Tasks Due from Last Week

  • Review The Digital Revolution
  • Review New Paradigms
  • Finalize Research Project Presentation
  • Discussion: Research Project Feedback
  • Week 13 Agenda Checklist

This Week’s Topics

Freewrite – ART OF NOTICING (10 min)

This Week’s Prompt – From Nicolas

Interview an object. What object would you want to take to lunch? One way to perceive an object is to consider the questions it raises – even if they are questions it can’t literally answer. Think of an object that raises questions that only the object itself could answer.

ART OF NOTICING

This Week’s Prompt – From Ziqi!

Don’t Photograph. DRAW. The smartphone has turned many of us into habitual photographers and everyday documentarians. However… suppose next time you are tempted to capture a snapshot of an appealing or interesting scene, you draw it instead? Many people believe they “can’t draw”… Be heartened that you don’t need to show your drawing to anyone. (and your drawing doesn’t need to replicate what you see) You’ll find that drawing helps you to slow down and enriches what you see.

ART OF NOTICING

Check-in

Jennell, Lizbeth, Ziqi, Jonathan, Abenezer, Nina, and Morgan, will be presenting your Research Projects. Remember, this is a friendly review. The goal is to get feedback from your peers and improve your work.

If you haven’t already, link to your Research Project Presentation post on Discussion: Research Project Feedback. And give feedback on your classmates’ work before the end of class. If you haven’t contributed much in class, this is your chance to participate and support your fellow classmates.

THINGS TO KNOW

  • All coursework (see Assignments page), including your Writing Portfolio, comments on your classmates’ presentations, Reading Responses 1-7, Discussion comments, and any additional work you’d like to submit or revise, should be posted by Wednesday, December 20th.
  • Any work you’d like feedback on should be submitted by Week 15. Please notify me if you’d like feedback.
  • Your Grade Survey is due in class Week 15. Your learning reflection and the grade you believe you have earned for this course will be factored into your final grade.
  • Last day to Withdraw with a grade of (W) is Monday, December 11th. Please contact me first beforehand to see if we can work something out.
  • If you want to schedule any last-minute meetings about your research project, contact me to set up a meeting or email me with any questions or concerns.

Not sure if you missing assignments or discussion posts? Take a look all of the coursework for this semester on the Schedule page and the Assignments list.

Activities

Below find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities and assignments.

1. Review Research Project Presentation Deadlines

By today you should have completed the first seven milestones. Review the project guidelines and see below for the next milestones.

  • Week 7: Define your research topic/question and submit your Research Project Outline
  • Week 8: Finalize your topic and start collecting supporting media and sources in an annotated bibliography
  • Week 9: Complete your Slideshow/Presentation outline and script based on your research
  • Week 10: Finalize your research, supporting media and sources
  • Week 11/12: Assemble all graphics and text in a slideshow, record first draft of presentation
  • Week 13: Share in-progress slideshow presentation with voiceover, get feedback from peers and professor, finalize annotated bibliography
  • TODAY! Week 14: Post Presentation to OpenLab site – follow the guidelines
    Here is an example Research Project Presentation Example Post for reference!
  • TODAY! Week 14/15: Review Research Project Presentations in class.
  • Week 15: Submit one comment on each of your classmates’ presentations

2. Research Project Presentation & Comments

Jennell, Lizbeth, Ziqi, Jonathan, Abenezer, Nina, and Morgan will present their Research Project Presentation posts to the class.

As your classmates share their presentations, write down some comments and then add them to your classmates’ posts before the end of class. View all the posts by navigating to Student Posts > Research Project.

Give at least 1 comment per presentation. Your comment should be supportive AND helpful!

This is NOT a helpful comment:

“Great presentation, I like it”

A helpful comment offers support, a critique of the content and delivery of the research material, as well as suggestions for improvement:

“Great presentation, NAME. I enjoyed your exploration of XXXX and XXXX. I was especially excited to learn about XXXX and XXXX. I was intrigued by your discussion of XXXX because you presented it by exploring XXXX and contrasted it with XXXX. However, I would have liked to have learned more about XXXXX. Have you considered expanding on XXXX and XXXX? Here are some links about XXXX that I think would be helpful for your future research.”

3. Writing Portfolio

Your Writing Portfolio is a place for collecting ideas, freewriting, images, links, videos, and other media to help you develop your ideas and formulate your research topic. It can be organized or sloppy or anywhere in between, but it should demonstrate who you are as a creative, curious individual and your research process in this course.

Wednesday, December 20th is the last day to submit your Writing Portfolio. If you have notes and ideas in other places, take photos and/or copy them over to your Writing Portfolio. These could be photos of your sketchbook, other notebooks, etc. Show your work and your creative/research process.

If you haven’t already, create a private or public post for your Writing Portfolio. Follow the guidelines for submission on If your journal is in another format, contact the professor to submit it.

4. What did you accomplish? Grade Survey

Take a moment to review the grading policy and Your Learning Plan. Look over your Writing Portfolio, the Assignments you have submitted or plan to submit, and the Weekly Class Agendas. Consider all of the ways in which you have, over this semester, engaged your sense of curiosity about Communication Design Theory.

Consider the following:

  • Do you now look at advertisements, social media, or your favorite video games with a critical eye for connotated or denoted meaning?
  • Do you see the types of signs (icon, index, symbol) used in the world around you? Can you pick out the signifiers and identify the signified?
  • Are you able to identify influences from design history like Constructivism, the International Style, and Post-Modernism in subways ads or product packaging?
  • Do you think more about the photographic, illustrative, color, or typographic choices in your work, and consider how they will be received, what meaning they might convey to your audience, or how they might persuade your audience to think or feel a certain way?
  • Do you feel like your reading and writing skills have improved?
  • Have the skills of close-reading and annotation given you the confidence to read more challenging texts, if you choose to in the future?
  • Will you apply the research and analysis skills used in this course to your creative practice?
  • Through class discussions, did you make any new friends or collaborators in this class?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, hey, that’s good news!

What grade do you think you have earned in this course?

Based on the completion of Your Learning Plan and the work you have completed thus far, use the Grade Survey to submit the grade you believe you have earned in this course. This may not be the final grade you receive, but your evaluation of your own learning experience and effort is extremely important and will be considered.

Week 14 Agenda Checklist

Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. Submit your Weekly Agenda Checklist below, indicating the tasks you’ve completed.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Tasks from the Week 14 Agenda
Name(Required)

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