Assignment 4: Creating and Presenting Team Digital Exhibit

Assignment 4:  Creating and Presenting Team Digital Exhibit

The team digital exhibit consists of several components:  identifying and contacting appropriate community members of the black dance community in Columbus, conducting community oral history interviews and collecting literacy narratives, uploading those narratives to the DALN, analyzing those literacy narratives, editing narratives to include in the digital exhibit, preparing a polished version of the digital exhibit, and presenting your project during the community sharing night. To conduct your literacy interviews, you will check out audio or video equipment from the English Department’s Digital Media Project (DMP) or Classroom Services.

Teams
Working in teams of four or five students, each team will be responsible for conducting ten-twelve oral history interviews about literacy with members of the dance community. Working in teams allows students to support one another with the technical set-up (managing the camera/recorder, checking sound and light conditions) and the interview (including introductions, forms, interviews), though all students can and should be responsible for all aspects of recording sessions. Note: Collaborative work is challenging, but much primary research across disciplines is conducted collaboratively.  I expect each team member to pull his or her weight, and teams are responsible for dividing their work equitably, though you should contact me early if problems arise. Keep in touch with one another. Each member of the team will receive the same grade for this assignment.

Finding Interviewees, Scheduling Collections 
Every team member, led by graduate student team leaders, will work to identify community members who will agree to record and preserve their literacy narratives.

Conducting Interviews, Uploading Narratives to the DALN
You can check out from the DMP or Classroom Services all of the equipment you will need to conduct your interviews (we are using very simple audio and/or video recorders). Alternatively, you may use your own equipment, but you are responsible for ensuring that the audio and video quality are adequate and that the format of the interview files work with the software we use in class and with the DALN. We will compose checklists for conducting oral history interviews, including questions to ask and forms you will need to ask contributors to complete. We will upload the first set of narratives to the DALN in class, after which you may need to do some or all of the work in your team.

Documents, Reflections, and Analysis
The literacy narratives you collect constitute the main “product” by which your work on this assignment will be evaluated. In addition, because these narratives will become the primary source for your final assignment, I will also ask you to turn in a summary of your field notes (e.g., notes about the place in which you conducted your interview, the circumstances of the interview, contextual information provided by your interviewee—more about this later) and, if available, contextual documents (text or images) provided by your interviewees.  Your team may collect still images as well as artifacts from your interviewees.

The Final Project 
Your digital exhibit should be multimodal (i.e., an iMovie, an audio essay, a web site, Pecha Kucha, or some other multimodal text.  Each of the interviewees must be represented in the final version of the exhibit.  You will need to compose a coherent, thoughtful exhibit that tells the literacy stories of the dance community participants.  Your exhibit should, like any good composition, have an interesting introduction with a main point, be clearly organized, offer appropriate examples and details, and grab the audience’s attention.  In its final form, it should be no more than eight minutes. Think of the exhibit as digital literacy narrative of sorts.  Each team should prepare a 500-750 word Introduction to accompany your exhibit that is similar to what you may find at an art museum or library.

The Reflection
During the final week of class, each student should prepare a one-two page, singe-spaced self-reflection on your writing/composing experience in the various formats required for the class.  This reflection is different from a course evaluation.  Consider the reflection an opportunity for you to reflect on your growth as a thinker, writer, and researcher and to reconsider how you understand the role of literacy in the U.S. experience.  Every student must turn in a reflection (on Carmen) by December 4.

Turn in your team exhibit to me on a DVD or flash drive.

Digital Exhibit Evaluation Criteria

1.  Fulfills all components of the assignment

2.  Captures attention of audience

3.  Is informative

4.  Provides appropriate context

a.  Provides historical background

b.  Provides scholarly context

c.  Contextualizes topic

5. Makes use of appropriate evidence

a.  Include appropriate video clips

b.  Include quotes from secondary sources (if necessary)

6.  Shows clear purpose and major point(s)

7.  Has coherent argument/narrative

8.  Is logically organized:  introduction, body, conclusion

9.  Uses smooth transitions

10.  Includes reasonable and visible claims

11.  Includes an appropriate and deliberate conclusion

12.  Has quality video and video

a.  Identify speakers

b.  Identify images (where appropriate)

c.  Use appropriate music

Due Dates:

  • November 12      Partial Draft of Digital Exhibit
  • November 19      Full Draft of Digital Exhibit
  • December 3      Final Draft and Presentation of Digital Exhibit
  • December 4      Written Self-Reflections (on Carmen)