helps you keep track of large amounts of information. For group projects, the outline can help each member of the group understand what their individual contributions and responsibilities are so that everyone understands who is contributing to which part of the final assignment: researching and writing the script for the podcast.

The outline starts with the development of a clear and focused research question. Once your groups research question is finalized, develop an outline that shows how you will research and present your topic in a format that advances your original thoughts with evidence from your research. Your outline forms a structure for your multimedia presentation and shows your audience how the evidence you find from your research, combined with your own analysis, takes the audience from your research question to your conclusions.

Your outline should restate your research question; no need to include the entire topic proposal. In the outline you may use short phrases rather than complete sentences to describe your arguments and supporting subdivisions. Each supporting section or subdivision should be distinct, yet related to the argument.

Your outline must be well organized and tell me how you plan to answer your research question with evidence from your research that supports your own arguments

You may indicate a source or multiple sources for each subdivision, as appropriate; this may help you remember which sources support which arguments when it comes time to write and revise the script.

 

Group Annotated Bibliography

Each group selects a minimum of 6 (more than 6 is okay!) different sources of relevant information on the topic of your team research assignment, including:

1. at least 3 text-based primary sources (historical newspaper article, letter, diary, data set)
2. at least 2 image-based primary source (photograph, film/video, painting/drawing)
3. at least 1 scholarly or academic source (interprets or analyzes historic or current conditions; a secondary source) If you are unsure whether a source you’d like to use meets one of these criteria, please ask your professors.
4. At the top of the document, write a single sentence that summarizes the research question for your research group. Each group submits one annotated bibliography of unique sources. Include the full names of each member of the group. Begin each annotation with the citation for each source, formatted using MLA Style. For citation help, use ZoteroBib https://zbib.org/ and/or the MLA Works Cited page of the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
5. Underneath each citation, write an annotation for the source. Each annotation must be at least 100 words, though it may be longer.
6. Accomplish all of the following in each annotation:
   1. Summarize – no more than 1-2 sentences; avoid quoting from the source
   2. Evaluate – how, and how well, does this source contribute to knowledge on your topic?

• Reflect – how does the source fit into your research? How does it help you answer your research question?

 

Multi-media Presentation Guidelines

Your multi-media presentation is the final project for the semester. This presentation is to present the research question identified in the group outline, follow the structure of the outline with arguments and a conclusion, and strategically incorporate or reference at least three relevant information sources from the annotated bibliography.

This activity will be completed in 4 stages:

1. planning and prewriting
2. research and script development
3. technical production
4. viewing & reflection

Grading criteria

• Successful attempt to answer research question
• Inclusion or references made to at least threerelevant information sources (articles, books, maps, films, etc.)
• Quality of content analysis and synthesis of sources relevant to the research question.
• Equal participation of group members in multimedia audio recording
• Good effort made to successfully record, produce, and edit
• All required content appears on OpenLab site
• Presentation is successfully uploaded to Soundcloud with images and metadata
• Presentation is between 15-20 minutes long
• All content is cited in the bibliography, including images and music
• Selection of an appropriate Creative Commons license

Resources for recording
The Multimedia Resources Center in the City Tech library lends out USB headsets with microphones. Use your college ID to borrow a headset/mic. Headsets must be used in the library. You can borrow an iPad Mini or laptop for up to 3 days from Multimedia with your college ID.

If you need a quiet place to record, reserve a library study room. During class time, with permission, you may use the library projection room or the eclassroom. Bring a laptop with Audacity or other recording software already installed. You can record with your phone using the voice memo app or Anchor for iOS or Android.

Regarding music for the presentation: Start your search for CC-licensed music that you can legally use at CCMixter, Jamendo, or one of the other sites listed here.

See the step-by-step podcast instructions from Prof. Almeida for technical assistance with recording and editing.