Prof. Jenna Spevack | COMD3504_D061 | SPRING 2024 | Thurs 2:30pm

Week 08 Agenda

Tasks Due Today from Week 7

  • Review Week 7 Agenda
  • Review The Medium is the Message / Social Media is the Message
  • Post your Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising
  • Submit Week 7 Agenda Checklist

This Week’s Topics

Check-in (10 min)

Spring 2024 Playlist

Freewrite – The Art of Noticing (15 min)

Prompt: In your language of choice, write continuously in your notebook for 10 minutes about what you noticed this week when completing the task. Don’t edit, or correct, don’t stop, just write. Feel free to share or not.

This week’s task brought to you by Malika:

Hunt for a Sound

The places we think of as merely “quiet” are of course filled with sounds, which are just subtle or distant or spread out. Search for the source of a sound or ambient sounds – those that we normally tune out; like the rustling of a plastic bag in a tree or the call of a bird or the hum of an air conditioner.

ART OF NOTICING

Next Week’s Prompt by Adrika :

Read the Label

The next time you are browsing a clothes rack or the grocery store, read the label. Scrutinize whatever information is available. Consider what information is not available. Imagine why that might be- and what you may be missing.

ART OF NOTICING

Activities

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

1. Research Project Presentation Overview (10 min)

This week, we will take a look at the Research Project Presentation guidelines and begin to define our project topic and outline.

A couple of examples from last semester:

The following will help with the development of your Outline.

You can use your Research Project Presentation to bring awareness to the issues that matter to you as an individual, as a global citizen, as a designer.

2. Research Project Presentation Outline (15 min)

After reviewing the Research Project Presentation guidelines, and doing some initial research, create an outline in your Writing Portfolio with the following content. Come prepared next week to present your outline to the class.

  1. Introduction
    In one or two sentences, define your research question or thesis.
  2. Background/Review of the Sources
    Explain in detail the topic you are examining. Include a summary of the basic background information on the topic gleaned from your sources/readings review (you can include information from the readings and class, but the bulk should be outside library or scholarly sources).
  3. Rationale
    Explain why your research topic is culturally, socially, or politically significant. Include a description of the questions you are examining and why you are exploring this topic. Why is it meaningful to you?
  4. Method and Design
    A description and bulleted outline showing how you plan to present the information in your presentation, starting with the introduction and ending with a conclusion.
  5. References
    List the resources and references you have found so far. Include all references in MLA style.

3. AI is the Message – if you don’t understand the media, you don’t understand the message (1 hour)

Last week we looked at Marshall McLuhan’s theories about media and how they relate to and in some cases predicted our contemporary concerns with social media and AI.

Tristan Harris, the founder of the Center for Humane Technology, believes technology “is a simultaneous utopia and dystopia.” The utopia the user experiences is the dopamine hits and efficiency of on-demand everything, and the dystopia of the giant manipulative matrix that we are living in.

This week, let’s take a look at the state of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE through the lens of design theory and culture.

Artificial intelligence offers massive increases in productivity, expression, and problem-solving. But these capabilities can easily lead to a world with bot-manipulated democracies, massive unemployment, exploitation of children and other vulnerable populations, and a world where no one can tell synthetic media from reality.

Center for Humane Technology
THE AI DILEMMA

Resources from Human Tech

4. Peer-Review: Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising

This week you will be reading and providing comments on your partner’s Research Essay. Providing feedback is a great way to become a better writer!

Follow the steps below:

  1. Locate your partner’s Research Essay post on the course site. Navigate to Student Posts > Essays
  2. Make sure your partner has set their Google Doc Share to “Anyone with link can comment” so you can add comments. (See this video how-to)
  3. Before reading, review the assignment guidelines Research Essay – Stereotype in Advertising to make sure you are evaluating the essay based on the original assignment specifications.
  4. Also review these two Peer Review Checklist/Rubrics. Use one or the other as a guide while you are reading the essay.
  5. As you read the essay, use the Commenting feature in Google Docs to provide inline comments and give your partner feedback to help them improve their essay. For example:
    • If your a sentence needs to be restructured for clarity, highlight that sentence and add a comment to let them know.
    • If you like a particular phrase, source or example, highlight it and add a comment to let them know.
    • If the flow of the essay is confusing or needs to be restructured identify those areas with a comment.

Week 8 Agenda Checklist

Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. The due date is Wednesday, 11:59 pm before our next Thursday class. Timely completion of these tasks will contribute to your success in this course.

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

Tasks from the Week 8 Agenda
Name

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1 Comment

  1. Nick

    Research Project Outline

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