Although I still haven't 100% settled on my final project idea for CI 5474, let me give you a quick refresher regarding what I'm heavily considering. Throughout our course so far, the topic that stands out to me the most, as well as just plain interests me the most, is the idea of an online role play. Per my proposed task and rationale as previously published on the wiki I designed for our course...
TASKI really, really like the idea of having an interactive sort of role play like we have been reading and talking about in class. Given my interest with this idea, I am thinking about setting up a sort of role play experience via Facebook or Ning with which student-controlled characters from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird would interact with each other in a number of ways including:
-Multi-modal public writing back and forth on profile walls / forum posts in response to student-created issues of inquiry relevant to the text (if the teacher where "friends" with these characters in the FB environment, it would be very easy to view and monitor each character's wall).
-Multi-modal private writing in response to student-created issues of inquiry relevant to the text (although this would be slightly less transparent to monitor and assess as a teacher, even if the teacher were "friends" with the characters in the FB environment).
-Uploading and tagging each other in multi-modal texts in response to student-created issues of inquiry relevant to the text .
(Again, if the teacher were "friends" with the group in the FB environment, this general activity would be relatively easy to "see" and monitor).
For the assessable product form that this project could take, students could be required / expected to:
-select a major OR minor character from TKM
-create a COMPLETE FB / Ning profile for said character which effectively articulates some sort of specific interpretation / purpose / Stance / P.O.V.
-befriend other role play participants
-collaborate with other role play participants to generate and explore issues of inquiry relevant to the text via multi-modal FB / Ning exchanges
-respond to said issue FROM THE ROLE / PERSPECTIVE / STANCE / P.O.V. of said character via effective use of multi-modal writing
RATIONALE
I feel as though such an interactive role play activity promotes a critical stance toward the text in a number of ways:
-Either medium affords opportunities for critical analysis: As students complete their character's FB / Ning profile and complete text fields such as the "about me," "interests," "quotes," "favorite books and movies," and so on sections, students will need to have critically read, thought about, and analyzed their characters VERY closely if they hope to later utilize relevant, character-based responses to role play prompts. In other words, saying that Tom Robinson's favorite food is "pizza" or that his political stance is "liberal" simply will not do!
-The mediums afford opportunities for the practicing of digital literacies: As students interact with others via their respective character's role on FB / Ning, they will be required to post and comment on images and video gathered from the internet as a means of exploring the issue of inquiry they generate. For example, if the central issue of inquiry is something like "what are the underlying ideologies of the old South?" students could gather and comment on images and video portraying racism, further commenting on these images to make connections to their specific characters and issue.
-The medium affords access and familiarity: It's no doubt that students are already using, as well as grossly proficient with, FB and other social networking tools! This type of assignment will show them how social networking sites can also be used for analytical purposes AND perspective taking purposes. Also, each medium's blend of synchronous AND a-synchronous components allows conversations to occur outside of the classroom, ideally on students' own, self-initiated behavior. In other words, if they are already into the behavior of constantly checking their personal social networking pages to see what is going on with their friends, perhaps this assignment will be perceived as a MUCH more social, valuable, and overall fun experience.
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POTENTIAL FEEDBACK METHODS
In chapter 9 of our course text, Anson, Beach, Breuch, and Swiss (2009) suggest the importance of participating alongside students as digital writing tools are utilized to foster process-based revisions:
"I strive to post a specific, positive comment of a clarifying question on at least one piece of writing for every student. My comments, as well as comments of more adept peers, serve as a model for expanding students' response vocabulary as they are picked up and modified by others" (191).
For this particular activity, instructors could similarly adopt roles, create COMPLETE FB / Ning profiles, and actively participate in the larger role-play activity alongside their students, contributing to the role-play and offering students role-specific feedback. For example, via their specific roles (e.g., "mayor" or Maycomb, concerned citizen, and so on and so forth), instructors could pose clarifying questions and comments surrounding student-lead discussion. While acting in this capacity, I could foresee instructors posing questions such as "I like your idea, Atticus, but have you thought of point A from my perspective as Maycomb's X? How might I react to what you're arguing? What might I agree with? What might I disagree with?" In short, such active, role-based instructor participation would help model appropriate interactions for students to further appropriate.
OR, perhaps via a different FB / Ning profile, instructors could provide traditional or otherwise "teacher" feedback by posing similar clarifying questions and comments surrounding student-lead discussion, but in more of an authoritative evaluator / instructor vs. peer collaborator / participator mode. In short, this more distanced, evaluative feedback would further establish the trajectory and expectations of the overall experience. And perhaps best of all, the FB AND Ning applications provide instructors with the option to provide private, student-centered evaluative feedback via private messaging systems if student-teacher confidentiality / privacy is an issue.
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CRITERIA / RUBRICS
Bellow is the link to a potential rubric I have developed thus for my project. Please, I welcome your feedback and suggestions as assessing this sort of activity is completely new to me!
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dd429dsq_624659wncb
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IMAGES USED
http://www.utoronto.ca/innis/alumni/facebook_pic.jpg
http://upsenglish.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/harper-lee.jpg
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