Goals
We’ll seek to understand various new media technologies and topics by exploring both all the amazing things that technology could lead to (Utopia) and all the horrible things that could come from it (Dystopia).
Your group can pick a target year between 5-20 years from now (2030-2045)—far enough out that we’re beyond the obvious and have enough time for social change to accompany technological changes, but not so far out that we’re into the realm of science fiction.
Grading (15 points total)
Presentation video, 6 points
Create a five minute or less video.
- 6: Polished, practiced, and creative / engaging
- 5: Lacking in one or more of the above
- 4: Lacking in two or more of the above
- 3: Coherent, but barely
- 0: Hard to watch
Submission: https://forms.gle/jFvoKQEeDnsVZoE4A
Online artifact, 6 points
Make an online thing (Medium.com post, Google Doc / Slides, etc.) that presents your work in a compelling, polished fashion.
- 6: Super-polished + super-thoughtful
- 5: Still good, but lacking in either polish or thoughtfulness
- 4: Complete, but not terribly polished or thoughtful
- 3: Something’s there, but it’s super rough
- 0: Nothing turned in
Submission: https://forms.gle/jFvoKQEeDnsVZoE4A (same form as for video; submit form once per group if possible)
Peer evaluations, 3 points
Everyone within your group will complete a brief online peer evaluation of everyone else in your group.
- 3: Great to work with!
- 2: Solid contributor
- 1: Some issues, but still participated
- 0: Who was s/he again?
Submission: https://forms.gle/Ak2Hpu7CT5C5Br7R9
Criteria for success
Successful projects will, in both the presentation video and the online artifact, demonstrate:
- Thorough research1 into the current state and future trajectory of your selected topic
- Clear thinking about the future of your topic supported by your research alongside information and concepts from class
- Analysis from multiple perspectives (technological, social, cultural, ethical, economic, etc.)
- Integration between all portions of the project2
- A sufficient level of polish3
- A sense of fun, play, and creativity
Group roles
You’ll be working in your discussion group. The following are suggested—but not required—roles. How you divvy up the work is up to you.
Project coordinator: Works with everyone in the group to coordinate everything that happens into a single, cohesive project.
Research coordinator: Working with project coordinator, divvies up, coordinates, and pulls together research
Researcher: Carries out and reports back project research
Online thing coordinator: Responsible for ultimate success of the online thing. Coordinates research, original thought, and more.
Online thing editor: Responsible for final quality of written portion of online thing.
Online thing writer: There might be more than one of these. Responsible for writing a portion of the online thing.
Video presentation creative director: Responsible for pulling together the entirety of the table experience.
Video presentation director: Responsible for setting up the look, feel, etc. of the table.
Video presentation presenter: Actually presents something at the table.
Director of fun: Adds fun to all of the above.
Timeline
Monday 7/15: Project overview
Thursday 7/18 : Group topic selected
Wednesday 7/24: Utopia / Dystopia rough draft due (ungraded, submit via this form)
Friday 7/26: Project work day
Monday 7/29: Utopia / Dystopia day all work and peer evaluations due
Potential topics
Apple
Smartphones
Augmented / virtual reality
Google
AI (Artificial Intelligence) + ML (Machine Learning)
Meta + social media
Startups + Unicorns
News
Amazon (+ commerce)
The cloud + big data
Voice + smart home / Internet of Things
Using both hyperlinked sources and signal phrases↩
I.e., the presentation video and online artifact read as an integrated whole, not disparate elements duct taped together at the last minute↩
The presentation video has clearly been rehearsed and considered as a whole, while the online artifact has been edited, consistently designed, etc.↩